I am still in the clinic, as is Misty and Venus plus the three girls that were wounded going to Elenore’s house. Those three girls are Cindy, one of our nurses that travels with us on cases, Astrid and Monika. All of them are from Misty’s team and when Misty found out she went shuffling over to visit them twice today already. Samantha tried to tell Misty she should be staying in bed, but she said, “Those are my girls in that room, I will visit them and help cheer them up if I can, and make sure they have everything they need.”

Misty takes her position as Team Leader seriously, and that is nice to see. Still, I told her she also needs to obey Samantha too. She just looked at me. “You mean I should obey her just like you do?” she asked. I looked at her. “Keep up the good work,” I said. Then I looked around, Friskie and Celestine were not here. I had told Friskie to go and spend time with Steffie, then I told Celestine to head off to the pool for her relaxation period.

However, I needed someone to fluff my pillow for me, it wasn’t quite right, but just then a familiar face looked in the door. “It’s all clear, let’s go,” said Mandy and in she came with Erika. Erika was about to jump on the bed with me, but Mandy stopped her. “It’s okay as long as you’re real careful,” I said, “and no jumping.” Erika was on the bed in a flash, as was Mandy, with both of them hugging me. We talked for a few minutes, then they got down.

“Your pillow isn’t right,” said Mandy, so she fluffed it up for me. Just then Friskie returned with Steffie, who also wanted to visit, so Friskie lifted her onto the bed and she laid down quietly beside me. After a few minutes Friskie told Steffie it was time to leave, but I whispered something to Steffie first and she smiled. She slid off the bed and went over to Misty’s bed. Friskie put her on Misty’s bed gently, but suddenly Steffie jumped and yelled, “yaaaaaaaaay!” At the same time Misty yelled, “AAAAAAAAAA!”

The rest of us laughed, though Venus and I also groaned as the laughing hurt our stomachs. However, Steffie didn’t jump onto Misty, she just jumped on the bed like I told her. Samantha then arrived and told the visitors it was time to leave, which they did, still laughing. “Something tells me you’re the one behind all that screaming,” said Samantha as she looked at me. “I second that!” exclaimed Misty, then she added, “It’s nice to be home again.”

Meanwhile, back with our team in my home town. Jennifer called a meeting of all the team on the case, which included Sky’s Bad Girls and Misty’s Sneakers. They had the meeting at Elenore’s place since the rooms were not large enough at the hotel. They waited until Elenore was in bed before having the meeting and Jennifer put a bubble around them all so no one could hear and so they wouldn’t wake up Elenore. She hasn’t been sleeping well, apparently, because she is worrying so much about what is happening.

She also feels bad that some of our team have been wounded trying to protect her, she keeps saying she should just sell and get it over with. But Jennifer told her that would be rewarding these criminals when they should be stopped so they don’t hurt, or kill, other innocent people. After the meeting Sigrid said there were lights on at Swann’s house and there wasn’t any the previous night. “That must mean that someone is home tonight,” said Jennifer, “so, we need to take a look.”

She took Kitty and Angel with her and since they held hands, she could bring them through the door easily. They also remained invisible, just in case there was someone at home. Jennifer was quite shocked at what she saw! Sandra was there and she was kissing a young man, and that man was Beau, Soleil’s brother! At first we thought he had been killed, then discovered the Beau we had killed was someone different. Now, the real Beau is back and after listening to Sandra and Beau talking, it was obvious he was Sandra’s real boyfriend, not Fiske or Christopher.

Sandra is 39 and Beau is 20, but they are both ruthless individuals and would make a terrible team. There were also several other men around but the girls couldn’t see Helene anywhere. Angel and Kitty went to look around while Jennifer stayed to watch Sandra and Beau. They returned after a few minutes, but they didn’t find Helene anywhere, just some more men sleeping. One of the men downstairs was on the computer so Jennifer went to see what he was looking at.

Before she got to him, however, she sensed immediate danger and communicated with Sky to get everyone out of the house and away from it right away! It didn’t take the girls long to get Elenore up and out of the house with the rest of them and they all piled into the vans. Then they drove a short way down the street and parked. Meanwhile, another smaller man came into the house. “Did you get it all done?” asked Sandra. “Yep, 5 minutes,” he said.

“When Nitro does a job, he does it right,” said Beau. “Good, that old woman won’t stand in my way any longer,” laughed Sandra, “soon I will own this whole town and everyone in it, and I can do whatever I want. And you will be right by my side Beau.” While they were kissing again, there was a large rumbling and a huge fireball destroyed Elenore’s house! The fire department was there in less than a minute, which is impossible, unless they were tipped off ahead of time.

That is likely what happened. Our girls were not far from where they saw the fire trucks parked, waiting for the explosion to happen. Seems Sandra already owns some of the people in town. I communicated with Sky to bring Elenore back to the chateau to keep her safe. Amerie put her to sleep first, then Sky brought her back here. Now it’s time to fight Sandra. She attacked us hoping to kill a large number of Investigators and she failed. We won’t fail in stopping her this time…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.