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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
I had been waiting for the mysterious Mr. B to show up for our appointment, one that was arranged by him. That was a surprise in itself, but when I saw someone drive into the parking lot, and then get out of the car, I was really surprised. I was quite certain by this time that it must by Andrew Li. I had thought it was either him or my first choice which was Kenwood. But I wasn’t so sure that Kenwood had enough influence around here to get us out of jail so quickly, or that he would even have the desire to do so.
That’s when I had decided it must be Andrew Li. That way he could keep himself as a genuine businessman, while as the mysterious Mr. B he could be a notorious gangster, and no one would know. So, naturally I was very surprised when I saw the real Mr. B getting out of the car. I waited until there was a knock at my door.
“Come in Mr. B, and make yourself comfortable,” I said, “would you like some coffee?” “Now that is a silly question Steve,” said Mr. B, “of course I would. You know, I walked right past 4 of your girls down in the lobby and they didn’t pay much attention to me, that’s bad you know.” “Well, they were expecting someone else,” I said, “but I’m sure they noticed you and likely checked which floor you got off.”
“That would be hard,” said Mr. B, “since I pressed 3 different floors. And since they were not expecting me to be the one visiting you, they likely wouldn’t think I got off at this floor.” “Misty,” I said. “Yes Steve,” she answered. “Have you seen Mr. B come in yet?” I asked her. “Nope,” she said, “no one fitting that description has come along yet. For someone so important he certainly isn’t very punctual. I would give him 5 demerits for that.”
“Hmm, you do know there are 3 entrances to this hotel,” I reminded her. “Yes, but for someone so important he would naturally use the main entrance,” she said, “unless he was a real, sly, sneakster type.” “Guess he’s a real, sly, sneakster type,” I said, “because Mr. B is here already. You get 5 demerits Misty.” “But, but, but,” she started to say. “Good bye Misty,” I said. She sighed.
“What happened Misty?” asked Kitty. “Mr. B sneaked in through one of the other doors,” she said, “and I got 5 demerits.” “Hmm, if he gives me 5 demerits then I will revoke his Sneaker privileges for 5 weeks,” Misty thought to herself, then she sighed again, “no I won’t, I’m not tough enough to do that.” Losing Sneaker privileges would mean no sneaked donuts and no use of the twin’s den for 5 weeks.
“He can’t give you 5 demerits for that,” said Kitty, “or he would have to give us all 5 demerits, and if he does that then we will take it to the highest court to get it overturned!” “Yes!” said Misty, “um, what is the highest court? I didn’t know we had one.” “Misty, the highest court is Jennifer,” said Kitty, “she would never allow 5 demerits for something like this.” “Cool, I will have to remember that,” Misty said.
Meanwhile, back to me and Mr. B. “So, tell me, why did you pick the name of Mr. B?” I asked. “Why not?” said Mr. B, “You had a friend one time by the name of Mr. B, so I thought, why not use that as my name, that way I could hide right out in the open and no one would ever know it was me. Even Kenwood doesn’t know that Mr. B and I are the same person.” “Isn’t it hard to keep it from your boyfriend?” I asked.
“Please Steve, don’t insult me like that,” she said, shuddering, “Kenwood is not my boyfriend. He is a business associate in a legitimate business venture. And I also don’t do any of my own unlawful activities. That is all handled by people who work for me. Yes, I know, that doesn’t mean I’m not guilty, but any killing that my people do is only other criminals. I guess that still doesn’t make it right though.” She then put her head down.
“I got trapped in this business through my dad,” she said, “he would tell me all these glamorous stories of his criminal activities as I was growing up. My mother died when I was 6, so I just naturally followed dad and his way of doing things. But ever since I took over 2 years ago when my dad was shot and killed, I realized this is not what I wanted to do with my life.
But I was stuck, with no way out except maybe with life in prison, or being killed like my dad. So, I invented Mr. B after studying you and The Investigators. I learned a lot about you, like the fact Kitty is not your wife, Jennifer is. But Jennifer was supposed to have been killed, and yet she is still alive. Has anyone ever asked you this question, is it possible for someone to change?”
“Yes, I have been asked that question quite a few times,” I said, “several of the people on my team have changed from a life of crime to a life of fighting crime. And their lives have been truly changed. My wife Jennifer is one such example, and there are several others.
With most we have given them a whole new identity, new name, new life history, usually after the old person dies, either in an accident or by being killed. Of course they don’t really die, but we make their death look remarkably real.” “I truly want to change Steve,” said Ivy, “I want out of this life, will you please help me?”
