Wounded Badge Vista
Page 25
Applause, and cries of love erupted. Nick leaned against his stick. He continued, “I was saved by citizens, and protected by my fellow law enforcers. The deputies in this county are a cohesive troop. What does that take? A special leader. When my best friend, and boss, Sheriff Royce and I were pups, she began training me. Then one day, we were taking down a perpetrator. I asked her what to do. She answered, ‘What should you do?’ Of course, I’d been trained what I should do, and I did it. Precisely executed, and finally, confidently, I took down the perp. We’ve all been trained to do what needs to be done. We show that every day of our lives. So, thanks to our commander - a woman years ago proved a woman can do anything a man can do. And, a thanks to a K-9 Deputy named Chance, that proved a dog can do better than all the rest of us put together.”
His children brought Gold Honey to his side. They introduced the newest K-9 deputy to the people. Nick said, “Chance, please teach this adorable Golden retriever everything you know.”
When he returned to his wheelchair, Royce approached. “Thanks, Nick.” She leaned his crutch against the house.
He whispered, “I’m already anxious to get back to work. I missed out on the Cookie and Buck Saga.”
Royce laughed. “You were the subject of the Cookie and Buck saga. And you helped work it out with me. Until you’re tossing the cane, we have a great deal of desk duty for you. Lots of plotting about crime. For now, you run the operation from your office. When you’re ready for the field, we need you there, too. Nick, I’ve missed your humor.”
“Got to have humor,” he teased. He became serious. “They’ll always be cop haters. And there will be good cops and bad cops. People who hate bad cops don’t realize that those of us who are good cops, we hate bad cops worse than anyone. Their actions reflect on us.”
“Yes.” Royce called to Chance. “Hey, I’m going to take her for a walk. Tell Hertha I’ll be back later.”
Royce fastened Chance in her vehicle’s front seat. She drove up to Wounded Badge Vista. Before getting out, she took Chance’s leash. She then carefully made certain Chance’s paw brace was tight.
Together, slowly, Royce walked, and Chance limped, up Corduroy Trail. At times Chance was pensive, holding back slightly. But then she would continue. At the top of the trail, Royce looked toward the ridged stone that stood like an elegant monument to the warriors of goodness. The sunshine fully bathed the stone, and illuminated the plate that held names she knew and loved. She gazed at the naked cliff from where she and Chance might have died. And where a criminal met his death days ago.
Sheriff Royce Madison and her K-9 Deputy stood closely together. They were very nearly leaning on one another. To heal, to protect, to warm, together. “Chance, thank you. It will be fine. We’re doing our very best.”
Chance stumbled, and her whine was soft, but her foot was giving her pain. Royce lifted the German shepherd. She carried her to the SUV. They were being restored. Patched.
As she drove back to help finish out the festive day, she thought about the weeks past. She considered her own future.
She would talk it over with Chance first. “Chance, I’ve made a decision about our lives. Tomorrow morning, when we get up, I’ve got a question. A question I’m going to ask Hertha. And if she says yes, I think we should take the day off. Maybe go fishing, go panning gold, take a picnic, and enjoy the bounty.”
When they approached Nick’s home, and the celebration, the sheriff felt as though both she and Chance were rejuvenated.
The sheriff was getting out of the vehicle, when she announced, “Chance, this was a good mini-outing with you. We needed to face a section of bad life that we experienced. It’s all good from here.” She helped Chance from the vehicle. “Keep it our secret. Just so you’ll be the first to know. In the morning, I’m going to propose to your veterinarian.”
THE END
Author Kieran York
About the Author
Kieran York has lived in Colorado for the past few decades. Nearly all of her fiction has ties or is set in the Colorado area.
She has authored both Sapphic fiction and poetry. The lesbian mystery series, Timber City Mask and Crystal Mountain Veils, were originally written in published in the mid-1990s. A second edition of them was recently released by Scarlet Clover Publishers. A third and fourth in the mystery series, Shinney Forest Cloaks and Rasp Meadow Crossing, were published in 2015 and 2016. All four Royce Madison mysteries have been on the Amazon 100 Best-Seller’s List – LGBT Mysteries. Autumn, 2016 a cookbook featuring culinary dishes from the mysteries was published, Timber County Cuisine. Release scheduled in 2017, is Silver Wilderness Range, the fifth Royce Madison mystery.
York’s fiction also includes Appointment with a Smile, published in 2012. It was a 2013 Lambda Literary Society Award Finalist in the Romance Category. Careful Flowers was released in 2013, followed by 2014 releases – Earthen Trinkets and Night Without Time. In 2015, Touring Kelly’s Poem, Loitering on the Frontier, Primrose, and Trevar’s Team: 1 were published. In 2016, thriller Astray and romance Ballad of Raindrops were published. In 2017, Trevar’s Team: 2 was published. Trevar’s Team: 3 released in 2018.
