Dan pulled her up and to her feet.
She felt the ghosts behind her, heard Gray complimenting her on her kicking style.
She laughed and replied to them. Dan, Axel and Andre were grinning.
Ryder looked concerned. Katie grinned and went to him, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry, yeah, I’m a little wild right now!”
“Of course, of course!” Ryder said.
Katie shook her head, looking at Dan. “How could you know? I mean the dogs were down, and I was gone, but Monty was going to make it look like George got in here and poisoned the dogs and seized us both and killed me—”
“Well, actually,” Dan said, “I think I knew—he’s definitely a big man! But there was something else.”
“They’d finally found a piece of trace evidence,” Axel said.
“The hair—” Katie began.
Dan was nodding. “A strand of mule hair. We put it together.”
“The mules!” Katie said.
“The mules are all fine. The dogs are on their way to the emergency vet,” Ryder assured her.
She looked at Dan and said, “It’s over. Really over!”
He nodded and, disregarding anyone around them, he walked to her and took her into his arms. His words, too, were only for her.
“This nightmare is really behind us... Well, then, you know the rest. Katie?”
She smiled, looking at him.
“I guess we’re going to have to start looking for an apartment in the DC area. It’s not going to be easy to find a place that will accept three large dogs.”
Dan smiled.
“Let’s get tonight over with. And then we can start on the rest of our lives.”
EPILOGUE
The case of the New Orleans Axeman had been studied for years; the case of Monty Trudeau would now be joined with it.
Axel told them that members of the behavioral-analysis unit would be spending time with Monty, trying to figure out just what made such a mind tick.
In a plea deal, Sonny Hartfield admitted to the murders of Lou and Virginia Delaney, Anita Calabria, and Harold, Marie, and Henrietta Austin of Orlando. George Calabria had never had anything to do with the killings, other than conveniently living nearby.
Sonny had helped with the first Axeman Protégé’s killing in New Orleans, but Trudeau had done most of the killing; Sonny had been a lookout.
But he had murdered Jennie.
For his confessions, attorneys would not seek the death penalty.
In his boasting confession, Monty Trudeau had let it be known that no legal system would be needed to ensure Sonny Hartfield would die a slow and painful death.
Attorneys were seeking the death penalty for Monty Trudeau. It turned out not to be necessary. Monty, the self-styled super being, had Stage Four pancreatic cancer. He’d had no idea.
Monty was also being sued in civil court. Matt, Lorna and Katie decided they were going to buy the carriage company when it went up for auction.
Katie, absorbed with the case and Dan, hadn’t noted what was going on with her coworkers. Lorna and Matt, friends for years, were now very good friends. Lorna excitedly showed Katie her ring. Katie was delighted.
She didn’t mind being a silent partner. It would be great if Matt and Lorna managed the company, as long as they took special care of Sarah and didn’t mind she had decided she was taking the dogs. And she was keeping her house. She didn’t know of any hotels that would take the dogs when she popped back home, which, of course, she would do. Jeremy was there, they were there, and so many friends!
Benny was thrilled about it all and proposed he look after her house in exchange for residency in one of the guest rooms.
That was okay...if Katie chose the room.
There would always be something special about the guest room where she’d first really gotten to know Dan.
When they met up with George once more, he was a happy man.
“Go figure! I know several actors who said Carly Britton was a bit of a haughty bitch, but...wow! Sold her soul to the devil, huh? And lost it to him, too.”
George, of course, felt a great deal like Katie. You never, ever got over a loss like the ones they’d experienced. You learned to love the memories.
And you were grateful when justice was served.
He was also glad because he was going back to work for a new movie.
A comedy.
No time travel, no suspense, no murder—no blood. He felt as if he’d been associated with enough of the real stuff.
Carly Britton’s husband remained among the missing. When asked about him, Monty Trudeau just smiled.
None of them knew for sure, but it seemed somewhere along the line, a decomposing body might well be found in the bayou and prove to have been Carly Britton’s husband.
It took a while for matters to be settled, and then Dan was flying back and forth, filling out everything necessary for the Academy, getting himself into order. He was most worried about Marleah, but she had discovered—thanks to an evening spent with George—that there was a lot of movie-extras work to be had in New Orleans. She could pick what projects she wanted to apply to be involved with and make a little fun money for gambling at Harrah’s.
It was late on a Friday afternoon and the sun was beginning its descent when Dan and Katie walked into the cemetery together where his family was interred, and where he had first met Mabel.
She was seated on the steps to her own family’s tomb.
She wasn’t alone.
Gray Simmons was with her, leaned against a gargoyle, a dashing flirt of ghostly soul.
“Why hello there, ” Mabel greeted them. “Thank goodness. We’ve been trying to find the right time and place to say goodbye!”
“And we’ve been looking for you,” Katie told her. “The two of you. Thank you!”
“Thank you,” Mabel said. She hesitated. “I... I will never understand. I couldn’t stop the man who
