-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Well, Helene decided to eat dinner in the restaurant this evening, but she ordered food for us first. She then left after our food arrived. She also warned us that there were guards outside our door, just in case we might think of leaving her hospitality. I said we would not try such a thing. She promised that her men would not come into the suite while she was gone, and I thanked her for that.
Once she left we began eating and I must say, she is certainly feeding us well. These are expensive meals that she orders for us. If she’s going to kill us, at least we’re going out in style. Of course, she doesn’t know she can’t kill me, however, that’s beside the point. I had already told the girls about a plan I had and it worked out better than I had hoped since our two door guards decided to come in and check on Sherry and Caleigh.
Before that however, we talked things over so the girls would know their parts. “Sounds like a good plan Steve,” said Sherry, “except for one part.” “What is that?” I aske her. “The part where you punch me in the face,” she said a little sheepishly, “um, that’s going to hurt, a lot.” “She has a point Steve,” said Caleigh, “punch me instead.
I have been punched in the face 3 times before, so I know what it’s like and what to expect.” “But that’s not fair,” said Sherry, “I didn’t mean to pass it off on you.” “I know that Sherry,” said Caleigh smiling, “it’s still better for me to do it.” “I will make it up to you Caleigh,” I said, “just name it and it’s yours, 4 times for 2 punches.”
“Hmm, maybe I could do it,” said Sherry, trying to sound braver, “nope, forget it, I’m a wimp.” “Don’t worry Sherry,” I said, “you’ll be rewarded too for your part.” “My part?” she asked, “My only part was not paying attention and getting captured. For that I should be put on inactive duty for 30 days and go for retraining.”
“Hey, I’m the one that makes those decisions Sherry,” I said, “yes, you messed up a bit, but no one was hurt because of it. Fluffy is nice to have, but if you had a real cat with you it would not have happened the way it did. You were selfless and let someone else have your cat because you said she should be first. Now, no more worrying about what happened, okay?”
“Okay,” she said smiling. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to punch Caleigh twice in the face. She ended up with a nice black eye out of one and a big bruise on her cheek bone on the other side of her face. The girls then laid on the extra bed in the main room. Well, Sherry first knocked on the door, then jumped onto the bed with Caleigh. Claude and Hubert came in quickly, with Claude having his gun out.
“No! Don’t shoot him!” yelled Sherry and she jumped up, grabbed Claude’s gun hand and caused him to shoot once. The bullet hit me just under my heart. I fell against the wall, then onto the floor, dead. There was a listening device in the room and 3 men in another room were listening. They came running into the room and quickly took the guns from Claude and Hubert.
“Don’t let him hurt me anymore, please!” yelled Caleigh. “He shot Steve!” yelled Sherry. Meanwhile Bunker and Helene were just finishing their dinner when Bunker got a call from Josh. “You better get up here Bunker,” said Josh, “bad news.” Bunker soon arrived and Helene wasn’t far behind him. “It’s her fault!” yelled Claude, “She attacked me.”
“He was going to shoot Steve,” she said, “so naturally I attacked him. These guys came in and tried to rape us and that guy (pointing to Claude) punched Caleigh when she resisted.” “That’s a lie,” he said, “they’re just trying to get me in trouble.” “Seems like you’re doing that all by yourself Claude,” said Bunker. “What do you say Hubert?” asked Helene.
“Well, uh, Claude said we should check out these girls while you were eating, cause they were real beauties,” he replied. “Are you trying to get me in trouble too?” asked Claude. “Well, you did say that,” said Hubert, “and he said Steve was too crippled to help the girls and it would be easy for us to deny everything.” “I’ll get you for that Hubert!” exclaimed Claude.
“That man, Claude, he say that if I scream again he would mess up my face so no one would recognize me,” said Caleigh. “I did not say that you little liar!” yelled Claude and he began to move toward Caleigh. However, Bunker intervened and pushed Claude away. “Well Hubert?” asked Helene. “I can’t remember if that was his exact words,” said Hubert, “but it was something like that.”
This went on for a while, then Helene said to take them out and make sure they don’t come back. “Now what Helene?” asked Bunker. “We leave, quickly,” she said, “did you check Steve carefully?” “Yep, he’s dead as could be,” he replied. “Well, I hate to leave you two girls in this mess,” said Helene apologetically, “but I’m sure you understand that I must leave rather quickly.
Once Jennifer finds out that her husband is dead, she will be rather upset and she will likely want to chase after me. Please let her know this was not my doing and the two men involved are being taken care of as we speak.” She then took out a briefcase from the closet and opened it on the table. It was full of money. She took out some and left it on the table.
“This is for Jennifer,” she said, “perhaps for burial costs.” Then she brought money over to the girls and dropped it on the bed. “Buy yourselves some nice clothes,” she said, “something other than jeans for a change.” “Thank you,” they both said together. Then Helene and Bunker left.
After about an hour Sherry looked over the edge of the bed. Then she got up and knelt beside me and touched my hand. That put a bubble around us so we could talk without being heard. Caleigh quickly joined us.
“I had to wait and make sure they were gone,” I said, “otherwise our plan would go flying out the window. Good thing those 2 had talked about coming in here anyway, that really helped our story.” “Yep, sure did,” said Caleigh, “and these bruises barely hurt, unless I laugh. Hey, no fair tickling Steve!” Just then the door to our room opened…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Sky then disappeared for now, but she assured me that if either of us called her, she would be here immediately. She also reminded me which of my abilities were now working fully and which ones were not. Most were working now which is a good thing. That doesn’t help Sherry though, unless we are kept together.
