Well, we had to make a quick decision on Melanie in order to keep her alive. The cats have already told me that they trust Melanie, Jennifer has also said that she trusts Melanie. “Well, you 2 girls need to give your advice, or vote,” I said to Aasta and Cynthia. They both said yes to allowing her to stay with us. “Thank you, everyone,” said Melanie, “I will not let you down.

My team knows you are staying here, hard to hide all those motorcycles Steve. Seems like kind of an odd way to remain hidden from your enemies.” “I did not wish to remain hidden,” I said, “I want everyone to know who we are and where we are. Things are a bit different this time, a friend, as you know, has been seriously hurt and we want to find out who did it.”

“It was my men that did it, working with one man from Raymundo that Diego sent. You let that man go free. Diego has been promised a high position once Mike has Raymundo’s operation in her hands. But he has a surprise coming, Mike does not trust him. Since he turned on his boss then perhaps he would also turn on her, especially once he is strong enough.”

“Why does Mike want Raymundo’s territory anyway?” I asked, “It is certainly no different than any other and he will not be easy to destroy.” “He is a bit different Steve,” said Melanie, “last year more than $10 million worth of gems passed through his hands, plus drugs. He has a good system of contacts coming and going. His system would take years to assemble and gain trust of both buyers and sellers. Here, she can move in, kill Raymundo and his top people, then just fill the positions with her own people.

And she wants to expand her porn industry into Europe and this would be a good place for her to begin. She also has plans to eliminate The Investigators. She has a very large organization now, it would not be easy to stand up against her once she is settled in here.” She then told us some other things about Albano, Oskar’s brother-in-law, so I called Aari. He, John, Clarence and Alfred were staying at Albano’s carpentry shop. I called Aari right away.

“Check under the bottom stair on the right, should be a button there which will open the riser on the next step,” I said, “you might find some goodies. Also, check some of his carved items, especially cats and dogs. Turn the head just slightly counter clockwise, that should open a small drawer on the bottom. I will wait for your findings.” He got the guys checking around and found things just as I had told him.

“Inside the hidden drawer it even says which rocks go in that one,” said Aari, “and there were quite a few rocks in that hiding place, plus a lot of drugs, and something else, photos of his two kids plus other kids as well, on a couple of flash drives. This will be hard on Oskar and Eina. How did you know about all of this considering you have not been here before?”

“Well, I have extra eyes working for me at times Aari,” I said, “on one hand I hope it will be hard on Eina.” “You think she might be involved too?” he asked. “It is always possible,” I said, “oh, be very careful, Mike will be here in 2 days. When she found out that others were getting involved, meaning you and I, then she decided to come sooner than expected so she can take care of things herself.”

“Amazing,” said Aari, “it is like you have a direct link to know what Mike is doing.” “Well, it is something like that,” I said, “we are going to set a trap for Mike when she arrives and hopefully we can stop her quickly.” “That would be a good idea,” said Aari, “but finding out where she will be at any given time won’t be easy.” “Yes, that part is going to be tricky,” I told him.

“In case you are wondering about the information concerning Albano,” said Melanie, “it was Diego that told me how they did things, and I relayed that information to Mike.” She then told me some other things about herself and her work that she did for Mike. “Just in case you wish to turn me over to the police,” she said, “that is why I am telling you all of this.” “I have no reason to hand you over to the police,” I said, “as long as you are truthful with me, then we should get along nicely.

For now you will stay with us here, but you will have to share a room.” “I am used to sharing a room,” she said smiling. “How old are you?” I asked. “I am 24,” she said nervously. “No reason to be nervous,” I said, “it is just for room placement right now. The girls will take you to Kera’s room.” We all got up to leave just as Cassie, Charly and Amandine showed up to ask if they could go across the street to the store.

“Trouble Steve,” said Jennifer and just then two men entered the lobby from outside and began shooting. Cynthia and Aasta shot back, killing the two men. But the men had done their job, Charly and Amandine lay on the floor dead and Cassie was wounded in the shoulder. These girls were not likely who the men wanted though. Likely they wanted me, or perhaps Melanie.

They were not Mike’s men however, so that rules out Melanie as the target. Jennifer had called the other girls down and it’s amazing how fast they arrived. We are on the second floor so using an elevator is not necessary. I left Dawn to take care of things and went back to my room with Jennifer and Cynthia. Once inside the room I collapsed, though the girls caught me before I hit the floor.

Sky said she was sending Kristina and her team out to help us, she had Mandar’s Teams 3 and 4 to guard the rest of them at home. She wanted me back home too, but I told her I would be fine and take it easy after this. I was already feeling back to normal again. Obviously these men were from Raymundo, so it is time to pay him another visit to let him know that he made a big mistake…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.