Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Baldwin’s Murder. Chapter 6. Fresh Towels Sir.
After the others left we began to make our plans to trap the fake Steve when he comes to meet with the lawyer. He thinks he will be made wealthy with this simple trip, instead he will be ending up in prison, if he makes it that far. “Roger, go with them, get some men to help,” said Mandar, “Cora can look after me here.” So that is what Roger did.
He was on the phone immediately and got Team 5 together to meet us at the office right away. It will be a while before the other Steve gets here anyway, so we have plenty of time. Just then Major and Crystal walked into the office again. “I thought you were supposed to go with the others,” I said. “There is enough of them,” said Major, “so Crystal and I decided to stay here and help out.”
“Thanks,” I said smiling, “always good to have more help. Hey, what was that I just saw?” A little gray head pokes out from behind the desk. “Oh, she was hiding in the jet,” said Crystal, “so I brought her along too.” “Come here you,” I said laughing. Muffin came running over and jumped into my arms. Meow,meow!=We get fake Steve together! “Right, we will definitely do that,” I said.
Then Annelie called with some more information. “You will want to hear this Steve,” she said happily, “this is better than trapping the other Steve, almost.” She then told me what she had found out, just on a hunch, she said. “Well, this will change our plans just slightly,” I said, “you do get good hunches at times.” “Oh, before I forget, someone else should be arriving at Mandar’s office any minute,” she added.
“She better not,” I said. “Too late,” said a familiar voice, “she already did.” I turned to see Sky standing by the door. What else could I do, so I laughed. “Nice to have you with us,” I said smiling. Meow,meow.=Oh, they have big kiss. Kat laughed when Muffin said that. “Okay everyone, this is the plan,” I said. We split into 2 groups for this operation and off we went.
We arrived at the hotel he was supposed to be staying at and up to the 8th floor we went. Then to room 808. As we got to the door we saw one of the employees coming down the hall with fresh towels for someone. She went to the wrong door however, but before she knocked I got her attention. “How would you like to make some money?” I asked her, “say 500 pounds?”
She looked at me, then at the others. “What do you have in mind?” she asked as I pulled out the money. “Just knock on the door and tell the gentleman inside that you have fresh towels for him,” I said, “then you can leave.” I then showed her my police ID. “Oh, that is different,” she said, “is there a criminal in there?” “Yes there is,” I said, “and we would prefer not to break down the door, that makes so much noise.”
“Okay,” she said and knocked on the door. “Who is it?” asked the man. “Fresh towels sir,” she said. “About time,” he complained, “just a moment.” I gave the woman her money and told her to leave. The door opened just a bit and Benson slammed his big body against it, knocking the door wide open and sending the man to the floor.
The man quickly pulled a gun, but Sky kicked it out of his hand and Kat kicked him in the head. He lay flat on the floor groaning. The Major closed the door while Benson and Mac picked up the man and dumped him onto a chair. I sat down on the bed and looked at him, pointing my gun directly at him. “Nice to meet you again Toledo,” I said, “now, anything to say before I pull this trigger?”
“Hey, wait a minute Steve,” he said, “that would be plain murder, and you know it. What is this all about?” “You are joking, right Toledo?” asked the Major, “after what you have been doing, if I was in Steve’s place, you would be dead already.” “What are you guys talking about?” he asked again, “at least tell me what I am supposed to have done now. Or is this about past crimes?”
“Past crimes would be enough,” I said, “though getting proof for some of those murders you have committed might be hard unfortunately. Except perhaps for killing Kat, I know you did that one. But this time we know you killed Baldwin and tried to kill me and most of my team.
Plus taking the rest of the team hostage thinking we were all dead. Now, do some talking, my finger is getting twitchy.” Kat put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed it a bit. “I still have no idea what you are talking about,” he said, “I had nothing to do with any of that, and that is the truth.” Is it really possible, I thought to myself…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Saturday Sharing, Story From The Past! #20
Good morning and Happy Saturday everyone! It is a beautiful morning here today, the sun is shining, well sort of anyway. Smoke is once again moving in from the west and has now blocked the sun giving things that weird orange like glow out there. But I am sure it will not be long and the sun will be gone completely from that smoke.
The smoke is from forest fires out in the western part of Canada, about a thousand miles from here (about 1600km), give or take a few miles/km. Reminds me of a time that dad and I were out looking for old bottles. Yep, no insulators this time, I had finally convinced dad to come with me to an old place to dig for antique bottles instead.
Hard to believe they are trying again, says GPS the chipmunk.
It was a very smoky day, but the forest fires were in our area, though not that close to where we lived. It was a nice warm day, we packed up our stuff, including a lunch and off we went. Dad made sure to pack his own lunch this time. For some reason he did not trust me to do it. Very strange. We drove as far as we could on this old road, more of a trail really, then parked the car and began our walk.
“It is not far from here,” I said. “You said that last time we went digging bottles,” he said, “and it took us a whole hour to get there.” “A slight miscalculation that time,” I assured him, “this time it really is not far. There is a small bridge coming up, but it is solid.” “I have heard that before too,” said dad. Not sure what he meant by that.
They must be crazy, says Jasper the red squirrel.
We got to the spot where the bridge was supposed to be, but the beavers had put a dam across the creek and flooded the area, including that little bridge. “The bridge is likely still there,” I said. I continued walking through the water which was not deep. Dad watched. “Yep, the bridge is here, still solid,” I called back. Dad came along slowly. “My feet will be wet all day now,” he said.
He got to the bridge. “Does not look too solid to me,” he said. “Sure it is, watch,” I said and jumped. Of course, jumping in water does create quite a splash and for some reason it mostly went in dad’s direction. “I am soaked!” he yelled. “Oh, you are just a bit wet, not soaked,” I said. Dad sighed. He did that a lot when we were together.
Humans do strange things, says Baxter the blue jay.
We got to the spot, an old homestead and started digging around for bottles. Dad stayed as far away from me as he could, not sure why. I was digging in a nice spot and had found many nice old bottles. Dad came over to say it was time for lunch. It was just then that I pulled a big piece of metal out of the ground to get it out of the way. That also sent a lot of dirt flying off beside me just as dad got there.
“You are all dirty,” I said, “did you fall in the mud?” “Bonehead!” he said, “look at all this dirt.” He was trying to wipe it off, but because he was wet it was not working so good. I started to laugh. Loud and long. Dad did his sarcastic laugh. That made me laugh even more. He then suggested having lunch. “Good idea,” I said, “time to take a break. I have been finding a lot, what about you?” “Not much,” he said.
I agree with Baxter, says Gerald the goldfinch.
We sat on a fallen tree to have lunch. Dad started to pour his coffee. I stood up briefly which caused the tree to move just a bit. Dad tried to catch his cup of coffee, and he did, but he spilled it all over himself. I sat down again. “You should be more careful,” I said, “first water, then mud, now coffee.” I started to laugh again. “Bonehead!” was all dad said.
That was his word for saying he was enjoying himself. At least I think that is what it meant, he said it a lot anyway. He poured another cup of coffee, but he held the cup this time. I got up to get my thermos from my backpack. The tree moved again just as dad was drinking his coffee. He fumbled around trying not to spill his coffee but it went all over his face and shirt.
That got me laughing again. “That was a big sigh,” I said, then continued laughing. “Will you stop getting up all the time,” he said, “that is 2 cups of coffee wasted.” “Good thing you brought 2 thermoses today,” I said. “I am learning,” he said. “You do spill coffee a lot,” I said. “Bonehead.” he said again.
Hmm, I see this is getting quite long so I better finish it another day, perhaps tomorrow. Have a great Saturday everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 