Jenner, page 11
“And I can’t do that. I will never leave somebody behind.”
“You won’t have a choice,” he said. “When it comes to something like that, you get the hell out.”
“And yet, if we run, those wild dogs will just chase us down.”
“Oh, that’s very true,” he confirmed. “Unfortunately they’re really good at running down people who stand still too.” She nodded, her eyes wide. As they walked up to the property, Jenner noted, “I hear no dogs barking right now.”
“And yet they were probably here,” she said. “I did think I heard barking earlier. Maybe they’ll stay within a few miles of this place, either looking for their owner or just staying close to what they knew as home, even if short-lived. The squatter really did a number on their heads by leaving them like that, didn’t he?”
“I wonder if that intent to leave them was only temporary. I don’t know,” Jenner thought out loud. “It’s quite possible that he thinks Jim is gone or that he killed him.”
“So you think the squatter won’t return because of a possible murder investigation?”
“No, not sure about that,” he stated, “because, according to Jim at the hospital, this investor who wants to buy his property says it looks like there’s been a break-in.”
“Well, the front door is open,” Kellie pointed out.
Jenner nodded. “And it wasn’t this morning, but then it could easily had been the dogs.”
“Right,” she muttered. At that mention, she took a closer step in his direction. He offered her his hand, and she immediately grabbed on. “Thanks for the support,” she replied, with a laugh.
“Dogs hunting in packs are something you should be wary of,” he stated. “I’m the one who climbed the tree today.”
“I bet that made you feel weird too.”
“It sure did,” he admitted, “but, without a weapon, that was probably the smartest thing to do.”
“Right. … I guess you’re used to weapons, aren’t you?”
“I was when I was in navy, yes,” he said. “I used to keep it on me all the time, but I don’t own any now.”
“And would you want to?”
“In circumstances like this, … it’d be kind of nice,” he replied, “but I’m not sure I care enough.”
“What will you do when you’re done with whatever you’re doing here?” she asked, with a sweep of her hand at the house up ahead of them.
“You mean, after I get the dog to trust me?”
“Yeah, after that,” she stated. “You initially booked for a couple days.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to talk about that, unless you’re already booked, and … there’s no space.”
“Hmm, let me check the register,” she teased, with a straight face. “I might be able to squeeze you in for another night or two.”
He laughed. “Make sure you can squeeze me in for a whole week.”
“You think you’ll stay that long?”
“I don’t know. Depends how long it takes to get Jim’s house in order—getting him some secondhand furniture and adding ramps where needed, expanding doorways and stuff—and I don’t feel like I can leave Jim.” She looked at him, startled. He shrugged. “He’s got a prosthetic, like me. He’s trying to rebuild his life after a major injury, like I have been trying to do,” he shared. “The guy could use a little bit of help.”
“Ah, so you’re one of those softies,” she murmured in a teasing voice.
He gasped at her in mock humor. “Don’t tell anybody that,” he whispered.
She chuckled. “You can hide, you know, but it won’t do you any good. Your halo is showing.”
He snorted. “No way I’m wearing a halo.”
“Says you,” she snickered. “Or is that a bald spot at the top of your head?”
His hand immediately slapped to the top of his head in shock, and then, feeling a full head of hair, he glared at her.
Kellie burst out laughing.
“There’s that sense of humor of yours again,” Jenner pointed out, with a heavy note of satisfaction in his voice. Because he really loved it. Loved that she could joke and laugh. She was nervous, but she was here, and facing that fear was a good thing.
As they walked up to the front door, he stopped and studied it. “I want you to stay behind me.”
She immediately stepped behind him. “You don’t have a weapon,” she reminded him.
“You know, in most other cases I wouldn’t need one.” Of course it was dark out and that meant predators of all kinds would be on the move.
And, with that, they walked into the house. Almost immediately an eerie silence surrounded them. He placed a finger against his lips. She nodded and shifted uneasily. He whispered against her ears, “Go home, if you want.”
She looked behind her and shook her head, and he realized that it was probably scarier for her to walk out now and go home alone than it was to stay with him. Hanging on to her hand still, he slowly crept through the main living room into the kitchen. Hearing stomping on the stairs and the sounds of a man’s voice, as if on the phone, Jenner straightened up and looked at her with one eyebrow raised.
She shrugged and shook her head. She had no idea who was here and on the phone.
Knowing it wasn’t Jim, who was at the hospital, Jenner waited at the bottom of the stairs in the middle of the living room for the man to show up. He didn’t recognize him, but then why would he? He looked like he was in his early sixties, dressed in a business suit. The man stopped and glared at him. “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?”
“That’s a hell of a greeting,” Jenner replied. “The question really is, who the hell are you and what are you doing in Jim’s house?”
At that, the man’s demeanor changed. “I was telling him earlier that it looked like somebody had broken into the house.”
“Uh-huh, and that you were looking to buy it.”
“Yes, I was. I mean, it’s in pretty rough shape.”
“Nothing that a little bit of cleaning up won’t fix,” Kellie added, looking around.
He snorted. “It’s old and dated.”
