Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Case of the Dead Lawyer. Chapter 1. Sorta Friend.
We were still at the graveside and Sky had turned to see where Muffin went running to and saw her with a beautiful, young woman. MC and Storm were there too. “I think someone is here to see you Steve,” said Sky. I turned and could not believe I was seeing Kathee, an old friend of mine. I just stood there staring. “Do you know her Steve?” asked Sky. I stood there staring, not saying anything, I was too busy thinking. “Hmm, I guess you do,” said Sky looking at me, “she is very beautiful.”
“Mmm, what, what did you say?” I asked. “I said, she is very beautiful,” repeated Sky. “Hmm, oh, yes, I suppose she is,” I said, half dreaming, “she is an old friend, sorta.” “Must have been some friend,” said Sky, “she turned you into a real dreamer. And she is not old, looks to be about 16.” “Hmm, what, what did you say?” I asked. “How would you like a nice slap to bring you back to reality, Mr. Dreamer?” she asked.
“Oh, I am sorry,” I said, “I was just kinda dreaming for a minute. Kathee helped Muffin and I a lot when we first started The Investigators. She put me in touch with a very good lawyer, her dad, who helped me get settled on some legal issues with being a private investigator. He also bailed Muffin and I out of jail once or twice.” “She must have been a kid at the time,” said Sky. “What? Oh, no, she looks young, she was 17 then,” I said, “that would make her the same age as you. People think you are only 16 too.”
“Hmm, guess that is true,” she said, “but I would say she was more than ‘sorta’ a friend.” “What? Oh, no, we really were just friends,” I said, “we went out a few times for dinner, that is all. I saw her a lot because she worked for her dad. Muffin did try to play the matchmaker though, without success.” “Well, do you think we should go and see what she wants?” asked Sky. “Yes, I guess we should,” I said.
We went over and Kathee literally threw herself at me, giving me a huge hug, and then a kiss. Meow,meow.=That a long one. Meow.=Yep, sure is. Meowr.=Me agree, very long. “Hmm, I agree with you 3,” said Sky. Then she giggled along with the cats. “Oh, I am sorry Steve,” said Kathee, “I forgot myself for a moment,” then she turned to Sky, “I am very sorry, kissing your husband like that. I, I, it is just that, well…” She put her head down, blushing.
“That is okay,” said Sky, “and since Steve seems to have forgotten my name, I am Sky, nice to meet you Kathee.” “Oh, you know my name?” she asked. “Yes, Steve remembered your name just fine.” She looked at me. “Oh, that is not fair,” I said, “I was really in dreamland with this funeral and everything that has happened. We just buried a very good friend of mine.” “True,” said Sky, “I just like to tease.” She smiled at both Kathee and myself.
“Did you just drop in for a visit, or do you have a problem to discuss?” asked Sky. “I, I, oh, I guess I should not have come,” said Kathee, “I am intruding right now.” “Nonsense, my dear,” said Mandar, “I know that Steve and Sky would be very interested in helping with your problem. It seems her parents were just buried last week, she told me, and she believes they were murdered.”
“What? Your parents murdered?” I asked very surprised, “yes, we must talk about this.” “I agree,” said Sky, giving Kathee a hug, “you will come home with us and we will talk about it.” The other girls were around by then and introductions were made. At home we immediately went to the library to talk. “A while back a man came to see dad, he wanted a lawyer to handle his business dealings,” began Kathee, “and he offered to pay dad double his regular fees.
Business had not been very good at the time so he was quite happy with this deal. It was fine for a while, but then dad changed. He did not talk much and he and mom argued so much, it got to be every day, at least on the days they even talked to each other. Mom asked me to check on the business because dad did not seem to have any money. In fact, he was in debt I discovered.
He was making regular payments to a certain company that I never heard of before. I checked and could not even find such a company. Then I discovered it was part of the Carnival Corporation. That is the company that dad worked for, owned by Carnival Alvares, the man that first said he would pay dad double. But he ended up paying nothing since dad was paying it all back to that company.
He worked for free and had no time for any other clients, so he had to borrow money, and that came from another company which was also owned by Alvares. I finally figured out that this man was likely a big time drug dealer, considering all the times dad had to defend his people in court. I confronted dad and he told me not to get involved, he would handle it.
That night the house burned down while I was out. It was considered accidental, with the fire starting because of smoking in bed. And the bodies had been burned beyond recognition. Here are the pictures I took when they found my parents.” “They are not burned at all,” I said, “what did the autopsy show?” “There was no autopsy,” said Kathee, “none was needed they told me. Here are more pics of my parents at the funeral home.”
“That is crazy, did you not show these pictures to the police?” asked Sky. “Yes, I did, they just told me not to get involved, just leave it alone or I might get hurt,” she answered, “they would not even let me see the police report.” I called Annelie and told her to get me that report and check for an autopsy report too, also to check on this Carnival Alvares. What she found was amazing…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 
Yep!! This one is going to big trouble!🫣
And now you can’t say no!!🙄🙄😒😒 oh boy….
