Well, it has been a while now since our last case, a couple of weeks ago now, and we have settled into our new home. It is a beautiful 4 story chateau in France, with wonderful views of the countryside, surrounded by lovely gardens with paths meandering all over this fabulous estate. The original chateau has been enlarged but in such a way that it blends in perfectly with the 800 year old chateau.

Plus, our medical clinic is now on this property as well, so no traveling to do and there is an underground passage from the chateau to the clinic. There is also an underground safe house for us should it be needed. Mandar spared no expense in making this place perfect for us. There is also a smaller house on the property which we are using for our guys to live right now.

However, if we get more guys to join our team, then we will need to have something larger for them. Our first official visitor in our new place, aside from Mandar, was Sienna. Although it turned out not to be a personal visit, instead, she wanted to hire us. I called all of our team leaders, plus the ghosts who were not leaders, together for a meeting with Sienna.

Misty and Cristy were present with us too. “A very good friend of mine and her 3 little kids have been kidnapped,” said Sienna, “her husband called me this morning, but apparently it happened 2 days ago.” “Why did he wait so long?” I asked, “Has he notified the police yet?” “No, the kidnappers told him not to call the police,” she said, “but they also didn’t say anything about a ransom either, which I thought was kind of strange.”

“Hmm, that is odd,” I said, “if they know she is your friend, they might ask for a lot of money.” “They might be just waiting for a while, to make everyone more anxious,” said Aari, “then they ask for a ransom. Or, perhaps the husband owes money to the wrong people. Does he gamble?” “He was very addicted to gambling years ago,” said Sienna, “but he hasn’t gambled for 4 years now.

At least that is what my friend told me a couple weeks ago. That was the last time I talked to her and nothing seemed wrong at that time. She has never been able to hide her emotions, and she has always talked freely with me about any problems they had. The children are 4, 6 and 8. The two youngest are boys. My friend’s name is Amanda, her husband is Martin, last name is Evans.

The kids are Aimee, Jerryl and Simeon.” I then asked Hannah to check with her contacts to see if Martin had any debt problems. I also called Jazzy to see if she could check on this guy for us too. With 3 young children involved, we need to work quickly and we are already 2 days behind. “Okay Cristy,” I said, “I want to know everything you can find on this family, especially Martin, but Amanda too.

It is always possible that she is the problem, we need to check things from every angle. Kat, your Wildcats haven’t seen much action lately, so you will be the main team on this one. Sky, your Bad Girls will be backup this time, so you will stay close by. Aari, your team needs a longer rest, but be ready to move quickly if needed. Jennifer and I will lead things on this one.”

“Are you sure it’s wise to get involved Steve?” asked Kat. “Why not?” I asked, “I get attacked even when I’m at home, so why not be on a case?” “What do you think Jennifer?” asked Kat. “Well, considering how many people we need to leave behind to guard him properly,” she said, “Steve might have a point.” “Hmm, I think he’s brainwashing you sis,” said Kat, shaking her head.

Sienna told us where her friend lived, in Minneapolis, on Hunter St. We were soon there and booked into a nice hotel, but we were unable to contact Martin, so I called Sienna. She called back an hour later and we now have an appointment to meet with Martin at 4pm. We arrived at 3:50pm, but there didn’t appear to be anyone at home, so we waited for a while. And waited.

He showed up at 4:30pm, walking casually down the street and up to the front door of his house. After he went inside, we went up to the door and knocked. “What do you want?” he growled at us. “We have an appointment to meet with you,” I said, “you’re a half hour late.” “Oh, yeah, I forgot,” he said, “come in. Sienna said you would be coming.”

“You don’t appear to be very concerned about your missing family,” said Jennifer. We also had Milena and Beryan with us at the moment. “So what should I do?” he asked, half yelling, “Sit at home all day and cry? I hate being in this house alone knowing my family is…is…out there somewhere!”

“I think perhaps you have an idea where ‘somewhere’ is,” I told him, “you know, we can look for your family, and find them eventually, but it would be a lot easier if you would help us a bit. We know you are addicted to gambling, so let’s start there.” “I got counseling for that and I’ve been clean for years now!” he yelled, “So leave gambling out of this!”

“You were supposedly cured of your addiction 4 years ago,” said Jennifer, “but 2 years ago you once again began showing up at various gambling establishments and it became more and more frequent.” “Now that we have that out in the open,” I said, “let’s start being honest about things. You see this little gadget here? This means we can talk freely and no one can hear us.

It covers an area of 50 feet in every direction, so we can talk freely anywhere in your house. If they have hidden any bugs in here, they are useless right now, so, start talking or we will assume you don’t care about your family at all and we will look for them without your help.” He looked at our scrambler, our newest version and much better than the others we used before.

“Okay, yeah, I started gambling again and ended up owing a lot of money to some guy,” he confessed. “Who? I need a name Martin,” I said, “your family’s lives depend on your help.” “Mr. Cairns, that’s the only name I know,” said Martin, “everyone calls him that. He owns a place called the Red Eagle’s Nest, it’s over on Turner St. I owed him $2 million and couldn’t pay.

So he took my house, my beautiful 1960 Corvette, that thing was immaculate, bright red and white, just amazing, I loved that car! And, of course, he took my wife and kids. She’s likely in San Francisco, Cairns owns a place out there, and my wife is the kind of woman he looks for. The kids, who knows where they are? Maybe down in Miami.

Cairns has a place there where he uses kids in movies and stuff. Say, do you think you could look for my car too?” “Mr. Evans, I don’t care about your car at all,” I said calmly, “and we will not look for it. I will not risk the lives of my people for a stupid car. I will be in touch.”

We then left, got in our car and drove away. As we did, another car began to follow us. “Oh, a car is following us,” said Sherry excitedly. She was driving right now…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.