Walton (The K9 Files #26)

Chapter 10

C helsea had been so happy when the guys safely returned to the lodge. She and Julie had remained together, each of them armed, during their absence. Walton told her to go to bed and to get some sleep, and he would fill her in tomorrow. She did manage to sleep and was awoken by the arrival of the police. She bolted out of bed, noted it was still pitch-black outside, got dressed, and headed downstairs. She wanted to be in the middle of whatever this was, if only to ensure that she could find a way past it and the nightmares later. As she walked into the living room, rubbing her eyes, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Walton, smiling at her.

She opened her arms and wrapped him up in a big hug. He hugged her back, and that alone gave her such a sense of peace and contentedness. She looked up at him and smiled. “You’re a good hugger.” When his eyebrows shot up, she realized how little experience he had at getting compliments and how utterly unfamiliar he was with the idea. “I mean it,” she said, as she slipped out of his arms slightly to turn and look back at the front doors. “I gather the police are here?”

“Yes, I was gonna tell you, but you didn’t need to get up.”

“But I do,” she stated. “I don’t want this rolling around in my brain, causing me nightmares. I’m much better off to just see what is going on and to go from there.”

“Fine,” he muttered. “The cops are out now with Rick. He was guarding the body.”

“Not you?” she asked. He shook his head. “Any particular reason? You generally don’t let go so easily.”

He smiled, realizing that she knew him pretty well, and wondered why she was so observant where he was concerned. “I wanted to see if the men would still be here.”

“Ah.” Chelsea nodded. “So you’re trying to keep an eye on them.”

“I am. There are still three of them, and I’m just not comfortable with you and Julie being here with them,” he shared.

“Do you really think we’re in danger?” Julie asked, coming up behind them.

He winced, and Chelsea pinched him. “Now you’ve got her all worried.”

“It’s just a matter of being cautious.”

Chelsea searched his face for a long moment and then nodded. “I guess that makes sense. We already have somebody who’s been murdered, so let’s hope there won’t be a third.”

“Exactly,” Walton agreed. “Not only let there not be a third body, but we have to consider the fact that whatever is going on happened long before these guys ever got here to the lodge. We are not all that important to them, just witnesses to be silenced,” he explained, “and they will make that clear fairly quickly.”

“Ah, so we’re expendable? Is that what you’re saying?” Chelsea asked.

He hesitated, then shrugged. “It is one way to look at it.”

“It seems to me that’s the only way to look at it,” Chelsea declared, worry etched on her face. “It’s not a very comfortable idea either.”

“Of course not,” Walton muttered. “I was trying not to upset you or Julie.”

Julie frowned, hugging herself.

Chelsea gave him a wry smile. “I thank you for that, but I would rather be in the know and, if I need to be extra careful, then I will be.”

“Then be extra careful,” he stated. “You both need to be. Even with Rick and me in the house or nearby, keep those guns on you.”

Julie nodded, exchanging glances with Chelsea, then announced, “On that note, I’ll go to the kitchen and put on coffee.” She looked outside in the still-dark world around them. “Any idea how long the cops will be?”

“We ended up leaving the body out there,” Walton shared, “so they’ll check the area and then bring it back to the lodge.”

“We don’t have a place to store it,” Julie noted worriedly.

“Nobody will have to store it. I’m guessing they’ll take it back with them,” Walton shared. “At least they should. They knew a body was here, so they should have come prepared to deal with it.”

“All these should have s make me a little concerned,” Julie pointed out. “What are the odds that they’ll have a body bag or whatever?”

“They will,” Walton said, with a smile. “That is pretty standard protocol when this happens.”

Julie nodded, but it was obvious that she was more worried about everything else than hearing what he had to say.

“Any chance of getting some coffee?” he asked, reminding her.

She smiled and said, “Coming right up,” and she quickly disappeared into the kitchen.

“You’re very good with her,” Chelsea told him, smiling.

He intentionally had been gentle with Julie. “She is pregnant, worried about her child, and has all this stress she’s been under. Plus, Julie really wants people to be gentle with each other,” he noted, “and I understand that she’s really struggling with all this, but she’s doing a fine job.”

“She is, and, of course,… being pregnant has made her all the more nervous, though she tries not to show it.”

“Of course,” he agreed. “It’s not exactly the start of her pregnancy that she was hoping for, and it makes me wonder if Rick might just shut down the business for the next little bit.”

