Clan of Redemption (6 page)

“So, are you my guardian?
Is that what I’m supposed to believe, that a dog comes out now
where and suddenly he's my guardian?”

Saska wined while I rubbed
his soft ears.

This is all too weird for
me, as my thoughts were all mangled together.

I started to drift off to
sleep.

I woke up feeling rested,
but a little uncomfortable. I looked over and Saska had taken up
almost the entire bed with his feet pushing into my back. Great,
now I have to share my bed, what else will I have to give up? Sully
was already dressed and had put the mattress away, but she wasn’t
in the room, had she already left. I put my robe on, I had to hide
my letter, I put it under my mattress, somewhere that I knew my Dad
would not look, and went downstairs hoping that Sully was still
here, I wanted to talk to her about my letter.

I could hear voices coming
from the kitchen.

“Good morning Jayden, how
are you feeling this morning?” My dad asked with a hint of anger in
his voice.

“I’m ok Dad, how are you?”
I asked with innocent eyes. I knew when I could push my Dad, and
right now wasn't one of them.

“Oh I’m fine, so how was
your night?” he asked. I could tell he knew something but I wasn’t
sure what it was.

Sully was sitting on one
of the stools at the breakfast bar, looking at me with wide eyes
trying not to let my dad see.

“It was an adventure,
thanks for asking,” I said trying to hide any lie.

“So can you tell me why
the police called this morning while you two sleepy heads were
still resting? They are on their way to our house right now?” He
asked.

“The police are on their
way to our house?” I asked as I went over to pour myself come
coffee that Dad had already made. I hope that he put four heaping
scopes; he likes his coffee lighter than I do.

“Yes they are, so let’s
hear what you ladies did last night that would warrant a visit from
the authorities.” My dad handed me a mug and poured my coffee for
me trying to read my face for some answers. I turned to walk
towards Sully and mouthed help to her, but she just shrugged. I
mouthed “Thanks” to her, but she just smiled at me. Saska came to
the rescue by whining at the back door.

“I’ll be right back dad,
Saska needs to pee, and I’ll just be a minute. Sully can you grab a
water dish out of the cupboard, I bet he’s thirsty too?” I asked
with a look that I hoped told her that I didn’t want to give my Dad
any reason to think I was up to anything.

Once we were outside,
Saska went over to the bushes to do his business. I had a feeling
that my Dad was watching through the kitchen window.

Shit.

Shit.

I hate to lie, especially
to my Dad, but Mom's letter told me that I couldn't tell him. I
wouldn't put my only parent left

“Sully, have you told my
Dad anything?” I asked in the softest whisper I could manage, we
had our backs to the kitchen window.

“No, he just got the phone
call a few minutes before you came downstairs and I excused myself
to use the bathroom so he wouldn’t be able to ask me any
questions,” She also whispered.

“We only have a few
minutes to get our stories straight, I think we should stick to the
truth as much as possible, except we leave out the bar part, and
the gun part.” I pointed out to the yard as if we were talking
about Saska.

“That sounds good, how
about we tell him we got some pizza to go and walked down Main
Street to window shop and I went to use the bathroom when you were
attacked,” Sully said with excitement.

“Yeah, that’s great, and
when came out and I was gone, you got in your truck to look for me.
Good great and….” Dad interrupted my last thought.

“Are you finished letting
the dog pee, Jayden.” My Dad asked with accusation.

“Let’s go Saska,” I
commanded.

Saska went right in with no
hesitation.

“So, are ladies going to
tell me what happened before the police get here?” Dad asked as he
sipped on his coffee.

“Ok, dad, now you can’t
over react….” The doorbell rang.

“Great, they’re here, now
I’m going to have to hear it as you tell it to the police. I hope
you ladies didn’t get into any trouble.”

Dad brought the two police
officers into the kitchen. Sully and I were sitting next to each
other on the stools leaning our elbows on the breakfast bar,
drinking our coffee, trying to act as nothing was wrong.

“Hello ladies, I’m officer
Tuddles, and this is officer Sparks. We are here to talk to you
about what happened last night,” he said as he took out his note
pad to start writing down what we were about to say.

I was trying to pull off
calm, but I could feel my arm pits start to dampen, I was hoping it
didn’t show on my face.

“Ok,” We both said at the
same time.

“Which one of you owns
that Ford pick up?” office Sparks asked.

“That’s mine, isn't she a
beauty.” Sully answered with a huge smile on her face. If anyone
could lie, it was Sully, emotions were bottled down deep with her
and it never showed on her face.

I knew that police could
look up license plates; they probably already knew that it belonged
to her.

“Can you tell me where you
were last night?” officer Tuddles asked while looking straight at
me.

“Sully took me out last
night to get my mind of my best friend that died a few days ago. He
drowned out in Lake Stevens,” I said, trying to sound distraught. I
was upset, but I wanted to pull the attention off Sully and me and
onto Logan’s death. Sorry Logan.

“I heard about that, we’re
real sorry for your loss,” Office Tuddles said and he sounded like
he meant it.

“Thanks,” I said. Small
town, nothing usually gets by, one of the reasons I wanted to go to
the U.W. for college, to blend into the crowd and
disappear.

“So where did you go last
night?” Officer Tuddles asked.

“Well, we stopped at "The
Pizza Dive" and took our pizza to go, walked down Main Street to
window shop, since most of the shops were closed by that time,” I
answered sipping on my coffee again, trying to head off any
unneeded questions.

“Is that all that happened
last night,” officer Sparks asked with lingering question in his
voice.

