Page 16 of X-Ray in the Xanth (Lovely Lethal Gardens Rewind #3)

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D oreen watched as Mack stopped in later that evening, crashing down on a kitchen chair, sharing hugs and snuggles with the animals. She wasn’t sure who needed that bit of sharing the most, Mack or her pets. She asked, “Is this a good time or a bad time?”

His eyebrows shot up. “It depends on what the issue is.” She explained, and he just stared at her. “Secret hiding places, huh ? I guess that makes sense, considering it’s Mathew.”

“It does and it doesn’t. I just don’t know about all of them. I did know of a couple rooms that he mentioned had them. Of course, his bodyguard would have something to say about us entering them, but I’m hoping that the properties are well and truly locked down, and nobody else can get in there.”

On that note, he quickly pulled out his phone and started texting.

“I presume you’re talking to Nick.”

“I am, indeed, because this is something that would have been nice to have known earlier on.”

“I’m sorry. I only remembered it as I was talking to Scott today.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Scott? At Christie’s?”

“Yeah, because he’ll do an appraisal on a bunch of the artwork.”

He nodded slowly. “I guess it’s all expensive stuff, huh ?”

She nodded. “Yeah, it really is. And I know Mathew was pretty stoked about having a lot of it.”

“And you weren’t?”

“They’re just things,” she muttered, “and really not my kind of things.”

When she hesitated, he shook his head. “Okay, you need to come clean. Something else is bugging you.”

She chuckled. “It’s not that it’s bugging me. It’s just…”

“That means it’s bugging you,” he stated, with a nod. “Carry on.”

“Well,” she began, taking a deep breath, “it was something that came up earlier. Remember when we were talking to the grouchy old man in the park, and he mentioned something to me about having money and how I should do something with it?”

“Sure, and you were already planning on doing something with it,” he pointed out. “You just haven’t gotten the money and worked through the whole process yet.”

“Exactly,” she said, “and I don’t know if this is a good idea or a bad idea.” Then she hesitated again.

“I won’t know if you don’t spit it out.”

“Okay. It bothers me to think that rape kits haven’t been analyzed.

” He studied her, waiting, and she continued.

“I don’t know what we’re talking about as to the cost to process each one or if there’s a way to potentially donate money to get that done.

Or if I need to set up… a foundation or a trust or something.

Then maybe we could work on getting that backlog done. ”

She watched as a huge and incredibly gentle smile crossed his face, and he nodded. “That would be a lovely idea.”

“Do you think so?” she asked anxiously. “Is it something that I can even help with? I don’t even know what that would cost or what I eventually will get from Nick, when he distributes Mathew’s estate to me.”

“Any help would be great,” he added. “I mean obviously we’d have to figure out how, and I don’t even know what the backlog looks like for those rape kits.” He took a moment and shook his head. “There is definitely some backlog.”

“You hear all these horror stories from down south.”

“Yes, and I don’t think our backlog is as bad, but I really don’t want to say that for sure.”

“No, of course not,” she noted, “and the minute we think it’s not bad, we’ll find out that there are all these cold cases that haven’t been solved.”

“I expected you wanted to put time and energy and money into the cold cases.”

She grinned at him. “Oh, I do,” she exclaimed. “I really do. However, I was hoping that maybe I could work on the cold cases a little more formally.”

His eyebrows shot up. “We’ll talk to the captain about that. I’m sure there are some legalities, but…”

“But,” she interjected, “money opens doors.”

He grinned. “It opens doors, but also an awful lot of people could use a hand.”

“I know, and I’m starting to make a list, which is hard since I don’t really know how many I can help,” she explained, “because that’s still all in the realm of mystery, until the money is sorted.”

“Of course it is,” he agreed, smiling at her, “but the fact is, I’m really proud of you for this. You are starting to get a good idea of who you want to help and how you want to help—and that’s just as important.”

“I feel as if there won’t be enough money,” she shared soulfully.

He smirked, shaking his head. “Maybe not, because, if you get too expansive on who and how you want to help, you can run through it pretty fast. However, if you invest it, so that a certain amount is designated to hand out every year, and you stick to that allotment, it can work. Not to mention you have or are getting tens of millions just from Nan’s stuff, right?

Mathew’s and Robin’s estates will double, triple that, I would assume. ”

“I hope it can. I talked to Nick about it.”

“Good idea. I think you should work on setting up your own charity, designating certain sums to these other charities or projects or whatnot. Nick can probably help you with that too,” he suggested.

