Dead Dancing Women - Chapter Three Recap

Last chapter those kooky local kops showed up to take away the head and accuse Emily of playing an elaborate 'prank'. 'Cause that's what cops do around here. We left off with Emily walking back to her house and contemplating getting a new garbage can.


Chapter Three:

  Emily goes back inside to think on how she didn't know the poor dead head all that well but recognized the name from the search a few weeks ago. Because all these cops were in the woods near her along with news reporters following them and "trying to make a story where there was none."
  Well, I call a missing local lady a news story but, as Emily points out, she didn't pay much attention because she wasn't assigned to it. Way to show concern for your fellow human beings.
 
  She decides to make herself some tea and call her boss, Bill, who owns the second largest newspaper behind the Record Eagle (which is a real newspaper). I'm surprised she didn't say it was bigger than the Record Eagle because, wouldn't you know it, Bill's formerly from Detroit. The only people Emily will work for, obviously. I could also throw in a dash of snark and wonder why, if she's so great, she doesn't work for the Record Eagle.
  Anywho, it's busy there, like always because Traverse City is a growing resort town. And there's just so so much news here. Always. Enough for two large papers., apparently. This is also where she awkwardly tells us that he's from Detroit. I will lighten the snark on the awkward info dumps because it's the first book in a series and, while it might not seem so, it is an unusually hard area to describe and she's still setting up the characters.

  Anywhat, she tells him about the head and he asks how she knows it was a head then corrects himself. (I'm not being bitchy, it's actually pretty funny, I'd probably say the same thing if my friend told me she found a head in her garbage can.)

  Anywhere, she tells him it was Mrs. Poet (and now we know that Emily and Bill are educated. They say Mrs. Poet instead of Miz Poet. He also manages a jibe at the Leetsville police by saying that morning's soon enough for them to have Emily make her statement. Because her decription of finding the head trumps giving her a minute to get over the shock. Implying they're slow.

Leetsville P.D.

  Anyhow, they dither a bit about the story to run and what Emily will need for it. Fascinating. He also asks if Emily's ok, which I'll just go ahead and assume that he'll be a love interest later.

Anywhy, they hang up and Emily debates calling her ex, Jackson, to talk about it but changes her mind since he was not amused by her beaver slapping story. That's not sexual code or anything. She called him to tell him about her beaver (in her lake you perverts) slapping the water to warn her away and she slapped the water back. I'm thinking a severed head in a garbage can is a little different than a beaver story but if he can't be called for comfort after a dead head shows up then I'm guessing she's better off without him.

 

  Moving on, she puts on some James Taylor to soothe her nerves and think about the fact that someone purposely put the head in her garbage can. She takes the phone off the hook to avoid reporters. Y'know, those damn local ones that are so so tacky and want her to pose with the garbage can. Probably the Record Eagle. After all, they're locals. They wouldn't know any better.

  She decides that work is the best cure for such a shock and dials up the Survivalists that she's supposed to do the story on. She gets on the phone with Survivor Man Dave to set up the appointment. He's instantly insulting by saying he "kinda thought she'd send a man" for the story because there's hiking and maybe shooting involved. I'm going to call bullshit here. His wife lives there with him and other people. So for him to assume only "a Man" could keep up is just asinine. A lot of women hunt up here (and everywhere, now). But, you know, anything to make him sound like a Backwoods Bubba, I guess. Emily cracks me up when she assures him that she can hike and shoot. Mainly the shooting. Before they hang up they make me really hungry by talking about venison stew and cornbread. Bastards.
 
  She makes herself a dainty, feminine lunch and goes out to gloat look at her lake. Which we get described. It sounds pretty. She reflects that she came to the "North Country" for peace and mindless nature. She also thinks back to a nasty summer storm that sounds a lot like the one we just had recently but that we haven't had in quite a long time. Like decades. So, I'm thinking she just wants to make it sound as scary as possible living in the wilds all by her lonesome.

  She decides to go back in and gets the crap scared out of her by her beaver (I'm going to have so much fun with this if she keeps talking about it) and bitches to herself that she'll have her neighbor turn it into beaver stew. I don't know about anyone else but I think having a beaver in my private lake would be awesome but that's just me. Emily, lover of nature, wants to kill it.

                                                                     

Sexy Beaver Will Fight Back

End of Chapter


  Next time: Will Emily triumph over her beaver? Find out tomorrow!


  As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment or two. I'm always looking for ways to improve the blog or ideas for the next recap or review. Thanks!