Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee For Friday. #30
Good morning on this snowy Friday! It is just snowing lightly and we have another inch of new snow on the ground. That gives us 7 inches (17.5cm) now. We might still get another inch of snow today though it does not look like that will happen. Which is fine with me. Well, back to our story and the final part today. After we had our coffee break it began to snow, quite heavily.
But Dad was determined to get more insulators before we returned home. And there were only a few more poles to check anyway, then they get too tall for us to reach. It really was going quite nicely, the insulators were easy to remove. That is, until the next pole which had a purple insulator on it. All the other insulators came off easily, but that purple one did not budge. I tried and tried, but nothing happened. “Stand still,” I said to dad.
“There are rocks down here and they keep moving,” he replied. Finally he moved too much which caused me to lose my balance. I grabbed the crossarm but my right foot kicked dad on the side of the head. He yelled and bent over a bit and I wobbled more and stepped on Dad’s head, quite hard. He yelled again and sat down in the snow. I fell and landed next to him just as he removed his glasses. When I bumped into him he dropped his glasses into the snow and I landed on top of them.
Quite amazing really, but no harm was done to the already broken glasses anyway. Dad’s nose was bleeding, so was his ear. “You sure hurt yourself a lot,” I said. “Only when you are around,” he replied. I am not sure what he meant by that. “I guess that means we should go home,” I said. “I want to get that purple insulator,” he said, “so you will have to try again.” I sighed. Up I went again once the bleeding stopped. It was still snowing heavily. “It is getting hard to see very far,” I mentioned.
“Minor detail,” said dad. I had a piece of rubber in my backpack which I brought up with me this time. It worked, and that insulator finally came off. “Here it comes,” I said. “Ready,” said dad. “Here it comes,” I repeated. Dad looked up. Then his eyes got big and he scrambled to catch the insulator. He dropped it. And it hit one of the rocks which was now showing through the snow because of our tumbling around previously. I could hear the breaking glass. I came down.
“Why did you say that twice?” asked dad. “The first time was just to see if you were ready, when you said you were, then I said it again so you would know it was coming,” I said. Dad just looked at me. “Bonehead,” he said. “Looks like a hundred pieces of glass,” I said, “too bad, it was in perfect condition too.” Dad was looking at the broken pieces. I am sure he sighed a half dozen times over that one. We did get a purple one off the next pole, but it had some chips, not perfect like the other one.
Then we headed home. It was still snowing heavily and there was already about 5 inches of new snow. Probably 6 inches by the time we got back to the car. When we got back home, mom spotted the broken glasses. She shook her head and said, “you really should be more careful.” The look on dad’s face! I laughed loud and long. Well, I do hope you enjoyed this little adventure this week. We will have another adventure next week, but shorter next time. Happy Friday everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Lost Puppy Case. Chapter 13. Strange Things Again.
It would have been interesting to see the faces of that group in the living room that morning. “Well, mom,” said Thomas, “we got rid of aunt Denise for you, now we want to see some money.” “I have to wait until those people find the jewels,” she said, “you know that.” “Well, you did get money selling this chateau,” he reminded her. “Yes, and Mack took that from me,” she said, “so I have nothing. Besides, you did not get rid of her body like I told you.”
“Yes we did,” said Thomas, “we put her in that pond about 30km from here, and we tied weights to her feet so she would sink. No one will find her.” “You idiot, her body was found by these people in a trunk in the basement,” she said. The men looked at each other. “That is impossible mom,” he said, “I tied the weights on her feet myself. And we stayed until she sunk just to make sure.” “I tell you they found her body in the basement,” she said quite irritated now, “and the police are involved now.
They said it looks like she drowned and that something was tied to her feet alright and they can’t figure that out since she was in that trunk in the basement.” “Maybe someone watched us,” said Bernard, “and fished her body out and brought her back here.” “That would be stupid,” said Sofie, “too easy to get caught doing that. And you knew about that secret door to the basement Thomas.”
“So did that boyfriend of yours,” he retorted, “maybe he brought the body back.” “He was not even here at the time,” she reminded him, “now things are more complicated.” “How could you sell the chateau when you do not own it?” asked Pierre. Everyone looked at each other. “Well, I am her closest relative, and she is dead, so it would naturally go to me,” said Sofie. “But is there a will?” he asked again, “if not it would take a while to settle the estate. Until then you cannot legally sell it.”
“But I did already,” she said, “so what can anyone do?” “They might ask questions, like, how did you know Denise was dead already,” he answered, “that would be hard to explain.” “Well, we will not worry about that right now,” she said snorting, “the important thing now is Denise’s body, how do we explain that one?” “That is your problem mother, “said Thomas. “No, it is our problem,” she reminded him, “if the police start giving me a hard time, you will come into this as well, I will see to that.”
“Do not press your luck mother,” he said, “or you might find yourself taking a bath too.” Then the men got up and left. Sofie was red with anger when she got back into the kitchen. “That nephew of mine,” she said, “he gets me so angry sometimes. It is not my fault his mother was found dead in here!” “Well, do not let him bother you,” said Galyna, “just relax and have some coffee until the police get here.” “The police!” she gasped, “what are they coming here for?”
“Since it was your sister, they need to ask some questions,” answered Galyna, “like who her friends might have been, any boyfriends, any problems she had, or debts, that sort of thing.” “Oh, yes, I guess they would want to know those things to find out who killed her,” she admitted, “but I really do not know much about her personal life really.” “Any little bit might be of help,” she said, “and mention her son for sure, there may have been problems between the two of them.”
“Hmm, that is possible,” said Sofie. But she is thinking about how careful she needs to be when talking with the police. Any little slip about Denise or her son, she has to remember that she is supposed to be Denise and the dead woman is her. Oh my, she thought, one slip and the police would be arresting her for killing Denise, but really it was her son that did it. And she will tell the police that too! And she will be sure to say it was all his idea and he forced her to go along with it or he would kill her too.
After all, he even said today that he would kill her. That would be a great way to get rid of him for good, then she could enjoy the wealth from all those jewels all by herself. This might be better than she thought going into this deal with Mack. She did not care about Mack anyway, he came to her about finding those jewels, something she knew nothing about until then.
But one thing bothered her, how did her sisters body get back into the basement? Someone else is in on this too, but who? She was scared now, but she did not dare show that to anyone. “If you would like Denise,” said Galyna, “I could stay with you while the police interview you, to help you remember details, and just be some support for you.” “Oh, that would be so nice,” said Sofie, “thank you so much.”
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
