When noon came around and the third episode of “Columbo” came to an end, Jonathan shut the television off. He knew that Joe would be arriving soon so he got up and went outside. With him, he carried a cup of dry cat food for Knight and poured it into the bowl on the porch. Jonathan walked down the steps of the back porch and walked out into the driveway. He looked around for Knight but didn’t see him anywhere. Well, I’m sure that he will come around when he gets hungry, Jonathan thought.
Just then, Jonathan saw Joe drive into the driveway and stop about three feet away from him.
“Hey Jon, I brought us something” Joe stepped out of his truck and reached behind the driver's seat.
“Hi, what did you bring?” Jonathan walked around to the driver's side.
Joe pulled out a cold twelve-pack of Michelob Lite and handed it to Jonathan. Then Joe closed the door and walked to the back of the truck. He pulled the tailgate down and pulled the 20-pound bag of charcoal out.
“See, I remembered,” Joe put the charcoal bag up on his shoulder and closed the tailgate.
“Thank you and thank you for the beer, I’ll give you some money in the house,” Jonathan walked toward the back porch.
“No, don’t worry about it. Heck, you’re feeding me so that’s enough,” Joe followed Jonathan to the house.
“Okay, you can put the charcoal down on the porch because we will need it later,” Jonathan opened up the screen door.
“Okay… So how have you been?” Joe followed Jonathan inside.
“I’ve been doing pretty good. Do you want a beer now or later?” Jonathan opened up the refrigerator.
“I’ll take one now,” Joe said.
Jonathan opened up the box of Michelob and handed Joe a bottle. He then unloaded the rest of the beer into the door of the refrigerator.
Joe looked around at the kitchen walls, “the paint color looks good. It’s better than what it was.”
“Oh, thanks, I think so too,” Jonathan closed the refrigerator door. “Did you notice the outside of the house?”
“Yes I did, it looks nice too. I like the dark blue doors and trim, it works good with the grey,” Joe twisted the bottle cap off and tossed it into the trash can.
Jonathan twisted the cap off of his beer bottle, dropped it into the trash, and walked into the living room. Joe followed him and then sat down on the sofa.
“So, how was your date last night?” Jonathan sat down in his recliner.
“Oh, it went great. Emma is so sweet and smart, and she’s easy to talk to. We are going out again Wednesday night for dinner and a movie.”
Jonathan sat there and listened to Joe go on and on about Emma and what she is like. Joe told him that she moved here from Minneapolis Minnesota and is taking care of her mother. Her mother fell and broke her hip and has no one to take care of her. He said that Emma moved here to help her mother out with her recovery.
“Well, that’s sweet of her. What did she do for work in Minneapolis?” Jonathan asked.
“She’s a registered nurse and she worked at a nursing home. She said that once her mother can get around better, she’s going to try and get that type of job around town,” Joe smiled.
Jonathan smiled at Joe, “it sounds like you really like this woman. Do you see yourself marrying her?”
“Who knows, maybe. But I’m in no hurry,” Joe took a drink of his beer. “So other than painting, what else have you been doing lately?”
Jonathan went on to tell him about getting back to work and that the owner of Emily’s is now one of his clients. He also told him about the remains of the little girl that he found buried behind the barn.
“Do they know who the little girl was?” Joe asked.
“Investigator Jordan hasn’t told me anything about her yet. But I did give him a lead as to where they might find the guy that I think killed those three women though,” Jonathan took a drink of his beer.
“Really? What kind of lead?” Joe asked.
“I did some research and found out that Mr. Burns, the first owner of this house has a place up in Superior. But I haven’t heard yet if they went up there to check it out.”
“Well, at least they don’t think that you had anything to do with it all,” Joe rubbed his forearm.
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