Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Nordic Family Mystery. Chapter 9. Good News.
We are not doing well on this case, a fact I’m sure I have mentioned before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Whoever is committing these murders is making us look like fools. Like we don’t have a clue what we are doing. I don’t like that at all. It makes us look like amateurs. We have to turn things around quickly. Not for us though, but for this family. They have been trusting us to keep them safe and catch the murderer, or murderers. We have done neither one. We have to change that, and fast too! Cristy said that she had some news for me, both good and bad.
I asked her to tell me the bad news first so we can get that out of the way. Then the good news will feel even better. I hope so anyway. The bad news was one of the secretaries was found dead in her flat by her neighbor. The neighbor told the police she heard yelling and crashing, then the door slammed and she heard footsteps running down the stairs. When it was quiet she went over to the secretaries flat, the door was partially open so she went in and found her body on the living room floor. Apparently there was only one person who left the flat.
The other secretary has disappeared without a trace. I think it can be assumed that she is dead also, though I certainly hope not. Someone is keeping a close watch on things in this case. That makes me think it must be someone in the family. But, the family keeps shrinking, so it looks more and more like it must be someone else doing the murders. Though it could be a combination of the two. I have sent Galyna and Victoria over as well, they are two of our counselors and can tell if someone is lying. Galyna was with Kat, Kristina, Nakedra and Engla as they talked with Astrid.
She has asked us to have team members in the house with her now because she is genuinely scared. She also realizes that if she had not opposed us being in the house before, then Leif would still be alive. She actually broke down crying when she said that. She also told the girls that she truly loved Leif and that she is responsible for his death because of her pride thinking they could handle things on their own, just like Stellan did. Now she is a widow with two young children.
I told Kat to bring Macy and Jackie in with them too and maybe they could help with the kids right now. Astrid thanked Kat for doing so. Macy and Jackie are great with kids and are looking forward to helping in this way. I want them in the children’s room too at night for added protection. Since the house is fairly big, they will also have four cats with them to patrol throughout the night. “Would you like to hear the good news now?” asked Cristy, “Or are you going to keep talking to the team?” She had this kind of impatient look on her face when she said that. Very strange.
“Yes, I definitely want to hear the good news,” I said, “we certainly need some right now.” “Okay,” she began, “you wanted me to find someone who had been away for the past 10 months or so, and I found someone. You’ll never guess who it is though.” “Astrid?” I asked. “No!” she exclaimed. “Daddy is terrible guesser,” said Steffie shaking her head, “that why he not be able to do puzzles. Have to guess sometimes doing puzzles. That why he not able to find hidden things like rooms and slides and tunnels and everynothing…”
“May I finish telling Daddy about my good news Steffie?” asked a now, very impatient, Cristy. “Ooops, me sorry, I go sliding now,” she said, “better step back so not go sliding too.” Now, Steffie meant her back, since she was facing the slide. Cristy was facing me, so she stepped back just as the stairs turned into a slide. “Yaaaaaaaaaa!” “Wheeeeeeeee!” Cristy sounds just like Misty at times like this. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” yelled Misty. Then there was a big WHUMP, followed by a crash and groaning.
“You supposed to get out of way when people sliding Auntie Misty,” said Steffie. “I’m supposed to stay in bed when you’re sliding,” Misty responded, groaning some more. “Hey, my donuts!” yelled Misty, “Come back here you mini donut thief!” “I think you broke my arm,” said Cristy. “I think you broke my leg,” said Misty. “I think you broke my head,” they said together. They finally hobbled their way up to my office. “Thanks for the donuts Misty,” I said cheerfully. “Stop being so cheerful and stuff a donut in my mouth,” she said groaning. So I did.
