We counted up the dead and wounded after the fight. Les and 3 friends were dead. Four of Mike’s men were dead and 4 were wounded. On our side, none were dead, but we did have 5 wounded, Candace, Tracy, Hope and Ginnifer, plus myself. None of the wounds on our team were life threatening which was nice. Mandar then called in the police from the city who had been informed about what was going on and they were ready, waiting for us to call.

Mandar took our wounded back to our jet which was waiting for them once they got to the airport. We did not leave it there, but it was close enough to get here in a hurry if needed. Mandar sent his team back to help us, just in case there was anymore trouble. Once it was daylight we blasted open the door in the ground to the mine. Smoke came billowing out.

If anyone was down there, they likely are not alive now, unless they had a source of oxygen. Amazingly, they did have an emergency supply, but they decided to surrender when we blasted the door off their entrance. Two of their Creepers died though, not enough oxygen for everyone. Bear, Buck and Grizzly were not in there last night, they had gone to town to try and get their friends out of jail.

But Matt had put our own locks on those jail cells attached to bombs, so if they tried to cut them off the whole place would have exploded. He did put a sign up warning of that very thing happening. Suddenly we all heard Mac calling out. “It’s gold!” he yelled. Sure enough, there were gold bars that had been hidden in one of the walls of the old house.

The fire exposed them for us. Most likely they were from that stolen gold nearly a hundred years ago, but there were not many gold bars left. Likely most of it, and all the silver, had been melted down and taken away in a different form so as not to be caught. But, these bars had been hidden, and for whatever reason, had not been retrieved.

Due to the age of this theft the gold will be given to the present owner of the property, which is Hope. That will be a big help to her for starting over somewhere else. Flo and her kids plus Alice and her kids are fine, we had just taken them away to keep them safe. Uncle Matt just said they had found their bodies in the forest to try and scare Bear and Buck.

The store owner and restaurant owner were also arrested since they were working for Bear as well. So, the police had quite a haul of prisoners, though most of them will not spend much time in jail. Musk, or Harvey, Patty’s boyfriend will not end up in jail at all since he helped us and will also give evidence against Buck and Bear. Harvey also said that Mike had been Lester’s girlfriend for at least 15 years.

That was not surprising, except to Hope. She was now free of her biggest fear, her dad, but she was feeling very stressed out not knowing what she should do now. At the moment she is in our clinic recovering from her gunshot wound. Apparently Tracy would be dead now if it was not for Hope coming to her rescue. Hope and Candace were sharing a room at the clinic and Mandar came in to visit them.

Poor Hope, she was terrified when she saw him, until Candace told her he was really a good friend of ours and often helps us on a case, playing a bad guy role. Now Hope was very embarrassed and apologized to Mandar. “No need for an apology my dear,” he said, “I am happy to know my acting is so good. And what are your plans once you are back to health?”

“I am not sure,” she said, “I do have some money now apparently, but I have no idea where to go or what to do.” Sky was in visiting me briefly by herself, but it was only a few minutes before Honey and Agata were coming through the door and both jumped on the bed with me. Agata had memorized some sentences to say when I returned and she was so happy as she said them.

“What is this I hear about you wanting to pick a different girl to be me?” asked Sky. “Well, it was just…” was all I was able to say. “Now you listen to me,” said Sky firmly, “Jennifer is your wife when I am not around, do you understand?” “Well, yes…” was all I said.

“So no more arguing the point,” she said, “the decision is mine, and Jennifer can protect you better than anyone else too. You apologize to Jennifer too for even suggesting such a thing.” “I will do that just as soon as I can,” I said. Well, another case is done, except that Mike got away. I wonder if we will see her again? Now we need some rest time before the next case comes along.

The End. A new case will begin shortly, so stay tuned!

©2024 Steve McLeod.