I had told Catalina to keep the explosive devices smaller, so that hopefully it would not trigger an avalanche. If one did happen, it would go down into an area that was uninhabited at least. However, nothing like that happened, so that was good. The resort itself was soon engulfed in flames and was completely destroyed.

Helene is not going to be happy about that, but she should know that there are risks to running such a business. It’s too bad she escaped us though, and we have no photo of her either. We will have to try and find one somewhere. It is always nice to know what our enemies look like, for future reference.

Koffman and his men also got away from us, though he was not exactly who we were fighting this time. We now have to wait for him to make his move first, so we can legally go after him. Standing by the car, Carine handed me an envelope that had been left taped to the car window. I opened it and it read;

“Greetings Mr. PI, well, you won this time but don’t let it go to your head. One of these days I will win, those ghosts of yours can’t protect you all the time. One day I will find you when you are vulnerable and then you will die. That is a promise.”

Unfortunately the author of this charming little note did not sign it, but I’m certain we can figure out who it was from. She even added a bit of perfume to the note, which I thought was a nice touch. “Please take it seriously Steve,” said Jennifer, “after all, your new wife doesn’t want to be a young widow.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” said Misty, “I sure don’t want to be…wait, how can I be a young widow when we are not even married? We are not actually married, right? Steve, you’re not answering, why are you not answering? Jennifer, maybe you can answer instead, Steve is trying to make me nervous.”

“Well, it’s like this Misty,” said Jennifer, “we had to make it real just in case someone decided to check to see if it was true. Sometimes people will do that, and it’s not hard to check and see if something is fake, so, we made sure it was real. Um, did she fall asleep?”

“I think she fainted again,” I said. “She’ll be okay,” said Kat, “the thought of actually being married to you was just too much for her, so she fainted.” Everyone had a good laugh about that. “Is it really that bad being married to me Jennifer?” I asked. She sighed. “Well, sometimes it can be a bit trying,” she said, “especially when you don’t do as you’re told and you get yourself in trouble.”

She had a stern look on her face, but that quickly disappeared and she laughed again. Now I guess it’s my turn to sigh. We stopped in the city to give the two women who had been held for ransom to the police. I didn’t want to give them over to the local police near the resort, not knowing whose side they were on.

Apparently they were reliable officers however, but the police thanked us for being on the cautious side. The families of these two women were ecstatic to have them returned, unharmed physically, but they are likely very traumatized by the ordeal and will need some counseling. We were offered a reward in each case but turned it down.

The other dead woman’s body was returned to her family by the police. The other 3 women who had been on vacation traveling across Europe, had been held in that prison for 7 weeks. It was a very traumatic experience for all of them, to varying degrees. They asked if they could stay with us for a while and get some counseling from us.

Amazingly all three of them have no immediate family. Each is an only child and each of their parents was also an only child. This was something that brought them together as friends when they were teenagers. Each of them also lost their parents in accidents within days of each other. That part really intrigued me, it just seemed to be too much of a coincidence.

I didn’t say anything to the women however. I did ask Cristy to do some checking on those accidents though. The parents had paid for this vacation for the women, then the accidents happened shortly afterward. They decided to continue with their plans with this vacation anyway but soon wished they had stayed home, after they had been kidnapped and put into that prison.

All three were 21, but looked younger, and all 3 were indeed very beautiful. We happily allowed them to stay with us as long as they wanted and they would get good counseling from Galyna, Misty, and Hannah, our 3 counselors. Perhaps they will decide to join our team eventually, but for now they are just guests, though they also want to help wherever they can.

We left Sienna at her house, one of many, and she will be going on an extended business trip so we may not see her for a while. But Mandar is back from his trip and was waiting for us at our chateau, eager to hear of our adventure. Kristina is doing well and will soon be back to normal, whatever normal is for a ghost.

It is good to know that no more ghosts will show up, since everything was completely destroyed by Sky and Angel. At least, I’m glad that none will show up on the wrong side. Well, this was a shorter case, but that is okay once in a while. Now we relax while waiting for another case to come our way.

The End. A new case will come along soon.

©2025 Steve McLeod.