Well, we were in that tunnel with a locked door, time for Mac to do his work again. “That was a kiddie lock Steve,” he said, “much too easy to open for something that is obviously important.” “I see what you mean,” I said, “there is likely a trap of some kind waiting for us beyond that door.” “Right,” he said, “they do not leave important stuff unguarded, could be a bomb, or fire bomb to destroy all evidence.”

“They would destroy it all?” I asked. “Better than life in prison,” he responded, “any money or valuables in there can be replaced in a week, maybe less, depending on their operation.” “Hmm, we need a way to open that safely,” I said, “would they use poison gas perhaps?” “Might,” he said, “then it would likely be timed to happen after they figure everyone would be inside, the door would lock and everyone dies.”

“Such nice people,” said Kate, “I volunteer to check it out, they cannot kill a dead woman.” Everyone looks at Kate, I shake my head. “I will go in,” I said, “I am the leader, it is my responsibility.” “Wrong Steve,” said Mac, “you are the leader, so you cannot go in first, the team needs a leader. I will go in.” “No, you are Steve’s bodyguard,” said Kate, “so you cannot go, I will go in.” “Wait Steve,” said Kate, “Whitaker is talking again.”

So, back to Whitaker… “Louis, where are you?” asked Joshua. “I was hungry, so I stopped for something to eat,” he said, munching on his hamburger. “What about the body?” said Joshua. “I laid it down in the back seat and put a blanket over him,” said Louis, “it will look like he is sleeping.” “Did you leave Stan behind?” asked Joshua.

“Of course,” he said, “that is what you said to do.” “Well, I cannot reach him, so go back and check on him, now!” Joshua said firmly. “Okay,” said Louis, and he left the restaurant and went back to the house. “You will not believe this boss,” said Louis, “Stan is dead too, same kinda bruise on his forehead. It is weird.” “Get rid of him, and quick, then come back here before the cops see you,” said Joshua.

“Done,” said Louis. While all this was going on, Cynthia had gone past us and went into the room. The door clicked shut behind her. Mac ran to the door, but it was locked again. He tried to unlock it, but it would not budge this time. “There is a second lock, must be on the inside only,” said Mac, “I can do nothing.” “Catalina, can you do something?” I asked her.

“Already working on it Steve,” she said and went to the door with some explosive, “should be just enough to open the door.” Amazing how she can remain so calm at a time like this. Guess that is why she is so good with explosives. We all went back into the house until after the explosion, then ran to the room with our oxygen masks on.

Aubrey, Tiffany and Felina had to wait in the house since we did not bring any extra masks with us this trip. Cynthia was lying on the floor, we were too late, she was dead. Mac carried her body back to the basement. “This is why we do not try stuff on our own,” he said to the girls, “team work, always team work.” Kat came over and gave me a hug, she could see I was taking it hard.

“Not your fault Steve,” she said, “Cynthia disobeyed the rules. I know it is still hard though.” Then we heard fans starting up. “Clearing out the gas,” I said, “should be safe now.” As soon as Kate said Joshua was sending Louis back, I had sent Muffin and Storm over to wait for him. They came back to the tunnel. Meowr.=All done, no more man to watch.

Meowi.=Human Cynthia die from gas in room. Muffin and Storm lowered their heads. After the fans had been working a few minutes I called everyone back to the room. There was indeed a skeleton lying on the floor, perhaps another intruder? Or a murder victim? There was stacks of money in the room, plus some gold and jewelry. There was a ladder to go upstairs so Mac and I went up there with Muffin. Storm and Tiia stayed downstairs to sniff around.

The upstairs part of the room was a small office with a couple of laptops, some extra hard drives, and surprisingly, an old style file cabinet, complete with files detailing all sorts of gambling operations and information on many people including addresses, where they worked, incomes, everything an extortioner needs.

What is this? I took that file with me. We took the laptops and hard drives with us also. Muffin was sniffing around a small cabinet, so I went over to open it. Meow,meow!=No, not open! This boom boom! “We better leave,” said Mac, “it might have a timer.” So leave we did, in a hurry…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.