Short Fuse
© 1992/2016 by K Pelle
Chapter 23
While Arlene and I took in the groceries from her car, the girls brought in all the boxes of Barbie dolls from mine. They even managed to give all the plastic film that was covering most of the boxes a quick wipe down before taking them up to the loft while Arlene and I were putting the groceries away. They had trouble with the display case though, so I had to give them a hand getting it inside and once they had wiped it down on the outside, they needed help to shift it up the steep steps to the loft.
"I wonder why Jaro and Noreen are late?" I looked at my watch.
"Can you say 'Accident on the Malahat' or did you forget about that?" Arlene retorted.
"Yeah, Daddy. We got past that area before the traffic jam really started. By now traffic will be backing up because everybody will slow down and stare at any accident like that one. Besides, it's close enough to the Shawnigan Lake cutoff that a lot of people will notice the traffic backup and try to go that way, even if it's not a great road. Having people turning off there will cause a second backup, which will slow everyone coming up the steepest part of the Malahat," Shannon said flatly, then she sighed. "I'd bet our supper is going to be late."
"Well, to pass the time, let's give this place a bit of a cleanup and get rid of any dust. What do you think?" Arlene suggested.
"Oh Mom! Do we hafta?" Cindy moaned softly, yet she was grabbing the broom almost before she'd finished speaking.
As the girls tidied the rest of room, Arlene and I washed up the few dishes in the sink and put them away, then tidied the kitchen area. We were just finishing everything when we heard someone driving up and a horn honking in the driveway.
"Oh yeah," Cindy squealed. "That's gotta be Aunt Noreen and your buddy, the lawyer. They've got our food!"
She and Shannon hit the door at a dead run, then started shouting loudly the instant they were outside.
"Shall we join our starving monsters?" Arlene asked.
"Yes, Cindy was telling me that Noreen might have a little surprise for Jaro," I grinned. "I wouldn't want to miss that."
"Oh heck, I was hoping it was going to be a surprise for you too," Arlene chuckled, pushing me ahead of her and out the door. "Let's see what happens."
Noreen didn't do the cartwheel across the grass that Cindy had expected. In fact she was trying to shush the two girls as she opened the side door on Jaro's van and began to slide out two styrofoam camping coolers. Cindy and Shannon took those and went inside with them while Arlene and I were calling out our greetings to Noreen and Jaro.
We could see Jaro moving inside the van and I knew he had to get out through the back, so I went to see if there was anything I could do to help him. Although the gravel drive wasn't perfectly level, Jaro's lift worked fine and I didn't have to do a thing. As soon as his powered chair was on the ground, he wheeled it to face me.
"This is one hell of a nice setup, you lucky bastard, what a place to hide away with all these beautiful women," he smiled, but somehow he looked a bit uneasy
"Hey, one of 'em is with you," I grinned, cocking my thumb at Noreen. "At least you brought her."
"Huh, until he saw you and Arlene come out of the house, I think he thought I was her and you were just playing a trick on him," Noreen laughed. "He keeps calling me Arlene every once in a while."
"Well, I know you said you aren't, but you two could be twins," Jaro snapped, which surprised me. "Besides, I had to pay attention to the road, so I couldn't look for differences."
"Yeah, I admit the traffic was murder," Noreen nodded, then turned to me. "The Malahat was horrible. Traffic was backed up for about a mile just past the summit and they had cops all over, a couple of tow trucks, even a fire engine, so traffic is backed up and travelling slow all the way from Goldstream. We heard from the one cop that some kids almost killed themselves by trying to run away from a patrol car."
"We saw the accident, or rather the result," Arlene said quietly. "It happened just before we got there. When we drove up, there was only the one cop there, and the kid's car was hanging in a couple of trees."
"Jeez, did you stop and see if there was anything you could do?" Noreen demanded.
"Yeah, we hung around and helped as much as we could until more Mounties got there, then we got out of the way," I answered quickly, trying to downplay my role in the event.
Jaro hadn't said anything, but the look he gave me was interesting to say the least.
"Well, let's get inside and eat shall we?" Arlene smiled at him. "I think Dave can help you get your chair up onto the porch."
Since there was only a small step upward at one end on the porch, I didn't think it would be much of a problem. In actual fact, Jaro had to back up to the step, then with me heaving upward on the handles of his powered chair he was able to make it up that little step.
