Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Dig
    Dig
    Dig
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    Dig

    By Walter Rice

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In the suspense novella Dig, a man can't stop digging holes in the ground and doesn't know why—until at last he comes face to face with deadly secrets.

    This ebook also includes a bonus excerpt of Walter Rice's mystery novel Smarty Havarti.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWalter Rice
    Release dateOct 3, 2011
    ISBN9781465896360
    Dig
    Author

    Walter Rice

    WALTER RICE is the author of several works of crime fiction and is a former newspaper editor and reporter in the Pacific Northwest. He also paints, often digitally, and plays the piano and writes music. He lives near Seattle with his wife and pets.

    Read more from Walter Rice

    Related to Dig

    Related ebooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Love In The LOFT

      May 20, 2020

      “As you might have read in the papers or heard on the television every five minutes, these are unprecedented times. Our lives, we are told, will never be quite the same again. Certainly I’ll never forget the sight of Mr Dear yesterday, skipping in th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Life Before Death

      Feb 1, 2018

      Life Before Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      Getting To Know Eddie

      Mar 4, 2022

      Getting To Know Eddie
      5 min read

    • Article

      Broken Wings

      Aug 24, 2020

      Whenever Gemma Faber came to London for work, she stayed at Searle’s. It was a luxurious club-type hotel and every time she visited, she felt she’d really made it. The taxi pulled up and her heart lifted at the sight of the lilac-and-gold striped awn

      5 min read

    • Article

      She Helped Him ‘Do Life’

      Oct 5, 2021

      She Helped Him ‘Do Life’
      6 min read

    • Article

      The rich RELATION

      Jun 2, 2021

      The rich RELATION
      3 min read

    • Article

      People Used To Die Every Day

      Feb 10, 2021

      “Okay, so tell me the truth: why couldn’t I get a hold of you last night?” Samir folds his arms and stares at Peter across the little round table in the bar. “I know you have class on Tuesday nights, but you get breaks. And it’s not like you couldn’t

      19 min read

    • Article

      Justanother Day

      May 31, 2022

      Justanother Day
      6 min read

    • Article

      New NEIGHBOUR

      Oct 21, 2020

      “It was a cold rainy morning and Mr Dear was staring out of the sitting room window. He does this because a) he thinks it makes him look wistful and sensitive, and b) he knows it annoys me when I’m dusting because he could be lifting up all the usele

      3 min read

    • Article

      Practicing

      Mar 15, 2018

      This would have been her favorite season in the Allegheny woods. The shadows of the trees were rickety, and the wind had sap in its scent. But last week, Ty had left; now one day decayed into the next. Their house was abandoned. Only their father, si

      18 min read

    • Article

      Clarity

      Feb 1, 2019

      Clarity
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Only Punishment

      Feb 10, 2022

      The floor of the room was white, but three of the walls and the ceiling were light blue. His own bland pajamas were light green. It was probably supposed to be calming, but it only angered Rats. He knew what this was—a fregging brainwashing facility,

      16 min read

    • Article

      Evening Star

      Sep 10, 2021

      A red streak of light flashed across the curtains. Robert grimaced and Grace got up to look out the window. There were two police cars pulling into the parking lot and it had started to snow again. She turned around. Robert was kneeling on the bed. H

      15 min read

    • Article

      People Used to Die Every Day

      Jun 10, 2023

      “Okay, so tell me the truth: why couldn’t I get a hold of you last night?” Samir folds his arms and stares at Peter across the little round table in the bar. “I know you have class on Tuesday nights, but you get breaks. And it’s not like you couldn’t

      19 min read

    • Article

      Journey INTO SPACE

      Jan 17, 2024

      "When I got back home from walking the dog, Mr Dear was washing the windows and singing a merry window cleaner’s song: ‘The blushing bride she looks divine, the bridegroom he is doing fine I’d rather have his job than mine, when I’m cleaning windows.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Riddle of THE SAND

      Jul 8, 2020

      “You’ll want to know, I suppose, why Mr Dear was vacuuming the lawn last Wednesday. Doug from next door certainly wanted to know. He leaned over the fence, barely able to contain his mirth. He opened his mouth to say something funny, but nothing qu

