And so the snail harvesting proceeded. And when Ma arrived, and joined in, and Odelia as well, and even Marge’s brother Alec and his girlfriend Charlene, who often dropped by for dinner, between the seven of them they progressed nicely.
“If we keep this up we’ll have de-snailed this whole place in no time!” said Tex excitedly. He’d taken the role of coordinator upon himself, since it was his idea in the first place, and was having a blast.
Chase and Odelia were working side by side, and judging from their laughing and occasionally planting a snail in the other person’s neck, didn’t seem like a quarreling couple at all.
Ma saw her looking in Odelia’s direction, and sidled up to her.
“Maybe we don’t need to stage an intervention,” the old lady suggested. “Maybe things will work out all by themselves for once.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. Just look at them. Does that look like a couple in trouble?”
“Maybe she dropped this billionaire guy already. Could be that it was just a fling,” said Ma. “A momentary lapse of judgment.”
“Yeah, a moment of weakness and now she’s forgotten all about it. Would be a pity for us to drag it all up again.”
“Let’s can the intervention idea for the present. And let’s get rid of the snails!”
The captured snails were all released on the far side of Blake Carrington’s field, from which hopefully they wouldn’t return. Plenty of food for them there.
Finally the work was done, and all of them stood regarding their now snail-free backyards with distinct pride.
“And now let’s eat!” said Ma. “I’m starving!”
“What’s for dinner?” asked Alec.
“Escargot,” Chase quipped.
And as they sat down for dinner, Marge watched her family tuck into Chase’s spaghetti bolognese with an uplifted heart. Looked like all was well after all.
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“Poor snails,” said Dooley as we watched the proceedings from the porch swing. “Now they have to crawl all the way back here.”
“Do you think they’ll come back?” I asked.
“Of course they will,” said Brutus. “Snails are very difficult to get rid of. They will keep coming back again, once they’ve sampled your wares.”
“It’s far, though, isn’t it?” asked Dooley. “From all the way out in the field?”
“It might take them a couple of hours, but mark my words,” said Brutus. “They will be back.”
Which made me wonder why that was. What was so appealing about this particular place that they’d spend hours crawling along, passing perfectly edible greenery, just to have another whack at Tex and Marge’s little garden of delight?
I would have asked them, if I had the chance, but all the snails I’d encountered had been of the strong silent type, and had simply ignored me. And of Rupert there was no sign.
“Looks like Odelia and Chase have patched things up,” Harriet remarked casually.
“Patched what up?” I asked.
“Did they have a fight?!” Dooley asked.
“Worse,” said Harriet. “Much worse.”
“Odelia is having an affair!” said Brutus.
“An affair!” Dooley cried, then considered Brutus’s words. “What affair?”
“An affair with a billionaire,” said Brutus. “But why are you asking us all these questions? You know what happened. According to Gran you were right there when they were schmoozing in that restaurant.”
“Yeah, we saw the pictures,” said Harriet.
“What restaurant? What billionaire?” I asked.
“Oh, Max, don’t be like that,” said Harriet with an eyeroll. “You don’t have to protect Odelia, all right? It’s us! You can tell us what happened.”
“Did they go upstairs after kissing and fondling in that restaurant?” asked Brutus. “Did they go up to his suite?”
“Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “All I know is that Odelia had a meeting with Edward Dexter in the bar of the Star Hotel. Edward’s daughter Addie has gone missing, and he asked Odelia to find her. There was no kissing, no fondling, no schmoozing, and she certainly didn’t go up to his suite.”
A stunned silence ensued, then Harriet asked,“But what about the pictures?”
“What pictures?” I said, not bothering to hide a touch of exasperation.
“Gran took a bunch of pictures of Odelia and her billionaire hugging and kissing.”
“She even shot a video!” said Brutus, as if this was the deciding argument.
“Odelia may have hugged Mr. Dexter at some point, since she felt for the man, as he’s worried that something very bad happened to his daughter, and it’s possible that Gran caught this moment, but it was an entirely amicable hug, and nothing untoward happened,” I said.
More silence followed, and finally Brutus shrugged.“You know what they say. No smoke without fire. So something must have happened.”
“Nothing happened!” I said. “And I would know, because—as you’ve already indicated—I was right there!”
“You wouldn’t be lying to us, now would you, Max?” said Harriet, giving me a suspicious look.
“No, Harriet, I would not,” I said.
“Poor Mr. Dexter,” said Dooley. “He had such high hopes for his daughter, and instead she decided to become a juggler in a circus.”
“Oh, Dooley,” I said with a sigh.
CHAPTER 20
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