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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Just as the cats began to stare at the door and growl, I sensed trouble, but vaguely and Jennifer said she sensed danger, but not close. That didn’t make sense of our senses. “Sky,” I said casually, and she appeared beside me immediately. “I don’t see any trouble Steve,” she said as she frowned at me. “The cats sense trouble at the door, Jennifer and I also sense trouble of some kind.
“The cats?” she asked, “That’s different.” She went to the door but asked Amerie to open it. She did so quickly, but the only person at the door was the young lady that works at the front desk. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “I was just about to knock. Um, a man left this note and asked me to bring it to, um, Steve. And he wanted me to wait for a reply.”
The poor woman looked rather nervous. “Read it please,” I said to Sky, so she opened it and began to read. “I meant out loud,” I said. “Oh, you didn’t say that,” she said, grinning, “a man wants to talk with you and he’s waiting in the lounge.” “Any name attached?” I asked. “Nope, no name,” she replied. The young lady also said he did not leave his name with her.
He had 2 other men with him and she said that all three men were rather large. “Let him know I will be there in a few minutes,” I said, “we need to get dressed.” She then left quickly and we got dressed and ready to go down to meet this mystery man. “Perhaps he is the one that has people following us,” I said. I had called Kat to join us, so I will take her, Jennifer and Sky with me and Angel will stay behind to protect Emerald in case this involves her.
“Are you people really bad criminals?” asked Emerald, “I looked you up for Mr. Cairns and it said you were a large criminal gang that specializes in drugs and kidnapping women to use, well, for not so nice things.” “Do we really look that bad?” asked Angel, “We helped you and we have all these cute and cuddly cats.” Azura, Sky’s cat, went over to Emerald and curled up on top of her, purring.
“She likes you,” said Melanie. “I love cats,” said Emerald, “but that doesn’t really answer my question. I’m scared, but, but I do trust you though…it’s just hard to know what to think.” “Can you trust us until morning?” asked Angel, “Then we will get Steve to explain things better for you.” “Okay, that works,” she said, smiling.
Meanwhile, we went down to the lounge and the woman was right, all three of those men are rather large. We went over to the men and before sitting down I decide to ask something. “Which of you wanted to talk with me?” I asked. “That would be me,” said the one man, “sit down and join us Steve.” “I like to know who I’m talking with,” I said, “or I don’t talk.”
“My name is Warren Clarke,” he said, “though I imagine you haven’t heard of me. I do know about you however, as the leader of a group of PI’s called The Investigators.” Jennifer and I sat down, but Sky and Kat kept standing. “One of these beautiful ladies must be Kat Williams,” he began, “the leader of a group of criminal women called The Wildcats, a rather dangerous group I have heard. I find it interesting that the two of you work together at times.”
“Sometimes we have abilities that can be helpful to the other side,” I said, “and this is Kat.” She smiled at Warren. “Now, I am wondering what brings you to my territory,” he mused, “I don’t like when criminal gangs show up unannounced, it makes me think they are planning some expansion ideas. I would advise you against such plans, I would be forced to stop you rather quickly.”
“As you must know, Kat and I are on opposite sides of the law,” I said, “I don’t expand territory since I have none. What Kat does is her business, but that is not why she is here. If she was, you wouldn’t be able to stop her. We have a much different reason for being here. A friend of hers has a friend that disappeared, possibly kidnapped, we are here to try and find her and her 3 children who have also disappeared.
We discovered she worked for Cairns and wanted to quit, that’s when she disappeared.” “If she worked for Cairns then she is likely dead,” he answered, “so you are wasting your time looking for that family.” “Well, the children are alive,” I said, “they showed up on Cairns’ porn site, yet he claims he knows nothing about them. So, we plan to refresh his memory a bit.”
“Cairns doesn’t make his own videos,” said Warren, “he buys them from others, or rents them, to put on his site. So, someone else likely has those kids.” “Know anything about the father of those kids, his name is Martin Evans?” I asked. “He’s a worthless slob that hasn’t worked in years,” he replied, “all he knows how to do is gamble, and he’s terrible at that. I know he owes Cairns a lot of money right now.”
“He did, but apparently not anymore,” I said, “though Cairns did take his old car and his house, but that wouldn’t pay his debt, so he got money somewhere else.” “Then I would say you know what happened to his kids,” added Warren. “By the way,” I said, “are you the one that keeps sending people to follow us around?” “No, I have not done that,” he said, “I prefer the direct approach, such as talking face to face.
You know, I keep looking at this young lady here (pointing to Sky), but I don’t recognize her face from either of your groups.” “That is because I have my own, shall we say, group of friends,” she said smiling, “we are also on the opposite side of the law from Steve. But I owe him a rather large debt, not money, so I have promised to help him whenever he needs it. My name is Sky.”
We talked for a little longer, then Warren and his bodyguards left. He never did say why Cairns is operating in his territory. Perhaps Cairns works for this Warren Clarke. But then, why didn’t Cairns know who we were? We still don’t know who is following us either, that part is puzzling. It isn’t Warren and Emerald said it wasn’t Cairns. It is now 2am, time for bed. Later we will visit with Martin again, hopefully before he goes missing.