“I’m sure you can get way more done than you thought you could.

Yet, even without knowing what kind of money is involved, at least you have an idea of where you want to start giving some of it. ”

She smiled. “You don’t think it’s a silly idea?”

He tugged her into his arms. “No, it’s definitely not a silly idea. As somebody who works in law enforcement, I think it’s an absolutely wonderful idea. And it makes me very proud that you’ve been thinking of it.”

“Let’s hope that we can do something about those rape kits,” she declared. “As for Mathew’s properties, I do know that there are those darn secret rooms. What I don’t know is the extent of what might be in them.”

“If you want to go treasure hunting,” he offered, “I’m totally up for one.”

She grinned at him. “That could be a lot of fun.”

“We can meet my brother there too, assuming he’s up for it.”

“If you can leave your mother alone,” she pointed out.

He stopped, considered that, and asked, “We’ll probably be gone for what?… A weekend?”

“That was my thought,” she said.

“Do you want to stay in the house?”

“Oh, I can’t do that, can I?” Then she frowned.

He shrugged. “It’s your house.”

“Ooh, ouch,” she muttered, rubbing her temples. “Let me think about it,” she murmured.

“No pressure, but it is something to keep in mind.”

“It is. I just hadn’t…”

“I know.” He smiled. “Of course you hadn’t. It’s not in you to really consider that.”

“No, it’s such a weird thing to even contemplate that,… that part of my life again.”

“And it’s one of the reasons Nick is doing all that paperwork, so we can get it out of your life,” Mack pointed out, with a bright smile.

“Also something I hadn’t really considered,” she acknowledged. With a shake of her head, she asked, “Anything new on the cases?”

“No, nothing yet, and that’s definitely troublesome.”

“So, no new information on the X-ray films?”

“We’ve sent out images of them to the recycling company. So far, we haven’t heard back. I did try to phone them this afternoon, but apparently some big convention or something is going on. The person I need to talk to about the old X-ray wasn’t in the office, but he should be back tomorrow.”

“Don’t you just love that?” she muttered.

“Nope, I sure don’t,” he declared, with smile. “And I already know you don’t.”

“We want to know stuff.”

“Right. And I often want to know stuff,” he confirmed, as he eyed her intently. “I don’t always get what I want either.”

She glared at him. “So, you’re talking about me not sharing everything with you.”

“I’m happy to hear that you are sharing some things with me,” he began, with a smirk. “But you and I both know that lots of times you try to skirt around sharing, so you don’t have to tell me.”

“Only if I think you’ll take me off the case,” she muttered. The grin that flashed across his face just made her heart melt even more.

“And I realize that,” he acknowledged. “I know that you’re doing everything you can do to help close these cases, and you have done more than a crazily phenomenal job. Yet we do need information on our time frame and not just your time frame.”

She winced and nodded. “I get that. Hopefully, in this case, we can get some information and move forward.”

“What? You don’t have a way forward right now?” She glared at him, and he laughed. “How about a walk?” he suggested. “Just down the river and maybe get some fresh air. You seem to be struggling.”

“I’m not struggling as much as… frustrated.”

“Same diff,” he said. “You and I both know that getting up and getting out for even a few minutes of fresh air often makes a huge difference—even if it is frigid fresh air.”

Since he was absolutely right, she didn’t bother arguing.

“I know the animals would be more than happy to have some fresh air too,” she murmured. They got up, quickly put on jackets, deciding to forego all the leashes since they were right at their own home base.

She stepped outside, and the cold hit her in the face, and she gasped, the air sending icicles down to her lungs.

“Wow, it got cold.” Meanwhile, Mugs and Goliath ran outside, not deterred one bit.

Thaddeus did snuggle closer to the warmth of her neck, hidden behind her hair. Doreen hoped he was cozy enough.

“It did get cold,” Mack agreed, “and that is also to be expected. It is winter in Canada.”

“Right. I’m still more accustomed to Vancouver-type weather.”

“You can be accustomed to it all you want, but you’re here now. Besides I’ll take the cold over wet any day.”

She glanced over at him and nodded. “So do I. Not to worry. I’m staying.”

The briefest of smiles touched his face, and he grabbed her hand, and, holding hands, they walked down the river.

“Do you ever worry about me leaving?” It was a new thought, but now that it was in her brain…

“No, but when you make comments sometimes, about it’s really cold, it does concern me.”