"Damn, that step is only about four or five inches high," I commented. "How the hell do you get that thing up and over the sidewalk curbs in the city?"
"You don't, not without help" Jaro said shortly as he spun his chair around. "The city is gradually fixing problems like that, but it seems to me that half of the places I want to go, I have to look for the nearest driveway to get from the street to the sidewalk. I prefer to use parking lots if I can, but even those can be a pain. Those that have spaces set out for handicapped parking are often either unhandy or else dangerous for someone using an unloading setup like mine. You end up unloading right into a traffic lane or else they have some other stupid setup."
"You know, that's something I never even thought about," I admitted.
"Why would you?" he shrugged. "It hasn't affected you directly. It's only gimps like me that have to fight that sort of thing."
The women had gone ahead and we were out on the porch by ourselves by then. I looked at him with a frown.
"So why are you a gimp again. I thought you stopped calling yourself that when we were still going to University?" I growled.
"Hey, I get reminded of things like that when I'm sitting next to a gorgeous woman for an hour or two," he growled back.
"Did Noreen do something that set you off?" I frowned.
"No, she was a perfect lady, which makes it all the worse," he sighed.
I stepped in front of him and leaned forward. "Listen, you ass. She could have driven up here herself, but she chose to ride with you. Arlene set this up with Noreen so she could meet you and get to know you a bit, because we couldn't get you two together for dinner in town. So just climb down from your 'poor me' horse and treat her like a potential friend, that's all we're asking."
"Why would a gorgeous woman like that want to be friends with a cripple?" he demanded bitterly.
Neither of us had heard nor seen Noreen step back out onto the porch since my back was to the door and I was in front of Jaro.
"Because I happen to see a damn nice guy who is too fucking stupid to realize that being stuck in a wheelchair isn't the end of everything else in his life," she said loudly, pushing me out of the way. "Dave, would you go inside, please? And shut the door would you? I have something to settle with this guy that I'd like to consider as a possible friend, but I don't think what we say to each other is anyone else's business."
I knew better than to argue, so I did as I was told. Arlene was standing just inside the door and she lifted a finger to her lips, but I closed the door behind me. Then I pressed her back into the room so that all we could hear was a low murmur of voices from outside.
"Dave, I want to hear what's happening. After all it's sort of my fault," she protested.
"Arlene, what happens out there is between them and it's none of your business," I said quietly. "I respect that man far too much to listen in while he takes a tongue lashing. Besides, it may not be him that deserves the tongue lashing and if that's the case, he can hold his own."
"But I don't think he deserves her anger, I think it's my fault."
"Bullshit. I just want to know what you did to set her off and send her out there on the warpath?"
"Well, I noticed that he was quieter toward you than normal and I asked her if she had managed to offend him in some way on the drive up. We really didn't say that much more than that."
"So she said Jaro was being shy with her?"
"Well yeah, from what she said it was like pulling hen's teeth to get any answers about him or his life."
"Oh great! That's just the way he is," I sighed. "He's normally quite reticent about himself when he meets someone new. It's a self protection reflex. Once he gets to know that he can trust her, he'll talk her ear off, but not until he's comfortable being near her."
"So what do we do? I still feel like it's my fault."
"Uncle Santos can look after himself," Shannon had come over to us. "We wanted to know if we can start to take the food out of the coolers or should we wait?"
"Wait a bit, Punkin," I smiled at her. "And don't worry about Jaro. If you'd ever seen him argue in court, you'd realize that he won't let an angry woman eat him alive. I think we'll give them a few minutes to settle things. The food won't spoil and if it's a bit cooler than we would like, we can reheat it in the microwave."
"I hope you're right about Santos," Arlene sighed softly. "I think Noreen is quite impressed with him."
"Well, there isn't anything we can do if she isn't or if he doesn't feel the same way," I shrugged my shoulders. "By the way, thanks for playing down what happened back at the accident."
"Oh, I just thought I'd better not say anything then or it would take too long to explain. I didn't want the food to get too cold," Arlene chuckled. "I plan on telling them all about it later."
"Just don't make me out to be some kind of hero," I frowned slightly. "It's not like I really knew what was going on. I could just as well have said the wrong thing or done something stupid that would have put those kids in even more danger."
