Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 20

Chapter 96

“Ellette, I’d like you to meet Mr. Walker, your host.” Randall continued, “Walker, this is Lady Edgeworth.” Randall then stood back to watch what would happen next.

         With these words from Randall, Walker finally met the wife of the man who had sadistically brutalized Samantha. It took all his will power and years of good manners to hold out his hand in welcome. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Edgeworth.”

         Ellette reached for his hand and gave it a limp and slightly sweaty shake. “Please, call me Ellette. I just know we’re going to be good friends, Mr. Walker.” Her mouth widened in what she believed was an attractive smile. Of course, this idea of beauty came from her mother, and Ellette had been a young child at the time. Yellowed teeth, common in many lower-class Brits from poor dental hygiene, surrounded by the bright red of her lipstick was far from attractive in Ellette, now fighting middle age.

         Unseen by her, Randall rolled his eyes in amusement. “I’ve been showing Ellette around your magnificent home while waiting for you to get back from the airport.” He didn’t comment when Walker failed to invite Colin’s wife to drop his title of Mister. Walker’s tightly clenched fists also didn’t escape his notice. Even though he and Anthony had been at the mansion for a couple days, Randall still did not know the full extent of Samantha’s kidnapping by Colin.

         The arrival of Anthony and Jack interrupted the accidental meeting in the back corridor by the main kitchen. The two younger men appeared soaked to the skin from the thunderstorm that had been raging for hours. With the evening nearing midnight, all decided to settle in to their respective rooms for the night.

         As if on cue, Jane appeared to escort Ellette to previously designated rooms on the third floor. At the door to the guest suite, she politely said, “Please let me know if you need anything during the night.” She unlocked the door and handed the key to Lady Edgeworth. “The number for my pager is by the phone in the bedroom. Breakfast starts at six, but take your time since it’s served until eight for late risers.” With those polite words, more than ready to relinquish the onerous task of taking care of the rude woman, Jane made a hurried exit back to her own staff rooms.

* * *

         At seven the next morning, Jack knocked on Walker’s front door. When the door opened, he found his friend already up and almost dressed. Walker’s dark hair, with more gray than ever at the temples, was still damp from his shower. His eyes, though, looked refreshed after the first good night’s sleep he’d had in days.

         While he padded around barefoot looking for his shoes, Walker said over his shoulder, “Edith just called. They got to the cabin okay, and Marie is on her way back after staying overnight there.” He got down on his knees to pull one shoe out from underneath a sofa. Standing up again, holding the shoe loosely in his hand, Walker turned in a wide circle hunting for the shoe’s wayward mate.

         Jack spotted it near the bedroom door and silently pointed to it. He couldn’t help grinning at the messy habit Walker had of kicking his shoes off the minute he reached the privacy of this apartment. “Did Edith say how the flight was? Did they run into bad weather like we had last night?” While Walker put on the shoes over his bare feet, Jack wandered around the apartment. He stopped at the large table and noticed the various journals scattered there. Conspicuously absent was the one belonging to Colin.

         “Oh,” Walker’s voice broke into Jack’s curiosity about the missing journal. “Sherri, Dr. Delaney, called late last night to tell me Franklin didn’t have a heart attack.” Walker had been on the phone to the hospital every hour on the hour to check on his elderly guest’s condition. “It seems he just passed out from the underground’s bad air. Sherri scolded me for letting him go there with his weakened lungs.”

         When Franklin first came to the mansion the previous year, he had been just skin and bones, barely alive. After locked for months in a shed by his greedy nephew, the police rescued him and notified one of Walker’s recruiters. Franklin eventually put on some weight, helped by months of eating Chef Geoffrey’s excellent meals, but the damage to his body was permanent.

         Jack opened the front door for Walker while saying, “That’s good news. Anthony really worried about the old guy. I’ll be sure to let him know.” The two friends continued down to the dining room where Randall and Anthony already were enjoying their early morning meal. Still to come down was Lady Edgeworth, but for now the day was tranquil without any new problems or challenges.

Chapter 97

When the men were finishing their breakfast, into the dining room swept Lady Edgeworth. Unlike the flowered and slightly garish dress of the previous day, Lady Edgeworth was all in black from shoes and nylons to a large velvet hat. A swirl of black veil, presently pushed back to reveal her face, covered this crowning confection.

