For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Well, the police arrested both Bertha and Betty for killing the neighbors husband. Bertha however was screaming that Brook had helped too. But, Brook decided to testify against her mother for that killing, even though the police had enough evidence to convict her anyway, but she also was going to testify about the other murders, the killing of both Bertha’s husbands and Uncle Bernie.
Apparently there was also a woman she killed that had seen her kill Uncle Bernie and had demanded money from Bertha. Bertha had agreed and when the woman came to get the money, Bertha stabbed her and dumped her body in a river. The body was found but there were no clues that lead them to Bertha.
Brook also told the police that Betty only helped because she was beaten by her mother and was scared of being killed, since Bertha told both of them she would kill them if they talked or refused to help her. Betty also decided to help, but only because she wanted to stay out of jail and go live with Christopher, then tell him what Brook had done. Christopher liked his mother since she was always willing to help him.
He never did like Brook, instead, Betty was his favorite. That would make him a danger to Brook too. I told Aari and his team to come back now, but he, Miles, Tracy and Sapphire asked to stay there for a while and be a help to Brook. I said that would be okay, though I was a bit surprised that Miles wanted to stay. Apparently when they went to visit Brook in the hospital the next day, Miles had brought a dozen roses for her.
He even blushed when he gave them to her. Hmm, I wonder, could something be happening there? Miles has never had a girlfriend, being in that gang consumed his time. Could be interesting. Anyway, it was good to have Rock and the other guys back again. I told the guys to take some time off until Baldwin got back, or until we needed them again, whichever came first.
As it turned out, their time off was short lived. Meanwhile, in our local town some strangers appeared one day and got a couple of rooms at the hotel. ”Not much of a hotel in this place,” said Greg. ”What do you expect in a small town like this?” asked Clyde. ”Yeah, only one hotel, only one restaurant,” said Spike, “hope it has good food at least.”
“All you think about is food,” said Fisher, “we have more important things to think about right now.” ”Gotta keep up my strength,” said Spike, “might have to fight that little feller they got over there.” ”Forget it, just shoot him and get it over with fast,” said Clyde. ”Where is the fun in that?” asked Spike. ”We are not here for fun,” said Greg, “just get the job done and get back home quick as we can. This place is probably crawling with bugs.”
“You are always worried about bugs,” said Clyde, “how can a guy your size be scared of tiny bugs?” ”Look, I do not like bugs!” he said loudly. ”Okay, okay, sorry man,” said Clyde. Then they looked over the map they had and what they needed to do and the exact timing of everything. ”Timing is key here,” said Greg, “and the main thing is killing that Steve guy, then anyone else we can, then we get out quick and head back to the city to our hotel.
From there we fly home the next day. They won’t even know who hit them.” ”Sounds good to me,” said Clyde, “people around here don’t even speak proper English.” ”This is France, what do you expect?” asked Fisher, “I say we get a good night’s sleep so we can get this done tomorrow night.” They all agreed with that, but they went out to eat first.
John, Clarence, Alfred and Mac were also there eating. ”Those guys at that table,” said Mac, “they are trouble.” Alfred looked over that way briefly and agreed with Mac. ”Likely just passing through the area,” said John. They thought nothing more about it and did not bother looking at them anymore. They also left before the four strangers and went back to Baldwin’s house, which is where the guys lived.
For some reason they never thought of telling me about those strangers, perhaps because I gave them time off right now. It was regrettable, however, and a lesson learned, though a bit late. The next morning Sky called Beryan and asked her to massage my back 3 times that day instead of the usual once. My old wounds have been bothering me a lot the last couple of days for some reason.
Although that other pain from my fall on the mountainside healed up nicely, and I still think Jennifer had something to do with that, but my old wounds still bother me. That night Sky decided to sleep in the tower, with some bodyguards with her. I would have bodyguards with me too, especially since at dinner Jennifer was frowning so I had asked her what was wrong.
“I sense danger Steve,” she said, “we should be careful tonight.” Once we had all gone to our rooms, Jennifer, Beryan, Aasta and Marlena were my bodyguards for the night. ”There is great danger near Steve,” said Jennifer, “we must alert the others, but quietly.”
She called Kat while the others called more of the girls. I called Rock, then called Jackie, leader of Team 6 guarding the clinic and told her to get inside and seal the clinic, it was Code Red, but no alarms. She got everything done quickly. Suddenly, the lights went out…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Good morning to everyone! It is a cloudy and much cooler day, the temperature is 10F (-12C). That north wind yesterday made a big difference in the temperature. It is also snowing lightly this morning, I think we have a couple inches of new snow out there, so it looks white again. All of our snow was gone and it looked more like spring than early February.
It was nice while it lasted, but now winter has returned and will likely stay with us now until spring really does arrive, whenever that happens. I was going to write about another winter story, but, I decided a nice warm story would be better. Though we have the cold of winter with us for half the year, or longer sometimes, I still prefer the warmer months.

