as the women and children ran past her, and then when she saw nothing, she kept running.
A coyote appeared less than thirty yards away, staggering and trembling, with foam dripping from its mouth. Cathy had a moment of déjà vu, then pulled her gun and fired.
The coyote dropped.
Cathy moved a few steps closer to make sure it was down, the gun still in her hands. Only she needn’t have worried. The time she’d spent at the shooting ranges in Vegas had kept her skill as a marksman honed. She’d put a bullet in its head.
She had left the house without her phone, so she had no way of calling for help, but as it turned out, that didn’t matter. The sirens were louder now.
She moved back from the dead animal and was putting the gun back on safety just as the first police cars arrived on the scene.
Two officers bailed out of the cars and came running across the park with their guns drawn. And then they saw the animal lying dead and the new little redhead in town standing nearby holding a gun.
Deputy Ralph was the first to reach her.
“Ma’am, are you all right?” he asked.
Cathy nodded. “I was outside. I heard screaming. Lots of screaming.” Then she handed him the gun. “I have a permit. It’s at my house.”
“Thank you,” he said as she handed it over. “Just bring the permit down to the station, and we can release it back to you.”
“Yes, I understand.”
At that point, another three police cars arrived, and the chief was in one of them. The women and the children met him at the curb, all talking at once and pointing. He looked off across the park and realized the woman they were talking about who’d saved them was Cathy.
He knew from hearing Mercy and Hope talking that Duke was sweet on her, and he knew Duke was in that search party. He needed to let Ranger Polson know the animal had been taken down, and he needed to let Duke know Cathy had been the one to do it.
But duty called, so he notified Polson first.
* * *
Will was focused on the underbrush through which they were walking when his phone vibrated.
“This is Will Polson.”
“This is Chief Pittman. Your coyote is down. The carcass is in our city park. How far away are you now?”
“Oh, good news!” Will said. “Hang on a minute. Let me call off the search.”
Will pulled his walkie-talkie. “Stand down. Search is over. Our target is down. Call in the dogs and reconnoiter here with me.”
The news spread, and a cheer went up. Duke heard the news and sighed with relief. He was tired, and Jack looked exhausted. He thought about the long trek they had to get home, and then headed toward the other end of the line where Ranger Polson was waiting.
Polson got back on the phone. “Thanks. I just needed to call in the dogs and their trackers. So as you were saying…you located it in the park.”
“We didn’t. A local woman heard screams, got her handgun, and went to see what was happening. The coyote interrupted a children’s birthday party. They were running away from it when she appeared on the scene and killed it.”
“We’ll need to recover the carcass and dispose of it properly,” Will said.
“Yes, sir. I have a couple of men guarding it now. If you’re not far from town, just keep walking. You should come out somewhere in the trailer park. Get to the entrance, and we’ll have rides waiting to take you back to your vehicles.”
“Thank you, Chief. That would be much appreciated,” Will said. “See you soon.”
He disconnected, then sat down on a dead tree and breathed a sigh of relief, waiting for the others to join him.
* * *
Duke and Jack were talking as they went.
“I’m glad that’s over, and I think it’s closer to walk into Blessings and hitch a ride home with Hope than it is to walk back home,” Jack said.
“Agreed. Give her a call and tell her not to leave town without us,” Duke said.
Jack was calling Hope when Duke’s phone began to ring. He saw caller ID and smiled as he answered.
“Hey, Lon.”
“Hey. I know you’re in the search party, so you’re going to find this out anyway, but I thought you might like to know that your little redhead is the one who killed the coyote.”
Duke almost stumbled. “What? What the hell are you talking about? Is she okay?”