by Mike Faricy
I saw my chance, and quietly slipped out the far side of the car and into the street, side stepping everyone as I made my way up Isabella’s front steps and through her front door.
In short order the cameras had turned from Isabella and the girls hugging, going back to Tubby who was more than willing to hold court for as long as anyone cared to listen.
I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep on the couch, fifteen minutes? An hour? I jerked awake when the door opened and Isabella and the girls came in. They were still hanging on to one another, their faces stained with tears. Only this time tears of joy.
“There he is,” Isabella shouted as I sat up and they all ran over and proceeded to hug me.
“Whoa, take it easy ladies, one at time, one at a time,” I said.
“Dev, thank you so much, thank you. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you, I can’t, I, oh just thank you so much.”
“It’s been an interesting couple of days. I have to tell you the only reason we’re here is because you’ve got two very brave girls here who never gave up and who helped me when we finally had a chance to get away.”
The front door opened again and Aaron LaZelle walked in, detective Jack Ditter followed behind him. Both were in jeans and sweaters and looked like they had driven over about three minutes after receiving the phone calls that no doubt woke them out of a sound sleep.
Isabella was on her feet and gave both cops a hug then rushed back over to the girls.
“We’ve got two uniforms at the door,” Ditter said. “Right now the best thing is to just get settled in with the girls, stay private. You can deal with the press tomorrow if you want, believe me they’ll be anxious to talk to you.”
“I don’t know about that, I mean talking to them tomorrow. I just want the girls and….” Isabella started to cry and pulled the girls close to her, Ava wrapped her arms around her mother’s thigh and Emma hung onto her arm with both hands. “I’m sorry,” Isabella said, but she couldn’t seem to get any other words out.
“We’d like to talk to you, if you feel up to it,” Aaron said to me.
I nodded then said to Isabella, “Do you still have those cold gel packs?”
“Oh, sorry, I’ll get you one.”
“No, that’s okay. Are they in the freezer?”
“Yeah,” she said then went back to hugging the girls.
“Let me just grab one and we can get started,” I said to Aaron.
“Probably be best if we did this downtown,” Aaron said. “Officer Patty Ryan is on the way, she should be here in the next half hour. She’ll stay with you tonight, make sure everyone is okay,” he said to Isabella.
“It’s late, I think I just want to give the girls a bath and we’ll all go to bed,” she said.
“We’ll keep the two guys out front, sometimes well, you probably know what the news media can be like by now.”
Isabella nodded, and then looked at me. “You gonna be okay?”
“Not a worry.”
“We just need to get Dev’s version of the story. Apparently Carlos O’Kelly is still out there somewhere,” Ditter said then looked over at me as sort of a follow up.
“He just ran off, I don’t know where he went,” I said.
“Oh, I can’t thank you enough,” Isabella said and gave me another long hug.
“Carlos won’t be back to bother you,” I whispered in her ear.
She gave me a kiss then squeezed tightly and held on for a long moment before she pushed away.
“Thank you so much,” she said.
“I’m just glad they’re back safe and sound.” I looked over at Ditter and Aaron, “Let’s get started.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
At least it wasn’t one of those concrete walled interview rooms. This was more of a conference room up in the homicide offices. I was on my third cup of lousy coffee, my second stale doughnut and trying like hell to stay awake.
“So you decided you would just head up to the Grey Wolf Casino to get away from everything going on down here?” Ditter asked for the umpteenth time.
“Yeah, that’s about it.”
“In all the years I’ve known you, I never knew you liked to gamble, Dev,” Aaron said.
“I don’t, I just thought I’d give it a try. You know?”
“And you met Carlos O’Kelly there?”
“Like I said before, not exactly, I saw his car, actually my car. He stole the thing from me if you remember. Anyway, he was driving by as I pulled into the parking lot and so I just followed him.”
“To a boat in Two Harbors?”
“Hey, look guys, with all due respect. I’m going on about six hours of sleep for the past two or three days. I’m pretty tired. The sun’s coming up. You got everything on tape. I’d really like to go home and crash, if that’s okay.”
“I guess that’s fair,” Aaron said. “I’ll give you a lift. You can get some rest and then we’ll have some more questions. I just haven’t made up my mind yet.”
“Made up your mind?”
“I can’t determine if you’re the luckiest or the unluckiest person in the world. And then there are our Federal friends, they’ll have some questions for you as well.”
“Oh good.”
“Come on, let’s go, I’ll drive you home. I think we could probably all use a break,” Aaron said.
We were in his car, some sort of a Toyota SUV thing. Aaron had always been into classical music and just now he had some playing softly on the radio. It was all very relaxing, which had me on guard as he drove through downtown making his way to my place.
“So, you up for grabbing some breakfast before I drop you off?”
