by Dana Mentink
Relief coursed through her veins. “Good. Thank you.”
“I’ll check the house before I move my gear to the trailer.”
His gear. A mission to complete. Why did it give her a tinge of remorse? Of course it’s a mission, Keeley. For both of us. What else could it be?
True to his word, he checked every window and door, covering the broken glass with a dry layer of cardboard to replace the one that had gotten soaked in the storm.
“Need to get a new window tomorrow. Easy to install. I can do that for you.”
Keeley bit her lip. “Um, actually, the window will need to wait.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Not safe to leave it like that.”
“I know.” She eyed the stack of bills on the sideboard. It would be another two days before the anonymous check would arrive. “It will need to wait a little while.”
He took it in, understanding dawning. “Oh. Right.”
Cheeks burning once again, she followed him to the kitchen door and let him out into the backyard. “Okay, then. Good night.”
“Good night.”
She closed the door. His bulky frame did not move from the porch step. What was he waiting for? She pulled it open again.
“Lock the door,” he said. “I mean, could you please lock the door?”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “I was intending to.” She slid the lock home.
On the way to take the hottest shower she could manage, she checked the message on her phone.
“Hey, Keeley,” John said. “I tried calling before, but you weren’t answering. Can you help me? I’ve got the hummingbird almost ready to release, and I did an osprey rescue last night. I’m up to my ears in birds.” He laughed. “Anyway, could sure use your help.”
She appreciated his tone—not a demand but a humble request. Guiltily she realized she should have been helping him more, especially with the voracious demands of the Anna’s hummingbird baby. Quickly she punched in a text. Will be there tomorrow. Sorry.
Should she add something about the past twenty-four hours? How could she capture the crazy actions of Charlie and Bruce? Or her shock at finding out Ginny was already at the Hudsons’ house?
Or, she thought, the uncomfortable realization that she had come to trust Mick Hudson.
She left the text the way it was and hit the send button before she took a shower, flopped down on the sofa and slept.
*
Mick listened to the wind send pine needles dancing over the top of the trailer. It was not yet 4:00 a.m. and he was wide-awake. Though he’d never admit it, the small bed with the musty mattress was more comfortable than his truck, even if his feet hung over the bottom and he had to sleep with his head on the frame. He replayed the moments on the porch step again and again in his mind.
I’ve been very conscientious about shutting people out even when God opens the door and lets them in.
Was that what had happened? Had God opened a door for him to step into Keeley’s life? Cold sweat popped out on his forehead. No, God would not have ushered him into Keeley’s life, because if he failed her like he’d done LeeAnn…
Mick sat up. He could not think that way. Keeley was going to escape Tucker Rivendale and Mick was not going to let any odd emotions cloud the issue. Still, he could feel her hand on his heart as she said the words, the press of her lips when he’d found her in the storm.
Junie and I need you to help us out of this mess.
That’s it, Mick. They need you for your skills, such as they are, so don’t get sloppy. Do the job. Find Rivendale. That’s all.
The thoughts drove him out of bed, and he scraped a razor over his chin and combed his hair. Doing push-ups on the narrow stretch of linoleum flooring, he planned out the next action. The rooftop. Tucker wanted something there; he’d camped out in that old building for a purpose. He had to figure out why. Cops were probably finished with the crime scene by now. It wouldn’t hurt to drive over and check it out while they were waiting for Uttley to return from his errand. He’d felt the ripple in his gut again, the unease that Uttley wasn’t on the up-and-up and that Mason was covering for him.
When he finished the push-ups followed by a series of crunches, he texted Reggie and arranged to meet him to compare notes. No need to go into detail until they met face-to-face.
Reggie did not reply. Not surprising, as the man required his “beauty sleep” as he put it. Reggie had always been vain about his hair, dying the gray away, and his clothes. It must have been hard for him to adjust to losing an eye. He knew how hard it was for some of the marines he’d worked with to face their disfiguring injuries. Again the anger rose in his gut like bile. Reggie wasn’t perfect, but he hadn’t deserved to be half blinded. It was time for Tucker to finally be brought to justice.
*
Finally, the kitchen light flicked on in Keeley’s house. Mick tucked in his shirt, ready to go until he saw the knife, nestled in its sheath in the bottom of his bag.
Reggie’s admonition echoed in his mind. You don’t have a gun? How are you gonna take him out before he kills the girl? He didn’t want to pick up that knife, to admit to himself that he might actually have to take a life again.
But if Keeley’s life hung in the balance?
Or June’s?
Quickly he fastened the knife at his waist and threw on a flannel shirt to cover it. When he knocked softly on the door, Keeley opened it immediately and ushered him into the toast-scented kitchen.
She handed him a plate and a cup of coffee. “You’re probably going to get tired of toast. I know how to make enchiladas, too, but they aren’t good breakfast material.”
“Toast is great.” He eyed her laptop. “Been busy?”
She grinned. “I sent off the pictures I took last night, thanks to you, so at least I’ll get paid for that.”
Her grin was infectious, so innocent and joyful. He wanted to imprint it in his memory so he could experience it again and again after she was no longer in his life. Something poked at his heart. “Happy to help.”
