Aiden
“Harve, it's Aiden...Oh, yeah, just fine. You?...Listen, you know the Gallagher place off Old Farm Road?...Yeah, that’s it. When we moved Nellie out, we didn’t check windows...Exactly. They’ve made it their home. Her granddaughter is trying to live there...I don’t know the story, but she’s living there...Raccoon, opossums, martens, mice...I haven’t seen one of those yet...Well, that gives me something to look forward to, doesn’t it?...
“That’s why I’m calling. How much would you charge to come take a look and give an estimate?...Free, she can afford. Tomorrow afternoon?...I’ll run up and talk to her, see if she agrees. Plan on coming. I’ll call you if for some reason tomorrow isn’t good for her...Yeah, I appreciate it.”
She was sleeping in a chair or in her car, afraid to be in her own house. It wasn’t right. I was just upholding my duties as an officer of the law. Serve and protect. It was no different than when Mrs. Jameson ran out to the sidewalk and pulled me in to get a heavy box off the top shelf in her shop’s storage room, or when Cecil asked if I’d be on the planning committee for the new retirement home. No different.
As for the cupcakes, I bought too many. She’s skinny as hell already. She could use the fat and sugar. I was doing this for Nellie. I loved Nellie, and Nellie had loved Katie. Civic duty was all it was.
Standing, I grabbed my hat, walked out of my office and through the station. “Heather, I’m going to be out for an hour or so. Call if you need me.”
“Sure, Chief,” she said, resuming her typing.
I checked to make sure the bakery boxes were still on the back seat and then took off. She was going to need furniture, too. She might not be able to find much in the Harbor. South Harbor had a secondhand shop. She might need to get off the island, though, hit Trenton.
Then again, she may end up reconciling with her husband and all of this will have just been an adventure story. I rubbed my chest.
I was dropping off some food and trying to get her an exterminator. Nothing more. You can dislike and mistrust someone without wishing her ill. I didn’t have to care about her to make sure she and her moose hadn’t been attacked by wolves.
The image of her at her kitchen table, head down, upset with herself for hurting a baby raccoon came unbidden. Again. Still, this didn’t mean anything.
Kate
Driving home, I watched russet leaves swirling in the wake of the cars speeding up Main toward the Old Farm Road that led to Gran’s. When I pulled up to the house, I was overwhelmed by a sense of home.
I opened the front door and Chaucer bounded out, sniffing every inch of me. “Today was an adventure. I’ll tell you that much.” I walked through the entrance, my wariness returning immediately. “Did you scare off any critters while I was gone?”
Chaucer whined from the front porch, not following me in. Shit.
“What is it? What did you see?” I whispered. Please don’t be a bat. Please don’t be a bat.
He pranced on the porch, wanting to be right next to me but not wanting to enter the house again. Double shit. Okay, enough of this crap. I was announcing my presence with authority. I hung the clothing bag on the doorknob, not wanting to leave it on the ground where rodents or snakes could take up residence. Snakes! How had I not thought of those before? “Please tell me you didn’t see a snake. I’m begging you, Chaucer. Tell me it was one of those heckling marmosets.”
He just stared at me, shying away from the doorway and whining.
“Mommy’s got this!” I ran into the kitchen, flung open the back door, grabbed two pots from the cupboard, and proceeded to race around the house, screaming and banging the pots. No more, you little bastards! I tried not to think about the quick, skittering movement I saw all around me. Chaucer howled, but I was exorcising this joint, once and for all.
As I raced back down the stairs, I saw a huge man standing silhouetted in the door. I stopped screaming and tried to back up, forgetting where I was. I ended up on my ass, sliding down the stairs before falling in a heap at the bottom. He moved toward me and I held up my pots in defense.
He wrenched the pots out of my hands and crouched down next to me. Aiden. Of course. “Have you lost it, Katie?”
“Ha, ha.” I tried to get up but lost my balance. My ass was killing me. Damn, that really freaking hurt.
He pulled me up with one hand. The other was holding bakery boxes. Weird. Maybe I’d hit my head again. I reached out and poked his chest. Seemed real enough.
“Will you please stop poking me?”
I snatched my hand away and gave him my squinty, suspicious look. “Why are you here, and what is in those boxes?”
He angled his body, keeping the boxes out of my reach. “You first. Why are you racing around like a crazy person?”
I stamped a foot, frustration getting the better of me. “I’m trying to scare off whatever is in here that has Chaucer whining and unwilling to come back inside!”
He looked me up and down. “Maybe you’re what’s freaking him out.”
“P’fft. He adores me. Don’tcha, baby?” I picked up the pots and glanced through the empty open door. “Chaucer?”
My dog stepped into the doorway, watched me warily for a moment, and then ducked out of sight again.
