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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
After the police arrested the men who had attacked us, we decided to spend a bit more time at the beach, since this was supposed to be a whole day of relaxing. So, we stayed another 2 hours, then went back home, changed and went out to do some shopping. Sky and Angel wanted to buy some souvenirs, since we have never been to the Philippines before on any of our cases. That wasn’t such a bad idea, so I decided to buy something for Jennifer.
“We better go with him,” said Sky to the other two, “or he will end up buying Jennifer a hat, or a coffee mug.” They all giggled. I wonder what’s wrong with hats and coffee mugs? Everyone on our team uses them. Anyway, we went to a clothing store first. “I doubt they have souvenirs here,” I said. “You buy something nice for Jennifer first,” said Angel, “then you can get her a souvenir.” “Souvenirs aren’t nice?” I asked. They all sighed. This is going to be a long shopping time.
Surprisingly, it was only 3 hours and we were back home. It’s amazing how much we managed to spend during that 3 hours though. Now it was my turn to sigh. Angel had taken Celestine for a while, and Sky went with me so I could buy something nice for Celestine. Well, Sky picked it out and I paid for it. Sky was afraid I would buy Celestine a hat.
I know Jennifer likes hats, a certain type of hat and Sky agreed, so she let me buy one of those for her and Celestine. When we got home, the guys were waiting for us and Alfred was quite excited for some reason. He wanted to see the place where we found the gems, so I took him to the bedroom and opened the spot in the floor. But I told him I checked all around instead that hole in the floor and nothing else was in there. He wanted to look anyway.
“Aha!” he exclaimed, “I thought so!” The girls were here watching by this time also. He had felt around inside that hole in the floor and on two sides when he pushed on end of the side, it opened into another hiding spot. He pulled out two wood boxes and when he had opened them, there were several beautiful gems in divided compartments so they wouldn’t rattle against each other.
“These are rare and very expensive gems Steve,” he said, “when I saw the others I did some research and discovered that these gems had also been stolen around the same time, but from a museum where they were being displayed. “This Benitoite gem would be worth about 5 million dollars and is found in California,” he said smiling, “it is just beautiful!”
He was right, it was an amazing blue gem, something I would love to get for Jennifer, except that price tag is a bit much. Although I’m sure there are smaller samples around that would be cheaper. Then there were two red beryl samples that would be worth about 3 million dollars. He kept going through the gems, then telling us who owned each one of them. There were some big rewards out for the return of many of these gems too.
“Well Celestine,” I said, “you could be getting a fair bit of money for the return of these gems.” “Oh no,” she said, “my King gets half of any reward money, and that is final.” The guys didn’t understand that one, which was a good thing for now. Carine, Kristina and Mac will be busy tonight going to Whitaker’s nightclub and putting these gems inside his safe before his visitor arrives in the morning. It would be fun to see the shocked look on Whitaker’s face when he actually sees those gems in his safe.
I just hope the police are able to catch these thieves and murderers before they get away. The Black Wolves will be watching the area around there too, just in case Whitaker or his guest manage to get past the police. They won’t get past us, that is for sure. We have put trackers in with the gems, very tiny ones so they won’t be noticed right away. They can send a signal quite a distance, however, so we can follow them without getting too close. But hopefully we won’t have to worry about that anyway.
That night I started thinking again and couldn’t sleep. “Steve, why are you still awake?” asked Celestine. “I’m thinking too much about our trap,” I said, “hoping everything works out and they don’t get away with those jewels we just found and…” That was as far as I got and Celestine stopped me. “Stop. You’re doing it again,” she said, “everything has been done, now you relax and wait for it to happen. You did everything you can to make this trap work and now you just have to wait. But, stop worrying about it! This is how you stress yourself. You have a good plan. Worrying about it now doesn’t help anything. So relax.”
I look over at her. “And if you don’t,” she continued, “I will slap you. Hard. Or I will do something even worse! And I will tell all your friends what I did.” “I think you might have to do the worse one,” I said, “otherwise…” That was as far as I got and Celestine stopped me, completely. I was able to sleep after that, quite peacefully. The next morning a plane arrived and Whitaker’s guest arrived, was picked up and went over to Whitaker’s nightclub.
“Well, Mr. Whitaker,” he said, “I hear you have something that belongs to me. I would like it back please.” “I don’t know what you are talking about,” said Whitaker. “I’m talking about my gems that you have in that safe right there,” he said. “I don’t have any gems,” he said, “but I know who does have them, a young woman who is being protected by some stupid private investigator.” “I have heard about him,” he said, “and it seems like he has been making a fool of you and always fighting off your men, even though he’s unarmed.
Now, let’s take a look in that safe, or my boys here will start taking you and your boys apart.” Whitaker was getting a little nervous because he knew he didn’t have those gems and figured he would be killed right then, but, he opened the safe and sure enough, the gems were in there. “You don’t have my gems Whitaker?” he asked, “Looks like you do have them, and now I have them.” Then there were some shots fired and the guest walked out of the nightclub but was suddenly surrounded by police in all directions.
