Chapter 8
The next morning—after Chelsea remained steadfast about going to work without a day to heal—Joel headed out to load up his vehicle with pet supplies from Lindsey’s garage at home.
He frowned at her and asked, “How is it that one of the other charities you work with just gave this to us? Don’t they have enough animals to use it at their own rescue? ”
“They have lots of animals too,” she confirmed, with a nod. “Yet these supplies need to come in on a regular basis. So they decided that we should give Timber some to help his load too—especially since he’s taking everybody’s overload.”
“I’m sure that will be gratefully received.”
She smiled. “No doubt. Tiffany would be all over this for her clinic if he’s not.”
“No kidding. Maybe Timber will share some with her too.” There was laughter all around. “The pair of them are crazy.”
“They are,” she clarified, “but I think it’s a good kind of crazy.”
“I won’t argue with that,” he said, with a smile.
She looked over at him and asked, “You two are looking pretty sweet, huh?”
He flushed, then shrugged. “Let’s just say, we’re taking it one step at a time, and we’ll see what happens. I’m pretty concerned about what’s going on in Chelsea’s world right now.”
She snorted. “Absolutely nothing is good about any of that,” she muttered.
“Plus, it makes no sense either. I mean, we’ve got her seeing an abandoned truck, not knowing about the dead body.
Then we have her almost getting run down in the hospital parking lot.
Plus, we have Gladys harassing her verbally and now physically attacking her. ”
“I highly suspect Gladys is motivated by something much more personal.”
“And I’m not even sure that it’s coming from her. I wonder if somebody has convinced her that Chelsea’s been involved in something which she hasn’t.”
“Well, that’s all very cryptic and doesn’t help one bit,” he noted. “However, if you know the person in question, maybe you could talk to her.”
“I actually know Gladys,” she admitted. “Most of the time I would have said that she was calm, sensible, and not prone to fits like these. I’ve always heard she was tough and had high standards for the nursing students in training who came through that hospital.
However, up until now, it’s been more of a positive thing.
So I’m really wondering what’s going on. ”
“Maybe you could talk to her because things are pretty rough for Chelsea right now, which just pisses me off after all she’s been through with her mother.”
“You’re right,” Lindsey muttered thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll stop off after I get through the accounting basics in my home office today.”
“If nothing else, Chelsea would appreciate it.”
“Surely they aren’t looking at Gladys as being involved in the other issues Chelsea’s had?”
“I don’t know, but Gladys refused to admit what she did to Chelsea, even after she found out from the hospital security guard that he watched it himself as it unfolded, which was already being recorded on camera.”
“I can’t believe Gladys attacked her,” she muttered. “It’s not like Chelsea has done anything to Gladys.”
“Exactly, but Gladys acted funny when Chelsea’s mother was mentioned.”
“Right, of course,” Lindsey muttered. “Penny being who she is, I’m sure she has a few friends as well as enemies in town.”
“Could just be another enemy who thinks Chelsea was involved in her mother’s shenanigans.”
“Hmm, that’s an interesting idea,” Lindsey noted. “I’ll have a talk with Gladys. I don’t imagine they kept Gladys in jail overnight.”
“I doubt it, but you never know.” He frowned. “I’m also not terribly enthralled with Richard at the moment.”
She nodded. “Richard’s also not in an easy spot, since Gladys is family.”
“What? Christ, he failed to mention that,” he muttered. “No wonder she feels like she doesn’t have to pay any penalty for her actions.”
“And yet I wouldn’t have thought that was how Richard rolls.”
“Maybe not, but he was acting pretty strange when I was at the station too.”
“It’s not an easy place for him. He’s made a ton of changes, but he’s been skirting the edge of what’s allowed.
Because of the changes, they consider him a bit of a maverick and don’t always like to listen to him.
So, that can be a challenge for him too, from both the guys serving under him and his bosses above him. ”
Joel nodded. “Not being a local, as most of Timber’s crew are, we don’t have all those insights from townspeople who have lived here for a while.”
“I’m not even sure that I have all that much insight, but I do know people who could probably fill us in on a bit of it.”
