Marshal was true to his word, he and some of his other men took those 4 we had released for a boat ride out to sea. The 4 men didn’t come back with them. “Well, that is done,” said Marshal as he returned to Lyla at the hotel. “Come here big boy,” she said, “you must be exhausted. Soon it will be boom time at that chateau.”

Meanwhile Kat, Trapper, Giselle and Trapper’s friends following in their own car, were returning to us. “Miss Kat, one of these days I would really like to know how these bullets could be shot at us,” said Trapper, “and yet when they reach us, they just stop and fall to the sidewalk.” “Why look at me, Mr. Trapper?” she asked, “Guess I could have caught them, bullets do fly kinda slow. But I already have lots that I caught at other times.” She smiled at Trapper.

“You caught bullets with your bare hands?” asked a surprised Giselle. “Well, actually, with my fingers,” she said, continuing to smile, “I have been able to do that ever since I was shot a couple years ago.” “I didn’t know you were shot Miss Kat,” said Trapper. “That must have hurt,” said Giselle, shivering at the thought. “Well, it only hurt until I died,” she said, “I was married to that cute little PI back then, now he’s married to my twin sister.”

Trapper and Giselle were not sure how to respond to that statement. They were nearly home now so Kat stopped at a small cemetery, which was ours. “Come, I want to show you something,” said Kat. They all walked over to some graves, even Trapper’s friends came along. “See, that’s where I’m buried,” said Kat, “see, Mr. Cat is buried next to me, Muffin wanted it that way.” The others were just kind of looking at each other, not quite believing what they saw.

“I know you probably don’t believe me yet,” said Kat, “but I really was killed, but now I’m back. I’m a ghost Mr. Trapper, watch.” She then disappeared. Trapper quickly felt around, but Kat had disappeared completely. “Uh, Trapper, this is just crazy,” said one of his friends. “And spooky,” said another. Suddenly, “Boo!” said Kat from behind Trapper. He jumped right off the ground. “Miss Kat, that was not nice!” he said, holding his hand over his heart. She just giggled. “Want to race me to the van Mr. Trapper?” she asked.

“I will,” said one of Trapper’s friends who was a very fast runner. They got beside each other, Trapper said go and…his friend barely got started and Kat was already leaning on the van. “You guys need to exercise more,” she said giggling. Meanwhile, back at the chateau. Catalina, our best bomb expert was home for Christmas and we could never get her back here in time to help us. But she did tell us to try digging up the shrubs carefully and take them somewhere safely away from the chateau where they can explode.

Our ghosts volunteered for this job, even though I was uneasy about letting them do that. Angel spotted the large cart the gardeners had been using and said to bring that around to put the shrubs on, then hook her up to it and she would pull it over the hill behind our place and down into the ravine. I definitely didn’t like that idea, but I was outvoted once again. The cart was loaded and Angel got down on her hands and knees where she suddenly transformed into that huge lion.

Carine and Jennifer hooked her up and she began to pull that big cart over the side of the hill. We watched, even though I was scared to do so, until suddenly the cart hit a rock and flipped into the air, landing on top of Angel! There was a huge explosion and a large cloud of dust filled the air! Everyone was totally quiet. “What are we looking for?” a voice whispered. I turned to see Angel next to me, smiling. “Hi,” she said. I gave her a huge lion hug!

Everyone was jumping around and hugging Angel. I decided not to ask how she managed to get away, I’m slowly learning. Kat and the others arrived before dinner, so they naturally joined us. Trapper’s friends were happy they arrived just in time to eat. After dinner came the serious talk about Giselle’s family and why they were killed. “I don’t know what was going on with my parents,” said Giselle, “I honestly know nothing, we were just a normal family. My brother didn’t know anything either.

Then there is my oldest brother, Beau, but I don’t know anything about him. He left home when I was quite young and he never tried getting in touch with my parents. He is 10 years older than me, my parents said he lived in Mexico. Then there is my older sister, Vivienne, but she and her girlfriend died in a car accident in Panama 5 years ago. They were dealing in drugs over there and the police thought the accident was related to that.”

“Your old house is vacant right now,” I said, “so we are trying to get permission to look around the house. It took us a while to find the new owner, a woman named Abigail Marchand. Apparently she is 90 years old and just bought the house as an investment.” Giselle looked quite pale when I mentioned that name. “That is the name of the one woman cop who had me sign the house over to her in exchange for my freedom,” gasped Giselle, “except my freedom was being sold to Marshal for his sex business. But she was only 29 at the time.”

Giselle began to shake a bit so Jennifer put her arm around her. “Just remember,” said Jennifer, “you’re safe now.” “I will never be safe with Abigail and Sylvie around,” said Giselle, “they already tried to kill me today and they will keep trying. There is something in my house that they want, but I have no idea what it is.” “Did you ever see Lyla, Marshal’s wife?” I asked her. “No, I never did see her,” said Giselle, “just heard about her a lot. I did see Marshal a lot though. I wish he had stayed away like Lyla did.”

I then showed her a photo of Lyla. She just gasped, turned, hugged Jennifer and began to cry. I certainly did not expect that kind of reaction. I was going to bring in the man who had tried to kill her, Trapper and Kat, but I decided this was not a good time. Giselle was not ready for all this attention right now, so we will wait until tomorrow before we continue with things.

More than ever I am convinced these two cases are connected somehow, I just need to figure out how, and why. Giselle’s old house is important though, perhaps more important than that old stone house. There must be a reason that people are so interested in it. It is worth at least 3 people’s lives so far, and we are going to try very hard to make sure Giselle is not the fourth…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.