The Jungle Blade Mystery Act 6

                              Nickel & Dime Productions, proudly presents Radio Days

               Starring Donny Wayne as Karl Timperman & Mary Coyne as Easther Lebelle

          If you like tails of daring deeds & high trills go somewhere else, if not then stay tuned. 

The guy doing the tailing was good & in the rush hour traffic Karl nearly didn't spot him, it was a little after 5pm as Karl turn into the underground  carpark of the apartment block were he lived. On entering the apartment the first thing he did was lift the phone, but there was no dial tone the wire had been cut.

Paul "So we're been watched & the phone line is out, what are we going to do now ?"

Karl "There's nothing we can do until we're contacted, so why don't you make some coffee while I look over this book to see if I can make head or tail of what's going on" 

Karl's Spanish wasn't great but from what he could make out of the book it seemed the kind of thing that you hear about those weird cults getting up to, as it was about blood sacrifices & life eternal, the only solace Karl could take from it was that it stated the sacrifice had to be of true blood, & as far as he knew Esther hadn't a drop of Latin blood in her body.

At 7.15pm there was a knock on the apartment door & Karl & Paul race to it, ignoring the piece of paper on the floor Karl pulled opened the door & stepped out into the hallway, but it was empty he ran to the lift at the end & noticed it was going down.

As he turned to go back to the apartment, he seen Paul coming towards him with the piece of paper in his hand.

Paul "It says we're to head west on the interstate out of the city & turn off at junction 4, it's about an hour's drive & we've got 45 minutes to get there"

Karl "Well they certainly thought of everything, no time to get some help, come on we better get moving"

With the rush-hour traffic finished it didn't take long to get out of the city & once on the interstate Karl put the pedal to the floor. With the time just coming up to 8pm & the moon rising full & bright in the night sky they came to junction 4 & turned off, about 100 yards from the junction there was a flash of lights & a car pulled out in front of them & drove on ahead.

Paul" Guess we're to follow uh"

After a while the car turned off on to a side road before turning again through a pair of rusting gates, Karl followed it in & through the tree lined dirt track got his first glance of what looked like a ruined church, the car in front came to a stop in a clearing in front of the old ruin & Karl stopped just behind it.

Then a man got out of the car & walked back to Karl's, in the moon light Karl caught a glimpse of metal in his hand.

Karl & Paul exited the car & it was then that Karl realised that it was one of the men that he'd seen earlier talking to Harris out at the lockup.

When he'd finished frisking them & had taking their weapons & the book, he tied their hands behind their backs before indicating with his gun they were to go into the church ruins, what they seen on entering was a very Mcbeth looking scene, with six people dressed in long robes, but the most amazing thing was that lying on a stone slab that must have once been an alter was Sharina Benavides.

Of Esther there was no sign, after the pair had been tied to a stone column one of the robed figurers made it way over to them, pulling back his hood revelled it was Harris.

Taking up the book Harris " How kind of you to bring this over with you Mr Timperman"

Karl" Where's Esther Harris ? & if you think you're going to get away with this your mad"

Harris not a bit fazed by Karl's remark " You think not ? & don't worry you'll get to see Esther when we're finished here, just before O'Brian here shoots you all & informs the police how he'd been hired by Miss Benavides as a bodyguard but had arrived too late to save her"

Pulling up his hood he turned & walked back to the alter & opening the book started to read out loud.

No sooner had Harris started the reading, then Paul went to work at freeing his hands & in next to not time had not only his hands freed but also Karl's, then whispering Paul " I'm going to loosen the rope holding us to the column just enough as it should give way under any pressure"

A moment later Karl felt the tension on the rope slacken but it stayed in place, now all they needed was something to distract O'Brian who still had his pistol aimed at them. 

Then just as Harris was about to bring the blade down on his hapless victim who had remained lifeless on the stone alter all this time, the moment presented itself in the sound of a gunshot rang out somewhere close by.

Quick as lightning Karl was free of the ropes & leaping at O'Brian, as the two men clattered to the floor the gun went spinning from O'Brian's hand.

While Karl was dealing with O'Brian, Paul was rushing for Harris & reached him before he could bring the blade down into Benavides heart, all of this played out to the sound of gunfire coming from outside of the ruined church.

As Karl & Paul grappled with Harris & O'Brian the rest of the robed figures bolted out the doorway, but they soon returned, but now they were at gunpoint, then one last gunshot rang out only this time inside the ruin before a voice called out "Okay gentle that's enough fisticuffs for now" 

As armed man move towards them Karl was amazed to see that the man who had called a halt to things was none other than his good friend sergeant Gavin Kirkwood.

Karl now free of O'Brian who was been cuffed by one of the men, walked over to Kirkwood & shaking his hand, Karl " While I welcome your timely arrival Gavin, how the hell did you end up here ?"

Gavin "Well known you like I do Karl I knew you wouldn't heed my warning to stay clear of O'Brian, so after I end my shift, I rang the detectives branch who I knew were still keeping an eye on him to get the lasted-on O'Brian's doings. I then tried to ring your place only to fine your phone was out, with my suspicion aroused I drove over to your apartment."

"However, when I got there, I notice Dugi Freeman an unscrupulous P.I & a friend of O'Brian's sitting in his car outside seemly watching the place, so I keep driving until I came to a phonebooth, from where I rang the detectives again & told them what was going on,  we then set up cars at each end of your street & when you set off, we followed but we couldn't take the turn off as we noticed the lights flash you for fear of been spotted what delayed us in getting here & we very nearly missed were you'd turned off, only one of the driver sotted the tyre marks in the mud at the gates"

Karl" Well it's better late than never, but tell me have you guys found Esther anywhere around here ? as I'd guess it was O'Brian snatched her earlier while we were out at Lambert Bradshaw's lock-up, who by the way is also missing."

Gavin "Fear not we found them both out in a van outside, with Bradshaw a bit messed up but nothing to serious"

Then as if right on cue Esther came rushing in through the doorway & seen Karl ran over to him & flinging her arms around his neck said "Oh Karl, you're my hero" 

As this was a very long episode, I won't do a designer note, but fear not I will post a review where I'll go over all the main points of the story & how certain things were played out.

Well, that's it for this post, as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed 🙂