"Y'know, a strange thing happened to me last night," Hollis told him, taking a sanding block down from the bench.
"Hmmmm?" was the only reply from Jethro's corner, where he was pouring two glasses of bourbon, reading a case file and drinking coffee at the same time.
"I said, something strange happened to me last night!"
"Yeah, you said."
"Something fell out of my tree."
This time, Jethro glanced up and gave her a quizzical look.
"Your tree?"
"Yeah. A something, a big something. But I didn't want to go and investigate, I couldn't see anything. I'm guessing it was just a really big cat, or maybe a dog, or a-"
"Stop. Why would a dog be falling out of your tree at 23:00 hours?"
"I don't know, but something wanted to get out of my tree!"
"You're out of your tree," he muttered to himself as he closed the case file and handed her a glass of bourbon.
"Although," he added in a cheeky tone, "if you are hallucinating things coming out of your tree in the middle of the night, then maybe you should be avoiding alcohol."
"I did not hallucinate it! Right then, discussion over. Give me that sander," she told him, gesturing to the abandoned item. He obliged, glanced at her, then shook his head.
"Women," he mumbled, and began to read the case file again.
"Owwww…"
"I sorry, you want me stop?"
"No, Noemi, keep…owwww…just put the bandage on."
"How you get these scratches?" Jenny's help asked her as she dressed the cut on her arm.
Yeah, that's what they've asked me all day, she mused, frustrated. But next time…next time, I'll think of something more sensible, so I won't have to…
"Miss?"
"Oh, I, uh, I tripped," Jenny lied, and refused to answer any more questions.
After Noemi had dressed the sore scratches on her arms, Jenny wandered into her library and scanned the shelves. Sliding a book off a high shelf, she padded up to bed, changed and slid between the sheets, took a sip of water and settled down to read Practical Car Maintenance for Beginners.