Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
20/20 Investigations, Inc. The Wilderness Staircase. Chapter 5.
We didn’t go far down on that little elevator, but it was a rather hard landing. Before us lay a tunnel which we began to follow for about 50 feet before coming to a cave-in. “This obviously happened a long time ago,” I told the cats, “and there is no way to dig through all those big rocks.” We checked around to see if there might be another hidden door, but we found nothing. So back we go to that elevator. “Climb on you two,” I said, “and we’ll take the elevator back up.” Meow?=This thing is elevator, how we go up? “This handle here will help us get back up,” I explained, “by turning it like this, up we go.” Once back up to where we began the elevator stopped and the door opened nicely for us. We go back into the bedroom and…the furniture in there had been moved around.
Meow,meow!=See that? Proof that ghosts live here, we go back home now. Meow.=I with Muffin this time, let’s go home. “No, we are not leaving yet,” I said, “we need to find out what’s going on, that’s what we were hired to do. We don’t want to quit! And stop…” Meow.=You say we can sigh now. “True, I did say that,” I admitted. Now, why would anyone move the furniture? Just to scare us? That doesn’t make sense. I turn and look at the wardrobe again and the angle of the tunnel. Meow,meow?=What you thinking? “Well, I have a little theory here,” I said. Meow,meow.=Oh, oh, we in trouble now. Meow.=Yep, his theory always get us in trouble. “Very funny, you two, but look at the direction of the tunnel,” I said, “where does it lead?” Meow,meow!=To the staircase! “That’s right,” I said, “so let’s go take a look around.”
Meow,meow?=How about we eat lunch first? Getting hungry again. I check the time. Hmm, it is time for lunch, it took us awhile to look around this hotel, and we’re not finished yet. I decide to check our room and see if anyone had been in there too. We did have our backpacks with us, but the rest of our stuff we left behind in the bedroom. I unlock the door and…we could not believe what we saw! It was another coffin! This one was laying down so I went over and opened the lid. I nearly fainted. Muffin and Mr. Cat looked inside. Meow!=EEEEEEEEEEE!!, they each screamed! Inside the coffin was Lena, laying there with a knife in her stomach and holding an envelope. She was still alive so I had to do something quickly or she wouldn’t be alive for long. I pulled the knife out slowly and carefully. It was an odd knife, long, but very thin. Perhaps it didn’t touch anything important inside.
I carefully stitch up the wound, disinfecting everything. At least the bleeding has stopped. Somehow I don’t think they wanted to kill her, they just wanted to give us a message. Could these people be part of the same gang that we stopped before? I open the envelope and read the note inside. “Welcome to the end of your career as a detective. I plan on killing each of you, one at a time. The cats will be first, then the girl, then you Steve. I’m not letting you get away with what you did to me. There is no way out of here. There is a guard all the way around this hilltop, you have no way to call for help. Your only hope is to catch me before I kill you. If you can do it, then you would be free. But this time you won’t catch me. It’s my turn. J.” “It’s John again,” I said to the cats and showed them the letter.
Their eyes got huge when they read it and their ears went straight up. Meow,meow?=He think he can kill us? We show him! Meow!=Yep, he not get away, we catch him again and stop him for good maybe! “Yes, Mr. Cat, we will stop him for sure and he will be back in prison once more,” I said, “I’m just amazed he escaped so quickly this time, he must have had help.” I just wish we could figure out how he gets in and out of here without leaving any tracks…that’s it! “Stay here with Lena while I go check something,” I said, “I have a theory to check out.” Off I go to the tallest point in this hotel. Meow.=Now have 2 theories, bigger trouble. Meow,meow.=Yep, this not good, might have to do more biting to stop his theories. Meow.=Good thinking. Now I go over here to watch door. Meow,meow.=Okay, I watch window, no one sneak up on us.
To Be Continued.
Picture of Mr. Cat is kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
Previous 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 #11.
Good morning and Happy Friday everyone! We are so glad that you have joined us today! The coffee is ready so please, help yourself to a cup and relax with us for a few minutes. Very heavy clouds here this morning so it’s necessary to have the lights on today. And it’s very dull outside, meaning, rather dark when it should be bright light. But the little chickadees were here even when it was almost impossible to see them out there. The snow is still frozen to the trees and it is calm. So very still, except for the movement of the little birds. It looks beautiful with the snow on the branches like that. It’s hard to really capture it in a photo when it’s so dark out there, a sunny day is needed. The peanuts are out, but, where is everyone? The blue jays are not here yet.
Jasper and Jenny are not here yet. What’s this? I see Baxter and Betty just showed up. So the peanuts will be disappearing quickly now. With so few blue jays around these days I’m certainly not using up as many peanuts. However, I miss all those blue jays. At the start of winter I had 14 blue jays coming each morning, now we’re down to 6. That is very strange indeed. Those blue jays protect my little birds from the dangers of predators, especially that nasty shrike that comes around every winter. I realize that predators play a part in the natural order of things, but they can go play that part somewhere else please. I don’t have many birds this year, certainly can’t afford to lose many of them. Interesting how things work sometimes though. Last year there was a lot of birds around, but most were birds that didn’t normally stay the winter. They made up about 150 of my birds. The regulars made up about another 60-70 birds.
At the moment I have around 30 birds. Mind you, there would have been more but the rock doves chased the rest away. Oh well. It’s going to be a tough winter for pictures though. Yesterday I thought there were only 4 blue jays, but I figured I probably just missed a couple. This morning I have been watching very carefully and there are only 4 blue jays. Lost 2 more. I hope it’s because they have found another feeder closer to where they live. We’ll see what happens when the cold weather hits. Jasper and Jenny are still not here yet. I notice she comes from across the street, not a good thing, she might not last long. Well, it’s that time again to say good bye until tomorrow morning, but we’ll be back later with another chapter of our mystery story! I hope you enjoyed your coffee this morning, have a fantastic Friday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
