Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Tuesday’s Chatter. #20
Good morning to all of you on this beautiful sunny Tuesday! I must admit, it certainly was cool this morning with a temp of 36F (2C), but at least there was no frost. Getting frost this time of year can be very damaging to the new leaves just coming out and also to any flower buds. Well, there is not much action at the feeders this morning. It was busier earlier but the neighbors cat came around and scared them away. It is now an hour later and the birds are just starting to come back I see.
Hmm, I was wrong, something scared them again, and it is Sir Henry. This is his second trip this morning. Perhaps Lady Patricia, his mate, wanted something besides fish for breakfast. She would be sitting on eggs right now so Sir Henry provides her food at this time so she does not need to leave the nest unattended. There is still one rose-breasted grosbeak around, the others have gone elsewhere. I am really hoping this one will stay here and hopefully attract a mate.
It would be great to have them nest in the area. My Baltimore oriole seems to have gone somewhere else too. I did not see him on Sunday or yesterday. I was hoping he would stay here as well since they do nest in our town. But I am still very happy that I was able to get many nice photos of him anyway. Now to get the female, she is quite different in color, olive on top and yellow underneath. There is always something more to add to my collection of bird photos.
Poor Skitter, one of the chipmunks, he lost most of his tail, now it is just a short stump of a tail. Perhaps that cat caught hold of him and bit the tail off. That often happens when there are cats roaming around. It is actually not legal in our town to allow cats to roam loose, but people still do it. But Skitter still comes around, those peanuts are just too good.
I am hoping to get a walk in today down to the river. More rain is coming for the next 3 days and it will be getting much cooler again. So today is my only chance until next week. There is already clouds arriving, so maybe I will not get a chance for a walk after all. I like to have the sun shining when I go to the river, everything looks so much nicer and photos look nicer as well when the sun shines.
Plus it is a bit warmer when it is sunny and since it is not supposed to be that warm today then sunshine would be very welcome indeed. My mourning dove seems to have gone elsewhere too, that is quite strange, I thought for sure it would stay around. It would have been nice to get pics of him in the sun as well. But that is okay, another time perhaps. Well, time for more coffee, will you join me? Thank you so much for reading, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (Praying for the people of Ukraine)
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Ghost Town Mystery. Chapter 4. Screaming.
We all went in for breakfast, which was a feast of pancakes and bacon. The cats checked our food first and everything was safe. Mark and Melinda, the tourists, came in after a few minutes and Mark mentioned the battery was missing from his truck. That got Mike running out to check his van which was also missing the battery. Someone does not want us leaving here. Mike was suitably upset with this event and someone who would dare to fool around with his van.
He did seem to be genuinely upset, or was it just an act? Kat thought he overplayed his part a bit and did not believe he was genuine. I had to agree. I also asked the cats before we came to breakfast to watch everyone closely so they could give me their report later. After breakfast Sam and I got alone to talk things over. He and Maggie were scared by all the things that were happening, but they also did not want to give up their dream with this ghost town.
He thought that someone was just trying to scare them away, that is why he hired us, to find out who it was and put a stop to everything. I told him we would certainly try, but whoever was doing this must be professionals, no one else could repair those bullet holes overnight like that. We went over to that wall again to look for those bullet holes, but there was just no sign of them.
Just then Kristina came along and whispered something to me. “What are you looking at?”, she then asked. “Trying to find the bullet holes that should be here but are not,” I answered. She started looking, “this board is different than the others, look here at the saw marks on the boards, they are not the same.” She was right of course. Then she went to the end of the wall.
“Look at this,” she said, “where the hammer hit the nail that last time, it leaves an indentation on the board. On these boards the indent is weathered all around the edge, but not on this board that is different.” “So they replaced the whole board last night so we would not find the bullet holes this morning,” I said, “but why did we not hear someone banging away with a hammer?”
“Yes,” said Sam, “and our house is close, with our bedroom window open all night. We heard nothing. But then, we did not hear your gunshots either.” “That is strange,” I admitted. “Guess I will go back to the hotel,” said Kristina and she started to walk away. “Oh no you don’t,” I said, “you are staying here with me.” Then Sam told us a bit about the history of the town and the copper mine.
The mine is 5km away from the town and 2 days after the mine closed a man was found dead in the mine. He had been killed by they never found out who did it. After that people going to the mine claimed to see ghosts, then a ghost of that dead man started to show up in town though it never hurt anyone. But people began leaving quickly after that. There was no more work there anyway in the town, all the stores and other businesses had closed too.
I really do not see a connection between that and our present case though, and it does not really tell us why anyone would have an interest in this old town. Kristina and I went back to the hotel. I went to check on Carine who had fallen sick after breakfast. MC had checked her food and even ate some of it and he is fine. So it must be something else. I asked Galyna and MC to stay with her while the rest of us looked around the town.
I also asked the cats what they thought about everyone. They did not like Mike and Val, the owner’s friends. They said Mark seemed fine, but his wife Melinda was scary. Maggie was scared, but otherwise seemed okay, but Sam was hiding something, and they all agreed with that. Hmm, that is interesting. Then Muffin gave her special report which was also interesting. But how does all this fit together? “From now on we stay in groups of 3,” I said, “we want to stay as safe as possible.
But right now as we check the town we split into 2 groups and each take one side of the street to check.” Then we went out to look around. I led one team while Kat led the other team. Angel, Axelina and Storm came with me, Kat, Jennifer, Kristina and Muffin went together. We were checking out the barber shop when we heard some terrible screaming. We all ran out onto the street. The screaming was coming from the house…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