Hearing more voices, he wrapped an arm around Chelsea’s shoulders. With her tucked up against him, he stepped outside onto the front porch.

“Is that to let the police know that I’m not involved?” she asked, with an attempt at humor in her tone, but it fell flat when she watched the men carrying the body between them. “Well, Jesus,” she muttered, as she hurriedly buried her face in Walton’s shoulder.

He just held her tight. When she did look back up again, the cops were at the back of one of the two police vehicles. “They’ll just take it away like that?” she asked.

“Yes,” he murmured, “that would make sense.”

“Sure, it would,” she muttered, then shook her head. “ Not . Nothing about this makes sense.” He squeezed her shoulders again, and she realized just how natural it felt to be here with him. “Hell, we shouldn’t even be here. If only you had come back for your extra sessions.”

“I was planning on it,” he replied. “I was also trying to get into a little bit better shape.”

“Why? So you could show off?”

He looked at her in surprise and then grinned. “Maybe.”

“ Maybe ,” she muttered. “You do know that I’ve seen you at your worst, right?”

“I know. I just thought it might be nice if you saw me at my best.”

She stilled, then looked up at him and asked, amusement in her tone, “Is that important?”

“It seemed to be at the time,” he noted, glancing down at her. “Yet it pales in comparison to all this.”

“Maybe,” she agreed, “but it also helps me to understand how your mind works.”

“I’m pretty sure you have a good idea how my mind works already,” he admitted, with a chuckle.

“I don’t know,” she teased. “Weird and wacky things go on in that head of yours.” She tapped it gently.

Just then the police officers walked over. Walton quickly introduced Chelsea to them. They just nodded, tilted their hats. “Ma’am.”

She smiled and said, “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’re here.”

The detectives nodded. “I’m Detective McKenna and this is my partner, Detective Hogan. Ugly business going on here.”

“Ugly business for all of us,” she noted. “Not what we thought would happen when we came up here.”

“Yet you came up after a War Dog, I hear,” the lead detective mentioned.

“He did,” Chelsea said, pointing Walton’s way, “and this is my brother’s place, so I came up with Walton.”

“Ah,” the detective replied, as if that made all the difference in the world. He looked over at Walton and said, “I guess we need to talk.”

Walton nodded. “Rick has already offered you the use of his office, so we can go in there, where it’s private.”

Rick hesitated and then asked, “Should I come too?”

The detective shook his head. “No, this will be just the two of us.” And, with that, he motioned at Walton, and he walked ahead into the lodge to reach the office.

The other detective stayed behind. “Maybe you can give me your version of events.”

Chelsea raised her eyebrows. “Sure, whatever events I can help you with, I’m happy to, but I wasn’t out there when they found the body.” She answered every question he had to the best of her ability. When he finally ran down, she was almost shaking. She looked over at her brother and said, “I’ll go into the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee.”

“You do that, and check on Julie, would you?”

With a nod, Chelsea quickly made her escape. In the kitchen, she found Julie busy cooking. “Cooking?”

“Dumb, I know, but I’m really struggling with how I’m supposed to handle all this. So I’m doing anything I can to keep busy.”

“That’s a good idea,” she muttered. “I wish I had something to keep me busy.”

“You can always help me in the kitchen. After all, that’s where women belong ,” she quipped, with an eye roll.

“Did they actually say that to you?”

“Of course, and I don’t know whether Chad and his group meant it, or it was a joke,” she noted. “We get all kinds of jokesters up here, and that’s a fairly common topic.”

“Yeah, I bet that gets old very quickly,” Chelsea muttered.

“It sure does,” Julie agreed, with a laugh, “but that’s all right, as this too shall pass.” And, with that, she motioned at Chelsea. “These need to be rolled into balls before we can get them into the oven.”

“I’m on it,” Chelsea replied.

And, with that, the two of them buckled down and, before long, had some mini breakfast crepes made and also some cookies and granola bars.

“Do you just keep these recipes in your head?” Chelsea asked curiously.

Julie smiled at her. “Guests are typically only here for a few days, so it’s pretty easy to use the same recipes. Once I found a dozen that worked, I’ve just stuck with them.”

“That makes sense,” Chelsea noted. “Doing the same recipes is probably easier to plan for and all.”

