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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Sky had just brought Venus and Friskie back to the clinic, although Friskie isn’t hurt but Jennifer wanted her back to guard Venus, Misty and I. Then Sky took Jennifer back to the hotel, after which she brought the drugs, money and guns back here to the chateau for safe keeping. Now that Venus is back here, there is no one left to guard except Elenore, which makes things much easier for our teams. The girls heard on the news that Williams had been shot, then his club had been set on fire.
But the part where Williams’ body was found didn’t burn so it was easy to identify him. No other bodies were found. Over at Fiske’s club no bodies have been found yet, but the fire was still burning in one part. So, Jennifer, Sky and the Bad Girls went to look for Sandra at her house. They also took some of the cats with them to help check her house for “extra” things.
Meanwhile, back home. “You know what we need in here?” I asked. “Donuts!” said Misty and I together. Kat came walking back in at that moment and heard us. “Oh no you don’t,” said Kat, “remember the new clinic rule, no donuts allowed. And that also means you do not ask someone to bring you donuts. Anyone caught doing so will be given 8 demerits and 30 days of cleaning duty.” “That’s not fair,” I said, “it takes all the fun out of being in the clinic.” “I second that,” said Misty.
“Too bad,” said Kat and off she went. When Sky brought back the suitcases of stuff from Gordon, she was also able to bring one more person back, so Jennifer said to bring Celestine. It was now after breakfast here which was cold toast and warm coffee. “What happened to our toaster?” I asked Jackie. “The one in the clinic quit working so we’re using the one in the kitchen,” she said, “that’s a long ways from here, so the toast cools off a bit.” “A bit?” I asked, “It feels like it came out of the fridge.”
“Oooo, don’t make me laugh,” said Venus, “my stomach hurts! Glad I ordered cereal though.” “I’ll try to bring you some hot coffee though,” said Jackie and off she went. Then Celestine came in wearing her bikini and carrying her pool bag. “Hey, you’re not supposed to wear bikinis except at the pool,” said Misty frowning. Celestine reached into her bag, then tossed a donut to Misty. “Wear a bikini all you want,” said Misty, “doesn’t bother me.” “I second that,” I said while munching on my donut.”
“These are fantastic!” said Venus, “Now if we just had some hot coffee.” “Did someone mention coffee?” asked Macy as she came in with a fresh carafe. Then she stopped and looked at me with my donut. She just shook her head at me, and at Celestine. “Eat fast,” said Macy, “Bridgette will be here in 20 minutes to check on you.”
Meanwhile, back with Jennifer and the Bad Girls. “We’re getting close to Sandra’s house now,” said Sky. It was late afternoon and with the fires they figured that Sandra would likely be at home, unless she died in the fire, which Jennifer thought would be unlikely. She was thinking that Sandra was the mastermind of this whole operation and she likely wanted to get rid of both Fiske and Williams, plus Swann. However, Swann was not found, so maybe he decided to go into hiding. Unless he also is a boyfriend of Sandra, and maybe her favorite boyfriend?
Hard to know exactly what is going on with that group. All we know for certain is that Christopher and Williams are both dead. We don’t know anything about Fiske or Swann. Some of the girls are keeping an eye on Gordon’s place though, just in case Swann does show up, even though he would be very late now. Most likely he phoned Gordon and found out what happened and decided to hide. Then there is Helene, and there are some girls keeping an eye on her hotel too, in case she decides to go somewhere.
They have orders to watch only and don’t try to stop her if she has others with her. Soon the team was at Sandra’s house but there were no cars around and she had no garage to park in, so she must not be home. “I will go take a look first,” said Jennifer, and she walked up to the house and through the door. She came back to the van after a short time. “She’s not there,” said Jennifer, “looks like she moved out, very recently too, the place is completely empty. We appear to be striking out and that’s not good.”
Then they heard on the news that Swann and Fiske were found dead in a dumpster behind Fiske’s nightclub. Both had been shot once, in the forehead, just like Williams and the police were looking for a woman named Sandra Poirier. Then they decided to drive over to Helene’s hotel and have a talk with her. But when they went to the front desk, they were told that she had left early that morning. Things were not going well for our team, but I told them to keep watching those places until morning and to keep guarding Elenore for now too.
Things did not go the way we had planned, but the same could be said for Sandra’s side too. I don’t mind losing Sandra as much as losing Helene again. Then Cristy told me that she discovered Sandra and Helene are cousins, that’s why we lost both of them. However, they might not be far away and may have even come back to our little town. So, I told Jennifer to head back, I have a hunch, and maybe it will pay off for us…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Jennifer and the Bad Girls were now in the city and had found Swann’s main supplier of drugs and other things, a man named Gordon Henkley. He did not live in the city, but his girlfriend did, and he was at her house, with his latest shipment for Swann and Williams. The Bad Girls were searching the house while Jennifer talked with Gordon. “I know about your shipment of drugs, and a few other things,” she began, “and I know that Swann has already paid you for this shipment. We are here to pick it up for Swann, so please be kind enough to get it for us.”
“Hey, this wasn’t part of the deal,” he said, “Swann was supposed to pick it up himself today because it was such a large shipment.” “Yes, he was supposed to be here at 11am,” said Jennifer, “but something came up, so we are here instead. Nothing to worry about, we will be going directly to Williams from here.” Right then Amerie came into the bedroom. “Monsieur Henkley,” she said, “hiding the drugs in the seat cushions of your sofa, so bad, so easy for someone to find. You must not be doing this for very long.” “Good, now where is the rest of it Gordon?” asked Jennifer, “I know you wouldn’t hide the guns in seat cushions.”
