Page 22 of Finding Basil
“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.”
