Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Mystery. Chapter 3.
She noticed his bare feet and she stomped hard on his toes making him yell and Storm jumped on his back, digging in all 18 claws! That made the man really yell and he let go of Trisha, so she then kicked him hard in the stomach. He bent way over and Storm jumped off when he saw Sky come around the corner. He had pressed his alarm transmitter earlier. Sky ran up the alley to Trisha as the man straightened up.
“What did you do to my daughter?” she demanded. The man slapped Sky hard almost knocking her down. I called Trisha and she came running over. Sky then proceeded to kick the man several times until he lay flat on the ground. His own fault. Then that headache hit me again and wham! I was down and out. Sky and Trisha said that I flew backward several feet that time.
Sky came running and sent out the alarm, Code A1. At the chateau the speaker said, Code A1, Code A1! Four of the girls were already on their way, having received Storm’s alarm before. When they got the Code A1 alarm they were just entering the village. Code A1 means that I am down with no vital signs. Everyone gets that message on their phones, including Rock and Baldwin who were at their hotel at the time.
Rock quickly called Annelie. “What is happening over there?” he asked. “Not sure honey,” she said, “this is the second time Steve has been hit by something.” “What do you mean the second time?” he asked, “why were we not notified?” “Steve said not to, your meetings were too important,” she said, “and Mandar is here, with a special team of guards coming to help us. Someone got by both our security systems earlier today.”
“I want a Code A in effect, and I mean now!” he boomed. “What was that?” asked Annelie. “Uh, please?” he said sheepishly. “That is better,” she said, “there will be no barking at me.” “I am sorry Annelie,” he said, “I am just a bit upset by what happened.” “Okay, Code A goes into effect right away,” she said. The speakers in the chateau, our cars and the hospital issued the alert for the Code A.
That means a total lockdown of the chateau and hospital. Baldwin then called home to his top security man, Henri, who has been with Baldwin for 16 years now. Baldwin told him to get Team 5 together right away and to be at home when they got back. He also said to put his most sensitive companies on high alert for now. “It is done boss,” said Henri.
Our ambulance arrived to pick me up, although I was awake by that time. The girls had subdued the big man, but he just laughed at everything. “You cannot do anything to me,” he boasted, “I will be free soon. Carmen will see to that.” So, he just told us something and that is the name of the person behind all this, Carmen. But the name meant nothing to me.
I was taken to the hospital anyway and Trisha brought her new cat along also, she hoped that Li Jing might be able to help him. As the doors of the ambulance were closed, the driver noticed a piece of paper on the door and handed it to Kristina. Once I was back in my room at the hospital, Kristina showed me the note. It was written with that old typewriter again.
It said, “Hi Steve, this is Carmen, do you remember me? You should, we had great times together. Then you had to put my parents in jail. Now you will die for doing that. But not right away, just a little at a time. When I get bored with this game, that is when you will die.” I could not remember this woman at all, or her parents.
“We need to ask Muffin, and perhaps Kathee too,” I said, “they should both know who this woman is, I hope.” “Must be an old girlfriend,” said Sky smiling. “If she was, I sure do not remember,” I said. Kathee and Muffin were brought to the hospital so we could find out what they knew about Carmen. But before they arrived, our prisoner came into my room.
“Sorry,” he said, “wrong door.” “Get him!” I yelled. Kristina tried to open the door but could not, it was locked. “That is impossible,” I said, “it can still be opened from this side.” “Not this time,” said Kristina. Then she put out a warning call. “Our prisoner has escaped, warning, he is dangerous,” she said…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Saturday Sharing! #15 Stories From My Past.
Good morning everyone on this cool and wet Saturday! It is cloudy, light drizzle and windy from the north. The temperature this morning was 34F (1C), but the high for today will be 34F (1C). Yep, no different. Actually, it has cooled off by one degree already. But the snow is nearly gone now, just patches left.
We had some thunderstorms yesterday, two of them gave us heavy downpours and that really washed away a lot of snow. The chorus of birds this morning when I went outside was just amazing! I haven’t heard that many birds singing and chirping for a very long time. Just being outside for a short time this morning made me think of times dad and I would go out looking for insulators in early spring, even on days like this.
This was a common insulator used here.
One year we were out walking along the railway tracks until we got to a place where we stopped the last time. Then up to the poles with all those colorful insulators that were used to hold telegraph wires. It was wet and cold that morning too, but we did not mind. Sometimes I think we were out of our minds on days like that. Dad said the same thing, only he said it at the time we were out.
But he still wanted to go. Very strange. “This is an easy spot to get up to the top of the hill,” I said. “This is easy?” dad inquired. “Sure, not hard at all,” I said and started up the hill. Dad followed, a safe distance behind me. It was wet, and I slipped. “Coming down!” I yelled. Dad did not hear me apparently and whump! I landed on top of him causing both of us to slide nearly down to the bottom of the hill.
“How come you are not dirty?” asked dad as he noticed his pants were covered with mud. “No idea,” I said, “but mud is always attracted to you.” “Only when you are around,” he mumbled. Not sure what he meant by that. We tried again, only dad went first. He made it and turned around to look for me. “Where are you?” he called.
This was another commonly used insulator and came in different colors.
“Behind you!” I yelled. Poor dad, he jumped right off the ground! “How did you get up here?” he asked. “I found an easier way over there,” I said, “also found some insulators on the ground over there.” “Bonehead,” said dad. That means he is enjoying himself. I think. He says that a lot anyway, so what else could it mean?
We found a spot where they had tossed a lot of old crossarms years ago, and they were full of insulators. I was on one end, dad on the other. He said that would be safer. Safer from what, I thought. I saw a purple insulator and reached down to get it. I leaned on a crossarm to do so and it pushed down, raising the other end, which hit dad on the forehead, which knocked his glasses off and they fell down deep into that pile of crossarms.
“My glasses!” screamed dad. He could be loud at times. “You are always losing those glasses,” I said. “Only when you are around,” he replied. “They will not be easy to reach,” I said, “have to move all these crossarms to get them.” “No, we might break them that way,” he said. I remembered something and got some string out of my backpack, tied a loop in it and lowered it down.
I hooked it around one of the arms of his glasses and pulled them up nice and easy. “Not bad,” said dad, “now do not lean on that crossarm again.” Hmm, how to get that purple insulator. I decided to move that crossarm out of the way, so I decided to lift my end, just as dad was about to lean on it on his end. Dad fell since the crossarm moved, and he hit his head again nearly losing his glasses again.
This one was used for telephone lines, the other two are telegraph insulators.
But he caught them. I went over to check on him. The one arm of his glasses kind of swung both ways now. “You should get that fixed,” I told him. “Bonehead,” he said, “I just had them fixed a month ago, remember?” “Yeah, you break them a lot,” I said. “I break them a lot?” asked dad. “That is what I just said,” I replied, “your hearing is getting bad.”
Dad just sighed and said it was time for coffee. Oh my, that was quite the time we had that day, and it is not over yet. But I am going to stop there anyway, it would take too long to tell it all. Maybe another time. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 