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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
We were now at Ivy’s house, getting ready to take possession of it from the people who were living there illegally. We had already told their lawyer to stand aside, which he did. It was then that we heard the roar of motorcycles coming down the street. That would be Aari and the Black Wolves, I thought to myself. I was wrong, however. It turned out to be some kind of street gang that had come along to help their friends who were living in the house. There were 20 of them riding up onto the lawn in front of the house. Then the police chief and 5 officers came along next.
“I think it’s time for you and your girlfriends to turn around and head back to your hotel,” said the chief, “then tomorrow morning I want you out of our town.” “You are either a very brave man chief,” I said, “or perhaps a very foolish man. Which do you think fits better? We have the law on our side, and as a police officer, it is your duty to help us, not them. They are in Miss Peterson’s house illegally and you know it. Now, this is how it works, either you get them out right now, or we will.
As for your ultimatum for tomorrow, you can forget that too. We are staying until we find Miss Peterson’s family, or their bodies. If we find bodies, you will have a lot to answer for chief. I know all about your connection to the City Club in New York. You are all a bunch of criminals and I could easily call in the state police to deal with you since I have plenty of evidence to back up my claim. By the way, that new house next door is sitting on Miss Peterson’s empty lot.
She, nor her family, sold that lot, so, that lot and the house on it now belongs to Miss Peterson. Either someone buys it from her or we tear it down, tonight.” “You can’t do that!” he exclaimed, “The people who bought it are moving in next week!” “The person who bought it is the mayor’s son, who paid the town $100 for it,” I said, “and that is an illegal transaction. If he wants to challenge our decision in court, let him.” The police chief was obviously quite surprised by our knowledge of affairs in this town and he wasn’t quite sure what to do now. He then made a phone call and I said we would wait, temporarily.
The street gang boys were itching for a fight, that was easy to see, but also kind of funny. Sky and Angel could deal with them very quickly, actually, it wouldn’t even take both of them. I wonder how many of them would even hang around if Courage showed up? We would certainly find out how many of them had courage! However, I didn’t want to let these people know about our ghosts just yet, sometimes it’s better to wait. So, I called in the other girls who came driving up quickly in the vans. Once stopped, the girls jumped out and came onto the lawn in front of the street gang.
Their leader came over to me, trying to taunt me a bit. “You expect those little girls to fight my boys old man?” he said and laughed. I gave him a hard backhanded slap, knocking him off his feet and landing on his side on the ground. His gang got their clubs and knives out and started walking toward the girls. They immediately pulled their guns out which made the guys stop right away. “I would suggest you tell your little boys to get back on their bikes and go back where you came from, before you get killed,” I told him. “Uh, yeah, good idea Dan,” said the chief, “take your friends out of here, we don’t want trouble.”
“Fine,” he said, “you never told us about a bunch of women with guns.” They then rode off down the street, but the opposite way than they came. A bad decision on their part, but they will find out. “That was an interesting comment that he made chief,” I said, “obviously you told them to come here. Now, please tell your officers to stay out of our way.” “Now wait,” he said, “you gave these people until 4pm tomorrow to come up with the cash to buy the house. And that would, of course, mean the lot next door as well.”
“True, but now the price is going to be higher since there is a house on that lot,” I said, “that will add another $300,000 to the price.” “But you can’t do that,” he said, “the people have already spent that much building the house!” “Well, that is something they will have to work out with the new owners,” I said, “it’s the people in the house that will have to pay the extra money. Okay, they have until 4pm tomorrow, and it’s cash that Miss Peterson wants, that way we know she will get the money. That’s now $800,000 owed to Miss Peterson, and there will be no more delays.”
I then sensed serious trouble close at hand. Ivy had lowered the side window of the limousine to hear us talking. I turned and told her to raise it now. She did so and barely got it closed when it was hit with three bullets. Our two snipers, Charlotte and Emily had stayed in one of the vans watching each side of the street. Charlotte spotted the sniper in a large oak tree and shot once. A man fell to the ground. “She just killed a police officer!” yelled chief Winters. “And why was a police officer trying to kill Miss Peterson?” I asked him.
“He was?” he asked, “Oh, uh, I didn’t see where the bullets went.” He was much quieter when he said that. “Well chief Winters,” I said, “we will see you again tomorrow.” We then got back in our vehicles and went back to the hotel for dinner. The owner/manager and his staff seemed to be the only ones happy to have us in town. The owner made a lot of money from us during a slow time of the year for his hotel and we tipped generously so the staff gave us extra good service.
When we arrived at the hotel, we just went into the restaurant without going to our rooms first, but as we sat down I sensed something was wrong and I asked Sky to check it out. She disappeared and went to our room first. She expected to find Muffin, Storm and Sneaker, but no cats showed up, so she looked for them, then communicated with me. The waitress had just come and I asked her if anyone had been into our rooms while we were out.
