Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Secret Estate Case. Chapter 4. The Chase.
Sky, Macey and Angel were off running right behind MC and Storm. They are the fastest runners we have on the team, but I doubt they will catch that wolf. Wolves are fast and can run through the trees better than people. Storm is the most likely one to catch up to the wolf, maybe he can get it to stop which would give the girls a chance to get close enough to shoot it. Rock was in the chopper and had it in the air quickly.
“Rock, if you see the wolf, try to shoot in front of it,” I called to him on the phone, “that might stop it or turn it back towards the girls.” “Right, shall do Steve,” he said, “we will get Muffin back!” I knew that he would be out of calling range very quickly due to that force shield around this place that stops any calls from our phones.
I was right, poor MC ran out of steam fairly quickly and had to stop, but Storm kept going and saw the wolf turn, so he turned too in time to get alongside the wolf and he gave a huge leap landing on the back of the wolf. That got the wolf to stop and he dropped Muffin to try and get Storm off his back. Angel tripped quite close to where MC stopped, so she stayed with him, knowing she could not catch up now anyway. Macey was now in the lead and really began to get her legs moving now when she saw the wolf in the distance.
She had her gun out and while still running at full speed she shot 3 times. The wolf howled and fell on its side and Storm jumped off and stood by Muffin to protect her. The wolf got up, Macey had stopped now, took aim and fired 3 more times. The wolf fell, dead. Sky had caught up by then, but let Macey finish the wolf while she ran over to Muffin. “We got the wolf,” Angel said to Rock, “and Muffin, but she is hurt.”
Rock flew back to the pad at the house, but kept the chopper running. I told him if Muffin is hurt bad that I wanted him to take her directly to Chung, then come back as quickly as he can. When the girls returned, Marlene looked at Muffin and wound bandages around her and said she should be taken back. Rock was soon on his way. It will be a while before he gets back here. “Thank you MC and Storm,” I said, “you did very well today.”
Meow.=Me fail, Storm save my Muffin. Meowr.=No, not true, we both save Muffin. Me just have long legs, made to run. “He is right MC,” I said, “you gave your all on that chase, that is the best anyone can do.” I picked him up and cuddled him. “I think you both need to relax for a bit and get your bodies cooled down,” said Marlene. “Good idea,” I said, “and thanks so much girls, I would have had a hard time if Muffin had been lost.”
We all sat outside for a bit, while John, Kristina and Astrid buried Marven in the garden where it was easy digging. “Well, guess it is time to go inside and explore this huge place,” I said, “all 25 rooms of it.” “Plus an attic and 2 basements,” added Sky. “And we will not be alone while we do it,” said Tracy, “I wonder how many men are out here?” “Not too many,” I replied, “or they would have attacked us by now.” “Well, two did try earlier,” Sky reminded me.
“True,” I said, “so there are 2 less we have to worry about, plus Marven is no longer a threat. Trying to find the remainder might not be easy though.” “And we probably should try to find them, if possible,” added John, “hard to relax knowing that there are others around wanting to kill us.” We went in and picked out 3 bedrooms to use. The 3 of us guys will be in one, the girls will split into 2 of the bedrooms. We moved extra mattresses into the girls rooms from other bedrooms.
Rock will not likely make it back before dark, so he will stay in a hotel in town and come out early in the morning. The main safe had been opened and contained a lot of papers but nothing interesting. Obviously the people ahead of us did not find the jewels yet, or they would have gone. We checked one of the other safes marked on the floor plan we had.
It was locked but MC helped in opening that one quickly. It was a hidden safe so might not have been found by anyone. Nothing exciting in it anyway, more papers, including the deed to the place which Mandar will be happy to have. The next safe was hidden behind a radiator, which was no longer used. MC had that open quite easily, these old safes are easy for him. He moved aside and I opened the door. That is all I remember until…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Friday Fun With Coffee! #6
Good morning to all of you on this cool, but sunny, Friday! It did cool off alright, down to -4F (-20C), but it is supposed to reach a high of 25F (-4C) this afternoon and not cool off much tonight. Back to melting weather tomorrow which will be nice. We often get this kind of nice weather in February, kind of teasing us into thinking that winter is nearly over. However, there is still a lot of winter left yet.
I imagine you are probably wanting me to continue with my story from yesterday, so off we go back to that snowy ledge. My nice “slope” was actually 2 very dead trees that had fallen against the cliff edge many years previous and had been so covered with snow as to completely cover them to look like a natural slope. The snow was deep enough to hide any sign of the remaining branches on those two trees. One of my snowshoes had gotten tangled in the trees, twisting my ankle rather badly.
The day started off nicely snowshoeing through a snowy landscape, like the one above.
So, there I was, lying on my back in the snow, with my snowshoe, and my foot, caught in the dead trees. Not exactly the best position to be in for sure. Now, what to do next? First of all, I had to get my snowshoe, and my foot, untangled from the branches of those trees. That was not exactly easy since my snowshoe was in the air and I was lying on my back in soft snow. But, I was able to use the one tree to pull myself up so I could undo the strap on my snowshoe to get my foot free.
Then I was able to get my snowshoe out of the branches. I put my snowshoe back on since the snow was rather soft and deep on that ledge. However, my ankle was paining quite a bit, so moving around in that deep snow was not easy. What to do now? There was no visible way back up and from what I could see it was at least 20 feet down to the next ledge. Although I did not want to get too close to the edge since snow has a nasty habit of hanging far over the actual edge and I could then end up falling.
Watching these tiny chickadees, above, can be helpful at times.
And who knows what might be under that deep snow at the bottom. Deep snow can be nice to land in, but it can also hide some dangerous objects. So I decided that jumping down would not be a good option either. Besides, my ankle was really throbbing now and jumping could make things worse. It was 1pm when I left, it was now 2:30pm, so that gave me about 2 hours of daylight left. I was not really sure what to do, so I cleaned the snow off a rock and sat down to ponder the situation.
The only way out was to go up, but that granite was quite straight up for about 30 feet and rather smooth which made climbing up impossible, though one area wasn’t quite as bad looking. Sigh. While I was sitting there, some chickadees came along from the valley below, a couple stopping to check around those two trees I had uncovered, digging behind the bark looking for insects. Then off they went to the top, effortlessly flying upward.
Red-breasted Nuthatches often travel around with chickadees.
As they flew upward, I noticed a small branch or perhaps small tree sticking out of the snow, and a little further along a small balsam just sticking out of the snow. Considering how deep the snow was, they would be bigger than they looked. And if they were well anchored to that rock, then just maybe they would be strong enough that I could pull myself up. But they were too high to reach, even using my snowshoe. I looked over at those two dead trees.
Hmm, just might work. I brought one over and put it against the rock to use as a ladder. I checked the short branches to make sure they would be strong enough to hold me, then took my snowshoes off and began climbing. I was just about high enough to reach that first little tree when, SNAP! That broken tree broke again and I tumbled down sliding to the edge of the ledge!
Hmm, this story is longer than it looked. Guess I will have to finish it tomorrow. I hope you all have a very pleasant day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 