         “I’m ready to go see my husband!” came the royal command, loud enough to cause heads in the rapidly filling dining room to pop up in surprise. All conversations stopped as the black-clad figure stood by the door, waiting for someone to acknowledge her presence.

         “Let me do this,” whispered Randall, quickly getting up from the table. “She needs a firm hand, and I think I can handle her.”

         “Firm hand, my Aunt Fanny! She needs that hand across her big…” Anthony got no further with his sentence before Jack punched his arm to stop what he was going to say. “Hey, all I was going to say was big mouth.” His wicked grin put a lie to this innocent comment.

         Ignoring the friendly banter between Jack and Anthony, Walker stood to join Randall. Both of them slowly crossed the room to where Lady Edgeworth remained, unmoving and watching their approach. “Lady Edgeworth, Ellette, good morning. Wouldn’t you like some breakfast first?” Randall was the first to speak, taking the lead in the conversation. Walker kept quiet, more than willing to just observe.

         “No, I want to get it over with, you know, seeing his body. Mr. Walker, I expect you to make the arrangements for me to take him back home. You, of course, will pay for this since he died here from some accident caused by your negligence.” Ellette turned her back on the two men and headed back down the corridor to the front entrance room.

         Shrugging his shoulders at Walker, Randall silently followed in the wake of the woman. This left Walker standing at the doorway, shaking his head at the rudeness of this unwelcome guest, but happy to let Randall take over. Remembering her angry words, so unexpected, it dawned on him that no one had told Colin’s wife how he died or what his actions were before his death.

Chapter 98

Dr. Brown was sitting at his desk trying to catch up on paperwork, when Randall and Lady Edgeworth arrived. Seeing the woman dressed completely in black, he rightfully took her for a widow of one of the deceased in his morgue.

         Recognizing Randall from their meeting the year before, Dr. Brown quickly stood up to welcome his visitors. “Randall, isn’t it?” he asked, not quite sure of the name. “You’re Walker’s friend?”

         Randall nodded. “Lady Edgeworth, this is Dr. Brown, Westbrook’s medical examiner.” He then turned to face the surprised doctor. “Dr. Brown, we didn’t know the bast…Lord Edgeworth was married or even titled. However, Lady Edgeworth is in the States to collect her husband’s body and take him back home to England.”

         “I’m sorry, but he isn’t ready for release yet. I just finished the autopsy and have some questions about where he died.” When the Sheriff delivered the body to the morgue, he had given the doctor only the sketchiest explanation of what happened underground before Colin’s death.

         Lady Edgeworth, in a haughty voice worthy of a queen, spoke before Randall could, “When will he be ready? I’m itching to get back home. His old Mum will want to know how he died and all, but it was just an accident, wasn’t it?”

         “Um, Randall, can you help me out?” Dr. Brown hesitated, unsure of how much or how little to tell the grieving widow. He knew Colin had kidnapped Samantha and possibly harmed her in some way. The doctor didn’t know, though, if a newly widowed woman would want to hear of her husband’s faults.

         Randall took pity on the doctor and decided to give Lady Edgeworth an abridged version of what Colin had done, leaving out some of the more sadistic aspects. “Ellette, your husband took one of the women, a dear friend of ours, prisoner and hurt her before someone found his body. We don’t know if he molested her. I’m so sorry to have to tell you like this.”

         Lady Edgeworth paced around the morgue for a few minutes, not saying a word. When she had built up a full head of steam, she angrily turned to spit out the words, “You all made me look a right Charlie when no one told me over the phone how Colin died.”

         “I’m so sorry, Ellette, we should have, I know.” Randall, being single, didn’t realize the cause for her anger. He thought it was because she was upset to find out her husband wasn’t the perfect gentleman she thought she’d married. Her next sentence proved his thinking wrong.

         “I wouldn’t worry yourself none about your woman friend. Colin shagging women was as rare as rocking horse shit. He usually stayed with madam palm and her five sisters.” The shock of this crude statement left both men speechless. She looked at them, realizing her façade of being a lady was crumbling.

