Her Undercover Refuge

by Linda O. Johnston

  However, her husband had abused not only her, but their pets. Fortunately, they hadn’t had children, or Scott assumed they’d have been abused, too. Surprisingly, their childless marriage had lasted nearly twenty years, but the last time Darleen had landed in the hospital and nearly died, one of her nurses had looked for some way to help her and had asked the right questions at the Los Angeles Police Department. Darleen’s husband had disappeared before he could be arrested, so she was terrified he would come after her again.

  That was when the Chance Animal Shelter was just starting up, so Darleen had been one of their first residents.

  “And she’s still here,” Nella said. “Isn’t that against your policy?”

  “Yes, but each situation is different. Darleen is still nervous, especially around people, and even the therapist who visits here to work with and counsel our residents hasn’t been able to help much, but as I’m sure you can tell, Darleen comes out of her shell around dogs. Since we haven’t found the perfect place for her to continue her life, and we don’t know where her husband is, she’s still here.”

  “That’s wonderful.” Nella’s warm expression was like a hug.

  He wouldn’t have minded hugging back. But he stayed where he was.

  It was definitely time to change the subject. “I know. Now, here’s where we are.” Scott asked Nella several additional questions about her background, including why she had decided to go into law enforcement.

  “Because a lot of people need more help than instruction, like a teacher would do, or medical, like a nurse would do, or...well, we didn’t talk much about my childhood, but I grew up in Los Angeles and had quite a few friends whose backgrounds were similar, with parents who were involved with show business. Mine were both in production. They traveled a lot, so I hung out with sitters. If I’d wanted to go steal things or whatever, it’d have been easy. Not my style, but I saw other kids get into that kind of trouble—partly because, even if they had their parents around, those parents were...well, you can guess where this is going. They and their parents hurt other people, and I wanted to stop that as much as I could.”

  “I get it,” Scott said. And he did. His background was different. He’d liked animals because his mother had been involved in rescues, but he’d gone into law enforcement because his uncle had been murdered and he wanted to do something to help prevent that happening in other families. He admired Nella for also wanting to stop crime.

  “One additional question for you,” Nella said then. “Does this shelter act like animal services and rescue animals in difficult or abusive situations?”

  “Sometimes,” he responded. He rather liked that question, too. “Not officially, although we always get an okay after the fact from the official agency. They understand what we’re about, and that includes helping animals.” He paused. “So, okay now, let’s go over a few more things.” He asked some standard questions about items on Nella’s résumé, including her education. She had attended Cal State Fullerton, which had a good law enforcement program. Her first job had been with the Fullerton Police Department but she had soon applied for the Los Angeles Police Department and landed the job she was just leaving.

  All sounded great, especially factoring in her references whom he’d contacted. They all liked her. Admired her. Thought she was highly intelligent and motivated and dedicated to her job.

  It was time.

  He shuffled through the papers he’d brought along that included her résumé. Then he looked up to see she was staring as if attempting to read his mind.

  He smiled. “All right,” he said. “I’m offering you the job of Manager of the Chance Animal Shelter. Here are the particulars.” He went over responsibilities she would have, including working with their staff members to help them start and live their new lives here, as well as helping to care for and rehome animals who were there not only as a cover, but as part of the shelter’s duties, too.

  He said that he and the other managers would work with her and always be available to teach her more of what she needed to know to do her job, and every question she had would be addressed. Her main responsibility would be to work closely with those other managers, including him, to protect the residents, both human and animal, and they would work closely with her. There would be meetings and dog walks and training and research online and otherwise, to try to ensure the safety of this facility and its staff and animals. And more.

  “And here is the compensation.” He told her what the monthly pay would be, paid biweekly, as well as holidays and vacation. “We hope you’ll stay with us for a long time, but you can resign on thirty days’ notice.” He paused. “Now, how long do you need to consider this?”

  She scowled, which surprised him. And then she broke into a big smile. “Oh, about two seconds,” she said. “I accept.”

  Chapter 4

  She got it! Nella was thrilled.

  Oh, she realized it wasn’t a perfect job. No job was.

  She had learned that the hard way. The very hard way.

  But now she could start over, sort of. Her skills in law enforcement would come in handy here, as she helped to create and carry through with new identities for the staff members under their protection.

  And that protection would also benefit from the skills she had acquired as a cop.

  She still had some questions, though. She looked at Scott, who had pulled a tablet computer from somewhere. Now he was studying it and typing things in, and she assumed it was a possible contract for her to sign or something else relating to her new job.

  Her new job!

  Working here... And with this man who might be too good-looking, too nice, too—well, sexy—but she would handle her thoughts about him in a highly professional manner. Absolutely.

  As soon as he looked up from the screen, she said, “I understood from what my boss, Dan Poreski, said that some of the managers here started out in law enforcement. He told me you had, too, and you confirmed that before.”

