Josie gave Dalton a sympathetic look, her green eyes full of understanding. “Maybe we’ll get snow for Christmas,” she said. “I’ll take you outside, and we’ll make snowballs.”
“And a snowman,” Maisy replied, content once more.
Dalton’s heart shattered all over again at the pain he heard in his daughter’s words. Would Maisy ever be able to forget that day over a year ago when her mom had been taken from them? He didn’t want to remember that day, and he only wished Maisy could wipe it out of her mind, too.
“I’m going to take Luna for a walk,” he said. Anything to get away from the pity in Josie’s eyes and the hurt in his little girl’s heart. Then he shot Josie a signal and mouthed, “We’ll check things outside.”
She nodded and got Maisy involved in helping her find plates and napkins. Their chatter echoed after him when Dalton shut the front door, Luna by his side.
Taking in the cold night air, he breathed deeply and closed his eyes. The dark memories threatened to overtake him, but Dalton had learned through counseling to work through the memories and to focus on seeing his daughter whole and happy again. Being with Josie did make Maisy laugh, at least.
And Lord, make me whole and happy again, too, he prayed.
Maybe the one prayer he asked for Maisy’s sake every day had led him to come to Josie’s home tonight. Truth be told, he had a slight crush on the pretty brunette with the shimmering green eyes. She had a knockout smile and a warm heart. She was a good person and, well, she was easy on the eye. He hadn’t noticed another woman since Eileen had died, but lately he’d noticed little things about Josie. Those little things added up to a whole package that he couldn’t ignore.
Was he ready for that kind of thing? Probably not. Besides, he’d be heading back to Flagstaff after Christmas. He and Maisy could start fresh in a new house, and he’d have a new position as an official K-9 officer.
Dalton cleared his head. He had work to do and a little girl to take care of. No time for such nonsense.
But he couldn’t get Josie’s sweet smile and the kind way she handled his daughter out of his mind. Someone had sent her what could be perceived as a threatening note. So he told Luna to search, and the slender dog took off like a rocket.
Doing her job without hesitation.
He needed to do the same.
They cleared the front and back yards and were headed back inside when Luna’s head went up and a soft growl emitted from her throat. She sniffed the air, and her body turned toward the left. Dalton listened and glanced to the far end of the street, but a shrub blocked his view. Urging Luna forward, he saw a car he didn’t remember from before. Too dark to see the make and model.
Dalton heard footsteps pounding, and then someone jumped into the car and took off in the other direction. Had that someone been watching Josie’s house?
THREE
Josie glanced up when Dalton and Luna came back inside. “We’re all ready. Any sign of the pizza guy?”
“No. Didn’t run into anyone,” he said, his alert gaze moving over the entire room before settling back on her. He looked distracted. “We’ll keep watch,” he added, his hand on the blinds covering the front window. “Maybe he’ll be here soon, and then we can eat and get out of your hair.”
Josie knew something was up, but she didn’t say anything. “Okay, well, we can sit and talk or watch television until the pizza gets here.”
“Talking is a good idea,” Dalton said, turning to face her. “I’d like to get to know you better.”
Josie sent him a questioning glance. The man had hardly spoken a complete sentence to her, other than to get Maisy registered and a quick “hello” and “thank you” here and there. “Sure. What would you like to know?”
“Where are you from?”
She didn’t want to go down this road, but he was obviously trying to conduct an interrogation. “Texas, but you know that, right?”
“Where in Texas?”
“A town near Waco. Pine Cone.”
“You lived in a town called Pine Cone?” Maisy asked with a giggle, her big eyes full of the same inquisitive perusal as her dad’s.
Josie swallowed her fears. “Yes. It’s so small it only has one traffic light and one main street. Pine Street.”
Maisy shook her head and got out her reading book. “Must be a lot of pine trees around there.”
“Yes. Tall, giant pines. Not quite as dainty as the ponderosa pines around here.”
Josie motioned to Dalton. He ordered Luna to stay, and the big dog curled up next to Maisy. Then he walked over to the counter.
“What’s with all the personal questions?” Josie asked.
“I’ll need to gather some background information,” Dalton said in a low voice.
“Why?”
He put both hands on the counter and stared at her with solemn gray eyes. “Relax. Just as a precaution.”
“No,” she said, anger and dread clawing at her throat. “You’re going to do a background check, aren’t you? I had to go through that process in order to open the day care and...everything checked out.”
He tapped the counter. “If you’re being threatened, I need to know who could be after you. Someone from home, maybe.”
Josie didn’t want to delve into thinking about anyone from home coming after her. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going, and the people she’d known had to have forgotten her by now. Even her bitter, heartbroken and widowed mother-in-law Janine Callahan, who was too sick with grief to plot something like this.
“And why do you think it would be someone from Texas?” she countered, hoping he was wrong. She’d tried to keep her past in the past. “It could be an angry parent.”
“Yes, that’s true. Have you had a disagreement with any of the parents recently?”
Josie shook her head. “No. We’ve only been open a few months, and usually if a parent has a complaint, we handle it immediately and try to make it right. If we’re aware of it.”
