Mac is now staying at a nice bed and breakfast place in town. He did not stop here, for now we do not know each other, until we find out if Toledo recognizes Mac. Anyway, we want Mac to keep an eye out for Toledo and Carmen in town and see if they are staying there, or at least showing up there once in a while. Carmen’s man was living there in a small flat behind the bakery.

The bakery owners live right above. Apparently the man had paid for a month in advance, but only planned to stay for a couple weeks he had told them. The owners had not seen anyone with the man when he moved in and no one had visited him in the 5 days he had been there. Mac was not allowed to phone us, just in case Toledo had a way to intercept phone calls coming here.

But we have a way to communicate, rather old fashioned, but it works. “I wonder why they go to that village every day?” asked Carmen. “They have a large group of people to feed,” said Toledo, “buying bread from that bakery makes sense.” “Why, they could just bake it themselves,” she retorted. “That would be a lot of baking,” answered Toledo, “why do that, it is much easier to buy it.”

“Lazy bunch of idiots,” mumbled Carmen. Toledo laughed. “Reminds me of you,” he said. “You better be careful mister,” she said angrily, “I just might forget myself and kill you one day.” “That would be your biggest mistake,” he replied, “Steve would hunt you down very easily if you were on your own. Plus, you would be doing Steve a big favor by killing me, he would enjoy that.”

“You saved yourself on that one,” she growled, “I will never do a favor for that, that miserable excuse of a man!” Toledo laughed again. “Hey, is that Sky outside right now?” she asked. “Yep, that is her,” said Toledo. Right then I showed up. “Sky, you are not supposed to be outside,” I said, “come back in now.” “But it is such a nice day Steve,” she said, “can we not go for a short walk at least?”

“No walking today,” I said. “There is your proof,” said Toledo. “Yeah, they do kiss a lot,” she said, “makes me sick to see it. And look how long they are kissing.” “Why not kill her right now,” said Toledo. “Good idea,” she said and aimed the machine. Right then I turned a bit so I would be standing right in front of Sky. “That miserable rat of a man!” she growled, “it is like he did that deliberately!”

“Yeah, he must have super good hearing,” said Toledo sarcastically. Carmen turned and looked at Toledo, she was burning with anger right then! She looked back at us, but we had gone back inside again. Carmen screamed! “Hey, not so loud,” said Toledo, “even at this distance they could hear that.” “I do not care!” she yelled, “he always seems to win, always!”

“Not with me,” said Toledo, “I always win, he never has and never will stop me.” “I notice you have never stopped him either!” snapped Carmen, then she laughed. “I just have not wanted to stop him yet,” he replied, “it would be no fun to do that. I like to have a challenge and Steve provides that challenge for me.” “Men!” she said, “you are all a bunch of idiots!”

Toledo starts the van. “Hey, where are you going?” she asked. “Home for a while, this is getting boring watching a house,” he said, “but you can stay if you wish. Give my regards to Steve when he catches you.” She climbed into the van. “You have no patience either,” she said grumbling. “Not for watching houses,” he admitted. Off they drove.

“Why are we stopping here?” asked Carmen. “You ask the strangest questions sometimes,” he said shaking his head, “we need fuel if we want to reach home.” There was a couple of older men sitting outside playing checkers while a younger man served them. Soon they left and went on to the home that Toledo owned, not too far away amazingly, just about an hour drive away from the village.

The young man came over to the checker players. “All done sir,” he said. “Good, thank you very much,” said the older man as he handed the man some money. The two older men played another game of checkers. After picking up bread, the girls stopped to pick up fuel too. “Who is winning?” asked Astrid. “Two games for him, one for me,” said the one man, “not my day I guess.”

Astrid laughed and the girls drove away. Once they got home and unloaded all the bread and other things, Astrid came into the library. “One game won,” she said smiling. Annelie tuned in and sure enough, everything was working just fine. After a while she said, “there it is, that is where they are staying.” “Good,” I said, “now Toledo, it is our turn.”

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.