She said two men had been in not long before we came back. The owner had given them a key to our room, but the waitress didn’t see the men leave. I asked her to tell the owner I wanted to see him, immediately. She went to his office and she screamed loud enough for all of us to hear. The night desk person and I went to the office when we heard the scream. The owner had been shot, in the forehead…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Before we left the Mayor’s office I added something else to our list of demands. “There is one other thing that could be done,” I said, “if those people really want to stay in that house, then they can pay Miss Peterson $500,000 for the house, in cash, tomorrow by 4pm. But the contents of the house will be kept by Miss Peterson since they hold great sentimental value to her. If the contents have been moved to storage, they can let us know and we will deal with them at our expense.
Also, if Miss Peterson’s family have gone missing or have been killed, then your police department should be tirelessly investigating. If those people are not out by 6pm today, well, we will just have to remove them ourselves.” “Look you,” said the Mayor, “you obey the law or you will find yourself enjoying the inside of one of our cells down at the police station!” I leaned on his desk and looked right at him. “And you will be in that cell with me Mayor,” I said smiling, “along with your friend here.
I’m quite sure the state police would be interested in knowing where you get all that money each month.” We then left them and went back to the hotel for lunch. “I hope you’re not pushing them too hard Steve,” said Ivy, “if it was me, I would likely hire someone to deal with you.” “Well, by now they should know how many people are in our organization,” I told her, “so that should slow down any thinking along those lines.
But, just in case, from now on, whenever we leave our room, we hold hands at all times. And if I’m not close by, make sure you hold hands with Sky or any of the other ghosts.” “I know they can’t be killed by a sniper,” she said, “but what about my loving boyfriend?” “I’ll be fine,” I said, “when it comes to bullets, they can’t do a thing to me, just like the ghosts.” She then looked at Sky. “Yes, that’s true,” she confirmed smiling.
Meanwhile, a hastily arranged meeting was taking place at the mayor’s office with him, the counselor, the police chief, Mrs. Winslow and the nightclub owner. “Obviously we can’t just ignore these people,” said the mayor, “but we can’t really stop them either. They have us beat.” “Well, we can’t let them have the house,” said Mrs. Winslow, “we have already converted it to our headquarters.” “And most of the contents were taken out to the local garbage dump,” said the counselor, “except that nice antique furniture, we each claimed some of that.”
“Gather all the furniture and put it in storage,” said Scott, the nightclub owner, “at least Miss Peterson will get that back, though I’m sure she was more concerned with some of the small items, like photos.” “What about the bodies?” asked Don, the counselor. “Where’s the Curator?” asked Mrs. Winslow, “He did the work, find out what he did with the bodies, then arrest him and hand him over to these people. Better to lose him than to lose our whole operation.” “Hmm, that just might work,” said Scott.
“There’s one little problem,” said the chief, “I told the Curator to take a vacation after the job and not to tell us where he went.” Everyone else groaned at hearing that news. “But he will be back in a week,” continued the chief, “we just need to stall these people for a while.” “No!” said Mrs. Winslow, “We don’t want these people staying here for another week. They will tear this town apart looking for Miss Peterson’s family.” “I agree with Terry, um, Mrs. Winslow,” said the mayor, “see if you can find out where the Curator might have gone.”
Now, back to us. “Do you really think those people will be out of my house by 6pm?” asked Ivy. “Uh, no, not really,” I said, “but we can easily throw them out.” “What if they meet us at the door with shotguns?” asked Ivy. “That’s why the ghosts will go first,” I said smiling. Just then Hannah called with some more information for us. Jazzy had given her a possible lead to check on and it led her to a group in New York City that calls itself, simply, “The City Club”.
They handle a large amount of drugs, sex trafficking, guns, gambling and money laundering. They apparently have 3 such towns that take care of different aspects of The City Club’s business. This town seems to be the one that handles their financial matters, so that at any time there would be millions of dollars stored in this town. Now I understand why they want Ivy’s family house, a very unassuming place to use for handling all this money, just in case any state or federal authorities decide to come snooping around.
All the more reason for getting that house back, and quickly. Around mid afternoon the police chief showed up at the hotel, disturbing my nap, and told us that the people in the house had rented a storage unit for the furniture. Unfortunately, they had thrown out all the smaller items in the house and there would be no way to retrieve those things now. I could see that really hit Ivy hard. He also told us about a man called the Curator who was wanted in connection with several murders but so far he has not been found.
“Mainly because you haven’t been looking for him,” I suggested, “or perhaps you told him to leave the town for a while. I don’t trust you chief, or any of your friends. But thank you for finding the furniture for us. By the way, those people only have 3 hours left to get out of the house.” “Look, I don’t want any trouble from you or your friends,” he said emphatically. “I don’t cause trouble,” I said, “unless others start it. If that happens, then I roar like a lion and crush everyone in my way.”
We arrived at the house just before 6pm and were met by a lawyer saying that the people in the house would not be leaving and he said it would be better for us to leave or the police would be called. I said it would be wise for him to stand aside or his oversized stomach might get sore. He looked somewhat puzzled, but he did get out of the way. Ivy stayed in the car while Sky, Angel, Dawn, Milena and myself went up to the door. As we walked the roar of motorcycles could be heard coming down the street…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 