Woodrow And Wren
The Rule Of Three - Chapter 1
*Beyond PBS Frontline’s “The Pandora Papers”, who is that third person - largely unseen - who advises those who influence the people who make public policy?
Chapter One
Throughout the night and early morning, a light snow stopped and started then stopped and started again. The accumulated six inches from the early fall storm was just enough to cover the raised shape that didn’t fit with the design around the gazebo flowerbed.
………..
Ivy Wren-Walker’s new digital front doorbell resonated from the front hall to the second floor to the side patio, to the garage. In that way, Ivy could hear from nearly anywhere while at home if someone came to her front porch.
She had the ringer programmed to sound like the chimes of her beloved grandfather clock. But Ivy had its’ sound set at a slightly higher pitch so she could distinguish the difference between someone at her front door and the 200-year-old time piece.
However, that day as the clock struck three so did the first seven notes of the doorbell.
Rushing from her kitchen, she noticed the forecast was accurate and from the window above the stairs a light snow had begun to fall, again.
With uncharacteristic unguarded excitement Ivy flung open her wide front door. “Wonderful! Lois, you arrived here safely! I’m so relieved.”
Ivy hugged her dearest friend of 58 years then noticed Lois Woodrow was not alone. “Hello, I’m Ivy Walker and who might you be?”
A slightly younger looking man with black hair graying at his temples moved from behind Lois to extend his right hand. “Mrs. Walker, I’m Daniel James Assefa.”
“Ivy, why are we all freezing on your front porch?” Lois looked beyond her friend to the warm nine by nine-foot entrance hall.
“Of course, sorry I wasn’t thinking. Please come in.” Ivy stood to one side then closed the door behind both of her guests. “Lois, what is that on your right foot and why are you limping?”
With a deep sigh Lois Woodrow looked from Daniel to Ivy. “It’s a walking boot. After procrastinating for the last two years, I finally had that bunion removed. Where would you like Daniel to put my suitcases?”
“Oh? Well, I guess now a room upstairs is not a good idea.” Ivy looked at Daniel for a second. “That door directly behind you Mr. Assefa opens to my wee apartment, Lois can stay with me.”
Through a set of ornate double wooden doors, Ivy led the way. “This is my small sitting room. My bedroom and bath are through those other doors.” Please, just put the luggage against the wall there.”
Ivy turned to Lois with a wink. “I still sleep on the king mattress that Eric and I bought before he died, so there’s plenty of space for us to share. It’ll be just like the pajama nights we had in high school.”
Lois hobbled to a wingback chair beside a low smoldering fire. “This is always so charming. Ivy, do you have any other guests yet?”
“Not until the first full week of November. They arrive five days after Halloween. So, you can wonder anywhere, but we might as well sit in here.”
“Mr. Assefa, please relax in the other chair by the fireplace. I’ll toss on another log and get a proper fire going again.”
Two oversized club chairs upholstered in a large floral print were set side by side facing a dry-stack-stone fireplace. Two wingback chairs were placed at an angle on either side of the fire box. The chair to the left was covered in a gently worn stripe fabric with the chair to the right in a slightly faded dark green weave.
With new flames ignited by fresh wood, Ivy settled into one of the club chairs. “Assefa?” She smiled at the older handsome stranger who seemed completely at ease in his unfamiliar surroundings. “My guess is your surname is not of Welsh origin.”
Daniel laughed out loud. “Ethiopia.” He shook his head still smiling. “My father accepted a teaching position at Princeton just before I was born. My mother had been a general family medicine doctor before the move, but decided to qualify as a midwife after her own children were born.”
Lois shifted in her chair. “I can’t drive for a while because of my foot, but I didn’t want to give up my car. Captain Assefa is my new neighbor. He bought the house across the street from mine this past spring after he retired from flying in the U.S. Navy.”
“This week he happened to have some spare time so very generously offered to drive a little old lady around when needed.”
Ivy nodded between Daniel then Lois. “My father retired from the Air Force, though he wasn’t a pilot. Did you remember that, Lois? Then he sold insurance until he retired completely.”
The grandfather clock in the dining room struck half past three.
Ivy stood. “I have a meatloaf baking in the oven for our dinner later, but in the meantime Captain Assefa, it is Happy Hour every day at 4 PM in this house. Do you drink alcohol?”
