It was a nice, hot day and our air conditioner broke down. Miles tried to fix it yesterday, but it needs a part which had to be ordered and it won’t arrive until this afternoon. I am still listed on recovery so I named Kristina as our temporary Leader 1. Normally I would have chosen Rock, but he and Annelie are on vacation right now. Annelie is always stuck at home at the computer so I told them they had to take some time off. Well, I suggested it to Kristina and she told them. I can’t make any decisions right now until I am given a green light by Samantha so I can return to work.

Right then Dawn came in with the mail. “One for you Steve,” she said, “looks important.” I looked at the envelope, it was from one of our prisons. “Um, this is for Kristina,” I reminded Dawn. “But it has your name on it,” she insisted. “It also has The Investigators name on it,” I said, “that means it goes to Leader 1, which is Kristina right now.” Dawn took it and handed it to Kristina who looked over at me. “You don’t look sick anymore,” she said frowning, “Samantha, please come to the library right away.” “On my way Kristina,” she said.

“And where is Jennifer?” asked Kristina, “She is your prime bodyguard and should be with you right now.” “She has an appointment with Galyna,” I told her. “Then you are supposed to have 4 bodyguards with you,” she said, “where are they?” “I’m right here,” said Dawn. “I’m here too,” said Amber. “So am I,” said Ginnifer. “That is only 3,” said Kristina. “Well, I am just as good as any of Steve’s bodyguards,” said Sky smiling, “though I am a bit tired. It was hard to sleep last night it was so hot.” Samantha came in just then. “I thought it was perfect,” she said smiling.

“You do like the heat,” said Sky, “so tonight you can sleep with Steve and I will sleep in your room, it’s cooler there.” “I will gladly switch with you Sky,” she said, still smiling. Then everyone began to laugh and Samantha turned red as a tomato! “I didn’t mean that!” she said with a very worried look on her face, “Please forgive me Sky!” “Sure, no problem,” said Sky giggling, “I knew you weren’t thinking. However, the offer still stands.” Everyone laughed again.

“Okay everyone, I called Samantha here for something important,” said Kristina, “does Steve still need to be on recovery?” Samantha looked at me. “No, I guess he is okay now,” she said, “that was a very speedy recovery.” “Well, you know how it was done,” I said, “which is more than I can say.” “I know what was done,” she said, “not how it was done. That reminds me, where is Jennifer, she is supposed to be with you.” “Seems to be an echo in here,” I said, “she is with Galyna.” “Okay, we can put Steve back into his Leader 1 role now,” said Kristina.

“Has to be a vote of all team Leaders first,” I said, “better call the guys to come over right away.” Kristina did so and they were here within an hour. The vote was held and I was reinstated as Leader 1. Then Kristina handed me the envelope and I opened it to find a letter written by one of the inmates asking me to visit him. He just said it was very important. I called Rossana to see if she could set it up for me and three hours later I was entering the prison with Matt, Jennifer and Muffin.

They did not really want to let Jennifer and Muffin inside the visitor room, but they really had no choice, my permission came from the highest officials. I asked Jennifer to dress a certain way so she could distract our guards for a little while. That way the prisoner and I could talk more freely, and Muffin has a built in scrambler on her collar now which I turned on at the right time. Jennifer was perfect with her distraction and had all 3 guards looking at her legs long enough that I could talk with our prisoner friend and get just enough information from him, along with a simple letter that was in code, and it has been approved to take with us.

Our time was up and off we went back home again. I asked Cynthia, our best puzzle solver, to look at this letter and figure out the code, then decode it for us. I also asked Pacca, Alizea and Cheryl to help Cynthia, so hopefully it will go faster. They are also good at solving problems and puzzles. I told them our prisoner friend said it was a simple code, so don’t waste time thinking it is difficult. Still, the one making the code is naturally going to think it is simple. Guess we will see in time.

He did say that there was not much time to get this done and someone’s life was at stake. Two hours later Cynthia brought the letter and the message it contained. “This was an easy one,” said Cynthia, “but the message isn’t.” “She didn’t even need us,” said Pacca, “she was already decoding it by the time the rest of us got to her room.” Apparently this prisoner has a niece, his sister’s daughter. She and her husband were killed years ago in an accident, though he doesn’t believe it was an accident.

He took over raising her best as he could, but he admitted that wasn’t very good and he wanted her out of the family “business”. Then he got caught and ended up in prison so she was living on her own. His second in command of his gang took over and kidnapped his niece and is holding her ransom for the money and gold stolen in their last job. He claims to have given it to another of their members, named Brink, and he hid it, but has since been killed. Now the location is lost for ever.

The kidnapper (Trapper) doesn’t believe Timothy (prisoner), and wants the location or he will sell Timothy’s niece (Acadia). He was given 14 days to tell of the location which he maintains he doesn’t know, then Acadia will be auctioned to the highest bidder. Sky, who is taking Annelie’s place right now, looked up Acadia. She is a very beautiful young woman. “Looks to be about 15 or so,” I said.

Kristina and Matt agreed. “She just had her 18th birthday yesterday,” said Sky. “Well, I was close for a change,” I said, “well, Timothy was given 14 days, so that means we have 6 days left to find her and rescue her. Do we accept the case?” Meow,meow?= How we say no? Not able to sleep if we say no. We very bad people then. We all looked at Muffin. Guess that part is settled then…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.