Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Ami woke the next morning, curled up in Kenneally’s arms after the most horrific experience in her life. Having a serial killer almost take her life. She still wore her dress having fallen asleep as soon as they arrived home and insisted he stay with her. She hadn’t even taken the time to change clothes and neither had he, other than taking off his suit coat and shoes.
Silently getting out of bed, she tiptoed to her bathroom and turned on the shower. She still felt shaky, as she recalled seeing Kevin Holloway’s dead body lying among those bloodstained books scattered on the floor. What a waste to good reading material.
She didn’t know what she would have done if Kenneally hadn’t acted so fast, preventing Kevin from injecting the drug into the system so he could paralyze her and cut out her tongue. She undressed and stepped under the hot water, letting it cascade all over her body to relax, thankful she had called her cousin in Mambaloa for help when she did, and he’d put her in touch with the Brotherhood Protectors. Hank Patterson sending Kenneally to Dixie was the best thing that ever happened to her. In more ways than one.
She had so much to do today. It was the cookie crawl, but she honestly felt like canceling it this year. But if she did, she felt it would be selfish. However, seven deaths… how could she let it go on?
Turning off the water, she reached out and grabbed the towel, wrapping it around her body before stepping out. She reached for a second one and dried her arms, then her legs then slipped on her robe, tying it tight at the waist. Then she tiptoed out of her bedroom and to the kitchen where she used her landline to call Billie Jo.
“Mayor, what can I do for you on a Sunday morning?” her communications director asked.
“I need to know what you think about cancelling the cookie crawl at the last minute?” she asked. “And even if we don’t cancel, I need you to get out a press release immediately stating that the curfew has been lifted as of today.”
“And why is that?” Billie Jo asked, yawning on the other end.
Ami frowned. Then she realized that maybe word had not spread over town yet about what happened last night.
“The killer was caught,” Ami said. “He is no longer a threat to Dixie. But before that, we had another killing and out of respect for Pastor Weeks I thought we should consider cancelling the crawl.”
“What?” Billie Jo said. “He’s my pastor.”
“I’m sorry to have broken that news to you, Billie Jo,” Ami said. “It was a cold way of doing it.”
“I hadn’t been going there that long,” Billie Jo said. “Tilda got me going.”
Ami smiled.
“I’ll get the press release about the curfew being lift out to all media outlets, but I don’t think pastor would want the crawl cancelled. He loved cookies and he was one of its biggest supporters. He’d buy tickets at Christmas and hand them out for free to those who were down on their luck to make sure they could enjoy it too.”
Ami thought about that. Tilda loved the crawl. David Weeks loved it. Connor and Becky were a big supporter of it, and as far as she could recall Judson made a point of having his mother bake as many cookies as she could for it every year and then he’d buy as many tickets as he could and give out the boxes he filled in the Mayor’s office. Had they all been trying to make up for what they’d done back then? Atone for their sin?
“Okay, cookie crawl is on,” Ami said. “Make sure to mention that in the press release that despite the deaths we are still having it today.”
“Will do,” Billie Jo said before hanging up.
She put a pot of coffee on to brew before heading back to the bedroom to get dressed.
“Morning,” Kenneally called from the bed where he still lay. “After the New Year we have to get you a larger bed.”
“Nothing is wrong with my bed,” she said going to the closet. “It sleeps just fine.”
“Maybe for one.”
She halted, turning around slowly. “What do you mean, maybe for one?”
He sat up and smiled at her. “Just that. I can’t see sleeping with my wife in a double bed for the rest of our lives.”
“Don’t joke with me this early in the morning.”
“Who’s joking?”
She ran straight toward him and jumped on the bed. “Are you serious? You want to marry me, Joseph Kenneally?”
“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it, Ami Novak.”
“But you work in Leesburg, and I work in Dixie,” she said.
“And I am the boss. I can uproot and move wherever I want my headquarters to be located,” he said.
She giggled, finding this news the best early Christmas present she’d ever received. “The answer is yes if you are asking.”
“I am asking,” he said.
She leaned down and kissed him, then pulled away. “Now about children? How many do you want?”
His deep baritone laughter filled the room. “Let’s start with one.”