Short Fuse
© 1992/2016 by K Pelle
Chapter 21
I was still leaning against the car and feeling slightly off colour when Shannon and Cindy came back to stand in front of Arlene and me.
"Has Detective Fairchild come back out of the house yet?" Cindy asked quietly.
"No, but it he wasn't in the house, he was looking around the yard when I last saw him," Arlene spoke.
I hadn't noticed that, but she seemed to be certain so I didn't contradict her. However, when I looked for him, I saw him standing at our back fence, looking into the neighbour's yard. He turned and looked back at the house, then turned and slowly walked over toward us.
As he got closer, he gestured to me and I walked to meet him.
"The neighbours over there," he gestured. "Do you know them at all? Are they out most of the day?"
"Julie and Art Claiborne? Yes, I know them to see them. They're a young couple who are just starting out and they both work long hours, leaving early and coming home late. Why?"
"Oh it's just that I was looking around your yard and if I were trying to sneak over to your daughter's bedroom window to break in, that's the way I'd come, over their fence and across the grass. The way their driveway and shrubs are placed, a car could sit next to their house and not be seen from their street or from this side," he mused. "If they aren't home a lot of the time, the crooks who broke into your house could have come that way."
"That makes sense to me," I nodded. "The people on that cul-de-sac are quite private and mind their own business, so they probably wouldn't notice. Besides, those houses are all a recent development, so a lot of the folks living there work days as well. It's the older folk who live on our street and in the other direction that are a bit nosy."
"Too bad, but I'll go over and knock on a few doors later. Right now, I'm going to go check and see if you can get those darn dolls."
"Don't let Shannon hear you call them that," I chuckled. "She loves those little chunks of plastic."
"Yeah, I could tell," he actually grinned for once. "See you in a few minutes."
As he went inside, I walked back toward the car and Shannon smiled.
"Thanks Dad,"
"For what?"
"For getting him to check on how soon we can get the dolls."
"Oh. That was his idea," I grinned. "He could see that you were getting impatient."
"There is one thing though, we're going to have to open up the display case and take those Barbies out to pack them separately, I don't want them shaking around in the case when we drive."
"Do you have boxes for those?"
"Unh huh, but they're in the closet."
"We'll get them."
Just then Dick came out the front door and he was carrying the display case. Shannon screamed the instant that she saw the way he was carrying it. She insisted that he set it down, right then and right there before the dolls got damaged. Then she went on to explain that the display case would have to be opened and the dolls taken out of it to be put in their original boxes, telling him that the boxes were on the top shelf of her closet.
I knew that it was up to me to rescue Shannon's dolls from that silly case and went to get some tools from the carport, but had to walk around my car, which was still parked in the driveway.
"Hey, let's just pack those Barbie dolls in my car and take it to the cabin," I suggested. "I don't want to leave it parked here anyway, not considering the fact that someone broke into the house."
"Good idea," Dick agreed. "Not only will your car be safer if it isn't here, but besides that it leaves one less distraction around here for the night watchmen to keep an eye on."
"But I want my car up at the cabin," Arlene protested.
"So, we'll take them both," I shrugged. "That way we can pack all the Barbies in the back seat of my car instead of in the trunk of your car."
I didn't get any argument, so I got my tools from the locked tool shed at the back of the carport and helped Shannon open the acrylic fronted case. Meanwhile Cindy and Arlene helped Dick to recover the boxes Shannon wanted and to start carrying out the dolls that were still packaged. It probably took us at least twenty minutes, just to load all of them into the back seat of my car and pack them for travel, so I'm sure Dick was extremely happy to see us getting ready drive away.
I glanced at my watch and saw that it was after one. I knew that no one had really eaten much today, so I suggested that we stop at a restaurant on the way.
"I know, anywhere, but MacDonald's," Shannon piped up and both Arlene and Cindy laughed.
"Today, I agree with your dad," Cindy said quietly. "I really don't want anything greasy."
"Wow," Arlene looked back at her. "Aren't you feeling well?"
