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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Black Wolves have come into the restaurant where Pierre and 3 of his men, including a man named Banker, were having their dinner. Mac, who knew Banker some years ago while he used the name Carver, began a conversation with Banker. Then Aari entered the conversation after Pierre revealed who he was, and Aari told Pierre that Jacques had paid them 50,000 euros to kill him.
One of Pierre’s men had his gun out and under the table, aimed at Aari and he tried several times to shoot, but his gun just wouldn’t work. “You know Arnaud,” said Aari, “you should always ask your boss before you try shooting someone. Your gun won’t work, by the way, no matter how many times you pull that trigger. What are you at now, 10, 11?” “Put your gun away Arnaud,” said Pierre, “that’s a cool trick mister.”
“I don’t do tricks Pierre,” said Aari, “and my name is Aari.” “How did you know how many times I pulled the trigger?” asked Arnaud, “Considering you couldn’t see what I was doing.” “I’m good at guessing,” said Aari, smiling, “by the way Pierre, I’ll let you finish your meal before finishing what I was paid to do.” “Then you collect the other half?” asked Pierre.
“I quit doing that years ago,” said Aari, “people would keep disappearing when I went to collect the other half, then it took time to track them down and collect my money. Now I get paid in full, or I don’t work.” “Got proof of that?” asked Pierre. Aari snapped his fingers and Rock put a nice leather bag on the table. “That’s one of Jacques’ courier bags,” said Banker, then he looked inside and counted quickly, “yep, it’s all there.”
“How about if I paid you 100,000 euros to let me live?” asked Pierre. “Up front and you walk out of here free and alive,” said Aari. “Let my man Banker go and he will bring it back for you in about 20 minutes,” said Pierre. “He can go, but you 3 stay,” said Aari. “Fine with me,” said Pierre. “Oh, Banker,” said Mac, “come back alone, with the money, or your boss dies slow and painful. Plus I will track you down, and you know I can do it.”
Banker then left and Aari with his team sat down at another table. “That’s a lot of money to pay him Pierre,” said Arnaud, “you should have just offered 60,000. He would still be making more money.” “Maybe you don’t value your life too highly Arnaud,” said Pierre, “but mine is worth a lot to me. Besides, I’ll get it back, with interest, from Jacques.”
“If he pays,” said Arnaud, “I wouldn’t trust that guy for nothing.” “I don’t plan to trust him,” said Pierre, “just take some money from him, then kill him. He will regret putting a price on my head.” It was 23 minutes and Banker was back with a briefcase filled with 100,000 euros and Pierre told him to hand it off to Aari.
He looked inside, then nodded to Pierre, so he and his men left the restaurant and headed out to Jacques’ country house. There was even an envelope inside with 3,000 euros for Carver. Mac smiled when Aari handed him the envelope. “We did take a chance revealing you are still alive Mac,” said Aari, a bit concerned.
“Chances are Banker won’t be alive after tonight,” said Mac, “and chances are, no one would believe him anyway. Some very important people saw me dead and buried. Banker isn’t really one to trust.” Then Aari made a phone call. “Jacques,” said Aari, “this is Aari, leader of the Black Wolves, I have some news for you. Some of my boys and I were having dinner at a nightclub and Pierre was in there too with quite a bunch of men.
Apparently he is planning a surprise party for you tonight, and he has 40 men with him. If you are at that country place of yours, I hope it has a second way to get out of there, otherwise you are trapped in a big bonfire.” “I suppose you want more money now?” he asked. “No Jacques, you have paid enough,” said Aari and he hung up. Then he left with his men.
The rest of the Black Wolves, and the Wildcats, were spread around outside to make sure no traps were set. “We get out of here now,” said Jacques, “Pierre is after us with 40 men.” “I knew we couldn’t trust that rat,” said Francois. Meanwhile… “Patience my dear,” said a male voice, “it won’t be long now.” Soon Jacques came out of his house with his two most trusted men beside him. But, one by one they fell, dead, as did a few others.
