To Love and Protect (30 page)

"Well, it's over now."

"I hope it really it is this time."

As the door to the parking lot opened, Matt shielded Shelley's face. "Maybe you don't want to look at her right now."

But Shelley couldn't help watching as Sergeant Rinaldi led a stoic, handcuffed Joan to his police car, then put her in the back seat. He walked over to the grassy edge of the parking lot where Matt and Shelley now sat on the ground. "Why don't you come down to the station in about twenty minutes. We can talk then."

"So," Shelley said once she and Matt later met up with Sergeant Rinaldi. "Did she confess?"

He nodded. "Got it in writing."

"Sounds like she needs to go back to the psycho ward," Matt growled.

"She's definitely a few cow pies short of a full wheelbarrow," Sergeant Rinaldi noted.

Fitting observation, thought Shelley, considering the manure piles Joan had left on her porch.

"She used Geri's cell phone that had been lying around the break room to call you that time, and she used latex gloves from the clinic when she left notes on your porch, which is why we never found her fingerprints. And since she used the same paper and markers from the clinic that Geri did the time she was on your porch, well, I think that pretty much sums up why everything pointed to Geri."

Shelley shook her head, sickened that her friend and colleague had been falsely accused all along. "Did you find out anything more?" she finally asked.

"A bit, though I don't think any of it is going to necessarily make you feel better."

"Just knowing the truth will make me feel better right now."

"Have a seat," Sergeant Rinaldi offered to both of them as he pointed to his office.

He followed them in and sat behind his desk, hoisting his cowboy boots on top. "Seems that after Joan lost her son and then her husband, she went off the deep end and wound up in the mental hospital."

"What I'd like to know is how she ever got out," Matt said tersely.

Sergeant Rinaldi sighed. "You know how it is. They throw you a few pills, keep you for as long as they can reserve a bed. But after a year or two, if you haven't attacked an orderly or started to speak in an alien language, you're back out the door. Mind you, sometimes that's all a person needs to get his feet on the ground again. But it seems like Joan could have used some more time there." He paused, scratching his chin. "Like a good fifty years."

"How did she find me?" Shelley asked.

"Back when everything happened, there was no shortage of attention in the papers and on the news, if you remember."

Shelley took a deep breath, saying in a near whisper, "Oh, I remember."

Matt took her hand and held it tight.

"Well, she knew you were a vet in Fairfax, and once she got out of the hospital, she came out this way looking for you. What better way to do it than get a job at the very place you work."

Shelley’s mind jumped back to Elaine’s visit to the clinic − and her insistence that she knew Joan from a spa in Glenburgh, a town she was painfully familiar with since it had been home to the armed robbers who were responsible Ted’s death.  At the time, she never made the connection. But then again, how could she when she had no reason to suspect Joan of anything?

"So she planned this all along?" Matt asked.

"Actually, no, according to what she told me during the confession. Though who knows if she can really be believed."

"What did she tell you then?" Shelley asked.

"She came here because she was obsessed with the whole thing − obsessed with you." Sergeant Rinaldi swung his feet off the desk. "Heck, Shelley, let's face it. The woman's crazy. Maybe she wasn't always, but some kind of switch flipped in the wrong direction after she lost her family. She started to hold you accountable, probably spent the year in the hospital growing more resentful towards you."

"Resentful towards me?" Shelley repeated incredulously. "Doesn't she realize that I lost someone too?"

Matt squeezed her hand again. It felt good to have him so close by her side. A revelation that was quickly followed by a reminder that this attachment had led her to conclude she couldn’t be with him because she so deeply feared losing him. She pushed the thought from her mind, knowing it would come back but still hoping for even a brief reprieve. "Poor Geri," she sighed as she shifted her focus. After all, she wasn’t the only who suffered due to Joan’s devious actions. “She just uprooted her life over this."

"It's been an unfortunate situation all around, that's for sure," Sergeant Rinaldi observed.

"I’ll have to call her after this. I feel like I've messed up her life, and I want to help her any way I can. That is, if she'll let me."

"You didn't mess up her life," Matt said. "Joan did."

"She messed up a few people's lives," Shelley said quietly.

Sergeant Rinaldi stood up from his desk. "Well, you kids best be getting on your way. I suggest a change of scenery from this musty ol’ police station for a bit. Go out and enjoy a nice dinner." He nodded towards Shelley. "You lose any more weight and we're going to have to send out a search party in those clothes of yours for you."

Shelley blushed, but Matt squeezed her side and winked.

“Oh, and Matt," the sergeant added. "I need to talk to you about something before tomorrow’s out."

"Is it something you want to talk about now?"

Shelley detected a twinkle in Sergeant Rinaldi's otherwise weary eyes. "No, no. Go out and have a nice time for yourselves. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

“What do you say we make reservations at the Hearth and Kettle for dinner,” Matt suggested as they headed for the parking lot. “As I recall, the final course is incredibly delicious.”

