by Mike Faricy
That actually made sense in a peculiar, anti-social sort of way. “Let me ask you something, I’m trying to get ahead of our friend Mr. Wegger. Bonnie’s children are at her sister’s in Wisconsin.”
“Actually, I believe her sister lives here in town. She has the children at her lake place. It’s Chrissy, right?”
“Yeah. Are you in contact up there? Happen to have the place monitored?”
“No, not at all. Why? Has something happened?”
“No, I’m not aware of anything. I’m just trying to think ahead. Wondering what the next move will be. I’m fairly sure there will be one, and it would be nice to know what it is sooner rather than later.”
Iggy actually shook his head, suggesting I might be making sense. “Let me review the office recordings I’ve gathered. If I come across anything I’ll let you know. Would it be all right if Morton remained?”
“He can stay for as long as you’d like. I’ll just be upstairs, page me,” I said, then pulled the cellphone from my pocket and waved it at him.
He flashed the briefest of smiles and said, “That would be nice.” Then he stepped inside and closed the door behind the two of them.
Chapter Thirty-Three
At no surprise, Luscious was up in time for lunch. I’d just brought some hot dogs and Morton’s bowl of dog food down to Iggy, and when I went back upstairs Luscious was seated at the dining room table. “What’s for lunch?” he asked.
I opened the refrigerator and took out a loaf of bread, then opened a kitchen cabinet and hauled out a jar of peanut butter and a jar of grape jelly. I placed the jars in front of Luscious and said, “Help yourself.”
He didn’t so much as blink, just opened the loaf of bread and started making peanut butter and jelly open-faced sandwiches. He carefully spread the peanut butter across the slice of bread, making sure none of the bread showed, spreading the peanut butter right up to the edge of the crust. Then he did the same with the jelly, ate the piece in just three or four bites and made the next one. He carefully licked the knife when he’d finished applying the peanut butter so as not to get any in the jelly jar and vice-versa, licking the jelly off the knife before inserting it into the peanut butter.
“How about some fruit for dessert? There’s some nice apples over on the counter and Bonnie has some oranges in the fridge.”
“No, thanks,” he said, then got up and stood in front of the refrigerator with the door open, scanning what was available on the shelves. He closed the door and gave a disappointed sigh.
“You finish that ice cream?”
“Yeah, just before I went to sleep.”
“Tell you what, how about I draw up a grocery list, give you some cash and you can do the shopping. Fair enough?”
“At the grocery store?”
“I’ve found that’s one of the best places to get groceries.”
“Yeah, I could do that. I was thinking I might go home and use my computer to file that police report online, too.”
“Iggy offered to help.”
“No offense, but the man sort of weirds me out.”
“Yeah, although he’s pretty nice once you get to know him. Morton’s down there with him right now.”
“He let Morton into that dark cave where he lives?”
“Yeah, they got along famously, and guess what else I learned?”
“What?”
“He’s got lights on once the visitors leave.”
“No shit?”
“I’m not kidding. The lights are on down there right now.”
“That makes me feel a little better about the guy, but I’m still not going down there. If it’s all right, I’d like to fill out that report from home.”
“Fine with me, anything that will help get those two guys locked up. Breaking and entering, assault, they’ll hopefully each draw a year and, with any luck, some sort of a stiff fine.”
“I’d just like to get my hands on them again.”
“Believe me, Luscious, the last thing either one of those two want is to run into you again.”
I drew up a grocery list, Luscious added a number of additional items, then left in Bonnie’s car. I went downstairs and listened at Iggy’s door. All I could hear was barking that must have been coming from the Dog TV channel, Morton was probably in his glory. My cell rang a little after three. A number that looked familiar, although I didn’t recognize it right off the bat.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Dev, just checking in to see if you’re okay.”
Angie, surprise, surprise. “How very nice of you to call, Angie.” Her words from a while back about ‘a little more stable and a lot more permanent’ rang in my ear. “What can I do for you?”
“Just wanted to see how you’re doing, is all.”
I wasn’t sure. She could have been dumped by whoever the guy was, but on the other hand, she was genuinely nice enough that maybe she really did call just to see if I was okay. “That’s really nice, but not to worry. I’ve been really busy with work lately, in fact, I’m working now.”
“Oh, is it a bad time, you want me to call back later?”
“Actually, would you mind if I called you? I’m working round the clock and sort of on a short leash at the moment. Could I maybe give you a call in about a week?”
“A week?”
“Yeah, hopefully I’ll be finished with this case by that time.”
“Yeah, sure, call when you can, glad you’re busy.”
“Thanks, Angie, really appreciate the call, I mean it. I’ll talk to you later.” My phone rang almost the moment I disconnected with Angie. “Hello.”
“Hi, Dev, Bonnie. Everything okay back there?”
“Yes, in fact it’s wonderfully boring. More importantly, how are things going for you?”
“Well, I’m staying another night, keep your fingers crossed. I’ll be meeting with more people tomorrow morning.”
“That’s great, so they were at least interested enough to have you back.”
