“Well everyone,” I said, “that is part 1 and 2, now we move into part 3. It will be a late night, but Catalina says those guys will not wake up until at least noon, perhaps later. So we should be able to sleep late, providing that Wickers keeps to his word and he likely stays up late too which means he will want to sleep late.” So, off we went to the lawyers office.

We had Tiger with us now too and he will turn off the alarm system for us, hopefully in time. Storm unlocked the door and Tiger had the alarm off amazingly fast and in we went. We needed to find Mr. Hardin’s will. What do you know, it was under H. I took photos and sent them to Tracy and put the will back. Then we looked for the office safe which Tiger found quite easily.

It was an older model so he also had it open quickly too. Hmm, this is interesting, another ‘will’ from Mr. Hardin. Again I took photos and sent them to Tracy. “Everything is ready on your end Steve,” said Sky, “I do hope Sky is doing her job well.” “Yes, she is doing fine,” I said chuckling, “do not forget to watch Mallory when she arrives, she cannot be trusted.” “Are you sure it is her and not Mandy?” she asked.

“No,” I said, “but Muffin seems to believe Mandy and none of the cats trust Mallory.” “Okay, that is good enough for me,” she said, “please be careful Steve, that Wickers does not play fair, you are not likely going to scare him easily.” “We will all be careful,” I assured her, “we do want to come home again.” “You better!” exclaimed Sky.

I put the will and a little gift back inside the safe, then we went back to the house. We did sleep later than usual but we were still awake by 10am. Lots of time to get ready for part 4. Oddly, the police showed up precisely at noon, but no sign of Wickers. I was sure they would arrive together. There were just two cops and they remained sitting in their car for 15 minutes, constantly looking up at the house.

Finally Wickers showed up in his limousine so Sky and I went outside to meet him. I was glad that I made a switch at the last minute and sent Kari with Kristina and kept Astrid with us instead. Astrid is one of our snipers and we need her right now. Dawn, Amber, Catalina, Sapphire, Marlena and Kat came out too, plus the cats who hid from view.

That wacky lawyer came with Wickers, I am not really sure why he is kept on the payroll. “Nice to see you again Wickers,” I said cheerfully, “you too Benny old boy. Did you get your bank deposit down alright?” Wickers looked at Benny. “Any problems with that deposit?” he asked. “Uh, no, no, there was no problem, never is,” he said, looking very nervous. Wickers then asked Booker to check the deposits.

“There is an extra 10,000 in his personal deposit,” said Booker. “What is that Benny?” asked Wickers. “Uh, I, I, I, do not know,” said Benny, very nervous now. “I will deal with you later,” said Wickers, “I have come for my property.” “Too late,” I said, “sometime during the night Mallory took the kids and left while we were sleeping. I have no idea where they are now.”

“You expect me to believe that?” he said. Then one of his men pulled a gun and put it very close to my head. “Now, where are they?” he asked. “You have 30 seconds to tell your man to put his gun away, or you die,” I said, “and I would suggest you do not move those feet, or you will die. Just look at that house, 3 down, on the roof by the chimney, there is a rifle pointed at your head. You now have 15 seconds.”

Wickers waited, then told his man to put his gun away, which he did. Wickers then sent men into the house to check around and men across the street to the other house. They all came back with interesting reports. “These guys say they watched all night and saw nothing,” said Collins, “but in the car we found these envelopes with 10 in each.”

“I seem to have heard that number before,” said Wickers, looking at the lawyer. Then the men came out of the house. “No one in the house boss,” said Gunner, “and we found these envelopes on these guys with 10 in each. They claim they fell asleep so saw nothing.”

“A lot of 10’s floating around,” he said to me, “your doing?” “I do not have that kind of money to toss around for nothing,” I said, “I would say Mallory is behind that. Or she has someone helping her who has that kind of money.” “Perhaps M,” said Sky…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.