Page 21 of A Light in the Dark
“Please get us as much information as you can and give me a text should you find anything.”
“I’ll do that.”
Roger hesitated, and I narrowed my eyes, wondering what the Hunter thought.
“Is there a problem?”
“How would you feel about joining forces with the luna moth shifter that helped Gabriella? We would be more comfortable knowing someone else is keeping an eye on you while you investigate this matter for us.”
Interesting. I’d assumed the luna moth had gone solely for Gabriella’s benefit rather than being acquainted with the Hunters of Moonriver. “You know the luna moth?”
“We know most of the rare shifters in Moonriver,” Roger admitted. “That specific shifter has worked with us before. He enjoys rescuing people, and his ability to vary the strength of his glowing makes him easy to spot. He tends tofind victims in need of rescue and glows brightly enough for us to find him. For the most part, you’d have a winged visitor keeping an eye on you and checking to make sure you make it home each night. If you don’t make it home, he’ll contact us, and then we’ll handle matters from there. There will be no disappearances under mysterious circumstances happening to you if we can help it. And honestly? All the luna moths help locate flood victims. That glow really helps draw attention to those in the water, so they all do it every year. He’s just different; if he could rescue people daily, he would.”
Considering the number of bodies, Madeline’s fear, and the unsettling feeling I kept getting about the whole situation, I appreciated the Hunter’s concern. “I’m worried someone will figure out the phone belongs to the Hunters.”
“Don’t worry about that. It belongs to you now. Consider it compensation for having done a good deed. The model you have can run two numbers, so you can take it into a store, get a personal line, and use it as your daily phone. That way, nobody will be the wiser. If someone discovers you have two lines, tell them you have one for your closest family and friends and one for businesses and so on to get a hold of you. Most people will just assume you value your privacy and stop questioning it.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll do that.” That would let me revive my personal cell phone number, too. “When should I expect the luna moth?”
“I’ll have him check on you in the evenings. He can peek into your window from your courtyard. If you install a bell on your back door, he can ring it and you can let him in that way. I can send you a link to the kind of bell that will send anotification to your phone, and you can even get one you can set up for multiple doors. If anyone asks why you have one in the back, just say you paid for two, so you may as well use both.”
I laughed as that was something I would do. “I’ll do that tonight. Send me a link to a good model. I’ll view it as a home improvement, especially as I need to shore up some stuff in my house anyway.”
“I’ll do that. And good call on shoring your place. If you need any help paying for it, let us know, and we’ll come to an arrangement. What you’re doing is valuable, and you deserve to be compensated for the risk and the effort.”
“Saving lives is the only repayment I need.”
“Still, if you need financial help, do let us know. We’ll get into a fight over the compensation you’re owed another day.”
NINE
The Hunters could afford the bill.
Any other day,I would have settled into the serious business of relaxing, but I had a doorbell system to buy, a new cell number to add to my phone, a foundation shoring to book, and a great deal of thinking to do. I started with the foundation company, Sampson Sigils, which had a location not far from the home renovation store. I stepped inside armed with my contract, waited in line, and when it was my turn to deal with the woman at the reception desk, I plunked the folder down and said, “I’d like to add some wall shorings and weight-bearing beam shorings to my contract, please.”
The woman smiled, likely recognizing an easy sale, grabbed out my contract number, plugged it into her computer, and looked over the results. She made a thoughtful sound, picked up her phone, and said, “Mr. Dolanns, are you available to handle a contract? I have a walk-in requiring wall shorings and beam shorings added to her existing contract.”
After a few moments, the woman read off my name and contract number, hung up, handed my folder back, and pointed at the hallway behind her. “Go to the end of the hall, turn left, and it will be the third door on the right.”
“Thank you.” I did as told, found the door marked with Mr. Dolanns’s name, and knocked. I waited for the muffled invitation to enter before letting myself in. “Thank you for seeing me, Mr. Dolanns.”
An older man with graying brown hair and dark eyes, dressed in a suit that did a good job of conveying his company paid him well for his work, sat behind a large but plain desk loaded with papers, something I recognized from my own job.
Most often, the busiest and successful employees had some form of chaos on their desk as they juggled heavy workloads and tight deadlines. As the clutter hadn’t become unmanageable, I took it to be a good sign of the man’s skills.
“You’re welcome. May I call you Valerie?”
“Please.”
“I’m Garth. Have a seat. What level of work do you need to have done?”
“The neighbors sharing my walls haven’t been shoring to my general level, and I wanted to see about protecting the exterior walls from damage and flooding. I’m already shored on all four foundation walls, but I’m concerned about the living spaces. Someone on my street recommended that I have the extra work done.”
After tapping at his keyboard a moment, his printer, located behind him, offered a single sheet of paper, which he grabbed and gave to me. “When I saw your address, I suspected you’re Joel’s neighbor. You’re the only other clientof ours on your section of street. You have a top grade shoring job. I remember when you had the work done; it was flagged as unusual, as most people in that area go for one of our competitors, who charge significantly less.”
“Well, yes, for significantly inferior work. I moved to Stonecreek well aware of the hazards, and as I got the house for a pittance compared to its real value, I invested in the foundation. I need that. It’s rather important, especially if I want my house to remain where it is during a bad flood.”
Garth chuckled. “Indeed you do. So, in good news, the shoring work you want isn’t nearly as expensive as the foundation itself. The underlying structure is already in place, so all we need to do is expand on what’s already there. That significantly lessens the cost. We can also reinforce your current work to extend your contract to fifty years at the same time. That costs two thousand a wall, as the main work has already been done. With this contract plan, we will do maintenance work on the wall yearly. We typically charge two hundred as our fee for the maintenance work, which covers the entire property and all work done.”