  She assumed Scott had given Dan permission not only to mention the shelter but to also reveal something about its true mission. But she didn’t want to get Dan in trouble with her new boss, so maybe she should have thought that through better.

  But Scott didn’t appear concerned as he responded. “Yes,” he said. “I worked things out when I started this shelter to also remain with the Chance Police Department as, essentially, an undercover officer within a special, covert division. Part of my responsibilities are to be the director here and help protect people we take in, our staff members. We’re even partially funded by the Chance PD.”

  “Got it.” That was great, Nella thought. Having an actual police department as backup was incredibly helpful.

  “In addition,” Scott continued, “you should know now, since you’re joining us, that our managers, when asked, are all supposed to admit that they had prior jobs in law enforcement, because that’s easy enough for civilians to find out. But we also say that circumstances forced us to quit or retire and work with animals instead. And definitely don’t mention how we managers all take on roles helping to protect every shelter resident, including the human ones. Plus, Telma and Camp also maintain their connections with the Chance PD. I’ll introduce you there soon, and maybe they’ll also add you to their personnel.”

  “I’d like that,” Nella said. And she would. Although becoming part of this police department might make it more difficult to go back to her prior job with the LAPD.

  Not that she wanted to. What she wanted was for this new life she was starting to work out well. And continue for a good long time.

  A wonderment she’d been tamping down crossed her mind again. “Have there been any instances where one of the staff members has been found here by whoever they were fleeing, or otherwise threatened?”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Scott said. “Although that’s not surprising. Threats and dangerous p
rior lives are why they’re here.”

  “Anything recently? And did it put that staff member and others in danger?”

  “Yes, and yes.” Scott appeared grim, his dark brows furrowed.

  “How—”

  “It was one of the former staffers you won’t get to meet. We always confiscate our residents’ phones, then dispose of them in case anyone’s following the GPS. Unlike with Ann, we usually conduct an interview of potential residents before they come to this shelter thanks to the people who refer them. That way, it’s less likely whoever is threatening that person will find us. But that particular new resident had a phone we didn’t find and was using it to contact her ex and text him how glad she was that he wasn’t in her life anymore.”

  “And he showed up here,” Nella surmised.

  “Yes, about three weeks ago—in a rage and with a gun. I called some colleagues in the Chance PD and the guy was arrested—and I unfortunately had to kick that new resident out for not following our rules.”

  “Did she—”

  “We found her a new job at a discount store in Phoenix, where she’ll hopefully not contact her ex again, especially if he doesn’t serve time.”

  But the damage had been done here. “Did the remaining residents know about it?”

  Scott nodded, still looking grim. “Yes, and I can assure you they were damn scared.”

  She didn’t ask if the other managers were, too. She would have been, especially after her most recent issues at the LAPD.

  But she, too, would have done everything necessary to protect all residents of this place.

  So she wouldn’t have to go through what she’d had to after Lou...

  She had to ask—“Have you looked much into Ann’s background yet?”

  “We got her phone immediately and had it transported, while still turned on, down the mountain and to a town far away. Telma interviewed her first, then I did. I also contacted Edna, the former resident who’d told her about this place—and asked her to be more careful in the future and to contact us first. But she also confirmed Ann’s story. Ann has an abusive stepson who apparently thought she was stealing his dad’s money. He attacked her several times, and her husband just let it happen. We’re not sure we got her phone quickly enough, but we hope we don’t see either man around here. We haven’t accepted her yet, but we’re close.”

  If Ann was accepted, Nella would make sure she remained okay. Of course she would follow whatever the shelter’s protocol was, but she would stay on top of it.

  Now that she was a new manager.

  And was aware that this shelter was definitely not immune to danger.

  “So,” Scott said, “are you convinced working here isn’t a good idea after all?”

  That was how he apparently interpreted her reaction to what he’d told her.

  “Just the opposite,” she said. “I may not want to have my old job any longer, but I’m definitely ready to help people around here. And animals, too.”

  “Then we’ll give it a try.” Scott handed Nella the tablet he had been working on, along with a stylus. “Take a look at this. If it’s okay, I’ll want you to sign it and I’ll get you a printed copy and an e-copy. Plus, we’ll get you some Chance Animal Shelter T-shirts later that indicate you’re a manager. You’ve probably noticed they’re essentially our uniforms here, and so’s my work shirt.”

  “Great. And I have a few more questions. Nothing major, though, like the last ones. Just how parts of what happened here were designed to be established.”

  The agreement looked fairly simple, nothing different from what they’d discussed, and a minimum of legalese. Nella signed.

  “Excellent,” Scott said, smiling at her.

  “Definitely,” Nella responded, smiling back. At least, she hoped all would go well.

  Scott began to stand, but Nella said, “My other questions?”

