Chapter 29

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

KEIR

On September first,Dash and I drove to Stockton Boulevard to see Dr. Carl off and wish him safe travels. We got out of the SUV and went into the clinic, which was open on a Sunday. There was a line outside the door, and when one person came out, another person went in to be treated.

Seeing all those people in need of basic healthcare made my heart hurt and immediately went to Lake and Jamie. Jo had been giving us updates on Lake’s pregnancy and Jamie’s health, assuring Dash and me that all were safe and doing well, which was a huge relief.

An older man with a dog was standing by the door. “Are you here to see Dr. Carl?”

“We’re friends of his.” Dash knelt to pet the dog, its whole body shaking with excitement. I could see my husband was drawn to the dog, but we weren’t in a place where we could adopt one.

“That’s Mabel. Go on inside.” The man opened the door for us, and he was met with a lot of yelling and groaning by those behind us. “They’re friends of Dr. Carl’s. You’ll still get seen today.”

We thanked him and went inside. A short woman was sitting behind the counter, and when she saw us, she smiled.

“Welcome to Stockton Boulevard Healthcare Center. I’m Zoey. I help out here on the weekends. Dr. Carl is around here somewhere. He said I should show you back to his office. He’s almost finished with patients for today. We have Drs. Linton and Stevens helping out here. Dr. Carl is a magician at recruiting folks to come volunteer.”

Dash chuckled at her use of the word magician in light of what Dr. Carl was doing for us. It was pretty ironic.

Zoey led us down a long hallway and tapped twice on the door before opening it. Much to our surprise, Adonis stood very close to Dr. Carl.

“Well, well. No wonder we couldn’t find you to come with us.” Of course, Dash would make a smart-ass comment. Adon hissed at him, which made Dash laugh.

We stepped inside the office and closed the door. Dr. Carl shook our hands and sat down in his chair with Adonis to his right.

“Oh, before I forget.” Dash reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it to Dr. Carl.

He opened it and pulled out the cashier’s check we’d stopped to pick up at the bank. Dash was donating a quarter-million dollars, which touched me to my soul. I didn’t have that much excess cash to donate, especially with a baby on the way, but when I didn’t have a funeral, I planned to come help out as much as possible.

“Thank you so much. That’s a sizable donation that will go to good use.” He turned to Adon. “Will you deposit this for me, please?”

Obviously, the two were closer than I suspected if Adonis was making deposits for the clinic and soup kitchen. “How about a tour?” Dr. Carl suggested, so the four of us toured the building where the clinic had been set up, and then we crossed the alley and toured the soup kitchen, which was busy. The doors hadn’t opened yet for lunch, but the volunteers inside were hard at work preparing the food.

After a quick tour and introductions to the staff, Dash and I prepared to return to Reardon.

“Keir, if you’ll call Julia on days when you can volunteer, it will be helpful so we know how many volunteers we’ll have available.” I was introduced to Julia Walters, the director of the Stockton Boulevard Soup Kitchen. She seemed quite nice and had a very professional demeanor. I was sure she kept the place going without needing help from Dr. Carl.

Once we’d met everyone, Dr. Carl and Adon walked us to Dash’s SUV parked in front of the soup kitchen. People were already lined up, and the place didn’t open for three more hours.

As we walked by, Dr. Carl and Adonis greeted folks, stopping to shake hands for a moment. It was heartwarming to witness.

Once we were at Dash’s SUV, we shook hands with Dr. Carl. When he touched Dash’s palm, he closed his eyes. “You be very careful, Dash. Temptation is radiating around you. Be sure you weigh all your options when the time comes.”

I glanced at Dash. It seemed he wasn’t sure what Dr. Carl meant either, but he didn’t respond. “Thank you, Dr. Carl, for doing this for us. Is Adon going with you?”

Dr. Carl smiled. “No. This I must do on my own.”

Adon then hugged me. ““I’ll be checking on him from time to time, though, so if he needs to know something, let me know. He won’t get cell service where he’s going.”

We parted ways, and Dash and I got into the SUV to go home. My fingers were crossed that he would find something that would help us. We had a baby girl to protect.

On the way home,I had a feeling I’d never had before. “Let’s run by the coroner’s office before we leave the city.”

“Is Jonas working today?” Dash continued south on Stockton Boulevard instead of getting onto the highway. Ten minutes later, we parked in the lot of the coroner’s office and went to the back door where I’d been for pickups many times before.

I rang the bell, and not surprisingly, Joachim spoke. “Keir? Did Jonas schedule a pickup for today?”

“No. We were in the neighborhood and dropped by on the odd chance you’d be here. You got a minute?”

“Uh, right now is a bad time. I’m busy with a dead junkie.”

“Okay, Joachim. Another time.” The red light on the camera went off, and I turned to Dash. “Something’s wrong. Joachim respects the dead as much as me. He’d never refer to a deceased as a junkie. Get us in there.”

Dash looked at me as if I’d lost my mind, but he twisted the door handle, which was locked. He hopped over the railing, walked to the rolling garage door, and pulled. It was also locked, so Dash squatted down. He pulled his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and opened it, pulling out a small tool I’d never seen.

“What the hell is that?” I went back down the stairs and hurried over to where he was kneeling.

“It’s a lock picker. That door is an electronic one, but these are cheap, old-school garage locks. Convicted felon here, remember?”