“Exactly,” Julie confirmed. “It made my life easier and helps me with the grocery list, once I figure out what I need. Some of these keep a really long time too, and they’re also easy for the men to take out on a hunting trip,” she explained, “so it just works all around. And I can always do something different if I feel like it, but I know I’m prepared for the basics.”

As they kept themselves busy, Chelsea asked Julie about the baby. “You never did give me a due date.”

“No, I didn’t,” she admitted. “I’m really struggling with all that, even telling you. It’s just… we’ve been fighting for so long for a viable pregnancy, and I know it sounds stupid, but I didn’t want to jinx it.”

“That’s not stupid,” Chelsea declared warmly. “I want nothing more than for you to have a happy, healthy baby, and I especially don’t want you getting stressed out because of this crap going on right now.”

“When you find a way to stop the stress,” Julie said, “you tell me. We’ll bottle it, and we’ll all make millions.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” she muttered.

Once everything that needed to go into the oven at the moment was baking, Chelsea turned her attention to cleaning up the kitchen. By the time they were done with that, she looked around at Julie again. “I feel as if we could do more.”

“There is more,” Julie replied. “Let’s do the prep for dinner.”

“Do you think we’ll have everybody here by then?”

Julie hesitated. “I have no clue. I don’t even know what to think about that question.”

“I guess, in that case, let’s just plan for everybody to eat dinner here. If you have leftovers, that’s a good thing. More for later.”

Julie laughed. “Around here, leftovers tend to get incorporated into the next meal, or else it’s what I eat.”

“Hey, no big deal. I’m always up for leftovers myself,” Chelsea said. “I have no problem with that.”

“Good.” Julie nodded. “If all of them leave and leave unhappy, we could be living on leftovers for a while.”

“You’re really worried about the business, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what I’m worried about,” Julie admitted, scrunching up her nose. “It’s a whole lot of everything. I can’t really pinpoint it, but I’m really not enjoying this season,” she muttered. “I wasn’t feeling great before these guys arrived either, and I think that’s just because I’ve been so nervous about the baby, but now it definitely has that off sense, and I really just want to go home.”

“Then maybe that’s what you should do. Maybe Rick can hire a cook to come up here, and you can stay home for a while and rest.”

“That sounds appealing, but I really want to be with him,” she shared, with a smile.

“I know you want to stay with Rick, yet you have to do what’s right for the baby.”

She nodded. “I know. I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Is there any reason to suspect that you might need to be home and resting with the baby?” Chelsea asked cautiously. Her sister-in-law hadn’t ever been very forthcoming about her other miscarriages.

Now Julie just looked at her and shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of.… As far as I know, everything is fine, but I haven’t had a scan yet.”

“Maybe that would be something to ask about when you get back.”

“Definitely, but, in the meantime, I have to deal with what’s on my plate, and that appears to be this.” She gestured to the other room, where the men talked in undertones.

“Right,” Chelsea agreed. “In that case, we’ll deal with this and do a good job, and then you can go home and take care of Baby. That sounds like a perfect project to carry on with.”

Julie laughed. “It’s hardly a project. This is a lifetime thing.”

“It is a lifetime thing, and I don’t know two people who deserve it more.”

Julie hugged her, sighing. “Thank you for that. I’ve been so anxious to get pregnant, and now that I am?… I’m so petrified that I’ll be a shitty mother.”

“Oh my, no way.” Chelsea stared at her, “I don’t know where that’s coming from, but you can stop thinking that. You’ll be a great mother. Remember that.”

“Yeah, not so easy to do,” Julie noted, with a grin. “I know it’s just nerves, but just nerves can still be pretty upsetting.”

“Oh, absolutely, and, by the way, there isn’t any such thing as just nerves . It’s plain old nerves , so call it what it is and move on.”

At that, her sister-in-law burst into laughter. “Sometimes things seem very simple. And sometimes it’s not so simple.”

“But I do get it in this case,” Chelsea explained. “I know I don’t have any kids of my own, but I can see that this is something the two of you really want, and one day I would like to have kids myself.” She grinned. “So, we’ll get through whatever needs to be gotten through here and then get you both home, and you can have a happy, healthy pregnancy.”

Just then the oven buzzer rang. Julie walked over and started pulling out cookie sheets.

“Do we need to call the men for breakfast?” Chelsea asked her.

“I have no idea. Maybe that’s a question you could go ask Rick.”

