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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
After returning to our table Jazzy stared at me. “Well?” she asked, “Are you going to tell us who this mystery girlfriend is Steve?” “I have no idea who she is,” I replied, “I don’t remember ever seeing her before.” “You must know her Steve,” said Sky, “I mean, she obviously knows you and was expecting you to come here.” “Yes, I know,” I said, “but I really don’t understand that part and I really don’t know who she is.” “You went to her rescue quickly enough,” said Jazzy smiling. “I would do that for any woman,” I told her.
“He has a point,” said Sky, “that is one of the nice things about Steve.” We soon left and went back to Jazzy’s place for the night. “Do you think we left too early Steve?” asked Jazzy, “Those gangsters will just start tormenting those waitresses again.” “Oh, I don’t think we have to worry about that,” I said. I couldn’t tell her, but I had communicated with Carine to let Aari know about that waitress and to make sure she stays safe. So, after we were gone, Aari and some of the Black Wolves came into the restaurant and sat down. That gang was too interested in those waitresses to even notice.
That one particular waitress finally broke free and practically ran over to the tables where the Black Wolves were sitting. “Don’t worry about that gang,” said Aari, “we are friends of Steve, if any of them touch you again, we’ll make sure they stop.” The waitress smiled and said she would be right back with menus and coffee. But, her boss was waiting for her. “You look after Klaus and his friends,” he said, “I will look after those other people.” “They want me, not you,” she said. He then slapped her and told her to remember who owns her. Carine saw what happened and told Aari.
The waitress was soon on that gang leaders lap again, just as the owner arrived at the Black Wolves’ tables. Aari stood up, along with Rock, Bear and Oskar. “I don’t like the way you treat your waitresses,” said Aari, “I said that waitress serves us, you can serve those dogs at the other table.” Then they went over to the gang’s table. “Let her go,” said Aari, “and I don’t say things twice.” The man then pushed the waitress away, nearly knocking her to the floor and then stood up.
He was taller and bigger than Aari, but Rock stepped over and smiled at the man, then punched him hard in the stomach. The man groaned and fell over backward onto the floor. The man next to Aari was about to stand up, but Aari gave him a hard back handed punch to the side of his head. The owner was now there yelling at them to leave or he would call the police. Then Aari pulled out some money and handed the owner 500 euros. “This should take care of any damages,” he said, “and this (another 500 euros) to allow this charming waitress to serve us tonight.”
“Oh, yes, yes, that can certainly be arranged,” he said, quickly putting the money in his pocket, “I’m sure Klaus won’t mind giving up this one waitress just for this evening.” About 20 minutes later that gang, named the Dog Dragons, left the restaurant. “You should be very careful about them,” said the waitress, “there are many more of them and they are very cruel.” Then she began to cry. “I am in a lot of trouble,” she said, “can you tell Steve I will visit him tonight, but not to say anything to anyone, please.” “Yes, I will tell him,” said Carine, “and don’t worry, Steve will help you, and so will we.”
Meanwhile, as we sat in the living room at Jazzy’s, I asked her why she only had 3 of her men with her, she usually travels with a dozen or more. She told me that most of her men are on other “errands” for her at the moment, including her main bodyguards. “I hate to say this Jazzy,” I said, “but I don’t really trust those bodyguards you have with you this time, I just sense that they might be trouble.” “Well, I’m not going to doubt you Steve,” she said, “you seem to have a way of sensing trouble, though I don’t know how. I will be careful what I say around them from now on.”
“I would like Kristina to stay with you at night,” I said, “and no arguing, you hired me to help, and that includes keeping you safe.” I smiled when I said that though. “Okay, I will give in to you about that,” she said. Carine had already communicated with me that this waitress would visit me tonight which I thought was rather strange. “You are daydreaming again my dear husband,” said Celestine, “care to share?” “He’s probably dreaming about that pretty waitress again,” said Angel smiling, “am I correct?”
