Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Major Case. Chapter 10. Steve.
Storm looked around but he did not see me anywhere. He tried picking at Angel’s cheek but she just pushed his paw away. Finally he got a bit frustrated with that and swam off her back and around in front of her face. She was surprised by this, but Storm was firm and pointed backward. Angel turned around and so did the other girls, but there was no sign of me anywhere. They felt sick since they had not been watching out for me.
Kristina, who is second in charge of our little team, motioned to the other girls to go ahead while she went back to look for me. She was the strongest swimmer anyway, and besides, she was also the most responsible for not watching me. Storm insisted on coming with Kristina so she finally said okay and off they went, with Storm on her back. Crystal and Angel kept going toward the island, only 2 miles left.
They were both getting tired, but now more than ever they needed to stay underwater so they are not seen. It was definitely taking them longer than anticipated to swim this distance. They need to work on their swimming ability, they both thought. And now they were worried about me. Perhaps I had gotten behind and veered off course. That would be bad as I would then be heading to open ocean.
Angel was glad that Storm went with Kristina, he has excellent eyesight, and even underwater he would be able to see further than Kristina. Crystal was wondering why I had not pressed my alarm chip. Perhaps it does not work underwater. They have no other way to contact anyone while they are swimming. Once they get to the island they will contact Sky to let her know what happened. That will worry Sky, but now that she and Steve are married, she is second leader, with Rock third and Kristina fourth.
Meanwhile, the time arrived and the Major checked into the hotel. Oddly, no one even missed the manager yet. His wife is away to the main island for a few days, otherwise she would have noticed quickly. Major arrived with 4 men, and they went right up to his room. Rock called Sky to let her know and she went to his room to fill him in on the details so far. She knocked on the door and a man answered.
“My name is Sky,” she said, “I would like to talk with the Major for a few minutes. The man just said, “wait” and closed the door. He then opened it, smiling this time, and invited her in. “So what news do you have?” he asked. “Not too much,” she said, apologizing, “we do know where they are keeping her, unless they changed her location today. Steve and 3 of the girls, plus Storm, have gone to the island to try and get her free before the deadline.
But things were off to a bad start and they had to swim further than expected. They are overdue to call in, but quite a lot, and I am getting a bit worried. It may have been too much strain for Steve, and his heart. That would slow the girls down.” “Well, do not worry yet Sky,” said Major, “there is still lots of time before I have to make the drop.” “Only 4 hours,” said Sky, “that is not much time.” “It will be enough, I am sure,” said the Major.
Then John knocked on the door. Major said to let him in too. “Hi John, good to see you again,” said Major. “Same here,” said John. Then Major looked at Sky again. “Now I remember, you came with John that one time to see me,” he said. Sky giggled. “That was my cousin Crystal,” she said, “we look very much alike, so does another cousin, Angel. Our mothers were sisters, triplets in fact.” The Major laughed. “Now that is quite amazing,” he said.
“I had to get away from downstairs,” said John, “Pete showed up, but fortunately he did not see me. He has a friend with him, I guess it is Rich, since they are the two oldest. That means they left the two young guys on the island watching Macey. That should make it easy for Steve and his team. Has Steve been in touch yet?” “No,” said Sky, “they are way overdue and I am worried.” John then called Rock and told him.
That got Rock worried too, he knew we should have been to the island 2 hours ago, even with the extra distance. That means something went wrong. Meanwhile, Crystal and Angel finally made it to the island and they went around to the small cove where the kidnappers boat was hidden.
It was a good size boat and they quickly took pictures and sent them to Sky and she gave them to the Major. He then sent the pictures to his men on the main island, so they could be watching for it. Sky was relieved knowing that we made it to the island. What she did not know…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Saturday Sharing With Coffee! #2
Happy Saturday to each of you on this fine day! Grab a cup of coffee as we look at our day and browse through some photos. It is another cloudy day, but mild, with a temperature of 17F (-8C). The frost is basically off all the trees now, due to milder temps and wind. There is not much bird activity this morning. I have not even seen the chickadees and nuthatches yet, and they are usually here by 8am.
That is more than an hour late. There were 2 blue jays here briefly, but they left after taking just a couple of peanuts each. Yesterday turned out to be quite a busy bird day, with around 3 dozen Evening Grosbeaks showing up and staying about half the day. That was certainly nice to see. It seems I get one busy day per week with those birds. Very strange winter indeed.
I was kind of hoping for a better winter for birds this year, or at least normal, since this will likely be my last winter for feeding the birds. But things go as they go. I do enjoy the outdoors and walking to the river. I would have gone to the river yesterday again, but I am still recovering from that dog encounter. Hopefully I do not meet her again while walking to the river.
Anyway, I hope to walk down there more often now until it begins to melt in the spring. Then I must stop until all the ice is gone. I enjoy the birds and other wildlife that abound in our area. I still hope to get photos of some mammals that are fairly common in this area, but are still hard to find during the day for a good photo. Animals like wolves, coyotes, lynx, bobcat, snowshoe hare, otter, mink and a few others. I have seen these animals, just have not been able to get a good picture of them.
But perhaps this year I can add some of them to my list. Last year several birds were added to my list that I have been trying to get since I took up this hobby in 2018. Birds like the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole (both male and female), Mourning Dove, Indigo Bunting male (still need the female) and some excellent pictures of the LIncoln’s Sparrow which is a tough bird to get up close since they are a very shy bird and like to stay hidden.
But it is also enjoyable to just get pictures of our more common birds and mammals in different poses. So I am constantly taking photos, always hoping to get one that is a little better than ones that I have already. And there are some common birds, like the flicker, of which I still do not have some good pictures. I have some photos, but they are not very good, too far away. But perhaps this year. There are always new challenges and that is part of the fun in any hobby.
It is exciting every time I get a photo of something new. Or perhaps a different photo of something common, like birds yawning. Those are fun photos and I must get them all put together in one folder so I can find them easily. I am still sorting pics. It takes some time. I have over 85 thousand photos to sort out. I should have been doing it right from the start. Sigh. Always learning. I hope you enjoy the photos today, just a mixed up bunch for today. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