         She tried to recover, without much success, when she said, “For all his upper class breeding, Colin was a real scuzzbucket.” She continued, her cockney upbringing coming back full force the angrier she got, “I blame his Mum. In her younger days, she was a bit of a yo-yo-knickers. Can you believe, Colin wasn’t even sure the late Lord was his father?”

         Still a bit dazed, Dr. Brown could only repeat, “Yo-yo knickers?” so softly that no one heard his confused question. Feeling Randall nudging him in the ribs to get his attention, he managed to say, “I think I can release his body by this evening, if that’s okay with you.”

         “Perfectly fine, and Mr. Walker will be contacting you for the shipping arrangements.” Her upper-crust accent now firmly back in place, Lady Edgeworth marched out of the morgue and back to the waiting SUV.

         Dr. Brown repeated his question one more time, catching up to Randall as he was leaving the building. “What does yo-yo knickers mean?”

         “Search me! It makes no sense and must be a ‘language thing’” Randall quickly said his good-byes to the doctor and almost ran for the SUV, eager to return to the mansion with the aim of Googling on some of her strange terms. He also wanted to reassure Walker that Colin wasn’t a rapist. If Lady Edgeworth had told them the truth, her husband preferred self service over females.

Chapter 99

The next day found Lady Edgeworth happily seated in British Airways’ first class, and Colin safely secured in the plane’s hold. Walker would have willingly paid double the price of the plane tickets to get both of them out of his mansion and his life. He looked forward to a peaceful visit with Randall and Anthony, and most of the day lived up to his expectations.

         “Walker, does anyone ever go into that lake of yours?” Anthony asked, hoping it was safe for swimming. After the thunderstorm the evening before, the day was turning out to be rather muggy, perfect weather for diving into cold lake water.

         Walker hadn’t been swimming since he was younger, but last summer he had watched many times from the shore while Joshua and Sue Beth frolicked in the water. One unforgettable afternoon, he had sat entranced when Samantha joined the two children. In his opinion, her modest bathing suit appeared more erotic than the skimpiest bikini on any other woman.

         “Did you hear me, Walker?” Anthony’s voice scattered Walker’s delightful image of Samantha into a thousand pieces, bringing him back to reality.

         “Sorry, my mind was wandering.” Without any further explanation, Walker said, “Sure, the water’s fine for swimming. In fact, there are a couple rowboats if you care to go fishing out off the shore. Trout, I think.”

         By now, Randall had joined the two men, and the men decided to round up some of the children for an afternoon at the lake. By two o’clock, the noise of laughing children carried back on the wind almost to the mansion. Some of the elderly residents walking on the grounds between the building and the lake reacted to this laughter just like catnip to a cat. One by one, the group by the lake grew to include more adults.

         “Say, Walker, where have you been hiding that great body?” Jane, having joined the adults and trying to forget the unpleasantness of the last couple days, decided to tease her boss. Earlier, he had given in to the pleading of the children and shucked off his outer clothes to reveal he was wearing dark green, swimming trunks underneath. For a man in his early fifties, his body was without an ounce of fat, and he had drawn the admiring eyes of the females, no matter what their age.

         Anthony, 20 years younger, sleek and in even better shape than Walker, turned out to be part fish. Most of the time, he swam underwater, a snorkel and mask Walker had scrounged up from somewhere permanently attached to his head. Every now and then, his long, brown legs would appear above the water as he amused the children by standing on his head.

         “Come on, Mike, follow my voice,” Anthony called out, spotting the sightless child standing at the shoreline.

         “I don’t know how to swim, so I betta not!”

         Anthony stood up in the waist-deep water and walked to where Mike was nervously digging his toes into the damp sand. “That’s okay, I’ll teach you. I won’t let you go. Just hold onto my hand until we get out a bit more.”

         Those around them watched as Anthony slowly led Mike until the water was nearly up to the boy’s neck. It delighted them to see his expression of fright replaced by one of excitement at this new adventure. Within minutes, he was splashing and kicking while Anthony held him securely. Ever so slowly, Mike began paddling in the fairly shallow water all on his own. Anthony hovered close by in case the boy suddenly panicked, but this didn’t happen.

         “Mike!” yelled Brennan, the 12-year-old swimming over to where Mike was attempting to float, “Way to go, man! How about a race over to where Eddie is? Over there!”