“Miffmuflemothmiff,” she said. “Auntie Misty sayed thank you,” said Steffie. Hmm, she’s also a good interpreter now. I handed a donut to Cristy, then Chantelle arrived with some nice, hot coffee, and juice for Steffie. “May I have the good news now Cristy?” I asked cheerfully. “Stop being so cheerful,” she replied. Hmm, sounds just like Misty. “Okay, here it is,” she said, “there is one person that was away for about that length of time, about 9 months really. It’s someone we were not thinking about at the beginning. That’s the police officer, Johan Berg. He’s part of the Civil Defense force here and goes in for training now and then. He was gone for a 9 month refresher up north. And guess what else?”
“There is more?” I asked, “Things are starting to fit together, including the fact that he is always first at the crime when the police are called. Could he have been seeing Lotta, Stellan’s wife? That would explain why he could get up close to her without scaring her.” “I don’t know that part,” she said, “but with this family, it’s entirely possible. Though I don’t understand why he would be killing the whole family. Oh, he is also an excellent swimmer, and an excellent sniper.” I then called our sniper’s to see what they have found out.
Charlotte said that they found an empty office that had a clear shot of where Stellan was inside his car. The window inside that office opened which would make things easy and then she began to tell me what kind of rifle the shooter used. “A typical rifle that a sniper would use,” she said, “and it would be an easy shot from here.” “And how do you know what kind of rifle it was?” I asked. “There must have been people in the hall when he wanted to leave,” she explained, “so he put it at the back of a high shelf in a closet so it wouldn’t be noticed. I found it by thinking like Steffie.”
Amazing, my team members are doing their job by thinking like a 5 year old. I guess if it works, why not? Well, things are coming together finally. Johan Berg, our friendly police officer appears to be our murderer, or one of them anyway. Could he be working alone? Somehow I doubt it, one of the family members must be involved, or at least, they were involved.
Perhaps that family member had second thoughts so he killed him, or her, too. There are only 4 family members left, and all of them want our protection and help, so obviously they don’t work with him. Though maybe Astrid was working with him and has now changed her mind, that is something we don’t know. Meanwhile, there was someone ringing the doorbell at Ronja’s flat. It turned out to be her best friend, Sanna Larsson…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Nordic Family Mystery. Chapter 8. New Suspect.
This case is getting worse for us all the time. Here we are, protecting these family members and trying to find their murderer, and we are failing at both. Now there are 6 family members dead and one girlfriend. Talking with the remaining family members none of them even knew that Petter had a girlfriend. However, the older woman living next door to Petter said that she had been coming to his flat for nearly a year. Plus she told us the woman was very nice, very kind and helpful.
Many times she had helped this older woman carry groceries up to her flat and even helped her with cleaning at times and she would never take any money for it. She just couldn’t understand why she would kill Petter and herself. When I heard that last part from Angel, then I asked her why she didn’t mention the young woman had a gun. “I never saw a gun,” said Angel, “both of her hands were under the duvet, as were Petter’s.” “That makes no sense,” I said, “how could she shoot herself in the head and then put her hand under the duvet?”
“That’s right,” she replied, “I never even thought about that, but I didn’t realize that it was a murder/suicide at the time. At least, that’s what the police called it.” I then asked Cristy to find out the name of the first police officer, or officers, at the scene. “Already have it for you Steve,” she said cheerfully, “his name is Johan Berg. He was also the first officer at the scene of Leif’s death as well as Stellan and Lotta’s murders. However, he was working his shift in those areas each time, so it makes sense that he would be first to arrive.
By the way, Leif was obviously murdered, I got hold of a new police report which said he died from being hit with a heavy, blunt instrument to the back of his head. Still no coroner’s report since the only coroner in that town is on vacation so they had to bring one in from Stockholm, so it will take a week or so for the report to come out.” The name of that police officer sounded familiar, but I can’t quite remember where I heard it. However, it’s a common name in Sweden, so that doesn’t help. Something was bothering me though, this officer was the first at all four murders.
