Crowbones

CHAPTER 53

Vicki

Watersday, Novembros 3

It was a dark and stormy night.

Okay, it wasn’t stormy—unless you counted Ben Malacki’s sulky hissy fit—but it was definitely dark. But saying it was dark and stormy sounded appropriately atmospheric since we were trapped inside The Jumble’s lake cabins or the main house, and something that scared the feathers off the Crows was wandering around outside waiting for someone to be foolishly inquisitive.

Who would survive? Who would be eaten? Who would end up squashed under a large Elder’s foot like a crunchy-shelled bug with a squishy middle?

I so did not want to be the bug with a squishy middle.

Maybe I should do more exercises for my core, because squishy is as squishy does?

Focus, Vicki.

“Officer Osgood has advised my guests to remain indoors this evening,” Ineke said after I called and gave her the latest warning about things that go bump in the night. “He suggested putting Maxwell on a leash and taking him out close to the house to do his business, but that won’t work. Maxwell might water the plants near the house, but he has his potty spots at the back of the property for other business and he won’t go anywhere else unless he’s having tummy troubles.”

“He’s smart enough not to linger if he senses something out there.” I tried to sound encouraging. Being a border collie, Maxwell was smarter than a lot of Ineke’s guests, but that might not be enough if something caught him with his pants down, so to speak.

I took a deep breath and finally said the words that were the real reason for the phone call. “Julian is here. For the night.”

“Oh?” A noncommittal sound brimming with undercurrents of interest.

“What should I do? What would you do?”

“Two entirely different questions,” Ineke replied.

“If you had three teenage . . . females . . . spending the night in the room next to your bedroom?”

“Under the circumstances, offering a good friend half of your bed because it’s that or the floor isn’t the same as offering to have wild, naughty sex with him.”

“What if he thinks one offer means the other?” This had been worrying me for an hour and had me dithering. The girls were going to be in my sitting room sharing the air mattress donated by the Sterns. Or maybe Aggie and Jozi were taking the love seat after shifting to Crow form and Kira had the mattress. I didn’t know what they had decided, but I did know even I wasn’t short enough to comfortably nap on the love seat. Anyway, Doc Wallace was probably going to be on the couch in the TV room downstairs. And that left Julian sleeping in a chair or on the floor somewhere.

I wasn’t an Intuit, but I had a feeling that if he wasn’t inside my apartment, Julian would be sleeping in front of the door so he would be nearby in case . . . well, in case whatever had spooked him started to happen. And I kind of wanted another grown-up to be around if the spookies started, especially if Julian was the grown-up.

“It’s Julian,” Ineke said. “He knows you. He will take the offer at face value.” A beat of silence. “Besides, you can find out if he has a tolerance for cold feet.”

“My feet aren’t that cold,” I muttered. “At least not before winter.”

She laughed in a way that made me wonder if she was talking about body parts or a different kind of cold feet.

We talked for another minute, promising to check in with each other in the morning. Then I went to find Julian to make an offer, not quite knowing if I wanted him to accept or refuse.

I found Julian all right, having a heated discussion with Ben Malacki.

“Is there a problem?” I asked. Of course there was, and it would be more of a problem the moment Cougar or Conan joined the discussion.

“You can sleep on the sofa bed in your suite, or you can sleep down here on the couch in the TV room,” Julian said, his voice tight with anger. “Doc Wallace said he will take whichever one you don’t choose.”

“Let a stranger rummage around in my things? Go through my work?” Malacki puffed out his chest. “I don’t think so.”

“Fine. Then you stay in your suite.”

“With Shuman? In his condition?”

“Conan and Cougar will be sleeping downstairs,” I said, giving Malacki a big, big smile and wishing I could borrow Natasha Sanguinati’s fangs for a minute. “So you’ll have company if you stay down here.”

“How dare—” Malacki stared past me.

Cougar, in his furry form, stepped up beside me. In a contest of claws, I really didn’t want to know who could do more damage to a human—Cat or Bear. I suspected motivation could be a factor, so I, for one, wasn’t going to place a bet since I had the impression that Cougar was feeling pretty motivated about swatting my annoying guest right out the door.

“I’ll stay in my suite,” Malacki grumbled. “But I want something to eat first, and I’m not eating up there.”

I’d like to believe it was consideration for his colleague, since I didn’t know what David Shuman could eat right now, but it was more likely that Ben Malacki didn’t want to be put off his own meal.

“Julian?” I jumped in before the two men could find another thing to discuss. “If I could have a word?”

He followed me to my office. “Problem?” He gave me a tired smile. “Besides the obvious ones?”

It is rude to feed the guests to the wildlife. It is rude to feed the guests to the wildlife.

“Rude to the guests or the wildlife?” Julian asked.

Darn it! I must have said that out loud. “Both.”

Julian’s smile became warmer and less strained.

“Look, we’re both adults, and you need a good night’s sleep, which you probably won’t get anyway, but there’s half a double bed that most of me doesn’t use . . .”

“Most of you?”

“My feet tend to wander, but that’s beside the point.” I was nervous and feeling a little testy. And scared. And wondering when I’d take a spin on the anxiety wheel. “The point is you could sleep in my room. With me. If you wanted to sleep.”

I looked in Julian’s direction, but I couldn’t quite look at him. Probably too much emphasis on the “sleeping” part, but I really didn’t want to find out that I needed a sedative to quiet the anxiety and Doc didn’t have any in his medical bag.

“Okay,” Julian said. “Thanks.”

My jittery nerves jittered a little less. Okay. Thanks? Was it really that simple?

“All things considered,” he continued, “maybe we should skip the scary movies and set up one or two of the jigsaw puzzles in the social room.”

“Good plan.” Ben Malacki probably would watch a scary movie or two just to be annoying and interfere with Doc Wallace getting some sleep, but Cougar or Conan could sort out any difficult guests.

We found Doc Wallace in the library reading one of the Wolf Team books. He wasn’t interested in watching movies, but he agreed to join us for a while to work on the puzzles since he could dip in and out of the activity when he needed to check on his patient.

Now that I’d made the decision and Julian had accepted, I did my best not to think about the retiring-for-the-evening part of the evening. Since Ben Malacki and the Cornleys stayed away from the rest of us, we almost had an enjoyable night.

For a while, anyway.