For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Posted on April 19, 2022 by stevescountry
Baldwin’s men went out looking right away for the sniper, but all they found was his rifle and signature note “The Sting Of Death”. How does this guy know our every move? Someone inside is telling him, but who? The two most likely are Baldwin and Shirley, but that does not make any sense to me. The ambulance came to pick up Kristina’s body. This seems more like it must be a dream, yet it is real. We must find Stinger before he gets anyone else!
Rock, the cats, Benjamin (one of the new pilots), Joshua (the other new pilot) and myself decided on going to town and look around. It is a small town with only 2 hotels. I showed the photo of the Stinger around but no one had seen him. So then we headed off to the next town which was larger. At one hotel the manager said that Stinger had stayed there, but left a day ago to go hiking and camping. Okay, that is how he is keeping track of the chateau, he is camping somewhere not far away.
Now it is time for some helicopter rides around the area to see if we can find him. We did find 2 campers but neither was our man and the people in both cases had not seen him around, even though they had seen each other. How does this guy stay so well hidden and yet stay open enough to see us? Carine is next on the list and she is definitely not going outside.
Back at the chateau we are all in the library before dinner talking when Jake called Annelie. She left the room so she could talk to him privately. Hmm, that does not sound good, what did Jake find out? “Hey girl, more bad news for you,” he said quietly, “I feel terrible that I cannot help much in this one, I just do not understand what is going on.” “That is okay Jake,” said Annelie, “you are helping, what is the news now?”
“There is a slight change in the list,” he said, “it is now like this, Carine, Kat, Aurela, Angel, you, Lajla and Jenny.” “Hmm, I wonder why the change in the order?”, asked Annelie. “No idea, I am trying to find out,” said Jake, “but I will say again, look inside, that is the only thing that makes sense, otherwise I would know about it.” “And how would he know about Aurela, unless someone in here told him,” said Annelie, “we have some new girls coming in too, watch out for their names Jake, Brigetta, Mriya, Galyna, and Nyura.”
“Okay, I will do that,” said Jake, “one more thing, remember the name John?” “How can I forget him,” she said, then paused, “but he is dead.” “Maybe, or maybe not,” said Jake, “but the name is out there again, seems someone saw a man named John talking with this Stinger guy not long ago. John was a big man, right?” “Yes, he was a big man,” said Annelie with a bit of a shiver just thinking about him.
“Be careful girl, this Stinger guy, he is cold,” said Jake, “he enjoys what he does, make sure you, and the other girls, do not take chances.” Then he hung up and Annelie came out and told us what he had said about the list. Then she took me aside to fill me in completely. Meowr?=Why human Stinger man want to kill all girls? Meow,meow.=We not know, someone pay him to do it. Meow.=Yep, it a job to him, he like doing it.
Meowr.=He coward human, he not come in open, always hide long distance away. Meow,meow.=Yep, that true, now it time for another test. Meowr.=Okay, I ready for it. The cats disappear outside. Good thing they are not on the list. Tomorrow comes and we decide to go check another town for Stinger, though it is further away. But he must be staying somewhere.
Baldwin stays back to look after things and I leave the cats home this time too, just us 4 men go. But we came up empty once again so headed back to the chateau. Could John be still alive? I was sure he was dead, Kristina shot him 3 times. It just does not make sense. But none of this is making sense. It still seems like Baldwin or Shirley is responsible for hiring this guy, but why? We got back by mid afternoon.
It was a nice hot day and the girls wanted to go for a swim in the pool. It has a high wall around it and we have an underground passage to the pool. Seems safe enough, so I said okay. Rock and I go too, just to watch the surrounding area carefully. Not even Stinger could do anything here. “Hold this helicopter steady,” said the man. “Doing the best I can sir,” said the pilot. He aimed, and shot.
Carine just came out of the pool and fell back in. “NO!”, I yelled. Everyone went back inside through our tunnel. Rock and I retrieved Carine from the water. I failed once again. Then I thought, a helicopter, he used a helicopter. I checked the airport and off we went. Sure enough, he had rented a helicopter, but how did he know? How? He left the rifle behind with his note, but something different this time. He also left an envelope with my name on it…
To Be Continued.
