Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. Married. Chapter 7.
Sitting there by the beach, watching the hotel burn and waiting for the helicopter that Baldwin sent is giving me some time to think about all of this. Dan went back to try and stop the fire, but I doubt he will have much luck with that even though there are a lot of fire extinguishers. And I can’t leave Lena and Tom to help him. I still don’t trust Dan, he’s too willing to help out for some guy that was keeping to himself and is just on a vacation. A big change from when we first met him. But maybe it’s just me. There’s a lot of smoke coming from one section of the hotel, but I don’t see any flames. Then the smoke began to disappear after a bit.
Maybe Dan did put the fire out, though I just can’t figure how he could do it by himself, the fire was quite big. Now, who is doing all of this? I’m trying to think of anyone from past cases, but all are either dead or in prison now, including John. He’s not smart enough to set this up anyway. This is something that Gisela would do, but could she be back so soon? She was badly wounded, hard to imagine she would be ready to come after us again so soon. Then a thought came to me, a case from a long time back, she was one for elaborate ways of doing things, much like Gisela.
But I thought she had been arrested and ended up in prison along with all the others from that drug syndicate. I will have to ask Rossana about that. Oh, wait, I can’t right now, she’s on a top secret case. Perhaps Baldwin can find out, he seems to have a lot of connections. It has to be someone we know anyway, otherwise why do all this? Dan came running out of the hotel and over to us. “I managed to get the fire out,” he said, “it really wasn’t that big, mostly smoke.” Hmm, certainly looked like a lot of flames to me, but I don’t say that. “When will the helicopter be here?”, he asks. “Oh, about 45 minutes,” I said. Mr. Cat gave me a puzzled look. “Okay Muffin,” I say, and “Thwock!”.
Dan should be out for a while. I took out his phone, amazing how many people don’t use any kind of password to protect their phones, Dan was one of those. I thought so, someone has been tracking our conversations through his phone, so they know about the helicopter coming. That’s not good. “That’s why I gave Dan the false time,” I said to Mr. Cat, “I thought maybe someone could be listening.” I had already made sure Dan’s phone was “disconnected”. Meow.=When ‘chop chop’ be here really? “It should be here in about 15 minutes, so here is what we are going to do,” I said to them both.
First I chained Dan to a nearby tree so he will stay out of trouble. Then I went down to a couple of trees that needed to be cut down for the helicopter to land safely. I came back up and shot at each tree. A small explosion knocked the trees down. “Perfect,” I said smiling. Meow,meow!=Oh, squishy boom boom work good!. Meow!=Yep, that fun! Then I loaded the cat’s new weapons with smoke bombs which they will shoot along both sides of the yard, just in case someone is hiding there. I will be watching the hotel closely, as will the cats, someone might just be in there. Meow!=Chop chop coming!
Sure enough, it was here so the cats shot their smoke bombs. These produce much more smoke than the older ones they had. The helicopter landed safely and the men brought stretchers out for Lena and Tom. The doctor went back with them, but 4 men stayed, Baldwin had sent an extra man. They also took Dan back with them, the doctor gave him something to make sure he stayed sleeping until they got back. Off they went and were soon out of sight. One of the men, Ted, told me there was a boat just out of sight waiting to come and get us anytime we called. That’s good to know. There’s still lots of daylight, so we get some bikes out of the shed behind the hotel and head over to the village. I got an uneasy feeling as we approached the village. It was definitely small and…
To Be Continued.
Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
Previous chapter of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.” and “20/20 Investigations, Inc.”
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Monday’s Musings #7.
Good morning everyone! It is a beautiful, sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky, just fabulous blue in every direction. There is also a light wind blowing now, it was perfectly calm earlier. A fantastic morning to be on the deck with my coffee enjoying the lush green of the trees and shrubs out back. It is very nice having this empty lot next to us, gives a nice forest look and also helps for attracting birds and other animals. It also gives nice privacy, except for one spot where there used to be a nice big balsam fir tree. Now there is a clear look right through to the neighbors up the hill so they can sit on their deck and look down at me on my deck.
And they do at times. They talk loud and I can hear them talking about me and what I do while I’m on my deck. Sigh. Guess I must be an interesting person to watch. The lady even tells her friends all about me and what I’m doing while she’s on her phone. She must have it on speaker because I can hear both sides of the conversation clearly. So if they are out there I stay indoors or do something else where they can’t see me. I just can’t imagine that what I do is so exciting that she would want to tell her friends about it. Oh well.
If you read Muffin’s Mewsings yesterday, then you found out what my afternoon was like, with a little humor tossed in. However it was true, I was crawling around on my hands and knees trying to get pics of damselflies and dragonflies. Plus there were 3 different species of butterflies floating around but they refused to sit down so I could get a picture. The damselflies would sit okay, but because of their size I had to get in kind of close, which naturally made them fly away. But I did it, getting pics of 4 different damselflies, though it might only represent 2 species since there could be male and female involved in those 4 pics. We’ll see once I identify them.
There is also a beautiful shiny green dragonfly that I have been trying to get for a couple of days now, but that one doesn’t like to sit. It did sit once, but when I tried to get close, off it flew and never returned that day. But it is still here, so hopefully I can get a picture yet. It’s a smaller type dragonfly too, which means I need to be fairly close for a picture. Today I will show some bird pics I have managed to get lately. I miss having the birds around. But hopefully I can get that remedied soon. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 