Chance Encounters - Ch. 2

From the rough draft of Chance Encounters by Pat Otterness

CHAPTER TWO

????????????Chance’s words were still rattling around in my head.?Opposites detract.?The fact was, once murder and mayhem were off the table, Jordan and I had little to talk about. He had called me a few times while he was away, but other than laughing over the mishaps occasioned by Wolf’s retraining, we found ourselves without much to say. We had gone out a few times before he left, but apart from discussing the recently solved murders, we were often at a loss for words. This was in stark contrast to the constant communication I had had with Harm over the previous months. If only I could have fallen in love with Harm, I would have been content. But of course, human nature being what it was, I had instead fallen for someone at the other end of the spectrum. I was passionately in love with someone I had nothing in common with. I thought perhaps he felt the same disquietude I was feeling.

????????????Hiram’s absence was beginning to get me down. He had been my man Friday for so many months, I had forgotten what living alone was like. I knew he was off, licking his wounds, and missing me, too. There was no way I could fix this. Time was the only healer, and I have never been a patient person.

????????????Just then my kitchen door slammed open with gusto, and in came the answer to my doldrums.

????????????“Woof!” said Wolf, planting his huge, shaggy feet on my shoulders.

????????????“Oof!” I said, in spite of myself, sounding very like Hiram.

????????????Jordan’s face peered in the door, grinning. “Can I have the next dance?” he said.

????????????I pushed Wolf to the floor, and held out my arms to Jordan. “That’s more like it,” I said. I always felt so right in his embrace. For a second my doubts dropped away, and I lost myself in the moment. This was what I lived for.?

????????????The quiet was broken by a tremendous uproar on the porch. Demon, it seemed, was embracing Wolf with his claws again. Life was good. Through the kitchen window we could see Wolf running full tilt down the road toward Harm and Chance’s place, with a small furry jockey aboard, batting at him with those terrible fierce claws.

????????????“It’s never boring here,” said Jordan, smiling. “ I find that wherever you are, something is going on.”

????????????“ It has been pretty dull lately,” I replied. “Harm has been avoiding me, and … oh, you’ve got to hear this! Chance told Hope he was her cousin! He thought she wouldn’t care.”

????????????“Her cousin? You’re kidding!”

????????????“Not kidding! He’s some distant cousin of ours, and he’s been sleeping with Miss holier-than-thou.” The two of us grinned at each other like school children.

????????????“What has she said?” asked Jordan.

????????????“She doesn’t know I know yet. I can hardly wait to see her face when she finds out he told me. I’m thinking of a way to work it into the conversation.”

????????????“I’d like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation,” Jordan chuckled.

????????????“You’d be a dead fly, if Hope saw you,” I said. “Her living standards are somewhat different from mine.”

????????????Jordan looked around. “I see what you mean,” he said. With Hiram and Hope both away, my house was gradually falling back into its usual disarray.

????????????“A fly on the wall would feel right at home here,” I agreed. That was part of our dilemma. Jordan was a bit of a neat freak, and I was clearly not even in the ball game. Life was so unfair.

????????????Jordan and I stepped outside to see if Wolf would return my cat, or if I’d have to fetch him back myself. We stood around for awhile in the warm sunshine, saying nothing of real interest, just enjoying being together. Neither of us was surprised when we saw Hiram Jones walking up the road towards us, trying to hold onto a struggling Demon. Wolf trotted happily alongside them, feeling blameless, no doubt, and full of the joy of being home again with friends.

????????????“Thanks for returning my dog,” said Harm, dropping Demon on the ground with relief. He was rewarded with a swift claw to his leg, which was luckily covered in denim. Judging by the look on Harm’s face, it still hurt. “How did he do?”

????????????“Pretty much as expected,” said Jordan. “He always found the remains, but couldn’t leave them alone. We had to keep him on a leash in the boat, but twice he jumped in anyway and overturned the boat.”

????????????“That’s my boy,” said Hiram, focusing on the first part of Jordan’s assessment. He’s very smart, and he has a great nose.”

????????????“And no self-control,” Jordan muttered softly to me. “ Sort of like someone else I know.”

????????????I knew he was speaking of me. I wondered if he was as entertained by me as I was by Wolf.

????????????“He’ll have a new place to practice now,” Harm continued. “ Chance just found an old pond way out back of our place, covered in weeds. He’s cleaning it up for fishing.”

????????????“I think he’ll need a dead body in order to practice,” said Jordan. “Let me know if he finds anything.” He chuckled at the expression on Hiram’s face. “I’m joking, Harm. I think you and Chat have already reached your quota of bodies.”

????????????“I’ve had all the bodies I want for this lifetime,” said Hiram. “Besides, it’s unlikely anyone even knows that pond exists.”

????????????“We should test Wolf out on the new pond, though,” I said. “I’d prefer to know right away if there are any bodies lurking in its depths. And Jordan could show us how it’s done. I’d like to see how a cadaver dog looks for a body that’s under water.”

????????????Both men looked at me with skepticism. “Really?” said Harm. “You want to go looking for trouble?“

????????????“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” said Jordan. “That’s part of her appeal.”

????????????I punched his arm. “Thanks a bunch!” I said. “This is the thanks I get for keeping you supplied with bodies.” In truth, I had found more bodies in the past few months than I was happy with. Most tragic was the death of Sheriff’s Inspector Vaughn, my arch-enemy, who accidentally shot himself while trying to catch a killer. Vaughn, it turned out, had had a secret passion for me and written out his fantasies in a diary that left the entire Sheriff’s Department in stitches. There was a certain amount of truth in Jordan’s assertion that life in my vicinity was never boring.

????????????“Chat tells me she and Chance are cousins,” said Jordan, with a grin. “Distant, I hope.”

????????????“Third or fourth cousins,” said Hiram, shaking his head. “I?told?him not to tell Hope, but he wouldn’t listen. Now she’s run off and Chance is a wreck. I’m glad he has that pond to clear. I was getting sick of all his moping around.”

????????????“You don’t think she’ll come around?” asked Jordan.

????????????“ When pigs fly,” Hiram replied. “That would be my best guess.”

????????????“Well, I for one was pleased,” I said. “And not just because Hope went running off into the sunset, although that was entertaining, too.”

????????????“You were? Why?” asked Jordan.?

????????????“I like that the family land is owned by family again. Of course, if we find a body in that pond, it will probably be one of?us?that did it.”

????????????“You’re assuming an?old?crime, then?” said Jordan. “But what if it’s a recent one?”

????????????Harm interrupted us. “I wish the two of you would stop assuming there will be a body in that pond,” he said. “ It gives me the creeps.”

????????????“We’re just playing, Harm,” said Jordan. “Odds are really against another death out here. I mean, who would have ever guessed there was a pond hidden in all those weeds. I’m sure there is so much brush, no one could have known it was there.”

????????????The perfect spot to hide a body,?I thought. I decided to keep that observation to myself. At least the speculation was giving me and Jordan, and even Harm, something to talk about. For the moment, that was all that mattered.