Well, we are all back together again at home base, though Astrid and her friends stayed until after the funeral for her parents. Kat, Dawn, Kera and myself joined her at the funeral, along with Muffin, Rusty and Ginger. I did not want all of our team going to the funeral though, much too dangerous to have all of us out in the open like that, especially right now.

But, once the funeral was over, we went back home. All of the jewels had been returned to the rightful owners, though they had all gotten together and gave Astrid several of the jewels as a reward, though she tried to refuse, but they insisted. Astrid asked, on my behalf, about certain jewels that I would like to purchase from them if possible.

They agreed and gave me a greatly reduced price for them. Now my Christmas shopping is done. I still had some gold reserves from our case about old Pete and the gold we found in his cabin that I was allowed to keep. It is nice to know that Angelica is out of the way, plus the Fat Man. And Major is safely dead once again too which is very important. But, is Angelica gone?

Meanwhile, back in Sweden. “Well, it is official girl,” said a man, “your mom, the Fat Man and the Major were all killed in that explosion. And it was because of the PI Steve from the Investigators. He arranged the whole thing to get rid of all 3 organizations at one time.” “I will kill that PI”, said Carolyn, “I really will!”

“Well, for now I think we need to hide for a while girl,” said her grandfather, “and wait until things cool off a bit. Then we can hit him when he isn’t prepared for it.” “Yes, I guess you are right granddad,” she said, “maybe we can go somewhere warm for the winter.” “Good idea,” he replied, “Australia is just the place to be this time of year.”

Now, back to us again. “It is good to have all that taken care of,” I said, “but there is still the matter of Reggie.” “We discovered that everyone on Team 5 was with Brad,” said Baldwin, “and they were working for Reggie. But it seems they were not working for Angelica or the Fat Man.” “That means Reggie is working on his own,” I said, “which will make it harder to track him down.

Still, he had someone cut those bars for him and it was not anyone from Team 5 or Team 4.” “All those on Team 4 have been cleared Steve,” said Baldwin, “but Brad was trying to get all of Team 5 working for him, which is why he was giving Chantelle and Amber such a hard time, he wanted them gone so he could fill their places with 2 others.

And we found those other two as well and have handed all of them over to the police. Since they were also plotting against two of my weapons manufacturing facilities, they will be in prison for a long time.” Galyna came in just then. “So, how is Amber doing?” I asked. “She is doing remarkably well,” she replied, “especially considering all she has been through this year.

You know, Brad slammed her right into the corner of that building, and it is stone! The doctor was surprised it did not break her spine. He did find two hairline cracks, but he said they would heal fine and she will not have any lasting problems. But, she cannot do certain things for a while, meaning, she needs rest, got that?”

“Yes, absolutely,” I said, “why look at me like that?” “Because you guys do not always think,” she said, “and she is definitely no crying wimp, she is a tough girl.” “I still do not understand how you could order Crystal to slap Steve,” said Baldwin, “or how slapping him so hard could put him to sleep.” “I gave Galyna authority to give orders at certain times,” I said to Baldwin, “and Crystal did not put me to sleep with that slap, she knocked me out!”

“She did not,” laughed Galyna, “but drastic times call for drastic measures.” “Next time tell her to kiss my cheek, not slap it,” I said. Now everyone laughed. I asked Annelie if we had any news about Reggie yet. “Nothing yet Steve,” she said, “he seems to have gone into hiding.” “Maybe he did not like the fact others were getting involved too,” said Kat.

“Quite possible,” I said, “it sort of takes away the total attention that Reggie craves. But I am quite sure he will be back, so we need to be on guard for a while, extra guard that is.” But, 3 weeks passed and not a word from Reggie or anyone else. So, we will consider this case closed and start looking into the deaths of Amber’s parents and sisters.

Someone on the police investigation team messed up somewhere. Perhaps it just looked too much like a genuine accident so they never even tried digging deeper. Oddly though, they would not let Amber see all of the investigation reports, only some, and that bothered me. She could not afford a good lawyer and spent all of her money just to get home, only to get the usual runaround and very little satisfaction. We will change that…

Case Closed. But please join us as we continue our new case, The Mysterious Murder Case.

©2023 Steve McLeod.