Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Killer Mystery. Chapter 2. The Meeting.
Right now Aari and the Black Wolves are having a little “meeting” with Norman Wellhouse. He will soon see that fighting the Black Wolves would be a futile effort. What we also want to know, if possible, is why he beat Harley so terribly that she might end up dying. If she does die then Norman will also, and his escort business will be stopped permanently as well. Whether he is correct or not about Harley signing that contract, beating her like that crosses a line for me that I will not tolerate.
Meanwhile, back to that meeting in the restaurant. “Now, Mr. Wellhouse,” began Aari, “perhaps you can tell me why you beat that poor young woman.” “I beat no one, Mr. Jensen,” he said calmly, “and I really don’t see what business this is of yours anyway. You don’t strike me as police officers, so tell me, why are you interested in her?” “You don’t seem to understand things,” said Aari, “I’m asking the questions, you just need to answer them to my satisfaction. Otherwise you will not like the results of our little meeting. However, I understand your curiosity.
My sister is married to Steve, the head man of the Investigators and I was here visiting them. Even though we are on opposite sides of the law, we are still family and they told me about Harley. I don’t like that sort of thing Mr. Wellhouse, now, you will just answer my questions from now on, or pay the price. The Black Wolves are a large organization of over 500 well trained men and women, don’t push your luck, we enjoy pushing back. Now, tell me why you are so interested in Harley.”
“She signed a contract to work for me,” he said, “for the period of 5 years, both in my escort business and in my studio business. If at any time she wanted out of that contract, then she had to pay me a certain amount of money, but instead she ran away without paying.” “And so you thought it was justifiable to then beat her for not paying,” said Aari, “instead of giving her time to pay this amount? There is something wrong with that, I would say. Just how much money does she owe you anyway?” “The sum of 300,000 pounds, which she had agreed upon when she signed the contract,” answered Norman, quite smugly.
“That’s a substantial amount of money,” said Aari, “which I’m sure you knew she could never pay, especially since you were not paying her.” The somewhat shocked look on Norman’s face told Aari that he was right about him not paying Harley. “She was paid, but in ways that did not include money,” he then went on to say, “such us food, clothes, a great place to live with a pool and friends. She had it made really.” “Except that she was a prisoner and not allowed to leave,” said Aari, “a detail you forgot to mention. Now tell me, which of these men beat Harley, or was it a team effort?”
One of the men smiled and Kristina was standing behind him. “That was me totally,” he said proudly, “a cool bit of work wasn’t it?” “How would you like to come outside with me?” asked Kristina, “And you can try beating me, though I would guess a real man like you would be too afraid to fight a woman who can fight back.” The man was actually quite big and muscular, though nothing like Bear and Joseph. He turned to look at Kristina, who is not very big. “Lady, you wouldn’t last 5 minutes with me,” he said, “I would pull that long hair off you and tie you up with it, then fill you with so many bruises that your boss wouldn’t recognize you for months.”
“Oh my,” she said sarcastically, “sounds scary!” “Let me go teach her a lesson Mr. Wellhouse,” he said. “I don’t think it will be that easy, but go ahead,” he replied. They went out the back way so they wouldn’t attract attention and Kristina returned in a few minutes. “I left the trash in that big garbage bin out back,” she said grinning. Norman told a couple of his men to check on him and they came back in a little while saying they took him to his room and that he had obviously lost the fight. “I told you that my people are well trained,” said Aari, “now, what is the real reason for beating Harley?
You spent quite an effort to find her, she must be rather special to you. Perhaps she knows more about you than you want people to know? Perhaps her parents are involved with you? Perhaps she stole something from you, aside from your pride, that is? Tell me, which is it?” “I will tell you this just once Mr. Jensen,” he replied, “I am not afraid of you or your puppies. Stay away from me and you will stay in good health.” “You are a foolish man Mr. Wellhouse,” said Aari, “as for your plans to open your escort business in this city, cancel them, you are not wanted here. Don’t pick a fight you can’t win.” Bear then went behind Norman and began to squeeze his head with his hands. Bear then pushed his face into his piece of pie.
Kristina did the same with two other men and Joseph did another. “I only give one warning Mr. Wellhouse,” said Aari, then he and the others left. Mr. Wellhouse pointed at the last two men sitting by themselves, telling them to shoot Aari. They got up and began to leave, but Sky was still there, invisible, and she put her hand on their hearts and they dropped to the floor, dead. She then left as well. “They’re both dead boss,” said one of the men. “Dead?” he asked, “How can they be dead?” Aari then reported back to me.
“Hmm, sounds like he is a stubborn sort,” I said, “maybe he will change a bit when he checks out the Black Wolves. Unless he is just completely foolish, or maybe just plain stupid.” “Maybe he has more backing than we think,” said Aari, “he seemed much too confident. I also didn’t expect him to try and kill me right then.” “Yes, make sure Carine and Kristina stay close to you,” I said, “Kat and her Wildcats are there too, and Sky will be watching things closely as well. I have an idea which we will put into action in the morning. I want to see his reaction to this news.” “Okay Steve,” he said, “maybe that plan will make him overconfident.”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Killer Mystery. Chapter 1. Harley Returns.