I could tell they knew
more than we had hoped. Should I just spill the beans or should I
try to answer just what they are asking us.

“Oh, it was my birthday
yesterday, and I got…..” I started to finish and Saska nipped me on
the back of my leg.

“Ouch!” I
yelled.

“What happened?” Dad
asked.

“Oh I bit my tongue. Good
coffee,” I said.

I looked down at Saska and
he had his lips pulled back and was showing me his teeth. What is
going on with this dog, one minute he’s friendly and the next he’s
jaws trying to take out my leg.

“So, can either one of you
ladies explain to me why your truck was seen by an alley that in
now covered in blood?” officer Sparks asked while tapping his pen
on his notepad.

“Would you fella’s like
some coffee?” I started to get up.

Sometimes you can use good
old charm.

“No ma’am, we just need
you to answer our questions,” officer Sparks said with annoyance in
his voice.

“Jayden’s dog took off on
us and we went looking for him, we found him eating some garbage by
some dumpsters.” Sully poked her head around me to answer the
officers.

Saska whined at me again,
as he needed to pee, pacing in front of the back slider.

“Excuse me, gentlemen I’m
going to let my dog outside before I have a mess to clean up,” I
said as I got off my stool.

I went to the door and
Saska took off around the corner, towards the front of the
house.

“Ma’am we still need to
ask you a few questions, it won’t take much longer,” officer
Tuddles said.

“I hope not, because I have
to bury my best friend today, and I am still very emotional about
it, and would like time to grieve before the funeral.

“I understand, just one
more thing," officer Sparks said.

I could tell that officers
Sparks didn’t believe a word we were saying, but Tuddles felt sorry
for us, with the loss of our friend and all.

“We need to take a look at
your truck, inside and out, if you don’t mind Ms. McCormick," he
stated.

“That would be fine with
me, let me go upstairs and fetch my keys,” Sully said with
pleasure.

Oh no, the blood, they will
see the blood covering the back of the truck and a lot more
questions will be asked, I was hoping to avoid talking about this
attack. It would mean that the police would be involved, and I
don’t need that right now.

As Sully came back down
the stairs, she handed the keys to the Officer Sparks and we
followed them outside.

Sully tried to hide her
emotions, but I saw past her smile that went all the way to her
eyes. I could see the worry in them, not that we did anything
wrong.

The Officers looked inside
the cab of the truck and walked back to the bed of the
truck.

“I can explain…,” I
started to say.

There was nothing there; a
clean truck bed. Where did that tarp go, had Sully gotten up early
this morning and moved it? That tarp was full of blood from Saska.
If those officers found in they would know that we were involved in
something.

“So what are you looking
for?” Sully interrupted me.

“There were reports of a
shooting in the area that you two were in last night, and a few
people witnessed your truck at the scene and we got a report from a
Vet last night that two girls brought their dog to them with a
supposed gun shot. It turned out to just be a lot of blood. Your
truck matched their description,” officer Tuddles said.

“Well none of us got shot
last night, but boy that sounds like a better time than we had,”
Sully said as she shut her truck doors and put her hand out to the
officer to get her keys back.

My Dad has come outside,
just as the officers were handing Sully here keys back.

“Officers I think that the
girls have things to do today, so if you don’t mind,” My Dad put
his arm out as to coral us back into the house.

Both officers looked a
little perplexed, looking at each other then the back of the
truck.

"Do either of you ladies
have a gun registered or not?" This came from officer
Sparks.

"No sir we don't. I might
invest in a stun gun though. A girls gotta look out for herself
with all the weirdo's out there," she told both
officers.

“Well thanks for your
time, if we have any further questions, we’ll be in touch,” officer
Sparks said.

The police officers left
and we all went back in the house. When we got back in house, I saw
Saska waiting by the back door.

“So, ladies, if there is
that kind of violence going on in town you need to be careful.
Maybe stay away from that part of town for awhile, at least until
this blows over,” Dad said as he opened the fridge.

“We will dad,” I said as I
took a seat on my stool again.

“So would you ladies like
me to make you some eggs and bacon?” Dad asked turning towards
us.

“Yes Mr. St.Claire, that
would be groovy,” Sully said.

Sully always called my dad
by his last name instead of his first, I’m not sure why. He was the
only adult figure that she seems to respect. Maybe she did that so
she wouldn’t have to get to close to him. Sully made people believe
that she didn't have room in her heart, even though I knew
different.

“Hey Dad, could you grab
that left over steak in the fridge, I bet Saska is starving, poor
thing I’ve been so busy I forgot to feed him,” I said as I grabbed
a plate.

Dad handed me the streak,
I warmed it up a little, and set it down for him, he ate it as if
it was pudding.

“Slow down, you’re going
to choke,” Sully said.

I bent down in a cupboard
by the sink and grabbed a plastic dish for a water bowl. I grabbed
the Britta out of the fridge and filled the bowl. He drank it all
and went too laid on the rug by the back door.
“So are you going to call around about him?” Dad asked as he was
dishing up our breakfast.

“I sure am, I just wanted
to get some food in me, my appetite seems to be back,” I said as I
started to squirt ketchup on my eggs.

“So, what time is Logan’s
funeral?” I asked Dad.

He hesitated. I could tell
he didn't want to talk about this with me. “It’s at 11am. We still
have a few hours. Are you going Sully?” Dad asked.

“No, I think I’ll leave
that up to you two, I’ve got a bath calling my name and maybe a
nap,” she said in between shoveling her food in her
mouth.