by Jeff Carson
“And you’d put it all together soon after.” Rachette scrunched his face. “But why didn’t they just kill you? What was with that whole offering you a job thing?”
Wolf shook his head and thought about the pained look on Gary’s face before Rachette shot him. “I think Gary really did think of me as the son he never had. And he probably felt guilt over killing my father or something. Probably trying to pay some karmic debt with me.” Wolf shrugged. “I don’t know. He let me stay on that ranch for years without me paying a cent.
“Offering me that job, he probably figured he could kill two birds with one stone—pay me massive amounts of money to feel better about himself, and get me out of the picture at the same time.”
Rachette gazed out the window, which was now vibrating with the wind. “And put Sheriff Derek Connell in office, with his new right-hand man, Vickers.”
Wolf caught the waitress’s eye and waved for the check.
She came over, dropped the check and pulled the plate away.
Wolf smiled, avoiding eye contact as she left. “Thanks.” It didn’t matter that a beautiful woman was coming on to him; he couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah.
Rachette seemed to read his mind. “How’s Mark doing?”
“He’s conscious. He’ll make a full recovery.”
Rachette nodded and palmed the table. “And finally.”
Wolf raised his eyes.
“You going to be sheriff of this frickin’ town or what?” Rachette slid out of the booth sideways.
Chapter 45
Wolf was grateful for the wind and rain outside on the day of his brother’s funeral. He didn’t need the visual of his brother being lowered next to his father anyway.
Instead the service had been held inside, and now that the sad affair was finally over, Wolf and his mother stood next to the chapel door giving hugs and gratitude to a dwindling line of family and friends. An icy breeze fluttered against them as another guest left and headed out into the fall storm.
Sarah lingered at the back of the line with folded arms, nodding for people to cut in front of her. Jack stood at his mother’s side staring at Wolf with sad eyes, and Wolf winked with a reassuring smile.
Margaret Hitchens was next in line. Gripping Wolf’s arms she said, “I’m so grateful you’re okay, David. And I’m so sorry for what I allowed to happen with the council vote.” She stared hard into his eyes, then nodded quickly. “We’ll be appointing the right man for sheriff on Monday.”
She reached up, kissed him on the cheek, and left.
With agonizing slowness, the line oozed out the door and Wolf was finally face to face with Sarah and Jack.
Sarah took a hug from his mother and accepted the barrage of compliments about her appearance, then turned to Wolf. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.”
“Jack, give us a few minutes, okay?” Sarah said, grabbing Wolf’s arm and tucking herself close as they passed through the door into the driving drizzle.
Looking back, Wolf caught Jack raising his eyebrows, a hopeful expression on his face that wrenched Wolf’s gut.
They walked down the chapel steps towards the whipping blue tarp that covered his brother’s grave.
“How is Mark doing?” He gave her a sidelong glance, trying to sound sincere.
She nodded, keeping her eyes on the ground. “He’s doing great. He’s sleeping a lot, but I’ve also been talking to him. He wakes up for a couple hours each day now.”
“That’s good, Sarah.” Wolf gripped the umbrella with two hands as another gust hit.
Sarah squeezed the inside of his arm and shivered.
After a few more seconds of silence he asked, “What’s going on, Sarah?”
She stared forward and took a deep breath, like she was psyching herself up. “I want to tell you about what happened. About how … things fell apart. About everything. It can’t wait any longer. And I’m so sorry I’m telling you today, on this day.” She looked towards the graves of his brother and father, and her lips quivered as tears streamed down her face. She stopped and let go of his arm, and wiped her cheeks with both hands.
He stopped and turned to block the wind. “Just tell me.”
She exhaled, then looked up at him with her sky-blue eyes. “When you went into the army, after your dad died, I was pregnant.”
Wolf stared at her dumbly. “What? I don’t understan—”
“Just let me talk, okay?”
Wolf nodded, “Okay.”
She steeled her expression and spoke methodically. “And I had a miscarriage.”
Wolf nodded again, and waited for her to continue speaking. With every moment she didn’t continue speaking, Wolf felt his skin flush hotter and hotter.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “I ... why didn’t you tell me? This was why you became hooked on drugs? Why we broke up? I don’t understand.”
“No, David, you don’t understand,” she looked at Wolf with a pleading expression.
“Then tell me.” Wolf regretted his harsh tone immediately.
Her expression turned hard for an instant, then softened as she took another deep breath. “You came home two days after it happened. You came home from a mission. It was around my birthday. Do you remember? I was sick that week, and I didn’t want to … you know, get intimate.”
Wolf did remember. “Yes. You were sick,” he said quietly. “I had no idea.”
“I hadn’t yet told you about how I was pregnant. I hadn’t even told my mom, and I was going to surprise you. I was going to surprise you when you came home.” Her face stretched into a pained smile.
Wolf stepped forward to hold her, to comfort her.
She held up her hands. “Please, no. David, we have to talk about all of this. I have to get everything out.”
He stopped and nodded dumbly.
