Page 12 of Guard Dog

“I wanted to get clean. I’m pretty sure Rick breathed on me last night even if he didn’t touch me.”

I couldn’t fault her for that.

“I suppose we should call the police. And NCIS. And warn the bank,” she continued.

“We’ll do that,” I agreed. “After you go back to bed and get a few more hours of sleep.”

“Ba!” a little voice calls from the bed.

“You are so cute, Deacon Dobermann, thinking there’s going to be any more sleep this morning. I’m right here, sweet pea,” she replies in a sing-song voice. She grabs my shirt and pulls me down for a kiss as she walks by. “I’d grab a shower while there’s still some hot water. It’s going to be a long day.”

Bishop woke up with all the noise and took off, telling Violet not to bother coming in till Wednesday. Violet delivered a glass of juice and a couple painkillers to Romy, then pulled Peony’s bedroom door closed. “We need to get Romy in to see a real doctor sometime today too. The police will need a report of what Rick did to her.”

“We’ll get Romy up and moving and take her to a clinic in Minot. Then we’ll call everybody else. Once you give your statement, you are out of this. Completely. Do you understand me?”

Of course it wasn’t that simple. Hours of interviews later, we finally got to go home.

I packed a bag and moved into the rental with Violet. But only until we could move her and Peony into my place in town. Romy said she’d take over the lease and any furniture Violet didn’t want to move. It worked out for everybody.

Today:

Violet calls me into the office a little past noon. She’s in a cute polka-dot dress and low strappy sandals, and she ups the class of the joint by about five hundred percent. She’s so distracting that Bishop has made a rule that I’m only allowed to visit the office twice a day. Everybody laughed at that.

Violet whispers that she has a call from Agent Joplin of NCIS on speaker.

“We’re here, Agent Joplin.”

“Mrs. Glass, I want to let you know that the Russo case has officially been closed.”

“Already? Why? What was in the box?” I ask. At least one man died for it. I figure we deserve an answer.

“A memory stick containing an electronic ledger.”

“With all due respect to confidentiality and classified files, I’m going to need more, Agent Joplin. I almost lost my daughter over this. For all I know, Rick Russo could have been the reason I lost my husband. What was in the ledger?”

I blink because I’m still not used to seeing Violet in full mama bear mode. I hadn’t realized that she’s put two and two together and come up with Rick killing Keith as a potential four.

“The ledger that your husband discovered showed Petty Officer Russo was part of a team responsible for illegally transferring navy supplies to unauthorized resellers. Based on the date that your husband paid for the safety deposit box, we don’t believe he had time to report it before he was shipped out for training for an upcoming assignment. Unfortunately, he was subsequently killed in an accident during that same training. We haven’t identified anyone else who knew about the ledger except Petty Officer Russo.”

Training accident, my ass. If JD hadn’t already taken care of Russo, I’d be hunting him down till the end of his days. Someday we are going to find out who he was working with, and there will be a reckoning. “That was the investigation at Little Creek a couple months ago, wasn’t it,” I ask.

“How did you know about that?”

“We still have friends there who mentioned it.”

“I’m going to ask you to not discuss that with anyone,” Agent Joplin says.

“Nobody will find out about the investigation from us,” Violet promises. My eyebrow goes up, and she flaps her hand at me, signalling me to keep quiet.

“Are you sure you don’t know what happened to Petty Officer Russo, ma’am?”

“The last time I saw him, he was driving away with the key,” Violet says.

She didn’t have to fake her shock when she heard that Rick’s SUV veered off the bridge over the Missouri River just up the highway. I don’t know if JD shot out a tire or borrowed a vehicle and ran the fucker off the road. Of course, I was with Violet the whole time and neither of us actually saw anybody do anything. That was our story and I’m sticking to it.

“If you do happen to remember anything, please let me know.”

“I will, Agent Joplin.”

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