“Dinner, on me tonight, guys,” she said.
“Deal!” Helen quickly acknowledged.
…After spending four hours inside Prominent House, it suddenly felt good to be around live people and “living” buildings again…
The hotel had a nice quiet restaurant and happily, Andrea’s appetite had returned after losing her lunch inside the abandoned mansion. All of us had steak dinners and talked about several topics of common interest, such as fitness and bicycling. The girl in the tintype was briefly touched on as was Kendall Ludus, whom we had all warmed up to.
It looked like we might be here in Oddessa for a while so I decided to start looking for an inexpensive, used, recumbent bicycle to buy within the next day or so. I needed to clear my head and bicycling seemed to be the best way I knew how, and I hadn’t been on one for a whole week now. After our desserts were finished, Andrea paid our tab and we walked Helen to her room, both of us hugging her briefly while saying goodnight. I didn’t always agree with; or understand Helen, but I did like the little shit.
…
“Who the hell is she?…Damn, she’s spooky,” I said, sitting on the hotel room’s bed and looking at the girl’s tintype on my phone now. Helen had texted Andrea and me both, the photo of the girl.
Andrea and I were now inside our own hotel suite.
“She’s probably the Duchess that Danny mentioned in his safe deposit box note” Andrea answered.
“Yeah but, what Duchess?” I asked.
“I don’t know, there doesn’t seem to be anything on the internet regarding Prominent House, which is very strange. Maybe some of Helen’s sources can come up with a few answers for us” Andrea replied sitting next to me.
“I wonder where Danny fits into all of this?” I asked.
“As Helen mentioned, he probably got the property, thirty years ago, with a wink and a nod, somehow” Andrea replied.
“He may have found some type of legal loophole for its purchase, I bet. Maybe his ownership of the house and land was some type of political protest against Prominent Energy or the use of oil in general. I’m sure his ownership of Parcel 134 has been a real nuisance, over the years, to the oil company” I speculated aloud.
“I don’t think so, Tim, Danny wasn’t political in any way, right or left. Danny didn’t trust any politicians” Andrea answered.
“Oh come on, Andrea” I rebuffed incredulously.
“No, really, Tim. Danny considered himself an – Oil drilling tree hugger” Andrea replied.
“He what…?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“He used to say it this way – ‘I like riding in airplanes, cars, and trains but I also like the wilderness and fishing pristine lakes, why can’t we have both?” Andrea answered.
“…Oil-drilling tree-hugger, I like that. You say he wasn’t a car nut though?” I asked.
“No, the only thing he ever really cared about, other than people and animals, was music and poetry” Andrea answered.
“It doesn’t sound like he was easily swayed by other people’s opinions, one way or the other, Andrea” I speculated.
“He wasn’t but he’d always listen to each person’s point of view. Many people, from both sides of the fence, had urged Danny to jump on one specific bandwagon or another, over the years. Danny would always reply that they were locked into an, us – against – them, mentality. He’d had enough politics; since Vietnam” Andrea explained.
“…Yes, I can believe it. That still doesn’t explain how he wound up with forty-four acres and a mansion inside an oilfield though” I sighed with frustration.
“Maybe when we sit down with Earl Billingsly, we’ll get the answers, Tim,” Andrea said as she stood up and slid out of her shirt.
“…I take it that you’re feeling better now,” I said as Andrea leaned over me, naked, and began removing my shirt.
“I’m going to feel even better, in another minute, Tim” she replied, kissing me.
__________(6)__________
…more to follow