  Scott sat down again and looked at her with an expression that suggested he was as pleased about her signing on as she was.

  She had an odd, inappropriate urge to seal their contractual commitment with a kiss...

  Forget that, she told herself. “How many staff members are being protected here now?”

  “You’ve met two, Bibi and Darleen, and we hope to accept Ann, too. We’ve got another five people at the moment, in different stages of getting or keeping new identities—after our loss of the one we talked about.”

  “So...eight now,” Nella said.

  “If all works out with Ann. But as I’ve said, we haven’t been open very long. We’re here in Chance, not a big city, where strangers who could be after our residents should be at least somewhat obvious. I hope to grow the number of people we’re protecting. I have both local and federal contacts who help me establish our residents’ new identities and obtain new ID documentation for them. And, oh.” He leaned toward Nella over the table, causing her skin to tingle as if she hoped he’d touch her.

  Not going to happen, she told herself sternly. At least not in any suggestive way, though professional colleagues sometimes came into contact with one another. “Oh, what?” she pressed.

  “In addition to hoping to start that vet clinic I mentioned, I intend to grow the number of animals we’re protecting, too, including those we rescue ourselves. None will stay forever, but they’ll each, human and not, have a place to be until their lives are favorably turned around.”

  “That’s wonderful,” she said, meaning it. “Do you hold big adoption events to try to find the animals homes?” She had been to several at Los Angeles shelters, although she was always concerned she was away from home too much to actually adopt a dog, no matter how much she wanted to.

  “No, we just invite people or families to come here to check out our available pets after sending us their information to review,” Scott said. “As you can probably tell, we don’t want too many outsiders hanging around at any one time. Too potentially dangerous for the people we’re protecting. We keep our eyes on possible adopters at all times, to make sure that’s really why they’re here.”

  “Of course. I’ll need to get my mind in gear that way.” Then another thing she’d thought about before came to mind—something pretty important. “I’ll of course want to meet the rest of the people and animals,” she said. “And—well, if you have room for more people, I’m hoping you have an empty apartment I can stay in for now, till I find someplace else to live. Is that okay?”

  “It’s what I figured for now, though the management staff members don’t live here but in nearby homes or apartments,” Scott said. “That includes me. I’ll introduce you to the shelter’s apartment area first, then we’ll go around so you can meet the other people and animals.” He stood and gestured toward the door. “Ready to check it out now? We keep all our units furnished since it’s unlikely our visitors will bring much with them when they arrive.”

  “Sure,” Nella said. “A furnished place will work out well for me. I’ve already canceled my lease in L.A. and put most of my belongings into storage for now.” Not that she’d felt certain she’d get this job or even want to stay here. But she had been hopeful, and figured that if this didn’t work out, she would probably seek something else away from L.A. despite recognizing she could return to her job there.

  This apartment? She felt certain she’d be satisfied with it, no matter how small it was.

  And she found herself sharing another smile with Scott as he showed her down the hallway to another door, larger than those that led to the kind of room where she’d been interviewed.

  But what distinguished it most?

  He pulled out his keycards. This door was locked.

  * * *

  Scott led Nella up the wide staircase to the second floor in one of the buildings near the front of the shelter that contained the kitchen and eating areas. There were also three more floors above it containing most
ly apartments, though most weren’t occupied. Not yet. But there was also a community room on the third floor so residents could get together during off-hours if they wanted to be outside their units.

  There were also other stairways to the apartment levels. Their doors opened safely to the inside of the shelter’s grounds. Still, no one needed to use them, for now at least.

  And it was more secure keeping them locked.

  Of course, because of the emphasis on safety at this shelter, there were security cameras at all entrances and in most areas outside the units, including at some locations in the animal shelter.

  No sense taking any risks that anyone could get away with anything here without being observed. Not at a place like this, where the people they protected might otherwise be placed into danger.

  Nella’s light footsteps behind him made Scott reflect that she was definitely a physically fit woman—and not just because she was a former cop. No, although he had attempted not to stare at her, he couldn’t help noticing her curves beneath the somewhat dressy outfit she wore to be interviewed. Her white shirt beneath her dark jacket didn’t completely hide her attractively full bust line, and her slacks, too, suggested the shapeliness beneath.

  Not that he’d ever get to see anything beneath—although the idea was a bit stimulating. He just ignored it.

  And though none of the current residents had any issues with the stairs, either, it wouldn’t hurt to have a manager present to help out in case a future person they were protecting needed physical help, too.

  He opened the door to the first floor of apartments without using a keycard and waited in the well-lit hallway for Nella to join him. Although there were small windows at both ends, most light came from lamps hung on the wall, all with bright fluorescent bulbs. They stayed on all night, too, though dimmed. That helped the peace of mind of the people who lived here.

  And also would help in an emergency. Which Scott hoped never happened.