“You know, thanks, but I’d like to maybe take a raincheck. I’m really beat, Aaron and I’ve been worrying about those two little girls since this whole thing first started. I need to start to decompress and finally grabbing some sleep will really help.” Besides, I figured a breakfast with a side order of third degree questions from Aaron didn’t sound all that appealing.
“Yeah, sleeps probably a good idea, a long, hot shower wouldn’t do you any harm, either.”
“True.”
“So tell me what really went down. How’d you know he was up at the Grey Wolf Casino?”
“Like I said before, I just went up there to get away from everything and I saw him driving past in my car. Small world, isn’t it?”
Aaron looked over at me and stared for a moment, but didn’t bother to comment. We drove the next few minutes in silence until we pulled up in front of my place.
“Okay, home sweet home, dumb ass, here you go.”
“Thanks Aaron, I appreciate it and I know you guys have worked hard on this thing, I’m just glad it’s all over.”
Aaron stared at me again for an uncomfortable length of time, like he was thinking of what to say. “I’m glad those little girls are safe that was our first priority. I’m glad you’re safe, Dev. You’re a screw up, but you’re our screw up. As for Carlos O’Kelly, given just the players we suspect, I have a strong suspicion we’ll probably never hear from him again. I don’t like that, it’s not the way I operate. It certainly is not the way our legal system is designed to operate. That said, there’s really not much I can do about that, at least not at this point.”
I thought about giving him some sort of rationalization. Rattle off my half baked story yet another time. I quickly settled for holding my hand out and we shook. “Thanks for taking care of me, Aaron.”
He just nodded, I climbed out and he drove off. I still had to talk to the Feds, Detective Ditter would want to cover things again, but the girls were safe, I was safe and by extension, so was Tubby Gustafson, Fat Freddy, and that security guy from the Grey Wolf Casino.
Chapter Forty
It was a big deal in town. The weather was unseasonably warm and a number of reporters were there along with a number of cops including Patty Ryan and Tai Vang. Aaron was there of course, along with detective Ditter and a coup
le other guys I recognized, but whose names I couldn’t remember. We were all crowded into Isabella’s town-home sipping bottles of water or cups of coffee. The Derby had sent over trays of cookies and pastries, but thankfully Tubby Gustafson and Fat Freddy were missing in action.
The girls had been home for a week and I don’t think they’d been more than a couple of feet from their mother in all that time. They seemed to be getting back to normal and just now they were arguing over a specific chocolate chip cookie although a tray with another five or six dozen chocolate chip cookies sat on the table in front of them.
I had just shoved a miniature caramel roll into my mouth, the things were really good.
“How many of those things have you had? Someone else might like to eat one,” Heidi said.
“Are you kidding? Come on, Tubby sent them over and I’m just making sure they’re safe for everyone else to eat.”
“You’re going to be called Tubby if you keep that up.”
“Oh, I don’t know, you haven’t been complaining the last couple of nights.”
“I’m just glad you’re home and safe,” she said, then squeezed my hand.
“Okay, everybody, we’re about to get started, here, if I could have your attention,” Isabella called out to the room. Gradually things quieted down until the only voice you heard was Ava.
“That’s mine, that’s the one I wanted, Emma.”
That brought some laughter to the room and then Isabella said, “As you all know, we’ve recently been through a very trying time. I really can’t name all the people we owe so much to, all of you who were there when the bottom fell out. All of you who worked so very hard, who never gave up. The wonderful people on the police force, Officers Patty Ryan and Tai Vang, Detective Jack Ditter, Mr. Gustafson, and just so very many people who never gave up. I can’t tell you how, in the darkest of time, how very, very much….” and then she couldn’t seem go on because she was so choked up.
“Oh God, I’m so sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this and now look at me. It’s just that without all of you, who helped in so many countless ways, well we wouldn’t be here today. There is one person in particular that I … that we, owe a very special thanks to. He stepped up to the plate and he’s the reason we are back here as a family today.”
People started to turn and stare at me. Heidi squeezed my hand. I reached for another caramel roll.
“I’ve known Dev Haskell since I was in ninth grade, a freshman in high school. In fact I met my husband through him. He and Danny were friends, good friends. In 2011. I asked Dev to take down the yellow ribbon on the tree out front when we got word Danny wasn’t coming home. He’s been here ever since, in the background, but always here if I ever needed anything. And I have no doubt that things would have been a lot worse that night if I’d been home to answer the door instead of Dev.”
“He promised me he would get the girls back. And he did. He was beaten, injured, shot at and I … I can’t really thank him enough and so I’ll just ask one more favor. Dev, would you please go outside and take down that ribbon. This time they came home, this time they made it back and we’re … we’re all….” And then she just started sobbing.
“Dev,” Heidi whispered and squeezed my hand.
I quickly made my way through the crowd and wrapped my arms around Isabella. I felt her shudder slightly and I kissed her on the forehead.
She pulled away after a moment and said, “Oh God, I’m so not good at this,” then she blew her nose into a Kleenex.