“Hmm? What?” I asked as I suddenly dropped back into reality. “Have you thought of her name yet?” asked Celestine. “What? Whose name?” I asked, “Oh, you mean the waitress? No, I haven’t.” “Wow, she really has your attention Steve,” said Celestine, giggling. Everyone else started laughing too, how odd. We all went to bed around 11pm and I laid there for a while trying to think of how this waitress was going to visit me tonight. While I was thinking about this I had a flashback to that time at the cemetery as I stood up and looked at the woman who had been talking to me.
Then the picture suddenly changed to the waitress, but they looked different, or did they? I fell asleep soon after. About 1am I was awakened by a woman kissing me. “Don’t be afraid Steve,” she said, “it’s just me. Hi Snow, hi Sir Night, do you remember me?” Meowy= “Yep, you cemetery ghost.” Meowser= “Me remember too.” She was sitting beside me on the bed. “Don’t worry Steve,” she said, “the others won’t wake up while we talk.”
This waitress didn’t know that Sky and Angel are ghosts and most likely are just pretending to be asleep right now. “Steve, I need your help,” she said, “I don’t have much time and need to be back before my owner misses me. I am in a lot of trouble.” “Why don’t you just leave this guy, whoever he is?” I asked, “No one owns you, just stay here and we will protect you.” “I wish it was that easy,” she said, “but first, don’t let your friend Jazzy sell to Emil Schultz, fine businessman, also known as Emil Schmidt part owner of a large criminal organization with a man named Koffman.
He wants this house to fill it with women for the desires of men. He is very cruel and abuses women all the time. He will beat them and torture them, to him they are just a means of making a lot of money. He also wants to use this place for crooked gambling, a way to trap influential people to do his bidding. It will also be his headquarters for gun smuggling and drugs. That gang, the Dog Dragons, are his strong arm for sex trafficking, drugs and extortion.
Mr. Schultz owns me and I can’t leave because he has my 5 year old daughter. He will kill her if I don’t do his bidding. Please rescue my daughter Steve, please, then I can leave and go…wherever.” She was crying when she pleaded with me. “We will get your daughter from Schultz,” I said, “and the two of you will come home with us, please. Do you know where he keeps her? Also, will you let me know your name and your daughter’s name?” “Do you remember a little girl named Friskie?” she asked, “That’s me, I was just 10 back then and you used to babysit me.” Then she told me a couple of things that only Friskie would know…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
After we had finished looking all over the house and not finding anything, Crystal came to me and asked if she could show me something in the cellar. So, I followed her to the cellar, Sky and Kitty coming with us. “Do you see anything interesting?” she asked me as we stood looking at those old chests. I looked, as did Sky and Kitty, but could not see anything interesting. “Do I get a hint?” I asked Crystal. “Look at the dust,” she said smiling. “Dust?” I asked.
Now, I looked at the dust thinking there must be something in that dust, like some obscure fingerprints perhaps. But I could see nothing, and I think Crystal noticed that too. “Here,” she said, and she wiped her fingers on the floor, then on one of the chests. “The dust is a different color,” I said. “Correct!” she said excitedly, “In reality, the dust should be the same color, or very close to it, but this dust is very different in color to this dust. That’s because the dust on the trunks isn’t real, it’s fake dust. You can get little machines that blow fake dust around on objects to cover up something or make something appear older than it is, or whatever.
The dust on the floor is real, except where some fake dust has been used to cover up footprints, or more precisely, an area that has been lightly swept before walking on it so footprints won’t be noticeable. If the lighting was brighter, like upstairs, this would all be much more noticeable.” “That means someone has been in these old trunks,” I said, “I would say that means they were hiding something.” Crystal had brought her cat, Bandit, down with her as well, plus I had Snow with me, so we let them sniff the trunks.