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod
We had arrived at Dan’s house, but the front door didn’t open for us the way it usually does. That made me feel uneasy since Dan knew we were coming over right now. That made us all think that something must have happened to Dan, but what was it? Going into the kitchen we found our answer, at least partially. Dan was lying on the floor by the coffee maker and he was dead. Someone had used something to hit Dan first, then he was stabbed.
It appeared the murderer was not very strong, which is likely why they used something to hit Dan on the head first. It would also seem like the person was known to Dan, so he wasn’t expecting any trouble. But that doesn’t really help, Dan would likely know a lot of people, including Barry and right now Barry is the main suspect in this murder. Unfortunately we must tell the police about this murder, which means we will be off the case.
Unless they ask us to stay working on it with them. However, we do have a little time to poke around before getting the police involved, so we looked around for some evidence. Celestine and Misty looked around by the front steps and Celestine found a small, sharp rock which she brought inside and handed to me. It had some fresh blood on it so I let Samantha take a look. She took a sample from the rock, then from Dan. I’m getting the idea that it was the same person who killed Jacie.
Next, I called Barry. “Hey Steve,” he said, “sorry I can’t come home right now, we’re a bit behind on our work.” I then told him that Dan had been murdered. There was silence for a few moments, then he said he was on his way. He got back quickly and we hadn’t touched anything. I really didn’t expect any emotion from Barry, but he was actually crying over this. He told us that he and Dan were best friends for the past 15 years, they didn’t always agree, but they never had any serious arguments.
Dan was the serious side of the business and handled most everything, except money matters, that was Barry’s job. He figured it was either Kenwood or Andrew Li. “What about Mr. B?” I asked. “I don’t think Mr. B exists,” he replied, “no one has ever seen him, yet everyone is afraid of him, doesn’t make sense to me.” “There are a lot of people that project their power by staying hidden,” I said, “they have others do the work for them, but, that is up to you if you want to believe or not.” “Do you believe there is a Mr. B?” he asked.
“Yes, I do,” I told him, “I have even spoken to him. And I’m sure I will speak to him again. Just then I got a phone call from Astrid telling me that Angel (aka Crystal) had been kidnapped by 5 men outside our hotel. We were all suitably saddened by this bit of news. By now we had to call the police and wouldn’t you know, those same three officers showed up. The sergeant told one of the officers to wash the rock. I stepped in the way.
“You don’t wash a piece of evidence so important,” I said, “that would get rid of finger prints and the blood that is on the rock.” “Well, you didn’t say there was blood on the rock Mr. PI man,” he said, “but I do have a few questions for you. Why were you in Dan’s house anyway?” “We had an appointment to visit with him this morning,” I said. Barry confirmed that we were supposed to come over this morning. I told the sergeant that since there was no answer when I rang the doorbell, I decided to open the door and see if there was a problem.
“Good thing he did too,” said Barry. “You stop talking unless I ask you a question,” growled the sergeant, so Barry walked into the living room. “Arrest him boys!” he bellowed to the other officers and they ran after Barry, knocking him to the floor and putting handcuffs on him. “I hope the rest of you won’t give us any trouble,” he smiled. Amazingly, he called for more officers and a couple of vans to transport us to their police station where we were all formally charged with murder, had all our ID taken from us, had a strip search, all of us together which is not exactly proper these days, then we were jailed.
I communicated our problems with Sky, Kat and Kristina. They got in touch with Jennifer, who then got in touch with Rossana. Sienna got in touch with her lawyer, but he never made it to the police station. Someone shot him as he came out of his office building and he died immediately. And, unfortunately, Rossana didn’t have much pull with the Calgary Police Service, so, there we sat in jail. I told them it might be a good idea if they would return our clothes to us, but we were just told to shut up.
Well, this is not quite what I had in mind for today. I don’t know what happened to Barry, he was taken away in a different car and he didn’t show up at this station. We stayed this way for about 2 hours when 2 men showed up, which we discovered were lawyers, and the police were soon bringing our clothes back and letting us go. We were not given any other information though, but Astrid and some of the other girls were waiting for us in our cars.
They had received a text telling them to be here and pick us up at a certain time, so they came. Well, one of the people involved in this case got us out of jail, but how and why? I got in touch with Jennifer right away and she wanted us to leave while we still could. That might be a good idea, however, there is still some unfinished business here in Calgary, and we need to get it finished.
After getting back to our hotel and relaxing for about an hour, I received a strange text from someone claiming to be Mr. B. He would like to meet with me, here at the hotel in my room if possible, otherwise in the restaurant. I replied saying that my room would be okay. I could have two others with me, but he would be alone and unarmed. That seemed strange, but I didn’t sense any trouble, even when he drove into the parking lot. I certainly wasn’t expecting who I saw…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 