“May I suggest something?”
Lindsey nodded.
“Please talk to Gladys and see if we can make some sense of that attack and maybe get that tension out of Chelsea’s life.
Chelsea was late to work one day because Richard wanted her statement about finding that roadside truck, which she didn’t realize had a dead body in it.
Gladys pretty well lost her cool with Chelsea for being a few minutes late, even with that excuse, and it’s been ugly ever since. ”
“But that was just a couple days ago.”
“Yeah, Chelsea said theirs was always kind of an icy-cold relationship up until then. Now it’s just boiled over into this.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “I better let Sterling know if anything pops up.”
“Exactly. I know he’s worried about Chelsea too.”
“Yeah, Sterling’s had a rough go when it comes to Chelsea’s mom, his own aunt.
Finding out the details of her betrayal and what he really had for family when he was in the foster care system for years was really hard on him.
… The highlight of the whole deal was finding Chelsea and reconnecting with his grandfather.
He’s glad to have them both in his life.
He really, really likes Chelsea, and I know it would hurt him terribly if anything happened to her. ”
“And me,” Joel admitted, with a sigh. “I’m at the top of the list of people who would be pissed off, fed up, and devastated if something happened to Chelsea.”
“Good to hear,” she muttered. “At least you’re not sitting on the fence.”
“Nope, I’m not much of a fence rider, but I am the kind of guy who can go completely wild if somebody I care about gets hurt.”
“Hold your horses,” she told him gently. “Let’s find out the whole story first.”
“Well, if Richard doesn’t get a move on, there’ll be even more problems for him,” Joel declared.
“Fine. I’ll talk to him today.” She shook her head. “That’s not exactly a happy chore though.”
“Of course not,” he agreed. “Wait until I tell Sterling and Timber that good ole Richard is related to Gladys. That won’t fly. So you and I both know, if addressing this issue with Richard was easy, you would have done it a long time ago.”
She laughed. “I didn’t need to do it a long time ago,” she noted. “Things here were pretty calm, and it’s only been since you and your riffraff arrived that things have kind of fallen apart.”
He grinned at her. “Well, if our doing a better job at investigating crimes around here is all it takes to make the local PD fall apart, even the sheriff is off too—”
“I hear you,” she interrupted. “If that’s all it would take, it all would have fallen apart anyway.”
He smiled and nodded. “That’s exactly what I meant. If the sheriff and Richard were doing their jobs properly, there would be no need for us to step into that void.” He shook his head, a grimace on his lips.
She sighed. “Go on with your errand day. I know Tiffany is expecting you to pick up more stuff.”
He groaned.
She laughed and added, “You know that you don’t mind doing these errands.”
“No, I don’t mind,” he confirmed. “Yet, man, when it comes to loading this truck, I feel like it takes an hour to unload everything.”
“That’s how it is,” she stated, with a smile. “You’re actually doing pretty well.”
He frowned at her. “You have no idea how big this running errands day can get.”
“Yes, I do,” she countered, with a big grin. “I’ve done trips like this for him before.”
“Of course you have. I think everybody has had to at one time or another.” He laughed at the thought. “Anyway, I’m off.”
And, with that, he headed down to the vet clinic, where he loaded up more gear and supplies before heading back to the sanctuary.
When he rolled up, Timber smiled at him and walked over. “I wondered if you were even coming back.”
“I stayed overnight at the farm,” he shared, “though I probably didn’t need to with Sterling and Lindsey both there. Yet Chelsea was still pretty rattled after another crazy day at the hospital.” He filled Timber in.
“I did hear about some of it,” he replied. “What the hell is the deal with this Gladys gal?”
“I don’t know yet, but I want to know what the hell Richard’s problem is because he sure didn’t act the way I expected.”
“Yeah, I heard that they’re related somehow,” Timber noted, “and that gave Richard pause as to how to handle her.”
“Maybe a pause at first, but you and I both know that it can’t stop him from doing his damn job.”
“Right. If he does more than taking that one pause, he has now stepped over the line. Then Richard will have his own consequences to face from within his department. If the townspeople hear about this, he can forget about having their trust or their support.”