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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Katresa and the other girls are pretending to be a group of friends from Canada, traveling around Europe. They are hoping to see as many castles as possible, they had told the waitress. Midnight went over to visit with the girls while they talked with the waitress. Then he will report back to us with the information the girls can get from her. The owner doesn’t want any of the employees to talk about what they see or hear, apparently so as not to scare the tourists.
She could lose her job if she does talk, and that is even more scary, she told them. A friend of hers that had come with her to work at this castle hotel, and she was caught talking to some tourists. She was found dead outside the castle wall the next day. So our waitress, Nicole, is afraid to say anything to anyone now. She is actually from a small town about an hour away from our chateau. She and her friend had thought this job would be fun, especially living in an old castle, but now wishes she had stayed home and worked in the family bakery.
I then sent Ginger over to talk with Dawn. I would like Dawn to ask Nicole if she would like to leave, we would make sure she got away and safely returned home. But, apparently, if she did leave, her family would be hurt, though she didn’t know exactly what that meant. We knew what that meant, however, and it means that someone important is in charge of things around here. That makes staying here very dangerous, but I don’t want to leave Nicole here by herself either.
So, for now, we will stay and try to find out what is going on around here. Nicole warned the girls not to get involved or something might happen to them also. They told Nicole that they are not afraid of anything or anyone and if someone tried to hurt them, those people would be sorry they did so. Nicole gave us the same warning, telling us it was especially dangerous right now while a certain American was staying there. I asked her who this person was, that is so important.
She hesitated a bit, pretending to talk with the cats. She was putting on a good act, her boss did not suspect she was talking to us about anything other than normal tourist stuff. She even brought out castle maps which included the area around the castle where there were nice walking trails through the forest. Anyway, she told us his name was Granger Williams. Nicole then went back to get us some more coffee. While she was gone I got that odd sort of feeling again.
“I sense trouble Jennifer,” I told her. “Yes, so do I,” she said, “I also sense danger, and it is not far away either.” Just then Granger and 2 men came into the restaurant and sat on the other end of the room. Granger had his back to us, but his 2 men could see us plainly. We decided to wait here for the castle tour to begin, which was in another 20 minutes. The owner came out and talked with Granger for a few minutes, looking over at us a couple of times.
One of Granger’s men never took his eyes off of us the whole time they sat at their table. Finally they left, going outside and driving off somewhere. Then the owner came over to us and said the castle tour was canceled for today, because there was not enough people. According to the paper in our rooms there must be a minimum of 10 people for the tour to go ahead. Between the Bad Girls and us, there are 21, so I am going to talk with the owner about that later.
Obviously Granger had something to do with this cancelation. That means he knows who we are, and that is not a good thing. We could still go out and walk around, but the owner said we could not go beyond the fences as those areas were dangerous to walk around due to falling rock from the walls and other buildings. The Bad Girls went out to walk around, but my team went back to our room to talk for a while first.
I wanted a large room so we could all meet in it at times, however, they only had 2 large rooms and one was already booked, so I took this one. There is a large bed for Jennifer and I, plus bunk beds for the other 5 girls. Considering what we have learned so far, it is probably a good thing we are all in the same room. “We need to check the area behind those fences,” I said, “they are hiding something over there.” “I will check it out tonight,” agreed Jennifer.
“What do you mean ‘I will check it out tonight’?” I asked. “I didn’t say you would check it out,” she said, “I said that I would check it out.” “That’s what I just said,” I reminded her, “you said you would check it out.” “No, I didn’t say you would check it out,” she said, looking at me sternly, “I said quite clearly that I would check it out.” By now the girls and cats were having a good laugh. Sigh. “Okay, let’s stop with this, I’m getting confused,” I said, “but why can’t I come along? I can turn invisible now too.”
“Yes, but you can still be hurt, I can’t,” she reminded me. “How can anyone hurt me if they can’t see me?” I asked. She just looked at me. That ‘look’ means I have lost the argument. We all went out to look around the place during the day, but nothing of real interest was found. At least, not the kinds of things I wanted to find, which was evidence of some wrongdoing by Granger. Whatever he is doing, it must be underground, or hidden in the part of the castle that is off limits to us tourists.
I really don’t want Jennifer going alone, however, even if she is a ghost and can’t be hurt. She could protect me too but that would hinder her ability to look around so she wouldn’t be able to cover as much ground as she can alone. Still, something isn’t right and I don’t like it and I told her I sensed trouble, and she did too. However, after it was completely dark, she went on her way.
A couple of hours later I sensed danger, something new for me, so I communicated with Jennifer and asked her to come back. She did so right away and as she passed the front desk Granger was there with his two men. “You should not be outside after dark,” said Granger, “it is not safe, too many wild animals around here and they come within the castle walls.”
