Chez Stinky (31 page)

Joel crawled onto the bed and stretched his body alongside hers. He propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. I’ve never heard of this type of thing happening around here. People generally don’t even lock their doors.”

Kat rolled over to face him. “Thank you. If you hadn’t been here paying attention, Linus might have died.” She smiled. “It seems like I’m always thanking you for something.”

He reached out to caress her cheek. “You just like that I can fix stuff.”

“No, that’s what your sister likes. I like you for way more reasons than that.”

Joel gathered her in his arms and kissed her tenderly. “Good to know.”

Kat curled up closer to him and closed her eyes. Before long they were both fast asleep, joining the dogs and cats in an afternoon nap.

Kat was jarred awake by the sound of the phone ringing. She ran up the stairs less than gracefully as her sleepy muscles cramped. It was beyond time to get a phone extension in the downstairs bedrooms. She recognized Dr. Cassidy’s voice. “You can pick up Linus now. He seems fine. It’s a good thing your husband is so observant and got him here quickly. Throwing up all over me was probably the best thing the dog could have done.”

Kat giggled. “Linus is a smart dog. Thank you so much! We’ll be back there in a few minutes to get him.” Oops. She hadn’t corrected the vet about her marital status. Joel wasn’t her husband. She’d only known him a few weeks.

Joel and Kat drove back to the vet clinic and collected Linus, who was thrilled to see them both. He wagged and trotted happily around the reception area, panting and smiling while Kat paid the bill. She sighed as she signed her name. As if her credit card needed any more workouts. She looked down at Linus. “Please stay healthy, Big Guy.”

Louise came into the clinic lobby where Kat and Joel were standing next to Linus. The older woman sneezed mightily and pointed her handkerchief at Kat. “You! I heard you were here. You poisoned your dog. How could you?” She sneezed again for emphasis.

Kat was too stunned to speak for a moment, but then gathered her wits enough to blurt out, “I did not! I would never poison Linus. Or any dog. But I intend to find out who did.”

Ignoring the protestations of innocence, Louise marched up to the receptionist. “I’m here to pick up Dr. Cassidy’s donation for the Ladies Auxiliary auction.” She started waving her handkerchief in front of her face more frantically. “Oh, oh, there’s too much hair in here. I need to go outside! Can somebody bring it to me outside?”

Having paid their bill, Kat, Joel, and Linus followed Louise out to the parking lot and walked toward the green truck. Louise turned around to face them and pointed at Kat. “You are just irresponsible. I knew it. I can’t believe Abigail thought you could take care of her animals. You are just like your mother, and you’ll never see a cent of Abigail’s money! I’ll make sure of it!”

Joel looked at Kat and raised his eyebrows. “You weren’t kidding. She really doesn’t like you at all.”

“I know. It’s a problem.”

Kat spent the rest of the day worrying about Linus. Keeping an eye on him was easy, since he liked to be within 18 inches of her anyway. Joel retreated to his office. Kat noticed that he tended to escape into the rationality of numbers and calculations when he was disturbed about something. The day had certainly been disturbing and exhausting, so she couldn’t blame him for wanting to think about pretty much anything else.

That afternoon they walked all of the dogs on leashes. Fortunately, Joel was heavy enough and strong enough to deal with Tessa. He attempted to give her a few insights into the “heel” command, with limited success.

After dinner, tired of feeling anxious and helpless to do anything about the mysterious someone who might be lurking outside in the forest waiting to hurt her animals, Kat announced, “I’m going to go read in bed. Come on, Linus.” Linus happily trotted into the bedroom after Kat.

Joel stood in the doorway. “Everything okay?”

“No. But I’m going to read for a while and try to forget about today.”

“Good idea. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

As Joel’s footsteps thumped down the stairs, Kat picked up her book and rolled over on her side. She reached down to pet Linus’s head every once in a while to make sure he was okay.

Linus growled quietly and stood up next to the bed. Kat looked at his giant muzzle, which was now about three inches from her face. “What’s up, Big Guy?” Linus growled more loudly and menacingly. The growl rose in pitch and then he barked sharply, spun around and ran to the window. Kat jolted up into a sitting position and put her hand on her chest. “Linus! You scared the crap out of me.”

Linus had his paws up on the windowsill and was barking furiously. Joel ran into the room. “What is going on?” he shouted over the din.

Kat looked at Joel and raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know. We were just sitting here. Linus, stop that!”

Linus was running around the room, periodically running back to the window, jumping up on the sill, and barking hysterically. Joel went over to the window and looked out. “There’s somebody out there. It looks like an old man.”

Kat jumped and ran to the window. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. You stay here.”

“I will not.”

“Yes, you will.”

“Don’t get all macho on me. It’s my house. If there’s some guy in my yard, I want to know who it is.”

“He could be the guy who shot at Linus last night. Or who poisoned him. You stay here.”

“No way.” Kat turned and went toward the front door.

Joel grabbed her arm. “Don’t be stupid.”

“Let go of me,” Kat snarled as she wrestled her arm out of his hands. “Don’t
you
be stupid. And don’t tell me what to do in my own house. We’re just going to have to be stupid together. Deal with it.”

Linus was jumping and barking at the front door. Kat looked at Joel and pointed at the dog. “Put a leash on him and bring him with us. He’s pretty intimidating when he’s like this. I wouldn’t want to tangle with an angry 200-pound dog. Maybe he’ll chase the guy off. Or at least bite him.”

Joel nodded and snapped a leash on Linus’s collar. They opened the door and went down the stairs. Joel shouted toward the forest. “Whoever you are. Get off this property.”

