White Cloud Retreat (11 page)

A number of the people who came to Kelly’s Koffee Shop
on Friday morning had attended the service for Scott the previous afternoon and
wanted to see what everyone else had to say about it. It amazed them how many
people had traveled to their sleepy little town from all over the world to
attend the service of a man they’d simply known as Scott – a man who dressed in
jeans and was a winemaker. Obviously, from the number of international
high-ranking spiritual people who had attended the service, there was a lot
more to this man than they’d realized.

In keeping with his habit,
promptly at noon Doc walked in with Lucky. “Kelly, when you have a minute, I’d
like to talk to you,” he said, grinning broadly.

“Well, from the smile
you’re wearing, I’m making an assumption that your sons’ visit was a success.
I’ll be with you as soon as I can. Take a seat.”

“Okay,” Kelly said, a few
moments later. “I’ve got a little time. I want to hear all about it.”

“Kelly, I don’t know when
I’ve been so happy. It couldn’t have gone any better. Just as Madison told us,
Brandon was on a school break and he took the boys horseback riding on his
ranch. Madison went too. I wonder if there’s something going on between those
two. Anyway, my sons are city boys, so all of this being in the great outdoors
and enjoying nature is really new to them. Matter of fact, I don’t think
they’ve ever been horseback riding before, and they loved it. When they
finished riding, Brandon took them down to the tide pools below his ranch house
and showed them how to look for jade. They both found several pieces and can’t
wait to show them to their friends.”

“I’m so glad. I’ve been
thinking about you all week.”

“Well, that’s not all.
They loved Lucky which didn’t surprise me. We used to have dogs and a big back
yard, but when I left to come here, their mother didn’t want to deal with yard
work, so they sold the house and moved into a condominium. My ex-wife went to
work as a nurse and with the boys in school and no lawn for a dog to play on,
they didn’t feel it would be fair to the dog to stay cooped up all day, so they
made a decision not to have one. The boys have always had a dog and they said
not having a dog to come home to and me being gone were pretty rough things for
them to adjust to.”

“Poor things. Their lives
really changed. Dad gone, no dog, and living in a new place.”

“Yeah. We talked a lot. I
think they understand a little more why I left and moved up here. Anyway,
Madison’s dad took them shore fishing and they both caught a couple of fish.
That was pretty exciting, but the best thing I’ve saved for last.”

“Out with it, Doc. Roxie’s
looking over here and it probably means my time with you is about up.”

“Last night Liz came to
dinner and to meet them. She’s done a lot of work with teenagers and children
whose parents are divorced, so she had a pretty good idea what to expect.”

“Doc, I’m curious. How did
you introduce Liz to them?”

“I told them I’d asked a
woman I worked with at the clinic to come for dinner. I mentioned she was a
psychologist, but I didn’t tell them I had been seeing her outside the clinic.”

“That was probably a good
idea.”

“Well, here’s the best
part. Liz, unbeknownst to me, is a gaming freak. You know I don’t have a
television, but I’ve got an iPad and iPhone and the boys had theirs as well. I
guess Liz always travels with both of hers, so the three of them spent an hour
before dinner playing games on their mobile devices while I was cooking
dinner.”

“I’m curious. What did you
fix for dinner? That must have been a tough menu to come up with.”

“I remembered that the
boys loved a dish their mom used to make for them. It’s a slow cooked beef
burgundy served over noodles. I made it last Sunday and froze it, so all I had
to do was defrost it and cook it for another hour. The noodles are super easy
and I’ve got a recipe where you don’t even have to drain them, they cook in
butter and water in just a few minutes.”

“I’m getting hungry
thinking about it. If you don’t mind, I’d like to have the recipes for both of
those.”

“I’ll bring them Monday
when I come in. I also had asparagus with some garlic, olive oil, and parmesan
cheese. Made some biscuits and finished it off with that cheesecake recipe I
got from you a couple of months ago.”

“Well, I’m impressed and I
bet the three of them were too. As I remember, Liz loves to eat, but cooking
isn’t high on her priority list. Good thing she has you.”

“The dinner was great, but
what was even better was about an hour after dinner Liz said it was time for
her to leave. She told the boys she knew it was our last night together and she
didn’t want to intrude on our time. They both insisted she stay and the four of
us talked about school, their sports, and a million other things. It was one of
the best nights of my life. They loved Liz. After she left, they told me they
wouldn’t come back unless I made sure that Liz was included in everything we
did. If they hadn’t liked her, I don’t know what I would have done.”

“Doc, are you thinking of
marrying Liz?”

“Funny you should ask. I’m
thinking of asking her tonight to be my wife. The boys had an early flight out
of Portland and I had a little time after they left, so I went to a jewelry
store. I guess I can show you this,” he said, pulling a small jewelry box out of
his pocket and opening it. “What do you think?”

