For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Jennifer and the Bad Girls were now in the city and had found Swann’s main supplier of drugs and other things, a man named Gordon Henkley. He did not live in the city, but his girlfriend did, and he was at her house, with his latest shipment for Swann and Williams. The Bad Girls were searching the house while Jennifer talked with Gordon. “I know about your shipment of drugs, and a few other things,” she began, “and I know that Swann has already paid you for this shipment. We are here to pick it up for Swann, so please be kind enough to get it for us.”
“Hey, this wasn’t part of the deal,” he said, “Swann was supposed to pick it up himself today because it was such a large shipment.” “Yes, he was supposed to be here at 11am,” said Jennifer, “but something came up, so we are here instead. Nothing to worry about, we will be going directly to Williams from here.” Right then Amerie came into the bedroom. “Monsieur Henkley,” she said, “hiding the drugs in the seat cushions of your sofa, so bad, so easy for someone to find. You must not be doing this for very long.” “Good, now where is the rest of it Gordon?” asked Jennifer, “I know you wouldn’t hide the guns in seat cushions.”
“Under the bed and in the closet,” he said, “I needed to keep them close and easy to get at so Swann could pick up and leave quickly. He doesn’t like to be seen with me.” “Can’t blame him for that,” said Jennifer, “getting caught with you is a sure way to end up in prison.” “You don’t seem to be afraid of that,” he said. “We don’t mind taking chances,” said Jennifer, “besides, I’m a ghost, no prison can hold me, I just walk out.” She then walked through his bed after the girls removed the suitcases full of guns. “Hey, not those suitcases!” he yelled, “Those are for a different client!”
Jennifer opened them. “My, my, what a lot of money,” she said, “US dollars, Euros, Pounds and a couple others too. Very nice indeed. But we will have to take this along too Gordon, I’m quite certain that Swann would want it that way. If you want to complain, then do it to Swann.” They didn’t find anything else, but before they left Amerie went up to Gordon and told him to remember that he gave everything to Swann’s representative. Then she touched the back of his neck with her ring and Gordon was asleep, so they put him back into bed.
The only thing he will remember is what Amerie told him. Then off they all went back to the vans and drove away. Next stop was Williams nightclub where Swann was supposed to meet him at 11:30am. But as they got close to the location they spotted a lot of smoke, plus flames rising from the club. The fire department was there and the police, so they didn’t bother stopping and decided to go looking for Helene instead. Then Jennifer had a thought and she told the girls they would head over to see Fiske and Sandra first, so they turned and went over to a different part of the city.
Interestingly their nightclub was also on fire and since Fiske lived at the club too, they didn’t know where else to look for him. But Jennifer called Cristy and she gave her the address for Sandra, so off the girls went to visit her. “It would seem that someone is trying to take out both Fiske and Swann,” said Jennifer to the Bad Girls. Then Kat communicated with Jennifer and gave her an update on my condition and told her she may want to come back home. So they pulled over and Sky arrived after Jennifer called her and brought her back to the clinic.
Then Sky returned to her Bad Girls and they continued their journey to Sandra’s house. As they were driving, an alarm call came through to head back to the hotel in a hurry! Sky quickly went back while the Bad Girls turned the vans around and headed back as fast as they could. They didn’t want to speed though with all those drugs, guns and money in the vans. This would not be a good time to have the police stop them. Sky arrived in the room with Venus and there were 6 men in the room with one of them pointing some kind of odd looking gun at Kristina who was on her knees looking rather weak.
Sky was invisible, so she quickly left and returned with Angel. Sky knew that Kristina would need strength from Angel. They made themselves visible and that’s when Angel saw Friskie on the floor between the two beds. There has been a mixing up of the ghosts after I was stabbed by Christopher and since Sky was needed back home, she brought Kristina to be here with Friskie while Angel and Kitty were at Elenore’s. Sky spotted that gun and quickly hit it with a bolt of electricity, destroying the gun completely.
Then she and Angel began to fight those 6 men and quickly had them subdued, although 2 tried to escape out the door, but Sky tossed two small lightning balls at them, killing them instantly. Angel went to work on Friskie first since she was the weakest and she was back on her feet in no time. Then Angel helped Kristina and she likewise was back on her feet feeling normal again very quickly. “That gun drained us quickly of strength,” said Friskie. “It must be one of Toledo’s inventions,” said Angel. “That man has one too,” said Kristina and she took it out of his pocket.
“Good,” said Sky, “we’ll take this one back home with us so Kat and Carolyn can check it out. They can make us immune to it’s effects, just in case there are more of them out there.” Meanwhile, back at the clinic. “Are you okay sis?” asked Kat. “Yeah, I guess,” she said, “that was scary, but we found out that Steve could be killed, something we never knew for sure before.” “Yes,” said Kat, “I really didn’t want to find out that way, but at least now we don’t have to worry about him, right?”
“Maybe you don’t,” said Jennifer, “but I will still worry about him. Are you 100% positive he is like us now?” “Yes, 100% positive little sis,” she said, smiling. “Hey, we’re twins remember,” she said. “Yep, but I was born first,” said Kat, “so you’re my little sis.” They hugged each other and Misty came shuffling along at that moment. “What are you doing out of bed?” asked Kat, “Did Samantha give you permission?” “No, but there’s someone in my room,” she said, “I want to be alone, there’s other empty rooms.”
