Nearly Departed, Max Schlienger [the gingerbread man read aloud txt] 📗

for the first time since entering the office. “I thought we were suspending disbelief,” he said.

Harding returned Dennis’ smile with one of his own. “Just take care not to suspend your own.”

Images of sultry specters and gasoline-fueled flames danced through Dennis’ mind. Easier said than done, he thought.

“Did you get your answers, then?” Bobo asked. At Dennis’ request, the pair had abstained from discussion until getting clear of Harding’s office, and although the mirrored elevator was a comfortable place for Dennis to recount his talk with Harding, Bobo had been insistent.

“Not really,” confessed Dennis. “Sam doesn’t seem to know any more about this than I do, or if he does, he can’t talk about it.”

“Why not?”

Dennis shrugged. “Doctor-patient confidentiality, I’d imagine. It sounds like Spinner is more of a nut than anything else, though.”

“Maybe he could do with a different sort of visit to your friend, eh?” Bobo asked. The elevator let out a ding, and the doors slid open to admit the pair into the front lobby. “What did you tell him about me?”

“Nothing,” Dennis answered.

“Nothing?” gawked Bobo. “Come on, now, September, I thought the copper was after me, too.”

“We don’t know that for sure, though, do we?” Dennis replied. The thought made him pause in his footsteps, bringing an odd glance his direction from the building’s concierge. “Actually, that makes a lot more sense,” he thought out loud.

“What does?” asked Bobo. “Why are we stopping?”

Dennis resumed walking as he explained. “I take back what I said in the car. Spinner wasn’t talking about you when he mentioned my ‘buddy,’ he was definitely talking about Sam. I mean, it adds up, doesn’t it?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

Dennis rolled his eyes. “Think about it. If Spinner thinks that I have something to do with his niece, he must have come up with the idea that I’m pulling something similar with Elspeth. If I were him, I’d make the same assumption.”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Okay, look,” Dennis said, perhaps a bit more forcefully than he needed to, “Spinner thinks that Sam is doing something to make his niece see ghosts. Then, he sees me at Elspeth’s house, maybe in my September outfit. It doesn’t take a genius to put that together, even if the conclusion is wrong.”

“Well, I mean,” said Bobo, “you are working with the shrink on this spooky business, ain’t you? Doesn’t sound too far off to me.”

“Sure, except that I only just told Sam about Elspeth.” The pair reached Dennis’ car and climbed inside. Bobo’s response was muted by the sound of the engine sputtering to life. “Sorry, what was that?” Dennis asked.

“I said, so what?” Bobo repeated. “All this Spinner bloke sees is you and the shrink working together, right? He doesn’t know that you’re working on your own.” He looked over his shoulder as Dennis pulled out into the street. “Hey, what color is his car, anyway?”

“Blue,” replied Dennis immediately. “Is he following us?” He squinted in the rearview mirror and scanned the vehicles behind them.

“Maybe,” Bobo said, “but I’m sure he’s not the only one with a blue car. See, there goes one.” He pointed at a ridiculously small coupe going in the opposite direction. “What are you going to do if he is?”

“Following me?” asked Dennis. “I don’t know. Sam suggested that I spend some time away from home in a hotel room or something. I don’t like the idea, but I’d rather not get Alena involved in all of this.”

“That’s your wife, then?”

Dennis nodded. “She’s going through a rough time with her business, and I’m sure that having a private detective following her around wouldn’t make things any easier.”

“Yeah, she’d probably get to wondering why you hired him, eh?”

This time Dennis shook his head. “She’d be able to figure out that it had something to do with Sam. I told her about Spinner a few days ago, and that was back before he started following me. Besides, she knows that I trust her.”

“Great, September, but does she trust you?”

“Let’s hope so.”

After dropping Bobo off at his shop, Dennis considered stopping by Thoreau’s for a drink and a chance to get his head together. He wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of Alena’s reaction, but since an unpleasant discussion seemed inevitable, he wanted to make sure he knew exactly what he was going to tell her. He ultimately decided against visiting the bar, reasoning that it would be better to be at the house when she arrived. He guessed that she wouldn’t be back for more than an hour, but he still opted to err on the side of caution and take a direct route home. Throughout the entire course of the journey, he kept glancing in his rearview mirror, but the road behind him was pleasantly free of blue sedans. He only hoped that Spinner’s car wouldn’t be waiting for him when he arrived.

As relieved as he was to find his driveway empty, Dennis was nonetheless surprised to find the lights on as he opened his front door, and even more surprised to find Alena curled up on the couch with a mess of crumpled tissues lining the floor around her. His heart jumped as she looked up at him with bleary red eyes, and for a sickening moment, he was certain that his explanation of the week’s events was going to be rendered pointless.

“What’s wrong?” Dennis asked. The concern in his voice was all too genuine, although he had to guiltily admit that most of it did not pertain to his wife’s obvious anguish. He sat down across from her and waited as she noisily blew her nose.

“It’s Antonio,” whispered Alena. She sniffed loudly and dabbed at her eyes, but it did little for her tear-stained complexion..

Dennis tried to keep his relief from showing, and quietly hated himself for feeling it at all. “What happened?” he asked.

“A car accident,” replied Alena. Her voice was choked up and stuffy, and Dennis suspected that she was holding back a much