The hospital staff had already been informed to expect a large number of casualties from our team so they were ready, thankfully. All of the federal and state people that had gone to the village and out to the lodge as well, had been told about us. Therefore they never bothered with us or with the Black Wolves as we drove past them heading into town. Three ambulances had been sent out to pick up 3 wounded Black Wolves. One of the Wolves had been killed, plus two from the extra teams that Mandar sent had also been killed.

It was a hard day for our team, no doubt about that. So far, of the girls teams, only Laura has been killed, though some others are seriously wounded and might not live. Some might not be able to continue with their regular teams either, but we can always find other work for them to do at the chateau. Speaking of back home, Misty had already told me that Cristy would likely go flippedy once she heard that Ted Jameson was a woman, something that Cristy didn’t think of.

She always thinks “outside the box”, so to speak, and normally thinks of weird things which is what really helps us a lot of times. But, she just didn’t think of Ted Jameson as being a woman. So, she did go “flippedy”. That’s the twins way of saying that Cristy kind of went crazy for a bit. Apparently she pulls her hair, screams, bangs her head against the nearest wall, sometimes tosses her computer onto the floor, then sits on a chair hitting herself in the face with a cushion, until she finally runs out of energy and stops. I communicated with Kristina to get Samantha to give Cristy something to calm her down.

Even Kristina was having trouble holding Cristy still. She said that Cristy was slippery, like a fish, which made it hard to hold her. Misty then told me to make sure it’s a very mild sedative, because Cristy overreacts to such things and falls asleep quickly. But Samantha gave her a larger dose than normal. “Oh my,” said Misty, “she will likely sleep for hours and hours!” I told this to Kristina and she said that Cristy was squirming, then suddenly stopped and fell asleep in her arms.

“Oh well,” I told Misty, “she likely needed the sleep anyway.” “Good point,” said Misty. “Um, do you go flippedy too?” I asked Misty. “Nope, not me,” she said, “I just hide, curl up and surround myself with cushions which makes me feel cozy and comfy. That helps me settle down and deal with things.” “Hmm, sounds like a better way to do it,” I said. Maybe I should try that, though I didn’t say it out loud. Some of our girls and some of the Black Wolves stayed at the hospital as guards for our wounded.

Just as soon as our team members can be moved, we will head home and keep them in our clinic. The three wounded from Aari’s team were ready to leave the next day, but our girls would need to stay an extra couple of days at least, maybe longer for a couple of them. We certainly don’t want to rush things, so we will stay and all the wounded girls will stay for the extra time. The doctors were actually relieved that I said that, they were a bit worried about releasing them too soon.

Back to the huge number of federal and state authorities that had gone to the village. They had arrested 20 more people and will be destroying the underground complex. Aside from this terrorist plot to kill government officials across the country, they were also heavily involved in drugs and illegal firearms which they were supplying to various gangs here and in Canada. We also discovered that 8 teams from this outfit had already been sent out to five different states, but they had been easily found and arrested.

There was also another group in California that was connected to this one, but federal and state authorities moved in and arrested most of them, others died in a shoot out. I’m glad we didn’t have to deal with all of this, it would have been more than we could handle alone. One day we took Amelia back home where she lived with her mother, but we found her two brothers in the house. Amelia’s mother had died of a heart attack shortly after we had talked with her at the beginning.

The doctor figured all the worrying about Amelia is what triggered the heart attack. That news was hard on Amelia, but her two brothers just told her to grow up and deal with it. They are such nice brothers, I thought sarcastically to myself. I really wanted to hit them both and toss them out of the house. Jennifer and Celestine must have guessed that and they held me back from my plan. The mother had left the house to Amelia, a car to one brother and a boat to the other brother, plus a few other things.

They gathered up their belongings and were gone about 2 hours after we arrived. Perhaps they were upset because they didn’t get the house? I left Jennifer and a few of the girls behind to help Amelia, then Celestine, the rest of the girls and I went back to the lodge where we had been staying. Those six young men that had been staying at the lodge were also arrested, they had surrendered quite readily when they found out that Jameson was dead.

Deputy William was also arrested, though he kept protesting that he was completely innocent and that we were trying to frame him. Amazing really. Well, the doctors finally said we could take the girls back home with us from the hospital, but they will need to stay in our clinic for some time yet. They will all recover though some may need different positions in the Investigators. That is not a problem, however, we always need people in different ways, not just team members.

Carmeline is coming back with us and she is quite excited about it too, even after seeing how dangerous life can be as a private investigator. Sandy, Bert’s wife, asked if she could come with us as well. I said that would be great, so she immediately put the lodge up for sale. Sienna knew someone who might be interested in such a purchase, so it looks like she has a buyer already.

Amelia also asked Jennifer if she could join us, apparently she is a secretary, something we could sure use. The day after we left Amelia and the girls at her house, the neighbor had come over and asked her if she wanted to sell the house. So, that certainly went fast and she was actually thankful that it did. She really didn’t want to live there alone.

Well, we gained one woman to replace Laura and two more to work in other capacities. However, we will be losing at least 2, perhaps 3, from our active duty list and they will be added to our home team. This case really wore us out, worse than the last case I think. Though I could be wrong. We are going to take a long rest this time, we need it. Now for a long trip across the ocean.

The end of this case. A new case will begin soon. ©2025 Steve McLeod.