         “Over where?” Mike followed this with a laugh when Eddie called out to guide him. “Okay, I hear him. You’re on! Keep talking, Eddie, so I can find you.” With that, Mike aimed away from Anthony and toward his friend’s shouts egging him on. Unseen by him, Anthony swam close behind while Brennan slowed his own expert strokes to let Mike stay ahead of him. The boy’s progress wasn’t graceful, and he sank below the water a few times, but he reached Eddie to the applause of those who had stayed close by.

         “I won! I won!” Even those on the shore could hear Mike’s excited shouts of triumph.

Chapter 100

“Anyone hungry?” Chef Geoffrey walked carefully down the path from the mansion, followed by a handful of his kitchen staff. Everyone carried covered dishes, which they placed on the ground after throwing down a few plaid blankets.

         “Hey, Randall!” Walker tried to get Randall’s attention, but his voice didn’t carry out to the rowboat in the middle of the lake. He could see the three orange life vests but was unable to identify who wore them from where he was on the shore. When Anthony came to stand beside him, Walker asked, “Who’s out there with Randall?”

         Anthony was chewing on a fried chicken leg, and it took a couple seconds to empty his mouth of the delectable food. “He took Joshua and Itzam out for some fishing. Can you believe she’s never been fishing before?’ He noticed Jack, pacing back and forth on the shore, never taking his eyes off the rowboat. “What’s with Jack?”

         Walker took the second chicken leg Anthony offered him before answering. He always enjoyed to the perfect meals Chef Geoffrey prepared for everyone on a daily basis. However, he admitted to himself there was nothing more satisfying and delicious than food served on a picnic. Walker bit down through the warm crust to reach the tender meat underneath. Finally, he stopped eating long enough to explain Jack’s feelings about the little girl. “Anthony, a couple from Westbrook brought Itzam from Belize with a plan to adopted the little girl.. One winter morning, the people at the town’s old orphanage found her abandoned by them, sitting outside in the doorway, almost frozen from the cold.”

         “Poor baby,” Anthony had come across many children in San Francisco without homes or family. He had felt such relief when Joshua and Sue Beth, orphaned by their mother’s murder, found a safe haven here in Walker’s home. “So, Jack kind of adopted Itzam?”

         Walker finished eating the chicken and, like the small boy he still was at heart, licked the last of the juice off his fingers. “Being single, Jack couldn’t legally adopt Itzam, but I’ve contacted my lawyers to see if she can become his legal ward, just as Joshua and Sue Beth are mine.” He grinned at Anthony. “Of course, I have a feeling he’s not going to be single for long.”

         “Who? I know he liked Mary, one of the women I work with. That attraction cooled off, though, didn’t it?”

         Walker nodded and started walking back to the blankets that were rapidly emptying of food. “It seemed the distance between here and San Francisco kind of squashed that romance. No, he seems smitten by the new doctor over at the hospital. Have you met Dr. Sherri Delaney yet?”

         “I think so. Is she a striking blond with the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen? I saw someone like that with Jack yesterday.”

         “That’s her. You should have seen him tripping over his tongue when they first met.” Walker stopped by a half-filled plate of finger sandwiches. He chose a couple filled with tuna salad and poured a large glass of ice-cold lemonade. After that, Walker decided to stay there near the food and sat down on the soft grass. He leaned back against a spreading oak tree that was providing shade for both food and people. Anthony joined him, all the while keeping a sharp eye on Mike, who was still in the shallow water swimming with his friends.

         “So, you might have a wedding here soon?” Anthony was a romantic and hoped Walker would invite him back for the happy occasion.

         “I hope so. I think it’s about time he got married, and Sherri is a perfect match for him.” Finished with both sandwiches, Walker closed his eyes in pure contentment. Surrounded by close friends, stuffed with good food, and with the calming sound of birds singing high up in the oak tree, Walker was able to forget his worry about Samantha for a few hours.

         Sadly, this feeling lasted only until he returned to his apartment. On his answering machine, he found a frantic phone message from Edith to call her immediately.

Continued in next segment.

Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 21  (18+) Chapters 101 through 105. #1292032 by J. A. Buxton