Page 35

THIRTY-FOUR

Thankfully, a few minutes later they were back in their car and on their way to the cabin. Erin couldn’t wait. She was worn out. All she wanted to do was get inside, lock the door, grab a package of Mallomars, and relax. Kaely had mentioned that they had things to talk about tonight. She was nervous about it, but she also knew it was time. She’d failed to make progress with the therapists she’d seen. Kaely might be her last chance. She was confused about what to do next. She knew the way she was living now wasn’t healthy. Should she tell Kaely about her gun? She was afraid of her reaction. Afraid Kaely might think badly of her. Afraid she’d try to make her do something she didn’t want to do. But she was also afraid that if she didn’t talk to someone, she might do something she couldn’t take back.

As they got out of the car and carried the groceries inside, the first snowflakes began to fall.

“Boy, we made it just in time,” Kaely said as she locked the door behind them.

They’d just started putting the groceries away when they heard a strange noise.

“I think it’s coming from the front door,” Kaely said.

Erin followed her to the living room. Kaely looked through the peephole. “No one’s there,” she said.

As soon as she’d said that, they heard scratching and a faint whine. Erin pulled back the drapes next to the door. Sitting on their front porch was a dog. Black and white. She could see it shivering in the cold as the flakes flew around it. Erin turned to look at Kaely.

“It’s a dog,” she said.

The sound they’d heard before started again, and Erin turned her attention back to the dog. It was pawing at the door.

Kaely stepped up next to Erin and looked through the glass.

“Poor thing,” she said. She turned and hurried into the kitchen, coming back with some towels.

“You’re going to let it inside?” Erin asked.

Kaely frowned at her. “Sure. It needs help.”

“What if it’s vicious?”

Kaely stopped and stared at her for a moment. “Are you afraid of dogs? You like Adrian’s dog.”

“Well, Adrian was with him, so I wasn’t worried. But we don’t know this dog.”

“This poor thing has come to us for help,” Kaely said, her voice soothing. “We need to get him out of the cold.”

She opened the door, and the dog came inside, wagging its tail.

“Why, hello there,” Kaely said, immediately kneeling down and stroking the shivering dog. She began drying him off. “What’s your name?”

“If he answers you, I’m out of here,” Erin said.

Although Erin knew that bringing the dog in was the right thing to do, she couldn’t help but flash back to the night she and Scott had been called to the scene of a domestic disturbance. They were inside, trying to calm a man and a woman who’d been screaming at each other. The man had a gun and was threatening to kill the woman he lived with. Her two children were cowering in a corner, afraid and crying. While Scott tried to calm the man down and get his weapon, Erin went toward the children. She wanted to get them out of the room and to safety. As she approached them, a dog that looked just like this one sprang from the shadows and attacked her. He was obviously trying to protect the kids, but he bit her on the arm. She drew her gun, not wanting to use it, but not seeing any other way. The oldest child grabbed the dog and put himself between her and the frightened animal.

Although she should have called animal control, Erin was afraid the dog would be put down, and the children clearly loved him. After all the trauma they’d been through, Erin just couldn’t let that happen. She used their first aid kit to bind her arm and then she checked the dog’s collar. The name of the veterinarian was on her tag, so Erin called them. Thankfully, the dog was up to date on her shots.

The funny thing was, once the dog knew the children were safe from her, she calmed down and became very friendly with Erin. She had the strangest feeling the dog was sorry for biting her. She tried to lick her wound, and she put her paw in Erin’s lap. At first the children were terrified she was going to have the dog taken away, but once they realized it wasn’t going to happen, they quieted down.

Scott wasn’t in agreement with not reporting the bite, but in the end, he gave in. Getting a good report of the dog’s health sealed the deal.

The man was the only one removed from the home that night and, because of having an illegal weapon, threatening to kill his girlfriend, and already having two strikes against him, he went away for a long time.

Erin had checked in on the kids from time to time until their mother decided to take them to Colorado Springs where her own mother lived. She seemed to be a stabilizing influence, so the situation had a happy ending. The dog, whose name, surprisingly, was Angel, went with them, and as far as Erin knew, all of their lives changed for the better.

As she stared down at the dog which so closely resembled Angel standing at her feet, she took a deep breath. He wasn’t responsible for Angel’s actions. This situation was totally different. She bent down to look at the leg he was favoring.

“He’s got a cut,” she told Kaely. “It doesn’t look too bad, but we need to clean it out and bandage it before it gets infected.”

“There’s a first aid kit under the sink. I’ll get it.”

A few minutes later, the wound had been cleaned and wrapped with gauze. Erin had dealt with enough scrapes and cuts to feel certain there wasn’t any infection, but it would probably hurt for a while. There wasn’t anything they could do for that, though.

“Since Steve has just about everything, I don’t suppose there’s any baby aspirin anywhere?”

“I haven’t seen any,” Kaely said.

“I’ve got some willow bark pills upstairs. I’ll get him some.”

“I’m sorry. Willow bark?”

Erin grinned. “A natural pain reliever. Native Americans used it to help with pain and inflammation.”

“And it’s okay for animals?”

Erin nodded. “In smaller doses, of course. I’ll go grab my bottle and be back.”

