Sheila the cat and Titan getting along?”
Raina smiled. “Believe it or not, cat and dog are doing all right. They were a bit suspicious of one another at first, but now, it’s pretty cool. You can even see them curl up to sleep together sometimes. And they’re very protective of one another.”
“You doing any training?” Jon asked her.
“I am! Adam Harrison very nicely introduced me to a friend who deals with police dogs—a special group of police dogs. Rescue animals we’re training to seek out drugs and bombs and work with officers. I’m loving every minute of it.”
He nodded. “And you? How are you doing, after everything?”
She smiled. “We’re still following up regarding people involved. They’ve now arrested a cousin of Alina Fairchild—he assisted in her abduction because there was family money that wasn’t on the table at the time of the murder, but would be a windfall when the last great-grandparent died. Melissa Scarborough is awaiting trial, but my brother was able to get his investigator on her and discovered she’d met Loretta Oster by chance at a club when Melissa and Peter had been in Florida the year before—they have an email connection. She didn’t get the windfall of his money until he’d been dead several months. It had been a legal settlement for an injury on a job he’d done several years earlier, and with Peter being dead, it went directly to her, long enough after the murder to keep anyone from noticing. It will take police and legal teams a long time to sort it all out.”
She was quiet a minute.
“I have to admit,” she went on, “I didn’t care much for Frank Peters—but he was a jerk, not a murderer. And Tate’s dad! They’re still trying to get to the truth. He was a real jerk—and possibly a murderer. That night in the Everglades, he claimed he didn’t like to get his hands dirty. But my brother believes he did assist Loretta in some of the kidnappings and murders. Now, they just have to find proof. We know he was accommodating exchanges of money, through a bank in the Cayman Islands. We know he was aware of Loretta’s activities, and blackmail doesn’t excuse him. What the exact charges will be against him, we don’t know yet. Jordan, of course...” She paused. It still hurt. And it was still oddly...good. She’d seen Jordan walk away, hand in hand, with Jennifer. “I still feel badly for Tate. I don’t know what the charges against him will be. I know I’m grateful. He was being pressured, but he refused to kill. So, in that, I hope all goes well.”
“Complicated, but you’re here. And you’re happy here?”
“I am,” she assured him.
Axel, drop-dead gorgeous—in her mind, certainly—in his tux, had evidently finished with story time for the younger guests.
He joined Raina, Jon and Angela at the table.
“Good stories,” Angela told him, a slight smile on her lips. “You almost make me believe in ghosts.”
“Ah, well, Angela, at some point you must come and meet the pirates!” he said.
“Hmm. Maybe I’ll get to do that one day,” Angela said.
“Miss Hamish, would you be so kind? The band is playing a lovely tune. Would join me on the floor?”
She smiled, excused herself and stood.
There wasn’t much of a dance floor. And now, the children who had been avidly listening to ghost stories were playing on the bit of space designated as dance floor.
“All right, a little awkward,” Axel said, skirting around a boy of about three who had decided to do some kind of break-dancing number to a Paul Williams ballad.
She laughed. “I will dance with you anywhere!” she told him.
“I think the party is starting to break up,” he told her. “Want to dance on home with me soon?”
She did.
As others began to file out, they joined them. She hugged Kylie and Jon warmly, grateful to have known them in Florida.
Axel’s home was a single family dwelling just a mile or so southwest of the Krewe offices, an easy jaunt almost anywhere on the nearby metro system.
He might have only had Sheila, the cat, before he met her, but Raina had been delighted to discover he had a large fenced yard—one that delighted Titan, too.
They returned to the cat and dog, fed the animals, settled them and headed to bed themselves.
“Perfect wedding,” Raina said. “They were beautiful. Friends and family, coworkers, children. It was great.”
She had just set her bag down on her dressing table as she spoke. He was behind