Kat gripped Joel’s hand and they walked closer to the man, who didn’t move at all. Kat glanced at Joel. “Is he dead? Why is there an old dead guy in my yard?”

Joel shook his head. “Were you expecting company?”

The man was lying spread-eagled in a patch of weeds. Linus sniffed at him and poked him with his nose. Kat looked up into Joel’s eyes. “Who is he?”

Joel shrugged and looked down at the old man. “I don’t know him.”

After being repeatedly poked, sniffed and growled at by Linus, the man in the grass finally stirred, shaking his mane of long gray hair. He sat up and rubbed his gray beard, wiping off some Linus drool. “Damn! What is that? It’s huge! Get that thing away from me.”

Joel handed the dog’s leash to Kat and grabbed the front of the man’s shirt with both hands, pulling him up to a standing position and then lifting him off the ground so he was face-to-face with the old man. “Who the hell are you?”

Kat shuddered. Joel was normally fairly quiet and composed. She’d never seen him really angry before and it was a little scary. “Yes, and why are you on my property?” she squeaked.

The older man squirmed, “Put me down, dude. Jeez man, what’s your problem?”

Joel loosened his grip and lowered the man to the ground. “My problem is that you’re creeping around here in the dark, and I don’t like trespassers.”

“I’m not trespassing! This is my house.”

Kat was irritated now. She stood up straighter. “It is not! This place was owned by my Aunt Abigail. She left it to me.”

“Well, you might get it someday, but it’s mine now. I’m her husband. So it’s mine. And all the trees, too.”

“She wasn’t married. She left it to me.”

“Yes, she was married. To me. We never got divorced. I helped build this place.”

Kat raised her eyebrows. “Wait. You’re the Lumberjack?”

Joel looked at Kat. “The Lumberjack?”

“I’m Jack Palmer. And yeah, I did some logging back in the day.”

A muscle twitched in Joel’s jaw as he leaned toward the man. “You haven’t explained why you’re here. And why you shot at and tried to poison this dog.”

Jack scratched his beard. “I didn’t poison any dog. I went out hunting the other night. There was a bunch of barking in the forest. It was echoing in the trees and I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. And then I saw a bear. That freaked me out, man! Damn. That thing was huge! I dropped my gun and it went off when I ran away. Now I can’t find it. I put some of my Valium into some hamburger, so the bear might take a nap and I could go look for my gun. That’s what I’m doing. Like I said, it’s my place and I can hunt on it. Well, when I find my gun again.”

Kat looked at him more closely. “So you really knew my aunt?”

Jack looked over at Kat and the expression on his weathered face softened. “Yeah, she was really young when I met her. Man, she was so beautiful. Really long, dark wavy hair.” He glanced at Kat. “She looked kinda like you, actually. I’d just come back from Korea and I was pretty messed up. I ended up coming through here and she was nice to me. I met her at the cafe. It’s not here anymore, but she worked there. Anyway, we got together. Abby was amazing, man. She took me out here to this place and told me how she wanted to build a house. It was good at first. Really good. But she kept inviting her friend’s kid out here and that was a drag. And I figured out she wanted to stay here, like, forever. I couldn’t handle that. I wasn’t ready to deal with that kind of responsibility, man.”

Kat nodded. “I think I heard about that part. You left.”

Jack shrugged. “There was a guy and he told me that I could score some…uh, well, you don’t need to know about that part. But I went to Vegas. And I kept meaning to come back, but I liked the casinos. Then it was the sixties and the seventies. Things were really happening.”

Joel looked at Jack. “You do realize it’s the nineties now, right?”

“Time sorta got away from me, man. Then an old buddy of mine came through Vegas and I heard Abby died. I didn’t even know she was sick. But I knew she never would have sold this place. And look at the trees. They gotta be worth a fortune. Do you know what cedar sells for?”

Kat narrowed her eyes. “Actually, I don’t.”

Jack looked excited. “If you stripped this place, it would be a lot of money. I mean,
a lot
, man.”

Kat glared at him. “I found some of my aunt’s papers. She had foresters come out and a few years ago they did a little logging to clear out some dead trees. But she wanted to keep the forest healthy. Not sell off the trees. I read the plan the forester did for her.”

Jack shrugged. “She always was an eco-nut. But that’s not my problem. When I get this place, I’m clear-cutting it. And selling it. I talked to a developer the other day. He’s got ideas.”

Now Kat was getting angry. She said through clenched teeth, “That’s not going to happen. I read the will. Abigail was very specific in her wishes. She wanted someone to take care of the animals and the forest. I’m going to do that. I’m not going to clear-cut anything.”

Joel moved toward Jack. “I think you’d better leave. If I see you here again, I’ll call the police.” Linus contributed a low, menacing growl to emphasize the point.

Jack raised his hands up, “Hey man, take it easy. I’m going. But I talked to that lawyer guy. Don’t get your hopes up about staying here.” He started ambling toward the driveway. “And if you find my gun, I want it back. I’m at the Enchanted Moose.”

Kat was freezing. Her body started to tremble in a combination of fury and tangled emotions. She looked up at Joel and said through gritted teeth, “That was more than unpleasant. I don’t believe this.”

“I know. Do you think he really has a case?”

“I have no idea. Maria told me someone had talked to Larry about the will. I guess I know what it was about now.”

With Linus by his side, Joel took her hand and they walked slowly back toward the house, which was silhouetted in the moonlight. Kat looked up at the simple log structure she had grown to love.
I’m not going to let him destroy this place.