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Liam Sharp

      Feb 13, 2024

      The Art Of Liam Sharp
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Silent TREATMENT

      Aug 11, 2021

      The Silent TREATMENT
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Rapture Module

      Aug 10, 2022

      Tucker had to do a double take: The spreadsheet returned the correct result. He could have sworn he had made a mistake—his finger slipped—but the cell displayed the number he thought he wouldn’t see. It occurred to him that this was the first time he

      13 min read

    • Article

      How we MET

      Aug 1, 2023

      How we MET
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mr Dear NAILS IT

      Mar 18, 2020

      “Let’s enjoy a brief respite this week from The Strange Mystery of the Missing Handbag, which has caused so much unnecessary drama at the charity shop. We’ll also temporarily gloss over the embarrassing problem of Graham, the old flame who has sudden

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Girls And Mr G

      Feb 14, 2022

      The Girls And Mr G
      5 min read

    • Article

      Gardenia

      Oct 10, 2022

      Mike left the motel in Kirksville around seven thirty Sunday morning and drove for two hours before arriving in Gardenia. The town itself wasn’t much to look at, with a population barely reaching seven thousand, but the community was diverse and bust

      8 min read

    • Article

      Rosemary The wheel THING?

      Nov 3, 2021

      Rosemary The wheel THING?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Flour Baby

      Sep 18, 2020

      Flour Baby
      19 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Dig

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Dig - Walter Rice

      Dig

      Walter Rice

      Copyright 2011 Walter Rice

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold

      or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,

      please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did

      not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to

      Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work

      of this author.

      Published by Drum Roll

      Publisher's Note:

      This book is a work of fiction and a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      To readers and writers everywhere:

      May your imagination roam free

      and may you break through all

      that makes you less than you really are.

      Dig

      Walter Rice

      Jim, come outside. I’ve got something to show you. Hurry.

      Jim Lassiter looked up from his computer at the sound of his girlfriend’s voice. Tracy had just arrived home from work, but he hadn’t finished his work. He was two days past deadline on his contract for a website coding job and getting angrier at himself by the minute. He’d written some buggy XML code that he now had to tear up and redo, and the extra work was eating into his schedule for the next contract.

      So he was a little annoyed that Tracy might think he had time to waste. Still, maybe he needed a break. So he saved his new code and went outside.

      The limp pansies and snapdragons Tracy had planted in the lawn border over the weekend were now blasting out their cheerfulness in a rainbow of hues and were actually looking perky. Signs of spring. The air felt warmer, too. Jim thought he wouldn’t mind getting out in the yard a little more, if he could just catch up on his work.

      He rounded the corner of the garage and walked over to the driveway. Tracy wore a big smile as she stood behind her black SUV. Jim, I’ve got a surprise.

      He stopped by the front corner of her vehicle and noted that the tailgate was open. All kinds of stuff could fit in there, he thought. What, uh, what kind of surprise?

      A green one, she said. Come on, have a look.

      Green? He went around to the back and stared into the open cavity of the SUV. A tree, six or seven feet long, lay on its side diagonally across the cargo floor of the vehicle. The large rubbery black pot holding its roots was pushed up against the front passenger seat while the leafy tip of the tree hung over the bumper behind the driver’s seat.

      You had to bend the tree to fit it in, Jim observed, not sure whether he was defending the rights of the tree or appreciating Tracy’s ingenuity.

      Tracy beamed, apparently not hearing any criticism. It’s big, isn’t it? It’ll give us some shade. And it didn’t cost that much. I got it for twenty-five percent off. You know that new nursery over on Fourteenth? They’re having a big grand opening sale all this month.

      Jim pondered that but didn’t see how you could have a sale when you’d just opened and nobody knew what the prices were in the first place. But he couldn’t say anything when Tracy was so proud of herself. He also realized he hadn’t even been out enough lately to know where this new nursery was. One of the downsides of working from home, he guessed. He edged into the subject. Fourteenth Street. Not too far, then.

      Just past the junior high. You know.

      Now he did know. Oh, yeah. I seem to recall somebody clearing off a lot there back in, what, February? But I didn’t realize it was going to be a nursery.