“Oh, yeah, actually I just got out of there, they took me to lunch and I met a number of folks. They could not have treated me better. I’m just so excited. I felt like I had to tell someone.”
“Really happy for you, want me to pass the information on to Iggy?”
“Oh, I already sent him an in-depth message. He’s got all the facts and figures. How’s he doing by the way? Have you seen him?”
“Actually, I think he’s doing pretty well. He’s had Morton down there for the better part of the day.”
“Morton?”
“They seem to be getting along famously. Get this, he’s got some dog TV channel running on one of his computers, and guess what else?”
“I give up?”
“He has lights on.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. Some low ambient things, but it’s lit up in there enough that you can actually see who you’re talking to.”
“He didn’t happen to lose the Mylar, did he?”
“Ahh, no that was still tightly wrapped around him.”
“One thing at a time, I guess. Oh, call coming through, maybe another appointment for tomorrow. Wish me luck,” she said, then hung up before I could say goodbye.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“I don’t know, Dev. Like I just said, I waited until it was all clear, then put the blinker on, turned, and they came out of nowhere.”
We were standing in the driveway looking at Bonnie’s car, or what was left of it. The passenger side was all scraped and dented with a large orange streak running from the rear wheel up to where the headlight used to be.
“They didn’t honk or anything? How fast were they going?” I felt like I was grasping at straws, once you pull in front of a school bus you’re basically screwed. I knew for a fact Luscious wasn’t the best driver out there. Come to think of it, the last time I’d seen him drive he ran into a median that ‘Just popped up out of nowhere’ and damaged a car while in the process of trying to hold onto
a McDonald’s shake. Which got me thinking for a moment. “Did you spill the food?”
“Lost the shake on the floor and the double cheeseburger went out the window. By the time I got out of the car, someone else had run over my cheeseburger and there was nothing left to save.”
Luscious, for want of a burger and a shake, thirty minutes after polishing off an entire loaf of bread along with a jar of peanut butter and another of jelly, had just done about five grand worth of damage to Bonnie’s Santa Fe. And I was going to have to pay for the privilege. I peeked in the passenger window. Sure enough, it looked like strawberry shake slathered all over the carpet. Screaming wasn’t going to help.
At that point a car came down the street, then slowed to a crawl. With the tinted windows I couldn’t tell who was behind the wheel, but whoever was driving leaned toward the passenger window and examined the damage. The car resumed speed for two more houses, then pulled into the driveway and parked. The woman who wore the blue bathrobe the other night climbed out of the car, gave us a disdainful look and went in her front door. A moment later I caught a lace curtain moving on one of her front windows. I felt like giving her the finger but figured that would do nothing to help, so I just ignored her.
I helped Luscious carry six bags of groceries inside. Not bad considering he was just going to pick up a couple of items. One of the bags had a large wet spot on the bottom. As soon as he saw it, Luscious cried, “The ice cream is melting.” Then he sat down on the couch with the container and a spoon and went to work. I put the groceries away, then headed downstairs to check on Iggy and Morton.
The door was closed but not locked, which I found interesting. Iggy answered almost immediately. He still had his sheet of Mylar wrapped around him and the tinfoil cap, but the latex gloves were gone. The low ambient lights were still on in the room, giving everything a sort of dusky cast which seemed preferable to the almost impenetrable darkness I’d seen up till now. I noted that when he opened the door I didn’t hear the lock snap, which meant he’d either forgotten to lock it or it was unlocked on purpose. Either way, I took it to be positive.
“Oh, hi, we were just watching the news,” Iggy said, walking back to a chair.
The two of them had moved from the computer Iggy had originally turned on, to watching a large flatscreen, at least four feet long with a split image, one image seemed to be a continual news feed guaranteed not to help Iggy’s neurosis, the other half looked like the dog channel. Morton lay on the floor, mesmerized.
“Just checking, everything going okay, Iggy?”
“Just fine, thank you. I got this flat screen from Amazon, same day delivery.” He pulled the Mylar a little tighter around his shoulders, rested his chin on his chest and looked over the top of his eyeglasses at the flatscreen.
I didn’t want to ask what the cost was. Gee, imagine if I didn’t have to pay for the car damage, maybe I could order one, too. “I spoke with Bonnie, she’s been asked to meet again tomorrow, so she’s going to spend another night in Seattle.”
“Yes, she was kind enough to send a full report. Things seem to have gone rather well today.”
“Congratulations to the two of you.”
“Thank you,” Iggy said, continuing to stare at the flatscreen.
“Okay, tell you what, I’m going to be upstairs. You just call or send Morton out whenever you’ve had your fill. You’re sure he’s not a problem.”
“We’re getting along fine. Thank you,” he said then indicated the door with a nod of his head.
Morton wandered upstairs just about dinnertime. Luscious and I had just sat down to a large meatloaf. I took a slice, Luscious took the rest. We decided to keep watch in shifts again, just to be on the safe side. Mercifully, nothing happened, and we sat down to a pancake breakfast bright and early at ten the following morning. The rest of the day was uneventful until Bonnie called from the Seattle airport just before dinnertime. She said she’d be home around ten and tell us all about her day once she arrived.