“I’ll do that.” Chelsea walked out of the kitchen to talk to Rick, finding all the men gathered there in the front room. Their bags were packed up, and they were ready to leave. She winced, not knowing how this would work out for anybody because Rick needed the business.

As she stood here listening, it was obvious their guests were looking for some of their money back, but Rick wasn’t interested in that at all.

“I don’t give a shit what you say. You brought a shit ton of trouble with you, and it’s raining down on my world too. With one of your buddies getting shot, bringing the cops up here”—Rick shook his head—“there’s no refund for any of your time, and you’ve already used up three-quarters of your stay here anyway.”

“But some of it’s left,” one of them noted.

“And I’ll be dealing with the cops for the rest of that time,” Rick muttered. “So, no matter what you say and how it looks to you, there was no indication that you might not stay the whole time when you booked the lodge. So, no, there’s no refund. If you’re choosing to leave a day or two early, that one’s on you.”

The men just glared at him. It’s not as if they should have expected to catch a break on the pricing. That wasn’t how things worked when a murder happened.

As Julie joined them, she announced, “Breakfast is ready.”

The men turned, looked at her, then at each other and shrugged. “If that’s the case, we might as well eat. We’ve paid for it.”

“Yes, you absolutely have,” Rick agreed. He looked over at Walton and the detective, as both left the home office, and walked toward the kitchen. “The men are looking to leave early,” Rick told them both.

The detective came down quickly with his veto. “They’re not leaving until I get their statements.”

At that, the three of them glared at him, and one of them stated, “We had nothing to do with our friend’s death.”

“Maybe so, but I only have your word on that, and considering that this is now connected to another murder—of another one of your friends—I’m really not comfortable seeing you just ride off into the sunset as if it’s nothing. This is a murder, and it needs to be sorted out. One way or another, we need to get to the bottom of it.”

“We didn’t have anything to do with it,” Hawk stated. “I’m sure somebody else must have been in the woods. Who knows, maybe Rick here was out shooting.”

“An autopsy would let us know what kind of gun was used to kill your friend,” the detective noted, “so you just keep that in mind.”

The men looked at each other and shrugged, then Hawk shared, “None of our guns were fired. You can ask him for that information.”

Rick looked at the three men, then faced the detective. “The guns that these guys got from me weren’t fired at all. But those weren’t the only guns these guys had that I know about on this trip. My understanding is that you all came up with your own weapons.”

“He’s right,” the detective chimed in. “Just because you were out target shooting and using some of Rick’s guns doesn’t mean you didn’t come with your own.”

Walton nodded. “I know damn well that you have your own guns, so maybe, before you leave, the detective needs to have a close look at those too.”

The two detectives now studied the three men. “Did you have your own weapons on you when you were out in the woods earlier with Chad?”

Dead silence came, and the lead detective spoke up. “In that case, we’ll put you in cuffs, and we will go through your gear to find out exactly what you brought up here. Let’s not in any way diminish the fact that this is a murder investigation, and all three of you were there at the time.”

“You think we were the only ones up there? What about Walton?” Hawk snapped. “Let’s not forget he was there too.”

“Oh, I already heard his story,” the detective stated, his tone hard, “but now I need to hear each of yours, and not one of you is leaving until I know everything there is to know.”

Walton kept an eye on the men and their bags, as everybody was taken into Rick’s office, one by one, for questioning. Walton hadn’t been deputized in any way, but he also knew that these men couldn’t be trusted, and, between the two of them, Walton and Rick kept an eye on everyone. It was important to ensure that nothing else happened.

Walton also kept his cell phone camera focused on the luggage. When the men were done being questioned, the two detectives came out and quickly went through their gear, and, in total, the cops found four weapons. They shared a look and turned to the men and asked, “Presumably you have licenses for these?”

All three of them nodded. “Yes, we do,” Hawk replied.

“That’s good, but we’ll hold them for forensics, so we can match them against the bullets recovered in autopsy.”

The men just glared at each other, as if somehow this was the other’s fault. A definite splintering among the remaining friends had begun, and Walton liked to see that. It was a good way to divide and conquer. He also wasn’t sure that somebody hadn’t ditched another weapon near the murder scene.

As he looked at the trio, he suspected that could be a possibility. He looked over at Rick. “Are you okay with this lot?”

“Sure, why?”

He hesitated and then said, “I want to take a walk.”

