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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Well, it has been 3 weeks since I had my rest away from everything. There was a bit of excitement too, but mostly it was a rest. My team didn’t do so well in trying to find me, except for Misty, Dawn and the cats. Everyone else failed. The ghosts, however, were not included in the test since they have an unfair advantage over the rest of the team. Those who failed were given the same mark by Jennifer, which was 0%. Those who passed received 100%. Plus donuts.
And they will be given no chores for one month. Jennifer was in charge of the whole thing. She also gave me a failing grade because I failed to keep Celestine safe from Whitaker and his crew which allowed Mr. Fats to punch Celestine twice, on her face and her stomach. Celestine intervened on my behalf, however, she thought it was totally unfair to make me fail since I was relying on Sky’s word that no one was in the house.
She also said that Sky and Angel should have stayed until we got home, so that Whitaker and his men would not be able to come along after they checked the house, which is what happened. “Besides,” she said, “Steve was there to relax and find himself again, he wasn’t there to protect me.” Kat agreed with her and Jennifer sighed. “And who would teach this course if Steve is in the class?” asked Celestine. “Well, I…” was as far as Jennifer got when Celestine interrupted her.
“That’s a great idea Jennifer,” she said, “you and Steve teaching it together would bring all the best abilities into that course!” Jennifer just stared, then sighed again. “You need to learn how to blink,” I said. “Blink?” she asked. “Yep, like Misty and Cristy,” I said, “it’s a blank blink.” “A blank blink?” she asked again. Then she sighed again. The next day Jennifer and I were in our bedroom relaxing when I told her I sensed trouble and it wasn’t far away.
“I don’t sense any danger,” she said, “but perhaps we should get ready, in case.” Then Dawn’s voice came over the room communicator. “Mandar is here Steve,” she said, “and he appears a bit agitated.” “I will be right down,” I told her, then I turned to Jennifer, “there is the source of trouble.” “And why no danger with it,” said Jennifer. “Where is that man?! exclaimed Mandar, “Did you tell him I was here?!” “Yes, I told him,’ said Dawn, “but he and Jennifer were upstairs, relaxing together.”
“Relaxing?” he asked, “This is no time to relax! This is an emergency!” We both arrived at that moment. “You never said it was an emergency Mandar,” I said, “besides, I needed to get dressed.” “In the middle of the day?” he asked, shaking his head, “you can relax at night, but not tonight, this is an emergency my good man. Don’t you understand that?” “I might if you would tell me what’s it’s all about,” I said, “come in the library and sit down so you can tell me.”
“And I will get you some coffee and fresh donuts,” said Jennifer. “This is no time for…” he began, “um, did you say fresh donuts?” “Yes, now go sit down and tell Steve what is bothering you,” she said. He sat down, then stood up, then sat down, then Celestine came over and took his shoes off. “And what are you doing young woman?” he asked, rather surprised by what she did.
“You need to relax,” she said, “you can’t do that with your shoes on. Taking your shoes off let’s your feet cool off and breathe, that helps you relax.” “Now listen here young woman,” he said, “I don’t need you fussing over me like this. I know what I need and what I like and…oh my, that feels wonderful.” Celestine was now massaging his shoulders. “Where did you find this one?” he asked. “I didn’t find her, she found me,” I said, “and she helped me to find myself.” He stared at me.
“Sometimes I wonder about you Steve,” he said, “now, let’s get on with business while this delightful young woman continues massaging my shoulders.” “My name is Celestine,” she said nicely. “Anyway, this is an emergency Steve,” he said, “and only you can help. Richard’s wife and two children have been kidnapped by person’s unknown. You must get them back before something terrible happens to them.” “Okay, stay calm Mandar,” I said, “who kidnapped them and where did they take them? Have they given a ransom note?”
“I don’t know who, my good man,” he said impatiently, “I already said that. They want £ 50 million! I could pay it, of course, but as you know, that wouldn’t get Richard’s family back. Only you and your team can do that. I will pay whatever you need, just get it done quickly before something happens to that beautiful family.” “Do you have some idea where we can start looking?” I asked, “That would save a bit of time.” “No, I don’t,” he said, “why do you think I’m hiring you?”
We talked for about an hour while at the same time getting the teams ready that I will be using. That will be the Black Wolves and Sky’s Bad Girls for sure, and there will be one more team as well, but I’m not sure which one yet. I called Richard to try and get more information about the who and where questions, since that would help us a great deal. Richard wasn’t really any more help than Mandar, which makes things a bit difficult.
We do need to know where to look, even a general idea, otherwise it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, or even worse. He did say they recorded the phone call from the kidnappers, so he will send us a copy of that. That might give us some clue where they might be. I certainly hope so, or we won’t be going anywhere. Richard will keep us informed of any more phone calls. They will be calling again to let him know where to bring the money.
That will help, but it won’t give us much time. We will have everyone ready to go at a moment’s notice. I asked Dawn about our new girls to see if any were ready to go on a case yet. She said Kailey, Charlotte, Melody and Trixie were ready, but not Wisty, Autumn, Mylah or Audrey. That’s okay, I might leave them all at home anyway, but it’s good to know some are ready, just in case my team will go along.
Well, actually, my team is now Dawn’s team. Jennifer and I will just go with whichever team might need us the most, which will likely be Dawn’s team since she has no ghosts on her team. Well, Richard sent the recording and I had all the team leaders listen to it, just in case one of us might pick up something. None of us did however, which was rather discouraging.
Then Celestine came in with more coffee for Mandar and me, along with a couple of donuts. She also made a comment. “Oh, I hated living there,” she said, “the summers were so hot and nothing around there but desert. No ocean, just desert.” Then she went back to the kitchen…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
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.
Steve`s Country 