“It’s absolutely
beautiful! What woman wouldn’t love a diamond like that? But I have a feeling
she’d marry you if you only had a wedding band for her. I know tomorrow’s the
weekend, but I want to hear what she says. Okay?”

“Promise. You’ll be the
first to know. I keep having to pinch myself to make sure that all of what’s
happening to me is real. I’m practicing medicine again, my boys are in my life,
I’ve got a great dog, and there’s a good chance a wonderful woman is going to
say yes when I ask her to marry me. I’m not sure life can get any better than
this.”

“Doc, I’ve got to get back
to work.” She stood up from the table, walked around it to him, and lightly
kissed him on the cheek. “I’m so very happy for you. You deserve all of this.
Don’t forget to call me tomorrow.”

It had been a long week and Kelly was ready for the
weekend. After she locked the door to the coffee shop, she and Lady walked over
to where her minivan was parked in the lot adjacent to the pier.

Darn. I just remembered
that I need to renew my driver’s license over at city hall and time is running
out. The next two weeks I’m not going to have time to take care of anything but
working and getting ready for the wedding, plus Julia and Cash will be here in
a week. I better take care of it now. Hate to waste my time doing things like
that, but it would just be my luck to get a speeding ticket and then word would
get out that the sheriff’s new wife was driving on an expired license.

She pulled into the Cedar
Bay City Hall parking lot and noticed what she thought was Mike’s patrol car
parked across the street. As far as she knew, he was the only one who drove a
car with the words “County Sheriff” written in white on it. She could make out
Rebel’s form in the car and it looked like he was barking. He was standing in
his usual place on the passenger seat with the window partially open. When she
opened the door on her minivan, she clearly heard him barking.
That’s
strange,
she thought
. Rebel never barks when he’s left alone in the car.
Lady jumped out of the minivan and whimpered. Mike had given Kelly a key to his
car in case it was blocking hers in the driveway and she needed to move it
early in the morning in order to get to the coffee shop while he was asleep.

She walked over to Mike’s
car, unlocked the car door, and let Rebel out. His barking turned into a deep
growl and the black hackles along his back were raised. He hurried over to a
nearby building with white shutters and looked back at Kelly and Lady, as if to
say “Follow me.”

That’s Deidre’s apartment
building and now I remember that Mike was going to her apartment today to talk
to her about what he’d found out from that Arizona detective. What I don’t
understand is why Rebel’s almost in an attack mode.

Lady, Rebel, and Kelly rode
the elevator up to the third floor and got out. Rebel sniffed the carpeting as
if he was searching for a scent. Kelly and Lady hurriedly followed Rebel down
the hall to Deidre’s apartment and stopped in front of the closed door. Kelly
put her hand down, indicating to the dogs that they were to stay where they
were. She heard Deidre’s voice inside the apartment. Kelly put her ear to the
door and listened.

“If I can’t have you, I’ll
make sure Kelly can’t either. I’m going to take your shoes off. I want to get a
picture of your feet to remember you by. You’ll never know,” she heard Deidre
saying in a faraway sounding voice.

Kelly didn’t hear any
sounds or words coming from Mike. Deidre continued, “You’re just like Scott. I
offered myself to him too, but just like you, he said no and you know what
happened to him.”

Kelly took her gun out of
her purse and looked at both of the dogs. Rebel’s hackles were raised and Lady
was watching Rebel and trying her best to do what Rebel was doing. Kelly put
her finger to her lips and shook her head. The dogs stood as close to her as
they could. She could feel Rebel’s body quivering.

Where could Mike be? He
must be in the apartment.
Kelly turned the door knob as quietly as she could and to her
surprise, the door was unlocked. She opened it slightly and peered through the
slit. She involuntarily put her hand up to her mouth to stifle a scream. Mike
was lying on the floor, not moving, while Deidre was in the process of
carefully removing his shoes and socks. Kelly raised her eyes and saw several
lifelike blown-up photographs of Mike tacked on the wall where a few days ago
there had been photographs of Scott.

Suddenly, it was crystal
clear to Kelly. Deidre had killed Scott and was getting ready to kill Mike. She
knew she had to do something and she had to do it fast. Deidre was bent over
Mike, totally engrossed in trying to remove his shoes. Kelly swung the door
open, yelled “Rebel, Attack,” and fired her gun. She aimed to the left of
Deidre, intending to scare her. Deidre reached for a gun that was lying next to
Mike’s foot, but before she could reach it, Rebel jumped on her, pinning her to
the floor while Lady grabbed hold of the bottom of Deidre’s slacks, preventing
her from moving. Kelly ran over to Mike and put her ear on his chest. She could
hear him breathing.