The remainder made it to the cars and left in a hurry. About 15 minutes after they were gone Pierre showed up and they looked over the dead men. “Who did this?” asked Banker, “Are those mercenaries here already?” Then Arnaud and the Banker fell to the ground, dead. Everyone else just stood there, quietly looking around, but there was not a sound to be heard.
Pierre took a briefcase of money from the hand of Francois, then he told his men to run back to the cars! Just as Pierre got to his car there was a shot, barely audible, and Pierre fell to the ground dead. Then 3 more of his men fell dead also, but the rest got into the cars and sped away. An anonymous man had called the police and told them of a gang fight out at Jacques’ country house.
Police arrived not long after Pierre’s men left, but those men didn’t get far, they were stopped at police roadblocks that had been set up. Meanwhile, back to us. “Guess that clears up another case for us,” said Jennifer. “Yes, and hopefully now that Kat is back, she and Samantha can get me out of here,” I said. “Wait, you can’t leave unless I do,” said Misty. “Why is that?” I asked.
“I can’t stay here all day by myself with no one to talk with,” she complained, “I would go crazy!” “I think you’ve already made the trip Misty,” said Jennifer. Misty looked at her, blinking her eyes like she does. “Stop, you’re going to hypnotize me,” said Jennifer, “I thought you said Steve doesn’t talk?” “Well, he doesn’t, but he listens good,” she said smiling.
“Strange, he doesn’t listen to me,” said Jennifer as she looked at me and folded her arms, “I will make sure he stays here until you’re ready to leave, Misty.” “YES!” she said loudly. Sigh. Well, what looked like something more normal for a change, turned out to be something major again. Although no one was killed, we did end up with some injured this time, including a couple seriously injured.
And poor Cassie is busy keeping all the patients happy with donuts every day. Cristy no longer has to sneak them in to us, though she says it’s not as much fun now. Well, I wonder where we go or what we do in our next case? This is now the second case where that male voice and sniper have shown up, though we don’t know about it. Will we ever find out what it’s all about?
The End. A new case is coming soon. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Pierre liked the idea of hitting Jacques first while he was cut down in numbers. Pierre had enough men, and better men, than Jacques did. “Any idea where he will be tonight Trapper?” asked Pierre. “Yep, he was heading out to his country house until his mercenaries get here,” said Trapper, “then he would quickly get things under his control.”
“That would take a considerable amount of cash,” said Leroux, “does he have it?” “After killing his family,” said Trapper, “he inherited the family fortune, around 30 million dollars.” “Banker, give Trapper an envelope, the brown one,” said Pierre. “Not necessary Pierre,” said Trapper, “I just wanted to see Jacques get taken down.” Banker handed him an envelope anyway, so he took it.
“Pierre must like you,” he said, “the brown envelope is the best one.” “I don’t mind paying for good information,” said Pierre, “and this is good.” “I still think we should get ourselves some of those little girls,” said Leroux. “You would be smart to stay away from them Leroux,” said Trapper, “that one, Miss Kat, could kill you before you had a chance to use your gun on her. You don’t want to lose any men right now Pierre.”
“It’s his choice,” said Pierre, “let’s see what this gal can do.” Trapper started to walk away but Leroux jumped up and put a gun to Trapper’s head. “Trouble Kat,” said Kera. “Men can be so stubborn,” said Kat. She got up and went flipping over and over, landing in front of Trapper and Leroux. “Put your gun away,” said Kat, still in her little girl voice, “and I will forget what you just did.”
“I want you and some of your little girlfriends to come with me,” said Leroux, “then I will let your Mr. Trapper go free.” “You’re a liar!” exclaimed Kat, “now your gun is hot!” He yelled and dropped his gun and Trapper moved out of the way. Then Kat went into action, kicking the man 3 times, then once more, lifting him off the floor and landing on Pierre’s table, dead.
“You always get mixed up with bad men Mr. Trapper,” said Kat as they walked out the door. “I didn’t even see that girl’s legs move,” said Banker. “Neither did I,” said Pierre, “and the way she made Leroux’s gun get so hot, that was an amazing trick.” “Yeah, knowing that trick could come in handy,” said Hubert, “especially when the cops come around!”