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
We had just left Cairns and a car began to follow us, just like this afternoon. “Now we get to see your night driving skills Sherry,” I said, “lose them!” “Okay Fluffy, escape plan A!” said Sherry. “Me Fluffy, plan A, turn right now”, and we did, nearly missing our street as the car almost turned right around. We then sped off down this street, but only briefly and Fluffy said to turn left, and we did.
I thought the car was going to flip over that time. We were now driving, much too fast, down a lane with the other car following, but quite a bit behind us. Then a garbage truck pulled into the lane ahead of us and Sherry managed to screech that car into a complete turnaround and we were now heading back the way we came. The other car was heading toward us, and fast. “Careful!” I yelled to Sherry. “He’ll move!” she yelled back. Just at the last moment the other car did move, and crashed into someone’s garage.
“I think he went right through that garage,” said Jennifer calmly. “This is fun!” exclaimed Sky. Emerald didn’t seem to be having much fun, she was pale as a ghost, the white kind of ghost, not like ours. She came with us since Cairns fired her and demanded she leave, so we invited her to come with us. She didn’t have a car anyway, so we offered to drive her home.
That is, until we were followed and had to detour. We now headed off to her apartment. As we pulled into the area in front of her apartment building, she suddenly yelled not to stop, but to keep driving. She said one of Cairns cars was out front and that meant there were some of his brutes waiting for her. However, I told Sherry to stop anyway, so she did.
“We will go with you to your apartment,” I said, “then you can get anything that may be important to you and we will take you somewhere safe.” “So you can beat me instead?” she asked, “You people are all alike, you’re criminals just like Mr. Cairns. Why should I trust you? I looked you up online, I know who you are.” “No, we are not like that at all,” said Jennifer, “please trust us, we can help you and we want to help. It’s because of us that you’re in trouble, but you will be safe with us, honest.”
Jennifer spoke calmly and in such a way that Emerald settled down right away. “But, but those men are killers,” she said, “they kill for Mr. Cairns.” “We can handle them,” said Jennifer, “and keep you safe too.” So, Kat, Sky and Angel went with Emerald to her apartment, while Jennifer, Milena, Aasta, Sherry and I stayed behind in the car.
It is one of the Baldwin Corporation special cars, big and built like a tank, and also very fast. There were 2 men waiting in the lobby area of the building and told our girls that they would make sure that Emerald made it safely to her apartment. Kat moved quickly and had them knocked out immediately. Emerald lived on the 15th floor and as they were walking down the hall after getting off the elevator, Emerald noticed that her door was open.
Sky and Angel went in first while Kat stayed with Emerald in the hallway. There was some crashing and yells, then all was quiet. Sky came to the door and said it was safe to come in. There were 4 men in the room, 3 on the floor and one kind of slumped over a big armchair. “They won’t hurt you, or anyone, ever again,” said Angel.
“Mr. Cairns will be furious,” said Emerald, “now he will kill me for sure. That is likely what happened to your friend Miss Williams. A person doesn’t quit working for Mr. Cairns, they just disappear forever.” Kat frowned when she said that, but she didn’t press the matter any further right then. The girls helped Emerald pack a couple of suitcases and a backpack, then they came back to the car and got in.
We then drove back to our hotel Sky invited Emerald to stay with her, Amerie and Colette. Before we all went to bed, we talked a bit more with Emerald and what she knew about Cairns and Amanda. Emerald has been working for Cairns for two years now and she said that Amanda was already working for Cairns when she started.
Then she decided to quit suddenly saying that her and Martin had decided to move closer to his parents, though Emerald didn’t know where that was. Cairns was angry with Amanda saying that Martin owed him too much money to just move away somewhere and he forbid them to move. Amanda became angry then too and said they didn’t need his permission to do anything.
She then stormed out of his office and went home, at least, that is where Emerald thought she went. But, apparently, she never made it home and just disappeared. Emerald didn’t know the children also disappeared and she was horrified to learn what happened to them. She had no idea that Cairns had a porn site, or that he used children in such a way. She started crying when we told her, as she thought about what they must be going through.
He has a “personal escort” service here, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles and one in Miami. Amanda worked in the one here and because she was very beautiful, she was in high demand, so she made a lot of money. But Martin gambled it away as fast as she made it. Apparently he hasn’t worked in years. It’s actually quite amazing how much Martin never told us.
I wonder why he held back all of this information? I almost get the impression that he doesn’t want us to find his wife and children. He just wants us to find his car. Emerald just might be right about one thing, Amanda might already be dead. And there is another problem, who is following us? It isn’t Cairns, Amanda told us he always uses the same kind of cars, and the same color, black.
Perhaps the police are following us thinking that another gang has come to town. Or perhaps a rival to Cairns thinking that he has brought in extra help. That one is more likely. However, Emerald didn’t know of anyone else that was in direct competition with Cairns. Well, Cairns has 8 less men now so he will likely be looking for some new recruits.
We finally decided to get some sleep and talk more in the morning. Muffin, Storm, Jewel, Rusty and Moonbeam were with us and they all agreed that Emerald was sincere and trustworthy. Each of the ghosts said the same thing, so that was good. Suddenly each of the cats stared at the door and growled…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 