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As I’m processing these thoughts, the front door opens and that damn handyman comes out of the house. Now, what the hell! That’s the second time I’ve seen him leaving the house. At least she hasn’t walked him out and kissed him as he leaves.

What am I thinking? She isn’t even here. I don’t think she is, anyway. I didn’t see her at the practice house, though. What if she kissed him before he left? She wouldn’t have moved on to another man this soon, surely? Maybe he just took advantage and moved in on a vulnerable woman?

I’m going to watch out for this snake in the grass. If I’m out of the picture, then so be it, but he’s not taking advantage of her like this. I bet he’s only after her for her money. I hope that’s all he’s after. What if he wants her for some other nefarious reason? What if he’s the one who is trying to bump her off and then take the lot? Her practice must be worth quite a tidy sum, without the value of the two houses.

I need to speak to Molly about this guy. Find out just how much she knows about his background. She hired him, so maybe she knows more than she’s letting on. What if they’re in cahoots? Molly practically runs the practice now. Perhaps I’ll confront her with what I know? Or should I go straight to Breaker and then he can do some digging?

Looking back at the house, I see Tim the handyman planting more flowers in a bed under the front window. Tim the handyman or Tim the con man?

Chapter 8

*~* Jamie *~*

Almost lunchtime and I’ve done exactly nothing so far today. Zilch, nada, diddly-squat, jack, jack shit….Aaargh!

I’m going to go around the bend before my three days are up. I’ve only got today and tomorrow, and then I can go back to the practice and take on some light duties to occupy me. Who am I kidding? I know darn well that light duties aren’t going to cut it, and I also know that no one at the practice is going to let me get away with anything more strenuous than lifting a pen.

I say I have done nothing. I have been searching the internet for a new hunting rifle. Getting my weapons yesterday and watching Breaker clean them brought back some wonderful memories. I’m going to get a rifle and then do some hunting.

I regretted parting with my rifle, but it hurt to see it lying around and never getting used. I sold it to a young man at my old gun club, where Dad and I used to hang out, and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. I heard later from a couple of dad's friends that he treated it like royalty. I was happy about that, I must say.

A knock on the door has me jumping up to see who’s there. Jumping up wasn’t such a good idea. Ouch, my ribs. In fact, ouch, everything. Everything everywhere on my body aches, stings, hurts, or just plain old complains when I move too fast. Reaching for the door handle I stop and call out, “Who is it?”

“It’s me, Tim. Just stopping by to see if you’re okay or maybe need anything?”

Yanking the door open, I wince and then almost drag him over the threshold. Someone to talk to! I don’t think it’s been twenty-four hours since I spoke to someone, but it feels like weeks.

“Come in, Tim. Let’s have coffee.” I shove him down the hall and get him seated at the kitchen table. “I’ll make fresh and then you can tell me about the outside world.” I set the coffee machine going and turn to Tim.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting since I was last here, but there haven’t been any dramatic events. No zombie apocalypse, no solar flares. No foreign power invasions. Not even a drop of rain, to be honest, though the ground could do with it.”

“There must be something you can tell me that will help with my isolation, surely?”

“Um, nothing springs to mind.” I watch his face as he tries to think of something to say. “Wait, there is one thing. While I was at your place yesterday, a guy was watching me from an SUV across the road. I sort of spied back at him as I was planting some stuff. He did not look pleased to see me there. He wasn’t there long before he left.”

“We need to let Breaker and the club know. They can set a trap and catch him. This could be over so fast and I could get back to normal once I’m healed.” Perhaps now I can find out what this is all about, I think to myself.

“Oh, you don’t need to let them know. They already know who he is.” Tim looks at the coffee machine, and I grab us both a cup.

Sitting opposite him, I ask, “How come they already know him? No one has said anything to me.”

“Well, no, they wouldn’t. It was Fury. I thought he was maybe looking out for you.”

“More likely his dick was looking for me. That’s what he thinks with.” I see the shocked look on Tim’s face and have to wonder how much he does or doesn’t know. “Fury and I are no longer an item, Tim.”

“Molly told me that if I saw Fury I was not to tell him anything about you. Where you were, how you were doing, nothing. I didn’t know that you’d split up, but I was sort of halfway there with guessing.”

“I won’t go into detail, but it was sudden, shall we say? Not something I’m likely to come back from, either.” Giving him a sad smile and a shake of my head, I want to be done with this line of conversation. “How much do you know about hunting, Tim? Has it ever been a thing for you?”

“You want me to find him and kill him? That’s harsh over a breakup, don’t you think?” I see the sparkle in his eye and know that he isn’t serious, but I nod anyway.

“Harsh would be you shooting him, me healing him, and we keep doing it over and over again. I was thinking more along the traditional lines of hunting animals, not people,” I said.

“I went a few times as a kid with my dad and uncles, but then one day a switch tripped in my mom’s head, and she went all anti-hunting, anti-meat-eating, anti-darn-near-everything. She would go off for days at a time to various protests and leave us to our own devices. Dad tried to understand it, but she was just so full of her own conviction shall we call it, that it always ended up with her screaming at him. In the end, she moved out. Dad came home one day, packed what was left of her stuff and left it out front for her to collect. We never saw her again, but the stuff was gone in a couple of days. Dad filed for divorce years later. I’ve never heard from her since the day she moved out.”

I’m shocked. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that, but she sounds like someone got inside her head. People don’t normally go to extremes like that so quickly.”

“Oh, it was sudden, and it was extreme. I was a young teenager at the time, and she went from a loving, devoted wife and mother to this unhinged lunatic in a matter of weeks, maybe less than weeks. It was a nightmare to live through. When she left, it was as if our lives and the house itself breathed a sigh of relief. A calm came over us, and we just knew that it was for the better. It couldn’t have been pleasant for her, either, always ranting about something that was hurting the planet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the environment and animal welfare, but it was the way she changed so fast and with no consideration for others or any other viewpoint. In the early days Dad tried to explain that the deer were hurting the forest by their numbers and that to keep a balance they needed to be sensitively culled. Man, I think that may have been the last time he tried to talk to her about that subject. I can’t equate the woman she was then, screaming and shouting, with the Mom I knew and loved. Sorry, that was all a bit deep, eh?”