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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
It has been a nice quiet 2 weeks since our last case giving us some much needed rest. Now we can start planning our Christmas celebrations. We are going to begin a new tradition around here. Since most of the girls, and guys, have no family to join over Christmas, we are going to have a huge Christmas celebration right here for everyone. And that means we need to start early to make sure everything is just right. We will not take any new cases after the 15th of the month, and maybe earlier if it looks like it may be something more complicated.
Mind you, that doesn’t mean anything, since many of our simpler cases have turned out to be complicated anyway. Ivy, who joined us not long ago, had a long time back made plans to visit her family for the first two weeks of December and since she had not seen them for 2 years, I gladly gave permission for her to keep her plans. I did try to convince her that maybe she should take 3 of the girls along with her, just in case she ran into any trouble.
“Steve, it’s just a small, sleepy type of town,” she told me, “crime is nearly non existent since the only gang in town had been crushed and the four leaders are still in prison. The rest of the gang moved elsewhere. Besides, my parents only have a small house and the only bedroom available is my old one, which is rather small. And mom doesn’t do well with having strangers around, it stresses her.” “Okay, but remember,” I said, “if you need anything at all, phone right away, don’t wait.” “I will do that,” she said, “sometimes I think you worry way too much.”
“You’re right about that one,” said Jennifer, looking at me. Ivy giggled. The next day we drove her to the city and she took a regular commercial jet. On our way home I contacted Cristy. “I want to know everything about that town for the last 2 years,” I told her, “change in civil government, police, crime, new businesses, whether the town is growing or shrinking, you know, regular stuff like that. And anything that you think might be unusual too.”
“Okay Steve, I’m on it,” she said, “but why suddenly now and not before?” “I just started to sense trouble ahead for Ivy after the plane left,” I said, “nothing that felt like it was imminent, but still, it was there.” “I’ll have that info for you by the time you get home,” she said. “Don’t hurry too much,” I said, “I want a thorough check done.” “It will be thorough Steve,” she said, “and I will keep digging even after the initial report.” “Thank you so much Cristy,” I said, “you are wonderful.”
“Aww, thanks Steve,” she said. When we got home I went through Cristy’s report on Ivy’s home town. There really wasn’t much interesting that has happened in the last two years since Ivy was last home. They do have a new mayor, but most of the counselors are the same. There is a new police chief and 3 new officers, but there are still 9 long time officers. Only one new business in town which sounded like a specialty restaurant of some kind. Well, nothing exciting there really except for one thing.
The population of the town is 9,000 and they have 13 police officers. Over the last 2 years since the new police chief came, crime has gone down by some 77%. That’s a huge drop for a small police force. But Ivy did say that gang in town had been chased out, so maybe that helped a lot. That night, I got a phone call from Ivy, in code. “Hi Steve, how are you tonight?” she asked. That phrase began our code talk. “I’m missing you already honey,” I said, “how are you feeling after your long flight?” “Oh, the usual, a headache,” she began, “then trying to remember my way around this town.
I rented a car like you suggested and got my hotel room right away. I haven’t seen my family yet, I needed to relax first, those long flights always make me dizzy and nauseated. Everything is so different since my last visit home. Sure wish you could have come with me though, maybe you could talk with your boss again, mom would love to meet you.” “I can try Ivy,” I said, “but you know how tough she can be. But I’ll see what I can do.” “Well, I need to lie down right away,” she said, “I will call again tomorrow. Bye cuddle bear.” “Bye cuddle kitten,” I said. After the phone call Jennifer looked at me.
“Cuddle bear and cuddle kitten?” she asked, “Who wrote that code?” “Um, I think that was Misty,” I said, turning a bit red. “You should be embarrassed,” she said, shaking her head, “so, there’s trouble, her family is missing, she’s worried or scared, maybe both. She thinks the hotel room still has a listening device, though Sneaker did find one already.” Sneaker is Ivy’s cat and he can find listening devices quickly, plus cameras, drugs and poison. He learned quickly with Muffin, Storm and Snow teaching him. “Sky,” I said. I then felt a tapping on my shoulder which made me jump.
“oooo, kind of nervous today,” said Sky. “Only when people sneak up on me,” I said. “But you called,” said Sky, “so technically I didn’t sneak up on you.” Sigh. I told her about Ivy’s call and I wanted her to go look after her right away. She disappeared and walked into the hotel where Ivy was staying and asked for her room number. The man at the desk asked for her name and phoned Ivy who told him to send her up right away. “That will cost you more if she stays the night,” he said coldly. “I’ll pay when I come down for dinner,” she said.
Soon Sky was knocking at the door and Ivy let her in. First thing Sky did was put out a scrambler so they could talk. Then Ivy told Sky she had gone home but found other people living there and she was told they had been living there for ten years, which is impossible and Ivy told them so. She was raised in that house and still lived with her parents until 3 years ago. That’s when the man got angry and told her to leave or he would call the police.
Then she went next door to talk with Carol, a nice woman who has lived in that house for 20 years and was good friends with Ivy’s mom. But she acted strange and said she had never heard of Ivy or her family and she also said to leave or she would call the police. “It’s like I never lived here,” said Ivy, “and I’m worried that something must have happened to my family, and I just talked with mom last week!”
About that time I drove into the hotel parking lot, or rather, Sherry drove in, with a large limousine. With us was Angel, Macy, Jackie, Charlotte, Kristina and Kailey. We also had Muffin, Storm, Tracker, Tandi, Azura and Princess with us this time. I had Sienna book us rooms for one week, also for those who would be joining us tomorrow. Something very strange is going on in this town and I don’t like it.
