Somewhere in Norway at a women’s prison we discover something interesting happening. A guard comes to a certain cell and tells a woman to come out and follow her. The woman asked what it was all about since she had just returned to her cell from her exercise period. “Don’t ask questions,” said the guard, “just come with us.” A second guard had shown up now to escort this lady to the office.

The lady in question is Jazzy, and she can’t figure why she is being taken to the office since she hasn’t done anything. She knows it’s not a visitor or she would be going to the visitation room that they have at the prison. Soon they arrive at the office and she gets called in to see the woman in charge of the prison. “Well Jazzy,” she began, “I know you are wondering why you have been called here and the answer is simple.

The remainder of your sentence has been cancelled and you are now free to go. There are clothes for you over there.” “I still have 10 years of my sentence,” said Jazzy, “that is very unusual.” “You would rather stay here with us?” asked the woman, “Apparently the police have decided that since you helped them on a serious international case, then they would ask the courts to release you, which they did.”

“Well, that is interesting news to me, but I will gladly leave,” said Jazzy, “even though the service in your hotel has been rather good, but the food could use improvement. Do I get to call someone to pick me up?” “There is someone here to pick you up already,” said the woman, “he is in the entrance waiting area.”

That got Jazzy more curious, but she hurried to get dressed and was escorted out to the entrance waiting area and the guards then left her. There were several people waiting in that room, but she recognized one man right away and sat beside him. He was intently looking out the window and hadn’t noticed she had arrived.

She put her arm around him, turned his head and kissed him. “Well, that was something I didn’t expect,” I told Jazzy. “Well, I didn’t expect you to get me out of prison either,” she said smiling. “Let’s go,” I said, “being in here makes me nervous.” She laughed and we walked out together. “You did want me to come and visit you,” I said, “so how about joining us for dinner?”

“Who else has come along?” she asked. “Jennifer, naturally,” I said, “you didn’t expect she would let me visit a woman by myself, did you?” Jazzy laughed. “I could understand that if I was young and beautiful,” she said, “but has she seen a photo of me lately?” “You are not old,” I said, “and you do qualify as beautiful.” “You need glasses Steve,” she said as we arrived at the car.

Jennifer was waiting for us, as was Kat and Carine. We joined Jennifer in the back, which was quite spacious. “Do you always drive such large expensive cars?” asked Jazzy. “Actually, I’m not driving,” I reminded her. “We use cars like this only when we have important people to pick up,” said Jennifer smiling.

We talked all the way to town and enjoyed dinner together, then we flew back to London and waited with Jazzy until a couple of her friends came to pick her up. “I won’t forget this Steve,” she said, “and that’s a promise, you are no longer on my kill list. Actually, I took you off that list before you came. I have changed Steve. I am still far from perfect, but I have changed.”

She then got in the car with her friends and off they went. Misty then drove up, we got into the van and off we drove back to our home base. “What do you girls think about Jazzy?” I asked. They all said they believed that Jazzy was telling the truth, she had truly changed. I agreed with them. It was late by the time we arrived home so we went straight to bed.

But I laid there awake, not being able to settle down and sleep. I sensed trouble, but nothing close by, it was something ahead of us, somewhere, but where and when? Jennifer had fallen asleep right away, wish I could have done the same. The next day while I was in the library, Dawn brought some fresh donuts and Rochelle brought some fresh coffee.

Jennifer came in right then as well, along with Sapphire who wanted to talk with me. She handed me an envelope which I opened and read the letter inside. “You can’t resign Sapphire,” I said gently, “you are an important member of our team, we need you.” “But, but, my dad betrayed the Investigators,” she said, trying not to cry, “and, so, I need to resign.”

“In this team you are not responsible for what your father did, Sapphire,” I told her, “you are only responsible for what you do. And your conduct with us has been perfect, none of us has any complaints against you.” “That is so true,” added Jennifer, “we can’t force you to stay, but please, don’t leave us, we do need you and we love you. The whole team loves you Sapphire, no one here wants you to go.”

“Thank you very much Steve,” she said, “and you too Jennifer, I really do want to stay.” She began to walk away, but I called her back. “How come you are so sad?” I asked, “I thought you would be happy.” “Oh, I am happy, very happy,” she said, “it’s just, well, oh, it’s not important, really.” “It must be important,” said Jennifer, “I have not seen you so sad except concerning your dad. If it’s something personal, we can go talk in private, just the two of us.”

“No, it’s not private really,” she said. She then explained that she had a best friend back home in her country and she never got to say good bye to her before they left. And in her country when people escape like they did, any family and close friends are then arrested, questioned and sometimes jailed. She has been thinking of her friend a lot lately and often cries herself to sleep thinking about what might have happened to her, and how she might be suffering.

She would just like to know how she is and if she is okay and not in some rotten jail. “I imagine you would like to have your friend here with you too, is that right?” asked Jennifer. “That would be amazing,” said Sapphire, “but please don’t think I’m asking anything for her, I know I will never know what has happened to her.” “Cristy, see if you can find out anything about Natasha, please,” I said, “then let me know.”

“Shall do Steve,” she said, “um, do you have a photo of Natasha?” “There should be one in my profile,” said Sapphire. The day went by quickly and Cristy didn’t find anything, which is not good. It likely means that Natasha has been jailed and could be in some rather cold place right now.

I told her to keep trying and not to say anything to Sapphire, just to let her know she can only work on this in her spare time since it’s not official Investigator business. That means it could take her longer to find any information. Cristy liked that explanation, and it was true, she had lots of other work to do as well.

That night as Jennifer and I were in bed, just lying there talking, she asked if it would be possible for us to rescue Natasha. “Well, Natasha would need to have a desire to be rescued,” I said, “we can’t just go in and kidnap her, things might be going well for her.” “Yes, that’s true,” she admitted. “And it would be kind of dangerous too,” I reminded her.

“Not if us ghosts go,” she said, “although we would have to take Sapphire along too, otherwise Natasha wouldn’t trust us.” “That would complicate things,” I said, “but she might not trust Sapphire either, depending on what she has been told.” “Yes, I thought of that too,” admitted Jennifer.

We were soon asleep and the next day began normally, until Cristy came running into our bedroom eager to show me something. She tapped away at my keyboard. “There, now take a look,” she said, “I wanted to show you these right away…”

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.