They all laughed at the thought. Then the manager came over and asked about the dead man. “Just tell the ambulance and police that it was a heart attack,” said Pierre. Banker then slipped him some money. “Yes, right, a heart attack,” said the manager as he walked away smiling and counting his money. Pierre wasn’t worried since the coroner was on his payroll too.
Jacques decided he would keep all his men together with him at his country house, something we already knew by planting a listening device at Jacques’ office, in his car and on Jacques himself, plus one of his men. They will likely find the last two once they relax at the country house, but by then it doesn’t really matter so much.
Pierre is in motion now and will go out to finish off Jacques and his men tonight. Or so we thought. But Pierre had a different idea, why not join up with Jacques? Then he wouldn’t need to hire those mercenaries, Pierre could supply all the men that they would need to take over Paris first, then move on to the rest of the country. Jacques has the money, Pierre has the men. It was a perfect deal for both sides.
Pierre phoned Jacques and said he wanted to talk about a merger of their two sides. Jacques liked the idea right away and invited him out that evening to talk about their plans together. “Do you think it’s a good idea Jacques?” asked Francois. “Why not?” asked Jacques in return, “It could be better, and cheaper, to join with them, Pierre knows a lot of good men in Paris and beyond and they all know this city inside out.
Plus, mercenaries are good at the beginning, but they can cause problems if things don’t work out fast enough for them. Doesn’t hurt to check him out and see what he has in mind.” “True, Pierre has a lot of good men indeed,” said Florian, “I hear he can raise 40 men or more whenever he wants.” “That would give us enough to take out all the smaller gangs real quick,” said Jacques, “and we would pick up a few men from those gangs as well.”
“I wonder how he knew you were looking for men?” asked Carvell. “Good question,” said Jacques, “one that I will ask him, no one should know that yet.” “Pierre knows everything that goes on in this city,” said Francois, “before anyone else does. He has a way of finding out information.” “Claud, take off your jacket,” said Jacques, “it’s not cold in here.”
“Oh, yeah, I just always wear it,” he said. But he took it off right away and something dropped onto the floor. He picked it up and no one said a word, they all knew it was a listening device. Jacques motioned to him to take it outside and throw it away, which he did. “So, Claud,” began Pierre when he returned, “you talk with Pierre a lot, do you?”
“Me? Uh, no, never, really,” he replied nervously. Meanwhile. “They found one of the listening devices,” said Aari, “if they find the other one right away then they will know it was us.” Then there was silence as Jacques and his men checked their clothes for more and Jacques found one on himself. “Hey boss, you got one too,” said Claud. Then there was a strange sound.
“I would say that someone just ate that one,” said Aari chuckling, “guess that’s all we hear from Jacques. So Kristina communicated this news to Jennifer and she asked me what we should do. “Well, I’m sure you will think of something,” I said, “like telling Aari to find Pierre before he meets with Jacques to tell him about Jacques’ plan to kill him and Banker so he could take over his gang easily. And perhaps do something to make sure Pierre gets the message clearly.
And you know also that Mac, as Carver, once knew Banker who owes Carver 3,000 euros. I’m sure Aari and Carver could come up with something on their own after that.” “Whew, I sure do think of things quickly sometimes,” said Jennifer, “I keep surprising myself more each day.” “Yay, Jennifer, she’s the one, with her around it’s always fun! When Steve comes along we shake our head, his ideas are bad, so we hide in bed!” said Misty as she worked in her puzzle book.
I looked at Jennifer. “Now you know,” I said. “You knew all along,” she replied. “Well, almost anyway,” I said. Meanwhile, as Pierre and 3 men were having dinner at a nightclub, some tough looking men came in and sat at a table next to theirs. Then another group of them came in, but one stopped at Pierre’s table and looked at a bearded man.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Banker,” said the man, “you live in Paris now?” “I don’t recognize you,” said Banker. “But we know each other Banker,” he said, “we just haven’t seen each other for a few years. Maybe you can help us, we’re looking for a man named Pierre.”
“I’m him,” said Pierre, “what do you want?” The man smiled. “Do you know a man named Jacques?” asked another man. “Yeah, I know him,” said Pierre, “what of it?” “He paid us 50 thousand euros to kill you,” said the man.
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 