Andrej, who is leading things this time, called Nelson and told him what they found. There were some men laying new sod over the spot where the house once stood. Andrej had asked them what happened to the house. They told him the major owned the property and had torn the house down 2 weeks ago. They were not from this town but from the town where our team stayed the last few days.

They took the phones from these guys and told them they could pick them up at the mayors office later. “Andrej, you are now Samson with your gang called the Riders,” said Nelson, “we put our plan into motion now, ‘Deadly Nightshade’. Play rough and fast, we have already lost too much time and need to get things moving.”

“Right,” he said, “the major owns the property, which is interesting, he is obviously hiding something.” “Yes, and I well get Annelie working on finding that phone hacker,” said Nelson, “get the taxi owner and any drivers and take them with you to see the mayor. I have a feeling they are all working together and we need to find out what they are doing.”

“Okay, I will let Kat know to join us at the mayors office,” said Samson. Off they went to the town hall which was just a small building with a single secretary in the outer office. “I want to see the mayor,” said Samson. “He is having a very important meeting right now and cannot be disturbed,” she said, as if she was annoyed at being interrupted. “Open the door Rock,” said Samson.

“Wait, stop!” she yelled and picked up her phone. Rock smashed it with his fist. Sapphire then grabbed her arm to bring her along. Rock then kicked the door to the office, knocking it off its hinges! “What is going on here?!” exclaimed the mayor. Samson went up to his desk with Rock beside him. There were several men in the room, sitting on chairs around the walls of the large office.

“Take their phones boys,” said Samson. Mac and Miles pulled out knives and asked each man for their phone. “You cannot do this!” yelled the mayor. “We already did,” said Samson, “you will get the phones back when we leave. Now, I have some questions for you, and I want answers, not lies. Rock here has a sister, named Dawn, and she is with her boyfriend, a PI named Steve. And there are 2 cats with them. Where are they?”

“How should I know?” he replied, “I do not know those people at all, never saw them.” Samson went around the desk and gave the mayor a hard backhanded slap. “Wrong answer,” said Samson, “so let us try an easier question. Where is the house that was on your property at 54 Maple Lane?” “I tore that old eyesore down 2 weeks ago,” he said, “I can do what I want, it was my place.”

Samson hit him again and the mayor groaned. “Samson and his Riders do not like liars,” he said. “Here is the taxi owner and his son,” said Kat, “the owner does not like to cooperate, the son is better and he told us Dawn did work there but has been missing for 5 days.” “You rat!” yelled the mayor. “Well, I am not dying for $50!” he yelled back. “Smart move,” said Samson, “look at this.”

He opened his wallet and took out $1,000. “Cooperate with us, and this is yours,” he said. The young mans eyes were wide open. Although the team was trying to keep an eye on everyone in the room, one of the men managed to pull a small gun. Rusty saw it and went into action, but too late, the man shot and the young taxi driver was dead. Then, “Thwock!”, and that other man was dead.

He owned the hardware store in town. “I underestimated the stupidity of you men,” said Samson, “search them all.” Mac and Miles did so, Sapphire searched the secretary. No other weapons were found.

Meanwhile, back home. Annelie was trying to find the hacker. Meowy.=You let me see phone with hacked test. Sky looked, but did what Snow said. Meowy.=Go here, now clicky this. Now go here, clicky this. Snow did this several times. Meowy!=There is phone number for human hacker phone. Sky and Annelie just looked at Snow, but Sky gave the number to Annelie who quickly found the address of the person they wanted.

Nelson called Kat to tell her. Kat and her team went off to the address given. “How did you know what to do Snow?” asked Sky. Meowy.=Human ghost Kat show me how when she tell me bedtime story. She not think I pay tens action, but I do. Sky giggled. “You mean attention,” said Sky. Meowy.=That what I just say.

Kat and team arrived at the house and went to the front door. But the young man saw them and went to run out the back door, but when he opened it, Kat was standing there. “Going somewhere Howard?” she asked. “H, how did you do that?” he asked nervously. “I am a ghost Howard,” she said, “I can do amazing things.” Then they brought him to the mayors office.

When he came in he noticed that Billy, the young taxi driver, was dead. But while they were gone, Samson had continued his questions and the mayor continued to not cooperate. The others were the same way. The hotel owner, the bank manager, the grocery store owner, the service station owner. A nice collection of men involved in this. The sheriff was also involved said Howard…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.