"Would you mind if I have my own opinion about that?" she smiled. "You shocked those punks into listening, then you calmed them down. I was rather surprised because I've had some training in that sort of thing and while what you did is a classic means of establishing control of a tense situation, I wouldn't have done it that way. Besides, I was expecting the Mountie to order you out of there. Those guys have training in emergency work of that sort as well as accident care for victims, yet he deferred to you."
"If I'd have known that before, I'd have shut up and helped you with traffic."
"Well, you got those two punks' attention and then talked sense to them. He simply bowed out because he saw what you were doing was working. I stayed back for the same reason."
"I've been meaning to ask about that, since you're a cop, why are you holding back when things are happening?"
"Well, I'm not a regular officer. I'm really in juvenile division and while I'm classed as a detective, I usually deal with child abuse situations, education, that sort of thing," she shrugged her shoulders. "I have picked up a lot about police work since I work with regular officers, but my training as a regular officer isn't complete, so I know enough not to get involved when I'd be in over my head."
"So you're implying that I should have kept my nose out of the Mountie's business?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying at all. You seem to have a knack for dealing with situations of all sorts. How you knew what to say to those two young punks is astonishing to me."
"Daddy coaches and referees both rugby and football teams," Shannon interjected. "He deals with some darn tough kids that are kinda rough."
"Shannon, the guys I work with on those teams aren't really all that rough, they're just energetic and rambunctious," I said shortly, having had that argument with Claire often enough that it annoyed me. "They're young and easily influenced by others, but they know that we expect them to work hard and shrug off a lot of minor pains, bumps and bruises, so they try to act tougher than they are."
"Daddy, if I were a little older, would you want me to date one of them?" she demanded.
"Not particularly, but if that was your choice, I wouldn't stop you," I sighed. "I know enough about human nature to know that you'll probably reach a rebellious point at some time in your teens and you could certainly do worse than dating one of those guys. The reason I can say that is because of the fact that they're taught a lot about discipline and they know I've already done what they want to learn to do, so most of them are a bit leery of getting on my bad side."
I noticed that she seemed surprised, but I didn't have a chance to ask her why. Instead the door opened and Noreen came in, but held the door for Jaro.
"I thought you guys were hungry?" Noreen said instantly. "You didn't have to wait for us to settle things before you dug in."
"Actually, it was the polite thing to do," Arlene smiled. "Besides, I was on standby with bandages and antiseptic in case you whipped him half to death with your tongue."
"Actually, I'm the one who got a severe tongue lashing," Noreen snorted. "I didn't realize it, but all the way up here Jaro thought I was being a self-centred, condescending bitch. I suppose I didn't do anything to straighten him out though."
"It was just a misunderstanding," Jaro added quietly. "I didn't realize that Dave had briefed you so thoroughly on my background."
"He didn't say anything to me, just to Arlene and the girls. Arlene paraphrased it when she talked to me, so don't blame Dave for spilling the beans."
"I wasn't blaming him," Jaro answered quickly. "If anything, I was blaming myself for feeling that you were being self-centred for telling me all about yourself, while not asking any of the more obvious questions about me."
"Well, I knew a lot about you already, I just thought you should know as much about me."
"Excuse me, but could we discuss who is to blame for what happened later?" Cindy interrupted. "I'm a starving teenager and the smell of the food coming out of those coolers is driving me bananas."
"Besides that any hot food is getting colder by the minute," Shannon added.
After a second of strained laughter, we all moved to the kitchen and began to open the cartons to dish out the food, even reheating some of dishes in the microwave, then we spread around the room to eat. Conversation was desultory for a few minutes, then Jaro brought up the wreck and mentioned that the two kids who'd been driving the car were extremely lucky they hadn't gone down the cliff. And we were all surprised when Cindy grinned and Shannon giggled.
"Would you mind telling me why you find an accident like that funny?" Noreen said shortly. "As Jaro said, those two kids could have killed themselves if the trees hadn't stopped them."
"They might have anyway, if Dave hadn't come along," Cindy said just as sharply. "He asked Mom not to say anything, and Shannon won't because she knows it would annoy her dad, but I don't think I've worn off my new kid status yet, so I'll tell you straight out what happened. That car was jammed between two trees after the accident, and if Dave hadn't stopped those two idiots from rocking it around and breaking it free, they'd probably both be dead by now. The car would have slipped out of the trees, fallen down the cliff and killed them both as dead as doornails."
