Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Stray Cat Mystery. Chapter 6. Black Wolves Attack.
Although I had initially asked Aari to take his Black Wolves and look for the Hearts of India, I changed my mind shortly after they left, and sent them to Canada. Wemyss has recently begun starting new operations and companies in Canada and that is the Black Wolves domain, though in a fictional sort of way. Anyway, they would not like the idea of Wemyss moving into their territory, so it is time for them to let him know they don’t want him around.
That should shake him up a bit and get his attention focused elsewhere for a while. Hopefully it will work, though the Wolves will have to be extremely careful fighting Wemyss. He will most likely have a substantial guard presence at his companies. But, Aari does have Carine and Kristina with him, and two ghosts can take on whatever security Wemyss has in place. And, the Black Wolves can’t be traced back to us, which is very helpful indeed. I sent Dawn and her Night Owls to look for the gems.
However, I told her to be extra careful while looking because Wemyss might have men in that area too, and if he does, then Dawn and her team are to back away and only fight if Wemyss’ men find the gems first. Even then they need to be very careful and coordinated in their fight since they will have no ghosts with them. But after talking it over with Kat I decided to send Kitty along with Dawn as well. Our visit with Wemyss didn’t go very well but I was expecting that. He now knows positively that we are working on this case looking for Callison.
She will be safe though until Wemyss has those gems in his possession. Interestingly it is obvious that Callison has not yet talked, even though Wemyss would have many ways of getting information out of Callison, drugs being his best bet. No doubt he has tried drugs already and has not yet retrieved the information he needs to find the gems. That part is good, it keeps Callison safe a little longer and it could mean she doesn’t actually know where the gems are hidden, not the precise location anyway. All we had was some general information as to which mountain to look for these gems.
But we may have guessed wrong about which mountain they are hidden upon. Then, mountains are rather large and it may not be easy to find a single log cabin. However, that makes it hard for Wemyss as well. Only Angel, and 3 of the Bad Girls, Melanie, Melissa and Roxanne, came in with me to visit Wemyss. Sky, Jennifer and Friskie came in as well, invisibly, so they could look around the estate and listen to any conversations that arose after we left. The three ghosts will stay as long as they consider necessary, then Sky will bring them all back to our hotel.
Meanwhile, at the Wemyss estate. “What do you think Mr. Wemyss,” asked Robert, “do you believe they know about the gems?” “Very hard to tell,” said Wemyss, “he did mention that why Featherstonehaugh had left my employ was a bit foggy, so perhaps he doesn’t yet know. But I’m quite sure they are looking for an answer to that question.” Just then another car drove up and a couple of men came in to see Mr. Wemyss. “We just cannot give Callison anymore of that new drug,” he told Wemyss, “if we do then her brain will be irreparably damaged and we will get nothing from her.”
“How is she able to withstand that drug, doctor?” asked Wemyss, “It should have worked the very first time it was used on her. We have tested it on numerous occasions with 100% success each time.” “The only answer I can give you,” said the doctor, “is that she really doesn’t know where the gems are hidden.” “If that is the case,” said Wemyss, “then those gems are lost forever. And I have a buyer that is willing to give me his companies that operate across the United States which are worth at least $20 billion and he will give me $10 billion on top of it.
That would give me what I need to crush Mandar Corp. and take a big chunk out of Baldwin Corp. as well, possibly enough to force Sienna to sell what little remains of her empire to me, at a big discount! But, I need those gems to do it, so I must have them. But how to get her to talk?” “May I offer a suggestion Mr. Wemyss?” asked Lola. “Why certainly, my dear Lola,” he replied, “what is it?” “Why not let those Investigators have her,” she explained, “if for some reason she has been able to withstand the drugs, then she will want to enlist the help of those people in retrieving the gems. All you would need to do is keep an eye on them and when they go to all the work of finding the gems, then your men can take them away from those Investigators.”
“Hmm, that idea just might work,” he said, rubbing his beard, “but we would have to implant a tracker on her so we can follow them easily.” “They would likely have the means to detect a tracker,” said Lola, “but I’m quite certain it would not be hard to keep them in your sights. Then, when they find the gems and return to their vehicles your men can be waiting with a hail of bullets, thus ending those Investigators and Callison too. Then next will be the fall of Mandar and Sienna.”