We barely finished one case and another one began, though this one is a bit of a mystery. Harley, one of the girls who had helped Courtney when she was looking for the murderer of her sister Carmen, showed up mysteriously on our driveway. We found the car she had been driving, sitting in the ditch about 2 km from our chateau. That means she had to walk that distance, which is incredible considering how badly beaten she was. Samantha said she must have used every ounce of strength she had to walk that distance and then collapsed in our driveway. She said it’s amazing she is still alive.
However, she is unconscious, and has been since we found her. Harley’s parents had no compassion for their daughter at all, which really shocked me. Even if Harley had done something wrong, one would think they would be a little concerned about her anyway. Kat had suggested that perhaps Harley changed, but Courtney didn’t believe that and she had lived with Harley and Shirley for several months. I tried calling Harley’s parents again and this time her father answered the phone. Unfortunately he was not very nice and threatened to call the police if I didn’t leave them alone.
So I used this against him too, and threatened to have him arrested for beating his daughter to near the point of death. He was silent for a moment, then said he only hit Harley once. But, I told him that the police would believe the evidence of seeing the condition of his daughter over what he said. That seemed to calm him down a bit and I then explained who we were and that we wanted to find who had done this to Harley, even if our investigation led to him. He then told us about a man that had come to their home who said that Harley owed him 300,000 pounds because she broke her contract with him.
The contract was for working in his escort business for five years, plus posing for a certain number of photos each month. If she neglected to fulfill her obligations, then she had to pay him that money. However, she ran away and hid from him for over a year and he just finally found her again. Since she could not pay the man, then her father told her to go back and finish working for him. She claimed that she never did work for him and he was just trying to kidnap her.
But, he had the signed contract and photos of her with his escort business and his online porn site, which he showed him and his wife. So this proved she was lying and that’s when they had their argument and he hit her. Then the man took her away with him. I told Harley’s father that all of that can be done falsely and made to look very real. All they would need is to find her signature somewhere and copy it onto the contract, and with AI today it’s easy to make fake photos.
He gave me the man’s name as Norman Wellhouse and his escort business is called ManWell Escorts. But the owner/manager of the escort business is a woman named Delena Donnelly, which is interesting. Cristy is busy checking on these people while I talked with Aari about this case that has come our way. Aari said this is not an unusual way for people like Wellhouse to trap young women into working for them. He thinks it is most likely that Wellhouse, or one of his men, beat Harley and not her father, though we can only prove that when Harley regains consciousness so that we can talk with her.
The police told us the car Harley had been driving was stolen in the city, so that means these people might be in the city right now. The police won’t be charging Harley with anything right now until we can complete our investigation. I thanked them for that, and I told them if Harley is guilty of any crime, then we will hand her over to the them. There is no office for ManWell Escorts in the city, but we did find out that Norman Wellhouse and associates are staying at one of the finest hotels.
I decided to send Aari and the Black Wolves to have a talk with Wellhouse and I’m sending Kristina and Sky along as well. That will give him 3 ghosts for protection, plus I am sending Kat and her Wildcats as backup too. While talking with Harley’s father I had Celestine and Galyna listen in too so that I can get their opinion about him. Celestine said she doesn’t trust him, though part of what he said is likely true. She didn’t think he liked his daughter for whatever reason. Galyna agreed that he had something against Harley and she didn’t think he was telling everything he knows about this Norman Wellhouse.
Hmm, perhaps that means he is afraid of Norman Wellhouse or maybe he is involved with him in some way. Trixie is going to check on Harley’s parents to see if they are hiding something, like a large debt of some kind that Harley was paying off by working for Wellhouse. Henry, Harley’s father, better not be doing something like that or he will find out it was not a good idea. While in my office with Jennifer, Misty showed up saluting me.
“Misty reporting for duty, super, top, fantastic, best leader in the whole world!” she said with total seriousness. “Misty, stop saluting please,” said Jennifer. “Oops, sorry, forgot again,” she said and quickly lowered her hand. “And Misty, you overdid it just a bit with your compliments for Steve,” she said again. “Really?” both Misty and I questioned at the same time. Jennifer sighed very loudly. “I actually removed 4 more compliments, thinking I might be overdoing it,” said Misty. “See, she cut back,” I said. Jennifer sighed even louder that time. Very strange.
Meanwhile, Aari, Carine, Kristina, Bear and Joseph went into the hotel restaurant where Norman Wellhouse and 6 men were having dinner. Sky also went in, but invisible. Joseph is a new man from Mandar and is next in size to Bear. “Mr. Wellhouse, my name is Aari Jensen,” he began, “I would like to talk with you for a few minutes.” “We’re eating and I don’t know you and there is no room at our table,” he answered, “now leave us alone.”
Bear and Joseph then picked up two men sitting next to each other and right next to Wellhouse, and moved them to another table, then took their food to them while Aari and Carine sat down. “Well, now there’s room, I introduced myself so now you know me,” said Aari quite seriously, “now we can talk.” “We have nothing to talk about,” said an angry Wellhouse, “now leave or I call the manager.” “How about a little matter of Harley Corner?” asked Aari, “She’s the woman you nearly beat to death. But instead of talking I could just tell one of my men to beat you the same way. And if your men pull out their guns, you will die immediately. Now we have your attention, I see.”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