He and his 6 men were arrested and the gems safely put away by the police. We were informed of the outcome and the police said that we would receive more information in the days ahead from Rossana. Celestine put her house up for sale and it sold the next day. The day after we were on our way home with one very excited young woman and several other excited young women who had come with the plane to pick us up.
I have more gems than Whitaker or his guest. Well, another case is over and I’m not sure I’m looking forward to this new enhancement and refresher course we will be taking, but, I’ll just have to sigh my way through it I guess.
The End of this case, but a new one will be coming soon. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Well, we had a nice quiet night, which was nice after a busy day. Alfred called early and was quite excited about those gems we found. Apparently there are some very rare gems in that batch, some worth millions of dollars each. He estimated the total worth to be around 70 million dollars, in US funds. That nearly knocked me over when he said that, I certainly would never have guessed it. The bad news is, most of them are stolen gems, with only 6 of them that he couldn’t place with their owners.
That’s okay, we now have the bait we need to catch Whitaker and his friends. We have already contacted another man, through Jazzy, that had helped to steal these gems and then they went missing, ending up with Whitaker. This other man was not too happy when he heard that news and is now on his way to have a talk with Whitaker. We will use this opportunity to capture both of these criminals at the same time. Or rather, the police will capture them.
We are just giving them the information they need to arrest these men and capture this ring of international jewel thieves. The other man won’t be here until tomorrow, however, so we have a whole day to relax and enjoy ourselves. I asked the girls if they would rather go to the beach or go on a hike. They all laughed. Not quite sure why, but anyway, we are going to the beach. Sky and Angel wanted to see me in swimming trunks again, something they don’t get to see normally.
“Why is that Steve?” asked Celestine, “You told me about this huge swimming pool you have. Don’t you use it?” I told her about our rules, that only women are allowed to use it, the men have their own pool at their chateau. I could go and join them, but I need to have at least 4 bodyguards with me at all times, so that makes it a bit hard, unless 4 of the guys come to pick me up. I just don’t see the point, so I skip pool time except sometimes when the girls are not using ours. Celestine looked at me, blinking as she does.
“Steve, that makes no sense at all,” she said, “you will have to change that rule so you can use the pool at the same time as the girls. I’m sure they won’t mind, and if they do, then have a special time for them.” “Well, it’s not that easy to change the rules,” I said. “Why not?” she asked, “Just change the rule, it’s really quite simple. You need that relaxation time, with others around, not always by yourself. There are times you need to be by yourself and there are times you need to be with others.”
She looked at me firmly. “Oooo, this is going to be fun,” said Sky. “Agreed,” said Angel. I looked at the three of them. “Right, last one to get ready for the beach gets buried in the sand!” I yelled and started up the stairs. But they didn’t move. They were ready already, so didn’t need to get ready. “That was not fair,” I said, and they agreed, so they didn’t bury me in the sand. Sigh. It was a beautiful day, sunny and no wind. The beach was getting more crowded all the time, but we had our favorite spot, so we were happy.
After spending time in the water, Sky and Angel joined some other women to play some volleyball and Celestine came with me for another counseling session. We talked about various things, from ordinary day to day things to working as a team and doing things right as a team leader. For a woman who is just 21, she certainly has a lot of wisdom.
Jennifer told me she wants Celestine to be our personal counselor, that way Victoria will be free to help Galyna and Samantha as team counselors. Samantha has begun to help in counseling too, something she is really enjoying, though she will continue as a doctor too. Cassie is also a part time counselor, but now we will have 2 full time counselors and 2 part time. Plus Celestine for Jennifer and I. Anyway, back to now.
Sky and Angel returned and we went to pick up some hot dogs and fries for lunch. That is all they sell at that snack stand, but they are good. We then went to eat on the grassy area in the shade. We had just finished and I sensed trouble coming our way and looked around. “Some of Whitaker’s boys are coming again,” I said. Sky and Angel went off to meet them before they got too close. But I still sensed trouble and told Celestine to hold my hand which she did quickly and tightly.
I looked around but could not see anything. Sky and Angel were now fighting those other guys and suddenly two vans slammed on their brakes close to us and 10 men got out and came over to us. Ten against one is hardly fair, but if Celestine wasn’t with me, it wouldn’t be a problem. However, I had to keep her safe. The men surrounded us and then kept walking closer to us, making the circle ever smaller. This was not good.
I then pulled Celestine close to me and put my arm around her and said to close her eyes, which she did. I then shot some electrical jolts at the men, quickly turning around in a circle so as to hit each of them. It was just enough to knock the men onto their backs, but not kill them. “Sky, I need you,” I said calmly. “No Steve,” said Celestine, “this is how you call.” She then yelled for Sky, loudly, just like Misty yells.
Sky arrived just as the men began to get up and she proceeded to fight them all. We then heard sirens and several police vans pulled up and arrested the men who attacked us, 17 in all. One of them managed to escape and will likely tell Whitaker, which is fine. The man did tell Whitaker who told him to go and hide somewhere. “This is getting worse all the time,” said Phil, “that guy is going to destroy us.”
“We’ll take care of him,” said Whitaker, “but first we have an important guest arriving tomorrow. I don’t know what he wants, but he said it was very important and he wanted our help with it. And he did say it paid very well, which would be good for us right now.”
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 