“Yeah, and why is that?” one of the detectives asked, overhearing them.

“Because it occurred to me, now that you have all these weapons, it’s quite possible that the shooter ditched the one that shot Chad.” The friends shuffled angrily at him, and he shrugged. “I’m not saying who might have done it or who didn’t. I’m just saying it’s a real possibility.”

“It is a possibility, but we did do a search in the dark while we were out there,” the lead detective pointed out.

“I know, but I want to take the dog and go over that area again.” With that, the detectives eyed the War Dog with interest. Walton nodded at them and added, “I would appreciate it if one of you would come with me. Otherwise somebody is bound to make a comment about how I probably threw the weapon in the woods in the first place.”

“If you find something, then we’ll know that you threw the weapon into the woods in the first place,” Hawk declared, his tone harsher than needed. “This has just been a big game to you, when you came up here, ready to kill Chad for that dog in the first place.”

Walton frowned at him. “Except for the fact that I’m unarmed and that I already got the dog off Chad, remember?”

“Yeah, and, as soon as he produced documentation proving that the dog was his, you would have had to give it back.” Hawk snapped, red in the face.

“Considering that he had no such documentation, that wasn’t likely, was it? But you bring up an interesting motive. My killing Chad for a dog I already had is an interesting thought.”

Hawk shrugged. “I’m just saying, if they searched and didn’t find anything at the crime scene…”

“Sure, but they didn’t have the War Dog with them,” Walton stated, with a lazy smile in their direction. “Believe me when I say that he can sniff out that shit. It depends on what the dog’s been trained for, of course, and I’ve been asking my bosses to track down his training records so we could do just that.”

“ Great ,” Hawk muttered, “so now you can go plant evidence to make it look like somebody else shot Chad. Yet the whole time it was you.”

“Not quite,” Rick argued. “He and I reached Chad’s body at the same time, but coming from opposite directions. We found all of you already gathered around the body.”

“Now, you three, on the other hand,” Walton added, “one of you killed Rudy, one of your own, and just decided to take out a second one.” Then he held up the USB key. “Plus, we found this on your dead friend’s body.” They froze as they stared at it. “So, just what kind of friend was Chad?”

They looked at each other uneasily, and finally Hawk admitted, “He was a piece of shit, that’s what he was.”

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t go there now,” Darren muttered.

“Why not?” Hawk asked. “Chad blackmailed me into coming on this godforsaken hunting trip with him and look how that’s turned out.”

“I know,” Darren replied, “but we can’t really blame the guy. He was trying to figure out who the hell killed Rudy.”

“Sure, and how did you guys end up coming?” Walton asked the others.

“I had to come because he would tell my girlfriend about something in my past that I didn’t want her to know about,” George shared ruefully.

“Oh, shit.” The lead detective was now looking at them with interest. “Did Chad really blackmail you?”

“Yeah, and if it’s on that goddamn key,… I want it,” George declared, glaring at Walton.

“It’ll be held in evidence, and I’ll leave it with the detectives for now,” Walton shared, as he handed it over. “We found it in Chad’s boots.”

“Oh yeah? And what if you planted that too?” Hawk snapped again.

“I have a witness in Rick, who also took a timestamped video. I’m sure the authorities can forensically tell whose evidence it was,” Walton noted, staring at him. “We don’t even know what’s on the USB, and we don’t really give a shit. The last thing we want is anything to do with you guys and your dirty little secrets, but it might have been enough info to kill one if not two people,” he explained to the group of suspects. “So the USB and the blackmail now becomes something that the authorities will take a look at.”

The lead detective looked over at each of the men, one at a time. “If somebody’s got something to say, this would be a really good time to say it.”

“I already said it,” Hawk grumbled. “Chad was a piece of shit, and he blackmailed me into coming here.”

“Are you interested in telling us why?” the detective asked, holding the USB in his hand, looking at it.

“It’s stupid. It’s nothing even big, but I know it would piss off my wife, and, for the first time, I found somebody I care about,” he shared.

“So, what’s the big secret all about?” the lead detective asked.

Hawk sighed. “I have a child.… It’s something I haven’t acknowledged. It’s also a child my wife knows because the mother of the child is my wife’s best friend.”

“Holy shit, you banged her best friend?” the second detective asked.

“I did, but it was a long time ago,” Hawk snapped. “I didn’t even know they were friends at the time. This was before I even met my wife, before we got married.”