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
We had come into the nightclub right after Koffman came in to meet with Francois. The conversation didn’t go too well and it ended with Percival shooting Sky and she fell to the floor bleeding. That was something I didn’t quite expect. She just lay on the floor, not moving. Angel and I looked at her, then at each other. Francois and his men were laughing. “Hey Koffman,” said Francois, “why aren’t you laughing? This is great fun.” “Francois,” he replied, “you are a bigger fool than I thought. Just what do you hope to accomplish with this?”
“I’m showing them who is boss, Koffman,” he said, “you must be getting too old for this business, maybe it’s time for you to retire and let someone younger take over.” “Someone like yourself perhaps?” asked Koffman. “Yeah, now that you mention it,” he said, “that would be a good idea.” Suddenly there were several shots from Koffman’s 2 men. Francois and Percy did have big smiles on their faces, smiles that were now gone. Koffman’s men had their guns out, but under the table, unknown to Francois and his men.
Francois thought he had the upper hand, but now he was alone, as Percival and the two other men were now dead. “Now,” said Angel, “about calling us little girls. I will show you what us little girls can do!” She then roared like a lion, picked up the table and tossed it aside. Then she went over to Francois, picked him up and threw him against the wall. That must have hurt. “That will teach you for shooting my twin sister!” yelled Angel. “You can get up now Sky,” I said. But she didn’t move. Angel looked at her, then took a glass of water off another table and threw it in Sky’s face.
“That wasn’t nice,” said Sky, as Angel tossed the glass to me. “Who did that?” she asked, then noticed me holding the empty water glass. She stood up, took a water glass off that other table and threw the water in my face. “Um, Angel did it, not me,” I said, “then she tossed me the glass.” “Uh huh,” she replied, shaking her head. Francois was now getting up off the floor and staggered a bit as he tried to stand. He then stared at Sky with his mouth open. “No one could survive that gunshot,” he said quietly. “Obviously I did,” said Sky with a smile, “perhaps your man missed me.” Then her and Angel started to laugh.
“Perhaps you and I should discuss your plans to take over my empire, as you like to call it,” said Koffman, then he turned to me, “do you mind if we leave?” “Not at all,” I said, “we are finished here anyway. My team is just collecting the money being donated to our orphan fund, then we will be on our way.” Koffman, his men and Francois then went down to the basement. The rest of Koffman’s men had already entered, once the little skirmish was over.
We had met Koffman outside the city and told him what was happening and what Francois had planned for him. He couldn’t understand why I was warning him though and I told him I wasn’t sure either. But I told him it was obvious that Francois was working alone on this and not following his orders. I also warned him that the police might be watching things while he is here, but he just shrugged and said the police are always watching him, but they have nothing serious they can pin on him, so he wasn’t worried. I think he needs to worry more, like me.
Well, maybe not quite as much as me. Everyone returned, along with a few women and young girls that wanted out of this nightmare. We will try to reunite them with their families and friends if possible. We were soon on our way and shortly after, the police arrived with a large number of officers. Interestingly, the Inspector walked into the basement room with that large safe just in time to see Koffman shoot Francois. I guess the police finally have something serious so they can arrest Koffman. That means he will be spending a long time in prison.
Bernadette had gone and retrieved Mary from Francois’ house and brought her back to her house and tried to persuade her to cooperate and tell her where the gold was hidden. Mary had just laughed at Bernadette which caused her to become quite angry with Mary, but just then Beau arrived at home and shot Bernadette. “That’s my boy,” said Mary, “now you and I will share all that gold.” “If we can find it,” he said. “It’s right in the basement,” she said, “in a large wood box.” “Thank you grandma,” he said and he then shot her too.
Down he went to the basement, excited at the prospect of all that gold, only to find that the big box was now empty! When he came back upstairs, the police were in the house waiting for him. He was arrested and taken away, being charged with the murder of Bernadette and Mary. He never did go after Soleil, not because he didn’t want to kill her, but he was more concerned with getting his hands on the gold. Because of Kat’s help, we were able to move all our wounded girls to our own clinic the next day.
Once back home I had a long talk with Misty and Cristy about perfection and while I like everyone to do their very best, it is also possible to go overboard which can hurt them and those around them. “None of us are perfect,” I said, “and Misty, you need to stop studying so much and take time to relax and recharge or you will likely collapse completely, and I don’t want that to happen. No one can learn everything there is to know about everything.” “Except you,” they said together, “you always know the best way to do things and how to look after everyone.”
“Thank you for the nice compliment,” I said, “I wish it was true, but I make a lot of mistakes and I really don’t know very much. That’s why I surround myself with people like you two, so we can work together. We all have our areas of expertise and putting that knowledge together is what we need to do.” Misty asked me to sit beside her on the bed. She is in the clinic right now too, she had a minor collapse and has to spend time in the clinic recovering.
I sat beside her and she hugged me tight. “As far as I’m concerned,” she said, “you’re the best leader we could possibly have.” Then Sky appeared with a plate of donuts for us. “Okay Ms. Super Sneak,” said Misty, “you’re allowed to join the Sneaker Club.” “YES!” she said. Misty’s team is now known as Misty’s Sneakers. Dawn is still working on a name for her team.
The two police officers attacked by the nurse will have to spend some time in the hospital recovering from their injuries, but they will be fine. Well, that case is over and it was a bit crazy, but perhaps I should have left that title for the next case instead. Oh well. Perhaps “frustrating” will be an even better title for it, but more on that later.
The End. Another case will begin soon. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 