ยฉ2022 Steve McLeod.
Category: Adventure, Challenge, Fiction, Mystery, Story, Strange Happenings, Suspense, UncategorizedTags: Adventures, Chateau, Danger, Fiction, Investigations, Investigators, List, Mysterious, Mystery, Story, Suspense
No outside means no outside!! How could you let her go outside??๐๐
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The pool area is quite safe, with a high reinforced concrete wall surrounding it. Who would think of using a helicopter? That company is now closed down and being investigated. Baldwin said he will make sure they stay closed! That is now 6 and Kat is next on the list.๐๐ฉ๐พ๐พ๐พ๐ต๏ธ
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It was the one and only way he could do it!! You should’ve known that!!๐คจ
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But what aviation company will rent their choppers to a gunman? It doesn’t make sense, but then, none of this does. Now, can I keep Kat from being killed? I must.๐ ๐พ๐พ๐พ
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I would say so!! She’s the glue that keeps the whole business going!!๐ณ๐ฒ
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She keeps me going anyway. From now on none of the girls are going out, no matter what! I don’t care if they do go crazy, but they are staying inside!
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That’s the only way to keep them safe! And now we got John or another John to contend with also!!๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฌ
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That’s an odd one too, I’m sure John was dead, so how could he still be walking around? Must be someone else, just with the same name. Yes, we have bullet proof glass on our windows now, so even if he tries, he will fail. That would really get him upset!
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That’s good! You should try to use it against him!
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Not a bad idea. We could have people all over watching and get Kat to stand in front of a window and when he shoots we can jump on him fast before he has a chance to get away!
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Seems like a reasonable way to get him to poke his gear out!!๐๐
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But how do we get the information to him? The person informing him would know the glass is bullet proof.๐ค
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That is correct!! That won’t work then!! You need someone or something that looks like her without putting them in actual danger!๐ค๐ค
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Hey, wait a minute, I’m not sending Jennifer outside looking like Kat!!
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How about an artificial person? But no one especially Baldwin or his wife know what you’re doing! Just to flush him out!
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But what if it is one of the others in our team that is the traitor? Right now we can trust no one, not even each other. I trust Kat, Jenny, Annelie and Rock, but can I trust the others?
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Ya don’t! Keep the circle that knows very very small! One maybe two others! Make sure Kat is one of them!๐
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How do we put a dummy outside without anyone else knowing? And if no one else knows, the sniper might not know because he wasn’t tipped off. I see some problems with this one.๐ค๐ฌ๐ฌ
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I’m just glad I’m not the one writing the story!๐ณ
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Yeah, well, I’m in a tough spot here, I have already messed up and gotten 2 of the girls killed. Sigh.๐ง๐ฌ๐
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I hate to say it…๐ ya can’t worry about them now! You know what not to do so don’t do that again.๐ beyond that??? You’re the writer!!๐ฌ๐ฌ๐๐
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But I feel so bad. We have a lot of funerals coming up!๐๐ข๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฟ
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But you have a responsibility to keep the living alive!!๐คจ
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And I have failed miserably so far. Where is Aurela? She holds a clue and doesn’t even know it, I have to try and dig it out of her.๐ค๐ฌ๐๐
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That should be an interesting episode.. is that coming up this week?๐ค
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That’s coming up tomorrow. Unless something happens before I get a chance to talk with her.๐ค๐ฌ
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Ooooo…. that sounds ominous ๐ฌ๐ณ๐ฒ
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I know it, I’m going to have trouble sleeping tonight thinking about it!๐ฎ๐ฎ
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I can understand why!๐ฌ๐ณ๐ฒ
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Writing this one won’t be easy, that’s for sure!๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ง๐
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I’ll be reading ๐ ๐ ๐
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And I’ll be writing, right away! Good morning Dusty! How’s the day going? (hint, do not mention your nice weather or I’ll not talk the rest of the day)๐๐ฌ๐โ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธ
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It’s going well..Just got back from my walk ๐ถโโ๏ธ it’s cloudy and windy today!