“Does the best friend know her kid is yours? Does the kid know you’re his father?”

“No,” he snapped, “nobody knows anything, but I do. The kid’s a spitting image of my dad, and the timing is kind of right on for this one. Chad, the asshole that he was, obviously thought so too because he was using it to blackmail me.”

“Dude, that sucks,” muttered the ever-quiet George. “I had no idea.”

“No, and, of course, now you’ll go blab it.”

“No, I won’t,” George declared. “I’ve got my own problems.” He hesitated, looked at the key, and shrugged. “Chad was blackmailing me too.”

“What?” Darren turned and looked at him in shock.

“Yeah, he also blackmailed me to come on this goddamn trip of his.”

“Interesting,” Walton muttered, as he looked from one guest to the other. “Darren, what about you? Is that the same tactic Chad used on you?”

Darren bristled. After looking from one face to the other, his shoulders sagged, and he finally nodded. “Yeah, you could say that. The guys don’t know about me, and they’ll want nothing to do with me afterward, but I’m gay. I’m not out. Well, I guess I am now,… but I’m so goddamn tired of this rigamarole.”

“Dude, what the fuck are you saying?… We all knew anyway,” Hawk declared, staring at him.

Darren stared back, saying, “What?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty-damn obvious, and I didn’t give a shit.” Hawk turned to George.

George shrugged. “I knew too. Nothing much to overthink there. It’s not as if that’s a big deal.”

“You may not think so, but my parents don’t know, and Chad was going to tell them.” Darren frowned at them and asked, confusion on his face, “You guys really don’t care?”

“No, of course we don’t give a shit. You’re not trying to come on to us, so what do we care?” Hawk asked, with half a laugh. “But I can see how that would be something Chad would use as a weapon because he was all about utilizing whatever he could to turn the screw on us a little more.”

“Yeah, he sure as hell was,” Darren muttered. “And you know that, if my parents find out, I’m completely ruined. It would really be a hot mess.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, man. Your dad’s really old-school.”

“So is my mother, so pretty much everything in my world would go to pieces.”

“But I thought you were getting married to Elena?” George asked.

“No, I’ve got a boyfriend, but Elena is a good friend to me. She’s cool, and she just covers for me.”

“And that’s too bad too,” George noted. “You should be able to live your life as you want to.”

“I agree, but it seemed everybody wanted me to keep it hidden, you know, to keep the family disgrace under the covers , so to speak.”

“Literally,” Hawk said, with a big grin.

Darren laughed. “I know. I know. I was even married for ten years, so who knew? But,… he makes me happy.”

“Dude,” George shared, “if he makes you happy, you’ve got to go for it. That’s more than any of us has had in these last several years. Don’t let anybody steal your joy from you.”

Darren looked over at his friends, grateful and clearly relieved. “Thank you for that.”

The lead detective cleared his throat. “Now all of this is fine and dandy, but what else will we find on that USB key?” The detective gazed from one to the other. “Did you guys know anything about Rudy? Did he have a secret too?”

“Shit, I don’t know.” Hawk shrugged, looking over at his buddies. “Did any of you guys ever hear of anything?”

They both frowned. George replied, “I don’t think so, but that would mean that you’re thinking—no, that wouldn’t make sense. It’s not as if Chad would have killed Rudy—unless it was…” He looked from one to the other. “Unless it was self-defense because of something that Rudy did to Chad. Maybe Rudy had enough of Chad and attacked him. Maybe he… lost it on Chad. I could see that happening.”

“In which case then it would have been self-defense, so nobody should have been charged,” the second detective noted.

“Nobody should be charged,” George clarified.

“And that’s possible,” the detective replied grumpily, “but we’re not there yet.”

“No, of course you’re not there yet,” George muttered, with a groan. “Sometimes this shit just never gets there either.”

The lead detective sighed. “Remember that we’re not directly involved in Rudy’s murder investigation, other than file sharing because you same guys are involved with both murders now. We will do our best with our investigation into Chad’s murder, but, if you guys keep lying and withholding information,” the lead detective pointed out, “it’s pretty hard to get the full story so we can do a proper investigation.”

“You’ve got my info from me now,” Hawk noted. “I don’t have anything else to tell you, and I really just want to go home.”