“Why would you want to buy it then?” Jenner asked.
“None of your business. Who the hell are you?” He just glared at him.
“Somebody who’s concerned about Jim getting ripped off.”
“Jim doesn’t even live here,” he snapped, with a disgusted sigh.
“I gather you haven’t heard the latest then, huh?” And he quickly told him about the squatter.
“See? That’s why a house shouldn’t be vacant like this,” he noted, disgust in his tone. “Jesus, he’d be better off when he sells it to me. I’ll take care of it.”
“Take care of it how?”
“Rentals. This town is screaming for rentals.”
“I wouldn’t think there was a whole lot of use for that,” Jenner argued, “not a very large town.”
“Nope but we’re pretty close to the big city,” he stated, “so a lot of people are coming out, living in places like this that they can afford, then commuting back and forth.”
“Interesting,” he muttered, as he studied him. “What was your name?”
“What was yours?” snapped the older man immediately.
“You’re the intruder,” Jenner replied, pulling out his phone and quickly snapping a picture of the man.
Immediately his face got dark and ugly.
“His name is Silas,” Kellie stated. “He’s married to Laura.”
At that, Jenner felt everything inside him freeze. “Interesting,” he murmured. “What are you doing in Jim’s house?”
“I already told you,” he stated, as he stepped around them. “Jesus, bloody peons here.”
“Peons, yeah, right,” Kellie muttered under her breath, while Silas walked out the door without a backward glance. Jenner shot her a look. She shrugged. “Yeah, that’s the way he talks, like everybody is beneath him.”
Jenner didn’t know about beneath him, but, wow, that guy had a hell of an attitude. As he walked back outside, he called Jim. When Jim answered, Jenner explained, “We just came over to see what kind of damage there was, and we found Silas inside, taking an inventory of what needed to be done. Are you really selling?”
“No, I didn’t tell Silas that I’m interested in selling at all. What the hell?”
“He was inside, walking around. You know that that’s trespassing.”
“Yeah, good luck with that,” Jim noted. “He’s one of those rich, arrogant assholes, who thinks the rules don’t apply to him.”
“Well, the rules do apply to him,” Jenner stated, his tone hardening, “and you do have rights here.”
“Maybe.” Jim sighed. “Damn. I wish I wasn’t stuck in the hospital. Is there more damage to the house?”
“No. It’s a little bit messier, and I’m not at all sure that the wild dogs haven’t managed to come back too. The front door was open. I don’t know how Silas found it.”
“Could you check?” Jim asked anxiously.
“Sure.”
“The last thing I want is to have some wild dogs hanging around there when I get back again. I heard from the sheriff what a pain in the ass they are.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Jenner replied, “but just remember that not all dogs are the same.”
“No, not all dogs,” Jim agreed, “but, given my condition and the condition I’ll be in when I get home, the last thing I want to do is wrestle a pack of them.”
“No, you are correct about that,” Jenner noted. “I’ll check the locks and the lights. Do you have a key?”
“Yeah, one is hidden under the front plant pot.”
At that, Jenner sighed.
“I know. I know. It was my mom’s idea,” Jim said. “She’s always been like that.”
“I’ll bring you the key to the hospital. How’s that?” Jenner offered. “Now that your lovely prospective buyer has already decided to walk out of the house and leave without any kind of explanation, we can at least try to secure it again.”
He walked back out the front door and stood watching, taking a photo of Silas’s vehicle, which appeared to be a Mercedes. Jenner couldn’t get the make and model, but it was new. Silas stared at him, hard, as he drove off, giving him the finger. “Nice man.”
“And our mayor, go figure. I don’t think that nice has ever been used to describe Silas. What he wants, he gets.”
“And I gather he wanted Laura.”
“I think Laura wanted him. Honestly I think it’s a match made in heaven.” And then she winced. “Sorry.”
He shook his head. “No skin off my nose.” And he felt her searching gaze, as if to see the truth of his words, and he smiled. “Honest, it was a long time ago.”
She nodded. “And sometimes it doesn’t feel like that is long enough. She came and canceled her B&B reservation because her husband, Silas here, suddenly wanted her family—who’s coming for the birth of the baby—to stay with them.”
“Well then, he should be perfectly capable of hiring caterers and housekeepers and anything else that they need.”
“Oh I’m pretty sure that that would all be part of it, but I don’t know that Laura will feel like entertaining.”
Thinking about Jim, Jenner stepped inside again and checked the front door lock, made sure it worked, quickly locked up the front of the house, checking all the windows too. Then Jenner and Kellie walked through the house, and he checked the back kitchen door. “Everything is secured. I’ll come back later tonight and take a look.”
“Why?” she asked.
He looked over at her. “Because some things looked like they’ve changed.”
“Changed how?”
“It’s not how I left it.”
She nodded. “And you think it was Silas, or do you think it was that squatter guy?”
“I don’t know who it was. At this point it could be anybody.”
“Which I don’t really like to think about either.” She frowned, as she stared around at the room. “It’s so weird to think of something like this happening here.”