“Under the bed and in the closet,” he said, “I needed to keep them close and easy to get at so Swann could pick up and leave quickly. He doesn’t like to be seen with me.” “Can’t blame him for that,” said Jennifer, “getting caught with you is a sure way to end up in prison.” “You don’t seem to be afraid of that,” he said. “We don’t mind taking chances,” said Jennifer, “besides, I’m a ghost, no prison can hold me, I just walk out.” She then walked through his bed after the girls removed the suitcases full of guns. “Hey, not those suitcases!” he yelled, “Those are for a different client!”
Jennifer opened them. “My, my, what a lot of money,” she said, “US dollars, Euros, Pounds and a couple others too. Very nice indeed. But we will have to take this along too Gordon, I’m quite certain that Swann would want it that way. If you want to complain, then do it to Swann.” They didn’t find anything else, but before they left Amerie went up to Gordon and told him to remember that he gave everything to Swann’s representative. Then she touched the back of his neck with her ring and Gordon was asleep, so they put him back into bed.
The only thing he will remember is what Amerie told him. Then off they all went back to the vans and drove away. Next stop was Williams nightclub where Swann was supposed to meet him at 11:30am. But as they got close to the location they spotted a lot of smoke, plus flames rising from the club. The fire department was there and the police, so they didn’t bother stopping and decided to go looking for Helene instead. Then Jennifer had a thought and she told the girls they would head over to see Fiske and Sandra first, so they turned and went over to a different part of the city.
Interestingly their nightclub was also on fire and since Fiske lived at the club too, they didn’t know where else to look for him. But Jennifer called Cristy and she gave her the address for Sandra, so off the girls went to visit her. “It would seem that someone is trying to take out both Fiske and Swann,” said Jennifer to the Bad Girls. Then Kat communicated with Jennifer and gave her an update on my condition and told her she may want to come back home. So they pulled over and Sky arrived after Jennifer called her and brought her back to the clinic.
Then Sky returned to her Bad Girls and they continued their journey to Sandra’s house. As they were driving, an alarm call came through to head back to the hotel in a hurry! Sky quickly went back while the Bad Girls turned the vans around and headed back as fast as they could. They didn’t want to speed though with all those drugs, guns and money in the vans. This would not be a good time to have the police stop them. Sky arrived in the room with Venus and there were 6 men in the room with one of them pointing some kind of odd looking gun at Kristina who was on her knees looking rather weak.
Sky was invisible, so she quickly left and returned with Angel. Sky knew that Kristina would need strength from Angel. They made themselves visible and that’s when Angel saw Friskie on the floor between the two beds. There has been a mixing up of the ghosts after I was stabbed by Christopher and since Sky was needed back home, she brought Kristina to be here with Friskie while Angel and Kitty were at Elenore’s. Sky spotted that gun and quickly hit it with a bolt of electricity, destroying the gun completely.
Then she and Angel began to fight those 6 men and quickly had them subdued, although 2 tried to escape out the door, but Sky tossed two small lightning balls at them, killing them instantly. Angel went to work on Friskie first since she was the weakest and she was back on her feet in no time. Then Angel helped Kristina and she likewise was back on her feet feeling normal again very quickly. “That gun drained us quickly of strength,” said Friskie. “It must be one of Toledo’s inventions,” said Angel. “That man has one too,” said Kristina and she took it out of his pocket.
“Good,” said Sky, “we’ll take this one back home with us so Kat and Carolyn can check it out. They can make us immune to it’s effects, just in case there are more of them out there.” Meanwhile, back at the clinic. “Are you okay sis?” asked Kat. “Yeah, I guess,” she said, “that was scary, but we found out that Steve could be killed, something we never knew for sure before.” “Yes,” said Kat, “I really didn’t want to find out that way, but at least now we don’t have to worry about him, right?”
“Maybe you don’t,” said Jennifer, “but I will still worry about him. Are you 100% positive he is like us now?” “Yes, 100% positive little sis,” she said, smiling. “Hey, we’re twins remember,” she said. “Yep, but I was born first,” said Kat, “so you’re my little sis.” They hugged each other and Misty came shuffling along at that moment. “What are you doing out of bed?” asked Kat, “Did Samantha give you permission?” “No, but there’s someone in my room,” she said, “I want to be alone, there’s other empty rooms.”
“Actually Misty,” said Jennifer, “he isn’t in your room, you are in his room.” “No matter, he can be moved,” said Misty, “I’m… his room?” She then slowly turned and looked at the room number. “That’s Steve in there?” she asked, “What happened? Why is he in there? Why wasn’t I told about this? Is he hurt bad? Who did it? Why am I the last to know things? He needs help, why is no one helping him? Get nurses in there, find out what he needs. Why is no one doing anything? I’ll help Steve myself, if I don’t fall down.”
She began to shuffle her way back to the room, so Kat and Jennifer picked her up and carried her back to the room. Back to the hotel. “Okay Venus,” said Sky, “now it’s time for you to fly quickly back home to our clinic where they can look after you much better. You’re coming too Friskie, so hold on.” They arrived at the clinic with Venus lying on a bed. “Um, that was cool,” said Venus, “you are a ghost just like Jennifer!” “Like I said before, she’s stronger than me,” said Sky giggling. “Hey, stop talking so loud,” said Misty, “Steve is trying to sleep.”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 