We had a fantastic meal, I was amazed at the amount of food available! “You have a wonderful cook,” I told Bjorn. “Yes, she is quite amazing,” he said, “she did not complain at all when I said there would be 20 of you coming.” “Seems like a lot of people to bring,” complained one of the maids, “just makes more work for Shimeka, Vanda and myself.” Her name is Zina and apparently she was a very nice, pleasant woman until 3 weeks ago. That is when 2 salesmen came to the door and tried to sell her some books.

She hates reading and ever since then she has been totally grouchy. “I won’t even let her look after the kids by herself anymore,” Bjorn told me privately, “such an amazing change in her, just from one day to the next. I mean, how could 2 book salesmen make someone so grouchy for such a long time?” “It had nothing to do with books,” I said, “those 2 men said something to her which made her scared. Possibly she is mixed up in the disappearance of your wife. Now I just need to find some proof for my theory.

But you are right, don’t let her be alone with your kids at any time. If you need some extra help with the kids while we are here, I can arrange for my girls to take turns looking after them. They would love the opportunity. The cats could help too, they love kids.” “I might take you up on that,” he said, “without Gabriella around, there is more work for the maids, though only Zina complains.” The 3 maids, the butler, Bjorn’s personal butler, the cook and her helper, all stay at the castle, plus Bjorn’s driver.

Bjorn has 4 different vehicles in a large garage located in the south yard. Gardens fill up the east and west yards and the children’s play area is in the north yard. I asked Bjorn about the book salesmen, but he was in town at the time and never saw them. Only Zina and the butler saw them. The butler’s name is Stewart, he is from Scotland. The maids are all from Romania, the cook, Marchelline, and her helper, Shimeka, came from France.

Marchelline is a rather large woman, an exceptional cook, but she never smiles, even when we compliment her. Shimeka does her job very well, seldom needs to be told what to do, she always seems to know what Marchelline wants and has it ready for her. Apparently they have been working together for 15 years. Shimeka is 30 and Marchelline is 50. None of the women working here are married or have been married. Bjorn and his personal butler, Karl, from Germany, will be going into town early tomorrow morning, so I will have a couple of the girls look after the kids for him.

The rest of us will be searching the castle. We will be going around in groups of 4, and 2 cats with each group. Vanda, one of the maids doesn’t talk, though she did at the beginning. She stopped talking about a week before Gabriella’s disappearance, and has said nothing since. There is definitely a connection there, but what is it? I will get Samantha, our nurse, to take a look at her, and maybe she can get her talking. It just might work. Or not.

Samantha is great with people though, so she just might be able to help Vanda. Vanda must have either heard, or seen, something related to Gabriella’s disappearance. Perhaps she saw a “ghost”, not a real ghost but imaginary. I still don’t believe in ghosts, even though we now have 3 on our team. Sigh. Kat, Jennifer and Angel are real. They were real before, they were killed and confirmed dead and we have them buried in our own cemetery.

So, why are they now alive? I mean, in many ways they are alive, they eat, sleep, feel normal, yet they can do abnormal things. Like, moving very fast, turning invisible, they can’t be killed, at least not by conventional weapons, they don’t get tired out by excessive exercise though everyone else does. I have not dug up their graves to see if their bodies are still in there, I promised them I would not after they asked.

I have also not forced them to give a DNA sample to see if it matches what we have on file. Oh well, enough on that. Well, Vanda agreed to let Samantha check her out with a physical checkup. During that time Samantha will also talk with her, then hopefully she will let Jennifer and I talk with her also. Jennifer also has an amazing way with people and I would really like to find out what this woman knows…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.