"Just a bit queasy Mom. It's nothing major."
"Well, how about a fresh air lunch, something nice to eat while we're looking out over the Saanich inlet?" I suggested.
"Oh yes, Daddy," Shannon said loudly. "I like that place."
"What place is that?" Arlene asked.
"The Malaview Restaurant. It's on our way up-island and it's neat," Shannon burbled. "You guys can have fish or salad or whatever you want and I can still have a real good burger."
After a minute's discussion, the girls decided that Cindy would ride with me and that Shannon would ride with Arlene. I took a moment to clean the windows on my car, then pulled out of the drive with Arlene swinging her car in behind me.
We drove in silence for a few minutes, then Cindy asked; "You aren't mad at me, are you?"
"Whatever for?" I glanced over at her.
"Well, 'cause I told you that I like you, even if I am young?"
"No, I'm not annoyed about that," I said slowly. "In a way it's a very nice compliment, but nothing can ever happen, you know. First of all because you are way too young and second because I'm involved with your Mom. It just wouldn't be right."
"Yeah, Mom kind of explained," she whispered. "She was telling me about a girl whose step-dad did things with her and how it screwed up their whole family's life. She works with people like that all the time."
"It certainly can happen," I nodded. "Did you know that in all the time I was married to Claire, I never even let myself think too deeply about another woman?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, really," I chuckled. "It's not like there weren't a lot I would have liked to have spent some time with, but the furthest I'd let myself go was to fantasize about them. I never strayed, not once."
"What do you mean, 'fantasize about them,' you mean like think about what they'd be like?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"In bed?"
"Occasionally," I laughed nervously.
"You met Mom before you brought Shannon over to our house. Did you fantasize about her?"
"Mmm . . . yeah, I did," I admitted. "She has a wonderful figure."
"She does look nice, doesn't she?"
"She looks more than just nice," I snorted. "She's gorgeous."
"What about me?" she asked outright. "What would you think of me if you weren't with another woman?"
"Well . . ." I paused to think of the words I wanted to use. "I'd probably think that you were a very cute young girl, who was going to grow to be a beautiful young woman."
"But I'm not there yet, huh?"
"Getting there, but you have a long way to go, and quit fishing for compliments. That's not a nice character trait to develop."
"Grump!" she giggled.
"And you - are a tease," I grinned.
She thought a minute, then giggled again. "I guess I am, aren't I?"
"Unh huh. You are, but so are Gretchen and your Mom."
"Oh, but they haven't really teased you much, not like they could have."
"Hmmph. You haven't been around all the time that we were together," I snorted.
"I guess not," she said quietly, then fell silent for a few miles.
"Is something wrong?" I asked. "You quit talking."
"Oh, I was thinking," she sighed. "You said something last night that made me wonder."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, you said something about sex being each person's own business, as long as it didn't hurt anyone else."
"That's pretty well what I believe."
"So, let's just say that Shannon and I liked the same guy, we should be really careful about what we did, right?"
"Oh yeah!" I said emphatically. "That's dynamite, both of you could get hurt and so could the boy."
"So, lets say I met a guy and liked him a lot, then Shannon met him and liked him just as much, what would you say we should do?"
"Well, I think you'd need to talk to each other first and explain to each other what you felt. You wouldn't want it to ruin your friendship, especially if one of you was really serious, then too, the guy has a say in all this. I think that would be a case where the three of you might want to take things very slowly and think out every action you take."
"And if we came to you, would you take sides?"
"I try my best not to give advice to anyone, except in general terms, especially not about their private life," I laughed. "I've found that giving advice about things of that sort usually ends up making people annoyed with me."
We got distracted by an erratic driver just about then and our conversation drifted to drivers and then to the scenery until we got to the restaurant and pulled in to park. Arlene and Shannon pulled in right behind us and we went inside to find seats. Actually since it wasn't very busy, we managed to find seats on the patio and since the sun was bright, I insisted on sitting at one of the tables with a sun umbrella.