"What?" Noreen stared at me. "What did you do?"
"Nothing much," I shrugged my shoulders. "Cursed at them to get their attention and then told them to sit still until we could get help. The cops and firemen did the rest."
"Oh yeah, but when we stopped there the Mountie was hollering at them to sit still and they were ignoring him. You yelled at them in Chinese and they became as still as statues," Cindy added. "It's no darn wonder the Mountie was impressed."
"Did you say they sat still when Dave shouted at them in Chinese?" Jaro asked with a frown.
"Well, yeah, but then they were young Chinese guys. I saw their faces and could see that much when they passed us, which was just after the cop car pulled behind them and turned on his siren."
"They'd been behind you? And they tried to run away from the Mounties?" he asked and looked directly at me. "Were they following you previous to that by any chance?"
"Yes," Arlene said instantly. "I noticed them following us while we were still in town, in fact we were only a few blocks away from Dave's house when I noticed we were being followed."
"They followed you all the way up the Malahat?"
"Well, we stopped for lunch at the Malaview Restaurant and I noticed that they had still been following us, then they pulled into the service station just up the road as if they were waiting for us to go on. So after asking Dave's opinion, I called the RCMP," Arlene said quietly. "When we drove on later, the Mounties were parked at the first viewpoint, and they swung in behind the car that had been following us. You know most of the rest."
"I doubt it," he laughed, then he turned to me. "Dave, you haven't said much."
"Nope, these women seem to want to make me into some sort of a hero and I'm not."
"So when did you start to speak Chinese?" he grinned.
"I didn't. If you remember, one of the coaches we had at the University used to insult us in Chinese."
"Oh yeah, old Charlie Foy, but was he a coach? Oh, no, he wasn't really a coach, but if I remember correctly he was one of the trainers and in charge of the weight room wasn't he?" Jaro laughed. "He must have been, because that's one place I tried to stay away from for the longest time."
"You were on the support staff though, so you didn't have to put up with the worst of his BS and he was a mean SOB. I never could see much sense in the crap he used to put all the players through."
"Well, I remember him helping me a lot when I was with him one on one, but I know he got on your case, then you used to argue with him about it."
"Yeah, it wouldn't have been so bad, but he'd insult me in Chinese and I didn't know what he was saying, so I used to get annoyed."
"Oh yeah, I remember that. You finally convinced a guy who was taking one of your classes to teach you some insults to answer him back, didn't you?"
"Yeah. Well, those same insults are what I yelled at those stupid punk kids, but that was just to get their attention."
"After fifteen years, you still remembered how to say something like that?"
"Yeah, I don't know how or why I remembered that, but they were yammering away in Chinese and it just seemed the thing to say to them. I think it means something like 'bloody stupid idiots' or something in that vein. They were shaking that car so badly as they moved around trying to see a way to jump to safety that it was liable to fall, so I thought the saying fit the situation," I managed a weak grin. "At least yelling that at them seemed to work, because after that they calmed down and listened to common sense."
Jaro just shook his head. "They could just as easily have gotten even more excited or even angry at you, you know?"
"Yeah, I thought about that afterward," I nodded. "I probably shouldn't have said anything, but until I said that they were ignoring the Mountie and I didn't want to watch them get killed."
"You were lucky," he paused, as if waiting for me to say something, but I made sure I was busy eating and had my mouth full.
"If they were following you, they had to have a reason," Noreen said quietly.
"Yeah, I can't figure that out, unless they were responsible for the break-in at our house," I admitted. "And if they were, the next question is, how did they find out about the note from Granny Leech that was in Shannon's jewel box?"
"Pardon me, I think I'm missing some information," Jaro said quietly
"Oh, you haven't heard about the rest of our day," I sighed. "Sorry."
I paused as I took a deep breath. Then I went back over the whole day from the time we got into town. Arlene, Cindy and Shannon added small bits to the story as Jaro and Noreen listened politely, neither of them asking any questions until we finished.
"I see," Jaro said quietly.
