"Thanks again, Mom." Jane embraced her mother and stepped back for her friends to do the same.
"Thanks for coming." Judy said giving each a hug. She linked arms with Trudy Wolf, "Now you make sure you come and visit me again soon."
"Oh, I plan to."
"Rain, you make sure you bring your mama up here as often as she wants." Judy said as she helped the older and much talker woman down the porch steps.
"Yes, ma'am." Rain took his mothers arm and helped her to his truck.
"We're just going to caravan down, right?" Chase asked as he pulled open the door to his truck.
"Yeah, sure." Jane answered. "You follow me."
"Just don't drive like grandma." Chase joked.
Jane flipped him off and climbed into the car. Shyanne was in the back seat, and Nicole in the passenger seat.
"Real mature, Jane." Judy chided. She stood back and waved as the three vehicles started down the driveway.
"Well," Nicole said as they led the way along the road, "I think that was a successful weekend."
Jane nodded, "I agree. It was fun."
"And you caught more than Chase yesterday." Shyanne said, "That's the best part."
With a laugh, Jane nodded, "Yes, it was. He actually seemed surprised."
"Your brother is still living in the dark ages when men were better at women at everything." Shyanne informed her. "He still thinks there are jobs women shouldn't do."
"Like firefighting?" Nicole asked.
"Exactly. He actually believes that women belong in the kitchen." Shyanne leaned between the seats to be heard over the wind.
"Which is crazy." Jane said, "He grew up with our mother working."
"Yeah, he hated that." Shyanne said, "He said if your dad was around, she would have been home."
"Wow," Jane said, "My brother has cracked."
It took an hour for them to return home. Jane watched her friends drive away, before climbing the stairs to her apartment. She waved to her downstairs neighbor who was outside on her patio.
"I think someone left something for you on your doorstep." Her neighbor called. "They were here an hour or so ago."
"Thanks." Jane said and hurried upstairs. Sitting on her welcome mat sat a bright pink envelope. She grabbed it, and looked around the complex, even though she knew there was nothing there.
Inside she slammed the door and set the locks. Hurrying around the apartment she locked all the windows, and closed all the curtains.
Sitting on the couch, she stared at the pink envelope sitting in her lap. With a deep breath for courage, she slowly opened the flap and pulled the picture out. "Holy shit." She whispered. This picture wasn't a head shot like all the others. This one had been taken from a distance.
In it she was sitting on the fallen tree with her feet dangling in the water. Shyanne was sitting next to her. Their fishing poles in hand. It had been taken yesterday.
Grabbing her phone from her purse she called Brian. "I just got home." She told him, "There was another envelope waiting with a picture."
"I'm not surprised." Brian said. "I got the results back from the lab. It's time to bring Rain in on this."
"Why? What did they find?"
"I'll tell you in a few minutes. I'm only a mile away."
Jane hung up the phone and sat staring at the picture. How had she not seen someone taking pictures? It wasn't as though the trees were so thick you couldn't see someone standing there. Perhaps the person had a telescope lens, and was far away when they took the picture.
A few minutes later Brian knocked on the door. Jane opened it to let him in and was surprised when he was followed by a large dog. A pure bred German Shepherd.
"This is Max." Brian told her. "He's going to be your best friend for a while."
"I'm sorry, what?" Jane reached down to let the dog sniff her before petting him. A blue vest strapped to the dogs chest marked him as a service dog.
"He's a guard dog." Brain told her, "My best."
"Okay, I don't understand..."
"Max is going to be your protector until I can figure out who the fuck is stalking you."
"I'm not a dog person, Brian."
"You don't have to be a dog person. He doesn't require anything more than to be let outside every now and then."
Showing him to the couch, Jane sat beside him. "What did they find?"
"Samantha Weston's DNA on it."
Jane was shocked, "How...can that be possible?"
"Well, it was a small trace of it. When the lab was inspecting the picture for finger prints, they noticed there was some kind of splatter stains. When they tested them, they found it to have Samantha Weston's DNA."
"What kind of DNA? Blood?"
"No, they are thinking more like saliva or something."
"But the woman has been dead for five years."
"I know. Which is why it seems impossible. The lab is guessing that someone had or had something with Samantha's saliva on it and splattered it on the picture before they gave it to you. I am meeting with the detective that worked on her case tomorrow."
"Why would anyone do that?"
"To show you that what they are doing to you is related to what happened to Samantha Weston. The bottom line is that this is related to one of Rain's cases, hence I have to talk to him about it. I will let you talk to him first if you want."
"I'll tell him tomorrow."
"No later than that." Brian said. "He's going to call me to yell at me for not telling him in the first place. If you don't tell him by tomorrow night. I will." He stood, "Right now, I'm going to change the locks on your door. Install some new ones on the windows, and make sure this place is secure."