"Wow, what a view," Arlene gazed out at the inlet below us and the mountain side across from us.
The girls excused themselves as soon as they'd ordered, going to the railing in order to look down at the inlet and the boats on the water. Once we were alone, Arlene turned to me with a frown.
"Dave, did you notice a little black car that seems to be following us?" she asked quietly.
"Not really. Did it pull in here too?"
"No, it pulled into the service station just up the road though," she said quietly. "I noticed it behind me just a few blocks after leaving your house and it's been two or three cars behind me all the way up here. If it had simply gone past when we pulled in, I wouldn't have mentioned it."
I thought for a moment, then sighed. "Damn! What now?"
"Yeah, that's my feeling as well. I'm tempted to call the local RCMP and tell them what's going on."
"Don't use your cell phone, but there's a pay phone right over there," I pointed.
"So you think I should?"
"You're the cop," I sighed again. "If they're making you suspicious, I'd suggest you follow your instincts."
"Do you happen to have change for the phone? I don't think I do."
I reached in my pocket, then handed her some change as she stood up.
"This may take a few minutes," she said quietly. "I'll have to explain who I am and why I'm worried."
I expected that, so I just nodded and she walked away quite quickly. She hadn't come back to the table when the girls came back from admiring the scenery.
"Where's Mom?" Cindy asked immediately.
"She's gone to use the phone, I think."
"Oh, I see her," Cindy glanced over at Arlene. "Yeah, from here I'll bet you could phone either to Granny or to Uncle Charlie without it being a long distance call," she grinned.
"And it would be cheaper than using a cell phone too," Shannon added. "That's smart."
"I just wanted her to know that we need the bathroom. Will you tell her that when she gets back, so she'll know where we've gone?"
"Sure," I chuckled.
Arlene came back and sat down, then looked around for the girls, so I told her where they'd gone.
"Good, we can talk for a minute. When we leave here, there are two viewpoints at the crest of the road. I'll lead out and we'll pull into the second one, okay?"
"And?"
"Oh, we'll be going about five miles an hour over the speed limit when we pass the first viewpoint, but there will be a plain clothes RCMP cruiser pulled in there and he'll tag on behind anyone tailing us."
"Damn, it must be nice to have the cops available to you just like that," I shook my head in wonder.
"Huh. They knew who I was when I called. It seems Dick has had them keeping an eye on the road to the cabin and didn't tell me about it. I'm going to give him a piece of my mind when I see him again."
"I don't think you should," I smiled. "He's just looking after his friends."
"I know that, but he should have told me. Besides, what would you do if I did?"
"Well, if you're not a good little girl, Daddy might spank your bottom," I laughed softly.
"Oh God, don't even suggest that right now," she shivered. "As horny as I get at this time of the month, even that turns me on."
"You've got to be kidding?" I stared at her.
"I'm not. I think it's a control thing," she whispered. "Now cut it out. Here come the girls . . . and they timed that well, because here comes the food."
Our meal was really good and I didn't want to rush, even though I was curious and wanted to find out if we were being followed. Arlene and Cindy were carrying on a conversation and including Shannon and me, but it was mostly between them. They both seemed impressed with the food and the service, so I came to the conclusion that they didn't eat out at decent restaurants often. I made up my mind to cure that, long before we were done with the meal.
When I settled up the bill, I paused at the counter while Arlene and the girls went out to the cars, so I could buy a cheesecake to take along for dessert at the cabin. When I handed it to Cindy to hold as I drove, she simply glowed.
"You saw me thinking about asking if I could have a piece, didn't you?"
"No, I'll be honest, I didn't notice that. I just happen to know that the chef there makes one of the best cheesecakes around and I wanted some for later tonight," I grinned at her as we pulled out behind Arlene's car. "Besides, I don't know many people who don't like a nice big chunk of strawberry cheesecake as dessert after their evening meal."
"Are you planning on spoiling Mom and me?"
"No more than I plan on spoiling Shannon and myself," I laughed, but glanced back in my mirror to see if there was a black car behind us.
