Chapter 3
?
After the phone call, Doreen packed up the animals and headed to the cemetery.
Something was just plain comforting about being here, and this place always made her smile.
Nobody else, except maybe Nan, would understand.
After all, just dead people were here. Doreen appreciated the serene stillness in the air.
She wandered along the graves, the animals happily at her side.
It was cold, and she was bundled up, but signs of spring were coming in the near future.
The grass was relatively green, and a little bit of snow sat in piles where it had been shoveled up.
Yet, for the most part, the snow on the ground itself was gone.
She started to hum as she walked, enjoying the peace and quiet.
When she came upon one of the gardeners, he lifted a hand and smiled at her. She recognized him, waved back, and kept on walking. No need to socialize further. The animals were just content to have a day to themselves.
After about an hour of silence in this pristine landscape, she packed up everyone again in her car and headed to where Big Guy lived. As they pulled up in front, Thaddeus was really excited. She unloaded all the animals and walked up to the front door.
Jerry opened the door for her and smiled at Thaddeus. Big Guy was on Jerry’s shoulder, and Thaddeus started screaming, “Big Guy, Big Guy, Big Guy.”
The other parrot leaned forward, and the two of them shared a whacking of beaks back and forth, which she didn’t really understand, but they seemed to think it was something important.
She laughed as she walked into the kitchen, as Mugs and Goliath walked around curiously but happily at her side.
“It’s always fun to come here,” she shared, “because Thaddeus has such a great time.”
“He’s a great bird,” Jerry said warmly. “You’re doing such a wonderful job with him.”
“Sometimes, and then other times he drives me nuts,” she murmured.
“Well, that’s just to keep you on your toes.” Jerry gave her a knowing smile.
She nodded. “I’m not surprised to hear you say that. We were down at the coast for a week, and he didn’t like that at all.”
“No, I don’t imagine so. They do like their regular surroundings and their familiar routine. They like to have a calm, peaceful environment because they feel secure that way.”
“I hear you.” Doreen smiled as she glanced around. “It is nice to have that … everything back to normal feeling.”
“Did you enjoy your trip? Was it a holiday?” he asked curiously.
“Not really, but it was fine.” She shrugged. “We had to deal with the contents of a property left to me, and it turned out to be a nightmare.”
“Really? Tell me more.”
She shrugged and explained, “It was my ex-husband’s place, and, after his death, I inherited his house.
So, I had to go back and deal with the house that I had lived in when I was married to him.
” He winced at that, and she nodded. “Yeah, not an ideal situation,” she admitted, laughing.
“However, it’s done now. We’ve got cleaners coming in, and we’ll get it listed for sale soon enough. ”
“Good,” he replied, giving her a kind smile. “You don’t want to hang on to something like that. Those reminders have got to be brutal.”
“Exactly. So I didn’t hang on to anything, got rid of it all. Since coming home, I heard some crime took place recently but have no details yet.”
“I heard something about a new case this morning,” he shared, “but it seems to be pretty hush-hush, something about the trees around the bridge.”
“I heard it dealt with the underpass, but I haven’t gotten any more on it,” she added, frowning at him. “You probably know more than I do.”
“All I know is that they found a body,” he replied, “and the speculation was foul play.”
“In that location, that’s quite possible,” she replied, with a nod. “A lot of heavy vegetation is there. Plus, that pedestrian underpass has the small dog park on one side and the beach on the other.”
“There is that, indeed,” Jerry stated, with a nod. “Drugs are an issue in all cities, but that area used to be a fairly fertile ground for all kinds of drugs and drug deals.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “We can always hope that’s not the way it is now, but unfortunately, once you get into that lifestyle, it’s very hard to get out of.”
“Exactly. Thankfully it’s not that way all the time. A lot of Kelowna’s drug traffic has been cleaned up from what it was in the past.”
“Before I moved here, I had no idea so much crime was here,” she admitted, with a headshake. “It amazes me sometimes.”
“But most of what you’ve been dealing with,” Jerry clarified, his eyebrows furrowed, “are old crimes. And, in a sense, every community deals with that. Even if you solve 90 percent on a day-to-day basis, the ones you can’t solve still end up piling up very quickly over time.
It all gets harder with the passage of time because you lose access to witnesses and evidence.
And, before long, the current unsolved cases pile up alongside the old cases still hanging around, and you end up with a huge unsolved case backlog. ”
“Exactly, and that’s one of the reasons why I’ve been working on the cold cases so much,” she shared. “Plus, then I’m not interfering with any of the active cases.”
“There’s that,” he noted, with a smirk. “And I’m certain they really appreciate your help.”
She laughed. “Well, yes, but plenty of times I’m equally certain they don’t appreciate my help at all,” she pointed out, grinning at him.
He chuckled and added, “Oh, I’m pretty sure everybody in town is happier for it. Are there any cold cases you’re working on now?”
“I should probably contact the captain and see if he’s got another one in mind,” she suggested. “There’s been a slew of them lately that we’ve managed to solve. That one involving genealogy was … fascinating.” He looked at her in surprise, so she explained a little bit more about it.
“Oh wow,” he muttered. “I thought about putting myself into one of those genealogy sites, but I haven’t yet. How inconvenient would it be to be connected to somebody who may have committed a crime.”
“Right. I’m sure we don’t ever think along those lines. We’re just happily hopeful, wondering what will pop up, but we never really think about the consequences if it ends up being something horrific.”
“True, and nobody wants to be connected to a murderer either,” he agreed, “but we can’t always know what our ancestors might have been involved in.” He laughed and added, “I think maybe I’ll do it.”
“Let me know if anything pops up,” she said, with a smile. “It’ll be fun to hear all about it.”
“Will you do it too?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe. I mean, I’m finding out so much about family relationships with these cold cases as it is right now. I’m not altogether sure I want to know more about my own family ties,” she confessed.
He burst out laughing and nodded. “In your case, I can see that. I mean, you’ve got a fair amount of involvement in Kelowna’s underbelly already. But your grandmother’s been here how long?”
“I don’t remember now,” Doreen confessed, “but long enough. I do wonder if I have any other family members whom I don’t know about. Surely Nan would have already mentioned them, one way or the other.”
“Asking her would be one way to find out,” he pointed out. “For me, I was adopted. So, I would be interested to know more. Yet, if I find out I’m adopted because they just didn’t want me,” he began, shrugging, “I’m not sure I want to hear that either.”
“Right, and that’s something to consider,” she muttered. She stayed and visited for a while, and, when they were done, she waved goodbye.
He reminded her, “Let me know about the genealogy thing.” When she frowned, he laughed. “I’ll do it if you do it.”
She groaned. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea in my case. I could just ask Nan, yet I’m not comfortable doing that either.”
“Maybe,” he noted, with a bright smile. “Yet that isn’t a reason not to do it.”
“I’ll think about it,” she conceded, with another wave.