Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. Case of the Missing Granddaughter. Chapter 14. Rock is Out.
Things were going so well for the team that night, until Rock came crashing through the main doors with the 2 doormen. He tossed them aside after getting in, but just stood there. His coming in was part of the plan, to attract the attention of all Ransom’s men, so then the team could attack. But Kat knew right away, when she looked at Rock’s face, that something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Angel, take Rock back to the van right away,” said Kat, “and stay with him.” Angel did not question Kate, she just ran toward Rock. But one of the men working behind the bar pulled out his gun and shot. Angel fell. Then Kat called Crystal to take Rock out to the van.
She was close by and got to him quickly and turned him around. The same man however, was about to shoot her too, but Storm jumped onto the bar, flipped over and “Thwock!”. The man fell immediately and Storm disappeared back under the tables. Aari yelled out for everyone to lie on the floor or get shot.
Good thing he knew German well, and everyone listened to him! A man in the gambling room began to shut the sliding door because the room was full of customers that night. “That is not a good idea,” said Mac, as he held a knife to the man’s back. He opened the door again. Cinnamon can also speak German and told all the customers to lie down on the floor, and they all did so quickly.
Meanwhile, Crystal took Rock outside and told Team 4 to get inside quickly, but one of the women stayed with Crystal and helped her get Rock to the van. Rusty came running out too. Meow!=Ghost Kat tell me come out and help protect our human Rock! I good at that, you see! “You are a great cat Rusty,” said Rock as he got into the van.
“What is wrong Rock?” asked Crystal, “What happened?” “One of the men at the door shone a light in my eyes,” he explained, “and by the time I was inside, I was totally blind. I can see nothing at all.” “Do not worry Rock,” said Crystal reassuringly, “it will likely wear off and if not we have access to the best doctors in the world.” Rock said nothing for a while.
“You know, I have never been afraid of anything in my life,” he said, “until now. I am afraid now.” “Considering all you have been through since joining this amazing team Rock,” said the Team 4 woman, “I just cannot imagine you being afraid of anything.” While they were talking, two men managed to sneak up on them, on each side of the van.
Rock was in the front, passenger side. Windows were open since it was hot. Suddenly there was a gun at Rock’s head, and another gun showing at the driver’s side window. “Do not try anything,” said one of the men, “or you all die, now get out.” They did so and the men took their guns. Suddenly, “Thwock!” and one man dropped.
Then the Team 4 woman kicked the other man and Crystal did the same. But he jumped to his feet again, right in front of them, but Rock had handed his knife to Team 4 and she was quick to use it. The second man dropped as well. Rusty came running over. Meow?=All okay? “Yes Mr. Rusty, we are okay,” said Team 4 and she picked him up to hug him.
Inside the nightclub the fight raged on. Finally Ransom raised his hands and surrendered. “Too bad,” said Kat to herself, “now he will get away.” But then, “Thwock!” and Ransom was down. Storm came over to Aari and Kat. Meowr=He very bad man, only pretend to sirtender. He hurt women and girls. If he get away, then he hurt more of them. Sometimes cats have different rules than humans. Sometimes. Sort of.
Kat frowned at him, Aari too tried to look sternly at him. Storm jumped onto the table beside them. Meowr=Me do wrong? Me bad cat? Me had to stop him. “Yes Storm,” said Kat, “you had to stop him. Perhaps you need to exercise that leg of yours so it will not slip like that again next time.” Meowr.=Oh, that good idea, me exercise lots.
The team left immediately before the police arrived. They did call in the information and let the police know what was happening. Apparently the local police had been watching Ransom for a while, but could not get evidence against him that would stick in court.
Five of Ransom’s men had surrendered and gave the police all the evidence they needed, including to arrest the judge that always presided over affairs with Ransom. They also freed several women that had been prisoners of Ransom. Now there is just Scorpion left to deal with, but first they needed to give their report to me.
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Down Country Paths. #6
Good morning everyone! It is a sunny and very smoky morning here again. It is only mid morning and already my eyes are bothering me from all this smoke. Oh well, these things happen. Moving. Hmm, let me see, there are 26 days before I move. No, I have not started to pack yet. I should. Usually once I know that I will be moving, I start packing.
Usually I have at least 2 months notice before moving. Not this time. So, I should be packing. I have a lot of stuff to pack. Right now I am trying to figure out where to put the boxes once they are packed. This apartment is tiny. So right now I am just planning things so I know the order in which to pack. My posting might be a bit erratic over the next few weeks, but please stick around, it will get back to normal.
This female Ruby-throated Hummingbird was sitting deep in a shrub out back here, I did not think the pic would turn out since it was quite dark back in there.
Or perhaps a new normal. Now, what to share this morning from my journals. Let me see. How about this one? It was a sunny and rather smoky day back then as well. I went driving down one of our back roads which was gravel, but remarkably smooth. Except in a few places. Sigh.
I was driving slowly anyway looking for…whatever. Something interesting. Something out of the ordinary. Suddenly I stopped and backed up a bit. From this spot I was higher than the surrounding landscape and it looked like the roof of a house down among some trees. I found a spot where I could park the car off the road. Okay, I made a spot, same thing though.
Too bad I did not have a nice path to walk on.
There was no sign of a road into that house, if that is what it was. There was a field beyond the roof that I saw. So I began walking in to see what I could find. Soon I was standing next to an abandoned house. It had obviously been abandoned for a long time, it was really falling apart. But the roof was still in place, mostly. Sort of. I looked in one of the broken windows.
Not much inside. There was a large kitchen, a living room and a bedroom which still had a very old iron bed frame in it. Nothing else. The living room was empty except for a very beat up arm chair sitting in one corner. There was a table and a couple of broken chairs in the kitchen. There was also a large, and very active, wasp hive attached to the kitchen cupboards.
Bumble bees were living under the house.
That was also right next to the door. The other door opened into the living room, but there was no floor at that location, just a big hole which was likely the cellar. The house sat on large wood beams and on one was carved “Builded 1920”. I did brave it and go inside the kitchen, the floor was leaning toward that big hole in the ground.
There was a calendar nailed onto the wall which was from 1955, likely the year people left this house. There are a lot of similar places around the area that were abandoned in the 1950s. My one foot broke through the floor at one point which scared up a bunch of bees. So I removed myself speedily and went back outside. There was a lot of scrap metal and smaller farm items scattered around the house.
There were rather large spiders in that house too.
I picked up one bar that I thought might be a handy item and carried it around with me while checking around the yard. Good thing too. I found the well. By falling into it. The old wood cover was too rotten to hold me. But that bar fit nicely across the mouth of the well which kept me from falling in.
There was water in that well, but it was deeper. I did not want to find out just how deep the water was however. But I was able to lift myself out quite easily using that bar. Always a good thing to have when exploring abandoned places like this. Sometimes wells are not even covered, but with the long grass around these places, it is easy to fall in.
And you do not want to do that. Especially if you are alone. Like I was. After that I decided to leave and I never went back. There were other places I visited that were more interesting and we will look at those another time. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