Shelley stopped and turned to Matt, unable to fathom how something that felt so right could also feel so doomed. She had dropped her defenses in the past few days as far as Matt was concerned, but that was easy enough to do when she knew he wasn't out responding to calls. There were no gunmen waiting to ruin their happiness, no phone call from the hospital that had the potential to alter her life forever. But it wouldn't stay that way. She wanted desperately to be with him, but it would mean living totally in the moment and not worrying about what could happen tomorrow, and unfortunately, it wasn’t in her nature to live her life in that manner.

“Can’t we just put everything behind us and start over again?” Matt finally asked, ending the silence that had lingered between them.

“You’re reading my thoughts again, aren’t you.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Not when they’re good thoughts.  But I tend to have a lot of not-so-good ones, too.”

“You worry too much.”

“So I’ve been told lately.  And the funny thing is I always thought it was just my sister who inherited the anxiety gene from my mom.”

“So what happened?  It just kicked in later in life?”

“No − I met you and discovered you have this amazing talent to attract gunfire. That on top of a string of anonymous threats that had me looking behind my back every two seconds.”

“Yeah, well, I guess both those things would make anyone worry,” Matt conceded.

She buried her head in his chest, grateful that he at least acknowledged the craziness of the past month.

“Shelley, I know where you’re coming from as far as not wanting history to repeat itself.  But … the shootings I’ve been involved with since I’ve known you – it’s some weird roll of the dice in the universe that this would happen all at once, and chances are I’ll never be in that kind of situation again for the rest of my career.”

“But there’s no guarantee.”

“There’s no guarantee about
anything
in life.”

Shelley stared at the ground and nodded, knowing that Matt was right. She looked back up, her eyes meeting his and the magnetic pull between them catching her as it always did.  “I know one thing. If I continue seeing you, I’ll be a cheap dinner date since I’ll always be too worried to eat.”

Matt smiled, yet concern was still etched on his face. “Maybe once everything starts to calm down and I’m back to responding to calls about loose cows on the lam, you’ll start to feel better about things and not worry so much.”

“Maybe,” Shelley conceded, though she had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case.  What good would six quiet months be if they ended with one deadly day? “Well, I need head over to the clinic to check on a couple of post-surgery patients. Dave had to take the afternoon off for a seminar and I told him I’d stop by and look in on everyone.”

“Always the dedicated doctor.”

“And always the dedicated police officer.”

Matt grinned.  “Maybe we’re more alike than we thought.  How about I pick you up at five for dinner?”

“That sounds good,” Shelley replied, though unease still filtered through her veins. Deep down she wondered how long it would be before Matt was involved in another dangerous incident that would once again derail their relationship.  She squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head, as though doing so could dislodge her doubts.  

A few hours later, Shelley opened her front door to find Matt standing on the porch. "You certainly look happy," he said

"I just got off the phone with Geri. We had a long talk, and it looks like everything's going to be okay. She understood everything, and after her classes are over next semester, she's going to come back this way to work in the clinic for the summer."

"That's great," Matt said, hugging her as he kissed her on the forehead. "Well, do you think you can handle two pieces of good news in one day?" he asked, leading her over to the couch.

She looked at him quizzically. "Sure."

"After you headed to the clinic, I went back to talk to Sergeant Rinaldi. I had a gut feeling that something was up, and I didn't want to wait to find out what. He said he had an offer for me."

Shelley arched her eyebrows. "An offer?'

Matt grinned. "Yup. Seems they're looking for an instructor for the K-9 program where they train the dogs and officers for the whole state, and the job’s mine if I want it."

"Where's that?"

"In Greenfield, about thirty-five minutes from here.”

"And?" Shelley asked, wide-eyed. "What did you say?"

"Well..." Matt began hesitantly. "I'm not sure. If I take the job, I'll still be involved in police work and I'll be working with police dogs, which I know I'd love. And, of course, bringing Carly along with me is part of the package.  Plus part of the training that I’ll be doing means I’ll be going out on regular patrols with the trainees, but only about a handful a month. Enough to keep me in the game, but not the crux of my job like now.  So it’s kind of the best of both worlds.”

“That’s pretty impressive that they’re trying to recruit you for this position.”

Matt smiled wryly. “I think they figure it will save on their insurance bill.  I won’t be attracting stray bullets like a magnet anymore.”

 “What’s to even think about − this sounds great!”

"Well … not exactly."

Shelley felt her heart drop to the floor with a thud. "Oh."

"See, it would mean you couldn't use the excuse of constantly worrying about something happening to me, so you'd have to agree to keep seeing me. I don’t know that you want to do that and−"

Matt's words were drowned out as Shelley pounced on his lap and threw her arms around him as she showered him with kisses.