by Nancy Bush
Brenda “Brandy” Heilman’s death was linked to Thad by DNA as was Bibi Engstrom’s. Rayne’s demise would be forever listed as an accident, which bothered Mackenzie deeply, and only made her more determined to go after miscreants of every kind and try to get justice for them.
Granger Nye’s death was still under investigation. Though Andrew Best was certain Seth Keppler was to blame, the jury was still out on that one. Detective Haynes hadn’t specifically said so but Mackenzie felt he wasn’t giving up. Troi had been cleared of any wrongdoing, so that was a plus. As Emma had said, Troi was the grandson of one of the recently deceased residents of Ridge Pointe, Darla Mandell. According to Troi, he’d met Rayne through Elise and then had later been seen in a make out session with her outside Ridge Pointe. Mackenzie wondered what had happened since between Troi and Elise and Leah, but at least Elise had stopped calling her and demanding some kind of action.
Tommy Carnoff ’s onetime girlfriend, Maureen, had been moved to a nursing home and was doing okay, according to Tommy. It had left Blackie and Plaid with split parenting between Tommy and Taft, which suited everyone just fine.
Two days earlier Mackenzie had stopped in to see Emma and Duchess at Ridge Pointe in her rental car as her RAV was still being fixed, and had learned Emma wasn’t as satisfied with the Ridge Pointe Independent and Assisted Living as she’d thought she would be. She’d said she missed Old Darla and Mrs. Throckmorton and the cat, which had disappeared around that same weekend.
Emma had related, “I might move home with my sister. She and Cooper Haynes are getting married. But I want Twink to join us and I don’t think she will.”
“I’ll have to congratulate Cooper,” Mackenzie told her. “Twink’s the cat?”
“It has a dumb name so I shortened it. But it’s gone.”
“Maybe it will come back.”
Emma had looked skeptical. “It didn’t like Duchess. They were frenemies.”
“Maybe you can tell someone here about it, or your sister, or your niece... ?”
She’d shaken her head, said, “You don’t have to give them your life story,” and had gone in to dinner.
Then today, to Mackenzie’s surprise, Chief Hugh Bennihof had come to see her at Stephanie and Nolan’s. She’d been stuffing her boxes into the back of her SUV when he pulled into the drive behind her.
“I’d like to offer you your job back,” he told her, smiling as if he was bestowing the biggest award on her that anyone could ask for.
She’d answered carefully, “I’d like to be a detective.”
That had thrown him. “Well, that takes some years on the job. There are quite a few candidates ahead of you.”
“Like Bryan ‘Ricky’ Richards?”
“I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but it would be a wait.”
It would never happen. She’d known it before she’d even asked. She hadn’t decided quite what she wanted to do about him, but she’d already determined she wasn’t going to put herself in any situation where he was her boss.
“Thanks for the offer,” she said coolly.
Her tone had given him his answer and his face took on a pissy look. Mackenzie thought about Katy Keegan and was leaning more and more toward thinking she was trying to take back power rather than really wanting a relationship with the man. And anyway, she wasn’t giving up her job with Taft to go back to the department.
Now she looked around the mess of boxes and belongings that she’d piled in her new living room and felt satisfied. She and Taft were going out for those Goldie Burgers they’d missed the night she’d been abducted. It wasn’t a date in the usual sense. It was a working meal. Taft was bound and determined to bring down his own frenemy, Mitch Mangella, and he’d asked Mac to help him. No more sidelining. She was part of the team.
* * *
The cat switched her black tail back and forth. The people in the house had lured her in with good smells, but they’d never let her go back out. They had a litter box, and a scratching post and squeaky toys the cat found off-putting.
She picked up a paw and licked it, gnawing a bit on her claws and pad, but one ear was cocked, listening for the door. When the man came home today and the woman started complaining about the messy child who stumbled after the cat and made loud sounds and grabbed the cat’s tail and squeezed hard, there would be a moment or two when the door was held open.
Today she was going to escape and go back to the place with the white, fluffy cream and the man who smelled like skunk.