Musk was obviously surprised by the fact that Jennifer and I were still alive, so he knew about the plan today. “Why were you so surprised to see me and my wife Sky?” I asked him. “Uh, well, because you answered the door before I knocked,” he managed to say quickly. “After Patty was killed this morning you did not think we would be watching?” I asked, “We are watching carefully.”

“You are a no good liar!” yelled Hope as she came over to Musk, “Patty actually thought you loved her, but all you said were words, lies!” Then she slapped him, rather hard. Good for her. Musk looked like he might hit her back, but Aari put his hand on Musk’s shoulder and told him not to try anything. “Obviously Hope is right Musk,” I said, “otherwise you would want to find her killer.”

“That is why I am here, to see if you found out anything,” he said. “So you can go and tell Buck what we know,” I added, “sorry, that will not work. I think you are just a coward, and a puppet for Buck. Hope is right, you did not care about Patty. Now, I think you should leave.” He left, and it was easy to tell he was angry, and that is what we want.

Meanwhile, back in the town. A large truck with massive tires came to a sudden stop in front of the store, the only one in town. Four young women got out and came into the store. “Hey there,” said Tracy, “which way to the haunted house my friend bought?” “Um, there is no haunted house here,” answered the man.

“There is so!” exclaimed Tracy, “My friend Hope told me all about it and we are ready to go see some ghosts flying around!” “Yeah,” said Cassie, “maybe I can get a date with one of them!” The girls laughed. “Oh, you do not want to go out there,” said the man, “people get killed out there, you better go back home.” He seemed to be quite nervous now which intrigued the girls.

“Naturally people get killed in a haunted house,” said Candace, “that is why it is haunted!” They all laughed again. Just then the cops came in to find out who they were. “Hey, we are not doing anything wrong,” said Tracy, “so why the questions?” “Yeah,” said Amber, “we are here to visit our friend Hope and that is no crime, so where is that haunted house?”

“Just follow that road out of town and it is road number 15 on the right,” said Musk, who had just come in, “Hope is expecting you.” “Thanks,” said Tracy, she smiled and winked at him. The girls then drove off. “Why give them a hard time?” asked Musk, “It just makes people suspicious.” He then left again. “Bear is not going to like this,” said cop 1, “too many people showing up at a bad time.”

“You might want to warn him about the new visitors,” said the store owner, “he is not too happy these days so I am not telling him.” The cops then left. Meanwhile, Uncle Matt and his team went over to Pinky’s house but they did not get much information from her, except that she was very scared. As he went back outside Buck and two others drove up in a large truck and stopped right in front of the guy’s van.

Buck, Weasel and Woodchuck got out and Buck came straight to Uncle Matt. “I think you and your friends better leave,” said Buck, “we do not want troublemakers in our town.” “Then why are you here?” asked Uncle Matt, “I am not leaving until I find Patty’s killer, and I believe he is one of you ‘Creeps’.” “She was not killed,” snarled Buck, “she died from an overdose, clearly it was suicide, and here is the coroner’s report.”

“There was no autopsy,” said Uncle Matt as he took the report, “so this is obviously false. And what about the 3 bullets in her, did they magically grow inside of her after she died?” “There were no bullets!” shouted Buck, “Just read for yourself!” Matt just handed it to Miles who took pictures of it and sent them to Annelie.

It was only a couple of minutes when she called back. “That coroner died of a heart attack 3 days ago,” she said, “so unless he came back from the dead, then this report is false.” The look on Buck’s face when he heard that made Uncle Matt smile, and he nodded to Miles. Miles then burnt the report.

“Looks like you do not have a coroner’s report Buck,” said Uncle Matt, who then grabbed Woodchuck and slammed him against the wall of the house. Mac grabbed Weasel and slammed his head against the truck and Rock punched Buck twice in the stomach so that he sat down with a thud, then fell flat on his back. “Good thing I did not hit him hard,” said Rock. At that point the two cops showed up…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.