“The sanctuary really is an amazing place. I can see why your family loves it there.”
“You’re welcome anytime.” What would it be like to have her regular presence on the property? He’d show her the overlook where there was a breathtaking view of the waterfowl during the migratory season. She’d smile and let loose with one of those carefree laughs, and maybe throw her arms around him, and they’d experience the wonder together. He shook the insane thoughts away. Quit daydreaming, Hudson. Your time with Keeley is ticking down, and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
“I’m going to help John today right after I call Junie, so I’ll be gone for a little while.”
John? It took him a moment. John Bender. He realized he was frowning, so he tried to cover by drinking coffee. He downed most of the cup in one gulp. She refilled it.
“I’ll take you over to his clinic. Wait in the truck, if you don’t want company.”
“I think I’ll already have Officer Mason following me. I know you were going to talk to Reggie. Uttley called, and he’ll meet us at noon at the station.”
Mick drank more coffee. Should he leave her alone with the vet?
Keeley sipped her own coffee, regarding him with raised eyebrows. “I’ve known John for years.”
“He’s made some strange decisions, showing up on that rooftop, not calling the cops right away.”
“He’s not a law enforcement type, Mick. He was LeeAnn’s boss, and he loved her.”
“I guess that’s what bothers me. He loved her, but she loved Tucker. He doesn’t seem to get that, or is it me that’s mixed up?”
“No.” Keeley chewed on her lip. “He made no secret to LeeAnn about how he felt, and it almost made her quit her job at the clinic, but they came to an understanding. She wasn’t in love with John and never would be, and he finally accepted that.”
Did he? “Would be hard on a man, to be in love with a woman who didn’t love him back, and have her
so close all the time.” It was unnatural, in his opinion, to let the situation continue.
“He settled for friendship for her, and—” Keeley frowned “—hatred for Tucker. He would tell her all the time that Tucker was no good, a louse, until she said if he didn’t stop she would quit. After that, he kept his thoughts to himself.”
Mick didn’t reply, but Keeley must have seen doubt on his face.
“I trust him, and I’ve worked at the clinic since…” She trailed off.
Since LeeAnn’s murder. The coffee burned in his gut.
“If you’re sure,” he said, jaw tight.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
He waited until she was ready to go, and opened the door of her Jeep for her.
“See you later,” she said.
He watched Mason follow along behind. Mick drove to the cabin, where he found Reggie sitting amid a messy pile of papers and cruise brochures. He waved a colorful ad at Mick. “Panama or Hawaii? Which one would Nadine like better? She’s really actually contacted a lawyer this time, so I’ve got to step up my game.”
“Not that I’m an expert in women…” Mick started.
“Clearly not.”
“But again, how is a vacation going to fix your marriage?”
Reggie threw down the brochures. “It will give us quality time to focus on each other so she can remember why she married me in the first place. My charm, my wit, intellect.”
“Humility.”
He laughed, then his face grew sober. “She’s a good woman. I know this job has hardened me, given me a cynical side that’s just plain ugly.”
Mick nodded. Law enforcement did that.
“It’s not fun to be married to me, especially after the Tucker incident. I try to make it up to her with things, a new car and such, but I know at the end of the day she still feels as though she’s married to somebody she doesn’t like.” He sighed. “I told her when I retire, things will be different, if she can just stick it out a little longer.”
“Can’t picture you retired.”
Reggie laughed. “I like to give her hope that things will improve.”
“You’re still the same guy she married,” Mick said. “Down deep somewhere.”
“Always the optimist, Mick,” Reggie said quietly. “That’s why we’re here right now.”
It was. His disastrous optimistic view of Tucker Rivendale. “But isn’t that why we got into the business in the first place? Believing that people can pay for their mistakes and be rehabilitated?”
“Pie in the sky.” His tone grew sad. “How many sob stories have we heard? Parolees who promised up and down they were on the right path and wound up in jail again in less than a year? All those pretty promises that turn out to be lies.”
And that was where he failed with Tucker, not being able to see through those false promises.
I’m going to make a good life for me and LeeAnn, Tucker had said. The memory tortured Mick, the smile, the strong handshake. Thanks for believing in me, man. You’re the only guy who ever did. Mick blinked back to the present to find Reggie staring at him.
“What happens when you’ve got too many years on the job and you can’t sort out lies from truth? Even in yourself?”
The silence stretched between them. “I don’t know, Reg. I have no answers.”
“Yeah, me, neither.” Reggie let loose with a bone-cracking stretch and sank back onto the sofa. “Enough soul-searching. Let’s get down to business.”
Mick sat and told Reggie all the details about Charlie and Bruce.
“So Ginny is gone, you think? Skipped town, maybe?” Reggie asked.
“Probably, but she has or had some type of connection to the brothers. Maybe Rivendale does, too. They might be in the same business. The brothers were suspected of running a chop shop, and Rivendale is the best at jacking cars.”
Reggie’s good eye narrowed. “Let me call a buddy of mine. Chop shops are his specialty. I’ll run it down.”
“Going up to the roof.”