I picked her up from the airport and drove her home. She didn’t seem that upset about the damage to her car. As a matter of fact, she didn’t seem to be upset at all, passing the whole thing off with a shoulder shrug and an “Oh well, accidents happen.”
I wondered what sort of medication she was on but didn’t pursue the matter since it seemed to be going my way. She flitted into the house and down to Iggy’s level while I dragged her suitcase into the bedroom. I went to bed at half-past twelve, she was still downstairs talking to Iggy. I couldn’t remember when she came to bed, only that she was there in the morning. So was Morton, taking up most of the middle of the bed, pushing me almost over the edge until it was just better for everyone if I got up and out.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I brought breakfast hot dogs down to Iggy, along with Morton once he’d been fed and had a chance to run around the back yard. Luscious had watched him from the deck while devouring a bag of Malted Milk Balls so I could cook breakfast. I made three omelettes, one for Luscious, one for Bonnie and one for myself. Luscious finished his in record time, then stepped up to the stove where he made and ate a dozen large pancakes.
He’d pour one almost the size of the frying pan, then eat it while the next one was cooking. He occasionally took a long drink directly from the bottle of maple syrup like it was whiskey. Bonnie watched him, speechless, staring while he devoured three or four pancakes in that manner. She finally pushed back in her chair and said, “I have a ton of notes to go over with Iggy, and they’d like me back out in Seattle in forty-eight hours. I’ll be down in the darkroom.” She rolled her eyes, flashed a fake smile, then shook her head as she carried a number of files downstairs.
I brought two more hot dogs down to Iggy for lunch. Morton was on the floor, apparently watching the Dog channel, while Iggy and Bonnie worked through all sorts of changes and adjustments to the computer programs. The lights were on, but he was still wrapped in Mylar and wore the tinfoil hat, although the latex gloves were nowhere to be seen. Bonnie waved off anything for lunch and just asked for iced tea.
When I brought the glass of tea down the two of them were still clustered around a computer, and Iggy seemed to be explaining something about currency exchange rates to her. Suddenly, two of the computers on the far side of the room began flashing red and making some sort of emergency alarm sound. Bonnie looked up, Iggy quickly rolled his desk chair over to the computers, spinning halfway round as he shot across the room so he was in the perfect position to attack the keyboard, which he did. I stood there with a blank look on my face holding Bonnie’s tea.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“No idea yet. I set up an audio program so that when certain words are spoken, and specific tones are recorded, we receive a warning.”
“What?”
“What it means is someone was upset, raised their voices, using Bonnie’s name or my name along with some rather colorful language. It may be related to the failed intrusion the other evening. It may be because they’ve learned of Bonnie’s success out in Seattle, and they’ve given up.”
“You think that could be it?”
“That doesn’t sound like the Wegger I knew some years back. Not the sort to admit defeat. My guess, they’re going to try something extreme.”
“Extreme? Can we get all this stuff out of here?” I asked, looking around the room and knowing what the answer would be.
“Let’s call the police,” Bonnie said.
Iggy just kept clicking keys, Morton barked once or twice at the new flatscreen. In the end we decided not to do anything. The recording that had set off the alarm was someone swearing, most likely Wegger, mentioning Iggy and Bonnie by name coupled with a string of expletives. But it sounded like he was leaving the room just as he got going, so whatever the cause or proposed action was, we remained essentially in the dark.
“Maybe we just heard him throw in the towel,” Bonnie said.
I doubted things would work out that easily. Lu
scious and I remained on guard throughout the course of the evening. Luscious slept on the couch for a few hours, but I was too worked up to relax. In the end, nothing happened and the sun rose on a new day with my eyes burning from lack of sleep and Luscious driving to the grocery store for more eggs and pancake mix.
Bonnie and Iggy worked through the day. I threw four steaks on the grill for dinner. One for Bonnie, one for me, two twenty-two ounce steaks for Luscious and a couple of hot dogs for Iggy.
After dinner Bonnie went back down to Iggy’s and worked until sometime past midnight. She was in bed when Luscious woke me to stand guard at two, but I had no recollection of her having come to bed. Her clock alarm went off just before six when Luscious relieved me. She was stepping out of the shower as I crawled into bed.
“Got an extra ten minutes?” I asked as she toweled off.
“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s so sweet…I think. We have to get these corrections input and then tested before I fly back out to Seattle. How does a raincheck sound?”
“Right now, not all that thrilling.”
She smiled and pulled an olive-drab t-shirt on over her head. Just in case I wasn’t getting the message, the front of the t-shirt had a large red circle with a line through it.
“Do you have much more work to do?”
“Tons, but it’s the testing that takes so long. Believe me, if this works it will be worth it. They told me when I was out there they were going to put this on the fast track. God, they weren’t kidding.”
I left breakfast on the stairs for her and Iggy after knocking on the door. I did the same with lunch.
Chapter Thirty-Six
I returned to collect the lunch dishes just as Iggy’s phone rang. Bonnie opened the door for me. The ringtone was actually a male voice, harsh, deep, sort of whispering, “You will suffer.”