Even though he was working his shift in those areas at the time, that is still quite a coincidence to be working at the time of the murders. Four of them. But could he sneak up on Lotta and drown her? He could if he was her boyfriend. Maybe she had decided to stop their relationship so he decided to murder the whole family. No, that doesn’t make sense either. The father was murdered a year ago. And why the delay? “Cristy, I have a new job for you,” I said, “I need some information on that police officer, please.”
“What would you like to know?” she asked cheerfully. Hmm, she’s still cheerful, and the donuts are not even ready yet. “I would like to know where he was for that missing 10 month period between the murders of the parents,” I said. “Oooo, we have a new suspect?” she asked. “Perhaps, but it will be determined by his whereabouts for that period of time,” I replied. “I will have the information for you quickly,” she said. I still can’t imagine he would go on a killing spree against the family because he was rejected by a married woman, but I guess it could happen.
I then called Aari and asked him to go talk with those two secretaries if they are working today. “But go as the Investigators, not as the Black Wolves,” I told him, “we don’t want to scare these two woman. And make sure to take Carine with you as well, plus anyone else you want. Ask them if Stellan knew that police officer, Johan Berg. I will get Sigrid to ask Ronja as well. We’ll see if their stories match.” “Hmm, sounds like you don’t trust anyone in this family,” said Aari.
“I’m not sure who to trust right now Aari,” I said, “things are just not making much sense, like, how does the murderer get at the victims while we are watching? How does someone shoot themself and then hide their hand with the gun under the duvet? How does Stellan get shot in the parking lot of their company and no one hears or sees anything? And, wait, maybe that’s it! I will get that checked and you go do the interview.” “Right, guess that means I don’t get to hear your idea?” he asked. “I have to check and see if it is an idea,” I said, “or just a dream.”
I then called Dawn and asked her to get our sniper girls over to check something at the company business. I also remembered something else, at the beginning Stellan was worried he couldn’t afford our rates because the family business wasn’t doing so well. Yet, our girls discovered the business was doing very well right now, no debts and very good profits for the past 5 years. That’s why Astrid wanted Leif to get a promotion which would give him a bigger salary.
Astrid was angry at both Leif and Stellan about this lack of promotion. Why kill the parents since they were not involved in the family business anymore. Except they both received a good pension from the company. With them out of the way the company does save a substantial amount of money. Still, it wouldn’t be enough to make or break the company. Is there more than one murderer? Someone killed the parents, then copycat murderers started killing others to make the police think it was all the same killer?
It’s a possibility, I guess, and yet, something still isn’t right with all of this. Who is going to benefit from all these deaths? Only a family member would benefit, if one survives, and we are going to make sure the last 4 survive. All of our ghosts are over there now, except for Friskie. I asked Sky to fix things so that Friskie and Misty can call her just like I do, so she did that for me. That makes it safer if there are 3 of us who can call Sky to come back, and if possible she will bring another ghost with her too. That might be hard to do though, since when I call, she can’t hold back, she must come immediately.
Meanwhile, back to Aari. He and Carine went to the company but the two secretaries were given the next couple of days off. However, Astrid was there looking after things to keep the company running, for now. She has worked as Stellan’s personal secretary for the last two years, just 3 days a week, but the rest of the family was never told, except for Leif. Stellan showed her how the company operates, completely, so she can easily look after things until the family decides what to do.
The other three want to sell while the company is showing such good profits, but Astrid wants to keep it since they can make a lot of money each year for all four of them. She would gladly teach Jon how to manage the company, or he could take over as the new CEO and she would be the manager, but in a higher position than her husband was, so her salary would be higher. Jon is apparently thinking it over. Ronja wants to sell, so does Dagmar, unless she can work at the company too.
She is a good secretary as well. I think some problems will arise. Aari didn’t learn anything much from Astrid that we didn’t already know, so he and Carine left. Cristy got the addresses for the two secretaries though, and phone numbers, so I’m going to phone them to see if I can get someone over to talk with them. Then Cristy found some interesting information for me…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
