A Dangerous Business (From Thereby Hangs A Tail)
“Don’t want to jinx it,” Bernie said, “but things might be working out on the money side. That five grand I put into those tin futures last night?” I remembered the check book coming out, but five grand? “Guess what – it’s up to six already. Overnight! Plus all this easy money from Adelina. I feel guilty taking it. The Manhattan DA’s probably right – there’s no threat here.” Bernie turned his face to the sun, closed his eyes. He looked much younger all of a sudden, and I could see the resemblance to Charlie. “Life is good, Chet. Why is it so hard to keep that front and center?” Poor Bernie. I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, just pressed my head against his leg. He reached down and scratched between my ears. I closed my eyes, too, and did nothing much but feel the sun and the air, so soft and –
Crack! Zing!
What was that? A loud explosive sound rang across the canyon and I saw the strangest sight – my bowl spinning in the air, water drops sparkling in the sun. The next thing I knew, Bernie had dived off the bench and grabbed me. We rolled together in the dust, bumped on something hard – at that moment I heard another crack-zing – and ended up behind a boulder. At the same time came one more crack-zing, this one followed right away by a ping, and a chunk of boulder right above my head got turned into a tiny powder cloud.
Then it got real quiet, Bernie and I huddled behind the boulder. Time passed. The big black bird, or another one, returned to the sky, circled around. Bernie rose to his knees, pulled himself up, very slowly, took a peek over the boulder. I took a peek, too.
“Chet! Down!”
But I wanted to see. Across the canyon, not far from where a group of houses crept down the hillside, I caught a glimpse of a far-off bicycle, or maybe a motorcycle; and then it was gone. The big black bird swooped down over us – close enough so I could hear the beating of its wings – and flew away.
Tags: canyon, Spencer Quinn, Thereby Hangs A Tail
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 8:40 am and is filed under Chet The Dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
4:43 am on January 9th, 2010
I have a question about this but it concerns the end of the novel so I won't ask yet.
5:04 am on January 9th, 2010
I finished the novel. How wonderful!
Bernie is no two dimensional dime store detective!
Well rounded out in his whole character by that bigger than life, but really not because isn't that how the Nation Within the Nation are, Chet the Jet.
Hurrah!
5:15 am on January 9th, 2010
Treating myself to extra crispy bacon once a week (cause just like Bernie – I know it isn't good for me) – once a week can't really be terrible – right? Sitting in a booth at Elli's Pancake House, I start reading and smiling and by page 33 have broken into uncontollable giggles. (People around me probably thinking: that poor old soul, all alone, gone quite daft.)
Bernie ruminating about string theory; Chet ready to take on the perp (or is it another detective?) named Einstein… Great fun!
11:31 am on January 9th, 2010
Thanks BStover for waiting, it looks like the end of January til the book hits here (sigh), can you hold off that long?
This snippet is great!!
12:14 pm on January 9th, 2010
Yeah!!! THAT came today via USPS, so NO TREATS for Abby. Only UPS provides treats.
Abby is excited about THAT and #3 to come.
#1 OK, Ready for Story Hour;
#2 I have my bifocals on;
#3 Hurry up with Story Hour; and
#4 Waiting for the nice UPS man to bring book #3 – – Hurry, Spencer, please!!
…ivy
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12:50 pm on January 9th, 2010
Liz,
If you order the book on Amazon, you will receive it in a few days. The cost before postage is $13.50.
3:47 pm on January 9th, 2010
Liz – are you in Australia too? I've been told THAT won't come out until the end of January also. Something to do with a delay in printing caused by the distributers, whatever that means. Jackie considered ordering it from Amazon US, but it usually takes 3-4 weeks to arrive anyway – not sure why. Anyway, if you are in Australia and you find a copy let us know!!
Waiting, not so patiently…
Dogtanian Jr and Jackie
3:19 am on January 10th, 2010
Abby & Ivy…great pics! And we're with you, come on Spence, get to interpreting Chet's next story (cuz we're sure he has it already…doesn't he always say "I get into that another time". Maybe #3 will be here before Christmas 2010…that would make Mom's shopping list very easy.
Great reading everyone who hasn't finished it yet.
12:18 pm on January 10th, 2010
Dogtanian and Jackie – yes i am, Hi!!! Irritating about having to wait, isn't it? Thanks Irma too, but i pre-ordered from a place here which said it was getting stock on 5 January – no word from them since!
Is Dogtanian on Friends of Chet?