The next day I said that I would be going outside for a while. Everyone tried to convince me to stay inside where it was safe. “Forget it,” I said, “I am not hiding in here all week, I am going outside for a while, but you can come with me.” Everyone was quick to come along, and they went outside first to look around. That was nice, but a sniper could be out there, a long way off, and no one could see the person.

Tuva should know that, and actually, she said that once I was outside. It was a beautiful day, sunny, but not too hot, just perfect really. I am still thinking, trying to figure out what is going on. Annelie and John have still come up empty looking for Avina’s husband. If he is involved with this, I can understand why he would want to hide. That makes him look more guilty all the time.

But I doubt he could pull off killing me, so there must be someone else working with, or for, him. There are a lot of ‘hit men’ out there that he could hire for the job. “Sigurbjorn, would it be possible to have another massage this afternoon?” I asked. “No problem, Steve, anytime you want one, just ask,” she said, “the girls have all given up their massage times so you can have more this week.” That was nice of them, I thought, though it did make me feel a bit guilty too, taking away their massages.

But it is their choice, I guess. The day went by slowly, but that extra massage was sure nice. I am now getting my evening massage before going to bed. Jennifer is in her room sleeping, finally, so Sigurbjorn and Kristina are with me. Carine is going to join Jenny tonight, which is good, Jennifer is a bit stressed out by all of this. Around midnight Jennifer came in with Carine and the other girls left. I went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

“Jenny, come here for a minute, I need your eyes,” I said. She came into the bathroom. “Look at this mark on my chest,” I said. “Looks like you cut yourself sometime, but it has healed nicely, I can only feel a tiny bump,” she said, “but it is an amazingly straight cut and… why is this the way it is?” “It should not be, but for some reason I never noticed until now,” I said, “that cut looks rather deliberate to me.” “What do you mean?” she asked, looking at me. I looked back at her.

She had a look of terror on her face. “NO!” she yelled. Carine was in there in a moment. “What is wrong?” she asked. Poor Jennifer, she was crying uncontrollably. “It cannot happen,” she said, her voice quaking, “we need you! I need you.” “It will be okay,” I told her, though I really was not sure if it would be or not. “Carine, call Chung, tell him I am coming in for an x-ray, call Annelie to wake Rock to take me, then call Baldwin,” I said, “I will get dressed again.”

She went to do so immediately. “Go, sit down, and wait for me, I need you in one piece,” I said smiling. She tried to smile back as she went to sit in the bedroom. When I came out, I pressed the alarm button. Everyone was in the room fast and dressed. “Does everyone sleep with their clothes on?” I asked. “We do now,” said Angel. “Cats, go check the car before we leave,” I said, and off they went nearly flying down the stairs. “Everyone downstairs,” I said, “so I can explain.”

Once downstairs Rock came back inside to join us. “Okay everyone,” I began, “no one is going to kill me this week.” “How do you know that?” asked Galyna. “Because the warning was not that someone was going to try and kill me,” I said, “it was telling me that on Monday, at midnight, I would be dead. In other words, I am already dead, unless we can stop it. I will find out from Chung just how that will work.

Annelie, find Mandar! Get John to help but find him! Do not contact him or do anything else, just find him. Everyone else, get some sleep, once we find Mandar, we are going to go hunting for him.” “Mandar!” yelled Jennifer, “I will kill him myself for this!” “Not so fast, I want him alive,” I said, “but he must have set me up for this with that doctor he recommended. Okay, Jennifer, Galyna, Sigurbjorn and Kristina, let us go.”

Off we went with Rock determined to make our car fly. We arrived and Chung was waiting for us. I told Jenny to stay with Galyna and I had Sigurbjorn and Kristina guard the door. Rock came in the room with me. “Stand at that door and no one comes in, and I mean no one,” I said firmly. “Okay Steve, you can count on me for that,” he said. Chung took a couple of x-rays…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.