“Why don’t you guys go eat, while we finish going through all your stuff and getting it all logged in,” the lead detective suggested. “Then you’ll be free to go, but expect us to contact you afterward as needed.”

“ Great ,” Hawk muttered.

By the time everybody had eaten something and was loaded up and ready to leave, Hawk turned to Walton and shared, “Chad would have beaten up that old guy for the dog, you know?”

“I do know,” Walton confirmed, “and that’s yet another case the authorities will have to look into.”

“You might want to tell these guys that.”

“Already did,” Walton noted.

The detectives turned to him and asked, “What was that?”

Walton repeated what he’d shared with the lead guy earlier.

“By the way,” the lead detective added, “I was notified earlier that the old guy just died.”

Hawk, the color in his face now completely drained, muttered, “Jesus. Seriously?”

“Yeah, he died from complications of the head injury.”

“Well, crap.” Hawk stared over at the vehicle containing Chad’s body. “All of that over a dog. Jesus, Chad.” And, with that, he walked toward their own vehicle. Looking back, he called out, “Come on, you guys. Let’s get the hell out of here. As holidays go, this one sucks big-time.”

“Yeah, I just want to get home to my gal,” George said, with a sigh. “She’ll never believe this shit.”

Chelsea slipped her hand into Walton’s. He smiled at her and gently squeezed her hand, while tugging her a little closer. They watched as the three men got into their two vehicles and drove away. Then he turned and looked at the detectives. “I still want to have a look in the woods.”

“We’ll all come with you,” Detective Hogan replied. “Then we need to get going too, before the body gets ripe.”

“Good idea,” Walton said, “but I do want to see if we can utilize the dog a little more.” With that, he headed toward the woods, Brutus beside him. Brutus moved easily, the hitch in his gait not slowing him down. Rick was following along, as was Detective McKenna. Brutus was taking the lead.

“What will you do with the injured War Dog?” Detective Hogan asked.

“Not sure yet,” Walton replied. “He got that injury while saving some friends of mine. It took me a bit to find out the full story, but you can bet that, as far as I’m concerned, he gets to live the rest of his life in the best way possible.”

“How did you get the story on Brutus?” Chelsea asked.

“Badger texted it to me this morning,” he shared, with a smile. “He is also the one who told me how the old man had passed away from his injuries too, which really pisses me off.” He sighed. “He was another war vet, and he didn’t deserve that shit.”

“It sounds as if Chad was a piece of shit all the way around,” she muttered. “Does all that mean you get to keep Brutus?”

“Badger and Kat are looking into it, and, if I can make it happen, I will,” he declared. “Brutus needs somebody to be his champion for a change.”

“And you’ll keep his current name?” she asked, as she walked at his side.

“Not if I can help it. It doesn’t fit him at all.”

“No, it really doesn’t,” Detective Hogan agreed, as the five of them followed Brutus to where the body had been.

When they reached the crime scene area, McKenna looked back at Rick and asked, “Do you have it?”

Rick pulled out a small handgun and a bullet.

“What’s that for?” Chelsea asked.

“It’s just for GSR,” Walton replied. “Gunshot residue.”

McKenna asked Rick to fire it off to the side, which he did, and then passed over the handgun for the War Dog to sniff. Walton then made the hand gesture for Brutus to go ahead and to find more.

“Now what’ll stop him from chasing the bullet?” McKenna asked.

“He might find a bullet too or even a casing,” Walton noted, “but there’s a good chance Brutus will find more than that.”

“Can he really smell GSR after all this time?” McKenna asked.

“Absolutely,” Walton declared. “What these dogs can do is amazing.”

Barely ten minutes had gone by when they heard a bark, and everybody raced toward Brutus. Sure enough, as Walton pulled back the tall brush, there was a handgun, mostly buried under leaves and debris. He looked over at the detectives. “Does that answer your question?”

Swearing, they pulled out gloves, picked it up, and nodded. “Yep, that’s a really good start.” McKenna smiled at the dog. “You know, with training like the two of you have, the police force could use some help at times, if you’re staying in the area.”

“Alaska is home for me, although not this general area,” Walton replied, “so it’s possible. I know that Brutus likes to work, and most War Dogs have this training.”

“Even at the airport, we’re always looking for animals that are well-trained.”

“That could be interesting too. Maybe you want to be a sniffer dog, huh , buddy? Would you like that?”

Brutus woofed several times and pranced around, happy with the attention.

