Chapter XI
Jessica stayed for a late supper. It had been a long time since she had been a guest at a dwarf supper. Esmerelda felt that it was the least she could do after the detective had worked so hard at defending her family, and at great peril. Despite all, she spent most of the meal chastising her husband for his actions, repeating the same accusations with which his neighbors had assaulted him, and generally branding him a fool.
Joi was proud of him.
All in all it was very eventful night for the Keefes.
At around nine o’clock, Jessica went home. Though her car was just out front, Owen walked her to it and put her inside. He looked up at the lighted windows of the houses around him. In some of them there were faces. Alba Klondike watched them with a venomous stare. Owen glared back at him without shame, his rage still bubbling under the surface.
“You’ve got a hard road ahead of you,” Jessica said through her open passenger window.
Owen was just tall enough to look her in the eye. “It’s too late to turn back now.”
“Would you, if you could?”
He shook his head. “Damn that elf bitch, but she makes a good point. I only hope she’s as sincere as she seems.”
“Well...” Jessica said, trailing off a bit and looking at the homes around them. Finally, she looked back at him and said, “I’ve got your back.”
He smiled.
When she had driven off, he walked back up to the porch and sat himself down in his favorite outdoor chair. He didn’t feel like going back inside the house. If he did, Esmerelda would start the fight again. Though she had shown solidarity in front of the crowd, he knew that she strongly sided with them. It hurt him to know that she felt that way, but at least he knew her loyalty was intact.
He sat for a short time, contemplating the case he had ahead of him and the fallout with which he would be dealing for many weeks or even months to come. Eventually, though, as his thoughts were turning from sour to bitter, one of his neighbors came out of his house and crossed the street to see Owen. The faces in the windows watched.
"Ez!" Owen shouted through the screen door. "Bring us a pint for Augie."
She came out with the glass even before the older dwarf had found a chair. She had the foresight to bring a pint for Owen as well.
"Thanks much," Augie said to her with a nod of his head.
She gave him a smile because she liked Augie. He'd been around the block more than a few times and had a good head on his shoulders.
"What's on your mind, Augie?" Owen asked warily.
"You are. No surprises there, I'm sure."
Owen took a long pull from his stein, but didn't say anything.
"I may have spoken out of turn earlier, Owen,” he said surprisingly. “I guess we owe it to you to hear the facts before we condemn you."
"The facts are pretty complicated," Owen replied.
"Be that as it may, do your best to explain it to me. I imagine you want to ease the minds of your friends and neighbors."
"I'm not sure I can," Owen admitted with a nod of his head. "There are a lot of traditional folks here who won't see eye to eye with my point of view no matter how I spin it."
"Then it's just how it looks," Augie declared. "You've gone over to the elves' side."
Sighing, Owen finished his pint. He refrained from calling on Esmerelda to bring him another. The conversation was beginning to enter chilly territory and he wasn't sure it wouldn't end in a brawl.
"Look, Augie. What if I told you that Evelyn Van Deign had kinda come over to the dwarves' side?"
Augie thought about that for a moment. He gave it some real thought. But then he shook his head. "I guess I couldn't believe it. Elves don't do the right thing just to do the right thing, if you follow my axe blade."
"Right to the heart," Owen said. “But, isn’t it just as likely as a dwarf, especially someone like me, turning on the community?”
“Well, that’s where the problem lies,” Augie told him. “You say a dwarf like yourself and I think that’s not much of a defense.” He put his hand up to forestall Owen’s fury. “Like I said before, you’ve always had ambitions in the human world, ambitions that have been realized because of your association with this elf.”
Owen stood and bade his neighbor do the same. “I don’t think we should continue this conversation, Augie.”
Placing his still half full stein on the arm of the chair, Augie stood straight and strong. “I reckon we ought to finish it.”
Owen stared into the other’s eyes. “If I’ve got something to prove, I’ll prove it. I will never turn my back on dwarf kind, even if they decide to turn their backs on me.”
“Owen, as much as I hate to say it, I do think you’ve got something to prove to these good folks.”
“Then you tell these good folks to keep themselves off my lawn while I go and do that.”
“Fair ‘nuff,”
Owen felt the rage drain out of him. “Go home, Augie,” he said.
Augie stepped off of the porch. “Good night then, Owen.”
“Yeah,” Owen said, not bothering to watch him go. “Good night.”
Once inside the house again, he spent the remainder of Friday night on the computer researching the career of Evelyn Van Deign. There was nothing in her history to suggest that she was any more underhanded than any other elf that had ever held office. Of course, that wasn’t saying much. Elves were a power hungry, conniving bunch. Though the focus of her career had been on other things, Evelyn was likely no different from her peers. Somewhere in all of this mess, she saw an opportunity. But if she thought Owen Keefe was a likely pawn, she was sorely mistaken.
The hour grew late and his eyes grew blurry. Maybe this was true detective work, but he was investigating his client instead of the case. Shutting down the computer, he rubbed at his temples and sighed. The fatigue went deeper than the physical.
And this was only the first day.