Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Search. Chapter 14.
Well, we could wait at the Inn for John to come back, but I want to know who he is meeting. Perhaps it’s the third person, the one that kidnapped Annelie. So off we go to the castle. We went a little past the usual parking lot for the castle and parked on the opposite side of the road, out of sight. Then we walked over to the castle and got ourselves set up around the broken wall. John and 4 men were sitting in the courtyard area, obviously still waiting for someone. John doesn’t like to wait, that much I know. It was about 20 minutes later when Anthony came out of the main castle, and with Annelie.
“This lady says that the woman who calls herself Jennifer, is dead and buried,” said Anthony to John. “She lies,” said John, “it’s Kat that is dead and buried, we dug her up and proved it was her!” “How did you prove it?”, asked Anthony, “I have a nice reward for you if it’s true.” “It’s true, my best man here, Brent, went down and touched her eyes,” said John, “she wasn’t wearing contacts, so it had to be Kat.” “Ha!,” said Annelie, “can you really tell if someone is wearing contacts?” “Of course I can,” said Brent. “Then check my eyes,” said Annelie, “am I wearing contacts?”
Brent went over and touched her eye. “No, you’re not,” he said laughing. Then Annelie put her finger to her eye. “Then what do you call this?”, she said holding a contact lens. Brent didn’t know what to say. John however, is never at a loss for words. “You idiot!!”, he yelled, “that means Kat is still alive and Jennifer is dead!” Then he turned and said to Anthony, “guess your search is over, I can show you your sister’s grave if you like.” Then he started laughing like he usually does. Anthony wasn’t too much in a laughing mood however.
Then Jennifer suddenly appeared standing on some stone stairs behind Anthony. “Are you looking for me Anthony?”, said the ghostly Jennifer. Anthony turned, and everyone looked over at what appeared to be a ghost like figure of Jennifer. “I’m going to follow you wherever you go Anthony, until you join me in the grave,” said the ghostly Jennifer. Anthony never said a word, he just emptied the clip in his gun shooting at Jennifer. But the bullets just ricocheted off the stone steps, going right through Jennifer. Then Jennifer began laughing. “You can’t kill me Anthony, I’m already dead!”, said the ghostly Jennifer. “It’s a trick!,” yelled John, “I know it is!” “Your time is up John,” I called out from my spot on a pile of rubble not far from him. John turned to look at me and Anthony yelled out, “you’re the idiot John, this is a trap!”
I shot, but John had moved just at that moment, so I missed. Then he shot at me but missed also. Annelie ran behind another pile of rubble for protection. Then “Thwock!, Thwock!”, and Anthony’s two bodyguards were down. I shot again, three times, and John fell. Meanwhile Anthony looked back toward the steps where Jennifer had been, but she wasn’t there. “I’m here Anthony!”, she yelled, standing over close to me. He turned and she shot. Anthony went down.
John’s men gave up at that point and threw down their guns. Rock and his men went over to put handcuffs on them and he checked on John and Anthony. Jennifer knew Anthony was dead, she couldn’t give him a chance or she would be dead. She came over to me crying. Even though Anthony was out to kill her, it was still hard for her killing her own brother. Meow,meow.=M.C. and me were ready to shoot just in case. Muffin was hugging Jennifer. “Thank you Muffin and M.C.,” she said. Annelie came running over. “Sorry I couldn’t communicate after the first time,” she said, “they discovered my transmitter in the shoe and gave me different shoes to wear.”
“That’s okay,” I said, “it’s all over now anyway.” “Not quite,” said Jennifer, “now it’s time for you to relax like your doctor told you.” “What do you think I have been doing for the past 3 weeks?”, I asked. “You have been looking after Kat, that’s not relaxing,” she said, “now I’m going to be Kat’s nurse, and yours too, until you’re both back on your feet again.” “I’m on my feet now,” I said, somewhat limping along the path. “Limping doesn’t count,” she said, “and you will listen to me, Kat will make sure of that.” “Sigh, I’m outnumbered,” I said. Everyone, even the cats, laughed at that. But how long will I get to relax? It never seems to work around here, no matter how hard we try. Back at the chateau there is a mountain of mail waiting for us. Hmm, this letter looks interesting…
The End.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Fantastical Friday! #25
Good morning everyone and Happy Friday! It’s a cloudy, cool morning here and it’s going to stay cloudy today, with possible flurries. It’s that time of year. It’s a busy morning at the feeders again. Theodore just arrived and has claimed the main feeder for a while. I will have to replenish the supply of seeds when she leaves. There was a lot of birds here a little while ago, then suddenly the blue jays let out an alarm and what a noisy alarm it was too. All the other birds disappeared, the female blue jays went into hiding and all the male blue jays attacked the intruder.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to see who the intruder was, but it was a bird the blue jays didn’t like. That would mean a small hawk, like the sharp-shinned hawk, though they should have all migrated south by now. Or it could have been a northern shrike, but that would be very early for them to show up from the far north. I have never seen one before the end of November before. They usually follow our other northern visitors down, like the pine grosbeaks and redpolls. And normally it’s December before they arrive here. So whether a hawk or a shrike, it’s a bit unusual.
Too bad I missed seeing that one. I watched as all the male blue jays came flying back. There were 12 of them, which means there are 10 females. The evening grosbeaks have finally returned now as well, that’s quite a bit after the blue jays. But Theodore is still on the feeder, so the grosbeaks will have to wait a bit for their breakfast. Remember I wrote about that baby deer that was hit by the car? It was out here with it’s mother this morning walking around and munching on leaves, showing no signs of injury. That happened 12 days ago, so it was nice to see the little deer in good health still. Hmm, Theodore has gone now and the feeder is full, totally full of evening grosbeaks.
I better go give them more seeds. Yep, they needed seeds alright, Theodore had eaten almost everything that was there, except for the seeds right underneath her. That always happens. Well, there is at least 30 of the evening grosbeaks now and I think there are actually more. There were some up in that one tree out back that still has some leaves, making it hard to see the grosbeaks sitting on it’s branches. They are such a nice, colorful bird to have around. And their lively chirping is a joy to hear, even though they do tend to argue a lot. Perhaps I can get some new pictures of them today. I hope all of you have a fantastical Friday, and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 