Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. Treasure Hunt. Chapter 3.
Hmm, could that agent have been at the chateau? He would need to know about some of the secret passageways then, that makes him a big suspect. I’m not even sure about some of the people in this small hospital, there’s one nurse that just gives a weird feeling whenever he comes in the room, the cats agree with me too. And I notice the doctor seems to be uncomfortable whenever that nurse is around. It was quiet, Calanthe and I were talking, she felt good and wanted to leave but the doctor wanted to keep her one more night just to make sure she was okay. I agreed with the doctor. The nurse came in who is able to speak English well so I told her I didn’t want that other nurse coming in here anymore. She said the doctor would have to make that decision.
I told her that if he comes in again I would throw him out, I don’t trust him. Then she confided that she didn’t like him either, she always got a cold feeling when he was around. Apparently he only started working there 2 days ago. That seems too convenient. She came back with a paper for me to sign stating I had a complaint with this nurse and didn’t want him to care for Calanthe. I gladly signed it. She left, Calanthe was asleep, Muffin curled up beside her, I sat in the big comfortable chair that was in the room and took a short nap. Mr. Cat was on guard duty, so he sat on the window sill, looking out and in. All continued quiet, until Mr. Cat was waking me up by slapping my face with his tail. Muffin was on the bed growling and hissing and that male nurse was back with a needle in his hand!
I jumped up and grabbed his arm and told him to leave. Oh my, jumping up like that awakened my spinal injury, but I couldn’t show the pain. I told him again to leave and pointed at the door. He was quick and turned me slightly, punching me hard on my lower spine, right where I had been shot. That was too much, my legs crumbled and I fell to the floor. He kicked me in the stomach, but Muffin was already in the air and landed right on his back with all 18 claws raking his back! And Mr. Cat wrapped himself around the man’s leg, biting and clawing. He screamed just as the doctor and two more nurses came in and managed to subdue this nurse. The cats jumped off him and I pulled myself away and also pulled out my gun. My mistake for not having the slingshots on the cats.
Seeing my gun settled the man down and he stayed sitting on the floor until the police arrived and took him away. The police were very happy to be helping a fellow officer. I’m not sure how Rossana managed that, but it sure is helping to be an undercover officer. Mind you, I’m not so undercover now. The doctor looked at my back and asked how it happened. I told him I was shot there in another case about a month ago. He felt I should be relaxing still, not taking on new cases. Off he went to check out that needle. He came back in a little while and said it was filled with poison and Calanthe would have died very quickly. He also ordered me, as my doctor, to sleep in the other bed, not in the chair, it would be better for my back. He also gave me some painkillers for it. He’s a good doctor, and seems much more relaxed now. Everything was quiet the rest of the day and night.
In the morning we left the hospital and went on our way to the chateau. A little ways out of town I turned onto a smaller road. “Where are you going?”, asked Calanthe, “this won’t take us back to the chateau.” “We’re not going back there right now,” I said, “we’re heading back to my chateau instead. We will get there early enough to look around a bit before it gets dark. According to the lawyer that agent doesn’t know about this chateau, so it might be a good place to relax for a day or two and think.” Meow,meow.=Oh, oh, he going to think again, that mean trouble coming. Meow.=Yep, every time he think, we get in trouble. Giggle, giggle. “What are you two giggling about?”,asked Calanthe. Meow,meow=When he think, we always get in trouble. Meow.=Yep, that true. Calanthe starting laughing…for about 5 minutes. It wasn’t that funny. Here we are, home at last.
To Be Continued.
Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
Previous chapters 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.
Coffee At Steve’s Country #64. Feeling Like Spring.
Good morning and Happy Friday to all of you! The coffee is ready and waiting, just help yourself and relax with us for awhile. It’s really quite beautiful these days, this morning it’s 25F (-4C) once again, a nice mild temp to begin the day. And it’s sunny with the birds sounding very much spring like with their songs and calls to each other. All of our area crows arrived back from the south yesterday so they have been calling back and forth to each other. Not too many people like crows, but they are usually the first sign of spring and our first returning birds each year. For that reason it’s nice to hear them back again. But I realize they can become a pest after awhile, though I have only had that problem once and that was last year. Our regular crow didn’t return last year so that left this an empty territory which was used by a number of non breeding crows, 17 to be exact, and they did become a pest scaring away other birds and taking all the food.
Usually the next to return are the eagles, even though many stay here all winter, most head south and they always return in March. After that the gulls return and when that happens we know that the worst of winter is past. Though it can still get cold and snowy after the gulls come back, it doesn’t last. However, this warm weather isn’t supposed to last either, only until Tuesday, then it gets cold again for awhile. But that’s kind of normal for us too. Sigh. I went for a walk to the river yesterday, it was just so beautiful down there. But getting there was treacherous in places. The hills were solid ice. With all the trees the sun can’t get in there to melt that snow. It was melting that one day with the strong wind blowing through the trees, but then it froze again, and it has stayed frozen in those areas.
I had to go off the path to walk and that wasn’t easy walking either. While I was sitting on the bench by the river a young woman came along with her small dog, he came to me right away for some attention. I meet this woman quite frequently on the path so she sat down to talk for awhile. She also mentioned how bad the path was right now and she went off the path in a couple places as well to walk by the ice. We enjoyed the view and talked for about 15 minutes before she continued walking. She went along a section of the path I wouldn’t want to attempt just yet. I had looked at it earlier and decided it was too risky. I hope you have a very enjoyable day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