"What Daddy said before, about the note?" Shannon said softly "I think I can figure out how that got to Granny's house, which is where it was found. Granny Leech was over at our house only a few weeks ago and she could easily have opened up my jewel box and put it in there then. She'd have had lots of time to do that when Mom and I weren't around to see her do it. Then Mom probably took the box along when she ran off, because only Granny and I had keys to the box. Mom wouldn't have left anything behind that she felt was really valuable, because she'd have expected that it would have been burned up in the fire she started in our house."
"Are you sure of that? I mean about your Granny being over at our house so recently." I looked at her in surprise.
"Mmm hmm," she nodded. "I think that must be when she hid my jewels, then left that note behind."
"No, no, I understand that part. What I was asking about was a question about you're Granny. Are you sure she was over at our house that recently?" I was astounded at that, because I had always thought that getting her to leave her house was a major operation.
"Oh, that. Yeah, she was there and stayed with Mom and me for a couple of days. Mom used to go get her and bring her over to our house once in a while. Not often though, and especially not if there was any chance that you'd be home, but I remember she was there that weekend because you were away, over in Vancouver giving a talk at UBC on Friday afternoon. Then I think you were going to go to a football game or something on Saturday, so you wouldn't be back until sometime on Sunday."
I was stunned. This was the second time in just a few days that someone had told me that Granny Leech wasn't as house bound as I had thought she was.
"So your grandmother didn't stay in her house as much as your father thought she did?" Jaro asked, noticing the same thing I had.
"Oh, sometimes she wouldn't do anything outside of her house or go anywhere else. For a long time Mom used to have to wheedle her into going places, but then about a year or so ago, something happened and after that Granny used to leave her house once in a while. Once or twice she was away from home for a week or more at a time. She was always awfully weird about being out and around though."
"Just what did the note say again?" he smiled at her.
"It was only a few words, just the title of a story called 'The Princess and the Pea'," Shannon frowned. "I remember that was a story I heard as a kid. It was about a girl who was going to marry a prince, but his mother, the queen, thought she was a fake princess, so she put a pea under her mattress. When the princess complained about not being able to sleep because the mattress was lumpy, the queen decided she was a real princess. I think Daddy remembers the story too, because he was telling Detective Fairchild that was the reason my bed was all slashed to pieces."
Jaro stared at her for a minute, then turned his attention to me.
"Dave, what happened to all the other furniture in your house? Did the insurance company have cleanup people take it all away to have it deodorized from the smoke damage?"
"I'd imagine that they did, especially since the furniture wasn't left in the house. Why?"
"Well, I was wondering about the bed you and Claire slept on."
"Beds, plural," I sighed. "About six months ago we bought two single beds because Claire said I rolled around too much at night and kept her awake."
"So, is it possible that the old lady hid the jewels in either one of those beds? Perhaps the police should check on those before the cleanup people deodorize them?"
"Excuse me, but if the mattresses stank of smoke, wouldn't it be cheaper for the insurance company to simply dispose of them and buy new ones?" Noreen asked quietly. "Maybe they threw them out?"
"Oh, they did have a dumpster out in front of your house at one point didn't they, Dave?" Arlene added.
"I don't think it matters. I don't think she'd have put them in either of our mattresses," I said after a few seconds thought. "Maybe Shannon's bed, the spare bed or her own, but not ours, I just can't see her doing that to Claire and my beds. Let's face it she wouldn't want them to be in the same room that I slept in, there'd be too much chance I might find her stash. Besides all the beds left at our house were torn apart by the guys who broke in and so were the bedrooms."
"We didn't look at Granny's mattress when we were at her house, Daddy."
"No Shannon, but we'll leave that to the police. I'm sure that they'll be quite thorough."
"I doubt if it's in her bed," Jaro shook his head. "It doesn't make sense that she'd give the jewels to Shannon, then take them back. What Shannon said about her mother moving them when she left makes more sense."
"Well, the cops didn't find them in Granny Leech's house, yet the jewel box was there. I wonder if they were in Shannon's bed and the crooks found them?"
"Oh come on Dave," Jaro shook his head. "I'm willing to bet that the two guys chasing after you and ending up in the tree were the burglars. I think they were following you because they thought you had the jewels with you."
Just then the telephone rang, not one of our cell phones, but the phone in the cabin.
Arlene walked over and picked it up. "Hello . . . Oh, Hi Dick, what's up?"
