In Harm’s Way - Ch. 34

Excerpt from rough draft of In Harm’s Way by Pat Otterness

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

????????????I knew as soon as I drove up that my home had been invaded. Hope’s car was parked in my usual parking space, an act of defiance, but it was more than that. Small boys were racing around the yard, chasing a large dog. There was a lot of whooping and hollering, and a sporadic “Woof!” as the group thundered past.??Oops!

????????????Someone, I thought, was not pleased with another day of babysitting. My first impulse was to back off and disappear. But I had Vaughn’s notebook to examine, and garden tasks that shouldn’t wait. Reluctantly, I opened the door and got out of the car.

????????????Hope eyed me with hostility as I entered the kitchen. She sat there, holding a sleeping toddler, looking exhausted.

????????????“Hi!” I said.

????????????I got a glare in return. “She hasn’t let me out of her sight for a moment,” she said, indicating the little girl she held. “ The boys are outside raising hell, and I can’t even set her down??to deal with them.”

????????????“Of course you can,” I said. “ You just have to let her scream. She’ll get tired after a while and quit.”

“What a wonderful mother you must have been,” said Hope, snuggling the child closer. “Where have you been all morning? Someone needs to feed those boys.”

“I thought you had the answer to everything,” I said. “The perfect housekeeper, the perfect home, the perfect family.”

“ I think I’ve met my match,” admitted Hope. She looked so tired.

“Aww,” I said. “Let me take her for awhile.” I scooped up the sleeping toddler and carried her off to my bedroom. She slept peacefully on as I laid her down and covered her with a blanket. Hope was such a wuss.

“Now,” I said, returning to the kitchen, “I have news.” I pulled the notebook out of my back pocket and told her about my visit with Oralee.

“You are so manipulative,” said Hope. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I’m going to read it, of course, and check out the phone number. I don’t think it can really be ICE.”

“If it is, you are going to be in deep doo-doo,” said Hope. “You should call the Sheriff and hand it over.”

“What a spoilsport,” I said. “Don’t you have any curiosity at all?” I unzipped the notebook and flipped through the pages, looking for phone numbers.

Hope grabbed it out of my hands and started reading … and then grinning … and finally laughing out loud.

“What?” I said. “What is so funny?” I tried to grab it back, but she twisted away and began reading aloud from the page.?

“Chat cried out with pleasure as I thrust my manly …”

I succeeded in grabbing the notebook away from her and read on in horror. “What utter hogwash!” I flipped to another page and read a few lines. “In his dreams!”

“You mean it didn’t really happen that way,” asked Hope, pretending innocence.

“Does that?really?sound like me?” I asked. “Really?”

Hope was??still laughing. “You certainly do inspire purple prose,” said Hope. “ I never thought of Vaughn as imaginative. Are you sure this didn’t really happen?”

“Green with envy, I see,” I said as I resumed looking for a phone number. It was on the next to last page, right at the bottom, and I copied it down on my hand.

“Nice tablet,” said Hope. “Now you can never wash it again.”

“Who says I ever washed it before?” I replied. “ This number sounds familiar.” I held out my hand for Hope to read.

“I’ve seen it before, too,” she said. “But where? Not the Sheriff’s Office. Who have we called recently?”

The door slammed open suddenly and three small boys swept in, followed by a large dog. I looked at the dog. “Out!” I said in a firm voice. Wolf and I stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. He blinked first. Turning, he nosed the door open and departed. Then he sat outside the door, gazing in with mournful eyes.

Hope already had the refrigerator open and the sandwiches under way. I sneaked into the living room with the notebook. I wondered if there was anything in it that wasn’t the fruit of Vaughn’s imagination. You never knew about people. I wondered if his work for ICE was all imagination, too.

There was a pitter-pat of little feet, and Dorita joined me in the living room, rubbing her eyes.

“Hungry?” I asked.

She nodded.?

“In there,” I said, pointing towards the kitchen. “The boys are eating lunch. Don’t let them eat it all.”?

Dorita looked at me with respect. “I won’t,” she said. We locked eyes. We understood each other. I was the no-nonsense sister. Hope was the pushover. It’s always good to know where you stand with a person.

I heard Hiram’s voice in the kitchen. The boys were all over him, wanting to know when their dad would be back. We were all, by this time, hoping it would be soon. I went in the kitchen, grabbed a sandwich, and showed Hiram the number on my hand. “Does this number ring any bells, Harm?” I asked him. I went to pour myself a glass of tea.

“I’m not sure,” said Hiram, but I think it’s that Jeweler. What was his name?”

“Barr, I think,” said Hope as she handed out cookies to the boys. “Barr Jeweler’s.”

“Barr,” I repeated, puzzled. I thought for a minute. “That’s?who I heard. It was his voice. Not the old man, but his arrogant son.” I explained to Hope about the men who had followed us up the mountain. “Why on earth would he be looking for us.?”

“Why on earth would his number be in Vaughn’s notebook?” asked Hope. “He was so nice. He couldn’t be the ICE man.”

“He wasn’t nice at all,” I said, “he was just pretty.”

“He was nice to?me,” said Hope. “You were rude to him.”

“Yeah, right,” I said. “Me, rude.”

“ I thought he was going to ask me out,” Hope said. “He was very interested in me.”

“Or maybe he was pumping you for information?” I suggested. “He sounds suspicious to me.”?

The boys piled through the kitchen doorway and??disappeared. Dorita glanced at me as she grabbed the last three cookies. I winked at her. She was tougher than she looked. She followed the boys outside, nibbling on her pilfered cookies. But I … I was going after Barr.