In 2014, York’s volume of poetry, Blushing Aspen, was published as Sappho’s Corner Solo Poets Series poetry for the year. It won the Rainbow Award Honorable Mention for Poetry, and was a finalist in the Poetry category of Golden Crown Literary Awards. In 2015, the poetry book titled Realm of Belonging was released by Scarlet Clover Publishers. In 2016, the poetry volume, Once Word – the Thought Trilogy was released. In 2017, the second in the poetry trilogy, Festival of a Moment, was released. Knapsack of Stars, the third in the poetry trilogy, published in 2018.
York has two collections of lesbian short fiction. The first was entitled Sugar With Spice, and was published in 1989. The second was released in 2015, and was called Within Our Celebration.
Previously, during the nineteen-seventies and eighties, Kieran worked as a reporter and reviewer for both newspapers, and magazines, and was a magazine publisher for three years. She also wrote and performed songs with a regional woman’s band.
She has been a guest lecturer and panel member at various events, including Rocky Mountain Book Exhibition, and Colorado Musician’s Series. She is a member of Lambda Literary Society and Sisters in Crime.
She has written for Journal of Mystery Readers International. In addition, she has given numerous campus and coffeehouse poetry readings, as well as taught poetry and creative writing workshops. She graduated from Fort Hays Kansas State University, and Attended Mexico’s University of Americas her junior year.
Karen lives in the Rocky Mountain Foothills of Colorado with her schnauzer, Trevy Clover York. She enjoys music, literature, and art. She considers her valuables to include Trevy, and her other family and friends, her library, her antique typewriter collection, and her guitars.
Additional information is available on her websites: https://kieranyork.com and www.scarletcloverpublishers.com in addition you can find her work on Amazon’s Author’s Page at: www.amazon.com/author/kieranyork/
SCARLET CLOVER PUBLISHERS
COMING ATTRACTIONS
TREVAR’S TEAM: 4
Trevar’s Team: 4 is a book about missing manuscripts and murder. Beryl Trevar, Rachel Rosen, Jill Timoteo, and Summer Wade are the team. They live aboard their yacht, The Radclyffe-Hull. And they chase crime.
When an elderly professor shows up at a Palm Beach bookstore, he wasn’t looking for a how-to book. Not at all. He was looking to get top dollar price for original antique manuscripts. Naturally, the proprietor of Pages Book Shop, Clarissa Lamb, said she would first need authentication. She knew they were far too valuable to be on the shelves of a women’s bookstore. If they were authentic, she could put him in touch with a reputable auction house.
She suggested that he have them examined by a world-renowned book expert. When she was called away for a moment, she returned to find the man was gone. Checking surveillance video, she n
oticed that he had tucked his crowded, battered briefcase underneath one of the counters. She was in for a shock when she opened it to find pure literary treasures.
The gentleman had left the area. Clarissa vowed she would find him with the help of her private detective sweetheart. Beryl Trevar, was only too happy to assist. She entreated the help of the other three members of the Radclyffe-Hull Team – Rachel, Jill, and Summer.
The tough Sapphic Team of savvy, brave, intelligent, and gorgeous private detectives take on the case of their lives. They hardly expected to need to dust off their Berettas. After all, it wasn’t like the briefcase was filled with gems, or wrapped stacks of money.
While working this case, the Team of Florida’s snazziest detectives are hired to locate a missing heiress/reality star. Has the woman used her disappearance as part of a reality TV script? Or was she in danger of losing her life? The Team go in search of the wealthy star. Could these two cases possibly intersect in a strange and dangerous way?
DAMSELS OF CASTAWAY CREEK
The miniscule town of Castaway Creek was home to mostly women. Mostly Sapphic women, as it happens. Many had retired in Castaway. Jesse and Mara were approaching sixty, and they had promised they would be spending out their days living right there.
Nestled back away in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was that dot-on-the-map community. Barely a town, the population was half a thousand at tops. Jesse Bonner and her spouse of over thirty-five years, Mara Kerr, were proprietors of the Castaway Trading Post.
Directly across the main street was the Castaway Bar and Grill. It was owned and operated by Ruthie North. Since she just turned forty, she was young enough to be Jesse’s offspring, so Jess figured she needed to direct Ruthie’s thinking. Ruthie was in love with a drifter named Con Fraser. Jesse didn’t take to Con, and she caused a bit of bother once in a while. Con was a tad secretive about her past.
Jesse and Mara had become the town’s heartbeats! The real power in Castaway Creek was its mayor. Castaway’s first and only mayor was a twelve-year old cat named Dottie. The votes had been counted, and every year it was a landslide in Dottie’s favor.
Small town living was never without humor, nor was it without problems. That’s what made Castaway Creek special, Jesse declared.