“My dear Lola,” said Wemyss, “I rather think that you have a perfect plan for our little dilemma. Robert, arrange to have Callison released onto the street where those Investigators will see her. Just make sure she is thoroughly drunk before setting her free, and make sure those Investigators don’t see you, or they will know I had her all along.” “Very well sir,” said Robert, “it will be done at dinner in front of the restaurant that they use today.” Sky communicated this information to me right away. This means that wherever they are keeping Callison, it must be close at hand, so we waited for Robert to show up with Callison.
I did want to send Angel back to be with Jennifer and Sky and they could send Friskie back to be with me. Jennifer didn’t like that idea, however, since I am already down to having just one ghost with me and I am supposed to have two. Angel is stronger than Friskie in some ways so it’s better to have her guarding me. But I did mention that Kat could stay with me as well, so then I would have two ghosts. Jennifer thought for a moment, but she said it would be better to have Kat with her and Friskie, then Sky and Angel could guard me.
That does sound like a better arrangement, especially since Wemyss has seen Angel and that means he has also seen Sky, since they are twins, or 2 of the triplets actually. I don’t want Wemyss to know we have ghosts working with us. Meanwhile, way off in Canada, things are heating up. It seems a big warehouse at one of Wemyss companies is on fire. Then, the same night another location of a legitimate business was robbed. Though it was legitimate, Wemyss also used it for illegal activities, such as drugs and guns.
The huge safe was no problem for those thieves, however, and Wemyss lost $10 million in cash and an equal amount in drugs. Plus, 80 illegal guns were also taken. The Black Wolves have been busy. Apparently the leader of the Black Wolves left a note for Wemyss in the safe telling him to go back home or the Black Wolves would feast on his investments. Before that news reached Wemyss, however, Robert and some other men pushed Callison out of their car and proceeded to drive away, but…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Stray Cat Mystery. Chapter 5. The Visit.
Marlene was busy trying to decode the message on the back of the photo, as were a couple of the other girls. Tracy was checking out Wemyss’ businesses, plus his estate. She was trying to find a weak spot for entering his estate without being seen, but that seemed hopeless, except for using our ghosts to get in and that is likely what we will have to do. Helene has now joined Marlene in trying to decode that message, she is checking through the journals again to see if something was missed that would help. She then read in one journal where Callison talked about a stuffed cat toy she had as a girl and she would pretend to be a spy.
Her and Fuzzy, her cat toy, would have a special code to use for secret messages and she went on to explain how it worked. Her and Marlene then tried it on the message and it worked! Except, it didn’t seem to make much sense, so they came to me. I agreed, it didn’t make much sense. “Read it to me Daddy,” said Steffie. So I did. “The message says, ‘ Once there was a house made with sticks very big, hiding on a tall mountain with a rat and a twig. Once it had a cellar full of food and roots, you will need to dig wearing rotten leather boots. Have a heart that sounds like floor, though you will not work anymore.’ ”
“Why that is hard?” she asked, “Find falling down log cabin house high on mountain with funny name, then open door to cellar with roots, dig with shovel under old rotten boots, there you find 4 hearts that not work. That kinda weird though.” “Steffie is right, why is that hard?” asked Marlene. “I need some coffee,” said Helene. Off they both went. I looked at Steffie. “Maybe we’re all working too hard lately,” I said. “Yep, that probably it,” she replied. Then she went sliding back downstairs.
Hmm, I decided to try that too and it was great, until…AAAAAAAA!!!! Whump, thump, whack…groan. “I knew that was a mistake,” I said weakly. “I should have stayed in bed today,” said Misty weakly. Oh well, I then called Aari and told him how to find those hearts we want, and that Wemyss wants as well. After it was dark the Black Wolves went on their way to look for those 4 Hearts of India. Hopefully we figured that out correctly, and hopefully no one else has found them prior to this. Next, the Bad Girls and the Wildcats will need to visit with Wemyss, somehow.