It wasn't there, but as we rounded the first bend in the road, I saw a small black car pulled off onto the edge of the road. Arlene had sped up and was passing traffic now, so I kept pace. Glancing back in the rear view mirror, I saw the black car merge into traffic and then pull into the passing lane to follow us.
The uphill passing lane merged back into the regular traffic lane just after I had managed to pass the last of a line of slower cars. I thought that meant we'd left the little black car locked into the slow traffic, but I happened to glance back as the little black car took a chance and passed first one and then a second car. Arlene and I were at the lead of the pack and still travelling slightly above traffic speed, so we were pulling away from him when he finally managed to pass the last of the slower cars.
Arlene and I were passing the first viewpoint when I glanced back again to see him gaining on us rapidly. I couldn't help grinning, if nothing else, the cops were going to be able to charge him with speeding. I was grinning even wider when I saw the plain clothes car slip into traffic behind him.
"What's so funny?" Cindy asked quietly.
"Oh, there was a little car back there that was zipping in and out of traffic like a damn fool and I think there's a cop car on his tail now."
"You and Mom should watch it, you're going over the speed limit too, aren't you?"
"Maybe a bit, I was just trying to keep up to Arlene."
"Huh, half of the time Mom forgets that she's not in a cop car. She's got a lead foot," Cindy almost snarled, then she sighed. "Oh heck, she's gonna pull into the viewpoint. I've seen the view there so many times that it's sorta boring."
"Well, this time we can watch the cop take care of that speeder. See. The cop has turned on his flashing lights," I nodded my head toward the rearview mirror.
Arlene was still pulling over and I was behind her when all hell broke loose. The little black car suddenly rocketed past us like we were sitting still, then only an instant later, the cop car went roaring past with the siren wailing. That's when I awakened to the fact that Arlene had flipped on her four-way flashers and was accelerating back into traffic after the cop.
"Oh Shit! Hang on Cindy and make sure your seat belt is pulled tight," I snapped, then I was following Arlene.
After only a few hundred yards, both Arlene and I realized that it was futile to try to catch up to the chase though. I eased off first and Arlene slowed only an instant later. Instead of racing along, we fell back to the legal speed limit.
"That guy was following us, wasn't he?" Cindy said quietly. "And you guys set this up back at the restaurant? Mom called the local cops didn't she?"
"I suppose that's possible," I tried to sound noncommital.
"Oh come on!" she growled. "Don't act dumb with me! You two had that all figured out."
"What makes you think that? I was just following Arlene through traffic."
"Huh," she grunted. "I'll bet that guy was following us and you set it up so the cops could have an excuse to get him. It all just happened too darn pat and you were watching him too much in the rear view mirror for me to think anything else,"
"Hey, young lady, when I'm on the road, I watch the traffic and if there's an idiot out there, I watch him closer than anyone else. I don't like to be in traffic accidents, so if I see someone driving stupidly, I do my best to have a chance of getting out of his way when he does crash and burn."
"Oh, sorry," she said quietly. "But I still think you two knew what was going on."
"Well, you are allowed to think what you want," I had to grin at her. "I have no control over your thoughts or anyone else's."
"No, I guess you can't," she giggled. "I like talking to you. Somehow you always make me think."
"Well, thank you," I grinned. "That is my job, you know? After all I am a teacher of sorts, because that's what a university professor does."
"Is that why Shannon is so darn smart?"
"I can't take any credit for that, other than donating a few genes. Her smarts are all her own."
"Hey look. The cop car is pulled off the road and has his flashers on. Oh, Mom is pulling over to the side too," she said excitedly, then squealed. "Holy Crap! That little black car that was following us went over the edge and it's hung up in a tree."
I was too busy paying attention to slowing down safely to look at first, but after I managed to stop and park behind Arlene's car, I turned and stared myself.
