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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
I am still in the clinic, as is Misty and Venus plus the three girls that were wounded going to Elenore’s house. Those three girls are Cindy, one of our nurses that travels with us on cases, Astrid and Monika. All of them are from Misty’s team and when Misty found out she went shuffling over to visit them twice today already. Samantha tried to tell Misty she should be staying in bed, but she said, “Those are my girls in that room, I will visit them and help cheer them up if I can, and make sure they have everything they need.”
Misty takes her position as Team Leader seriously, and that is nice to see. Still, I told her she also needs to obey Samantha too. She just looked at me. “You mean I should obey her just like you do?” she asked. I looked at her. “Keep up the good work,” I said. Then I looked around, Friskie and Celestine were not here. I had told Friskie to go and spend time with Steffie, then I told Celestine to head off to the pool for her relaxation period.
However, I needed someone to fluff my pillow for me, it wasn’t quite right, but just then a familiar face looked in the door. “It’s all clear, let’s go,” said Mandy and in she came with Erika. Erika was about to jump on the bed with me, but Mandy stopped her. “It’s okay as long as you’re real careful,” I said, “and no jumping.” Erika was on the bed in a flash, as was Mandy, with both of them hugging me. We talked for a few minutes, then they got down.
“Your pillow isn’t right,” said Mandy, so she fluffed it up for me. Just then Friskie returned with Steffie, who also wanted to visit, so Friskie lifted her onto the bed and she laid down quietly beside me. After a few minutes Friskie told Steffie it was time to leave, but I whispered something to Steffie first and she smiled. She slid off the bed and went over to Misty’s bed. Friskie put her on Misty’s bed gently, but suddenly Steffie jumped and yelled, “yaaaaaaaaay!” At the same time Misty yelled, “AAAAAAAAAA!”
The rest of us laughed, though Venus and I also groaned as the laughing hurt our stomachs. However, Steffie didn’t jump onto Misty, she just jumped on the bed like I told her. Samantha then arrived and told the visitors it was time to leave, which they did, still laughing. “Something tells me you’re the one behind all that screaming,” said Samantha as she looked at me. “I second that!” exclaimed Misty, then she added, “It’s nice to be home again.”
Meanwhile, back with our team in my home town. Jennifer called a meeting of all the team on the case, which included Sky’s Bad Girls and Misty’s Sneakers. They had the meeting at Elenore’s place since the rooms were not large enough at the hotel. They waited until Elenore was in bed before having the meeting and Jennifer put a bubble around them all so no one could hear and so they wouldn’t wake up Elenore. She hasn’t been sleeping well, apparently, because she is worrying so much about what is happening.
She also feels bad that some of our team have been wounded trying to protect her, she keeps saying she should just sell and get it over with. But Jennifer told her that would be rewarding these criminals when they should be stopped so they don’t hurt, or kill, other innocent people. After the meeting Sigrid said there were lights on at Swann’s house and there wasn’t any the previous night. “That must mean that someone is home tonight,” said Jennifer, “so, we need to take a look.”
She took Kitty and Angel with her and since they held hands, she could bring them through the door easily. They also remained invisible, just in case there was someone at home. Jennifer was quite shocked at what she saw! Sandra was there and she was kissing a young man, and that man was Beau, Soleil’s brother! At first we thought he had been killed, then discovered the Beau we had killed was someone different. Now, the real Beau is back and after listening to Sandra and Beau talking, it was obvious he was Sandra’s real boyfriend, not Fiske or Christopher.
Sandra is 39 and Beau is 20, but they are both ruthless individuals and would make a terrible team. There were also several other men around but the girls couldn’t see Helene anywhere. Angel and Kitty went to look around while Jennifer stayed to watch Sandra and Beau. They returned after a few minutes, but they didn’t find Helene anywhere, just some more men sleeping. One of the men downstairs was on the computer so Jennifer went to see what he was looking at.
Before she got to him, however, she sensed immediate danger and communicated with Sky to get everyone out of the house and away from it right away! It didn’t take the girls long to get Elenore up and out of the house with the rest of them and they all piled into the vans. Then they drove a short way down the street and parked. Meanwhile, another smaller man came into the house. “Did you get it all done?” asked Sandra. “Yep, 5 minutes,” he said.
“When Nitro does a job, he does it right,” said Beau. “Good, that old woman won’t stand in my way any longer,” laughed Sandra, “soon I will own this whole town and everyone in it, and I can do whatever I want. And you will be right by my side Beau.” While they were kissing again, there was a large rumbling and a huge fireball destroyed Elenore’s house! The fire department was there in less than a minute, which is impossible, unless they were tipped off ahead of time.