“Maybe, but the bottom line is, … we don’t know exactly what happened, so we have to make sure we keep an eye on everything.”
She looked over at him. “You are staying for a couple more days, right?”
“I am, indeed, and you’ll be fine.”
“I know I will be, at least at the moment. I’m not sure what Silas is all about though.”
“It could be just that he sees an opportunity to buy a piece of property in town for cheap. You know? A place where all those relatives he doesn’t want at his house or at your bed-and-breakfast could stay.”
She winced at that. “Yeah, Silas doesn’t like me.”
“Oh, why not?”
“Same reason as everybody else. I was that girl.”
He stopped and looked at her. “Seriously? People gave a crap about you having a teenage pregnancy?”
She nodded. “Apparently. I personally didn’t give a crap about them, but I can tell you that Jim’s family was nice to me. Everybody else was, well, … not.”
“Got it,” he said, “and you wanted to stay in this town, why?”
“Because my family’s roots are here,” she explained, “and I guess because I feel like my son’s here.”
“Ah.” He nodded gently. “That last part makes sense. It’s hard to let go. Not sure you ever really do.”
“No, you don’t ever really let go,” she confirmed, “and that just makes it even harder. I know there’s no reason to stay close to his grave, and yet …”
He nodded. “And yet maybe one day you’ll be ready.”
“Or maybe not.”
He looked over at her and nodded. “You’re under no pressure right now anyway. You’ve got a home. You’ve got a way to make a living. You’re doing things that you like on the side that are fun for you. Just keep at it. Something will break.”
“Oh, it will break all right”—she chuckled—“but I don’t know if it would break in the direction I want it to.”
“Maybe not, but life has a habit of throwing us all these odd scenarios, and either we bounce back or we don’t. I’m the kind who bounces back,” he shared, “even if it takes me a little bit of time to figure out in what way. So do you.”
“Oh, I don’t think it took you any time at all,” she argued, with a headshake. “You seem very determined to do what you want in life.”
“I’m not all that long healed, which is why I didn’t want to go one round or two with some wild dogs. I just wasn’t sure if I would come out a winner or would end up in worse shape than before.”
She winced at that. “I’m glad you didn’t argue with them, and I think that many dogs are a huge problem, no matter whose they are.”
“Maybe,” he agreed, “but you know a lot of people can handle them just fine. I do very well with them, and I could even see doing search-and-rescue work, but I don’t know. It’s all in that realm of mystery for me yet,” he admitted cheerfully. “Now this is locked up, and let’s head back.” He grabbed her hand, as they walked down Jim’s driveway.
“Oh, yeah, right—lemonade,” she added, as she had a bounce in her step now.
“And maybe … food?” he asked, talking to her but keeping a watch out as well.
“Food can be arranged.” She laughed.
They reached the end of Jim’s driveway and continued walking along the empty country road now. “Do you get a lot of cancellations?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “It’s kind of hit-and-miss. Sometimes, yes. There’s got to be a reason why they’re here, and not everybody’s reasons can necessarily be locked down. You know, like the birth of a child would have been a solid reason.”
“Right.”
She considered that for a moment. “I would never let something like a cancellation destroy a friendship.” He didn’t say anything, just nodded. “And I suppose you’re thinking that Laura and I don’t actually have a friendship, aren’t you?”
His eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t say anything,” he protested. “You’re not getting me hooked into that. All I want to know is that you’ll be okay when I’m gone.” Her place was coming into view.
“Yeah, I’d like to know that too,” she said, with a last glance backward at Jim’s house, “but it’s not your problem.”
“Ah, so you’re back to that? Hey, I’m independent, and I can handle whatever comes my way.”
“Something like that.” She shrugged. “Sometimes though, it’s nice to know that you’re not alone.”
“A lot of times it’s nice to know you’re not alone,” he murmured, “and sometimes being alone is not quite what we expected.”
And, with that cryptic remark, he nudged her up the steps to her B&B, and inside.
Chapter 9
Later that night Kellie wondered about some of Jenner’s comments. Seemed like he’d been through a lot—and not just with Laura. Kellie could imagine Laura being the type of person who would send a parting email with no warning. Hey, I’ve filed for divorce. Goodbye.
Laura wasn’t into anything but moving up into the rich life. While her divorce from Jenner had been a long time ago, he didn’t seem to see that side of her personality back then. Maybe she’d done a good job hiding it from him, or maybe—as she settled into a newer and better position financially, probably even more so with the upcoming birth of Silas’s child—Laura was firmly entrenched into this I’m doing it all for the money role. She certainly hadn’t had a problem earlier stating out loud her regret in not using a surrogate. And that still just blew Kellie away.
Funny how she hadn’t seen that part of Laura either.
As Kellie sat here this evening, her laptop on her legs, Jenner came downstairs and announced, “I’ll head over to the neighbor’s house.”
“Oh, right.” She nodded. “I forgot about that.”
“I don’t want Jim to have no house to come back to.”
She watched as Jenner headed out the door and down to the street. She wanted to go with him again, but this time it felt like she’d be in the way, and yet she didn’t know why.