“Actually Misty,” said Jennifer, “he isn’t in your room, you are in his room.” “No matter, he can be moved,” said Misty, “I’m… his room?” She then slowly turned and looked at the room number. “That’s Steve in there?” she asked, “What happened? Why is he in there? Why wasn’t I told about this? Is he hurt bad? Who did it? Why am I the last to know things? He needs help, why is no one helping him? Get nurses in there, find out what he needs. Why is no one doing anything? I’ll help Steve myself, if I don’t fall down.”
She began to shuffle her way back to the room, so Kat and Jennifer picked her up and carried her back to the room. Back to the hotel. “Okay Venus,” said Sky, “now it’s time for you to fly quickly back home to our clinic where they can look after you much better. You’re coming too Friskie, so hold on.” They arrived at the clinic with Venus lying on a bed. “Um, that was cool,” said Venus, “you are a ghost just like Jennifer!” “Like I said before, she’s stronger than me,” said Sky giggling. “Hey, stop talking so loud,” said Misty, “Steve is trying to sleep.”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
There seemed to be a coordinated attack happening against us right now. Christopher’s part was to go to our chateau and get Jennifer again under his control, though he didn’t know that wouldn’t be possible now. When Jennifer first reappeared after being killed, she was captured by Christopher and kept as his prisoner in two ways. One way was by using some kind of electrical magnetic pulse from a ring that Toledo invented which Jennifer couldn’t resist. So, with that ring he kept her doing what he wanted.
But he also used me to keep her in control too by saying he would hurt or kill me if she didn’t do what he said. That way she would help him in his criminal ways with the abilities she had as a ghost. Then he kidnapped me when she began to resist him a bit, and this way he kept her under his control still. But it backfired on him because I was able to convince her to not only help me to escape, but to come with me.
When Christopher went to the chateau, he thought he was talking to Jennifer, but really he was talking to Kat. He didn’t know Jennifer had an identical twin and Kat is too strong to be controlled with that ring even though Christopher had made it stronger now. He had also brought men and explosives along to try and kill as many of our team as possible. It was part of a major plan to attack us in three ways, at the chateau, at the hotel and at Elenore’s house.
He also didn’t expect to see me there since he had been told by Fiske that he had kidnapped me. But we had escaped, then Sky had brought Jennifer and I back to the chateau to capture Christopher. Unfortunately things didn’t go quite according to our plan, but Christopher was stopped and he, plus all of his men, were killed. Christopher also managed to bring in a knife, hidden up the sleeve of his jacket. The sleeves were lined with a special fabric, that we also use, that can hide weapons from being detected by x-ray.
When he stood in front of me, he was able to move quickly enough to stab me, seriously. So, I am now in the clinic with Samantha and Kat trying to keep me alive. Jennifer has now taken the Bad Girls with her to the city to try and find Swann and Williams, and hopefully find the identities of Gordon and Betty, two new people found on Swann’s computer with whom he has meetings lined up tomorrow. Then, as three more girls arrived at Elenore’s house, they were shot as they were coming up the steps to the house.
Angel understood that right away and she jumped to protect Elenore and just made it in time as two bullets came through the window. The bullets would have killed Elenore, but instead they hit Angel’s back. “Oh my,” said Elenore, “it’s a good thing those bullets missed us or we likely would have both been killed!” We have not tried to explain to Elenore about the ghosts, sometimes it’s best not to talk about such things. Our own two snipers were at Elenore’s house and went out the back door and around to the side of the house to watch the trees across the street while the other girls brought our wounded into the house.
Emily then saw a man jump out of a tree so she shot him. That caused a man in another tree to move and Charlotte shot him. He quickly fell from high up in the tree, crashing to the ground. Then Angel called Sky to come and pick up the wounded girls, which she did, making two trips taking them back to our clinic. This is not good, we now have 5 wounded on our team, plus Venus, and we nearly lost Elenore. Akila has discovered that Swann and Williams are planning to build a multistory nightclub with gambling available too, just like Venus told us.
They have already been given approval by the town council and the land has been rezoned for such an establishment. That is quite an accomplishment to get done in just 3 months in this town. That just doesn’t seem possible without a big payoff to the town council and likely the local police as well. There are also plans to build a new hotel not far away, right on the lakeshore. It will end up being the largest hotel in town too. Interestingly, the property was sold for far less than the actual value of the property.
The owner was likely forced into selling at that low price. Then I suppose when all of this is up and running, Sandra and Fiske will take over from Swann and Williams, perhaps even before that point. With a little more digging through Swann’s computer, Akila also discovered more about Betty, her last name being Porter, and a photo went with that information. She is know to us by the name of Helene, real name, Helen Porter. She is presently staying at a hotel near the airport in the city and that is where Jennifer and the Bad Girls will make their first stop.
Finally, after much more digging through Swann’s computer, she found Gordon again, last name of Henkley. Apparently he is the contact man for drugs and he has a new, and large, shipment for Swann which he will then take to Williams for safe keeping. Jennifer decided to visit Gordon first, then go see Helene, after all, they arrived in the city early enough to beat Swann to his 11am meeting. They arrived at 9am and since Jennifer doesn’t need an open door, she just walked in, through the door.
There was no alarm system, so she unlocked the door for the other girls and in they came. Jennifer went looking for Gordon while the girls looked for the drugs. Jennifer found Gordon asleep in his bedroom so she called his name. He didn’t move, or so it looked, but she could detect a tiny movement of his hand. She went closer and touched his shoulder and he swung around pulling a gun out from under his pillow.
Jennifer just laughed and slowly disappeared, then reappeared on the other side of his bed and said “boo!” He jumped and shot at Jennifer, but the bullets went right through her and into the wall. She laughed again. Then his gun became hot so he yelled and dropped it. “Now Gordon,” said Jennifer, “we need to have a little talk.”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.