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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Soon after losing contact with Dawn and the 3 girls that went into Mary’s house, the cats pressed their alarm button. Milena called me right away and told me what was going on and she was unable to reach Dawn and the others. So, she asked if they should go in the house and look around. I said no to that but told her to try and let the cats out of the house. I also told her that we would be coming right away and to wait at the cars for us. I then told the rest of Dawn’s team to be ready to leave in 3 minutes.
I also told Kat and her Wildcats to come with us. That would give us Kat, Kristina and myself for ghosts, but Jennifer said we needed to take more with us. So, I took Sky and Angel as well. In three minutes we were on the road and heading for the city. Sherry is driving the lead van and I told the others to keep up with her, which is no easy feat.
Meanwhile, Macy and Jackie went up to the front door of Mary’s house and opened it enough to let the cats out. However, no cats came out, so Macy said “meow”, but still no cats showed up. Then she called for the cats. But still nothing. Milena and Nakedra had stayed by the car with Mary and as the girls looked back, Milena waved to them to return, which they did, quickly. I told Milena it was time to let Mary know what was happening, so she did. This made Mary both scared and worried.
I told Milena that all of them were to stay at the cars, and stay alert, until we arrived. It’s amazing how long it seems to take driving to the city when there is an emergency, even when we are driving faster than normal. Actually, I think that’s the only way Sherry knows how to drive, fast. She is a fantastic driver though and I trust her driving skills. Jennifer, and now Ivy, drive the same way as Sherry. Fast and furious. It took the other girls an hour and a half to reach Mary’s house from our chateau, it took us less than an hour. Before we arrived, however, I lost contact with Milena and the others.
That is really odd, those four girls know how to stay alert, no one can sneak up on them easily. Now I’m starting to get very worried. Before we left home I had asked Cristy to check on the background of Mary, and especially the parents of these children that had disappeared mysteriously 15 years ago. About half way to the city Cristy had called me with some interesting information on the parents. They both worked at the same nightclub in the city which the police think has gang involvement, but they have never found any proof.
The most interesting part is that this nightclub was, and still is, owned by our old “friend” Koffman. There’s the connection to gang involvement and would partly explain the disappearance of the parents, though why exactly they would have been killed is something we don’t yet know. Now, is there a connection between the parents disappearance and their children’s disappearance? Did the children just leave home to go work at this same nightclub where their parents had worked?
That is something we will need to check on, though I doubt we will get any help from the people running that club for Koffman. I’m sure they know all about us and will just tell us to leave. But, we have to try anyway. We finally came driving up to the house and parked behind the girl’s van. I sensed trouble, serious trouble, so I told everyone to be extra careful getting out of their vans. I didn’t like the fact we saw no one as we drove up, they were supposed to wait by the car.
The ghosts got out first, then the rest of us. Suddenly Kat and the other ghosts ran over to the car. They brought out Milena and Nakedra and laid them on the grass. They had been stabbed! But how is that possible? Someone had to sneak up real close to them in order to stab them. There was no sign of Macy, Jackie and Mary. Then the three of them came walking from around the side of the house, Macy and Jackie holding onto Mary. Mary was very confused right now and apparently she suddenly ran away and around to the back of the house, with Macy and Jackie chasing her.
Apparently while the girls were watching in every direction, Mary had just run off, and fast. Milena told Macy and Jackie to bring her back and they both said they were only gone maybe a couple of minutes. Just enough time for someone to come along and stab the two of them and put them into the car, then run away. Milena and Nakedra were both stabbed in the stomach, but were alive, so Kat was working on them to hopefully heal those stab wounds. Were the girls that went in the house also stabbed?
If so, it would be too late for them. Whoever did this will certainly regret it. And if Koffman had anything to do with it, then we will put him out of business permanently. Sky wanted to go and check on that house right now, she was angry! I told her we all wanted to go rushing inside, but we need to be careful. She just looked at me. “Steve, we’re ghosts,” she reminded me, “we don’t need to worry about things, just let us go in and look around.” Maybe she was right.
So, in we went, well, some of us went in anyway. Sky, Angel and myself went in first, followed by the Wildcats plus Rusty, Rascal, Tracker, Azura and Boots. The cats will look primarily for the first three cats, Storm, Ginger and Tandi. I find it very hard to believe that anyone could sneak up on Storm, but obviously they did. The remainder of Dawn’s team stayed outside with Kat. As we went inside, I turned the lights on right away and we got a big surprise.
Dawn was sitting on the couch with the 3 cats and all were just staring at us. I tried talking to them, but Dawn just kept staring and the cats just acted like normal cats. “They have been drugged,” said Ivy, “the good part is, it should wear off after a while.” “But how was someone able to drug them?” I asked. “Guess that’s something we will need to investigate,” replied Ivy. “Okay everyone,” I said, “spread out and look around, groups of four, except the ghosts and keep your guns in your hands at all times.”
Angel found Roxette next, sleeping in one of the bedrooms. She was a bit confused though. She knew who she was, but not where she was or why she was here. Maybe this is why Mary is so confused and why her grandchildren disappeared. However, we didn’t find Beryan or Engla, but I did find something on the kitchen table, a large envelope with my name on it…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
It has been a month since our last case and we sure needed the time off to relax and recharge from that one. It is only about 6 weeks until Christmas and the girls are already decorating the chateau. We learned a lot from that last case and we need more time for relaxation even if it means saying no to some cases that come along. I also discovered something about Misty and Cristy. They had gone through a special training course with Mandar security and in that course perfection was taught and expected if you wanted to pass.
