Now, if only this demonstration resulted in what Amber hoped: word spreading, perhaps virally after the video was posted on the website and social media, about how skilled their new head trainer was.
There he was. Evan had remained in the main house with Bear until now. Would more observers arrive? Amber didn’t know, but Evan strode from the house as if he owned the world.
Excellent. No matter what he might feel inside, he clearly was ready. Leashed and walking beside him, Bear, too, appeared ready to go. Behind them lumbered Orrin, dressed to be an agitator.
Evan made his way through the crowd near the gate, and he and Bear entered the area of the rolling lawn. The other dogs remained inside the house.
This was Bear’s show as well as Evan’s.
Evan held the official dog vest that would tell Bear he was on duty when it was placed around him. He turned to scan the onlookers, not staring into anyone’s face, but not appearing uncomfortable, either.
His gaze caught hers and he sent her a small smile and nodded slightly, suggesting confidence.
He then looked toward Percy and Orrin, who were close by. “Ready?” Both responded affirmatively.
Evan took a few steps farther into the field. “Agitator, please take your place,” he called, and Orrin passed him. Evan kneeled and fastened the vest around Bear.
When he stood, it was clear the two of them were a team. As Evan walked, Bear remained close by his legs. He almost seemed to be a part of his handler.
For maybe five minutes, Evan walked, then stopped or turned abruptly, sometimes giving hand signals, and Bear followed each movement, looking up often toward his handler’s face for approval and clues to what came next.
At the same time, Percy, holding a large digital camera, scurried around filming them, changing locations and angles often. Amber hoped he was doing a good job. She’d be excited to see the results.
Soon Evan stopped, glanced toward where Orrin stood, then, in a voice loud enough for the crowd, who nearly all appeared as enthralled as Amber felt, shouted, “Hold and bark.” He motioned firmly toward Orrin, the agitator, who prepared himself for what was to come by pulling his arms up in front of him.
In seconds, Bear was beside Orrin, loping around him and barking as if he would attack if the man dared to move. Which he didn’t. Not at first.
But then, as he and Evan must have discussed before, Orrin lunged forward, away from Bear, as if about to run the way a real bad guy would.
Immediately, Bear leaped on him and began barking, then grabbed his covered arms, biting and worrying the outside of the hopefully sufficiently protective padding.
Evan joined them immediately, then gave another hand signal and called, “Down.” Bear let go and stared up at his handler as if waiting for the next signal or command. This time, Evan threw an elongated toy, the dog’s reward for behaving so well. Bear chased it and brought it back for Evan to hold in a tug-of-war.
That was the beginning. Evan had Bear engage in a few more attacks on Orrin, sometimes knocking him to the ground and biting his covered sides.
The show went on for about twenty minutes. Amber remained thrilled, especially as she listened to the cheers and excited remarks of everyone around them—including, to some extent, the cops.
Then it was over. Evan rewarded Bear with the toy for the last time. Everyone else poured through the gate to congratulate them and check to make sure Orrin, who appeared tired but otherwise unharmed, truly was okay.
Amber hurried toward Percy. “Did you record it all?”
“Yeah,” he said proudly. “We’ve got some good stuff here, and I’ll sure have fun putting it together for your website.”
*
Evan couldn’t keep himself from grinning proudly as the people who’d watched came over to tell him what a great job Bear and he had done.
He knew they had, but it still felt good to hear it.
It also felt good to take it in without wanting to run into the house to get away from all these folks who kept talking to him. Well, not wanting to very much, at least.
“Hey, everyone,” Sonya called. She’d been yelling and cheering and seeming to have as good a time as anyone, and even that critical neighbor beside her had seemed impressed enough to smile and cheer a bit. “Come into the house. I’ve got some coffee, tea and cake. We can celebrate in there—and hear what Evan has planned for more classes to teach other handlers what he’s so good at.”
Evan glanced in embarrassment toward the ground, then made himself look up. He had done a good job. He had continued, since his hiring, to show how he would fix things around here.
He had earned their kudos.
“Hey, I’d love some cake and celebration,” he yelled back at Sonya, then glanced toward Amber, who was approaching her mother. Was she okay with it?
“Me, too,” she called out. “Everyone inside.”
Evan removed Bear’s vest and reached into a pocket for a dog treat for his wonderful K-9. He’d earned it.
Then, Evan checked on Orrin, who’d removed his protective jacket and carried it while following the others into the house.
As Bear and Evan entered the kitchen, where everyone was congregating, Amber approached. “My mom’s got everything started. But I wanted to talk to you. To thank you. That was spectacular!”
“Thanks, but not really. It was just a regular K-9 demo. Your dad probably did that kind of thing and better.”
“He did something similar, sure, but not exactly the same. I just wish…”
Her lovely eyes teared up then. Evan quashed an urge to take her into his arms. Instead, he said, “I wish your dad was here, too, giving the demonstrations with or without me.”
