I’m feeling myself getting sucked in more and more.No one to blame but me, I set myself up for this, even though I live in an apartment over a coffee and food establishment with no backyard.What was I thinking?
Of course, that doesn’t stop me from asking, “What’s his name?”
“Doesn’t have one.You can name him yourself.”
Half an hour later, when I drive home with my trunk filled with a bed, some toys, and a massive bag of food, I glance in my rearview mirror at Ragnar, the giant blond puppy, and wonder once again what the hell I was thinking?
To be honest, I’m not sure there was a lot of thinking involved, just an impulsive need to have something warm, something alive and happy to see me.Something for me to hold on to when I feel I’m teetering on the precipice of my carefully crafted life collapsing.
I must be nuts.
Hugo
I look upand close my laptop when Savvy stops by my desk.
“Hey, I didn’t expect you in.How are you doing?”I ask her.
“I’m fine, baby is fine.”She sits down heavily in the visitor’s chair across from me.“It’s embarrassing, really.Had some cramping last night, which turned out to be nothing, but when they took my blood pressure at the hospital it was a bit high.Because of my advanced maternal age…” She uses air quotes, highlighting the term.“They gave me something and kept me overnight for monitoring.Numbers were fine this morning, so I was sent home but was told I’d have to take it easy.”
I raise a mocking eyebrow and glance at my watch, which shows it’s coming up on three o’clock.“And you lasted ’til now?”
“Don’t you start.Nate had me lie on the couch and was hovering over me most of the day.Thank God, he had a meeting about a new job this afternoon.”
“And I bet the moment he was gone; you were off that couch and heading for the door yourself.”
She shrugs.“Yeah, well…turns out he knows me well.Apparently, he called Brenda to keep an eye out for me.She was waiting for me and already gave me an earful about being careful, but it’s not like I’ll be chasing bad guys.Sounds like you guys caught some excitement yesterday though.I saw Althof when I was leaving the hospital this morning and he filled me in.”
I lean back and stretch, folding my arms behind my head.Rick Althof, who’d been put in charge of the investigation, had been out of town for a couple of days dealing with some stuff in Coeur d’Alene.He hadn’t been briefed until he came in this morning and immediately left for the hospital to check on Chance Tanek’s condition.
“Yeah.That was a crazy scene.I’ve dealt with Chance since I started here as a rookie, but I’ve never seen anything like what happened last night.You should’ve seen Mrs.Dixon, she was cool and collected, and handled that situation like a pro.”
“Rick says he was injured worse than you guys thought?”
“Yeah.Clem just got there; we’d been waiting for him.Then suddenly Mrs.Dixon alerts us Chance collapsed.Apparently, when he’d crashed through her kitchen door, he’d not only cut his arm—which we could see—but a large shard of glass was embedded in his side.He was hopped up on adrenaline and probably booze, and had been quietly bleeding out as he sat there, holding Mrs.Dixon hostage.”
“Rick mentioned he was hoping to talk with him this morning.Have you heard anything?”
“No luck, so far,” I fill her in.“He’s conscious, but alcohol withdrawal is apparently complicating things.Last I heard he had started hallucinating and they were medicating him.Doesn’t look like we’ll get information from him any time soon.”
Savvy leans forward in her chair.“Think he’s responsible?”
“For setting the fire?I mean, it’s possible.He might feel he got cheated out of his share of the business, and we know things have been strained between him and his brother,” I point out, although that explanation doesn’t feel right.
Even less so after running it over and over again in my head all day long.
It appears Savvy agrees, as she shakes her head.“That was six years ago, why on earth would he lose it now?”
I wouldn’t know, but then again, I have no idea what would drive a man to sacrifice his life to alcohol either.I guess anything is possible.
“Beats me.”
She slaps her hands on her knees before getting to her feet.
“Anything else brewing?”she wants to know.
“The lights on Main and Severance were out again, so I have Solingate out there directing traffic until Public Works shows up.It’s been over three hours,” I grumble.
Public Works is probably too big a title for a department that, over the past three years, has been whittled down to four employees.It’s frustrating, because the money saved by those budget cuts our esteemed mayor deemed necessary now come out of our department’s slim county budget, seeing as we have to pay one of the deputies to handle traffic for half a day.
