Page 9 of Finding Basil (Foggy Basin Season Two)

Chapter Six

When he walked in the back door, he heard water running. Well, that wasn’t quite it. It was gushing. He rushed to the living room to see an enormous hole in the ceiling and water coming through it like Niagara Falls.

“What the hell?”

He ran up the stairs two at a time and his foot came down on a rug with a nasty squish.

Yanking his phone from his back pocket, Herb quickly called Rob Gentry.

“Yello,” Gentry answered. “Gentry Plumbing.”

“This is Herb Buffet and the entire house is flooding! What the hell did you do?”

“Me? I didn’t do a thing! The water shouldn’t be on at all.”

“Can you come and…see this? Fix it, whatever?”

“I just sat down to eat, but I guess I’ll be warming it for later. I’ll be there in a jiffy.”

Herb ran down to the basement and saw something strange. On top of a box near the valve to turn the water on and off for the house, the brand-new valve Ron Gentry had installed, was a baseball cap with the picture of an angry pirate.

He’d seen the logo in town a few times. It was the logo of the mascot for the community college fifty miles south of Foggy Basin.

He plucked it off the box and looked it over, taking it up the stairs with him. He was glad to see the waterfall had gone and all that was left was dripping loudly to the table and floor under it.

Herb tossed the cap onto the couch and moved the wooden table away from the drip, hoping it wasn’t ruined. It was a nice table he’d planned to refinish when the rest of his projects in the house were conquered.

Gentry showed up in record time and looked over the bathroom where the leak had occurred and then went to the basement to look around as well. He found Herb laying down towels over all the water that had pooled on the floor. “You got someone that don’t care for you already?”

Herb spun around, shocked at the question. “What?”

“That leak? It shouldn’t have been no bigger ‘an a trickle. The cement in the piping was drying, and by all means should have been dry by now. The water was off too, just in case you decided to turn on the faucet for some reason. Now the pipe is cut and the water was turned on.”

Herb was at a loss. “Who would do something like that?”

“Good folks in these parts. Can’t think o’ one.”

The only one he could think of was Lila Dormer. He’d heard she wanted the property to stay empty. But she’d also been the one to call Basil to help him. “I…don’t know.”

“Well, seems you best lock up better next time you leave the house.”

Herb remembered the cap. He grabbed it from the couch and handed it to Rob. “I think you forgot this.”

“Ain’t mine. I don’t like college ball.” Rob spoke then what Herb was thinking. “Could be the one that did this here that was wearing it.”

“Why would he leave it behind?”

“Accident or he wants you to know who done it.”

Herb nodded, frowning. “Thank you for coming so quickly, Rob.”

“Let me help you get this cleaned up some. You got a fan?”

“Yeah. Let me get it.”

By the time Rob left, most of the water was sopped up by the towels that were hanging on the clothesline out back and the two fans were blowing air from the open door and window.

He got out his phone, calling Basil. “Hey! I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon.”

“I came home to a mess, and…and I wanted to ask you, do you think Lila Dormer would be so angry I bought the place that she’d come while I was gone and…sabotage things?”

“Lila? No! She’s a grumpy thing, but she’s the nicest person in the world. She’s great friends with my mom and grandma. Why?”

Herb told him a little bit of what he’d found when he arrived home, and when he was finished, the line went quiet.

“Basil?”

“Sorry. I was…I’m a little shocked. Are you okay?”

“Tired from cleaning all the water, but otherwise fine. Nothing was dangerous, just destructive.”

“I’ll come by in the morning and I’ll take a look around. Lock up tonight, just in case whoever it was comes back.”

“I will. See you in the morning.”

When Basil arrived to find Herb still cleaning from the night’s mess, he came in and dragged him from his hands and knees to his feet. “Are you okay?”

“Pretty discouraged. I have enough falling apart on this house without someone helping it along.”

Basil took him in his arms, holding him gently. “I can bet you are, but I really don’t want you to leave.”

“Why would I leave? Besides my house falling apart, I really like it here.”

Basil pulled back and asked coyly, “I hope I’m one of the reasons for that.”

“You are all the reasons for that.”

Herb kissed him sweetly, not lingering, as much as he wanted to. Moving fast, moving slow, they seemed to do both, strangely enough.

“Well, if you’re up for it, I thought we’d try getting some plants going in your greenhouse after we get the glass up. Would you help me?”

