Epilogue
Kat accepted the parcel from the messenger, brought it in, and laid it on the big boardroom table she had as a workspace.
Badger looked up and asked, “What’s that?”
“No clue,” she replied. Yet, as she looked at the return address, she started to laugh. “Let me rephrase that. I do know.”
Curious, he watched as she unpacked it and pulled out a crooked prosthetic—a foot, a calf, and some of the thigh.
Where it should have been snapped in two at the ankle, it was hanging on by what might have been a screw or something similar.
He glanced over at her and noted, “That piece took on a bit of wear.”
“Let’s just say that somebody did something he wasn’t supposed to do with it.”
“Surely that’s not one of the ones you’re currently handing out?”
“Nope, it isn’t, but he was being stubborn and didn’t want to take any charity.”
Badger smirked. “Ah, don’t tell me. That is Riley’s prosthetic.”
“Yeah, Riley damaged the foot portion in that fight in the Shanghai tunnels.”
He shook his head and muttered, “Damn it, that’ll take a bit to fix.”
“I’m not going to fix it,” she replied. “I’ll just scrap it.”
“What then?”
“I’ve got a new prototype I’ll send out. Riley’s using an even older one right now that he kept for a spare, so I’ll ship a new one right out to him,” she shared, as she walked over to one of her big workbenches and came back with a pretty fancy unit.
Badger eyed it warily. “What did that cost? And is he paying for this?”
She turned to him and raised both eyebrows. “Did you pay him for finding the K9? And how great is it that Cain is going to live with him now?”
“As you know, we can’t afford to pay them. And, yeah, for Cain this is golden. Did Riley get his life together with Gail and all that good stuff?”
“It would seem so.” Kat chuckled and added, “So I’ll send this as a wedding gift.”
He smirked at his wife. “Is there anything you enjoy quite as much as these cases?”
She grinned. “This one had an awful lot of really fun aspects, like that asshole father-in-law finding out that his inheritance is going to Riley, and the jerk can’t stop it, even though he’s got quite a few lawyers all over it, which makes it extra special.
Plus, he’ll soon have some criminal charges as well.
I hope he knows some good criminal attorneys.
” She laughed thinking about Gail’s parents’ reaction to losing all that money and then maybe some jail time for good old dad.
“So, I’m gonna send the prototype right over. Is that good with you?”
“Of course. I never have a problem with you helping any of our guys. You know that. Besides, Riley did a hell of a job, didn’t he?”
“He did, indeed. That extra money gives him a much better start in life, so he can train more K9s and so Gail can have her rescue.”
Badger smiled. “And so, we’re out of cases, right?”
“No, we’re not out of cases.”
He slumped, staring at her suspiciously. “You aren’t by any chance asking for more cases, are you?”
She blinked at him in surprise and said innocently, “Why would I do that?”
“Because you really enjoy this.”
She burst out laughing. “I do enjoy it, until I come up to a case where I don’t really have any way to help somebody. And then I have to work at it a whole lot harder, but defeat really isn’t in my vocabulary.”
He asked, “Does that mean you already have another one?”
She smiled as she nodded. “I did talk to Theo about it.”
“And why Theo?”
“Because he’s a sailor.”
“A sailor,” Badger repeated, stumped, frowning at the folder she held in her hands.
“Yep. He isn’t from this area but he used to do an awful lot of sailing. Plus this War Dog, are you ready?”
“I don’t know if I am.”
“The dog was part of a big sailing crew. The dog went with the old man everywhere, until he turned up dead, with the dog missing. And we’re supposed to track down that dog.”
Staring at her, he asked, “Do you just make up this stuff?”
“Nope,” she stated immediately, “I don’t, but I am not against helping out where help is needed.”
“Oh, I know that,” he agreed, staring at her. “Where is this going on?”
“Hawaii, off the coast.”
He frowned at that. “Sounds—”
She raised an eyebrow but couldn’t hold back the twinkle in her eyes.
Badger continued. “Sounds like you’re matchmaking again.”
“When am I not?” she declared, frowning at him, as he narrowed his gaze.
Then she shrugged. “I can’t guarantee it, but the person who reported the dog missing is also the daughter of the dead man.
… So I’ve spoken to her. She mentioned that she knew somebody who could help but didn’t know how to reach them.
Yet I shared that I had somebody who might be available to come over, and she interrupted me.
Well, if you tell me that it’s Theo, I would be ecstatic because nobody else would understand this mess. ”
“And when I mentioned his name, Theo McDonald, there was this odd sigh. I feel something is there already, and I just need to make sure it’s him—as in he’s the same Theo who she’s thinking of.”
Badger stared at her and added, “Are you telling me—”
“Yes, I am telling you”—she glanced down at her phone and grinned—“that he should be arriving in Honolulu momentarily.”