Male Downy Woodpecker at the suet feeder.
That is just the way I am. I like heat. Anyway, some years ago when I was still doing owl surveys for the Canadian Wildlife Service, I got a phone call from a young woman, an avid birdwatcher from the southern part of our province. She participated in these owl surveys down south and her and her family were here camping at one of our parks.
She asked if she could join me one night since she knew I did the owl survey in this area. She was hoping to hear or see a Great Gray Owl, which would be a new bird for her. So, I picked her up at around 10:30pm while there was still a bit of daylight left and we headed out to a spot I had seen Great Gray owls before. I started calling and it was only 5 minutes and 2 of them came flying into a nearby pine tree.

This is another one.
Jenny was ecstatic at seeing two of these owls. Then we went off to another remote spot I had not checked before. I began calling again and soon a Barred Owl returned my call. I kept it up and one soon came to a birch tree about 10 feet away from us. The moon was nearly full and was shining on the owl so nicely, so we were able to get a good look at it.
The owl stayed for several minutes and then flew off again. This was June, so it was likely feeding some large babies by this time. It is quite possible they were out of the nest by now but still with the parents. The next few stops did not produce anything and I could tell Jenny was getting tired so I offered to take her back.
She said no however, she wanted to do an all nighter looking for owls, something she had not done before. So, we went on to another spot. At this spot I thought I heard a smaller owl, so I started calling for it. Sure enough we soon had a Saw-whet owl calling back to us and it came fairly close, but we never did see it. Then it flew off so I started to call the larger owls and finally got an answer from a Great Horned owl.

Here we have a female Hairy Woodpecker, basically identical to the Downy Woodpecker, but twice as big.
It came close, but not close enough to see it. After it flew away we drove to another spot and by then Jenny was sleeping. It was around 2am by this time. So I let her sleep for a while and she woke up about half an hour later. She apologized for falling asleep, I just chuckled. Off we went for a walk and I called for owls, but heard no replies. The moon was really shining brightly that night so it was easy to see all around.
At one point I suddenly stopped and Jenny squeezed my hand as tightly as she could. There was a pair of wolves about 30 feet ahead of us. There was not much undergrowth in this area, just lots of tall pines. The wolves had stopped when they saw us, one was sitting, the biggest one was standing, both were staring at us.

Here she is again.
The big wolf started walking toward us. While I was watching him, the other wolf disappeared. I told Jenny to start walking backwards. We did this for a bit then Jenny stopped and said the other wolf was behind us, only about 10 or 12 feet behind us. That was getting too close. I told Jenny to remain calm and gave her the keys to my car, just in case.
We started walking off to the side. Both wolves sat down and watched us for a bit, then turned and walked the other way. When we got back to the car Jenny said she was happy to breathe again. She asked how I could remain so calm. I told her that I had many encounters with animals over the years, including wolves and bears.

Another Pine Siskin on my hand with its head tilted.
Well, guess I will stop here, there is more to the story yet so maybe I will continue it next time. Wish I had pictures of those owls to share, but I had no camera in those days, neither did Jenny. So, I will share some of my bird friends once more. Have a great weekend everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2024 Steve McLeod.