Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
20/20 Investigations, Inc. The Wilderness Staircase. Chapter 12.
I felt a gun against my back…it was Carole. “I’m surprised you left me alone, Mr. PI,” she said. “That was a big mistake on my part,” I replied, “I also forgot to search you for a gun.” “Yes, it’s small, but at this range it will be very effective, now drop your gun,” she said firmly. I did toss my gun on the floor ahead of me. Then Gisela must have seen Muffin over to the side and she turned and fired 3 times. Muffin slid a bit on the floor, then she lay limp and lifeless. “Call your other cat,” yelled Gisela. “Come over here Mr. Cat,” I said loudly. He came over dragging his tail. I could tell he didn’t like the idea of giving up without a fight. When he got close I gave a small nod to him which he caught right away. “Now the jewels,” she called out. “They are over in that second oven,” I said. Jakob went over and found them right away and brought them to Gisela. “Thank you so much,” she said with a smile, “now, of course, we can’t leave you alive so….”
Right then I said “meow” nice and loud. “Thwock!”, and Carole screamed! Mr. Cat shot the gun out of her hand, breaking her wrist in the process. Then another “Thwock” and Jakob fell to the floor. A perfect shot by Muffin. Buying those bullet proof jackets for the cats paid off nicely! Then Gisela and Diane tried to leave and Mr. Cat pulled back as best he could and shot. It was a long shot across that big room but he hit Diane on the back and she fell screaming. Muffin was moving around more close to me when Carole managed to pick up her gun with her left hand. “Thwock!”, and Carole screamed again! Muffin got her leg close to her knee, that must have hurt! I took the gun from her.
Muffin came over, meow, meow!=I okay, we chase human Gisela! “Okay you two, let’s go!”, I said and off we went. Gisela had gone down a trap door which led to some spiral stairs again heading down quite steeply. “Stay close to me,” I told the cats. We descended the stairs and came to a small room where Lena’s body lay on a bed, but we couldn’t stop just then, we needed to catch Gisela. Finally we get to the bottom where there was a large natural cave which had two trucks parked inside. Gisela was just starting to back out when we got there so I shot a couple times, but missed her. She shot out the side window, I could feel the sting 3 times and fell down. I could hear Gisela laugh as she drove away. I felt Muffin rubbing her head against mine, then all was quiet and dark. It was only a few minutes when the police arrived. We had managed to get through their jamming device by taking my little scrambler out to the edge of the hill and turning it on full. That allowed Muffin to call for help and give our location for the police. But they arrived just a little too late.
I opened my eyes, the room was bright and sunny, and the cats were bouncing on the bed like kangaroos! They both came up and started to lick my cheeks. I looked around and saw someone sitting in a chair beside my bed…it was Lena! Carole just said that Lena was dead, they had beaten her, but not killed her. Finally after 2 weeks I was getting out of that hospital, the cats were jumping again with excitement! Meow,meow!=Lena invite us to her place for Christmas! Meow.=Yes, she have real big house, lots of room to stay. Meow,meow?=We stay? Please? “Looks like I’m outnumbered anyway,” I laughed as we all walked out of the hospital to the awaiting taxi and then off by plane to Lena’s house for Christmas. Unfortunately Gisela managed to get away and disappear, will we meet again? Carole and Diane were arrested, and the real jewels were returned, apparently they had been recently stolen and there was a nice reward waiting for us. It will definitely be nice to relax for a few days anyway. But if we only knew….
The End.
But what awaits our trio of PI’s? We will be back with all new adventures starting with “The Missing Cat” on January 1st!
Picture of Mr. Cat kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
All chapters of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under, 20/20 Investigations, Inc.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #23.
Good morning on this very cold winter day! But there is lots of nice hot coffee waiting for everyone, so help yourself and join us for a look at our morning. As usual Muffin is eagerly waiting for you all to show up. Well, that snowstorm which was supposed to hit us must have mainly missed once again, something that seems to be happening regularly this winter. But we got about 4 inches (10cm) of snow all together. We did, however, get the wind and cold from the storm. It was 12F (-11C) when I went out to shovel snow at 7am, then at 8:30am the temp had dropped to 8F (-13C) and it will continue to drop until it hits around -22F (-30C) tonight. It feels so much colder with that wind blowing out there, nearly froze my face in the half hour I was outside.
There is a lot of bird activity this morning, chickadees were first, as usual, and I counted 12 this morning, the most so far this winter. Blue jays were next, followed by Theodore who quickly finished off the sunflower seeds I put out there for the grosbeaks. So I had to go and put out some more, which I don’t mind doing, and now the evening grosbeaks are enjoying their breakfast as well. There is at least 2 dozen of them this morning. They were here yesterday as well, but came later and there was 6 pine grosbeaks with them. I don’t see the pine grosbeaks this morning however, but perhaps they will show up a little later. The redpolls came later yesterday as well getting a good feast going through all the seed shells left behind by the grosbeaks. There is always bits of the sunflower seed left behind in the shells which the redpolls clean up.
Redpolls have a hard time opening the sunflower seeds themselves, so having the grosbeaks around really helps them. Suddenly it is all quiet outside, not a bird in sight, perhaps that shrike is around again. Even the blue jays are not here. I’m wrong, the blue jays have just returned and Jasper is coming running through the trees. I enjoy watching him, he has regular paths along those branches, one for coming, and one for going. But it’s really fun to watch him just running along those branches for no reason, it seems, but just to have fun himself. The grosbeaks and chickadees are back now as well, and the nuthatches. Everything is once again normal at the feeders. Just cold, very cold, but the birds don’t seem to notice. Muffin and I hope you all have a most wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 