"What am I supposed to do with him?" Jane pointed to Max who was laying beside her on the floor.
"You don't have to do anything with him." Brian answered, "He'll let you know when he wants to go out."
As the big man moved around the apartment installing new locks, Jane sat on the couch with the dog at her side. Reaching down, she scratched his ears. "What am I going to do with a dog?" She murmured.
Wagging his tail, Max licked her hand before laying his head down on his paws and going back to sleep.
An hour later, Brian stood at the door, "Alright, I'm out of here. You'll be fine."
"Doesn't he need food and stuff?" Jane asked.
"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I'll be right back." Brian ran down to the SUV he'd left at the curb and returned with a duffel bag, and a fluffy dog bed. "Here you go." He laid the bed by the couch. Max immediately ran to it. Turning himself around and around, he finally curled up and laid his head on his paws.
"Does he do anything more than sleep?"
Brian's massive shoulders shook with his chuckle, "You were just worried about him bothering you. He's a good dog, Jane. He'll let you know what he needs." He patted her shoulder then closed the door behind him.
Jane flipped the new locks, and went into the living room. Max looked up at her, but didn't bother to lift his head. "Okay, well, let's see what's in this bag." She opened the zipper to the duffel bag Brian had dropped on the couch. Max perked up. His tail wagged as she pulled out a bag of dog food.
"With a dog your size, I don't think this is going to last long." Setting the bag of food aside, she pulled out two large bowls, "Wow, I guess one for water, one for food?"
Max stood to move to her side, he nuzzled one of the bowls, licking the empty basin.
"You're thirsty, huh?" She stood to fill the bowl from the kitchen sink. Max was standing at her side when she finished. Choosing an empty corner of the kitchen she sat the water dish down, and went to retrieve the food bag.
With the dog fed, she wandered into her bedroom. Showering and changing for bed, she was surprised to step out of the bathroom to find Max laying on her bed. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked, folding her arms.
Max moved to drape himself over the end of the bed, and wagged his tail at her. "Really!"
"Not on the bed, Max." She snapped her fingers, and pointed to the floor. Max immediately jumped down and curled up on the floor.
Feeling as though she had just forced the poor dog to sleep on the hard floor, Jane went into the living room to find his bed. When she returned, he had jumped on the bed, and was laying at the end.
"I thought I told you not on the bed." She laid his bed on the floor near the door. He jumped down, and curled up on the cushion.
Plugging her phone in on the night stand, she crawled under the covers, and switched off the light.
*****
The doorbell was ringing. Or was that a dream?
Jane jerked awake, and sat up in bed. The shrill peal of the doorbell jingled through the apartment again. With a groan, she pushed back the covers. Switching on the light, she grabbed her phone. It was nearly three in the morning.
"This better be good." She groaned as she climbed out of bed. The doorbell trilled again. "I'm coming." Max was standing in front of the door wagging his tail. "Some guard dog you are."
She cracked open the sidelight blinds, and glanced outside. "What the hell?" Flipping the locks open, she twisted the door handle, "What's wrong?"
Rain stood on the doorstep with mussed hair, a scruffy jaw, rumpled clothes, and blood shot eyes. The same jeans and polo shirt he'd worn when they'd left her mothers.
She stepped back to let him in, he moved past her, and turned in the entryway. "What is it?" She asked.
"Mom's gone." He said simply running both his hands through his hair.
"Go...gone?" She stared at him as her sleep hazed mind tried to comprehend what he was telling her. "You mean...? Oh, my God. What happened?"
He moved into her living room to drop onto the center of the couch and rub his face.
Jane curled her legs up under her and sat beside him, "What happened, Rain?"
He shook his head, "I don't really know. She was fine all day yesterday. We drove home, and stopped for dinner. She was fine."
Jane waited for him to continue as he grabbed a tissue from a box on the coffee table to wipe his watering eyes.
"When we got back in the truck, she asked if we could just go for a drive. She loves...loved the truck. She said it was so high, it made her feel like she was on top of the world." He smiled at the memory. "The Alzheimer's made her very childlike at times. She fell asleep after about a half an hour. I didn't feel like going home yet, so we just drove. I got on the freeway, and just drove on the loop."
"The loop that goes around the entire valley?"
Rain nodded, "I pulled into a gas station about midnight. When I touched her shoulder to let her know what was going on, she flopped forward. She wasn't breathing, she wasn't responding."
Watching him struggle for composure, Jane grabbed another tissue for him.
"Someone called the paramedics while I was pulling her out of the truck. I did CPR, but she just didn't respond. They took her to the hospital, and the doctors tried, but..." He sniffled, and wiped his eyes. "She was just gone."