“Please call me Daniel and I do indeed enjoy any kind of beer or wine or brandy.”
“Perfect. Lois, are you on any pain medication that limits your alcohol intake?”
“I was two days ago, but not anymore. So, bring it on.”
Daniel stood too. “I’d be happy to help you, Mrs. Walker, just as soon as I call for a room at Little America.”
Ivy looked startled. “First, you must call me Ivy and second, this old house is a bed and breakfast and I have five empty rooms upstairs. You are absolutely welcome to pick any one of them.”
“I don’t feel comfortable, Mrs… I don’t feel comfortable doing that Ivy. You weren’t expecting me, and I’ll be perfectly happy at Little America. I’ve stayed there before.”
“Nonsense,” Lois eased out of her chair too. “I’ll help Ivy with a cheese and cracker tray, you get your own bag from the car and pick a room.”
It had stopped snowing again then the air turned still and crisp. The day’s light was fading with a pale pink glow that peeked between narrow breaks in the clouds to the west.
With his canvas Navy bag in hand Daniel locked the back door of Lois’s aging Volvo then looked back at the 150-year-old two story river rock and slate stone house.
In Flagstaff’s historic registry, Canyon House had never been a wholly private home. It began as Canyon Hospital, a small hospital and surgery with the doctor’s apartment to the right of the front entrance where Ivy now lived.
In 1905 it became a boardinghouse then after World War II it was a spiritual retreat. When Ivy’s aunt and uncle bought the property in 1979, they remodeled it entirely as a bed and breakfast. After they died within weeks of each other, they left Canyon House to Ivy and her husband Eric who then decided to move from Tucson and retire in Flagstaff.
The empty lot to the west of the house was merged with a smaller original garden during its years as a retreat. In the years before he died, Eric had enlarged the flagstone patio out from the dining room. He extended it toward a spacious octagon shaped, screened gazebo then beyond to reach a glass enclosed pool.
A full moon was just visible to the east and with fresh snow Daniel knew the night would be a bright one. Just inside the front entrance again, down the hall he could hear the lifelong friends chatting in the kitchen.
“Seventy! We both turned 70 this last April.” Lois opened a second box of small crackers. “Did it ever occur to you when we were in high school that one day, we would be 70? I mean when I was in high school my grandmother was 70, but that was my grandmother, not me!”
Ivy looked up and spotted Daniel. “Just take your bag straight on up. My favorite room is in the front on the west side. Then the morning sun, when it’s clear that is, won’t wake you.”
“Sounds good. I won’t need to close any window coverings, there’s going to be a full moon tonight.” He disappeared from sight.
“Because your foot makes walking for you a chore,” Ivy retrieved her late aunt’s tea wagon from the dining room. “Let’s put everything together on this and push it down the hall to my sitting room.”
With glasses, plates, napkins, food and wine all arranged on both the upper and lower teacart shelves, Lois followed Ivy from the kitchen to the front hall.
The clock struck four just as they reached Ivy’s sitting room doorway and Daniel came down to the foot of the stairs. Daniel wasn’t smiling. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m just going to take a quick look at something I spotted in your side yard near the gazebo?”
Ivy was puzzled. “The gazebo has no heat it’s only screened in. You can reach the side yard from the dining room…”
But Daniel had already hurried out the front door.
Ivy turned to Lois. “The flagstone path from the side patio hasn’t been cleared yet. I have help from a neighbor’s teenage son. I’ll call to have that done later so the captain can explore more of the west garden.”
Lois didn’t get the chance to comment before Daniel rushed back in. His expression this time was distinctly dismal.
Ivy had no idea why the captain had gone outside and assumed something else entirely. “How is that west corner room Daniel? I realize the gingham quilt with flower print pillows and chair is quite feminine. If it’s too much pink you can sleep in one of the other four rooms.”
“No ma’am the room is perfect. But when I looked out of the window to your garden, I saw something by your gazebo flowerbed that seemed an odd shape. I just went to check it out ma’am.”
Lois picked up on the cautious tone in Daniel’s voice. “What kind of shape?”
He hesitated then realized they would know soon enough. “From the second-floor window, the shape appeared to be like a human body. When I looked to make sure I wasn’t seeing things - I wasn’t. What I saw was a human body.”
………..
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