      Tracy shook her head. Jim, you gotta get out more.

      You’re right about that. He leaned over the SUV’s back bumper and rubbed several leaves between his fingers. He suddenly felt unsettled. What kind of tree is this?

      Birch. Tracy leaned in and brushed the trunk of the tree. See, you can tell by the whitish bark.

      Birch. That seemed to stir some long-dormant memory, but Jim couldn’t quite reach it. Instead, something else came to mind. Tracy, hon, you’re gonna have to take this tree back to the nursery. Get your money back.

      She scowled a moment. You don’t like the birch? I thought it was just what we needed. But I can get something else. They have lots of different trees there. What kind do you like. Maple? Willow? Cherry?

      It’s not the variety of tree, Jim said. It’s just that we rent this place—remember?—and I don’t think the landlord wants to be surprised with a new tree in his yard.

      Oh, that, Tracy said, laughing now. I already checked with him. Snapped a picture on my phone and sent it to him straight from the nursery. He’s cool about it, real cool. I think he likes tenants who take an interest in the property.

      Jim stood bewildered for a moment, then realized Tracy was trying to pull the tree out of the SUV, but the pot was hung up in the gap where the back seat folded down and Tracy’s pulling threatened to yank the tree roots right out of the pot.

      Here, let me do it, he said, finding himself protective of this tree he didn’t think he wanted. When he had the birch in an upright position on the driveway, it stood a little over his head and at least a foot over Tracy’s head. He admired it a few seconds and said, Well, there you go.

      "What do you mean there I go? We’re not planting a tree on the driveway. Let’s get it over in the yard and see how it looks."

      Tracy was a small woman with biceps so thin that Jim didn’t see how she lifted a fork, so despite the we and the us she tossed around, there was no doubt who would carry the tree to its new home. Once he had wrestled the birch to the middle of the front yard, straight out from the big window, he could see the rightness of Tracy’s thinking. I suppose this will give us some shade this summer, he conceded, or maybe next summer when it gets a little taller.

      Oh, yes, Tracy said. It’ll grow to be a big, beautiful tree. But then it’s already beautiful, isn’t it?

      He put his arm around her shoulders. Couldn’t be better.

      Can you plant it? She turned and looked up at him. Please?

      Jim wrinkled his brow. Not tonight, hon. You know I’m already behind on this contract.

      You’re still working on that? All right, tomorrow then.

      Okay, tomorrow. Jim wondered how he was going to work tree planting into his busy day. He needed more free time, and he had to do better with these contracts, write code faster, have better ideas that worked right the first time. But even with all these challenges, he saw that it might be good to get out and get a little exercise in the fresh air, maybe even catch some sun. Then he realized a bigger impediment than his work schedule. I don’t have a shovel.

      Yes, you do, Tracy said. The landlord left one in the garage. If you took your car out once in a while, you might see it.

      Jim frowned and made funny faces, then Tracy gave him a playful punch in the chest and they went into the house in good spirits.

      Tracy was in an upbeat mood all evening, talking about her job and fixing up the yard and a dozen other topics Jim didn’t really hear. There was a lot to like about her, although some of her interests struck Jim as overly domestic. Meanwhile, he was trying to put his software business on a good footing. He was twenty-eight, and it was time to make it on his own. Otherwise, he’d have to go back and get a job in somebody’s IT department and pretend to be a team player and work the night shift and tolerate God knows what.

      Jim watched part of a TV show with Tracy, then went back to his computer and amazingly finished the troubling code by ten thirty. She was almost asleep when he went in to check on her, so he kissed her good night and said he was going to kick back a little, have a beer and maybe stay up another hour.

      He turned on the TV and watched fifteen minutes of a movie about a good/bad murder suspect on the run from an evil/heroic cop. But the acting was too poor to make him care who was on the side of truth and justice, so he got up with his beer and walked out to the front yard.

      He took a sip of local lager, unsure why he was standing in the front yard at eleven at night, but the answer came with one glance to the middle of the yard.

      The tree.

      He stepped up to the birch and tilted his head from side to side. Then he circled it, trying to find the angle that would let him understand something about it that was more

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1