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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Right after I said Sky’s name, I dropped off my chair, landing on the floor, along with everyone else. All except Angle, that is. Then a woman came out with two men and another 5 men came out of another door close to our table. Angel was bent down beside me when the woman came out. “Why is she okay?” the woman asked one of her men. Suddenly a strange thing happened and Angel roared and turned into a lion, standing in front of me.
“Shoot that animal!” yelled the woman, but no one’s gun would work. “If those people are dead, so are you,” said Sky. “Where did you come from?” asked the woman rather loudly. Then the men dropped their guns yelling that they were too hot to hold. Even the two men behind the bar had to drop their guns. Then Sky pointed at the door guard and an electrical bolt went from her hand and hit the man, knocking him against the wall.
At that point Katresa, Amerie, Chloe, Suzette and Colette came running in, flipping over and over. Some swung from the backs of chairs kicking the men in the chest or face, some just flipped over onto their hands and kicked other men. Amerie jumped onto the bar and took care of the two men standing there, knocking them against bottles and glasses and they were soon out cold. The woman tried to run, but the lion pinned her against the wall with it’s paws on her shoulders.
She was quite terrified by this, but the lion turned back into Angel again. “Now, we will have a little talk,” said Sky. She also told all the other people in the restaurant to stay at their tables and they would not be hurt. “You fool,” said the woman, “someone has likely called the police by now!” “Then you will have much to explain,” said Angel, “such as why my husband and our friends are unconscious.” “I just wanted to talk with your husband, to find out who you are and why you are here,” she said.
“It’s very hard to talk with someone that is unconscious,” said Sky, “your reply lacks credibility. Now, who are you?” “This is my nightclub,” she retorted, “and I will ask the questions.” “No,” said Angel, “you attacked us, so you answer questions, then you can ask. Now, your name please, or must we get more physical?” “Jazzy Nilsen,” she said, “and I own this nightclub.” “Yes, you mentioned that part,” said Angel, “now, why are you interested in us?” Just then we all started to wake up.
Also, at that moment we heard sirens and several police cruisers arrived outside, with 10 officers coming in with guns out. “Now you can explain,” said Angel, “but be careful, and speak English only, or you will not like the outcome.” “Hello John,” she said cheerfully, “I am sorry for the mix-up here tonight. We were practicing what to do in case one of the gangs in the city came back here again. Unfortunately, things got a bit out of hand. We wanted it to be realistic, but we should have had better warning for our customers.”
“You are certain there is no problem here tonight?” he asked, “You are speaking English for some reason.” “Well, that is because I had to bring in actors from England to help with this,” she said, “and they do not understand our language.” He looked up at Amerie standing on the bar and told her to come down. She responded in French. “This girl is from France,” said Sky, “and only speaks French.” “Tell her to come down off there,” he demanded.
Sky just stood there frowning, then she said, “I did not hear you say please.” “These actors can be very stubborn John,” said Jazzy smiling. “Forget it,” he said and turned to go, “but next time warn the customers, and us, before you do any more acting.” After they were gone it was time for us to ask more questions. “I just want to know who you are and why you are here,” she told me. “I think you already know that,” I said, “you were already talking with Viktor this morning.”
“He told you that?” she asked. “No, we saw him leave here,” I said, “and you obviously asked him rather roughly.” “You are involved in things that don’t concern you,” she said, “I would suggest you go home and stay there.” “We were hired to do a job,” I said, “and we will leave when the job is done. How much does Viktor owe you anyway?” “300,000 euros,” she said, “so when you find his inheritance, I will take my share first.” “You may have to wait in line,” I said, “there are 2 other nightclubs where he owes money.” “They will have to wait,” she said, “or I will put them out of business.”
“There is also someone else,” I told her, “and Viktor has promised to pay them first.” “Who are they?” she asked. “That I don’t know just yet,” I said, “but I will find out. Viktor is not being honest with me and I don’t like that.” “You have an interesting PI team,” she said, changing the subject. “This woman and my wife are good friends,” I said, “but she and her girls are not part of my team. However, my wife and her are ghosts, so I would suggest you stay away from them from now on.”