The little car was about twenty feet down a cliff face and wedged in between the trunks of two large trees. Those trees were all that had stopped it from careening further down that steep cliff, but now the car was hung up about twenty or thirty feet above the steeply sloping rocks of the cliff. There were two young oriental men inside the little convertible and they were waving their hands, shifting around and shouting wildly. An RCMP officer was standing on the verge of the road, obviously trying to calm them down and not succeeding too well.
As I stepped out of the car, he waved me away.
"Stay back. This could be dangerous," he shouted.
"Sure, for those damn fools," I answered, then took a deep breath
"Wa Cao. Ni shi sha gua," I shouted loudly. "Stop jumping around or the car will fall out of the tree and down the cliff. Help is coming."
"You speak Chinese? What did you say?" The cop asked.
"All I know are insults that I learned playing football and rugby," I told him quietly. "I just told them both they were being damn fools, then I changed to English and you heard me tell them to hold on, that we'd get help."
"Thank you," he nodded his head at me. "At least they've shut up and quit jumping around. Can you stay here to keep them from doing something stupid? Someone needs to flag traffic so no one else has a wreck."
"You're welcome," I laughed. "I'll try to see if I can calm them down before they manage to shake that wreck loose and kill themselves."
I walked over toward the edge of the road and looked over and down at the two young men in the car.
"You help us?" one guy called in strongly accented English.
"Yes. Help is on the way," I nodded, deciding to keep things as simple as I could. "Stay still. Don't move."
He started to speak in Chinese and I waved my hands in front of my face, then made as if to cover my ears.
"English! I speak only English," I spoke loud enough for him to hear.
He seemed to frown and then began to speak slowly in broken English, wanting to know if I was a policeman. I didn't know what to say other than that I was a professor, but by that time the RCMP officer had brought me a brightly coloured vest to wear for safety from the traffic. Then Arlene, who was also wearing a vest had taken a break from directing traffic to come over to talk to me for a second. I suppose to the young Chinese kid, I seemed to be the person in charge since I was the only person there who wasn't busy at a task involving the traffic.
We'd only been there a few minutes when another police car with two more officers showed up, then shortly after that a fire engine and a tow truck appeared, so I became a fifth wheel as someone else took over talking to the two kids. Almost on the heels of the tow truck driver, who should show up, but Dick Fairchild. I just stared at him as he walked over to me after talking to the cop who had been here from the start.
"Where did you learn to talk Chinese?" he demanded, but he was grinning.
"Playing football and rugby, I had a Chinese coach who used to swear at me, so I learned to mimic him. Now what are you doing here?"
"Well, officially, I'm here as an advisor on gang activities to the RCMP. Unofficially, I'm here to say thank you and to protect your ass," his grin got even wider. "We've been trying to get our hands on the guy in the driver's seat of that car for about three years. His name is Lee Chen and he's the head of a gang that's into anything that makes easy money. The thing that surprises me is that he's here openly. He's always hidden behind the scenes and his lieutenants do the dirty work. Whatever he's after, you must have somewhere."
"Come on, I left the house with nothing and Shannon didn't have much more. It has to be something Claire had or that she hid somehow."
"Or something Mrs. Leech had," he nodded. " I'm pretty sure it was something that they were holding or had handled at one time, but Lee Chen, the guy down in that car, must think you or Shannon know where it was hidden. It has to be something important, or at least very valuable, just for him to be personally involved."
"Well, I don't have a clue what it might be," I snorted, then glanced around and saw Arlene standing by the door to her car and she waved at me to come over to talk to her.
"Dick, can we get out of here?" I asked. "I think Arlene wants to leave."
"What? Oh, just a second, I want to talk to Arlene before you go."
It turned out that he wanted a map of how to find the cabin if he needed to and he asked her for the phone number there. He rested a hand on my shoulder at the last second and squeezed it slightly, then he turned and walked back toward the other cops. They were trying to stabilise the car with ropes and get a ladder stretched out to it at the same time, so I was left standing beside Arlene.
"Let's get out of here shall we?" I shrugged.
"Yes, please," she grinned at me. "You are full of bloody surprises."
