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Ben stood beside her as two medics loaded Dash onto a stretcher, cuffed his hands to the sidebars, and walked his stretcher to the helicopter.
“You didn’t kill him.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I am—a little.”
“Maybe you’re a good influence on me.”
“Or maybe you decided your agency could get more information out of him alive. Maybe your mind won out over your grief.”
She turned and smiled at him. “You’re a pretty smart guy, Ben Lapp.”
“Am I now?”
“Seem to be.”
She waved away the medic approaching her. The pressure bandage had come lose sometime during the last hour and blood once again seeped through her shirt, but it would keep. She wasn’t going to bleed out because of it. Once she saw Dash handed over to the director, she’d go to medical and have it stitched up properly. She did accept the bottle of water that Ben offered and slugged down half of it.
“Thanks.”
“Gem gschehne.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’re welcome.”
They walked to the end of the alley, where they could see the park.
“No one was killed? You’re sure?”
“Several guys on the volunteer fire crew are Amish. They told me the worst of it was a broken ankle, two sprains, and a couple of near heart attacks.”
“Not great.”
“Nein.”
“But not bad...” She raised her right hand and he slapped his palm against it. “We make a good team.”
“Do we?”
“You should think about coming to work with the agency.”
His laugh was full, rich, enticing. “You should think about farming.”
Someone called out to her, she turned toward the helicopter, raised her hand to indicate she’d heard, and then turned back to Ben. “Thank you, for everything.”
“You already said that.” And then he surprised both of them by stepping closer, slipping his hand under her chin and kissing her ever so gently on the lips.
“Wow.” She stepped back, unable to stop the smile that was spreading across her face and feeling like a teenager on a first date. “I didn’t see that coming.”
“Take care of yourself. Promise?”
“I always do.”
She didn’t look back. She’d spent so much of her life leaving people. She couldn’t bear to look back. So instead she jogged to the helicopter, grabbed the hand reaching down for her, and felt herself being pulled up and in. She clipped into the harness, and as the helicopter rose, she glanced down.
Ben remained at the end of the alley, one hand raised to cover his eyes against the setting sun, the other waving.
They flew over the park, which was a jumble of left-behind possessions and crime scene tape and evidence waiting to be gathered. But no bodies, and for that she was grateful.
The park area grew smaller until it resembled a child’s toy.
🙛
Ben heard from her only one time after that.
He’d checked the recorder at the phone shack to see if his bruder had called. He was planning a fall trip to Maine to try the fishing and to consider a move. He’d held onto the past long enough. He was ready, even eager, to move forward.
“This message is for Ben Lapp.”
Just hearing her voice brought a smile to his lips.
He sat on the single stool in the phone shack, staring at the recorder, willing her to make the message a long one.
“Ben, this is Nora. I want you to know that what we did, well it stopped the others. He’d set up a cascading protocol—he wanted to be the first, the event that started it all. When he didn’t make the call, the others dispersed to the wind. We’ve caught about half of them.” There was a pause in the recording, and he could hear the sound of cars and busses and people behind her. “Thank you—again. And say hello to Molly for me.”
Ben was tempted to replay the message, but he didn’t need to. It was good to know that it had ended well, that they had done what needed to be done. He was smiling as he pushed delete on the recorder. Settling his hat on his head, he walked out into the September sunshine and a new chapter in his life.
The End
🙛