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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
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.
We ordered our food, then talked a bit more about Jensen’s Jaguars. I think she bought my story about Tammy hiring them to deal with me because I wouldn’t leave. Helene wanted more information about Aari’s organization, she figured I must know more about them than she does. After all, that is my business as a PI. So, I told her enough without telling her everything.
I could sense trouble in our meeting, so I knew she was up to something. I thought she might use this opportunity to kidnap me to use for a trade, in order to get Kitty. This would be okay since it would give us what we need to fight her, legally. And since she can’t hurt me, there is really no problem. Helene, however, was more intelligent than I gave her credit for.
Sherry had driven us to our meeting today, which is normal, but she had to stay in the car to keep an eye on things. While she was waiting for us, there was a knock on her window. She looked to see 2 police officers standing by the car. She rolled the window down part way and the one officer told her she was parked in a no parking zone, and he pointed to a sign by the car.
Sherry looked and sure enough, there was a sign. “How did I not see that before?” she asked herself. She then told the officer she would move the car. However, he was not satisfied with that and wanted to see her driver’s license. She gave it to him and he gave it to the other officer. He then asked her to step out of the car.
When she asked why, he told her that a large supply of drugs was being brought into the city today, so all cars of a certain kind were being checked. He said it would not take long. So, she got out, immediately felt a pain, then everything went black.
Meanwhile, back inside with us. “Okay Steve,” began Helene, “let’s get serious for a few minutes. I want Kitty, preferably without bloodshed. So, I will pay you $10 million for her, the price that I paid Rico.” “That would mean you are actually paying $20 million for her,” I said, “you really want her, obviously you think she must be worth the money. But are you sure about that?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, “and you know it too, that’s why you don’t want to let me have her.” “She does have some interesting abilities that are very helpful to us,” I said. “That reminds me,” she said, “how did you know I had my driver’s license in my purse? And how could you see it?” “Well, we could say it was just a lucky guess,” I told her, smiling.
“We could, but then I would have to say you are lying to me,” she said. “Well, I will stick with my lucky guess,” I said, “since I did have your name wrong. I thought it was Chambers, but really it’s Chalmers. So, I didn’t have it quite right, and I assumed you must be Helene, since you did show up in our last case with Ezra and Tammy.
As for finding out your name is really Chalmers, that was the work of another team member, certainly not me, I admit that I would never have thought about that myself. As for your offer for Kitty, well, she is not mine to sell. No one owns Kitty, so no one can sell her.” “You are a hard man to deal with,” she said, “I was really hoping we could do this the easy way.
But now I guess we will have to do this the hard way.” We were now finished our meal and Helene asked us if we would like dessert, but we both said no. We had already eaten more than we normally do for lunch. “Now, I could decide to keep you both as my, shall we say, guests,” said Helene, “until you hand over Kitty to me, or I could just keep one of you since I already have one of your girls. I believe she is your driver.”
Jennifer called Sherry right away, she answered and admitted to being caught by fake police officers. She admitted to being embarrassed by that. She wasn’t sure where she was, however, since she had been knocked out, but it looked like a hotel room. “It is a hotel room,” said Helene, “my room actually. And to make things interesting, I will keep you, Steve, and Jennifer can return home and decide what to do about Kitty.”
At that moment Bunker, Helene’s bodyguard, came into the restaurant and over to our table. “Please go with Bunker, Steve,” she said, “causing a scene in public is so childish. I will stay and talk with Jennifer for a couple of minutes and be right out.” As we walked out the door, I looked up and said “invisible Sky”.
Bunker looked up too. “What do you mean?” he asked. “There are no clouds,” I said. He then told me to get into the limousine. Sky got in with me and I put a bubble around us so we could talk. “They have Sherry already, now me,” I said, “I will need you available at all times Sky, protecting Sherry is most important. If they keep us separated then I want you to stay with her.” “I will do that Steve,” she said…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 