“That week was when it all started. I had been so stressed out and just … freaked out about being pregnant, but I didn’t want to talk to you about it over the phone, from thousands of miles away. I didn’t want to distract you from the danger you were facing every day. I knew you were coming home, and so I waited. And then it happened, just before you ...” She broke into new tears. “I thought I had caused it. I thought I had caused it because I was so stressed out, because I hadn’t told you.” The words were tumbling out of her now. “I should have told you. I caused it. It’s my fault.”
Wolf stepped forward and hugged her. “No you didn’t. These things happen, Sarah. They happen to a lot of couples. It wasn’t your fault. It happens.”
She buried her face into his jacket and cried.
Wolf stroked her shoulder and stared into the sideways drizzle. Then he closed his eyes and relished the feeling of having Sarah close to him, of her finally opening up and letting her feelings show, for giving him a chance to comfort her, and giving him a chance to understand. There was such a rush of endorphins flowing through him that he was suddenly gripped with shame. He had just heard the most terrible news of his life, and yet he hadn’t felt this … good in years. This alive. This relieved.
She pulled back and wiped her eyes.
Wolf watched her as she pulled out a tissue and gently blew her nose, turning away to hide the act, and he thought that only she could make expelling mucus look cute.
“I was hooked on the painkillers after that week for over six months. Then I just stopped. Totally quit, cold-turkey. And then, three years later, we got married, and I got pregnant with Jack. And then something snapped inside after we had him.” She sniffed. “I just … kept thinking about the first baby, and how I had screwed it all up.”
Wolf started for her again, and stopped when she held up her hands.
“And I think there was partly some post-partum depression, but I started taking the painkillers again. And then I started drinking. Then I took more painkillers, and drank more. I don’t even remember most of that time. Don’t remember being a mother.” She shook her head. “I was a terrible mother. And one da
y, I was living with my parents, and they were taking care of Jack. And you were gone.”
Wolf felt another wave of shame for being gone so much.
“And I was just so depressed. So I …” She shrugged and flipped her hand. “Just kept going. Then my parents took over completely with Jack, and tried to help me, but at that point I’d gone overboard, as you know.”
Wolf took a deep breath. He did know. He remembered the physical and mental transformation she’d gone through while he was in the army. It was startling to come home to a completely different person, one that was the complete opposite of the one he’d loved. It was one of the reasons, the many complicated reasons, he’d gotten out and started a new life at home in the department.
She stared at the ground for a while, then raised her head to Wolf with a determined look. “I’m through punishing myself.” Her voice was resolute through clenched teeth. “I’m through punishing myself, and I’m through punishing everybody.”
Wolf smiled gently and nodded. A gust of wind battered the umbrella and an icy spray of rain sucked the back of his suit pants to his legs.
Sarah stood silently, shifting her weight, like she had something else to say. She turned her head at the approach of pattering footfalls; it was Jack running toward them.
Sarah turned to Wolf. “David, Mark has asked me to move in with him.” She looked up at him and crossed her arms against the cold.
Wolf raised his brow. “Ah.” It was all he could think to say.
“And I’ve said yes.”
Wolf felt the entire planet spin underneath him. “What?”
The thumping footfalls were on them now, and Jack slammed against Wolf’s side, clutching him in a hug. “Jeez, it’s freezing!” He kept his latch tight, burrowing the side of his face into Wolf’s chest.
“What are you guys talking about?” Jack asked, looking between them.
Wolf watched Sarah look into the drizzle behind them.
“He-llo,” Jack said. “What? Were you guys talking about me?”
Wolf pulled his arm out from Jack’s clutches and patted his back.
“What were you guys talking about?” Jack asked again.
“Nothing.” Wolf said, the chill of his voice matching the blustery air. “We were just saying good bye.” He forced a smile and rubbed his son’s head. “Good bye. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. Later.”
Sarah silently beckoned their son, turned, and walked away.
Chapter 46
Wolf walked out of the half-standing ranch house at the sound of approaching tires. A spotless black Audi, shining in the morning sun, rolled to a stop. Margaret Hitchens climbed out and walked fast around the rear bumper. She held a packet of fluttering papers in her hand between thumb and forefinger.
“Whatcha doing?” She looked to be suppressing a smile.
Wolf walked to his SUV and threw a duffle bag in the back seat. “Hi, Margaret. How are you?”
Her smile shone through. Putting the papers behind her back, she loped forward with long strides. “Where were you this morning?”
He shrugged. “Sleeping. I had a lot to catch up on.”
She scoffed. “Well? Have you heard?”
“No,” he lied. He’d already gotten a few harassing phone calls. “Heard what?”
“Congratulations.” She thrust out her hand. “Sheriff Wolf.”
He smiled without any teeth and shook her hand. “Thanks, Margaret.”
She smirked. “You have already heard.” She looked around, making a sour face at the pile of charred rubble that used to be the kitchen, then at the duffle bag on the seat. “Again, David, whatcha doing?”
He shut the SUV door. “Moving out. Actually, I’m going to need your help finding some place to rent.”
“Yeah. That’s kind of why I’m here. I want you to see something.” She pulled the packet of paper in front of her and held it out.
