Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Adventure With Dad. Part 1.
Greetings everyone! Well, it’s cold. I guess it could be colder, but not by much for this time of the year. It was only a high of 32F, or 0C, today, and that only lasted for an hour before beginning to drop again. Oh well, it’s that time of the year, nothing to look forward to except cold weather for the next few months. But it does remind me of times my Dad and I would go hiking, or looking for insulators, or looking for old townsites along the railroad to dig for bottles and other items. That’s where our story begins today. “We should try looking for this old town site,” I said to Dad one day, “very little walking to this one.” “That’s what you said last time,” Dad answered. “But this is different,” I said, showing him the map.
I pointed out the road leading right up to the railway tracks. “See, then it’s just a short walk to where the town site is located, I continued. Dad looked. Then he said a second time, “That’s what you said last time.” But a perfect fall day came along and off we went on another adventure. That’s what I liked to call our outings. Sounded better. Dad wasn’t so sure he agreed. It was easy to find the road, it was well traveled. Not a good sign. But it was nice and smooth for a bush road. Well, the first part was anyway.
“I think you’re hitting every bump in the road,” I said. “That’s all there is on this road, bumps,” said Dad. “You should drive more carefully, that’s the third time hitting bottom,” I advised. “BONEHEAD!” was all Dad said. For those of you who might be reading this in a different language, I know that the word ‘bonehead’ does not translate well, therefore a simple definition would be ‘idiot’, but in a nice sort of a way. I think. I just say that it means Dad is enjoying himself. Sounds better. I think. Sigh.
Anyway, our road starting getting a bit narrow. And obviously less traveled. “The road isn’t quite so good here,” I mentioned casually. “This is not a road,” said Dad, “it’s not even a trail, or path, it’s barely an open area between trees.” That would be a good definition for sure. Then we started going downhill. “Kind of rough on this part,” I said. Dad just looked. At the bottom of the hill the road kind of ended. Due to a rather large beaver pond. Though the pond was no longer there. But it was at some point. The railway had blasted the beaver dam since it was too close to the tracks.
Though there was no evidence of the tracks nearby. “Can’t be far from here,” I said. Dad agreed which was amazing. So we decided to walk the rest of the way. At least the mud bottom of the pond was nice and hard. And mostly dry. After about half an hour we came to the creek. Not much of a creek really. There were several trees fallen across the creek that the beavers had cut down. Obviously quite some time ago. A hairy woodpecker was busy on one of them, looking for a meal. I mentioned that to Dad.
“That reminds me,” said Dad, “did you remember to bring our food?” “How could I forget that,” I asked, “you kept mentioning it every 5 minutes before we left.” “That’s because I know you,” said Dad. Not sure what he meant by that. It was a nice sunny day but right then a rather large cloud covered the sun making it feel quite chilly. Dad touched my arm and pointed to the left. Three deer were standing on the edge of the old pond, about 50 feet off, looking our way. Then they slowly walked off into a thick undergrowth of willows and alders.
Dad picked out a good solid tree that lay across the creek for us to use as a bridge. “You go first,” said Dad. Naturally. About half way Dad says, “How does it feel?” “Like a tree,” I responded. “HAHA,” said Dad. I made it across, though one part was a bit tricky due to a badly placed branch, which I had to go around. Dad’s turn. He managed to go around that branch nicely. Amazing. I thought for sure he would fall into the creek right there. Almost across there was a sudden ‘crack’, not loud, but noticeable.
And just as suddenly the tree broke. The look on Dad’s face. Priceless. But he did miss the creek. Instead, he landed in the wet mud beside the creek. Poor Dad. Covered in mud. That was too much. I just couldn’t contain myself. I laughed. And laughed. Until my stomach was sore. For some reason Dad didn’t see the comedy of it all. I tried to explain. But I couldn’t stop laughing long enough.
Oh my. Oops. This has gotten longer than I had planned. Sigh. But I will continue it soon. If I remember. Which sometimes I don’t. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your weekend coming up, and hopefully it will be warmer where you are. God bless!
Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Mystery of Helene’s Murder. Chapter 8. Sandy.
I was still in the clinic, both Samantha and Kat wanted me to stay here for a few days so that they could observe me and see if there were going to be any problems show up from the blood transfusions from Sky. That makes sense, though being in the clinic is worse than being in my new office in the tower. I still have not gotten used to the idea of sending my team into danger while I stay safely at home. Yet no one is complaining about the arrangement, they just want me to be safe and direct them from here. They keep trying to convince me that my wisdom is more important to them on these cases than my presence.