Both cats screeched and said that human people were in four of the trunks. Bandit also said that skinnies were in 3 other trunks. Skinny is the name that Muffin originally gave to a skeleton that she had found, and the name stuck. Then it was passed on to the other cats. “Mac, come here please,” I said, right away”. He and Jazzy plus some of the girls came running downstairs. Strangely, the cats didn’t notice that there were humans in these trunks when we were down here before, but, they also didn’t go over to sniff at the trunks either so maybe that’s why.
After all, no one had been in those trunks for years and years, so why pay much attention to them? Good thing I have a team that likes to think. I should have thought about this myself. I guess my brain isn’t working too good right now. Jennifer is right, I should just coordinate, not get involved. Mac had the trunks open easily enough and sure enough, there were bodies in those 4 trunks. It was the caretaker and his family. Jazzy has seen a lot of dead bodies in her life, but never children and it bothered her so much she had to run back upstairs.
Mac said these people hadn’t been dead long and likely were put in those trunks the day before. But Jazzy was here then, so were we by early afternoon. However, Jazzy and her bodyguard Howard, plus two others she has here with her, had to leave for a while and come to meet us to guide us to the house. She didn’t want to give the address to me over the phone. So, it is likely those bodies were put in there while they were away, which was about an hour. That is likely when the new lock was put on the cellar door too.
However, the listening devices and cameras must have been put in before Jazzy came here, they would have taken longer. The next 3 trunks had skeletons in them, 2 adults and a child. The last 2 trunks had dishes and blankets in them, nothing unusual about that. Well, looks like we will have to call in the police now although that will really interfere with this case. But I don’t know what else to do, we can’t leave those bodies lying around for days, they will smell.
I had Jazzy call the police and they arrived quickly enough, along with ambulances to take the bodies away. There were the usual questions which we are all used to answering. Then Jazzy asked if we could stay on the job since she had hired us to help find the caretaker and his family and also to find out why someone is so interested in her house. The officer in charge said he would have to ask his superior to see if it was okay, and he would let us know. Off they went and we met in the living room again to talk things over. “It must be that man who wants to buy my house,” said Jazzy.
“I agree, he is the prime suspect at the moment,” I said, “but there could be two things going on at the same time here.” It was late afternoon and Jazzy decided to take us out to a nearby restaurant. While there, a gang showed up on motorcycles and came inside. There were 10 of these men and they were obviously quite interested in our girls. Two waitresses were just finishing bringing our meals to us and one of them spoke to me. “Those men are trouble,” she said, “I never like when they come in, they don’t leave us alone.”
“If they start to give you trouble,” I told her, “my girls will settle them down.” “You need tough men to handle them, not women,” she said, “best to leave them alone.” Then she did something odd, she put her arm around me and kissed my cheek. “Thank you for coming Steve,” she said smiling, “I knew you would.” Then she and the other waitress went back to the kitchen briefly, then over to the long table where the gang had sat down. I was watching to see what would happen. Sky, on the other hand, was watching me and trying to get my attention.
“Is that another old girlfriend?” she asked, “Do I need to tell Jennifer about her?” I wasn’t paying attention to her, however, just watching. The man sitting at the head of the table, likely the leader of the gang, couldn’t keep his hands off the waitress and it was obvious she didn’t like it. He then pulled her onto his lap, so I got up and headed over there. I first nodded to Sky and Mac to follow me. Sky told Melanie, Melissa, Alizea, Crystal and Cassie to come along as well.
“Hey, look, he brings more women for us!” said the leader, “But we need two more.” “Let her go,” I said very bluntly. “Oh, but she likes me,” he said laughing, “see, she likes to sit on my lap.” “She told you to stop and let go of her,” I said, “and I will say it just once more, let her go.” He then let her go and stood up slowly. Then he suddenly tried to punch me, but he missed as I ducked quickly.
Then, with a little electrical help, I punched him in the stomach and he sat down again. The man beside me was about to get up too, but Mac had a knife at his throat quickly. The girls took out knives as well. “Now, treat these waitresses properly,” I said. “Thank you Steve,” said that one waitress and she kissed my cheek again. We then went back to our tables…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 