Kat and Rusty comforted Charly while she continued crying. Finally she stopped. “I, do not think your Steve would want me around,” she said to them, “why would he? I am no good to him for anything.” “Wrong Charly,” said Kat, “you know, there was a time I was with the wrong people and wanted to kill Steve so badly because he sent my parents to prison.

Finally I caught up to him after he had been given a drug that took his memory from him. But I wanted him dead and I went to kill him where he and his first wife had gone for their honeymoon. But another woman was on that island too, and she also wanted to kill Steve, first killing his new wife, then she was going to kill him.

I found Steve almost dead on a bed and instead of killing him, I had a change of heart and gave him an antidote to that other drug. Then I went and found the other woman and killed her. Steve gave me a chance and let me join his team. Eventually we got married.” Kat was smiling at Charly. “You are his wife?” she asked.

“No, not now,” said Kat, “he is married to Sky now. I was shot and killed.” She continued the story with Charly, who could hardly believe what she was hearing. “Do you have a photo of Angelica?” asked Kat. “Yes, on my phone,” she said. Kat gave her phone back to her and she showed Kat the photo. Kat looked but it meant nothing to her, so she took and showed it to me.

It did not mean anything to me either. But people can change a lot, even in just a few years. Kat returned to Charly. “Can you tell me anything about her?” she asked. “I do not know much about her really,” said Charly, “she had a brother, half brother, really.” “What was his name?” asked Kat. “Toledo,” replied Charly, “kind of an odd name.”

Kat just stared and Rusty’s ears went straight up! Kat left again and returned shortly. “You will be given our complete protection,” said Kat, “but you will have to remain in the house for now, just until we can stop Angelica, and Gibson. We know Toledo, he was a big enemy of Steve for a long time. I came back to stop Toledo for good. But Angelica would naturally hold Steve responsible for his death.”

“What will everyone else say when they find out Ste”ve is protecting me?” asked Charly. “They will say, Welcome Charly!” answered Kat smiling. Meow!=And all other cats say same thing too! Me know! I told the other girls to let their captives go free and the two of them walked out to their car laughing at us. One of them went to the driver’s side and immediately fell to the ground.

The other one ran around to see what happened and she too fell to the ground. I called everyone back inside and sent the 2 choppers over to the area where the shots must have come from. There was thick brush over there and they could see nothing, but one chopper opened fire with it’s machine guns anyway. Then Gibson came out with his hands up, limping badly. They picked him up and brought him back to us, but one look and I said to take him to the clinic.

Meanwhile, back in Sweden. Aari started with Dolph to see what he could find out, but Dolph was more stubborn than Aari had thought he would be. So, he had to get a bit tougher with him, putting John and Miles in charge of him for a while and he went to Cenn. “Why did you kill your father?” asked Aari. Cenn looked genuinely shocked. “Me? Father is dead? That cannot be,” he said, “I did not know anything about that. A man known only as Sir makes all the calls in that organization.”

Clarence was with Aari while the questioning was happening and a few times he had to slap Cenn good and hard. It was obvious that Cenn did not know much though. Dolph was getting more cooperative as the night wore on. He also told about someone named Sir and where he could be found. Meanwhile, back with Astrid and the others.

Her mother had another heart attack, due to all the stress, and had died. Just before she died, however, Tiia was sniffing around and suddenly called out loudly. Kristina and Tracy came running. Meowi=Something under carpet here. It was in the corner and Kristina pulled up the carpet revealing a small door in the floor.

She opened it and there was the lost will they had been looking for. In the envelope that contained the will was a map showing the location of “family wealth” as it stated in the will. It took them to the attic and under floorboards again was a small box containing beautiful diamonds, rubies and emeralds. But, they were gems stolen by the organization 25 years ago…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.