Wolf took it.
A hyphenated-name of a law firm was printed in the top left of the front page, and the heading said, Revocable Transfer on Death Deed.
Wolf gave it back and walked towards the barn. “Just tell me. I’d rather save myself the embarrassment.”
She slapped the papers on her leg and walked after him. “It shows the property we are standing on right now as transferrable to one David Wolf in the event of Gary Connell’s death.”
Wolf stopped and turned.
She held out the papers again.
Wolf walked slowly back and snatched the packet from her hand. It looked legitimate enough.
He gave her a sly squint. “How did you get this?”
She shrugged and sniffed. “What can I say? I have my sources.”
“Huh.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Wolf’s face scrunched and he looked again. “This just doesn’t make any sense.”
Or maybe it did.
Wolf flipped again through the pages while Margaret watched in silence.
Was Gary so fraught with regret about what he’d done sixteen years ago that he’d left Wolf the ranch in his will?
Or had Gary left Wolf the ranch as a ruse? An insurance policy, to make it seem like he’d cared about Wolf more than he had when Wolf was dead and gone?
It didn’t matter.
He raised an eyebrow. “Free and clear?”
She nodded.
“The whole property? All three hundred acres?”
She raised her eyebrows and nodded again.
He sucked in the crisp fall air and looked at the golden aspens, then the green field beyond the driveway that terminated in the dense pine forest, then up to the snow-dusted thirteen-thousand-foot peaks in the west, and finally at the charred remains of the ailing house his father had built twenty-five years ago.
Then he nodded once. “Fuckin-A.”
She laughed. “That’s what I said.”
THE END
Alive and Killing
David Wolf Book 3
Chapter 1
“My dad and I used to hike up there a lot. I love it up there ...”
And there was number four.
Wolf went back to blocking out the drone of the greasy-headed underachiever in front of him and stared up at a spider web in the corner of the ceiling. It was high up, gently swaying on the breeze of the air-conditioner vent. Too high to stretch up and swipe it away, even with Wolf’s six-foot-three reach.
At least Wolf liked that about his new office. The politics? The fact that he had to be interviewing this candidate? Those were things he didn’t like about his new position, which had put him in this new office. But the ceilings? He loved the airy and light feel of the tall space.
He could probably scoot a chair underneath it and get at it. Wolf blew a puff of air out of his nose as he realized how much thought he was putting into the whole thing.
“Sheriff Wolf?”
Wolf snapped back to attention and looked at the interviewee.
He was smiling at Wolf, like he wanted in on the joke. He looked to the corner of the ceiling. “Whoa, got a doozy of a web up there. Don’t they clean this place?” He laughed too loud and sat back with one arm hooked to the back of the chair. Then he wiped his nose with a sniff and crossed his leg, displaying a smudge of dirt on the knee of his jeans. The sudden movement pushed another wave of body odor across Wolf’s desk.
Nineteen-year-old Kevin Ash, son of the new chairman of the Sluice County Council, Charlie Ash, was a shoo-out, and Wolf had just about heard and seen enough.
The only points Wolf could give the kid on self-presentation were for the collared shirt. Unfortunately, it looked like he’d been storing the shirt in a tennis-ball can for the past year, and demerits for ill-fitting jeans and beyond-broken-in muddy hiking boots negated said points.
Kevin winked conspiratorially. “I’ll tell my dad they need to get someone on that.”
Then there were the shameless mentions of his father in order to help his chances of getting hi
red. That was the fifth. And that was enough.
Wolf stood up and held out his hand. “Thanks, Kevin. I’ve got your résumé, and I’ll be in touch.”
A confident smile stretched across Kevin’s face as he stood.
Wolf shook his hand, walked around his desk, and pushed him gently toward the door. He opened it, and pushed him a little harder into the hall.
“Uh, I guess I’ll check in with my father, or whatever, or I’ll just wait and see—”
“Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll be telling your father what I think. I’ll definitely be in touch with him.”
Relief replaced worry on Kevin’s face and he strutted his way through the squad room in front of Wolf. Kevin nodded and slapped his hand on the corner of Deputy Baine’s desk on the way by.
Baine raised an eyebrow and looked up from his paperwork.
Wolf walked Kevin Ash through the door into and through reception, and then propped open the outside door with one hand. He waved Kevin out, sending him into the cool early June morning, and out of his life.
“Thank you so much Sheriff W—”
The door clicked shut and Wolf walked to the glass-enclosed reception desk where Tammy Granger sat glaring.
“Tammy, if you let another—”
Tammy coughed, pointing a discreet finger toward the seating area behind him.
Wolf glanced behind him and saw a woman in her early twenties sitting stiffly, gaze fixed straight ahead out the window. Wolf noticed that her feet weren’t touching the ground, and estimated her at no more than five-foot two-inches tall. Unlike Kevin Ash, she wore business casual, dressed in dark slacks and jacket.
She turned to him and smiled with a curt nod, a gesture that portrayed confidence and poise, and then went back to staring outside, looking like she was doing a particularly tough calculation in her head, and solving it.