"Huh? What did I do now?"
"We'll talk later," she said as she opened the driver's door. "Cindy, are you getting into the back seat or are you riding with Dave?"
"With Dave," Cindy squawked as she hopped out of Arlene's car and grabbed my hand, practically dragging me back toward my car.
Once we were back inside and the RCMP officer had flagged down the cars to let Arlene's and my car into the traffic flow, Cindy sighed heavily.
"Something wrong?"
"Yeah, I'm curious. How come the cop left you to talk to those thugs while he directed traffic and stuff with Mom?"
"Because I'm kinda big and besides that I could swear at them in Chinese, I guess," I laughed nervously, feeling relieved that I was away from the possibility that I'd say something that might get someone killed.
"Because you can swear in Chinese?" she giggled.
"Yeah, I used to have a football coach who would swear at me in Chinese. I told that kid he was a bloody idiot or at least that's what I think I said. I really don't know for sure what I said. After all I haven't heard those words used by anyone since long before Shannon was born."
"Oh gosh," she laughed in delight. "You have to teach me that, you just have to. We have these two Chinese thugs at school that really drive everyone nuts and . . ."
"No," I interrupted. "I used it there for shock value and to get their attention. That's all I did. Like I said, I don't know for sure what it means and I'm certainly not going to teach it to you, just in case it means something far worse than I think it does."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense," she smiled. "Mom was sure proud of you, you know."
"She was? Why?"
"She thought those guys were going to wiggle around and make that car slide out of the trees and then drop down the cliff. She said you acted fast and saved their lives."
"Well, that's what I was scared they were going to do," I shook my head. "They just didn't seem to realize how precariously that car was sitting."
"Well, with the fire department and a tow truck there, they should be okay, shouldn't they?"
"I hope so."
"Are we going straight on to the cabin? Mom's stopping in Mill Bay to pick up some milk and stuff."
"Yeah, I want to sit down and watch the grass grow."
"Pardon me? Did you say you want to sit and watch the grass grow?"
"Yes, it means I want some peace and quiet." I said as I drove past Arlene with a wave when she turned off.
"Oops, am I talking too much?"
"No," I had to laugh. "I'm still reacting to the idea that I was talking to guys and trying to keep them from moving around because they could have died if that car slipped. I'd have had to watch that, and I think it would have been damn traumatic to see someone killed that way. My body was in what's called an adrenaline high and now I'm dropping out of it, so my body is trying to flush out all those excess hormones and return to normal. That's why I want to get back to the cabin quickly. After I'm there, I can simply flake out and relax while my hormone level stabilizes."
"How do you know so darn much about so many things?"
"It's called an education," I laughed softly. "Your mom probably knows as much or more than I do. I just know a few different things than she does."
"Then how come I don't get surprised by the stuff she knows?"
"Because you've probably been taught all the interesting things she knows and now you take them for granted."
"I suppose," she sighed. "Here comes our turnoff."
"Mmm, I see that. Are you going to get the gate for me?"
"Sure."
Only a few minutes later I was sitting on the front steps of the cabin with a fresh cup of coffee in my hand. Cindy came outside with a glass of juice and a big grin on her face, then plopped down at my side.
She looked around and took a deep breath. "It is nice to just sit here in the sunlight and not worry about things, isn't it."
Somehow in just the few minutes that we had been back at the cabin, the chatterbox child who had been riding with me in the car had turned into a relatively quiet young lady.
"Yup," I looked her in the eye and nodded.
The only answer I got was a smile. Then she got up, went inside to get a blanket before coming out again. Two minutes later she had stripped down to her bra and panties, then lay back to bake in the afternoon sunlight. She looked at me, smiled an oddly seductive smile, then rolled over onto her stomach and rested her head on her arms as if she was planning to go to sleep.
I simply shook my head and raise my eyes to gaze into the distance, but honestly I wasn't looking at either Cindy or the scenery. Instead I was quietly wondering just what life was going to throw at me next.