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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
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.
Mac had just called to let me know that there was someone across the street who was watching us, so he told us to stay away from the window for a while. I told everyone in each room to stay away from the window for now, until Mac gives the all clear. He is going into the building to try and track down this person. Kitty and I didn’t really have to worry, but everyone else did. Kitty told me to obey the warning too, just in case, no point taking chances when it’s not necessary.
She was right, so I stayed lying on the bed. Kitty went invisible and stood in front of the window. It’s a woman Steve,” she said, “and she has a rifle aimed at this window. That means someone wants you dead.” “Yes, that is most likely true,” I said, “but who? There are so many players in this game it’s hard to know who is doing what and for what reason.” Mac went up to the fourth floor and down the hall to the room, but the door was locked. He had it unlocked quickly enough though and he began to open the door, slowly.
Through the crack between the door and the door frame he could see someone standing there and another person on the other side of the door showed up in the bright doorknob. He smiled. He then quickly opened the door, slamming it on the person behind the door and Kristina took care of the person on the other side of the door. The woman at the window turned, but her gun got stuck in it’s holster which gave Kristina time to get over there and give her a kick before the woman could shoot Mac.
It turned out that all three were women. Mac then dragged the two by the door over to the third woman by the window and all three were told to sit on the floor with hand behind their backs. Two of the women were yelling and swearing at Mac and Kristina, but the sniper woman just sat there looking at the floor. The office was completely empty and no one came to check on the yelling, so perhaps all the offices on that floor were empty.
Finally the sniper spoke and said they may as well kill them, that’s what will happen to them anyway for not completing their job. She then put her head down again. Mac had noticed a couple of tears on her cheeks when she spoke. Kristina communicated all of this with me and I told her to bring the sniper woman back here, but leave the other two behind, tied up loosely. They put handcuffs on the sniper and took her away. “Play fair and get treated fair,” Mac told her as they went down the elevator.
The woman didn’t respond. Kristina kept the three of them invisible while they came over here, just in case someone was watching. Someone was, the two women left behind watched out the window, but when they saw no one come out the front, they figured they must have gone out the back or side of the building. The women then reported to their boss. “Must be the same man that attacked Rick before,” said the man, “anyway, I will have someone pick you up.” Those women were found in a dumpster not far away. Both were dead.
Meanwhile, I tried talking with the sniper, but she didn’t say even one word, until I asked if she was hungry. She said yes, so I ordered room service for our dinner and even ordered something for our sniper “friend”. When the food arrived she thanked me. As she ate, she said I wasn’t at all like she had been told. “I hope that’s a good thing,” I said smiling. “Yes, you are much nicer than everyone said.” “Who is everyone?” I asked. That’s when she went silent again. I sighed.
We had the TV news on and right then they showed the two women found in the dumpster. Our sniper woman gasped. “Debbie and Janet!” she exclaimed, “I knew that would happen, he hates failure. And I’m next. Can you help me, please?! I, I have $15,000 in cash at my apartment, I’ll give you 10 if you let me go and drive with me out of the city. Then I’ll go east somewhere and try to hide from Mr. B. Please?!” “I rather think that Mr. B has people watching your apartment right now, don’t you?” I asked.
She put her head down again. “Yeah, you’re right,” she said, “I’m dead. Maybe you could kill me quickly? Mr. B won’t do that, he’ll torture me first, then kill me.” “I won’t kill you, and I won’t let Mr. B kill you either,” I said, “but maybe you could help us in return for helping you?” We talked for a while after that. It seems that Mr. B uses Rick and his men to intimidate others, but Rick and his men are a small time gang in a big city. We can handle them easily enough if we need to.
Our sniper friend, her real name is Emily, has never seen Mr. B and she doesn’t know anyone who has seen him. Hmm, that’s interesting. I sent Emily to spend some time with the other girls for the evening, though she would stay in our room overnight. I then called Sky and Angel, then I had Sky take Crystal over to Kat for safekeeping. When she came back I explained the plan. Angel would pretend to be Crystal and Sky would be kept as her double if needed.
Then we would make it easy for someone to kidnap Angel so we could find out who is so interested in her, and perhaps why. All of this made me forget about the cats and what they might have found while we talked with Peter. “Well cats, did you find anything today?” I asked them. “Meowr.= Finally you ask us, but I know, it been busy day.” “Meowy= Yep, we look all around, find something strange in human Jacie bedroom. “Meower.= Yep, it book kinda like, but human Jacie write in it. She talk about things in there that kinda odd.”
“Meowy.=She say getting more scared working in sex, scared of man name Li and Mr. B and Barry and Big Daddy.” “Meowr.= Yep, and lately scared of woman too, but not say name.” “Meower.= She say that she push human Dan to let her work in sex working, he not like idea, but human Barry like idea lots.” Hmm, interesting that Barry’s name is on that list and it’s not surprising he would be in favor of Jacie working in sex. And now we have another new name, Big Daddy.
Just what we don’t need, another new player in this case, we have too many now. Tomorrow it’s time to talk with Dan and Barry again and I would really like to talk with Dan alone this time, but that seems to be difficult. Hannah and Jazzy still had no word on someone named Mr. B and they both suggested it might be Barry. But Jacie mentioned the names separately. The night was quiet again, which is definitely nice. While eating breakfast I called Dan to see about coming over for coffee.
He said it would be fine but Barry wouldn’t be there, he had to work today. As we were getting near Dan’s house I began to sense trouble, so I told everyone to be ready. We went to the door which normally opened by itself, but not today. That gave me an uneasy feeling. I pressed that doorbell several times, but nothing happened and no one came to the door. I then decided to open it my way and we slowly entered…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 