"Nope, our cell phones haven't rung, but they worked fine last night and we were here," she rolled her eyes as if she wasn't surprised at Dick's complaint. "Are you in a dead spot by any chance, because I don't think those cell phones work on parts of the Malahat?"
"Oh, okay. Sorry, just a second, I'll get him," she looked at me and nodded.
Covering the mouthpiece with her hand, she grinned at me. "He's been trying to ring us on the cell phone and having no luck. He's pissed off at cell phones because there are dead spots when you're not in town, but he wants to talk to you."
"Okay," I took the receiver. "Hello Dick, what's up?"
"I was just calling to tell you that we have your two burglars in custody. We got an admission from the two punks who were in the car that went off the cliff."
"I'll be darned, Jaro had just come to that conclusion."
"Ah, so that's where he is. That explains why his cell phone didn't work either. Anyway, it might interest you to know that it probably wasn't just your daughter's jewels that these two punks were after. They seem to be certain that your wife had a shipment of real jewels, not the fakes we found at Mr Leech's house, which means that the real jewels seem to have completely disappeared."
"What? How could that be possible?"
"Well, from what your crooked bank manager has said and what these two punks have said, your wife smuggled in gems worth almost half a million dollars during the last week or two. She had a buyer lined up for them and was going to meet him early this week, but by then she was dead."
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I need to be to check further. On top of that we think we've found the guy that might be to blame for the two punks being able to break into your house, and like you guessed, he was working for the security firm that the insurance company had hired. Not only that, but he had worked as a guard at both your house and at your mother-in-law's. We think he entered Mrs Leech's house when he was there the day before and found the note. He's the person who was supposed to be guarding your place when the burglary took place, but he claimed that he had a flat tire, which made him late getting to your house. In other words he gave the punks lots of time to check out any hiding places where the jewels might have been hidden."
"I'm glad it wasn't one of your guys."
"Well, I am too," he said quietly. "Now did you mention that your lawyer friend is there?"
"He is. Did you want to talk to him?"
"No, not really, but I hope you have a spare bed for him," he sighed. "The Malahat is closed right now and probably will be closed for the rest of the night. There was a secondary accident that's really screwed things up. Since the main highway is closed and the Lake Cowichan road will be a traffic jam from end to end, there won't be an empty motel room inside of miles, so if you have the room for him, he'd better stay there with you until tomorrow."
"My God. What kind of accident can completely close the Malahat for that long?"
"It was just a minor pileup at first. That started from someone being tailgated when they slowed down to gawk at the accident, but that caused a chain reaction with four more cars involved. Then a tractor trailer loaded with propane tried to avoid hitting the pileup by swinging wide and ended up going off the road and skidding into the bank. Unfortunately the trailer went over a big rock which broke off a plumbing fitting of some sort under the propane tank. There's nothing that can be done except let the tank drain and allow the propane to disperse into the air. Thank goodness there's a swale in the road and propane is heavier than air, so it isn't heading down the highway in either direction. That means it is draining over the edge of the road and down toward the water," he explained. "There's still a danger of an explosion if there's a spark, but we managed to get the traffic stopped both directions and we got all the people out of their cars. Now it's just a matter of time before it's safe to go in and clear up the mess, but that might take most of the night."
"So, have you found a place to stay for the night?"
"Oh yeah," he snorted. "If worst comes to worst, I'll sleep at the cop shop in Duncan. I'm sure they've got a cell free."
"You've gotta be kidding me!"
"Oh, I was," he laughed aloud. "I've got a buddy in Duncan and he's already told me to drop over when I've gotten done with all my calls and things. I'll be fine, but thanks for thinking of me."
"Well, I just wanted to be sure. Did you want to talk to Arlene again?"
"Nope, I just wanted to be sure you folks were okay and to let you know that we got the perps who broke into your place. Goodnight," then he was gone.
I hung up the phone and turned to face everyone.
"Did I hear you say that the Malahat is closed?" Noreen asked immediately.
"Yep, big accident with a leaking propane tanker. It'll be closed all night, and Dick says there are no motel rooms open for miles, so I guess you two are stuck here for the night."
Jaro looked surprised and then looked at Arlene. "Do you have room for the two of us? I could always sleep in my chair if it's a problem."
