Good Afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to entertain you with another chapter of my story. My novelist has requested I tell you that the fifth and final book in her Musicology series Musicology: The Epiquad will be releasing in June 2021. I will provide more information about that next week. Tomorrow is a dark day for I will be voyaging to the groomers. I dread it vehemently. Although I feel better afterwards the experience is nothing short of horrific. But as I have come to resemble Sam Sheepdog from the Looney Tunes cartoons, I must accept my grooming as a necessity and carry on. Here is a before photograph of my current state:

As you can see I must accept my grooming and become a more stylish dog. Until then here is Chapter Nine of What I Found in the Trunk. Disfrutar!

WHAT I FOUND IN THE TRUNK

by

Gigi the parti poodle

Chapter Nine

“Can you find out what destination Rune bought a ticket for?” Gary asked Rusty.

“What I can do is find out what amount she paid,” Rusty replied. “If we know how much her ticket cost, we can figure out which train she took from King Street Station, if she traveled coach or business class and where she went.”

“There’s got to be at least thirty Amtrack trains that leave that station every day!”

“Thirty-five to be exact, but only so many that leave at certain times. She left after she sold you the car. So, I look up the prices and we narrow it down from there.”

“You’re insane.”

“My dudes,” Bennet called from the kitchen. “We could each take ten or twelve trains and look up the prices.”

“This is going to take all night,” Gary groaned.

“We’ll do some tonight and some tomorrow morning. It’ll be totally cool, dude.”

“Now,” Rusty said, “she took a train in the late morning so all trains that left the station before ten are out. We have to look at the later ones.”

“How much did she pay?”

“Twenty-two bucks.”

“Twenty-two bucks?! Can you even get on a train for twenty-two bucks?”

“Leavenworth,” Bennet said. “A train from Seattle to Leavenworth costs twenty dollars plus tax.”

“Leavenworth? That’s only about an hour and a half drive from here!”

“Sure is.”

“I thought she’d go a lot further than that.”

“Maybe she likes fake German towns.”

“Say didn’t they film a Christmas movie there?” Rusty asked.

“Switchmas,” Bennet said.

“Oh, yeah…”

“We need to go to Leavenworth right now before she can catch another train out,” Gary said.

“I’m totally down with that but I need to dry my hair first,” Bennet said.

“Can’t you just let it air dry?”

“No, man I can’t. And we need a plan. And I want to drink my tea.”

“Don’t you have a commuter mug or something?”

“Dude, you’re not hearing me. I need to sit down, drink my tea, meditate, read my book…”

“We don’t have time for your bedtime ritual! There are four nasty college students after me! They kidnapped me, threw me in their basement and threatened to take me for a ride! Then they stuck a fistful of black widow spiders in Rune’s strongbox which nearly got me thrown in jail! Rune is on the run because she knows these guys are dangerous! We need to get to Leavenworth, find Rune, figure out what she took from these guys and get it back to them before they really put us in dire straits!”

“You seriously need to chill. Let me do my thing and then we’ll cruise to Leavenworth.”

Rune arrived at the Leavenworth Icicle Station at eight that evening. She caught the shuttle to the Obertal Inn which was one of the Bavarian themed hotels in the quaint little German themed town. It was located just around the corner from Main Street. Once she got to her room, she put her bags in the closet and collapsed on the bed. She wondered if someone at the car dealership had found the red Best Made strongbox in the trunk yet. It was a risk to think the dealership would return the box but sticking Durwin’s address inside would raise the chances. She figured placing the ring in the strongbox would be safer than handing it back to him in person. But it was the gargoyle keychain that would throw him off her path. She was certain he would think her sentimental when he saw it. He would be wrong. Sure, she could have taken the train back to Idaho. He’d expect her to go there. But Leavenworth was a place he would not consider looking. He’d never been there, a point he’d brought up in passing conversation, a piece of information she decided was timely to capitalize on.

Rune decided to pay for the train ticket and ditch the credit card before she left. She wanted to travel with cash only. She figured if she sold the car, she could cash the check immediately and get out of Seattle as fast as possible. If she took the credit card with her, she was certain Durwin would follow her paper trail. She probably should have cut it up, but she was halfway hoping Durwin would find it. So, she tossed it in that milkcrate in the basement. She would cancel it tomorrow.

Without a car it was going to be a pain to get to Stehekin, but it was her best option. It was the most remote place in the state. No phones, no computers, no television and no Durwin. The only way in and out of there was by boat or seaplane. He had no idea of her ties there. She had been smart enough not to tell him about it.

It had all happened because of the Pickins Project. Her father had worked on the three-year endeavor often for twelve hours a day trying to get it to work. But the project was doomed from the beginning. On the day it fell apart and was disbanded, her father decided it was the last straw especially since her younger brother had started suffering at school both academically and socially. A house came up on the market in Stehekin, a rare occurrence, and her dad snapped it up fast. He adored the idea that only seventy-five people lived there, and he wanted his family to be part of that population. They did a major downsizing of their belongings keeping only what they thought valuable or sentimental, sold the house and left.

It was a strange experience moving there at first. And Rune missed movies and internet, but after several months it became home, and she didn’t see herself living anywhere else…until after about two years when her mother decided she couldn’t take the seclusion anymore and threatened to leave. And so, they sold the house and moved to Bellingham, a college town near the Canadian border which had a population of over ninety thousand. But during those two years in Stehekin Rune’s family had made friends and Rune knew she could stay there for as long as she needed before deciding on where she would end up going. For the next couple of days, however, she would remain in Leavenworth.

My Books

You can check out my books Chicane and the first four installments in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist! and Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. The fifth and final book of the Musicology series, Musicology: The Epiquad will be releasing next month, June 2021. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!!!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: SPEED (1994)-HBO Max

Pop quiz, hotshot. You are on the hunt for the best summer movies ever made. You want something that engages you from beginning to end. Something that doesn’t care about a profound message or for that matter political correctness. Something that doesn’t lecture you. Something that delivers a heart pounding perfectly arced story that throws obstacles at the protagonist mercilessly. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?! You watch this incredible blockbuster movie about young police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) who finds himself at the mercy of commuter Annie’s (Sandra Bullock) driving skills when ticked off former police officer Howard Payne (the delightfully evil Dennis Hopper) doesn’t get the pension money he deserves. This incredible script builds one horrific situation on another and unlike the homogenized synthetic yawn fest dribbling out of Hollywood these days this one is pure unadulterated fun. If you have never seen it, you must and if you have, see it again. Go Wildcats!