Justin forced me to leave the dogs and have the paramedics examine me, swearing Hayden would leave him if he didn’t. I was fine, but I did as he asked because I believed he was right, and I wanted him in our lives.
I begged him to wait to call her, which he begrudgingly agreed to do, against his better judgment. He did call Max, who showed up in record time. When he saw me leaning against the back of the ambulance, he rushed over and wrapped his arms around me.
I cried on his shoulder. “I would have killed them both if I had to.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know how to deal with that,” I said through my tears. “I could have killed two people. Taken their lives, Max. What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing’s wrong with you. You’re the strongest, bravest woman I know. You would have done the right thing.”
I shook my head as tears rolled down my face. “I know that’s how I’m supposed to think, how I’m supposed to feel, but I don’t. I feel sick about it.”
He wiped the tears from my face. “Don’t. Sam wanted you to be safe, and that’s why he made sure you knew how to shoot. You did exactly what he would have wanted, and if you had to discharge your weapon, that would have been okay with him too.” He pulled me into another hug.
“What about you?” I mumbled into his shoulder.
“What about me?”
“Have I disappointed you?”
He laughed. “You’ve impressed me more than I ever thought possible.”
Justin coughed. “We need her at the station.”
“May I bring her?” Max asked.
Justin nodded.
We had to walk past several squad cars.
“Wait, my dogs. I can’t leave them.”
“A squad is staying until Kerry arrives. I’ve already called her. She’s five minutes out,” Justin said.
I grabbed him and hugged him. “You’d better marry my daughter,” I whispered in his ear. “I’ve always wanted a son like you.”
He smiled. “I’m on it, Mrs. K.”
Max and I didn’t talk on the short drive to the station. When we arrived, Detective Bruno was waiting at the entrance.
“This way,” he said, patting my shoulder. “I hear you handled yourself well.”
I tried to smile, but I was exhausted and coming off a serious adrenaline rush. All I wanted was a glass of water and to snuggle at home with my dogs. “Thanks.”
“You okay?” he asked.
“May I have some water? And what’s going on now? Am I here for questioning?”
He smiled. “We need your statement, yes, but I thought you’d want to hear us question them also.”
My mood lifted a little. “What happened to the dogs they stole? Has anyone found out?”
“Tammy Simpson’s boyfriend, Billy Bryant, the other person at your house, told us they were sent to Dawsonville. You not only caught a murderer, Mrs. Kingston, you busted another dog fighting ring. You should be proud.”
I felt a little proud, but mostly just tired.
They questioned Tammy first, keeping the others separated in the process. Max and I sat in a room attached to the interrogation room, staring at Billy Bryant through a one-way window. I’d like to say the experience was exciting, but it only served to anger me more.
“The van belongs to Kevin,” Justin said. He’d entered the room five minutes ago.
“We saw Tammy and Julie at the pet store. I took a photo of the tag,” I said.
“And you didn’t send it to us?”
I sighed. “I planned to, but things happened, and I guess I forgot.”
“Can we just keep that from Hayden?” He smiled.
“Absolutely,” I said. “Justin, why did it take so long for the police to arrive? My alarm company called them right away.”
He nodded. “Kevin broke the window, and while the dogs barked, he called the police. He told dispatch that he saw the van leaving your house. He described it, giving a different tag number than the one he owns, and dispatch sent the officers after the van.”
“What?”
“Julie Salmonelli called at the same time. She said she was with Kevin, and that you were fine. She used Max’s name, and the dispatch cleared the call.”
“That dispatch should be fired,” Max said.
“In her defense, it’s her second shift. She’ll probably be on probation at the least.”
Bruno pulled up a chair across from Tammy, and we all quieted to listen. “What was the end game, take Mrs. Kingston’s dogs or kill her?”
Tammy stared at the tabletop. “Both.”
“Both.” He nodded. “Sure, that makes sense.”
She looked up at him. “She was getting in our business, and Poplar said she needed to be shut up. That woman he brought on, the snotty one, she wanted me to do it. I shoot deer. I don’t shoot people.”
“So, who was going to?”
She shrugged. “Not my concern.”
Someone knocked on our door and opened it an inch. “Justin, Chief needs you for a sec.”
Justin quietly left the room.
Four hours later, Max and I headed back to my house, where Kerry lay on the couch sound asleep under a pile of dogs. And by pile, I meant pile. She’d brought along the puppies and her two rescues.
“Oh, hey.” She slithered out from underneath the pile. The dogs barely acknowledged us. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Exhausted, but I’m okay.”
“Hayden’s upstairs.”
“I saw her car,” I said.
She slipped on her shoes. “Well, I’ll go home.”
“Kerry, it’s late. Why don’t you just sleep in the guest room tonight?”
She yawned. “That would be great.”
I appreciated that she wasn’t worried, but then again, the squad car sitting at the end of my driveway could have had something to do with that.
After she went to bed, Hayden came down and hugged Max and me. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “You could have—”
I stopped her. “I didn’t, and I’m okay.”
“Hayden, from what I understand, your mom did everything right. You should be proud of her.”
She eyed both of us suspiciously. “Come,” she said, dragging me to the part of the couch the dogs so graciously kept open. “Tell me what happened.”
So I did. I explained that Kevin wasn’t a stock trader, that he ran various dog fighting rings all over the country and had recently come from Vegas, where he had a warrant for his arrest under his other fake name, Kevin Sanders. His girlfriend, Jessica Lee, otherwise known as Julie Salmonelli, also had a warrant for her arrest.