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” she said firmly, “though I will admit they are good with tricks.” “What kind of trick turned me into a lion?” asked Angel. We then left without waiting for an answer. That night Angel heard voices again, but this time she had the cats ready with their backpacks on. Angel told them to scatter and hide, but let no one enter the room except our team. She then left. This time there were 4 people talking, Viktor, Enid, a woman and a man, plus something else, a dog!
Angel was not close enough to see anyone, but she could tell it was a large dog. Then she heard the woman tell Viktor that if he didn’t give her the money, then she would feed him to her dogs. “They love it when they can have fresh meat,” she said. Then she heard a door, but not a usual door. Viktor and Enid turned off the lights and walked past Angel, who was invisible, and went to their rooms. Interestingly, they had separate bedrooms. Angel woke me up and told me everything she had heard and seen.
“Hmm, separate bedrooms,” I said, “I must talk with Oskar today about that. Something doesn’t feel right about all of this. Too bad you didn’t hear the woman’s name. I don’t want to mention this to Viktor just yet, we need more pieces to this puzzle first. However, if I go missing, it will be the work of the woman you heard downstairs, no one else.” “I wish I had heard her name,” said Angel.
“So do I,” said Sky, who was now sitting on the bed, “and what do you mean “if I go missing”?” “You get around Sky,” I said smiling. “Don’t smile like that, this is serious,” she said. “Well, please keep your ears open for my call,” I said, “I have a bad feeling about this case now.” “I am always listening for you Steve,” she said, “no need to worry about that.”
Meow,meow?= You are thinking maybe it dog woman back again? “How come I don’t know who you are talking about and Muffin does?” asked Sky. “Muffin has a good memory concerning our past enemies,” I said, “though I certainly would not have expected to meet her here.” “More voices,” said Angel…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
That night Angel woke me up and said that she heard people talking downstairs. That did seem unusual considering it was 2am and everyone was in bed. Well, everyone went to bed at around 10pm, so why the voices now? I called Mac and Alfred and asked them to come here and stay with me so Angel could look around. They arrived quickly and Angel went downstairs. She was invisible which made it perfect to spy on those who were talking. She could hear them all the way down the stairs.
The living room light was on but as soon as she was at the doorway to the room the lights went out and everything was quiet again. She looked all around, then came back to the bedroom. “There is no one down there Steve,” she said, “though it sounded like 3 people were talking until I arrived at the doorway to the living room. Then the light was turned off and no one was there. I looked all around, but there was no one to be found.
I do not see how they could have gone so fast, unless they quickly slipped into a secret door. But they could not have heard me coming since I was invisible. But I know there was 3 people, a woman and two men.” “Hmm, Enid has 2 brothers,” I said, “but they have not talked to each other in 5 years. It must have been someone else. Could you recognize any of the voices?” “One of the men was Viktor,” she said, “I am sure of that, but I do not know who the other 2 were. Viktor was telling them they need to be a bit patient and that we would likely find the inheritance for him.”
“Just for him?” I asked, “Or for them?” “He just said “him”, said Angel. “Now that is interesting,” said Mac, “seems like he wants to leave his wife out of this.” “And in reality it is her inheritance,” said Alfred, “I wonder what he plans to do with her?” “He better not try to kill her while we’re here,” I said, “or he will not like the consequences. Of course, there could be a different reason for that conversation. Perhaps he owes money to someone and they are putting pressure on him to pay up.”
“That was my thought,” said Mac, “it would fit the conversation.” In the morning before we went down for breakfast, I decided to call Brook and have her check up on Viktor and see if he has any regular debts. And perhaps see if he is a gambler where he might pick up some irregular debts with the wrong people. Penny called back after breakfast and said Viktor had no outstanding debts, but he is definitely a gambler, and she told me 3 places where he is known to be a frequent visitor.
All 3 places are shadowy spots that love to trap people like Viktor until they pile up large debts. Then suddenly they are not so nice and want payment right away. “Um, what happened to Brook?” I asked. “She has been fighting a headache since yesterday,” said Penny, “so I told her to lie down for a while, that seems to help.” I then called Jennifer. “Brook goes in for a checkup right now,” I said, “get four of the girls to take her, please.” “Right Steve,” she replied, “I was going to ask you about that.”
