As we were eating breakfast, Vincent and I were talking about the Investigators and he did know quite a bit about us, though only what we actually have available for people to see. We don’t want our enemies to know too much about us, but we can’t hide completely, we are too big of an organization to hide completely the way we did when we had less than a dozen people. Anyway, as we were eating, chief Winters came in with some members of that street gang and all of them had shotguns with them, aimed at us, or more precisely, at Vincent and I.

“Good bye Vincent,” said Winters, “and you too McCann!” I quickly grabbed Vincent, pulling him to the floor while the girls went into action. The ghosts, Sky, Kristina and Kitty jumped first, as did Courage, looking like he came from under the table. The attackers tried to shoot, but their shotguns wouldn’t work and when they saw that huge lion coming their way, they tried to run! However, Courage caught some of them and the girls shot some, while Sky went for Winters and Kitty went for the gang leader.

Kristina was running after the gang members who managed to make it out the door, jumping high and landing in front of them. She smiled and the fight was on! She handled those four quite easily. I communicated with Kat to get over here quickly with her Wildcats, not knowing how many other gang members might be outside. They were on their way over for breakfast anyway, so they just drove a little faster. However, the police were watching for them and gave chase, so the back van stuck a pipe out the back door and thick, black smoke billowed out causing the police to stop rather quickly.

A new trick for us and it works nicely. I’m sure the police will complain about that later though. Sky was smart enough not to kill chief Winters just yet, we need him to find out where the bodies of Ivy’s family are located. I’m beginning to think we may not ever find them and that would be hard on Ivy. “I hope I didn’t hurt you Vincent,” I said, as I helped him get up, “but I wanted to make sure you were not shot.” “First time my life was saved by a lawman,” he said chuckling.

“But I’m not a lawman,” I reminded him, “if your assumptions are correct, and I’m not saying they are, that would make me a private investigator, not a police officer. Usually the police don’t even like having a PI around.” “I guess you’re right about that,” he said, “anyway, thank you.” “You’re welcome,” I said, “hmm, now my coffee is cold.” Just as I said that Misty arrived with more coffee for us. Then she set the coffee pot down, though she kept holding onto it, and she put her arm around me. “Cristy tells me there is a nice little store in this town,” she began, “that sells homemade clothes.

And there are some things that Cristy would really, really, really, like. Do you suppose we could stop in there today to pick up a few things before they sell out?” “I imagine Misty would also really like some of those clothes too,” I said. “Now that you mention it,” she said smiling, “there is one or two items. Ivy would maybe like something there too.” “Sounds like an interesting store,” she said, “maybe we could take an hour or so to look around?” Sigh, I think that store is going to sell a lot of clothes today.

“oooo, I didn’t realize the coffee pot was on your hand,” said Misty, blowing on my hand. “I don’t think that will help,” I said, “I’m surprised you didn’t use water.” I knew right away I shouldn’t have said that, but it was too late and she poured a glass of water on my hand. Sigh. Vincent laughed. He was a bit curious though why the hot pot didn’t burn me. I told him I had a new type of artificial hand. My explanation got me kicked by Ivy for some reason. Sigh.

I then started to ask Winters where the bodies of Ivy’s family had been put. He just smiled at me, so I gave him a hard backhanded slap, knocking him off his chair. I helped him get back up. Then Sky came over and put her hand on his back, giving him a bit of electricity which caused him to yell. “Just a light amount my dear twin,” she said, “it might work better.” She smiled and went back to her breakfast. I asked Winters again, but his mouth stayed closed. So, I tried it Sky’s way and sent Winters flying about 8 feet away.

Sky just sighed and shook her head. Now Ivy laughed. But Winters talked this time and said he had sent men out to find the bodies and bring them back to the hospital. They should be back by mid afternoon. So, I let him go for now, but told him he needed to clean up all those dead bodies since he brought them. I also told him that if he tried such a stunt again, he would be among the dead bodies next time. When I came back to the table I asked Vincent to leave Winters alone for now until we retrieve the bodies of Ivy’s family.

He agreed to do that. He also told me that he would be taking care of Scott and Veronica since she is supposed to be in charge here. I could have the mayor, councilor Don and the fire chief, who was also involved with this group. Guess he is in charge of all the “accidental fires” around here. Speaking of accidental fires, the Black Wolves are busy this morning with their own accidental fires. They went around to the mayor’s, Winters’, Don’s and the fire chief’s houses and once they removed any occupants of the houses, they used some of Catalina’s special fire bombs.

Those bombs can start a major fire very quickly and soon those houses were engulfed in flames. The fire department didn’t have the resources to tackle all those fires at once, so each house burned to the ground. No one was harmed in the fires though, the Black Wolves made sure of that. Veronica was living with the mayor, which is why she had no separate house.

And Scott lived above the Shining Moon, so his place was spared. Vincent did tell me there would be no sex trafficking done at the Shining Moon anymore, which made me feel better. But, something happened while that fight was going on at breakfast, one of our girls went missing! It was Dawn. The girls checked our rooms and all through the hotel, but she was nowhere.

Kat mentioned that two of the gang members had gotten away and it looked like there were two on one of the motorcycles, but she just figured it was one of the other gang members. Then I got a text from Scott with a link which he said would show me my missing girl. I clicked the link and couldn’t believe what I saw…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.