Chapter 6

I’d spent far too much time over lunch with Angela and Peter.  By the time I got back home, it was almost four o’clock.   There was no sense in starting the autopsy when I’d have to man my office for walk-ins from six pm until eight pm.

I checked my calendar for the next day and saw that it was full.  That left me no choice.  I’d have to perform the autopsy after I closed the office at eight that evening.  Since I’d had minimal sleep the night before because of a guilty conscience over my lustful actions in the presence of a dead man after working well into the night taking an inventory and moving a few things around in the morgue, I’d been looking forward to a decent night’s sleep. Hopefully I could discover what killed Jacob quickly and that would still happen.

I decided to relax until it was time to run my office, so I fixed myself a cup of hot tea, grabbed the mystery I’d started a few days earlier, and headed out to the front porch to enjoy the brilliant sunshine and fresh air while I read and sipped.

I’d barely opened my book when Angela approached me. “Am I interrupting a really good scene?”

Admittedly, she was.  My heroine was just about to reveal who she thought the killer at a party was and I was eager to see if I was in sync with the author, but I didn’t tell her that.  Instead, I closed the book and gave her a warm smile. “I had a nice time at lunch.  Thanks for inviting me.”

“I was surprised to see you sitting on the porch when I got back.  Did you decide to take the day off?  Don’t you have a body in the basement?”

“No and yes,” I replied as I shifted in my chair.  “No, I didn’t decide to take the rest of the day off, but I got home too late to start the autopsy before I have to run my office from six to eight and yes, I have a body in the basement that I’ll be performing an autopsy on after I close the office at eight.”

“Oh, my.  I really buggered up your

day by inviting you to lunch, didn’t I? I feel bad. I’m so sorry.”

“I always enjoy your company and it’s my fault for not leaving at an earlier time.  It was just so nice to see Peter again.  I can’t believe you two are good friends.”

Angela smiled. “I had the biggest crush on him for years.”

“Not now?” I held my breath while I waited for her response.  I didn’t know the exact reason why I hoped she was over Peter in that way.  I just hoped it.

“Maybe a little, but,” she shrugged while she looked off into the distance before continuing, “things are far too complicated to entertain such emotions now. So, no.  I no longer have those feelings for Peter.  He’s all yours.”

I practically choked on my tea at her last sentence.

“What do you mean, all mine?”

“I’ve been around you enough to know the difference in how you react to men. Other than that dreamy sheriff, I’ve never seen you so animated and bubbly.  Your face, no, your entire body illuminated when you were speaking to him.  Come on, Vickie, don’t even try to tell me that you don’t find

him yummy.”

I grinned and sipped at my tea. “That obvious, huh?”

“Probably not for most people, but I’ve spent way too much time with you.”

“We are starting to spend more time in each other’s company,” I mused. “It’s like we’re…”

“Friends?” she interjected.

I laughed. “Exactly.”

“I’d like to think we are.  My job doesn’t give me the opportunity to make many of them, so I cherish the ones I do make.”

“Like Peter?”

She nodded. “Like Peter… and you.”

“I don’t travel like you do, but my studies kept me from socializing. I don’t have much in the line of friends either; even from before I moved here. I’m glad you’re my friend.”

A satisfied grin came over her freckled face as she sat down in the Adirondack chair next to mine.  “Thanks.”  After a moment of silence, she added, “I’m leaving tomorrow for a few days.  I’ll be home by the weekend.”

“That’s a short trip,” I mused.  

As I finished my tea, it dawned on me that I’d rudely drank it in front of her without offering her a cup.

“I’ve been working on getting assigned cases closer to Wolf Junction. Now that I have a home base, I’d like to be in it more.”

“I hope you know that, even if you cease traveling, you’re welcome to stay here.  This place is far too big for just me. Even though you have your own space and we can go days without running into each other, it’s nice to know you’re there.”

“Thanks, Vickie.  That means a lot.”  After a moment of mutual silence, she added, “What about

Evan?  Does that go for him too?”

“Evan?  Oh shit, he lives here too, doesn’t he?” I said with a light laugh.  “Big house, like I said.”

“I think I see more of him than you do because our rooms are next to each other on the same wing,” Angela offered.

“Does that bother you?”

“Oh, absolutely not.  Evan is a great guy.  You should take the time to get to know him better.  He’s got stories that could rival Peter’s.”

“Truly?”

“Oh yes,” she said excitedly.  “He’s such an adventurer.  It’s because he’s adamant about experiencing as much as he can about what he’s writing.”

I knit my brows together in thought. “I knew this about him, but then I forgot.  Anyway, I thought writers of novels used their imaginations, not life experiences.”

“He’s a little odd, I guess.”

I tossed my head back in laughter. “You said that, not me.”

Her eyes sparkled with amusement and chagrin as she covered her mouth with both hands. “Shame on me.”

“I won’t tell,” I assured her.

“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “I’d hate to upset him.  I think he and I are also becoming friends.”

“Friends like us?  Or friends like boyfriend?”

She giggled and looked away. “It’s too soon to tell.”

As if on cue, Evan came sauntering up the sidewalk. “Good afternoon, ladies.  It’s a beautiful day today, isn’t it?”

“Indeed, it is,” I said as I studied my

boarder with new interest.  “Funny.  We were just talking about you.” I could feel the panic and tension in Angela, so I quickly continued.  “I was just saying to Angela that I don’t get to see much of you.  I was wondering how things are going?  Is everything to your liking?”

“It is.  It is,” he said with a smile.  “I can’t tell you how appreciative I am to be out of that bed and breakfast.  The place was not only unkempt, but the other residents were not of my liking.”

“Well, good,” I said and then quickly clarified. “Good that you’re happy here.  Not good about the bed and breakfast.”

He chuckled.  “I knew what you meant.”  After an awkward moment of silence, he added, “I’m surprised to see you sitting on the porch on a week day.  No work this afternoon?”

“I’ve had occasion to shift my hours today,”

I explained.  “I’ll be working into the night.”

“Seeing clients at night?” he said with surprise.

“If you want to call a corpse a client, then, yes.”

At his stunned look, Angela took it

upon herself to explain that I’d been hired as the county medical examiner and, since there was no hospital for me to work from and there was a perfectly good set up in the basement – thanks to the former funeral home operator- I’d set things up for working down there.

Although Evan didn’t seem as comfortable with the concept of having a dead body in the basement, he took it relatively well.  We chatted about nothing for a bit longer before we all went our separate ways.