“If it is health related, you don’t need to ask, just do it,” I told her, “that is a long time to have a headache. Samantha can call Miles after Brook’s checkup and if it’s something serious Miles can go home right away.” “Okay, I will get some girls on it right away,” she said. Back to us, I told Mac to take the guys around and look for any hidden doors, starting on this floor, and to take the cats with them except Tracker. Muffin and Storm are the two best cats we have for finding hidden doors, which is why I specifically brought them along.
I asked Caleigh to give me a short massage while the rest of the girls started looking around at various things and talking to Enid. After about 15 minutes I asked Caleigh to stop so we could get busy with some things too. I took John and Mac, plus Angel and Milena and we went to check around the city a bit to see exactly where these gambling establishments were located. I didn’t expect to find any open this time of day though, but it’s nice to know some things before we visit the place later this evening.
“Are you sure it would be good for you to join us this evening Steve?” asked John. “Sure, Angel, Milena and Caleigh will be along,” I said, “so it will be safe enough for me.” “Why Caleigh?” he asked, somewhat puzzled. “You forget she has been involved in this sort of thing,” I said, “her eyes will be very helpful in those places. She will know exactly what to look for and how to spot trouble quickly.” “That is true,” said Mac, “if you want to know how something works, get someone who knows the system.” “Well, here is the last of the 3,” said John, as he parked across the street.
“Hmm, I sense trouble in that place,” I said. “And it’s the nicest looking of the 3,” said Milena. “That often hides the worst places,” said Mac. “We will check that one first this evening,” I said. Just then Viktor came out the front door. “Hmm, that’s interesting,” said John, “the place isn’t even open yet.” “He has been worked over, but just lightly,” said Mac. He was right, Viktor was walking a bit oddly. “Okay, let’s go back to the house,” I said.
Viktor works not far from that place, though it doesn’t open until 5pm anyway, but apparently he works late one or two evenings per week. Easy enough to come over here on the way home. Enid didn’t say how late he worked. Once home I asked Caleigh to massage my back. “But lunch is ready Steve,” said John. “With my back like this, I’m not really hungry,” I said. “But Caleigh might be,” he said again. “Oh, I don’t mind missing lunch,” she said, “this is more important.”
Going into the bedroom Sky was already there with our lunch. “I brought you chicken with your fries today,” she said, smiling, “some for me too, and Angel if she remembers to come and join us.” Just then the door swung open and in came Angel. “Whew, almost forgot about your private food service,” she said, “they are having some kind of fish soup.” “Please, not while I eat,” said Caleigh. That got me laughing. Sky just pointed to the table and Angel got her food and joined us on the bed.
“Just like a picnic,” said Angel, then she stopped and stared at that wall again. “Gone again,” she said. I went over to look at a picture on the wall. There was a small hole in the painting, right where a small flower should have been. “They can’t hear us because of our new scramblers,” I said, “but with the right viewer, they can see us just fine. We will have to change that.” I took a tube of glue from my backpack and filled the hole.
“That will put a stop to their spying,” I said, “but we should check around for more such spots after lunch.” We didn’t find anything though which made us feel better. We spent the afternoon looking around and just before heading out to that gambling place, which also had a nice restaurant, Victoria discovered a piece of paper folded up inside of an old book in the study. She showed it to me while Enid was busy with something else. We all went up to our bedroom and took a look at this piece of paper.
It had been written a long time ago and was full of clues for finding the Stone House Treasure. It sounded very much like what was written on another paper that Enid gave us which listed clues for finding her inheritance. Perhaps it wasn’t her inheritance after all, but a treasure we were looking for, although it could be a treasure and an inheritance too.
There were some differences between the two papers however, which was a bit odd. We would look at them closer later, but now it is time for dinner. We had a good meal and I then asked to talk with the owner, or manager, but was told she was not in that evening. “But if you leave your name and phone number, I will have her get in touch with you tomorrow,” said the waitress. Just then I started to feel odd. “Sky…”
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 