Undercover Goose - book 6

Part 22 - Snow Angel

'Snow clearing,' Jeremy told him pleasantly. 'That's what I'm paid to do.'

'BUT . . . BUT YOU HAF COMPLETELY BLOCKED MY WAY.'

'You can walk around.'

'NO! YOU FOOL. YOU ARE BLOCKING MY CAR.' 

 'Oh!' Jeremy sounded mildly surprised. 'You have a car in there? Oh! You mean that white SUV. White is not a good colour in Ottawa. Hard to tell the difference with the snow banks. You should be careful where you park.'

'MOVE ZDE SNOW, AT VUNCE!' Murga was bouncing up and down with anger. 

 'Chill man,' Jeremy drawled. 'And keep out of my way. I can't see too well up here. I might run you down.'

Jeremy reversed into the street, turned to face the SUV and inched slowly ahead. But he also rotated the spout and, as the helical augers cut into the bank, the jet of snow added to the snow piled up in front of the SUV. Murga was stamping his feet and cursing violently until he lost a boot in the snow and started hopping around on one foot. He dug the missing boot out of the snow, shook it and stuck back on his foot.

Jeremy leaned out of his cab. 'How's that?'

'NO!' Murga exploded. 'ZDAT IS VURS. DIG MORE!'

'I'm afraid I'll hit the front of your nice new SUV.'

'DON'T VORRY ABOUT ZDAT,' Murga spat as he waded into snow over his knees. 'It is a rental. I vill direct you.' 

 Jeremy let in the clutch and the snow blower leaped forward. Snow gushed out of the spout and piled up on the hood of the SUV burying the windshield. Kozak leapt out in alarm, shivering.

 Murga was almost incoherent with rage. 'TURN ZDE SNOW SPOUT . . . TO ONE SIDE! YOU BLOCKHEAD.' 

 'Whatever you say, sir.' Jeremy looked back at me with a broad grin and spun the spout handle as he let in the clutch. Murga saw the spout turning toward him and tried to get out of the way. But, he fell backward onto the snow. His boot came off again as he disappeared under the torrent of snow. 

 Jeremy stopped the snow blower within centimetres of the SUV and leaned out of his cab. 'Is that enough? . . . Oh! Where did he go?'

I leaned around the car for a better view and someone grabbed me from behind. I couldn't see his face but he was wearing green gloves. He was my first kidnapper, one of Murga's minions. I kicked him but he just grunted and held my arms tighter. And then Dunc flew off the roof of the snow blower and landed on green gloves. 

 Fourteen kilograms of goose dropping onto his head drove him to the ground and he was forced to let me go as Dunc pushed him sideways and flew back to the top of the snowblower.

I ran across the street where Kozak was jumping about in the deep snow trying to locate Murga. A police car, lights flashing, narrowly missed me and the snow blower as it skidded to a stop in the snow clogged street. Another police car arrive moments later. 

 I pointed to the pile of snow as the two officers jogged toward me. 'He's under there.' It took the police a few minutes to get a shovel, pull Murga out of the snow and dig for his missing boots. I ducked back behind the snow-blower. Green gloves had vanished.

'Wow!' Jeremy was pointing at the impression Murga had left in the snow. 'Awesome snow angel, dude.'

One officer inspected the SUV while Murga assured the other that the whole matter was an unfortunate misunderstanding. Then detective Scott McLean arrived and there was a short discussion with Murga and the police officers. Meanwhile, two empty dump trucks arrived and Jeremy reluctantly went back to the task of filling them. 

 Soon afterward, the two cruisers left the scene leaving Murga angrily brushing the snow from the hood of the SUV. Scott MacLean looked around but I was hiding behind the snow-blower so he didn't see me. He got into his car and drove away as Murga finished clearing snow off his windshield, rammed the SUV through the remaining snow and skidded away down the street.

Dunc popped his head over the side of the snow-blower. 'Ah have to follow Murga,' he called down and he promptly flew off.

Meanwhile Kozak had disappeared, so I walked over to the Galactic Deli, where he had an apartment above the store, and found him at the check out counter. 'Hey, I said, 'we should talk.'

'Yes . . . but not 'ere . . . I will buy you a soda at ze Eatery.'