That is likely what happened. Our girls were not far from where they saw the fire trucks parked, waiting for the explosion to happen. Seems Sandra already owns some of the people in town. I communicated with Sky to bring Elenore back to the chateau to keep her safe. Amerie put her to sleep first, then Sky brought her back here. Now it’s time to fight Sandra. She attacked us hoping to kill a large number of Investigators and she failed. We won’t fail in stopping her this time…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Sky had just brought Venus and Friskie back to the clinic, although Friskie isn’t hurt but Jennifer wanted her back to guard Venus, Misty and I. Then Sky took Jennifer back to the hotel, after which she brought the drugs, money and guns back here to the chateau for safe keeping. Now that Venus is back here, there is no one left to guard except Elenore, which makes things much easier for our teams. The girls heard on the news that Williams had been shot, then his club had been set on fire.
But the part where Williams’ body was found didn’t burn so it was easy to identify him. No other bodies were found. Over at Fiske’s club no bodies have been found yet, but the fire was still burning in one part. So, Jennifer, Sky and the Bad Girls went to look for Sandra at her house. They also took some of the cats with them to help check her house for “extra” things.
Meanwhile, back home. “You know what we need in here?” I asked. “Donuts!” said Misty and I together. Kat came walking back in at that moment and heard us. “Oh no you don’t,” said Kat, “remember the new clinic rule, no donuts allowed. And that also means you do not ask someone to bring you donuts. Anyone caught doing so will be given 8 demerits and 30 days of cleaning duty.” “That’s not fair,” I said, “it takes all the fun out of being in the clinic.” “I second that,” said Misty.
“Too bad,” said Kat and off she went. When Sky brought back the suitcases of stuff from Gordon, she was also able to bring one more person back, so Jennifer said to bring Celestine. It was now after breakfast here which was cold toast and warm coffee. “What happened to our toaster?” I asked Jackie. “The one in the clinic quit working so we’re using the one in the kitchen,” she said, “that’s a long ways from here, so the toast cools off a bit.” “A bit?” I asked, “It feels like it came out of the fridge.”
“Oooo, don’t make me laugh,” said Venus, “my stomach hurts! Glad I ordered cereal though.” “I’ll try to bring you some hot coffee though,” said Jackie and off she went. Then Celestine came in wearing her bikini and carrying her pool bag. “Hey, you’re not supposed to wear bikinis except at the pool,” said Misty frowning. Celestine reached into her bag, then tossed a donut to Misty. “Wear a bikini all you want,” said Misty, “doesn’t bother me.” “I second that,” I said while munching on my donut.”
“These are fantastic!” said Venus, “Now if we just had some hot coffee.” “Did someone mention coffee?” asked Macy as she came in with a fresh carafe. Then she stopped and looked at me with my donut. She just shook her head at me, and at Celestine. “Eat fast,” said Macy, “Bridgette will be here in 20 minutes to check on you.”
Meanwhile, back with Jennifer and the Bad Girls. “We’re getting close to Sandra’s house now,” said Sky. It was late afternoon and with the fires they figured that Sandra would likely be at home, unless she died in the fire, which Jennifer thought would be unlikely. She was thinking that Sandra was the mastermind of this whole operation and she likely wanted to get rid of both Fiske and Williams, plus Swann. However, Swann was not found, so maybe he decided to go into hiding. Unless he also is a boyfriend of Sandra, and maybe her favorite boyfriend?
Hard to know exactly what is going on with that group. All we know for certain is that Christopher and Williams are both dead. We don’t know anything about Fiske or Swann. Some of the girls are keeping an eye on Gordon’s place though, just in case Swann does show up, even though he would be very late now. Most likely he phoned Gordon and found out what happened and decided to hide. Then there is Helene, and there are some girls keeping an eye on her hotel too, in case she decides to go somewhere.
They have orders to watch only and don’t try to stop her if she has others with her. Soon the team was at Sandra’s house but there were no cars around and she had no garage to park in, so she must not be home. “I will go take a look first,” said Jennifer, and she walked up to the house and through the door. She came back to the van after a short time. “She’s not there,” said Jennifer, “looks like she moved out, very recently too, the place is completely empty. We appear to be striking out and that’s not good.”
Then they heard on the news that Swann and Fiske were found dead in a dumpster behind Fiske’s nightclub. Both had been shot once, in the forehead, just like Williams and the police were looking for a woman named Sandra Poirier. Then they decided to drive over to Helene’s hotel and have a talk with her. But when they went to the front desk, they were told that she had left early that morning. Things were not going well for our team, but I told them to keep watching those places until morning and to keep guarding Elenore for now too.
Things did not go the way we had planned, but the same could be said for Sandra’s side too. I don’t mind losing Sandra as much as losing Helene again. Then Cristy told me that she discovered Sandra and Helene are cousins, that’s why we lost both of them. However, they might not be far away and may have even come back to our little town. So, I told Jennifer to head back, I have a hunch, and maybe it will pay off for us…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
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