It’s also easier than trying to guard me in a dangerous atmosphere, which admittedly is true. However, right now my office is here in the clinic recovery room that I use much too frequently. And, I guess it really does work okay, though the view is not very good. This room is completely sealed off from the outside world, meaning there are no windows. However, we have set up a large screen on one wall which plays beautiful nature scenery all day long, plus all the natural sounds that go with that scenery. There is another large screen that I use when talking to my team during major updates and meetings.
Sky is still here for now as well, a little longer than she was hoping, but she does have her own personal servant, meaning Misty. By agreeing to this Misty gets a short break from playing with Steffie and Roxie, so she is enjoying her new role. Though, like cooking, she doesn’t make a good servant, she has no idea how to handle that new position, but she does try hard. And it does provide a good laugh. Anyway, Jennifer just arrived for a visit. “You don’t look too happy today honey,” I said, “what is wrong?” “I’m just wondering if it’s really a good idea to try and get Bobby Frank,” she said, “going after him in his hideout ‘cave’ could be dangerous. He likely has many traps and safeguards in place and we could end up losing some of our team if they try to go in after him.”
“Hmm, let’s get someone else in here for advice on this one,” I said. I then called Catriona to join us since she knows more about Bobby Frank than anyone, having studied him for quite some time. “Do you think we should continue going after Bobby Frank?” I asked her when she arrived. “Well, I’m kind of new here,” she said, “so I’m not sure I should be giving advice on this case.” “But we have asked for your advice,” said Jennifer, “and you know more about this man than we do.” “Well, okay, but this is just my thoughts,” she said, “it may not be the best thing to do, that’s for you to decide. Anyway, Bobby Frank and Helene were friends at one time and even worked together on some deals.
Then Bobby accused Helene of cheating him on a major deal they had been working on, however, she didn’t cheat him. It just turned out they got less money from the deal than they had anticipated, so his share was less than he had been hoping. That caused him to kill some of Helene’s men, including her new boyfriend. Helene was very much in love with this man, though he was older than her by quite a bit. That made her angry and she killed two of Bobby’s top men, one of them being his oldest son. He then vowed to kill her one day.” “And that day came the other day,” said Jennifer, “when he shot Helene in her flat.”
“Correct,” replied Catriona, “so perhaps it’s better to leave things alone rather than risk having any of your team killed Steve.” She had tears rolling down her cheeks as she said that last part. “Aari, what are you doing right now?” I asked. “Just finished breakfast,” he replied, “we know where to find Bobby, but he’s safely hidden in a building he owns. Going in after him will be tricky and dangerous.” “Don’t go in,” I told him, “you will have to figure out a way to bring him outside that building where you will have the advantage.”
“Shall do Steve,” he said, “oh, that waitress that helped us out got fired for yelling at Tobias and Al. They also threatened her, so I’m thinking we should try to protect her if she will let us.” “Good idea,” I said, “those guys are likely the kind that will carry through on their threats. Maybe the Bad Girls could watch her and maybe use the Wildcats to draw Bobby out in the open.” “Sounds like a good plan Steve,” he said, “I’ll see what we can arrange. I need to find out where the waitress lives first.” He then asked the new waitress that had brought the check to Aari for the breakfast.
“I don’t know sir,” she said, “only Mr. Turpin knows that, he keeps all our employee info in a leather book in the top drawer of the desk in his office. Kitty heard and off she went and fortunately the office door wasn’t locked. She also knew that Mr. Turpin wasn’t in his office, so, in she went and found the book. She looked up Sandy Morgan, took a picture of her address, then returned the book to the drawer. “Okay,” said Aari, “we better go to her house quickly and make sure she’s not in trouble already.” Off they went and noticed two cars in the driveway. “She lives alone,” said Carine, “so this doesn’t look good.”
Kitty, Rock, John and Clarence went up to the door and John was about to knock when they heard a scream! The door was locked, but that didn’t stop Rock, one kick and that big wood door flew open! Inside Tobias was sitting on Sandy with a knife in his hand ready to scratch her face. Kitty was visible and went over to Tobias and kicked him hard knocking him off Sandy. John and Clarence then went over and the fight was on, but rather short.
John grabbed Tobias and threw him to one side and he landed on his knife, killing him. Clarence tossed Al over to Rock who grabbed his arm and broke it severely causing him to scream loudly. Then they dragged the men outside and put them in their car and told Al to leave quickly. He did so even though in much pain and not being able to use his right arm. He made it back to the “Cave” and told Bobby what happened. Bobby then had two of his men take Tobias’ body and get rid of it somewhere.
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