Thank God. Deidre must
have only knocked him out.
“Rebel, Lady, Guard,” Kelly said in a loud commanding tone
of voice. Both of the dogs stayed exactly where they were, Rebel inches from
Deidre’s face, and Lady with Deidre’s pant leg in her mouth. Both of them were
growling. Kelly scooped up the gun lying on the floor and kept her gun on
Deidre while she called 911. “Officer down! Sheriff Reynolds is unconscious. I
need help immediately! I’m on the third floor of the apartment building across
from city hall in apartment 305. Hurry!”

Within minutes she heard
footsteps pounding down the hall. Rich, Mike’s chief deputy, was the first to
arrive. “Kelly, what’s going on?” Before she could tell him, paramedics and
police filled the room. Rich and several others had their guns drawn and
pointed at Deidre. “Call the dogs off, Kelly, we’ve got her. I need you to tell
me what happened.”

She gave Rebel the
command, “Stand Down.” He backed off of Deidre and Lady, following Rebel’s lead,
let go of her pant leg. Kelly turned to a paramedic who was taking Mike’s vital
signs, “Is he going to be all right?”

“Yes, ma’am. He’s got a
huge knot on his head where it looks like he was hit with some kind of a blunt
instrument. He’s going to have a nasty headache tomorrow, but other than that,
I think he’s going to be fine.”

Rebel went over to Mike,
licking his face and making whimpering sounds. He knew Mike was hurt, he just
didn’t know how badly. Lady stood next to Kelly, as if to protect her in case
she needed it.

When the paramedics
started to wheel Mike out of the room after they’d put him on a gurney, Kelly
asked “Where are you taking him?”

“The hospital in Sunset
Bay. We need to take x-rays and make sure he doesn’t have a concussion.”

“All right. Just a
moment.” She took her phone out of her purse and called Doc. “It’s Kelly.
Mike’s been hurt. The paramedics are taking him to the hospital in Sunset Bay
for x-rays. Would you go there and treat him? I’ll meet you as soon as I can
get there. Thanks.” She turned to the paramedic who seemed to be in charge and
told him Dr. Burkhart was on his way to the hospital and not to do anything
until he arrived and that she’d be there as soon as she could.

Deidre was sitting on the
floor with her back against the wall, muttering to herself. Her hands were
behind her back, secured by handcuffs. Rich motioned Kelly over. “What
happened? She’s muttering something about feet and shoes and Scott and Mike.
It’s as if she’s snapped.”

They both were quiet as
they stood and looked down at Diedre. She seemed to have retreated into a world
of her own and was no longer part of the world around her. They overheard her
saying, “I told you I was going to kill you, Mike. You’re just like Scott. He
wouldn’t have me either and neither would those other men, but I got them, all
of them. Just like Momma always told me that my feet were pretty, I told them
the same thing before I killed them. Then I took pictures of their feet. That
way, they’re still alive because I have pictures of their feet.”

Kelly and Rich exchanged
glances of disbelief. “Kelly, what happened before we got here?” She told him
everything from the moment she’d pulled in the lot at city hall up to now. He
continued, “I know you want to get to the hospital and be with Mike, but I need
to write up a report for you to sign and get a statement from him. I don’t want
to keep you now. How about if I come over later tonight?”

“Let me call you, Rich. I
have no idea how long Doc will want to keep Mike under observation. Unless he
has a concussion, I’d think he could come home tonight, but I don’t know if she
did something else to him. I guess we won’t know any more about what happened
before I got here until we hear from Mike.”

“Kelly, I’m taking Deidre
to the station, but I want Dave to drive you to the hospital in your minivan
and then you’ll have it there to take Mike home when Doc releases him. One of
the other deputies will follow and bring Dave back. They’ll get Mike’s car to
your house. I’ve got a duplicate key in the office for it. You’ve been through
a lot in the last hour, so take a deep breath, try to relax and thank your
lucky stars that you showed up when you did. Clearly, you and the dogs saved
Mike’s life. When you leave here, Lady and Rebel can go with you. Don’t think
anyone at the hospital will tell you no dogs allowed considering you’ll be
visiting the county sheriff and Rebel’s his dog.”

“Well, I guess he is
Mike’s dog now, but I’m pretty proud of Lady. She sure wanted to help and it
seemed like she knew what to do. Neither one of those dogs hesitated for a
second. I’m just glad Deidre’s front door was unlocked. If it hadn’t been, we
may have been going to the morgue rather than the hospital.”

“Glad it’s the hospital.”

“Me too!” Rebel and Lady
both let out a bark as if they perfectly understood the conversation.