The owner of the castle said the same thing. Jennifer thanked them for their concern, but said she is not afraid of the local wild animals. Of course, there are none in this area that are dangerous anyway, we already checked that out. It is the wild people that are dangerous around here. Jennifer came into our room but she wasn’t ready for what she saw…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
We have been relaxing for a few days now, except for our newest prospective team member. Hannah has been going through all of our tests and is doing very well. She will have no trouble passing everything, I’m sure. One day she came to Jennifer and I to talk. “Enjoying our tests Hannah?” I asked. “Now I know why your team is so good Steve,” she said, “if people can pass all these tests, then they can do anything.” Jennifer and I laughed.
“I have been keeping track of your scores and you are doing very well,” I said. “Thank you,” said Hannah, “but there is one test where my score is not so good, that is running.” “Well, that is one we don’t expect everyone to score high in,” said Jennifer, “not everyone is a fast runner.” “And most of the time running is not necessary anyway,” I added, “if something does require fast runners, then we use our fastest runners, simple as that.”
“And thank you both for allowing me the opportunity to join your team,” she said, “you have put your trust in me and I will not let you down, not in anything.” “I believe you Hannah,” said Jennifer smiling. Later that day as I was waiting for my massage, lying on the bed, I began to daydream once again. Then I saw Sky lying next to me, smiling at me. “You are daydreaming again Steve,” she said, “that is not good, you need to stop that if you want to get back to leading this team.”
“I would like to stop, but if I stay cooped up all the time, it will never happen,” I told her, “plus, if I stop daydreaming then you won’t be here.” “I will still be here Steve,” she said, “but I don’t want to interfere with you and Jennifer.” “Well, Jennifer is just like you used to be,” I said, “so there would be no problem. But I don’t understand how you can be here without Dr. W.” “Well, that is hard to explain,” she said, “so it will have to wait for now, I need to talk with Kat about that first.
Oh, I see Caleigh is here now for your massage, perhaps I should go.” “Can she see you?” I asked. “No, not if I stay invisible,” she replied. I convinced her to stay a while longer to talk while Caleigh went to work on my back. “You seem to be in deep thought,” said Caleigh, “can I help you with that?” “Um, no, just daydreaming again, I think,” I answered. “You do not know if you daydream or not?” she asked, “Oh my, that is very odd, perhaps we need to talk more while I’m here.”
Sky disappeared at that point and I talked with Caleigh. I asked her where she would like to go on vacation if she was planning one for herself. “Oh, that is easy,” she said, “there is an old, old castle that is now a hotel. There are legends of ghosts and murder and treasure, it sounds so fascinating!” “Where did you hear about that?” I asked. “It is in one of Storm’s vacation brochures,” she said, “we looked at it together, he was as excited as me.”
“Yep, that sounds like Storm alright,” I admitted, “he likes castles and Muffin likes tropical island vacations with large sandy beaches.” She giggled. “And what about you and Jennifer?” she asked, “Are you also very different in your vacation places?” “No, we agree quite nicely about such things,” I said, “but unfortunately our vacations never work out for us. They usually just turn into another case, sometimes deadly cases.” “Hmm, maybe you should try to vacation right here at home,” she said.
“But I am trying to get away from home right now,” I said. She laughed. “Well, we could decorate the chateau and pool area to look more like a vacation destination,” she added, “and even our guest cottage would be the perfect honeymoon destination, since I hear you two have not had honeymoon yet, and that is not good. That needs to change.” “I agree with that Caleigh,” I said, “but I also like the thought of that old castle. I think Jennifer would like it too.”
“Hmm, maybe I should not have mentioned such a place,” she said, giggling, “now maybe Jennifer will not be so happy with me.” However, Jennifer liked the idea of ghosts so we were soon packed and on our way to this 800 year old castle. There was Jennifer and I, plus the whole Bad Girls team, there are 15 of them, the standard size now for one of our teams. They are here separately from us, however, since they are not listed as part of the Investigators, just like the Wildcats and the Knight Riders.
Beryan, Kitty, Milena, Aasta and Monika, from my Team 1, have come with Jennifer and I as our bodyguards this time. The Bad Girls are only here if we need them, and hopefully we won’t need them. Then they will get to have a vacation as well. Muffin, Storm, Jewel, Rascal, Ginger and Midnight are with us too. Our seven new cats stayed at home so the other cats can continue to train them. They are all doing well, even the two caracals are learning quickly.
The caracals can jump 10 feet high without any difficulty, something that may come in very handy at times. Our first night at this old castle hotel was nice and quiet, which was a disappointment to some of our girls, including Jennifer. Personally, I enjoyed having a good night’s sleep and now we were all in the restaurant having a nice breakfast of, well, pancakes.
They had a different name for them, but that’s what they were anyway. However, our waitress was very nervous about something and she could barely talk at times. But, she wouldn’t open up to us, so I signaled for Katresa to come over and she came, pretending to talk with our cats. “Try and find out why the waitress is so nervous,” I told her, and after saying hello to each cat she returned to the girls table…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
