Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Lost Puppy Case. Chapter 12. Confusion.
Sky and Crystal, plus the cats would be staying with me in the room, while Kristina stayed in the waiting area outside my room. Kristina is quite amazing, she only needs 3 hours of sleep each night, something she has been doing since she was a little girl. The others were asleep and I was just lying in bed thinking. This case is mixed up, but why? Denise, well, I should say Sofie, hired us to find those jewels, yet she told the cats the note we found was fake and the jewels would never be found. Then why hire us?
Now, we know the puppy was not the right one, so we still need to find it and hopefully the proper clue to locate the jewels. We bought the chateau, but we bought it from Denise and since she is dead, is the purchase okay or is it voided. Well, Denise had no other family, so Sofie would have inherited the chateau anyway, but whose signature did she put on those papers?
I called Baldwin and told him about it, so he will be talking with his lawyer. He was not too happy about that. Neither am I, but somehow we messed up. We all saw the picture of Denise with the puppy but we did not notice the puppy was different. Worse yet, we did not notice that Sofie was not Denise. Crystal brought that picture along with her. It certainly looks like the woman we have been dealing with. Are they twins? I look over at Crystal.
Her and Sky look like twins and yet they are not related. Hmm, is this really Sofie then? Maybe it is someone different who just looks like Sofie. This is crazy. I fell asleep after a while, but woke up after about an hour, sweating and breathing heavily. The others were all sleeping. I looked at Crystal and got up quietly. She was sleeping in the big chair. I went around behind her. I quickly grabbed her throat and began choking her.
The noise woke up Muffin and she jumped on my back digging in all 18 claws! I yelled and loosened my grip. That allowed Crystal to break free and she stood swinging her leg around kicking me on the side of my head which knocked me against the wall. Sky was now awake, jumped out of bed and kicked me in the stomach. That knocked me to the floor and Muffin jumped off. MC was in position, ready to hit me with a rubber ball if necessary. But it was not.
Kristina had come in too with her dart gun ready. I was awake now and back to normal. Kristina had hit the alarm so Chung and Saranna came running in. Chung gave me a shot of something to calm me down and I went back to bed. Everyone else did the same, but the cats decided to sleep with me now. Saranna had put bandages on my back where Muffin had scratched me. I looked at Crystal and was not quite sure what to say.
“I, I am very sorry Crystal,” I said and began to cry. She looked at Sky. “Go ahead,” said Sky. Crystal came over and gave me a little kiss. “It is not your fault Steve” she said smiling, “but I am glad Muffin stopped you.” “Yes, me too,” I said. Sky kissed me and said good night, again, and told me to relax. Then she looked at Crystal, “Go ahead.” She did. Meow,meow.=That better one.
“I sure hope J…Walter, can find out where Lavina is hiding,” said Sky. “Yes, we need to stop her,” said Kristina, then she turned to go. “You forgot something,” said Sky. “Me?” she asked. “Yes, you,” replied Sky. Nothing else happened that night and in the morning we all went back to the chateau. We had breakfast first and then continued looking around while the others helped Denise, I mean Sofie, pack and move.
We decided to keep doing that so she would not know what we had found out about her. Just before we started to look around a man came to the door. “Is aunt Denise here?” he asked. He was a big, tough looking man and had 3 others with him. Obviously it was the son of Sofie and other gang members. Sofie came in and invited them into the living room for coffee.
Walter and Crandall came driving up while they were here and Walter recognized the insignia on the motorcycles. He phoned me and told me about them. Walter did not want to come in while they were here as they would recognize him. This is getting more interesting all the time. I told him to wait until the left. I also told Benson to wait around until those men left.
Rock soon showed up and came inside. He had talked to Walter first, so he knew about the men. He and Benson went into the kitchen. Benson had put a listening device in the living room so they could hear every word. It was an interesting conversation…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Midweek Coffee Chat. #30
Good morning everyone! It is mild again this morning and snowing lightly, we have about an inch of new snow on the ground. But that big snowstorm they had forecast for us is going to mainly miss us now, so instead of getting 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25cm) of snow, it will only be about 3 inches (7.5cm). That is not so bad. The birds are quite busy this morning, even the blue jays arrived earlier than they have been lately. I made a little mistake in my story yesterday about Dad and I.
I did not grab the crossarm, but the little tree that I had been reaching for. We were trying to climb the hill at the time, or at least I was trying to climb the hill. So, let us return to the story now… I handed his hat to him and he put it on. He yelled again. “You should shake the snow out of it first,” I said. “I should have left you at home,” he said. “I agree, that is what I said before,” I reminded him.
“Where are my glasses?” he asked. “Did you lose those again?” I asked, “you are always losing your glasses.” Dad just sighed very loudly. I found them almost completely buried in the snow. “Here you are,” I said, handing them to Dad. He grabbed them too quickly before I had a chance to let go. There was a loud snap. “They broke,” I said. Dad sighed even louder and shook his head. “You really should be more careful,” I told him. Dad sighed again.
“Guess we need to go back home,” I said smiling. Dad had other thoughts. “We came to get insulators and we do not leave until we get some,” he said. Now it was my turn to sigh. “Even if I get up the hill,” I said, “how will you get up?” “I will stay down here,” he said. “How will I reach the crossarms then?” I asked. Dad thought for a moment. “We need a better way up that hill,” he said. We walked around through the trees and finally found an easy way up the hill.
“That is easy?” asked Dad. “Better than that other way,” I said. Dad sighed again. He did that a lot when we were together. But it really was not so bad climbing the hill this new way. Dad spotted an even easier way and went over there. I watched. Dad was doing well, until, he yelled as he disappeared into a hole. I went over to look. “You fell in a hole,” I said. Dad just looked at me and sighed. “Help me get out,” he said. “How, you are too big for me to lift you out,” I said. Dad sighed again.
“I will bring that branch over and put it across the hole,” I said, “you can use it to pull yourself out.” I went over to get it. It was actually a small tree, about 4 inches in diameter, and solid. I put it across the hole. “My feet are stuck,” said Dad. “Take your boots off,” I said, “we can get them afterward.” Dad did not like that idea, but after several tries to get out, unsuccessfully, he gave in and took his boots off. That helped and he was able to get out, with some help from me.
I held onto a tree and Dad grabbed my legs to continue pulling himself out. “You are pulling my boot off,” I yelled, and moved my foot. Dad yelled too, louder. He claimed I kicked him in the chin. I barely moved my foot. Dad liked to exaggerate a bit. Finally Dad was sitting in the snow, with bare feet. “Why did you take your socks off?” I asked. “I didn’t,” he said, “they just stayed in the boots.” He told me to get his boots. Naturally. He yelled again.
He said I knocked snow off a branch and the snow landed on his bare feet. I never touched the branch. I got the boots out and tossed them to Dad. One apparently hit him on the head while he was putting the other one on. “Guess we should go back now,” I said. “No, we need to look for insulators first,” said Dad. “But it has started to snow,” I said. “Just a flurry,” said Dad, “no problem.” I sighed. Guess I will have to finish this tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 