“Of course. Let me call the contractor and Gentry. I want the reno work done soon, so these things stop happening.”

Basil looked up and said, “That’s a bad hole. In a way, though, maybe the water leak was lucky.”

“Lucky? How do you figure?”

“That piece of the floor shouldn’t have given way with just a few hours of water. It would have gone sooner than later, regardless. Now you know where it needs fixing the most urgently.”

He hated to admit the sabotage was lucky, but it was true. “You’d have gone through it, probably when you were alone, and been stuck, or in the living room with a broken leg or something.”

“Well, I’m now having all the floors replaced, like all the plumbing is being replaced, and after that, the electricity is getting replaced.”

Basil chuckled and then bit his lips.

“It’s funny, I know.”

“Sorry. It…it’s like one of those funny movies. I’ve never seen anyone with such bad luck with a new house.”

“Now you have.”

When two crews showed up, Gentry bringing his two cousins and his teenage son, Basil took Herb outside to start on the greenhouse. “We need to get all the old glass out of the frames first. Be really careful. It can cut the hell out of you, and you are…not having the best luck right now.”

“I’m very lucky. I met you.”

That blush was the prettiest yet as Basil ducked his head to try to hide it. “Stop.”

“Not a chance.”

Basil tossed a pair of gloves at him. “We’re working.”

“Working. Right, boss.”

They got the glass from one side of the greenhouse free on one entire side that day, and they enjoyed a glass of tea on the newly fixed porch after they finished for the day.

Herb didn’t get one cut, so he hoped that meant his luck with the house was changing.

Basil seemed concerned about the break-in, the damage it had caused. Herb, however, wanted to forget it. “You didn’t call the police?”

“No. I don’t have proof that anyone did it. Well, except for the hat.”

“What hat?”

Herb went into the house and retrieved it from the sofa where he’d thrown it and brought it out to Basil after turning on the porch light. “This one.”

Basil took the hat into his hands, and with the light on against the darkening evening, Herb saw it plain as day. He paled and his brows drew hard together.

“Basil, do you know that hat?”

“I really hope not. I have to go, Herb. I…need to check something.”

Herb got up when Basil did and grabbed his arm gently. “Basil, tell me.”

Basil took his hand, holding it loosely. “Herb…my ex-boyfriend wore a hat like this all the time. Like, all the time. He was balding a little, and…this hid that. He was very self-conscious about it.”

“Basil, is he…dangerous?”

“No. At least I never thought he was. He was a little…clingy. It’s one of the reasons I broke up with him, but I didn’t know he could do something like that.”

Even though he suddenly had a suspect, he didn’t want to worry Basil. “I’ve seen this kind of hat a few times since I’ve been here. It could have been anyone.”

“Right, sure. I know. It’s just…why would anyone else?”

“Well, I suspected Lila and now I don’t, because you spoke up for her. Like I said, it could have been anyone, or no one. Maybe some kind of accident happened. We may never know. Please, Basil, I don’t want you worrying about this.”

“Okay. I’ll forget about this for now, but if something else happens…”

“I’ll let you worry about me then.”

Basil laughed a little tensely and then moved to him, kissing him slowly. It was the deepest kiss yet, and Herb’s head spun with the emotion it wrung from him.

Everything was happening so quickly, and yet they were taking it slowly. That was still so strange to him.

In the city, they’ve had kissed the first hour, fucked right after that and either dated a while or they’d never call one another again.

This wasn’t city fast. This was…real. It was special. Two guys, finding they are attracted to one another, flirt, talk, kiss a little here and there, and then go to their separate beds with butterflies carrying them to sleep.

The wonder of it, what would happen next? When would they next kiss? Would they make love soon or take longer to get to that point?

He found he loved wondering. It was better than a surprise party he knew was coming or a raise the boss was hinting at right before he got it. He knew the progress of it, even so, every moment was a painfully great time to just wonder.

He locked up well that night and only allowed the second-floor windows to be open, letting in the nice cool night air. Herb thought of Basil, keeping his mind there, refusing to give whoever may have broken into the house the satisfaction of thinking of them another moment.

When he woke, it was to knocking again, and he rushed down the stairs to open the door for Rob Gentry. “Hi-dee-ho,” Rob said to him. “I have three more workers coming. With their help, we’ll likely finish today.”

“Thank goodness. And thank you.”

He nodded and took off for the basement, and right after he was out of sight, the contractors were pulling into the yard.