He processed that for a minute and then said, “Maybe someone is upset with you or someone else at the day care, but they haven’t shared that with you.”
“Why would they go about things in this way?” she asked. “This seems extreme, considering we’ve had nothing but good reviews and our clients send people to us. You know that firsthand.”
“I agree,” he said. “I’m gathering facts, Josie. Not accusing you or anyone on your staff.”
“Are you worried about a repeat of what happened with Patrick?” she asked, concerned about the little boy’s abduction attempt. Maisy had been upset when Patrick went missing. The girl didn’t need to worry about the happenings at the day care, too.
“That incident did come to mind,” he replied. “But we know who tried to take Patrick.”
“Okay,” she said, inhaling to calm her nerves. But her home and business both now held a sinister sheen that reminded her of why she’d left Texas. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. It could be a prank, or it could be that they’re after one of your employees. Anyone working with you having relationship problems? Any hint of domestic violence?”
“No,” she said, wishing he’d back off. “You know my aunt. She’s one of the nicest people in the world. Same with my uncle. We have four other workers who’ve all had extensive background checks, and they’re all trained to work with children. They’re good people. We were thorough in making sure they were suitable to work at the day care.”
“I can believe that,” he said. “Let’s table this for now.”
Thankfully, the doorbell rang. But Josie’s heart sped out of control and she jumped. Then she rushed around Dalton, a wad of cash in her hand.
“No, let me,” he said, pulling out his wallet. “I want to check the delivery person, anyway.”<
br />
“You don’t trust my pizza delivery boy, either?”
“Right now, I don’t trust anyone, and I’m here to make sure you don’t let anyone you don’t know into your house.”
She’d let him in, Josie thought, ragged nerves making her want to scream. But that tension made her appreciate his strong presence. When he opened the door, her regular delivery person looked shocked to see the tall, dark-haired man standing there.
“Oh, hi...uh...Officer,” the young man with bright red hair said. “How ya doing?” He glanced around Dalton and smiled at Josie. “Hey, Miss Callahan.”
“Hey, Ryan. Good to see you.”
Dalton paid the kid and added an extra five. “Thanks, buddy.” Then he glanced up and down the street before he shut the door.
After he’d set the two pizza boxes on the counter, Josie leaned close. “You saw someone out there earlier, didn’t you?”
He made sure Maisy wasn’t listening and then nodded. “But it could have been a neighbor leaving in a hurry.”
“Right,” Josie said, wishing she could believe that. “Let’s eat before the pizza gets cold,” she added to show a sign of bravado.
But she didn’t feel brave. And she’d lost her appetite.
“Maybe you should stay next door tonight with your aunt,” he suggested.
“I’m a grown woman. I won’t let some random letter scare me.”
He didn’t like that response. “You need to take this seriously.”
“Oh, I’m taking it seriously,” she replied. “But...there’s something you don’t know about me, Dalton. I used to cower in fear and try to please everyone. But I’ve changed. I stand up for myself these days.”
He passed out pizza and then stood there staring at her. “I’m glad you’re stronger now, but...sometimes it’s hard to stand up to someone who’s dangerous and deranged. That can get you hurt or worse...killed.”
Josie stared down at her pizza, embarrassment heating her skin. She was being insensitive. Dalton’s wife had been killed. He was just trying to warn Josie to be careful.
Looking into his stormy eyes, she said, “Thanks for the warning. I’ll...call my aunt and tell her what happened and...I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“Good.” He smiled and called Maisy over to the dining table. “Let’s eat, honey, and then we have to get home. You’ve got school tomorrow.”
Josie touched his arm. “Thank you, Dalton, for doing this.”
“My job,” he said. “And...I have to take care of you. You’re one of Maisy’s favorite people.”
Josie felt a new kind of shiver moving down her spine.
The kind a woman got when she realized she might be attracted to a good-looking man.
But she couldn’t explore those feelings until she found out who had targeted her at her place of business today. That was urgent. But add to that, Dalton was moving back to Flagstaff in a couple of weeks. Nothing could happen between them.
* * *
The next morning, Dalton told Chief Ryder Hayes about what he’d found and showed him the letter, which he’d placed in a letter-sized mailing envelope.
“I dusted it for prints,” he said, “but I didn’t find anything traceable. So that means whoever left this must have been wearing gloves.” He leaned back in his chair. “Josie will alert me if she receives anything else suspicious.”
“Best you can do,” Chief Hayes replied, his blue eyes pinning Dalton to the spot. “It could be random, but with kids involved, we can’t take any chances. I don’t want Lily in any danger.”
Lily was the chief’s little daughter. He’d lost his wife to a murderer a few years ago. They had that in common. But Ryder had found a second chance at love with Sophie, the lead K-9 trainer.
“I’m going to do background checks on everyone who works there,” Dalton said. “And I plan to question all of them, too.”
“Once a detective...” Chief Hayes smiled and nodded. “I hear Josie’s a widow?”
“Yes, sir. She didn’t mention that, but I’d heard it also.”
