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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Just before we held our vote, Jonathan asked if we would consider staying a little longer to help the police get rid of the big criminal element that had come to their city. From here they were beginning to spread their influence all through the country. Ethan was definitely the worst of the three, he told us, but they would like to deal with all of them quickly and decisively. The former police chief did nothing to stop them, naturally, since he was making money from them as well.
I told Jonathan that he should make chief after all this is over. But he told me they always like to bring in someone from out of the city so that hopefully they will deal with the major criminals in a stronger way. But, he said the last two worked with the criminals instead, which helped them take over the city and make it more dangerous for everyone. He gave us liberty to do things the way we want, within the law of course.
I told him we would do that and will call on him when the time was right, so that hopefully he will get the credit for getting rid of these criminals. The vote was unanimous for us to stay and help. Matt figured we should hit Ethan first, since he is the biggest player here and everyone else is afraid of him. If we can get rid of him, the others might decide to leave on their own. It would mean letting them get away again, but that might be the best thing to do right now.
So far no one on our side has been killed, and I would like it to stay that way. Matt had a plan for Ethan, but he would need to borrow Mac and Angel from me. I sent Kat with him as well, Carine and Sky would stay here with me. Poor Carine, that evening she told me that the hatred instilled in her by Lauren keeps wanting to come to the surface. She was crying as she told me this. She doesn’t like the feeling of hatred and wondered if it would ever go away. I told her it might take a little time since it took time for Lauren to plant that hatred in her.
But we would all be helping her get back to where she was before, a woman who loved and had compassion on others. The next day Matt went to work on Ethan, he had found out where Ethan lived, so that was the best place to get things started. “There’s a van over on Hill Street,” said Brady, “they are watching us Ethan.” Ethan took out binoculars and had a look. “Hmm, you are definitely right,” he said, “now, who could be watching us.”
“Who would dare watch you,” said Herman, “must be someone new.” Just then the phone rang, they still had a land line in the house. “Yeah?” asked Herman, then he turned to Ethan, “the guy from that van wants to talk with you.” “Give him my mobile number,” said Ethan, “I hate that phone.” Soon his phone was beeping. “Ethan here,” he said, “and your name?” “In my business we don’t use names,” said Matt, “I just wanted you to know that someone hired me to kill you.”
“And you were nice enough to call and let me know,” said Ethan, “you are new or you are stupid, perhaps both.” “I like to let people know ahead of time,” said Matt, “you are an interesting and important target apparently. These ladies paid a lot of money to have you killed. By the way, I don’t miss, and you can’t hide. Take a look out your back door.” Now, before this phone call, Kat and Mac paid a visit to Ethan’s house, he had guards in different places around his mansion which overlooked the fjord.
Mac wanted one, the close one at the back door. Kat got him there, invisibly, he did his work and they left, with no one knowing what happened. But she had told him that he would have to hold her hand the whole time, to stay invisible. I would have liked to see that. I have never seen Mac hold hands with a woman before. Mac is a loner, and he prefers it that way, although he doesn’t mind being in groups. Anyway, back to Ethan. He told Herman to check the back door.
He came back and told Ethan that Colin was dead, he had been stabbed. Matt wanted Ethan to know that he could get close if he wanted. “I don’t know how you did that,” said Ethan, “who hired you?” “I don’t use names,” said Matt, “I like it better if I don’t know who I work for, 2 women, one is the widow of a man named Toledo. I knew him.” “Yeah, I knew Toledo also,” said Ethan, “he was killed by that PI in town.” “Wrong, that PI didn’t do it,” said Matt, “it was a woman, who happens to be in the city right now as well.
Amazing the people in this city at the moment. The other woman claims to own a ghost, which I don’t believe. I have been paid nearly 5 million US dollars to kill you, and I will succeed.” Matt then hung up and the van drove slowly away. But, by that time Ethan had a car in place which followed the van. Later, “check and see why Herman hasn’t returned or called in,” said Ethan. Three men left and soon found Herman’s car with him and two others he had taken with him.
“Found them Ethan, all dead,” said a man, “and not a mark on them.” They were told to bring the bodies back before the police found them and those bodies soon found their way into the fjord. Who knows how many others are in that water. That evening Ethan paid a visit to Jazzy’s nightclub with several of his men. I was there with Sky, Angel and Carine, plus the Bad Girls. He came over to our table, which was the largest, and told us to leave, he wanted the table.
