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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Although Kat and Jennifer are in the Leader 1 position right now, they did ask me to call a leaders meeting about this new case we decided to take. So, Kat, Jennifer, Aari, Misty, Dawn, Sky and myself were in the library, along with Cristy, Rock, Mac, Celestine and the other ghosts. And Rossana has joined us via video link. She has already sent me what the police have found out so far and she will be showing us some photos as well. I had already talked to Samantha and she told me I’m still on recovery and can’t participate in this case.
The same goes for Misty, and she is really disappointed about that. However, I told her it wouldn’t be her team’s turn for a case anyway, the Wildcats are next in line. But Aari and the Black Wolves will be heading up this case. “This is a perfect one for you Aari,” I said, “I think you probably know a lot about such things.” I then asked Rossana if we would be able to talk with Carmen, privately. “I can get you in to talk with her Steve,” she said, “but it won’t be private, others will be listening.
I can also get you on the yacht to look around, but if you find anything that might be connected to the case, you will have to hand it over to the police afterward. But you can look at it on the yacht and take photos of anything you want. I have been trying to get you permission to look at the house too, but so far that one is off limits.” I then told reminded her that I won’t be part of this case, it will be mainly Aari looking at it from his viewpoint. His involvement is not public and she understood that. Permission will need to be for Kat and Jennifer, and possibly Sky as well, plus their teams.
We have a way to talk with Carmen privately and no one will know about it. She said that using our scramblers would just bring the guards running in quickly and get us thrown out. But I said we would use something different which they would not be able to detect. Aari would go first and start his work of looking around for any criminal connections for Vincent and Carmen. He will have Carine with him as usual, but I said to take Kristina and Kitty as well, a little extra ghost help won’t hurt.
They also have their own cats to take along. Kat will have her Wildcats, plus Jennifer and Sky. Friskie and Angel will be staying at the chateau, Jennifer insisted. It won’t be easy for me to sit this one out, but I need to get used to that. From now on I will be fighting from home, sigh. However, they did make a nice new office for me to use at the top of tower 3. I wanted a room with lots of window space, or it would be too gloomy and I didn’t want that, not right now anyway, this was going to be hard enough.
While they are away I will be rearranging the teams a bit, though it won’t affect the teams that are out right now. Aari has his new team members already and each of the girl’s teams will be getting some new members, plus the home team will as well. We have been getting several new women added lately and all have now passed their tests and are ready to join the teams. Alyson has already asked if she can stay with us, though she isn’t sure if she would be good enough for one of the regular teams, but maybe the home team.
Mac, after seeing some of the photos from Rossana, said that Vincent was killed by a hit man. However, that doesn’t prove Carmen is innocent, she could have hired someone to kill her husband. Of course, that would be expensive, but something we have to look into anyway. Meanwhile, Kat and Jennifer are now in place and are going to visit with Carmen. However, only Kat will be seen, Jennifer will be invisible on this one. That way she can talk with Carmen privately and no one will even see Carmen’s lips move when she talks, one of the cool things about the ghost’s bubbles.
Kat just asked some simple questions, the usual type, mostly what the police had already asked, but she did toss in a few new questions as well. She found out that Vincent kept track of the finances and never showed her how much they had and she never questioned him about it. She didn’t know anything about looking after money properly, so she was happy to let him have total control of that. And, that is why she let her have 500 euros each month for spending money for herself.
She was quite happy with that arrangement. She didn’t even know what her husband’s salary was. Kat didn’t really learn much, but she didn’t think she would. Now it was Jennifer’s turn. They had been visiting Carmen in her cell and Kat now left, but Jennifer stayed and made herself visible to Carmen. “Please don’t be afraid,” she said, “I’m Kat’s twin sister and no one can see me but you, also no one can hear us talk. What would you normally do now?” “I would likely lie down,” said Carmen.
“Good, then do that,” said Jennifer, “and we will continue talking. Please answer my questions truthfully, our team is putting their lives at risk and we want to help you.” “I am being truthful,” said Carmen, “I did not kill Vincent, I knew nothing about his yacht or parties or girlfriends or criminal dealings, and that’s the honest truth. I only learned about the yacht from the police.”
“What about his friends?” asked Jennifer. “He didn’t have many friends,” she said, “he was kind of a loner. However, there is one man that I never mentioned to the police. I didn’t like him, he sent shivers all through me. The way he talked…he was cold…no feelings or emotions…and his eyes were scary…and the way he stared at me, it was terrifying. I don’t even like to think about him…”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Here we are, three weeks after our desert ordeal, and all of us are out of the clinic now. All but Misty and I are cleared for active duty now. Poor Misty is having a hard time after all that happened, it really hit her hard and she is very subdued these days. I understand a little about how she feels. Like me she wants to quit her position as team leader, she just doesn’t think she reacted the way a leader should. Jennifer and Sky tried talking to her, but she won’t listen. I shouldn’t say anything I guess, Jennifer, Kat, Sky and Celestine have tried talking to me as well, without much success.