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Snowing here, 3 inches so far and still snowing. Heavy wet snow, I can barely move it.
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Then dont!don’t!! Leave it for a while..
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It’s too slippery to walk on it so I had to move it. On to writing, back later!๐
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TTYL. ๐
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I’m back, you back too?๐ค
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Yep, I’m here
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Good, me too. We ended up with a total of 4 inches new snow today.๐ฌโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธ
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It’s 4/20!! Enough with the snow!!! I’ll bet your neighbor will be partying to night!!๐๐คญ๐คญ
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Why will he do that?
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Because it’s 4/20 !! Every good pot head knows what 4/20 is…. kinda like earth day only with pot!!
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Oh, sounds thrilling, maybe he will join his friends somewhere else.
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That’s the hope!! You will have a smoke free evening!!๐๐
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Yayay!๐๐๐ฅณ๐ฅณ Today went by way too fast and I didn’t get much done. Terrible really. I had things planned, but other things happened to spoil my plans. Sigh.๐ฌ
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That happens to me also!! I usually don’t mind though… it makes the day go by fast!!๐
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True, but I didn’t want it to go by quite so fast.๐ค๐
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Ya know what?? It will be there to be done tomorrow!๐๐๐๐
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Which is exactly what I did not want.๐ค๐๐
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Sometimes you just need to do it tomorrow!๐๐
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Like when it doesn’t get done today. Sigh.๐
Back in a bit, having problems this evening.๐
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Yep! Exactly!!๐๐
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Which I didn’t want but did anyway.๐๐
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I’ll be here!
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I’m here too now!๐
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So you are!! Feeders again?
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Rats, I should have brought them in while I was up!๐ค๐๐
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Well it’s finished snowing right? They should be alright overnight!๐๐ค
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Can’t take a chance, could be raccoons out and ya never know, those other big black critters just might wake up!
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They are big baby’s when it’s still cold… they won’t be up yet!!๐๐๐คญ๐คญ
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Raccoons could be, they were before. Weedy is home smoking up a storm. I wonder if that’s why I’m having problems tonight?๐ค๐
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Very likely! I’m sorry you put up with that๐
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It’s really strong tonight, I’m sure it’s affecting my stomach.
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It would me!!๐ I don’t know how you put up with it??
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Not easy. If it was years ago I could just move, but that isn’t an option these days.๐ค๐
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I understand… ugh..๐๐
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Yep. Today my not so much of a friend, crow came swooping in and caught a redpoll on the feeder, killed it and flew off with it! Right in front of my face while I was watching out the window!๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐๐๐
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That’s terrible!! They are a scavenger though…
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Yep, they don’t go after birds much, but will do so if regular food is scarce. This time of year bugs make up 80% of their diet, scavenging the remainder. But no bugs right now with the ground buried under deep snow still. And they don’t get much food from me with the gulls around now.
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They’re just trying to survive like all the rest…sigh..
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Yeah, but they can survive somewhere else, crazy critters.
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That they are!!๐๐๐
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Oh well, time for bed, good night Dusty, have a good sleep, I will be back tomorrow with more of this and more of that to chatter about!๐๐ป๐๐ด๐ดโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธ
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Good Night ๐ด ๐ฅฑ
Rest Well ๐ฅฑ
Pleasant Dreams ๐ด ๐ฅฑ
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Danger, danger, danger! This man is determined and no one is safe. Someone inside is giving out information but who?
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Yes, this sniper is just too good at what he does, like Aurela and Jake have said, he never misses. But we have to change that. Yes, we have to find out who is betraying us and stop that leak fast!
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Is Carine really dead ? Why didnโt the cats stay with you ? Hmmm…๐ค…This is indeed an โ inside โ job ! ๐ต๏ธโโ๏ธ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ผ๐ผ๐ผ
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Carine was shot in the forehead, just like the others. This sniper never misses, we have to stop him fast! Kat is next on the list. The cats are training Storm like they are supposed to do, it is safe for them outside. Yes, it does seem like it has to have an inside component for sure, someone is a traitor. Now we have to find out who.๐ค๐พ๐พ๐พ๐ฉ๐ต๏ธ
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