“Oh, yes. Yes,” she said loudly enough that everyone milling around the table, some with pieces of cake in napkins, others holding coffee cups or water glasses, turned to look at her. “Sorry, everyone,” she said, “but everything here, like what Evan now does with Bear, and the website, and all the classes to come—they’re all a tribute to my father. My dead, murdered father.” She aimed her gaze in the direction of the police officers, who stood together in a corner. “My murdered father, whose killer hasn’t been found. But he—or she—will be, right, officers?”
Kara didn’t look pleased at the near accusation, again, of their possible incompetence, Evan thought. “You know we’re working on it, Amber,” she said.
“And I know you haven’t solved it yet. But I’m not giving up. Not this K-9 Ranch and what my father started here. And not the search for who killed him. Right, Evan?”
This time he felt uncomfortable as the crowd turned their attention to him. Giving dog-training demonstrations was what he did now.
Admitting to sticking his nose into police business, not so much.
“I’m with you about not giving up.” It was all he felt comfortable saying to this crowd. “Now, if you all have your beverages in hand—coffee, tea or water—we’ll toast the K-9 Ranch and the classes to come, and our thanks to Corbin Belott.”
Chapter 17
Amber appreciated Evan’s toast to her father in many ways. He wasn’t just addressing one person, or a couple, but this entire—though admiring—group, and that probably wasn’t easy for him.
And the tribute to her dad? Appropriate, of course, and also very special.
“Hear, hear,” called some voices, and others yelled, “To Corbin,” as everyone in the crowded kitchen lifted a glass, cup or water bottle or even just their hands to participate in the toast. That made Amber feel all warm inside.
Especially when she caught Evan’s glance and smiled her thanks toward him. He just nodded and looked down at his own cup of coffee.
She realized that he had proposed the toast not only to honor her father—and to move the crowd’s attention further away from himself—but also to ease the sting of her outburst at the cops. To protect her from their wrath, perhaps.
If she really wanted them to continue—or resume—their investi
gation, insulting them wasn’t the way to do it.
She understood that.
She also understood that she had allowed her emotions to dominate her good sense. She may have expressed things too strongly. But now, she needed to have a nice, friendly, nonaccusatory chat with the cops.
Making sure her mother remained chatting with Nathan and a couple of students, and therefore not paying attention to her, she edged through the crowd toward the police.
Unsurprisingly, no friendly smiles were aimed toward her. She considered talking with Kara first but decided to start at the top and approached Police Chief Andrew Shermovski, whom Amber had learned was nicknamed “Sherm” when she was introduced to him.
Unlike his young immediate subordinate, Sherm had apparently been around for a while. Amber guessed he was in his sixties, with lots of wrinkles around dark brown eyes that looked astute and wary, as if he’d seen everything. Maybe he had. He was slightly taller than the other three cops, including Doug, and his build was solid. His salt-and-pepper hair was cut short.
Did he look like a police chief? Amber didn’t care, as long as he did his job right. And at the moment, she believed he needed to work a little harder.
Still, she realized she would get further acting humble than accusatory, as she had somewhat before. “Thank you so much for coming.” She stopped in front of Sherm. “All of you.” She glanced around until her gaze landed again on the chief. “I’m sorry if I seemed out of line before, but I’m sure you can understand how hard it’s been on my mother and me to lose my father that way.” Especially with no answers. “I really do appreciate what you’ve been doing to investigate. And I’m hoping to be able to contribute something to your K-9 unit—” she looked quickly at those two officers, then back again “—now that I have such a skilled trainer on staff.”
And now’s the time for you to tell me what you’re still doing, she thought.
But Chief Shermovski just said, “Of course we understand. And we hope you understand that a lot of what we are doing can’t be revealed until we have enough proof to arrest a suspect, and we’re not quite there yet.”
“Then you do have someone you’re focusing on?” Amber couldn’t help the eagerness in her voice, but felt her shoulders sag again at the way Sherm’s expression hardened.
“That isn’t something we can talk about,” he said. “Now, please excuse us. It’s time for us to return to the station.”
No, Amber didn’t excuse them…but she said goodbye as cordially as she could. At least they thanked her for the demonstration.
Kara held back a little from the others. “I wish we could at least tell you what we’re up to,” she said. “Sorry, Amber. But like I said, please be sure we’re not giving up.”
As Amber watched the assistant chief hurry to catch up with her colleagues, she wondered if she should be the one to give up.
But as she felt someone touch her arm, she turned to find Evan beside her, and Bear, too, and realized that, as long as she had someone like him on her side, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—ever give up.
*
“Are you all right?” Evan had kept an eye on Amber during his toast and afterward, when she had headed toward those in uniform. Had she been okay with his distraction from her clearly emotional dig at the cops?
He understood it. Agreed with it. But knew it wasn’t the way to stay on their good side.
“I am now,” she said softly. “And I appreciate your getting me to shut up in such a nice way.”
He looked into her pretty yet sad face. She managed a smile, at least, and he had to smile back. “You’re very welcome,” he said. “I’d like to propose another toast, this time to you and your mother for putting up with all this ineptitude, but I can’t figure out a way to phrase it that won’t make things worse…again. Although the cops are apparently leaving.”
They had paused at the kitchen door as they talked with the four people with pets in training here. He wondered what the conversation was about but wasn’t close enough to hear.
