Jennifer communicated with me what was being said in the office. These “customers” were not being very friendly and were actually threatening Ezra, telling him that if he didn’t sell soon, he would have nothing left to sell. I told Jennifer to teach these guys some business manners before they left. Jennifer liked that thought and told her girls about it.

Jennifer had Emerald, Brandy, Monika and Milena with her, although Monika was in the car as she was the driver. They also had Jewel, Storm and Midnight with them. As the first man came out, he was the leader of the group, Jewel rushed out from under a chair and tripped him. He yelled and fell to the floor. Jewel pretended she had been kicked and screamed accordingly.

“Hey, why did you kick my cat?” demanded Jennifer. “What?! That furry rat tripped me!” he yelled as he got up. Jennifer gave him a hard backhanded slap. “Don’t you yell at me Mister!” she yelled back. The two other men then grabbed Jennifer, but Emerald and Brandy got involved at that point. “Aaaa!” one yelled, “She broke my arm!”

The other man was flipped over Brandy’s shoulder and landed hard onto the floor. The leader then pulled a gun, but it became hot and he had to drop it, yelling some more. Milena then kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking him to the floor groaning. Jennifer then went over to the groaning man.

“Now, you go back to your boss, whoever he is,” she began, “and you tell him to stay away from this place or he will end up with problems like he never dreamed of, got that?” He just sat there glaring at Jennifer, then tried to get up. However, Jennifer put her foot on his shoulder, keeping him in place. “Well?” she asked.

“I’ll tell him alright,” said the man, “but you will regret this!” He was sitting on the floor with his back against a wood chair and Jennifer’s foot against his shoulder. She began to press harder until the man screamed again. “If you or any of your friends return again,” she said, “then you are the ones who will regret it, remember that.” She then let him get up and all 3 men went out to their car and drove away.

Ezra had told us the man’s name is Bruce Harding, who works for Wayne Finders, the man who wants to buy his company, so I had told Cristy to check him out. “I haven’t heard back from you yet Cristy,” I said. “I’m still trying to find something on this guy Steve,” she said, “it’s like he doesn’t exist at all.” “He probably doesn’t,” I told her, “at least not with that name. What about Finders’ company?”

“There is no name with the company, just a number,” she said, “so Mandar is looking into that for me.” “Good, let me know right away,” I said, “also, see if Jazzy knows something about this guy.” Misty, Sherry, Melanie, Melissa and I then went for a drive, right over to Finders’ company. Sherry stayed in the car while the rest of us went inside. There was a very nice outer office with a secretary.

“How may I help you people?” she asked. “I want to see Mr. Finders,” I said. “Do you have an appointment?” she asked again. “Yes, I’m here right now and I want to see him,” I said. She just looked at me rather coolly. “No appointment so you can’t see him today,” she said finally, “but I can put you down for next Monday.” “That’s too late,” I said, “I wish to see him now.”

“Please go away,” she said, “or I will have our security throw you out.” Just then 3 rather large men showed up. “You have an odd way of doing business here,” I said to her. “You are here to cause trouble,” she said, “you work for Ezra Banks, now, please leave.” I decided we should leave for now rather than have him call the police on us. So, back to Ezra’s company office for now.

“Ezra, I told you to keep regular office hours from now on,” I said, “we can’t help you properly if you don’t listen to me, I really do know the best way of doing things with people like this Wayne Finders. If we hadn’t shown up, this Bruce Harding might have killed, or at least seriously injured you.” He apologized and said he was just trying to keep his wife and children safe. I asked him who was looking after his kids.

He told us that Tammy’s parents look after them during the day, but it’s hard since they live so far away from them. “Would they be willing to look after the kids day and night for a while?” I asked, “It shouldn’t take more than a week to settle this and it would mean a lot less driving for them.” He called and asked them about that and they said it would be fine.

It’s good to have the children safely out of the way. Now, if we can just get Tammy and Ezra to do things correctly, it would be even nicer. Meanwhile, back at home. “What’s all that Cristy?” asked Cynthia. “Ezra and Tammy’s company financial records,” she responded. Then Cristy thought of something and decided to give Cynthia a test and told her to check through the records and see if she can spot the irregularities.

Cristy didn’t find any, but this was a test after all, so she wanted it to sound like there were some problems. Cynthia agreed to look it over. She enjoyed anything to do with finances and now looks after ours. For a girl with less than average education, she certainly excels with finances. After a couple of hours she came back to Cristy.

“Boy, if they ever get audited, they will be in big trouble,” said Cynthia. Cristy just looked at her. “Okay, explain your findings,” she said, so Cynthia went through it all, then prepared to leave. “Wait, where are you going?” asked Cristy. “I have to go peel potatoes,” she said.

“No, I’ll do that,” said Cristy, “I’ll be honest, I didn’t find any of that and I could never explain it to Steve like you just did for me, so I want you to tell him about it. Steve won’t be too happy with me for not seeing all that, but I’m glad you found it. Will you please explain it to Steve?” “Sure, I can do that,” said Cynthia smiling.

Poor Cristy wasn’t smiling though and she sort of shuffled off to the kitchen to peel potatoes while Cynthia got in touch with me. I told Cynthia not to say anything to Sienna right now, I wanted to talk with Ezra first. Now, back with us. I had asked Kat to keep an eye on the grandparents for now, just in case. So she sent a couple of her girls over to watch from a discreet distance.

Right after they arrived an older, black limousine drove up to the house and two well dressed men got out of the back, one carrying a briefcase, and walked up to the grandparents house. The girls alerted Kat and then drove up closer and parked across the street. There were still 2 men in the front seat of the car…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.