“How romantic,” I said and everyone sort of chuckled and more than a few Kleenex’s came out.
“I’m gonna need some help, here. Emma, Ava, come on and give me a hand,” I said.
The girls took my hands and we walked out the door, a couple of camera crews were already outside in position. The place emptied as everyone followed out behind us and we walked toward the maple tree as one large mob.
The faded yellow ribbon was still wrapped around the tree and I said, “If Emma here hadn’t helped we wouldn’t be here today. So, Emma, if you’d do the honors, here,” I said then I lifted Emma up so she could untie the ribbon.
“What about me?” Ava asked which brought laughter from the crowd.
Emma nodded to me and I set her down and picked up Ava, “Ava gave us both the support we needed to keep on. Without the two of them, these two wonderful sisters, we wouldn’t be here.”
Ava pulled the ribbon off the tree, gave me a kiss and handed the ribbon to her mother. Isabella clutched the ribbon tightly against her chest and the girls wrapped themselves around their mother.
It was quiet for a long moment and then Isabella said, “Come on back inside we’ve got plenty to eat.”
We chatted, sipped more coffee, and shook all sorts of hands and gradually the crowd began to thin out until it was just family and Heidi and me. “Girls, I love you, but it’s time for me to go home.”
“You could take a bath with us,” Ava said.
Isabella’s mother shot me a glance.
“Maybe some other time, right now I need to go home, I’m very tired.” We lingered for another ten minutes, said our goodbyes and then we were out the door.
“Wow,” Heidi said as I pulled her car away from the curb.
“Yeah, that was nice.”
“Nice? Dev, you’re going to be on the news tonight and in tomorrow’s paper, again. Nice? It was unbelievable.”
“You want to grab some dinner.”
“No.”
“No?”
“First of all, you ate more of those caramel rolls than anyone else who was there. You can’t possibly have room for dinner. And then, to be honest, I just want to go home and hold you. Sometimes you can fool everybody, even me, into thinking you’re just a really nice guy.”
The End
Thank you for reading, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed Yellow Ribbon. As an independently published author, I rely on you, the reader, to spread the word. So if you enjoyed the book, please tell your friends and family, and if it isn’t too much trouble, I would appreciate a brief review on Amazon, even if it’s just a sentence or two it really, really helps. Thanks again. My best to you and yours.
Mike
US: http://amzn.to/1FZkIFn
UK: http://amzn.to/1KLF4Ts
CA: http://amzn.to/1FRjGNp
AU: http://bit.ly/1xkbYIp
IN: http://amzn.to/1RlhiVG
JP: http://amzn.to/2aCIlcp
Mike Faricy
Dog Gone
Published by Credit River Publishing 2015
Copyright Mike Faricy 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior and express permission of the copyright owner.
All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
ASIN# B00YLPMA8K
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people for their help & support:
Special thanks to Uncle Tony, Elizabeth, Julie, Mattie and Roy for their hard work, cheerful patience and positive feedback. I would like to thank family and friends for their encouragement and unqualified support. Special thanks to Maggie, Jed, Schatz, Pat, Av, Emily and Pat, for not rolling their eyes, at least when I was there. Most of all, to my wife Teresa, whose belief, support and inspiration has, from day one, never waned.
To Teresa
“Sometimes you can act so violent.”
“Which is the reason I’m still alive.”
Mike Faricy
Dog Gone
Chapter One
It was one of those intimate moments … sort of.
“Oh, Dev. Oh, Dev. Yes! Yes!” Maddie’s voice ratcheted up with passionate excitement.
She was a beautiful, blue eyed, natural blonde, with a gorgeous figure, sex
y southern drawl and a fascinating little lacy tattoo across the small of her back. At the moment her back was arched so just her heels and shoulders were touching the mattress on the four poster bed. Her head was hanging partially over the side and her eyes had that faraway look like she’d been transported to a very magical place. The three of us were making love, Maddie, me and apparently Morton.
Morton was her dog. A three year old Golden Retriever the color of a peanut butter cookie who, at the moment, was busily licking Maddie’s face.
Even I found it impossible to maintain concentration and finally rolled over on my side next to Maddie. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable working with an audience,” I said.
She laughed and Morton poked me in the back of the head with his cold nose.
“He’s a people dog.”
“A people dog?”
“Yeah, he likes people, in fact, he probably thinks he’s a person and he wants to be involved.”
“That might be okay if we were taking a walk, but this is….”
Her phone rang, it was just after midnight. Experience had taught me nothing good ever comes from a phone call at this hour.
Maddie rolled off the bed, gave Morton a pat on the head, picked her jeans up off the floor and dug the cell out of her back pocket.
“Oh, wow, it’s my dad,” she said sounding puzzled then answered. “Dad? Hey, is everything okay?”
I sat up and leaned against the carved wooden headboard.
“Oh? You’re kidding, when? Where is she now?” Maddie said looking worried as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
