We were all back at the hotel with Saranna working on my wound. “You were lucky Steve,” she said, “that bullet was in this nice fleshy part by your shoulder, nice and easy to patch up. It will be sore for a while though, so try not to move this arm too much. I really think perhaps I should stay here, after all, if any of you gets hurt, going to the hospital is not such a good idea. It would lead to a lot of questions.”

“Good point Lieutenant,” said Carver. “Yes, I agree too,” said Sky, “since you will not wear your vest.” “Yes, why not?” asked Saranna. “Cops wear armor,” said Carver. “Oh, I see,” she said, “and Steve needs to come off as tough.” “Yep,” answered Carver. “Okay,” I said, “you can stay, but Sky, you still need to go.” “But they know you have a girl,” she said, “it would look strange for me to leave now after you get hurt.”

“Point Lieutenant,” said Carver again. I like how he talks so much. I called Crystal and asked her to come to my room. She knocks on the door and Frank let her in. He did a double take when he saw her. Carver looked at her, just stared really, then looked back at Sky. “Twins,” he said. “No, not really,” I said, “they are cousins, but their mothers were triplets.” “Cool,” he said. “Make sure you look after him,” Sky said to Crystal, “and Sigurbjorn stays here with you as well.”

“Yes, I will need her too,” I said. “Ralph, you can call the Major now and let him know what happened,” I said, “but let him know we have things under control.” “Yeah, you just about get killed,” said Sky sarcastically, “but things are under control. Oh, I want Muffin with me too.” “Hmm, good idea,” I said, “would you please go along and look after Sky for me Muffin?”

Meow,meow.=Okie, me go, need to take care of Sky for my human. “And start teaching the kittens so hopefully they can communicate too,” I told her. Meow,meow.=Yep, me do that too. She came over to hug me then went off with Sky. I called Annelie and told her Crystal was now my wife. She said everything will be done right away. “What does that mean?” asked Frank. “Now, Crystal and I are married, legally,” I said, “in a sense anyway.

All the legal documents are in place, though Sky’s name remains on them, but the ID is switched to Crystal to match her. “You can do that?” asked Frank. “Yep, all done by now,” I said, “so Crystal is now Sky, so please try to remember to call her Sky from now on.” “Cool,” said Carver. Meanwhile, Carnival decided to call the Major, he figured it might look better if he did that. The Major was none too happy about the news, even though he already knew.

He reminded Carnival of what he said previously and Carnival was weaving quite the story for the Major, which the Major was not believing in the least. Then Carnival said he could hand over the guys that killed the lawyer and his wife. “It was some guy, goes by the name of Spider,” said Carnival, “him and 2 friends of his, they did it. Some guy had hired them for the job, someone that lawyer put in prison one time. I would never be so stupid to hit a friend of yours like the Lieutenant. Surely you believe that.”

“I do not believe anything you tell me,” said the Major, “you would lie to me anytime, and sell out your own mother if it would help you. But get that Spider and his friends for the Lieutenant, and maybe I will stay away. But you better do it fast Alberto. Fast!” Then the Major called me and let me know what Carnival had told him. “I do not know if I would trust him at all,” I said, “I still think he did the job, though maybe he hired this Spider himself. It would be nice to have this taken care of quickly, I am sure your men would be happy to get back there too.”

“Do not worry about them,” said the Major, “they will stay with you until this is over. But keep me informed, right away, when something happens, no more delays like today.” “Okay, that is a deal,” I said. We talked a bit more and then hung up. “Don’t worry about us Lieutenant,” said Ralph, “we are in no hurry.” “Yep, that goes for me too,” said Frank. “Yep,” said Carver.

After getting something to eat we started going through all those papers from the lawyer. Crystal and I started with the stuff from one of the caskets, the rest of the girls looked at the stuff from the other casket. The guys went through the stuff we found at the lawyers office. Carver was going through a book of some kind when he started to smile…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.