Dalton wondered what had happened to her husband. She was awfully young to be a widow. Maybe he’d ask her about that.
Or maybe it was none of his business. He sure didn’t like people asking what had happened to his wife.
He was happy for the chief, though. Ryder and Sophie planned to get married in February. Sophie had helped Dalton get acclimated to moving into a new area of law enforcement, and she’d shown him how to bond with Luna. Everyone here worked that way. As a team. He liked that.
Now he sat up and glanced at the chief. “Josie Callahan is a capable, hardworking woman. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to come after her.”
The chief’s gaze hardened. “Part of our job is to be diligent and go with our gut. If you have a hunch that something isn’t right, don’t hesitant to follow through. Luna will know what to do.”
“Yes, sir,” Dalton replied.
After grabbing a corner desk, Dalton looked up the Desert Valley Day care website and jotted down the names of the entire staff.
An hour later, he’d cleared several of the employees. Josie had been right. They were all highly qualified to work with children. No arrest reports or criminal activity. Most of them were female, ranging in age from twenty-five to fifty and educated in everything from child development to how to run a mother’s-day-out program. One of them had even worked at the church in that capacity.
He’d saved Josie for last, maybe because he felt guilty about checking up on her. But...everyone had a past, and, while he’d been thorough, he knew people from the past could come looking. That’s how his wife had died. A drug dealer had come looking for Dalton and had taken Eileen instead. But someone had called 911 and the police had immediately spotted the car. Then a high-speed chase had ensued and...the doped-up driver had lost control of the vehicle. The car had crashed into a stand of ponderosa pines and exploded. The driver and Eileen had been killed.
Maisy had been left alone in the house after Eileen had urged her to run next door. Instead of leaving her mother, his brave daughter had hidden and called for help.
He’d heard the alert on the radio, but Dalton had arrived at the scene too late to save Eileen.
Dalton couldn’t let that happen again. He might have missed something that hadn’t shown up on the internet search.
He was about to run the check on Josie when fellow rookie Zoe Trent walked in with her partner, Freya, a beautiful brown Belgian Tervuren with some black tips covering her fur. Zoe’s long, shiny brown hair matched her partner’s. It was a joke around here, but Zoe took it in stride.
“Hey,” he said, smiling. “How’s it going?”
“Good,” she said. “How about you?”
“I can’t complain. How’s Sean liking his new job?” Sean Murphy was little Patrick’s dad. The two had been through a lot.
Dalton’s father ran West Construction out of Flagstaff, and Dalton had suggested Zoe’s new fiancé, Sean Murphy, get in touch with him to find work. West Construction had offices all over Arizona. Sean was now a regular on the construction crew that worked all over Canyon County. New construction was booming right now, so Sean stayed busy. Since Zoe had been assigned to go back to Mesa once the holidays were over, Sean could easily find work there, too.
Zoe sank down on a chair, Freya at her feet. Luna gave her K-9 friend a lift of the head and a little woof. Freya stared at the other dog and gave a doggie smile in acknowledgment.
“He loves building houses,” Zoe said. “Thank you so much for recommending him to your dad. This job is good therapy for his PTSD since your dad doesn’t mind his service dog, Angel, being on-site.”
“I’m glad it worked out,” Dalton replied. Sean Murphy had been injured by an IED while serving in Afghanistan.
Proud of how his family supported returning veterans, he said, “I haven’t talked to my folks in a couple of weeks. I’ll see them after the holidays since I’m pinch-hitting for some of the other officers.”
It didn’t feel like Christmas, but he had to keep his spirits up for Maisy’s sake. “Sounds like you and Sean are happy.”
Zoe’s smile said it all. “Great. Better than great. And Patrick is amazing.”
Dalton missed that kind of contentment in his own life. When he thought of Josie Callahan, his mind went back to work mode. Changing the subject, he said, “What’s up today?”
“We’ve been going through our paces out on the practice yard at the training center,” Zoe said, motioning to Freya. “What’re you working on?”
Dalton gave her the specifics. “Strange and certainly a matter of concern.”
“Sean won’t like hearing this about the day care after what we went through with Patrick, but it might turn out to be nothing much.”
“I hope so,” Dalton replied. “I’m keeping close to this one, though. Maisy was there alone with Josie Callahan last night.”
“I understand,” Zoe said. “Let me know if you need me to pick up Maisy or do any groundwork on the case.”
After he and Zoe caught up a little more, his cell rang.
“Dalton, it’s Josie Callahan.”
She sounded out of breath and upset.
“Are you okay?”
“No,” she said. “We found another note.”
“I’m on my way,” Dalton replied, his gut burning.
Luna sensed his agitation and fell in right beside him. Together they hurried out to his patrol car.
FOUR
Josie held the manila envelope away, staring at it as if it might be a bomb. Her fingerprints were all over it. But she’d found some gloves in the nursery and now she could feel her palms sweating against the sticky latex.
But the words made her go cold.
And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with my sword. Exodus 22:24
Rookie K-9 Unit Christmas Page 12