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Yep, I think trouble is a good way to put it! We will be trying to help Kathee, what else can we do? I just hope we can find some information about this Carnival Alvares guy before we head to Canada. I like to know who I am up against.🤔👩👩😾😾😾🕵️♂️
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Yes! That is a good smart start! I’m sure he’ll be cunning and dangerous with no hesitation to kill whe or if he wants to… best be careful with this one!😬😬
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Yes, these big time drug dealers can be tricky to deal with, plus he is into extortion and protection rackets. He will not hesitate to kill when we start to dig and get involved in his “business”, so we will definitely be careful.🤔👩👩😾😾😾🕵️♂️
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What is the goal of this investigation?🤔 To determine if he killed her parents or to bring down his whole operation?🤔🤔
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Well, to try and get proof to tie him in to the murders and put him in prison if possible. Taking down his whole operation might be hard though.🤔🕵️♂️
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Just wondering what the scope will be🤔 big job either way though!😬
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Yes, it will be hard to prove he had anything to do with the murders since he would have had someone else do it, he would just give the orders. But it might be possible. If nothing else we want to get things cleared up to show that these people were in fact murdered and show a police coverup. Maybe we can get whoever is in the police force put in prison too.🤔👩👩😾😾😾🕵️♂️
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Lofty goals!!😳 but you’ll never do it if you don’t try!😉 It should be a great case to folliw!😃
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Well, we might have better success getting those cops on Carnival’s payroll than anything else. But we will try to get Carnival too, without getting killed in the process hopefully. First hurdle is getting those bodies exhumed for an autopsy and there might be some resistance to that.🤔🕵️♂️
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At least they weren’t cremated.. first thing to check for would be smoke inhalation. 🚬 Then look for drugs or poisons🤔 my guess would be they were drugged then died of smoke inhalation. Just a guess though….🙄😏
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Quite possibly they had been drugged first, then died of smoke inhalation all right. If we can prove that, then it is murder. Then we have to prove who did it. Her parents didn’t smoke, even though that was given as the reason for starting the fire. Her parents were in bed at the time, but even the bed was not burned, nor most of the bedroom. Something is very wrong here.🤔🕵️♂️
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Yep! And there’s a cover up indeed! But you will need to find out the motive. And prove that’s why he had him killed. I’m guessing there’s some kind of evidence her dad had that woukd incriminate Carnival. Maybe a thumb drive or hard drive backup hidden somewhere!🤔
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Yep, that could very well be true, but he never mentioned anything to Kathee that we know of. I will be asking her though. Otherwise we will need to do some thorough checking to find out if there is any such thing. We definitely need to find some proof of some kind to help us put this guy behind bars, even if only for a short time.🤔🕵️♂️
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Yep! Should be an interesting and anticipatory week of reading!😉😊
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Yep, I can’t wait to see what happens in this case, that’s for sure! I wonder if Sky is a bit jealous too?🤔👩🕵️♂️
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It sounds like she wants to be but knows she can trust you.
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Yep, I don’t really see Sky as the jealous type. She seemed to welcome Kathee quite readily. Though perhaps I should be more careful!🤔🕵️♂️
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The PDA’s definitely need to be toned down or she might not understand 🙄
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Perhaps so, perhaps so. I will keep Sky close by at all times too, just so she knows that nothing is going on that shouldn’t be. Kathee is a type of girl that can get carried away, even though she doesn’t mean anything by it.🙄🕵️♂️
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Or maybe she does??😲🙄
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I don’t think so. Kathee is just sort of a flirting type of girl and since she and I were sorta friends, she just does it without thinking. I think.🤔🕵️♂️
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Then she should be careful… she might do it to someone who isn’t as understanding and get herself in a bit of situation.🙄😬
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Yep, that is true enough. I think the other girls are kind of enjoying this though.🙄🕵️♂️
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Watching you squirm?🤭🤭🤭
You better watch yourself…😉
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Yep, I will be doing that! Don’t want any distractions on this case, that is for sure! Yeah, I squirm easily.🙄😲🕵️♂️
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Better hope they don’t take Kathee prisoner to use against you!🤨 That could really put you in a bad situation!!🙄
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Yep, we will be guarding her closely, but he could kidnap any of our team for the same purpose, especially Sky. But, I have some tricks up my sleeve too!🤔🕵️♂️
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Sounds tricky!😁🤭🤭
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Um, yeah, but we are pros at this remember? We know how to protect people…uh, most of the time anyway.🤔🕵️♂️
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Yes!! Yes you are the pros….🙄😏 I sure hope nobody dies in this case…😳
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Yes, me too, we need less deaths on our side, our enemies are getting more successful all the time.🤔😲🕵️♂️
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That’s the truth too!!🫣
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This case sounds like a dangerous one and you haven’t gotten started yet. The police are obviously involved, there is a crime organization with Carnival Alvares and who knows who else. It begins at the burial of Chung and Kathee has just buried her parents. Hard to turn her down, but there is definitely trouble ahead.
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Yes indeed, if this involves a big drug syndicate, there could be some serious trouble ahead. We need to first prove that Kathee’s parents were murdered. Then we need to find out who on the police force is on this guy’s payroll, it must be a higher official. And hopefully get enough evidence to put Carnival Alvares behind bars, even if only for a short time. He has to know he cannot get away with this sort of thing. I wonder if Toledo is involved with this somehow?🤔👩👩😾😾😾🕵️♂️
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Toledo could be involved. You are in the midst of grief as is Kathee. Emotions of grief can get in the way of rational thinking, so he could have purposely gotten involved to finish what he started.
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Yes, that is so true. We have to be careful not to let our personal feelings get in the way here, or we are done. Yep, this could just be a well ordered trap for us so we will be very careful!🤔👩👩😾😾😾🕵️♂️
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🤔
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Another name that I do not remember…😳 I believe that this adventure will be full of troubles ! 🥺 I know you will be careful as long as Muffin is with you ! 😻 🕵️♂️👩👩👩🦰👩🦱❗️
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Well, Kathee didn’t show up as a character in any cases, just in a couple conversations way back telling how she helped Muffin and I get started with The Investigators. So it would be easy to forget her. Yes, there could be much trouble for us in this case, but we will handle things carefully. We don’t want to make mistakes on this one. Yes, Muffin and the other cats will be along with us, though they may have a limited role in this one.🤔👩👩😾😾😾🕵️♂️
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