We all laughed when he said that. Apparently Ethan never shows emotion of any kind, and neither does Raven, who was standing beside Ethan. I told Ethan that if he valued his life, or wanted to stay out of prison, he should leave the city and never come back. “And that includes the blackbird standing beside you,” I said calmly, “you don’t scare us.” Raven came over to me, so I stood up. He was considerably bigger than me.
“Let’s you and me have a fight PI,” said Raven, “you win and we leave. I win, you die and your team leaves.” Ethan agreed with the terms and so did I. Raven said I could hit him first, so I did, right in the stomach, knocking him 8 feet back and against the bar, landing on the floor. He shook his head, got up and charged me like a bull. I kicked him, knocking him back to the same spot. I began to walk over, but as I passed Ethan he quickly took out his gun and put it next to my head.
Angel roared like a lion and jumped onto the table showing her formidable lion body which shocked everyone, including Ethan, so that he took the gun away from my head momentarily. Amerie then kicked it out of his hand and Sky showed herself, shooting electricity from her hand killing Ethan instantly. The rest of the Bad Girls then went into action and quickly subdued the rest of Ethan’s men. Jazzy had come out of her office by this time.
“Tell me Steve, how did you get that big lion in here?” she asked, looking at the bar. But no lion was there anymore, just Angel lying there. “Oh, sorry, guess I shouldn’t be lying down here,” she said and jumped onto the floor. “Nice trick,” said Jazzy. “I don’t do tricks,” said Angel. “And you Steve? How did you manage to fight Raven?” she asked. “I didn’t,” I admitted, “Sky here did the fighting, I just went through the motions.”
“She was nowhere to be seen,” said Jazzy, “another trick? And that electricity?” “I don’t do tricks either,” said Sky. Then Jonathan entered with his officers and arrested Jazzy for several crimes that he could prove against her. That might put her in prison for 2 or 3 years, so she will be back. He had tried to arrest Lauren too, but she had already left the city, so I’m sure we will meet her again too.
Then there is Vanessa and someone named Marshal that she had mentioned. I wonder who he is? I imagine we will find out at some point. Well, it is back home for us. The police had arrested a man named Gordon who had a laser weapon he was using against us. So, it should be safe again, for a while at least.
The End. A new story is on the way.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Once the police arrived, I identified our team to them. The police chief had already been notified about us working a case in the city. After briefly explaining what we had found, we were allowed to leave. We did find evidence that her and Viktor had been working together, likely from day one. We later found out from Vanessa (the other Enid), that her and Viktor wanted to get married, but Enid said no to a divorce and Viktor agreed to remain married to her.
That produced a lot of friction between Vanessa and Viktor, especially over the last 6 months. Vanessa had plotted with Lauren to kill Enid so that she could claim the inheritance for herself, though she would share it with Lauren. But the real Enid must have found out and went into hiding, probably she had been warned by Viktor, though he had denied it to Vanessa. She also told us about this Ethan Solberg, a man that was cold as ice and dangerous like a volcano.
Lauren and Jazzy were both afraid of him. He had a right hand man that was also cold, she said, and no one would ever want to be alone with him. He had no friends, trusted no one, not even Ethan, and he loved to be cruel to people. I asked if he had a name and she said no one really knew if he did or not. He always used the name Raven. He is 6ft 2 inches tall, weighs 240 lbs and is strong as a bull. I called Mac to join us and asked if he knew of someone named Raven.
Mac just stared at me for a few moments. “He is the most dangerous man I know,” he said finally. I like how Mac is willing to give out volumes of information whenever I ask him a question. “Pacca, I want all there is to know about Ethan Solberg, right from the time he was born,” I said, “also a man named Raven, a killer that works for Ethan.” “I suppose you want it right away?” she asked. “Yes, even sooner if possible,” I said. That was the biggest sigh I had ever heard from her.
We then came out of the office and into the kitchen where some of the girls were sitting having tea. “I still don’t know how you can still be alive,” Vanessa said to Carine, “Lauren was so sure she could kill you with that little device of hers.” “Well, I guess her little device didn’t work like she thought it would,” said Carine. “Do you girls not have anything to do?” I asked. “We were waiting for you to finish in the office so we could check that fireplace,” said Nakedra smiling.
