Meg Langslow 17 - The Good, the Bad, and the Emus by Donna Andrews

Author:Donna Andrews [Andrews, Donna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cozy
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2014-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Dad immediately pulled out his radio and shared the news with Grandfather, who showed up half an hour later. Although I knew Grandfather was eager to start rounding up the emus, I’d assumed that he would congratulate me on my detective work and then we’d huddle over the map so Thor and I could show him precisely where the emus were, and he and Caroline and the Valkyrie would start planning for tomorrow’s expedition.

But he practically didn’t wait for Caroline to bring the Jeep to a stop before leaping out of it.

“About time someone showed some initiative!” He scrambled into the passenger side of Thor’s truck, taking the place I’d just vacated. “Let’s go!”

“We’re not waiting for the camera crew?” I asked. “And where did you ditch your bodyguards?”

“Hell with them if they can’t keep up,” he growled. “Take me to the emus!”

“Move over.” I climbed back into the cab of the truck. “This is my grandfather, Dr. Montgomery Blake,” I said to the understandably startled Thor. “Grandfather, this is Thor Larsen, who has been helping Miss Annabel and Ms. Delia feed the emus.”

“A Norseman, eh!” Grandfather exclaimed. “God eftermiddag, Thor! Drive on!”

Thor looked pained, and I suspected he was trying to find a polite way of pointing out that he didn’t speak anything but English.

“If Thor’s going to drive us somewhere, I should remind you that we’re paying for Thor’s time, right?” I asked. “And his expenses.”

“Ja!” Grandfather said. “Certainly. Kjapp deg!”

“That’s a yes,” I said. “Even I can figure out that much.”

“Wait for us!” came a shout from nearby.

Dad had parked his car and was scrambling into the Jeep beside Caroline. Two other volunteers—presumably the bodyguards—jumped in the Jeep’s backseat. Thor put the truck in gear and drove off, still looking a little shell-shocked. Caroline followed.

It didn’t help that Grandfather spent the first ten minutes of our drive declaiming something in whatever Scandinavian language he’d decided Thor spoke. Some sort of warlike epic poem, by the sound of it, though considering that I didn’t speak a word of Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, or Icelandic, he could have been reciting a grocery list and it would have sounded the same to me. Thor just drove, eyeing Grandfather out of the corner of his eye from time to time, and dodging when his grandiose gestures got a little out of hand.

Thor was probably as relieved as I was when we pulled into the little clearing by the river.

And to my delight, there were now four emus eating at the trough.

The emus looked up as we drove into the clearing, and the smallest one ran to the edge of the woods and stood there looking at us. The others just stared at us for a little while and returned to their eating.

“Fascinating.” Grandfather pulled out his binoculars and studied the emus. Dad and Caroline pulled up behind us in Grandfather’s Jeep. Dad hopped out, ran over to us, pulled out his binoculars, and took up the same pose as Grandfather.

I

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