Page 61 of Buried Too Deep

Delores pointed to SodaPop. “Everyone knows I was training her. They’ll know where you got her.”

Not for the first time, Phin considered what a difficult position he’d put his friends in. Stone’s brother Marcus was married to Phin’s twin sister, Scarlett. “I’m sorry. I’ve caused strife.”

Stone shook his head. “Marcus will understand. So will Scarlett, once she’s over her mad. You worry about yourself. Delores, just give Scarlett her pick of Angel’s next litter. She’ll be happy again.”

Angel was Delores’s wolfhound, and Phin loved her. That his twin did, too, was no surprise. He knew that Scarlett had adopted a dog from Delores’s animal shelter, a three-legged bulldog she’d named Zatoichi, after the blind swordsman adventure movies they’d loved as teens.

Delores nodded, her smile returning. “Good idea.” Her expression turned a little sly. “So, Phin. Tell us about Cora Winslow.”

Phin’s face grew hot. “She’s a nice woman who needs our help.”

Stone’s laugh was the tiniest bit dirty. “You dog, you. You like her.”

Phin rolled his eyes. “I do. She’s…well…kind and pretty damn brave. I hate that she’s scared. I know what that feels like.”

“To be getting letters all these years from someone who was clearly watching her,” Delores murmured. “That poor woman. She’s got to be feeling betrayed.”

“That too. It sank in with her tonight that whoever was writing the letters did so because they didn’t want her to report her father’s disappearance to the police. It’s someone who’s close enough to her to know that she was looking for her father a few years ago.” He explained her brother’s cancer and the search for a marrow donor. “We’re going to have to make a list of people who knew that she was searching for him. That’ll make her feel even more betrayed.”

First on his list was that attorney from this morning. The man who’d known that someone was after her but left her to fend for herself. Who’d known her since she’d been born.

“Better to feel betrayed than to feel dead,” Stone said, then winced when Delores hissed at him. “That didn’t come out right. Sorry.”

Phin shook his head. “No, you’re right. But it’s still hard to watch her figuring all this out. I want to do something. But I don’t know what.”

“Be her friend,” Delores said with a smile. “That’s what my guy did. He did all kinds of sweet things for me. Made me feel safe.”

Because Delores had been a victim of an attempted homicide years before. It was how she’d met Phin’s sister, a homicide detective in Cincinnati. Delores knew how important feeling safe really was.

Phin smiled back at her. “How did he do that?”

“He’d sneak around my dog shelter and clean the cages when I was asleep. And then he’d sleep on my front porch to make sure no one bothered me. He didn’t leave, even when the mosquitoes ate him up.”

Stone was staring at the ceiling, clearly embarrassed. “Delores,” he whined. “You make me sound like a sap.”

“You were,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes before turning back to Phin. “I knew he was out there, and one night I invited him in. Made him coffee.”

“Decaf?” Phin asked.

“Hell no,” Stone muttered. “Decaf is swill. Sorry, not sorry.”

“You’re not wrong,” Phin agreed. “And then?

“Then I told him that if he was determined to haunt my property, he could sleep on my sofa so he wouldn’t be all bug-bitten. From there, we just grew together. If you want Cora to feel safe, show her that she is safe.”

Phin nodded slowly. “I replaced the locks on her doors today. I’ll do the windows tomorrow. And she asked me to do some handyman work around her place.”

Delores nodded. “Very good start. If you’re working around her house, she won’t be alone.”

“She has bodyguards,” Phin said. “Molly and Val.”

“That’s good,” Delores said. “Even better, actually. You’ll have backup and that should decrease your anxiety. When will you begin?”

That she thought this was a done deal nearly made him smile. It was so very Delores. “I told her that I’d have to work around you guys. I don’t want to just leave you to your own devices. You won’t be here that long.”

“We’ll be here as long as you need us,” Delores said firmly. “Start on her house, Phin. Stone and I have a long list of things we want to see in New Orleans. And places we want to eat.”

“The food,” Stone said with a groan. “Oh my God, the food. Seriously, Phin, don’t babysit us. If you need us, call. Otherwise, we are on a well-earned vacation. Delores has volunteers working at the shelter, so we’re good for a while. We have a free bed here and a kitchen. Just pretend we’re boarders. Fix that woman’s house.”

---