McKenna noted, “He seems to have a good temperament.”

“He does. Yet he couldn’t run down and track people full-time because of his leg, but he’s absolutely still in the game.”

“Obviously.”

They all watched as the detectives removed the bullet that Rick had shot into the ground, and then, with that safely stored away too, they looked over at Walton and asked, “What do you think the deal is here?”

“If three bullets were in Chad, I would have said all three were the killers.” Walton shrugged. “With just two bullets, I’ll say two people. The only question is whether they both fired or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard the two shots,” he recalled, “and it was really rapid fire.”

At that, Rick nodded. “That’s right. There wasn’t really any time for the gun to be passed to someone else, unless both hands were over it at the same time.”

“And that’s possible,” McKenna noted.

“You heard what the guys said,” Walton pointed out. “Chad brought a lot of blackmail and a lot of misery to their lives, so it could likely be any one of them. It is also likely that two of them worked in concert, but we don’t know enough. At least not yet.”

“When you say, not yet , what do you mean?”

Walton shrugged. “I suspect we’re just at the tip of finding out what’s really going on right now. It could very well… Look. I really don’t want to put it out there, but I’m not entirely sure they’ll all get home safely.”

At that, the detectives stared at each other, then back at him. Detective McKenna frowned. “I sure as hell hope you’re wrong.”

“Me too, but I’ve got a pretty-ugly feeling about those guys.”

“In that case let’s get moving,” Detective Hogan said. “We’ll come up behind them wherever they are.”

“That’s another reason I wanted you to leave after them. They’re in two vehicles, though I didn’t get a chance to see who’s in which rig, but that’s something we’ll have to take a look at.”

“Are you staying here?” McKenna asked Walton.

Hesitating, he looked over at Chelsea, then shook his head. “I need to get back.”

Chelsea nodded. “In that case, I’ll go pack my things,” and she quickly disappeared.

Walton looked at the detectives and added, “Honestly, this all still feels incredibly wrong.”

Picking up on his unease, both detectives nodded. “That’s fine. We’re heading back ourselves right now,” Hogan stated.

Quickly bagging the evidence, they walked back to the lodge, and the two cops got into their own vehicles and disappeared.

Rick looked over at Walton. “You don’t have to leave, you know?”

“I don’t have to, but it feels very much like I should.”

“Not because of a problem here, I hope.”

“No, not at all,” Walton countered, with a smile. “You guys need to enjoy a few days with no drama. Julie needs to have a chance to calm down and relax. Those men were pretty rough on her.”

“They were,” Rick agreed, “and we do have more people coming in a couple days. So we’ll stock up and get everything sorted out and reset for that.”

“And you need to spend some time thinking about what you’re doing because I don’t think Julie’s particularly impressed with the idea of continuing this.”

Rick’s eyebrows popped up. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure it’s due to the pregnancy. So, if you’ve got a cook you can hire, and maybe your ranch hand can take over in your stead, that would help. I’m just saying, you might need to rethink your options.”

“Well, shit,” Rick muttered. “This was what we both always wanted.”

“It’s what you always wanted preconception . Now Julie wants that child more than the lodge.”

Rick looked over at him and nodded in understanding. “Got it,” he said, with a smile. “Hopefully she will enjoy it again, after the baby is here.”

“She probably will, but right now she’ll be in nesting mode, and that may be fine here, or it might very well be something that she wants to change. So maybe just talk to her about it. Plus, have a deeper look into your guests before allowing them here.”

He laughed. “I’ve already been talking to her about all that, but maybe she’s just been waiting for the right time to talk to me about staying at home for a while.”

“In that case, you should be happy we’re leaving. It’ll give you a few days to get your heads on straight.”

“Only if you come back and bring my sister, so she can enjoy some quality time here. I get why this visit happened, but she won’t ever come back now, unless I force her.”

“We’ll come back,” Walton confirmed. “If for nothing else but to enjoy the countryside because it truly is beautiful here.”

When he got back to the lodge, Chelsea had brought down his stuff too and was waiting for him. When he looked at her with one eyebrow raised, she shrugged.

“Believe me that I get it. It’s time to go.” She walked over, gave her brother a big hug and a kiss and warned him to look after Julie. Then she did the same to her sister-in-law, warning her to look after her brother. With everybody laughing, Walton and Chelsea got into his vehicle, and minutes later were racing down the road.