While in the library one day a very expensive car drove up to the chateau. We have a new electronic surveillance system in place and it’s working very well. However, we don’t rely totally on that and so, like in days of old, we have our girls taking turns watching from our towers at the chateau. Anyway, our new surveillance system told us there were 5 occupants in the car. It stopped out front and a man got out of the front and stood by the car. He gave his name and the name of his employer, which was Koffman.
He said that Koffman wanted to speak with me, so Kristina asked if that was okay. I said yes and told everyone to leave the library, except for Cristy, Kat, Jennifer, Sky and Rock, who was here visiting me. He also asked if a young woman could come inside as well, which I said was okay. They were both checked for weapons and brought into the library. “One of your girls, Dawn, said that my safety was assured if I came,” said Koffman. “Yes, she told me,” I said, “and we will honor that.”
He then introduced the young woman. Her name is Alyson, she is 18, she has been through a lot the last couple of years and ended up working, against her will, for someone Koffman knew. He offered to buy her for his nightclub and this other man was tired of having her around anyway, so he sold her for 5,000 euros. “She doesn’t want this kind of life Steve,” he said, “so I thought maybe you would be willing to help her out. I would just let her go, but she has nowhere to go, which is why I brought her here. I know you help young women get their lives turned around.”
“Please sir, I really do want to have a normal life,” she said, “I will do what you tell me, honest. My family doesn’t want me around anymore and I don’t know what else to do. Please help me sir.” “We would be very happy to help you,” I said, “although the final decision rests with my wife Jennifer and her sister, Kat.” “That’s no problem,” said Jennifer, “we will gladly help you, welcome to our family.” “Thank you so much,” said Alyson with a big smile. “I always thought you made the decisions Steve,” said Koffman. “Well, after our ordeal in the desert,” I began, “I felt that perhaps it was time for me to retire and let Jennifer and Kat look after things.”
“You mean that after losing one battle you want to quit?” he asked, “She’s a very clever woman Steve, everyone loses to her, that’s no reason to quit. If your health isn’t up to going out anymore, you can always direct things from home. You have more experience and knowledge locked inside of you than all of your other team leaders combined. Just take a look around the world, all your top leaders stay behind the scenes to direct things, leaders of countries to military leaders. You can be a great help to your team even from home, after all, you would still be part of the team and the case by using your wisdom to help them.”
Unfortunately Koffman was starting to make sense, and this was really the same thing that the others had been telling me already. I was knocked over by Koffman giving me advice, considering he never wanted to help us in any way before. He stayed for a while after this, just talking, but then said he had to get back home today. Before he left Misty arrived, walking slow, and handed me an envelope, which I then handed to Koffman. “Keep it,” he said, “you may not believe it, but I just wanted to do this one.” Then off he went to his car and they drove away.
“Um, what now sir?” asked Alyson. “First, please stop calling me sir, my name is Steve,” I told her, “we use only first names around here.” “That’s right,” said Jennifer, “now, I will show you to your room.” About an hour later Rossana phoned with a case for us. Apparently her best friend has been arrested for murdering her husband and Rossana doesn’t believe she did it. The police are convinced she is the murderer, however. Rossana and her friend, Carmen, have been best friends since they were 6 years old and she said there is no way that Carmen could have murdered her husband.
Apparently they had no problems in their marriage, nothing serious anyway. They had no financial problems, both worked at good jobs, they had no children which is good right now. She checked through files and the police were never called to their home or workplace and neither of them had any kind of criminal record. There was, however, a couple of odd things. First, there was 500 euros being withdrawn from their account on the same day each month.
Carmen said it was just shopping money that her husband, Vincent, said she could use each month. Carmen maintains that she loved her husband and she did not kill him. The other odd thing is that there’s nothing else odd. Okay, I don’t really see that as odd, but I’ll trust Rossana on this one. They also own a yacht. That’s when Rossana said that makes 3 odd things and she apologized. I didn’t understand why owning a yacht was odd.
“Because Carmen didn’t know about it,” said Rossana, “and Vincent had purchased the yacht nearly a year ago. He was a member of a yacht club and often had parties on his yacht. There were always lots of young women at those parties. No one at the yacht club would talk about him, except to say he had parties like lots of other people. Now the police figure Carmen found out and that’s why she killed Vincent.
But she knew nothing about the yacht or the parties.” “Are you sure you can believe her?” I asked, “I need to ask if we are going to take the case. All information helps and we have to stay neutral in this and just look for the truth about what happened.” “Yes, I know that Steve,” she said, “I believe Carmen, she could never kill her husband.” I told her we would take the case…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