"Rain, I'm so sorry." Reaching out, Jane laid her hand on his arm.
He rested his elbows on his knees, and stared at his hands, "I'm sorry I woke you. I didn't know where to go. I didn't want to go home."
"It's okay, I'm glad you came here."
He took her hand in his, and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, "Thanks."
"Do the doctors know what happened?"
He shook his head, "They think it might have been a heart attack. But they don't know for sure. Because of her health conditions, they were ready to write it off as natural causes. I had to sign a form requesting an autopsy."
"You want to know why. That's natural."
"She was a hard woman." Rain said, "Harsh at times, but she was always there when I needed her. No matter what."
"She was a really good woman."
"She always fought me when I tried to buy her something expensive." Rain laughed, and ran a hand through his hair. Messing it up even more. "She didn't want me spending money on her even when I had plenty. I remember this ring I bought her. A mothers ring. Mom was born in December, and so was I, so the ring had two blue Zircon's in it."
"It sounds beautiful."
"It was, at least I thought so, Mom got pissed. She insisted I take it back. I'd spent a lot of money on it, and I refused to take it back. She refused to wear it unless it was a special occasion."
Jane smiled, "She struck me as the kind of woman who wasn't impressed with how much money you had. She was more worried about the kind of man you were."
He nodded, "She'd say the same things you said about my cases. When she'd see me on television, she'd always have something to say about the guy I just defended."
"I knew I liked her."
"She liked you, too. A lot." He squeezed her hand. "She was really happy this weekend."
"Was it too much for her, do you think?"
He shook his head, "I don't think so. The whole ride home, she was lively. Talking about how much she enjoyed sitting with your mother on the porch while we were fishing, and just talking. Adult, woman-to-woman conversation."
"I know my mother enjoyed it as well."
"When she was diagnosed, even though she was still completely coherent, all of Mom's friends abandoned her. No one called, no one came over, and she just didn't want to go out anymore. So being invited to your party, and socializing with your mother meant so much to her."
A tear dripped down Jane's cheek. She swiped it away. "I'm glad she enjoyed herself."
Max came over to lay his head on Rain's knee. Stroking the fur on the dogs head, Rain studied him a moment as though he was just now noticing the animal. "What's Brian's dog doing here?" He asked looking up at her.
Jane hesitated. "It's a long story, which I will tell you, but I don't think it's something you need to hear right now."
"You're dating Brian?"
"Uh, no." Jane laughed, "Not hardly."
Accepting her words, Rain looked to her, "Do you mind if I crash on your couch?"
"I have a spare room." She told him, standing. "You're welcome to it."
"Thanks." He rubbed his hands over his face, "I have to go home at some point, I know..."
"But you will see her everywhere in her things." Jane nodded, "I understand."
"I knew you would."
Jane climbed off the couch, "The bedroom's down the hall, there's a bathroom right across from it."
"I gotta run out to the truck, my bags still in it. I could use a shower."
"I think it would be a good idea to cancel tomorrow's appointments." Jane suggested, "Maybe cancel the whole week. I can have Keith take some of your clients."
"I think tomorrow, or today, will be enough. I don't want to take any more than that."
"How about if we go day by day?" Jane said, "I'll send an email to Allison and have her reschedule all of tomorrow's appointments for you..."
"For both of us." Rain said, "It's four in the morning, there's no way you're going to be able to be in the office after I interrupted your sleep."
"I'll have her reschedule my morning, but I need to be there in the afternoon, there are a few new clients coming in."
"If you go in, I go in." He said as he opened the front door.
Max stood at the doorway wagging his tail at her. When she ignored him, he whined. "You have to go out." His answer was to trot out the door Rain had left open.
Jane stepped out onto the landing while the dog ran down the stairs, and across the parking lot to a small grassy area. He relieved himself, and came running back. "Better now?"
The dog trotted into the bedroom, and curled up in his bed. Rain returned to the apartment, locking the door behind him.
"That is Brain's dog, isn't it?"
Jane nodded, "Yes. He is."
"Why is he here?"
"I'm surprised you recognized him."
"Brian is proud of his dogs, especially Max. He is the first dog that Brian bred and trained himself."
"It's really late, I think we should talk about this after we've had some sleep."
"Jane," Rain rubbed his hair again, "Brian isn't going to let his dog out of his sight unless he knows you need him. What's wrong?"
Running a hand through her own messy hair, Jane groaned, "Fine, but I need coffee." She led the way to the kitchen where she brewed the both a quick cup of coffee.
Returning to the couch, Jane curled up at the corner, cupping the mug between her hands. After a moment to collect her thoughts, she explained the entire situation. Not leaving anything out.