What Janie Saw(18)

                Rafe wasn’t the first cop to see Janie safely home.

                Only in those days, there’d been nothing safe about the home she’d been escorted back to. He also wasn’t the first cop to sympathize with her.

                Empty words. It was easy to say “I’m sorry.” Janie knew from experience that a cop could only do so much, and that when the next call came in, she was just a report to be filed.

                And forgotten.

                Sighing, she refocused on the screen. After what felt like days, another officer, Candy Riorden, drove her home to her cottage behind the house where her sister and brother-in-law lived.

                Since it was only a ten-minute drive, there’d been little conversation aside from the cackle of the radio and a few directions from Janie. Just before Janie closed the police cruiser’s back door, Officer Riorden said, “Sheriff Salazar says he’ll pick you up later and escort you to Adobe Hills.”

                It was an order, not a suggestion.

                Given by a cop who’d said he’d make sure she got home and then had turned her over to someone else.

                Typical.

                Yet today, as she took her second shower in under twelve hours, she wondered if she just might have to rethink her own policy. The one she had about not trusting cops. Years ago, when she’d run away, it had always been a cop who had escorted her back to a place she didn’t want to go, a place where she didn’t feel safe, instead of to her sister.

                But in this instance, Katie wouldn’t be much help. Janie might actually be putting her in danger. For a protector, Sheriff Salazar might be the logical, and only, choice. And, he did look like someone who could keep her safe. He was tall, over six feet, and had the square jaw that boasted a five-o’clock shadow before noon. Were she the type of artist to paint people, she’d choose him. She’d make sure to emphasize his strong hands, knowing smile and piercing black eyes.

                Janie couldn’t deny he was easy to look at, if one went for the dark, brooding type.

                Appearances weren’t everything, though.

                Twenty minutes later, she headed through the front gate of BAA, waved at the cashier, and immediately headed for the building that housed her sister and brother-in-law’s office.

                It was empty; both were in the field.

                Good. Janie didn’t think she could go over the story again. But because she knew her sister would expect it, Janie took out her cell phone and texted, Where U?

                A moment later, Katie responded, Feeding Aquila. U? Aquila was the trained black panther that had brought the Vincent sisters to Scorpion Ridge, Arizona.

                Going 2 c George, Janie replied.

                Walking next to the employee lounge, Janie suddenly felt a knot forming in the back of her neck. Anxiety boiled through her, ready to send her into a full-blown panic attack.

                She wasn’t about to let that happen; it had been more than a year. And she’d kept it together last night, as well as this morning and afternoon at the police station. The best thing to do was take her mind off the present situation. When she was younger, she’d always been able to push aside her troubles. All it took was pen and paper.

                Today, it would take acrylics and cinder block.

                A few minutes later she stood by the Ursus Americanus house. George, the bear that belonged to her father, was sleeping under a tree in the shade. Otherwise, he might have limped over and greeted her. He’d always been an extremely friendly bear, and her favorite.