It was easy to forget my husband had ever done anything wrong. When he turned the lock and pushed up the door, I was grateful for his bad-boy past.

The receiving bay at the coroner’s office was much like the one at our place, so Dash found a gurney and turned to me. “Get on and close your eyes like you’re a guest. Mess up your hair and untuck your shirt.”

I did as he asked, taking off a shoe to give the appearance I’d been in an accident of some kind. Dash went to the coroner’s van and opened it, pulling out a sheet and a pole with a hook on the end of it.

He held it up to me. “What’s this used for?”

I smirked. “You really wanna know?” He nodded. “Floaters.”

Dash gave a shiver. “Gross. Okay, don’t move until the snap.”

Nodding, I closed my eyes and held my breath as he whistled and pushed the gurney through the steel door. “Hey, Doc. Got a floater—” Dash snapped his fingers, and I quickly sat up and opened my eyes.

Joachim was standing against the wall with another man in front of him with a gun in his hand an inch away from Joachim’s heart.

“Son of a bitch.” Dash hurried over and carefully took the gun from the man’s hand, placing it on the table where I’d been lying. I took Joachim’s hand and led him to the side before Dash snapped his fingers and whacked the guy in the head with the pole. He hit the tile floor with an “umph.”

Dash rolled him over and pointed to the guy, putting the hookless end of the pole on the guy’s chest. “You’re an idiot. Move, and you’ll get the other end with the hook through your heart.”

“What the fuck happened?” The guy was clearly confused.

When my eyes landed on Joachim, he was smiling. “You okay?”

“Yes. I won’t ask what happened. Things like this happen more often than you’d think when Jonas is around. Thank you for saving me. Jonas and Vale are away for the weekend, and I thought I was dead.”

I nodded, glad for whatever feeling had gripped me in the SUV. I may have very well saved my friend’s life, and I was glad I’d followed my gut.

After we finishedwith the police, Dash and I went home. Amelie had the weekend off for wedding planning, and I’d forwarded the phone to my cell, so we had the place to ourselves.

“You hungry?” I asked.

“Nope. I’m beat though. What a fuckin’ day.” Dash wrapped his arm around my shoulders and guided me back to our bedroom.

Once our clothes were off, we went at each other like animals, and when we made a mess of the bed, Dash got a big towel from the closet and spread it over the wet spots. We both crashed after that.

I opened my eyes and found myself sitting in an Adirondack chair on a dock. I glanced around and took in the scenery, figuring out we were at a lake somewhere north of San Francisco. It was beautiful.

It reminded me of the cabin at Shasta Lake that Dad used to rent for the three of us to get away for a few days in the fall before it got too cold. I’d loved going there when I was growing up.

At the end of the dock, Dash was kneeling to hold a fishing pole with a little brunette girl on one side and a blond boy on the other. Dash was reeling in a fish as the little girl danced around. “Be careful, Gracie. You’ll fall in, honey.”

Dash pulled her back from the edge of the dock and took the fish off the hook, showing it to the little boy who ran a finger over the back before Dash tossed it into the water. The three of them gathered the fishing equipment and walked back toward me.

I stood from the chair and walked to help them carry everything to the cabin to the left of the dock. We stowed the gear on the back porch, and when I stepped inside, I was swept back to my childhood. It was the same cabin we used to rent when I was a kid.

“Should we go for a hike?” Dash had set the little boy on the counter, and the three of them were washing their hands.

Suddenly, my eyes popped open, and I remembered one summer when I was about ten.

July1989

“Keir! Come on, son. It’ll be dark soon.” It was my Dad, and he was waiting for me. We were going to bury a time capsule with some things we’d brought from home. I’d put in an avocado pit because we’d done an experiment in school, and I wanted to see if the pit would break open the cigar box and grow a tree. I had the pit in a bag with a wet paper towel to see if it would work.

Mom put in a bracelet that had been her grandmother’s. It had a music box on it that didn’t work, but she said it was a favorite of hers when she was a little girl. Dad had a couple of things he wanted to put into the cigar box he’d brought from home, saying it had been my grandfather’s.

“I’m ready.” I’d had to go to the bathroom before we went because I’d drank a whole bottle of sparkling lemonade.

“You get the bag with our treasures. Luce, get the box, and I’ll get the shovel. Oh, and bring a knife so we can mark the spot.” Dad went to the back porch and grabbed the shovel we’d brought from home.

He held the door for Mom to go through with the colorful cigar box. “What was in there, Dad?”

“Grandpa Paul used to smoke cigars, which was a disgusting habit, according to Grandma Mellie. That box was the last one he bought before he quit. I used to have my baseball cards in it until I had too many and bought a book for them.”

“That’s cool. How will we mark it so we know where to find it in a hundred years?”

Mom laughed. “If we’re here in a hundred years, that’ll be a miracle.”

“I’ll use the knife and cut a heart in the tree with Mom’s and my initials inside.” He pinched my mom’s cheek, making her smack him, and they both laughed.

“Can my initials go there too?” Dad ruffled my hair.

“Of course. Uh, DD plus LD and KD equals love.”

Present day

“Babe, everything okay?” Dash sat up and kissed my shoulder.

“I have an idea about where the bottom of the scroll might be. You feel like going camping?”

♥♥♥

2 B continued in

“Dearly & Lovesick Lorraine.”

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