“That’s okay,” Amber said. “Let’s not do anything to cause them to stay—though I doubt they’re dashing back to the station newly inspired to dig deeper into my dad’s case. I appreciate the thought, though.”
“Anytime.”
“And thanks again for your impressive demonstration. I’ll be eager to see what responses we get after the videos are up on the website. I bet we’ll be flooded with inquiries from police departments everywhere looking for K-9s and handler training.”
“I hope so,” Evan said, and really meant it—as long as he could control how many were in a class.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said. “But for now…” She stood on her tiptoes and, to his surprise, kissed him on the cheek.
It felt good. Friendly. Sweet.
It shouldn’t have gotten his juices flowing…but it did.
“Like I said,” she continued, “thanks.”
She followed the cops out the door.
*
All right, maybe that was dumb, Amber thought. No one appeared to pay attention to Evan or her, and she’d wanted to do something a tiny bit special to acknowledge his kindness.
She hadn’t intended it to be sexy, and it wasn’t.
But it reminded her of being closer to him. Pressing against him.
Trading much more heated kisses with him.
Oh, yeah. It hadn’t been a good idea.
Now she headed down the empty hall to the den where the young dogs were housed. With people coming in and out of the house, she hadn’t wanted to let them loose for fear they’d run out the door. It had been long enough, though, that they probably needed to go out.
But as she reached the closed door, she heard voices from inside. Male voices. She realized then that she hadn’t noticed Orrin and Percy in the kitchen as she’d walked out, only the rest of the crowd less the cops. They must be in there playing with the dogs.
She considered knocking in case they needed a moment to calm the three future K-9s—but then she thought she heard someone say Corbin, most likely Orrin, but the sound was muffled by the door. She paused, smiling as she waited for her father’s employee to sing his praises as Evan had done.
Instead, Orrin said, “He was a jerk of a boss. Always telling me what to do and not listening when I told him his ideas weren’t working.”
What? Why was he saying that now? Amber almost did burst in, but hesitated when Percy said, “Well, at least he wasn’t my boss. But he was always telling me what to do with this ranch’s damn website. I’m the one who knows tech stuff and what works and what doesn’t online. But to get paid, I had to listen to him.”
“Yeah, to get paid. That’s the important thing, isn’t it?”
“Hell yes. But at least with these women in charge not knowing what they’re doing, I’m less worried about that—and charging more.”
“Hey, good idea. I’m due for a raise,” Orrin said. “Especially since I have to work now with that damn guy with PTSD and his dog.”
“Anyway, I’m ready to leave. You?”
Not wanting to get caught, Amber scurried back down the hall in the direction from which she’d come.
Even as her mind swirled in puzzlement—and agony.
She had assumed these men, who had sometimes assisted her dad in various ways, had liked him—even Orrin, who’d mentioned their occasional arguments but still had seemed to respect him.
She had pondered the possibility that one of them could have killed her father, but pretty much written both of them off as not having had any real motive.
But now, these two men were near the top of her suspect list.
*
“Oh, there you are.” Evan approached Amber along the hallway. Bear wasn’t with him. “Visiting the pups?”
She looked both uncomfortable and defiant, and he wondered what she was thinking. But she just said, “Yes, I think they might need a short walk.” Her voice was raised.
&nbs
p; He realized why when the den door opened and Orrin and Percy came into the hall. They must have heard her from inside. Orrin had Rex and Lucy on a leash, and Percy had Hal. “These guys are acting like they want out,” Orrin said. There was something off about his expression as he looked straight at Amber, then at him.
Evan didn’t look away but couldn’t read what was going on in Orrin’s staring eyes.
“I’ll take them.” Amber held out her hands for the leashes.
“We’ll take them,” Evan insisted as he reached for a leash. First, it would be better for Amber and him, more used to handling dogs, to take care of them rather than these men.
Second, he wanted to talk to Amber alone, except for canine ears around. Something was clearly on her mind. Something else that was apparently difficult.
After grabbing Rex’s and Lucy’s leashes, she turned quickly and led the dogs down the hall. Evan aimed a shrug at the two men near the door and followed her with Hal.
He said nothing until they reached the front door. As she opened it, he asked, “Is everything okay?” He knew the answer.
“No.” She didn’t respond further, and he hurried outside behind her.
She headed down the driveway and around the cars parked there, toward the lawn. She opened the gate and sped through behind the two young shepherds, who both cavorted in front of her. Hal yanked on his leash to catch up.
In a minute, Amber had let her two charges loose behind the area surrounded by the chain-link fence, and Evan did the same with Hal. She continued to stare at the dogs but he suspected she wasn’t seeing anything.
Then she pivoted toward him. Her face was pale, her brown eyes wide and damp. “Yes,” she said, “something is wrong. I overheard Orrin and Percy talking about my father and now—now I’m wondering even more if one of them had something to do with his death.”
She related the conversation she’d heard, and he could understand why she was upset…and why she now had placed those guys near the top of her suspect list. He did, too.
“I loved my father,” she spluttered with a soft wail. “He was sometimes critical but always fair with his employees and those he did business with, so I don’t know what they were talking about.”
Second Chance Soldier Page 16