"Like hell!" I growled. "I know what happens to you when you've been in that damn chair for too long. I lived in the same dorm room as you for four years and there were times your lift quit, so I had to help you get to bed remember? I can certainly help you get in and out of bed one more time if you need me to do it."
"You are not sleeping in your chair!" Arlene said just as sharply. "There are two beds in the spare bedroom. A single and a double, so you and Noreen can share that room."
"Aww, I was going to tell him there weren't enough blankets for both beds and that we'd have to share the double, just to see what he'd do," Noreen teased.
Jaro looked shocked at first, then I'll swear that he blushed. I was really surprised because he was immune to most women, but it was possible that he hadn't met anyone quite like Noreen before.
"Well, since that's all taken care of, does anyone want any more food?" Cindy asked quietly. "There's still quite a bit left."
Arlene looked at me and winked, then picked up my empty plate. I just shook my head no and smiled. "No more for me, thanks."
"So what else did Dick talk about, we couldn't make out much from what you were saying," she asked.
So I ran over what he'd talked about and Jaro forgot about his embarrassment about sleeping in the same room as Noreen instantly.
"So, the two young guys that were following you were the burglars like I suspected?" he demanded.
"That's what Dick said and he implied that the cops think a security guard told them about the note."
"That guard must have kids," Shannon said instantly around a mouthful of chop suey.
"Yeah, he'd just about have to, to understand the reference, but don't talk with your mouth full, please."
"Sorry," she blushed as she swallowed rapidly. "But figuring this out is fun."
"Okay Miss Genius, where did your granny hide the real jewels if all the police found were fakes and on top of that, why did she have copies of the real jewels?" Jaro smiled at her.
"I don't know where she would have hidden them if they weren't in my bed. I don't know why granny would have fake jewels either, but maybe she and Mom were going to try to sell the jewels twice?" she shrugged her shoulders.
"Aw come on, if they were dealing with crooks, the crooks would have someone who'd know a real jewel from a fake. Instead, maybe they expected to get robbed and had the fakes just in case?" Cindy grinned.
"You mean have the fakes where the robbers would find them easily? That would be sort of stupid, wouldn't it? Wouldn't the robbers get mad when they did find out, then come back to either get the real jewels or take revenge?" Shannon argued.
"Same deal if they tried to sell them twice," Cindy answered shortly.
"Enough of that girls, we don't need you two to start arguing like real sisters yet," Arlene interrupted with a grin.
"Daddy, did you ask Detective Fairchild if he had a chance to have someone check Granny's bed?"
"Sorry, I didn't think of that. I'll try to remember to ask him the next time I talk to him, but I imagine he will have thought of that himself."
"Shannon, those Barbie dolls that you brought along, by any chance did the police check to see if the jewels were hidden inside them?" Jaro asked quietly.
"Yes, most of them are still in the factory-sealed boxes and covered with that funny plastic stuff they use," she nodded. "The only ones that aren't are the four that were in my display case and they checked those before I packed them in their boxes so we could move them."
"Oh, okay. I suppose I was grasping at straws anyway," he sighed deeply. "I think we're all missing something obvious though."
I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing what to add in the way of speculation and feeling as lost as he seemed to be. Our conversation drifted on, but none of us could think of any answers to a lot of the questions that we were asking ourselves and gradually the subject of our discussion meandered away from the mystery of the disappearing jewels.
I'll be honest, I wasn't all that involved. After all I'd had a very full day and now had a relatively full stomach, so I sat back and relaxed, simply watching what was going on around me. The majority of the ongoing conversation was between Shannon and Jaro, but with either Noreen or Cindy asking an occasional question or two. Only Arlene and I remained quiet as both of us quietly watched the discussion.
I was slightly concerned, because Jaro was acting as if he was interviewing a hostile witness in one of his court cases. For the time being though Shannon was doing just fine and more than holding her own, but I was certain that eventually he was going to hit a point where her emotions would break through and I'd have to intervene in the discussion.
It was damn hard to sit back and watch Jaro grill her on several touchy points though, still I knew this was an essential exercise in some ways. After all, Shannon was going to have to learn to handle her emotions as she explain the facts, because others were going to ask her those same questions and would demand answers. So for the time being all I could do was sit back and watch, but I was prepared to step in if things went too far.