Misty and Cristy passed with high honors which is why they were put in such a high position within Mandar Corp. Unfortunately, it did lead to some problems for them and even small failures stressed them out terribly, which is why Cristy went flippedy, as the twins call it. She needed to be calmed down with a strong sedative, maybe a little too strong for Cristy though, and she slept for nearly 24 hours. Misty doesn’t go wild, like Cristy, she is just the opposite, she hides, curls up somewhere surrounded by cushions and won’t eat or talk.
After we came home from our last case, I found her in the twin’s den, curled up, with half a dozen cushions around her. I left and came back with a big bag of cushions taken off our armchairs. I put them carefully all around Misty so that she was nearly covered. Then I asked if I could join her. She didn’t say anything, so I curled up beside her, with a bunch of cushions between us. Guess I fell asleep quickly and when I woke up about an hour later, Misty had rearranged the cushions so they were around me too. “Thank you,” I said. “Welcome,” she replied, “feel better?” “Yes,” I said, “this is a good idea.”
Then I stroked her long blond hair. “I love you little sis,” I said. She moved closer. “Love you too,” she said. “I kind of thought you two would be in here,” said Jennifer, “can I convince you to come out now?” We both smiled and came out. That was shortly after we got home from our case. Now we are back in the present. All of the girls, and guys, are out of the clinic now and doing well. Unfortunately, Laura (from Misty’s team) and Celeste (from the Bad Girls) were killed.
Katresa and Cassie (also from the Bad Girls) and Valeria (from Misty’s team) will be staying at home for now, they need more recovery time, but all 3 should be fully back to normal at some point. Birkett, one of the new men from the Black Wolves, was also killed. Losing Laura and having Valeria seriously wounded, is what hit Misty hard and she felt like a failure because of it. Misty and Cristy even tried to resign, which I refused to accept. We held a vote and 100% said they wanted the twins to stay.
One day while the girls were decorating, an old car came driving in, slowly and swerving a bit. Dawn told the occupant to stay by the car and identify themself. The older lady that got out obviously didn’t know what to do, so she came up to the door anyway. I said to let her in and Dawn brought her into the library. She told us a rather mixed up story about her two grandchildren that had been kidnapped, at least, she was certain they were kidnapped since they disappeared without saying anything, something they never did.
She talked as though they were little children, yet when I asked she told us the boy was 18 and the girl was 20. “Or is it 17 and 19?” she thought out loud, “Well, something like that anyway.” She said the three of them were very close and the children never went anywhere without telling her. Then one day about 2 weeks ago they went shopping, or to work, she wasn’t quite sure which, and never returned. She called the police but they told her that the children likely moved out on their own, or maybe decided to go on a vacation.
She admitted they did talk about wanting to go on a vacation to Hawaii, but it was too expensive. The grandmother offered to pay for it, but they didn’t want her to waste her money like that. “But I have lots of money,” she said, “so why not spend it on my children?” She kept referring to them as her children, but when I asked, she said they were her grandchildren, but she always called them her children since she had raised them from little children.
Apparently the parents had disappeared mysteriously 15 years ago and haven’t been heard from since. That part is interesting, I wonder if there is a connection? She talked about how the kids were doing so well in school, then switched to saying they were having such a hard time getting a full time job ever since finishing school several years ago. The poor woman was definitely mixed up telling us about what happened. Perhaps that’s because she is so stressed about the situation, and she did admit to being stressed and she was taking medication for that.
Hmm, that might contribute to her being so mixed up at times. Samantha was with us during this interview and she felt that the medication was likely the problem. I didn’t sense anything wrong with this woman. Jennifer, Celestine and Galyna thought she was genuine. Seeing how she drove in here, I had some of the girls go back with her, driving her home in her car and some following in one of our vans so the girls could come back afterward. I told Mary, the grandmother, that I would have to check with the police first to see if they were still working on the case.
If they were not, then we would take the case and look for her grandchildren. She thanked us, then 8 of the girls took her back home to the city. I sent Dawn and 7 of her girls, plus 3 cats to sniff around for us. The girls would also be checking the house for clues while there. I checked with the police and they had looked for the grandchildren for 2 weeks but found nothing wrong and they determined the pair likely left on their own.
It was kind of hard to tell what happened, he told me, since the grandmother was so mixed up at times. Anyway, he said there would be no problem with us taking the case and he sent us a copy of their report which didn’t tell us much. The report did tell us when the two had graduated and their ages were 17 and 19. It was dark when the girls arrived at the grandmother’s house. The woman gave the key to Dawn and she stayed in her car with 4 of the girls.
Dawn told her this was standard procedure. When Dawn and the others got to the door, the cats began to growl. Not a good sign. Dawn called me right away to let me know. I didn’t like that at all, but told Dawn to let the cats go in first and wait for their signal. The cats gave the all clear, so Dawn and the 3 others went inside. That was the last I heard from Dawn…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 