“Haven’t released the crime scene. I checked.”
“I’ll check again.”
Reggie considered. “Fair enough. Where’s Keeley?”
“With John Bender.”
“Bender.” The pause spoke volumes. “What a guy.”
“Don’t trust him, either?”
“I don’t trust anyone and until we catch Rivendale, and you shouldn’t, either.” Reggie walked him to the door and gripped his forearm. “He’ll kill you if he gets the chance. Don’t give him that opportunity.”
Mick nodded. “I don’t intend to.”
FOURTEEN
Keeley breathed in the smell of antiseptic as she stepped into the back room affectionately dubbed Bird ER. John was filling a feeder attached to the side of a seven-foot wire aviary in which the iridescent Anna’s hummingbird zipped back and forth, observing his actions with curiosity.
John smiled at her. “It’s so much easier now that she doesn’t need syringe feeding. I think another week or so and she’ll be ready for release.” His face grew sad. “I was just thinking how much LeeAnn loved to care for baby hummingbirds. Remember when we had six at one time? She camped out on the floor in a sleeping bag to feed them all.”
Keeley’s throat thickened at the memory. She’d taken care of June at nighttime so LeeAnn could tend to the babies, no bigger than bumblebees. Thanks to LeeAnn’s tenacity, they had all survived, every last precious bird. Keeley made a mental note to tell June about her mama and the baby birds. Maybe she could bring June to the clinic next week if Tucker was caught. It seemed a long shot, but she held on to it. Her life had to return to normal at some point.
John looked so crestfallen, she put her hand on his shoulder. “She would have been happy that this hummer is almost ready to see the world.”
He cleared his throat. “Yes, she would have been.”
Keeley did not want to indulge any other memories. Her heart was filled with the twin emotions of fear for Junie and tenderness for Mick. Mick… There he was again in her thoughts. If she didn’t end the situation soon, her heart might be compromised.
There was no room for anyone but Junie.
None.
She set to work cleaning the cages of the downy woodpecker that was recovering from crashing into a glass door and a kestrel that was still underweight, probably ill from consuming a poisoned rodent. The pair of baby crows that had been saved from a menacing cat would be ready to be released soon. They squawked their disapproval of her presence.
John worked on updating his notes for each bird, in that meticulous, exacting way that made him a superb avian vet. She gazed at the pictures on the wall: photos of the birds rescued at the Bender Veterinary Clinic, and the staff. There was a photo of John standing next to an older man, both smiling stiffly in front of a neat stucco building.
“Is that your dad?”
He started. “Yes. I worked at his vet clinic for a while.”
“Why didn’t you two go into partnership? Bender and Bender.”
He shrugged. “Sounds like a law firm. Anyway, we don’t see eye to eye on things. He thinks he knows the right way to do everything, and he won’t ever listen.”
“There can’t be two head chefs in the kitchen?”
“Especially when one is wrong most of the time.” He continued writing, the mechanical pencil held delicately between his fingers.
Keeley swept up some feathers that littered the floor, one a bright green. She thought about a question she’d never asked John.
“What ever happened to the bird LeeAnn was rescuing?”
John started. “What?”
“The day she was killed. You called her and told her about an injured Quaker parrot in the feral colony, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I was busy, but she went immediately to see what she could do.” He looked at the floor. “I wish that I had gone with her.”
“How did you know about the bird? It was early in the morning.” She re
membered it was a time when Junie was spending the night with her auntie Keeley. It gave her a pang to remember how she’d once been a mere auntie to the child.
He nodded. “Before six. Someone called the vet clinic and left a message after hours the night before, explaining they’d seen an injured feral parrot.”
“Who was it? One of your patients?”
“No. They didn’t leave a name.”
“So what happened to the parrot?”
He tapped the pencil gently on his file. “I don’t know. The cops said there was no sign of her ever having made it to the rooftop.” His mouth hardened. “For some insane reason, she met up with Tucker somewhere and they fought. He killed her before she could ever reach the building, most likely. Beast that he is.”
“Did you ever go back to check for the wounded bird?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, when I could bring myself to do it, but I didn’t see any sign of an injured parrot.”
Keeley swept the feathers into the dust pan. “There’s a guy, isn’t there, who sort of cares for that colony? What’s his name?”
“Meeker, I think. Meeker something. Haven’t seen him around in a while.” He put the file folder into a tidy drawer. “Why are you thinking about the parrot?”
“I don’t know. I guess everything that’s happened lately has brought that day back in living color.”
“Painful.”
“Yes.”
“People tell me,” he said carefully, “that the best thing to do is move on, don’t dwell on the past.” His eyes shimmered with pain. “Have you been able to do it?”
“Not fully. You?”
He shook his head. “LeeAnn is perfect.”
She didn’t correct his verb tense.
“There isn’t another woman like her,” he said.
Keeley agreed. She wouldn’t have even been able to make it this far if God hadn’t delivered June into her lap, but she did not have the luxury of living in the past when He’d tasked her, no, blessed her, with the responsibility of her little girl’s future. “It’s hard, but I don’t have a choice. I have to move forward for Junie.”