This is where Sky gets her extra frequent flying points. She will take both teams, plus a few extra, to London where Sienna will have vans and a couple cars waiting for us to use on our trip to Aberdeen, Scotland. Hopefully by doing things this way, Wemyss won’t know we are coming until we arrive at his estate. Since the Black Wolves left after dark, I decided it would be a good time for us to travel as well. Poor Sky, she was busy taking the two teams plus extra ghosts and me to London. By using the ghosts, however, she was able to take four with her instead of just two, so it reduced the number of trips a little.
We stayed in a hotel that night, or actually, two hotels since we didn’t want to make reservations ahead of time. At least we could get each team into their own hotel, and quite close together too. Cristy made sure they had no connection to Wemyss whatever or our surprise would be gone. The next day we began our journey to Scotland which should take a little over 9 hours, however, allowing for stops, we will say 11 hours instead. We are split into two groups, ours has a car and two vans and the second group has a car and three vans.
Each van is a different color this time as well which will make us blend in with other traffic better. Our car, which is a limousine type vehicle, is white this time, usually we use a black car. Sienna has been making changes in vehicles and she prefers white. I suggested perhaps a blue car but Sienna just rolled her eyes. So, the car is white. Unfortunately we will be arriving too late for visiting Wemyss tonight which gives him an opportunity to find out about us before our visit tomorrow. Hopefully the two hotels we are staying at are not connected to Wemyss in any way, or perhaps have employees that are friendly with Wemyss.
Sienna made the reservations in her name which might help us, until we check in at least. Sherry is driving our car, she is definitely the best, except for Jennifer and Sky, but they have other duties. Fluffy is with us again too, can’t forget him. We did discover that Cat’s name is Fuzzy and he really does look fuzzy too. It makes sense that Callison would name him after her toy cat she had as a little girl. I hope we can unite those two again. Unlike some of our enemies, Wemyss is an early riser, so we will be knocking at his door, or rather, his gate, at 9am.
“Mr. Wemyss, those private investigators are at the gate,” said Robert, “shall I send them on their way?” “Of course not,” said Mr. Wemyss, “they have made a long trip to visit me, so let them in. Besides, I have nothing to hide, they can search the entire house if they like, they won’t find Callison. But if we send them away now, they will just cause us a great deal of trouble. Also, call Cramer and ask him how these PI’s got out without his knowledge, then bring him and his men back here after replacing them.” “Shall do Mr. Wemyss,” said Robert, and soon we were at the door of this huge stone house.
It was like coming up to a castle with this high stone wall around the house. “Good morning,” said Wemyss, “how may I be of service to you Mr. McCann?” “Oh, I think you probably know why we are here Mr. Wemyss,” I said, “a little matter of kidnapping a Miss Callison Featherstonehaugh. And please don’t take me for a fool, I have an eyewitness who saw your men taking Callison against her will and using a car registered to your personal security company.” “Oh, that’s right,” he replied, “someone did steal one of our cars a week ago. Terrible that they used it for such a violent crime as that.”
“I told you not to take me for a fool Wemyss,” I said, “you know it was now 12 days ago that your men kidnapped her. Now, I don’t care why you took her, but I want her back. If you cooperate and give her to me, then we shall leave and not bother you again. But if you decide to be stubborn, then so will we.” “I don’t even know this woman you are speaking about,” said Wemyss, “so please don’t accuse me of any wrongdoing.”
“Let me refresh your memory,” I said, “her father worked for you as your head butler for 5 years, then he left suddenly, for whatever reason, and moved to Berlin, then Lisbon, then Milan and finally ending up close to us in France to a house he purchased through a lawyer. So you wouldn’t be able to track him down easily is my guess.” “And you don’t know why this, um, person, left my employ?” he asked sarcastically. “Unfortunately that part is a bit foggy at the moment,” I told him, “but sooner or later the fog will be lifted. Now, will you return Callison to me or not?”
“I would gladly do so, if I had her,” he said, “but I do not. I will even let you look through my entire house and estate if you wish to do so. I have nothing whatever to hide.” “No, that won’t be necessary,” I said, “you obviously would not keep her here. But if she turns up dead, I will be back, that is a promise. Meanwhile, we will watch you, that is another promise.” “Well, now I must ask you to leave my estate,” he said, “and you would do well to go back home and forget this wild idea of yours. You cannot fight me and win, that is my promise to you.”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