“Detective Bruno couldn’t find any prints for Julie Salmonelli, which made no sense to him, so when he contacted the city where she was a councilmember, the policeman he spoke to couldn’t understand why he’d want them since Julie Salmonelli had been in a car accident six weeks prior and was in a coma. They hadn’t had a chance to print her because the accident happened the night she was re-elected.”
“Whoa,” Hayden said.
Max nodded. “Normally, cities run the prints prior, when a candidate submits his or her name for an election, but it’s a small town, so they may do things differently.”
“Who killed Shelly Wishard?” she asked.
“According to Julie—I mean Jessica—and Tammy, Kevin, but he refuses to say,” Max said.
I agreed. “That night at the park, Kevin opened his wallet to give someone a card, and his real ID fell out. Shelly found it. She returned it to him, and they argued over it. She questioned the name, and he told her it was none of her business. But she Googled it, and she found out he was under suspicion for managing dog fights. That’s what she wanted to talk to me about.”
“Why call you and not the police?”
“That’s a question we’ll never have answered,” Max said.
“What about the dogs? The ones taken. What happens to them now?”
“They’re being returned to their families. There were over one hundred and twenty-five dogs in Dawsonville.”
“Are you going to take any of them at the shelter?”
“I’m not sure. Three other shelters and rescues have stepped up, according to Justin. We may not need to.”
We discussed everything for another hour, expressing our shock while Hayden and Max talked about how brave and incredible I was. I didn’t feel brave or incredible. I felt shaken and exhausted, but I put on a brave face because Hayden didn’t need to know I was upset. She was worried enough.
“Mom.” Hayden snuggled close to me on the couch. “I hate that you do these things, but I understand. It’s who you are, and I’m proud of you. I know you’d do all you could to save me if my life was in danger. I might not be as cute as Allie and the others, but you’d still feel guilty if something happened to me.”
“So very guilty,” I said, and pressed my head onto her shoulder.
“Oh, I know this is all about you, but Justin told me something exciting on the phone, and I’m not supposed to share it, but I’m going to anyway.”
“The boy knows you can’t keep a secret,” I said.
“This one’s too exciting to keep.” She squeezed her hands into fists. “Justin’s been promoted to detective.”
My eyes widened. “What? That’s great!”
“Really?” Max asked. “I’m glad to see it happen, but isn’t there a process and a chain of command he’s got to follow?”
She nodded. “But his chief said he’s bypassing standard procedure because of his exemplary service and dedication.” Her smile was big and bright. “I’m so excited. I’m going to be married to a detective!”
“That’s awesome, honey! I’m so excited for—wait. What?”
She dug into her robe pocket and pulled out a ring. “You’re right! I can’t keep a secret!” She slipped the ring on her finger and thrust her hand toward me.
I grabbed hold of it and admired the princess-cut solitaire diamond. “That’s stunning, honey.” I squeezed her into a hug.
She shoved her hand at Max. “I’m going to be Mrs. Detective Justin Johns.”
Max admired the ring and hugged her.
“Max, you’ve been so good to my mom and me. After Dad died—” She choked up and had to stop for a moment to gather herself. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.” She cried, though I knew she hadn’t intended to. “I’m sorry. I’m a hot mess of emotions.”
I handed her a tissue.
She wiped her nose and took a moment to gather her emotions.
Max patted her knee. “You don’t owe me a thanks, Hayden. Sam was my best friend, and you all are family to me.”
“You’re family to us too, Max, and that’s why I’d like you to walk me down the aisle. Would you be willing to do that for me?”
His smile lit up the room. “I would be honored.”
Oh geez, it was my turn to need a tissue.
“I’m not supposed to tell you two any of this!” Hayden said, her smile big and filled with laughter. “Please, promise me you’ll act surprised when we tell you tomorrow at dinner.”
“Scout’s honor,” Max said.
I cried and hugged her tight, and then she headed to bed.
* * *
Max poured me a cold glass of water and sat next to me on the couch. “I’ll stay on the couch tonight if you’d like.”
“No, it’s okay. Besides, Magnum probably needs to go out.”
“Good point. You going to be okay?”
“I’ve got a thousand dogs and three women here. No one can hurt us.”
He laughed, but it quickly faded. “I’m glad this is over, and I’m proud of you, but honestly, if you do this again, I’m going to have to handcuff you to me so I know you’re safe.”
I smiled. “It would be an honor to be handcuffed to you, Max Hoover.”
He smiled back. “I have to tell you the truth. I haven’t been honest with you.”
I tilted my head. “About what?”
“About my feelings. About what I said.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Okay.”
“I know you don’t think of me as more than a friend, and I know you won’t go there, but when I said I’d moved on, that wasn’t true. I haven’t, and I’m not sure if I can. I’m not sure how to go about it, exactly.”
I bit my bottom lip and shook my head. “No.”
“No?”
I smiled. “No, you’re wrong. I think I lied too, in a way. Seeing you with that slug attached to your arm, seeing her smiling like she’d won? It made my blood boil. I wanted to claw her eyes out.”
“Oh, well then.” He laughed.
“I’m serious. I’ve never felt jealous before, and I didn’t like it. But it made me realize I do have feelings for you. I can go there, Max. I have. I’m there now.”
He leaned toward me. “It’s about time.” He touched my forehead with his. “So, what do we do now?”
“We write our story together.”