“Hmm, okay, that makes sense,” I said, “Carine, have you ever seen this man named Raven?” “No, but Lauren said he was terrifying to be with,” she replied, “she only met him on two occasions. Ethan Solberg is scary enough. If Ethan and Raven are back again, then you need to be extra careful Steve.” “Do you think he is behind the killing of Viktor and Enid?” I asked her. “Possibly, Enid stole nearly all the sex trafficking from everyone else in the city,” she said, “both for adults and kids.”
“And they also had the whole drug trade as well,” grumbled Vanessa, “I wanted in on that, but they kept saying no. Well, they can’t say no any longer, now I can take over once I find that inheritance. Since I am Viktor’s girlfriend, I can lay claim to that inheritance, he said so in his will.” She was laughing at this point. “So, you hired someone to kill them so the inheritance would be yours alone?” I asked. “Well, it was rightfully mine!” she exclaimed, “I helped Viktor, Enid certainly didn’t! It took all the money I had to get Ethan to let Raven kill them for me.
So when you find it, you can just give it all to me! I will pay you what Viktor agreed to, but the rest is mine, and it’s going to be a lot!” I left the kitchen with Angel, Milena, Aasta and Nakedra and went into the living room. Soon the police arrived and arrested Vanessa and they nearly had to drag her out, fighting and screaming. They stopped briefly in front of me. “You will pay for this Steve!” she screamed, “You will pay, Marshal will get you!”
The police then took her away. Next, I took the police chief into the home office and over to the fireplace, so I could show him something. Oskar was with us too and he was definitely needed at this point. The girls had found something earlier but didn’t realize how important it was. But I remembered this trick from another fireplace in a case a couple of years ago. I told Oskar to turn the hook at the back of the fireplace.
Even for a strong man like Oskar he had trouble getting that old iron hook to start turning. The back of the fireplace turned around, revealing another wall of blackened bricks. I reached inside and scraped some of those bricks with my knife and the brightness of gold began to shine through. Just then another police officer came into the room. It was John, the officer we met at Jazzy’s nightclub. I could see this was not going quite the way I had expected it would.
“Look John,” said chief Johannesson, “Steve found the gold we have been looking for.” “Well, isn’t that nice of him,” said John as he took out his gun. Oskar was going to get involved, but the chief took out his gun and pointed it at me. He then told Oskar to stand against the wall. I nodded to Oskar to obey him, which he did. “Now Steve, you will order your team to go back home,” said the chief, “you will have to stay here however.” “Well, I don’t think I can do that,” I told him, “Sky.”
She then appeared beside me, though the others could not see her. “Look at that,” said John, “he’s talking to the sky now.” Both men laughed. Then Sky allowed the police officers to see her. “Hey, where did she come from?” asked John. “If you must know,” she said, “I came from my parents.” “Oh, like to be smart do you?” asked John. “They want to hold me prisoner,” I told her, “they work for Jazzy.” “Angel kitty,” said Sky, “come see what mommy has for your dinner.”
Angel and some of the girls had gone upstairs by then and although Sky didn’t call loudly, Angel heard her quite easily. “Trouble downstairs everyone,” said Angel, and they all came running down. Angel landed at the bottom of the stairs as a lion and immediately came to the office. Carine and the other girls noticed that the police had already handcuffed the girls who were downstairs. So, they stayed in the living room and a big fight began.
Meanwhile Angel wandered into the room as a gigantic lion. This was the first time I had really seen her clearly as a lion. John tried to shoot Angel but Sky held out her hand and a bolt of electricity left her and hit John’s heart, killing him instantly. The lion walked over to the police chief and cornered him by the fireplace where he was in total shock. Angel stood up, putting her big paws against his shoulders. I think he nearly died of fright!
She then kicked him, hard, then grabbed his left arm, picking him up and throwing him through the air and he landed on his back on the floor. He was dead now too. Angel was back to herself at this point. Jonathan, another police officer, but a true officer and second in command here in the city police force, came into the room. I explained that both men tried to kill me so my bodyguards had no choice but to kill them.
He understood, and he said that the other corrupt officers have now been arrested and will be spending a long time in prison. Well, police corruption has been dealt a serious blow and the “inheritance” has been found, though it wasn’t really inheritance, but that old treasure, with no one to claim it. So, this part of our case is wrapped up. Now, do we continue going after Jazzy, Lauren and Ethan? We held a vote and…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 