Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. Mystery Of The Beginning. Chapter 9.
Kat picks up Muffin. “Hey kitten,” she says, “you can’t give up, we need to find Steve and stop John once and for all. I need you to help me find Steve.” Meow,meow!=Yep, you right! Me not give up, we go find my human and stop John for sure! “That’s my girl,” said Kat, “the fury of the Kat, and the cats!” Meow,meow!=Yep, and the cats! Meow!=Me too, and the cats! Just then another car drives up, this time it’s Baldwin and Rock, plus 3 of Baldwin’s men. Annelie is checking Jennifer to see if she has any broken bones, or worse. “Good thing you’re almost a doctor,” said Baldwin, “how is she?”
“She will be fine, but we need to get her to the hospital,” said Annelie. “I will take her in my car,” said Baldwin, “it will be faster than waiting for an ambulance to get out here.” Rock carried her to the car. “Kristina, you are now glued to Jenny,” said Kat, “you do not leave her and no one goes into her room unless Baldwin says it is okay. Anyone else tries to get in, you stop them.” “Okay, I understand,” answered Kristina as she got into the car. “I will leave Rock and 1 man for you Kat,” said Baldwin, and then he drove off.
The others got in their car and drove to the house. It looked deserted, and likely was, but they had to check anyway. “I can’t get any signal at all,” said Annelie, very concerned about that problem. “I thought that was supposed to work anywhere?”, asked Kat. “It is supposed to,” answered Annelie, “unless Steve hasn’t had the opportunity to start the device.” “I don’t want to think about that,” said Kat, “keep trying while we go take a look.” The rest of them went in the house and searched all over, but they found no one and no clues either. Finally they decide to leave but as they got outside Muffin remembered something.
Meow,meow!=Me remember, there is secret passage, one we not check yet. Must start upstairs in third house. What she meant was the third floor of the house which was a separate apartment. It had a secret stairway that led to each floor and to the basement. That is how our “ghost” managed to get around so easily without being seen. Rock went in first and they followed the stairs and little passages around all the way to the basement. Meow,meow.=In there is little kitchen room. It looked just like a wall and they could not find a way to open it.
“Are you sure this is it Muffin?”, asked Rock. Meow,meow=Yep, me sure, push on wall. Rock just pushed with all his might and smashed the door right off it’s big hinges. He looked around the room with his flashlight, then pulled the chain that turned on the light in the middle of the room. “Look Kat,” he said, and pointed to a corner of the room. A young woman was curled up in terror, she had been beaten, tied up and left to die there. “Carry her out of there Rock, bring her upstairs,” said Kat. He did so, and once upstairs he untied her and put her on a chair.
The woman was crying and kept saying, “please, please, don’t hurt me anymore.” “We don’t want to hurt you, now here’s the deal,” said Kat, “you help us and we will help you. Or we can tie you up again and put you back in that room.” “NO, no, please, I will help, anything,” she pleaded. “Okay, we will start with an easy question,” said Kat firmly, “what is your full name?” “Melanie Sunshine Morel,” she said. One of the men went out to the car while Kat started to clean up Melanie a bit. He was soon back with a note for Kat which she read out loud with information about Melanie from the time she was born until now. The woman was amazed.
Then she started crying again, she said it was because of the pain. “We will take her to the hospital too,” said Kat to Rock, “carry her out to the car.” They had her put in the same room with Jennifer so they could watch her more closely. “How do you feel little sis?”, asked Kat. “Terrible,” she said, “but only because I messed up badly. I knew Steve would try to sneak away and I wanted to go along to help protect him. Instead I got him captured.” She really started to cry hard at that point. Muffin and MC jumped on the bed, purring loudly. Meow,meow=It not your fault, you try your best, it that terrible human John. And we going to find him and bring back my human. Both cats hug Jennifer and she stops crying. “Now, back to you Melanie,” said Kat, “where did John take Steve?”
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Fabulous Friday! #2
Good morning everyone! It is a little chillier this morning with that temp down to -25F (-32C). But it is supposed to warm up to 5F (-15C), so maybe I will try for another walk to the river. However, it is supposed to be even milder tomorrow so I might wait until then. It was quite nice yesterday, the sun was shining and the temp got up to 8F (-13C), so I spent some time out with the birds. I figured my bare hands would not freeze too quickly. So I put seeds on my hand to attract birds, and it worked quite nicely, as you can see from the pictures. However, I did cheat a bit.
I stood up close to the feeder and put my hand up where the birds could see it good, and it would not be far out of their way. The redpolls found me fast and there were 5 different female redpolls and one male that took turns sitting on my hand. I did have 2 at once on my hand, but that picture didn’t turn out unfortunately. Sometimes I get close to the feeder like this with my hand so the birds will get used to coming, then I can move further away and they will still come. I was able to stay out there for half an hour, but by then my hands were getting cold so I came back in.
But I did get quite a few nice pics of the redpolls, so I was very happy. My hands were perhaps not quite so happy, especially as the pain set in once I got back inside and they began to warm up. Amazing how painful that can be sometimes. Certainly does not help my arthritis. But it is so much fun having the birds on my hand! I was hoping the pine grosbeaks would come over too, they were on the feeder, and one did land on my arm, but none came to my hand.
If I do not go for my walk to the river today, I will be trying with the birds again. I would really like to get a picture of the pine grosbeaks on my hand, but they are afraid of the camera. The sun is now shining on the tops of the trees. The birds are busy at the feeders. Jasper was here hiding peanuts in a bucket on the deck. He does this every day. Garnet has discovered this and when Jasper is gone he will come and take the peanuts back to his home. Jasper is probably wondering why that bucket never fills up. Oh well. Thank you for stopping by, have a fabulous Friday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (top image, following the path to the river, walking through the snow)
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 