She hurried upstairs, went through her purse, found her bottle, and brought it back downstairs. Before joining Kaely and the dog in the living room, she looked through the kitchen shelves and found some natural peanut butter. She put a spoonful of peanut butter into a small bowl and then sprinkled some powdered willow bark on that. After mixing it, she carried the bowl back into the living room.

“I think he’s really tired,” Kaely said.

“I imagine he is, poor thing.” Erin held out the bowl to the dog, who hungrily licked up every last morsel of peanut butter.

“Let’s take him by the fire.”

Erin grabbed a soft throw that was draped over the arm of the couch and put it next to the fireplace. The dog immediately turned around several times and laid down. Within seconds he was asleep.

“He’s exhausted,” Kaely said. “Must have been out there for quite some time.”

“There’s a storm coming, and we have nothing to feed him.” Erin sighed. “So, what do we do now? He’s going to need more than just peanut butter.”

“I could run back into town and buy some dog food. It wouldn’t take me too long.”

“With all the supplies we have,” Erin said, “I’m surprised Steve doesn’t have some.”

“You’re right,” Kaely said slowly. She walked into the kitchen and opened the door to the large pantry. Just seconds later, Erin heard her make a noise, and she came out holding a large bag. “He really did set this place up so guests would have every need met.” She lifted the bag up and slid it onto the kitchen counter. “Dry dog food. And believe it or not, there are cans of dog food in the pantry too.”

“I looked in the pantry when I arrived, but I didn’t notice any dog food.”

“It was in a large bin with a lid.” Kaely grinned. “Good thing I’m so nosy.” She came over and sat down on the couch. “For now, I think we need to let him sleep.” She picked up her cell phone that was lying on the coffee table. “I’m going to call Adrian. If this dog belongs to someone, they may be worried about him.”

Erin was surprised when, for just a second, she found herself hoping the dog was a stray and that no one would come for it. Why would she think that? Dogs were too much trouble, weren’t they? Her parents had thought so. They’d never had a dog when she was a kid.

She got up and stirred the fire in the fireplace. When that didn’t create the result she wanted, she got two logs from the metal log rack next to the fireplace and added them. Then she sat down, only half listening to Kaely as she spoke to Adrian. Her mind was on what she and Kaely would be talking about. Sure, that’s why she’d come—to have someone to listen to what she’d been going through. But now she was getting cold feet. She wasn’t used to sharing her feelings. After her parents died and Courtney left, it was just her. Then when she worked for the police department, officers didn’t really talk to each other much about what they were going through. They felt the need to look strong and capable of handling whatever awful thing they saw. No one wanted to appear weak.

So, after years of keeping her emotions to herself, she was finally going to pour out her heart and soul to Kaely Quinn-Hunter? A woman who believed in a God Erin was fairly certain didn’t exist?

Yet, Kaely had been there early in the mornings, when Erin couldn’t sleep. When her nightmares grabbed her by the throat and shook her until she wasn’t certain she could continue. When she needed help with the book, Kaely had made herself available. She was one of the only people in the world who knew that Erin had wanted a career with the FBI. And she’d never made her feel silly—or unworthy of the possibility. If she’d ever met anyone in her life that she felt safe around, it was Kaely. She had a strange feeling that it was now—or maybe never. That gun in the box kept whispering her name, and she didn’t want to answer.

She realized that Kaely was off the phone and was staring at her.

“Sorry, did you say something?” Erin asked.

“No. You just looked so far away I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Sorry. Just thinking. What did Adrian say?”

“Before I tell you about the dog,” Kaely said, “we have more information about Hailey Duncan. She was married and active in her church. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t seeing our killer for the wrong reasons, but that might not have been the case after all.”

“That’s interesting.”

“Yeah, it is. And as far as our furry friend, it seems his name is Ozzy, and he’s a border collie. He was left behind by a tourist. People in town have been feeding him, and so has the police department. They even built a doghouse for him at the station, and when it’s cold or the weather’s bad, they bring him inside. They’ve been looking for him. Adrian said they’d just made the decision to adopt him and let him live at the station. But it seems Ozzy is more of a one-person dog, so Adrian hasn’t given up trying to find another home for him.”

Erin shook her head. “The owner just left him behind? Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have pets. That makes me furious.”

“I agree,” Kaely said. “Well, at least for now he has us. And the police department will make sure he’s safe from here on out, but Adrian asked if we could keep him until the storm passes and the roads are cleaned off. I told him we would.”

“Sure, we can do that,” Erin said. She frowned. “Ozzy is a terrible name for a dog. Let’s call him Chester.”

Kaely laughed. “Chester? Any particular reason?”

Erin nodded. “My grandfather’s favorite TV show was Gunsmoke . There was a character named Chester who had a limp just like this guy. Chester is a much nicer name than Ozzy.”

“Then Chester it is. You’d better be careful though, or you may be going home with a lot more than you came here with.”

Although Erin didn’t respond, the truth was, she wouldn’t mind that at all. But first, she’d have to make sure Chester wouldn’t find himself without an owner a second time. She had the responsibility to make sure that didn’t happen, and she couldn’t make that commitment yet.