Helene only talked with Jennifer briefly, then she joined us in her car. Jennifer got into our car to head home and Sky appeared beside her. “Fluffy, how come you didn’t notice that no parking sign,” asked Sky. “Me Fluffy, sign not there when we park.” “Hmm, that was sneaky,” said Jennifer. “Yes,” said Sky, “but you could have warned her about the fake police.”
“Me Fluffy, police real police, have real car.” Fluffy even gave the number on the car. Jennifer called Rossana right away to see if she could check on these 2 officers and see if they are real or not. Fluffy had taken a photo of each of them, using the outside door camera, which Sky sent to Rossana. Turns out they were real officers, but obviously working for Helene.
Now back to us. Helene said nothing at all until we were back at her hotel, they she reminded me not to say anything, or make a scene, as it would not go well for Sherry if I did. We were soon in her hotel suite, which was very large and had two separate bedrooms. Sherry and I would be kept in one of the bedrooms.
Helene also told us that if we behaved ourselves we would not be tied up and would be treated as guests. I told her we would behave, I did not like being tied up, it was too hard on my back. Helene knew I had back problems, but didn’t know why, so she asked.
I told her about my various wounds and Sherry mentioned that I normally get a massage once or twice per day or the pain would get bad and I would stiffen up terribly. I turned and frowned at her. I should not have done that since Helene noticed that right away. By dinner time my back was complaining quite a lot, I had not had a massage at all today.
I tried hard not to show any discomfort, but that was getting difficult. Helene was true to her word though, she did treat us as guests and fed us very well, though we did have to eat in the suite. There were just the three of us, Bunker was told to leave before Helene called us out of our bedroom.
“I don’t wish to embarrass you, Sherry,” said Helene, “so Bunker won’t join us when we eat. Unless you decide not to behave.” “I notice you don’t mind embarrassing Steve though,” replied Sherry. “Be nice to our host Sherry,” I said, “as leader of the Investigators I need to be ready for all sorts of things.” “Steve is right, my dear Sherry,” said Helene, “being the leader is not always a pleasant thing.
Now, I have told Jennifer that she has 5 days to decide on giving me Kitty, or not. However, if she says no, or I just don’t hear from her on day 5, then I will send you home Sherry. Unfortunately you won’t know it, since you will be dead. Upon delivery there will be a note giving Jennifer an extra 24 hours to hand Kitty over to me.”
At that moment there was a knock at the door and Helene answered. I was very surprised to see Caleigh come in, smiling. “I asked Jennifer to send your massage therapist to take care of your back,” said Helene, “she will have to share your bedroom though, and all other arrangements.” She then called and ordered something for Caleigh to eat as well.
One thing that surprises me, now that I am dead, or a ghost, how come my back still pains so much? Seems to me that should no longer be the case. Yet it is. Kind of odd really. Oh well. However, now there are two girls here that need protecting. Jennifer should have thought of that. Sigh. At least we’re all together, so that helps.
Caleigh didn’t seem to mind about this “minor embarrassment” as she called it. She reminded me that she had to put up with worse things than this when she was forced into doing porn movies. Sherry didn’t know about that and felt bad that she had been complaining about this “minor embarrassment”.
Well, the first 24 hours has passed and Helene said she had not heard from Jennifer yet, but there were still 4 days left. Meanwhile, back with our team. “Helene is smart,” said Jennifer, “she never leaves that hotel room.” “Perhaps we could force her into the open,” said Aari, “by suggesting that we make the trade for Kitty in a different location, such as a park.”
“That’s possible,” said Jennifer, “but something tells me she won’t go for that idea. She likes the safety of that hotel.” “But once we trade,” said Kitty, “she will have to leave the hotel. Then you could attack her.” “Yes, I thought about that too,” said Jennifer, “she can’t stay in that hotel forever, but she must have thought about that and has a safe way planned for her escape.”
Suddenly there was a loud “YES!! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!” Cristy was dancing around in circles repeating the word “yes” multiple times. Everyone had stopped talking and Misty went and joined Cristy dancing in circles with her. “Must be the stress,” said Amerie. “Yep, cracked their craniums,” said Suzette. “Would either of you two like to explain to us the reason for your celebration?” asked Jennifer.
“I have no idea,” said Misty, “but Cristy was celebrating, so I knew it must be good.” “It’s better than good,” said Cristy, “it’s fantastic!” Then they continued with their little “victory” dance while everyone else got some tea and cake and waited, rather impatiently, to find out what was going on. Finally the twins were tired and dropped themselves onto one of the couches.
“I did it, I found him!” said Cristy. “She did it, she found him!” repeated Misty. “I followed his spending,” said Cristy, “now I know where he is!” “She followed his spending,” repeated Misty, “now she knows where he is!” “I should have tried this before,” she said, “it’s really simple!” “She should have tried this before,” repeated Misty, “it’s really simple!”
“Are you going to repeat everything Cristy says?” asked Kat. “Am I going to repeat everything Cristy says?” asked Misty. “Never mind Misty,” said Cristy, “I found Wendel Chalmers!” “Where is he?” asked Jennifer, “We will get him right away.”
“Considering what Helene is like,” said Aari, “we better not get our hopes up, she might be willing to toss him away in order to get Kitty.” “I’m hoping that she will,” said Jennifer, “I want Wendel to see what his girlfriend is really like…”
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 