I had all the cats out here now looking around the house for any secret door or room or even just a small hiding place. We have to call the police into this soon, that one body in the basement is beginning to stink rather bad, so we are using oxygen masks while looking around. But we could find nothing more important to our case, so I called the police to take over here and I gave them information that we had that might be usable by them.

I didn’t give them all the information that we have though, since our case is separate from their investigation into the murders of the police officers. We went back to our hotel for now so we could talk things over and maybe come up with some clues. Giselle has the biggest clue, we just have to figure out how to get it from her. I don’t believe she is deliberately withholding information from us, she has just suppressed some information from those events years ago.

That is why she keeps having those nightmares. Aari and Alfred came to me about that book I gave them to check out. “That is an amazing book Steve,” said Aari, “at the time it would have been worth a lot of money, maybe not so much now since much time has passed. It’s a book of people in crime organizations that we would not normally think of, such as politicians, mayors, sports people, news people, police, teachers, a wide range of people.

Plus there are others, spies working to steal technology information and even government spies. Many of these people may not be around now, but some might. It lists family information and how much they make from criminal dealings. Lots of great stuff really, but, like I said, it’s several years old, so the information is not current. But I imagine some of these people are still around and still at work. It would be worthwhile to hand it over to the right government authorities.”

“Yes, we will definitely do that,” I said. The book also mentioned spies working for Baldwin Corp and Mandar Corp, so I’m sure they will both be interested in that bit of information. That book was obviously part of what Alice had stolen that made Giselle’s Dad so afraid. But there must be more, either money, jewels or gold. I asked Annelie to check for any major thefts of jewels before Alice was killed. Giselle’s Dad had a bad hip, something we just discovered, so that complicates the picture.

Alice didn’t get home from work until around 2am. Giselle’s Dad took her out somewhere in the car, killed her, buried her and returned home by sunrise, approximately 6am. That gave him about 4 hours to complete his task, which would be impossible, unless he had some help. And it had to be someone he could trust. Then Trapper came by with some information for us. He had called his sister after he remembered that his mother liked to keep track of the family tree.

That must have been quite the task considering this family. She sent him pictures of the original papers, but it was a little hard to see things on his phone, so we downloaded it to my laptop. There we found the name of Alice’s first husband, or really, her only husband since they were never divorced. His name was Hank Wood. He was quite a bit older than Alice. They had one child together, someone we know quite well, Marshal. He is married to Vivienne, Alice’s daughter with Horace, Giselle’s Dad.

So he is married to his half sister. Vivienne had her name changed to Lyla before they were married. They may not even know they are related. I had Annelie do some checking on Hank Wood and she found out he is still alive and in his 90’s, living in Paris. I decided to pay him a visit and took Jennifer and Sky with me. The butler answered the door and told us Hank does not accept visitors without an appointment. I told him it involved Hank’s son and he brought us into his bedroom right away.

“What information do you have for me?” he asked, as he lay in bed. Apparently he was quite ill and not expected to live much longer. “I know you are trying to eliminate Horace and Alice’s family,” I said, “so don’t try to deny that. Did you know that your son Marshal is married to Vivienne? She changed her name to Lyla before she married your son so he wouldn’t know.” “Claude,” he said, and the butler came over to the bed, “deal with this please, also with Beau and Giselle.”

“No, not Giselle,” I said, “she is under my care now and my whole organization will protect her. She is an innocent young woman. I won’t hurt your son if you leave Giselle alone.” “Do as he says Claude, spare Giselle,” he said. Then Claude left the room along with us. I told Claude where he could find Marshal and Vivienne at their hotel. He thanked me and off we went. Later the first Pierre called Beau to his nightclub office and Claude was there too.

“You know this man Beau?” asked Pierre. “Nope, never saw him before,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “He’s going to kill you Beau,” said Pierre casually. Beau had no weapon on him, a policy Pierre had for people coming to his office, though he did make an exception for Claude who then shot Beau 3 times, killing him. Then Claude shot Pierre plus the two guards that Pierre had in the office. Claude then went to the hotel and knocked on Marshal’s door who asked who it was.

“Claude,” he replied, so Marshal let him in. Claude then shot Vivienne, then turned and shot Marshal. He quickly left the room, but the police were in the hall waiting for him. He was arrested and taken away and will likely end up in prison for the rest of his life. The police also went to arrest Hank, but he was already dead when they arrived.

This case is quickly coming to a close, but we still need to find Alice’s body and the treasure that was buried with her. Though I must admit, that may never be possible. However, Giselle’s dreams must hold a clue for us, we just need to find that clue…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.