Free 3 Madness in Christmas River by Meg Muldoon Page A

before she shot up.
    “Hey, let me walk you out,” she said, stepping around me and Warren and following him out of the waiting room.
    I guess that was one thing she got out of this mess. She got a chance to see and talk to the guy she’d been drooling over since Thanksgiving dinner.
    I wiped at my nose, and Warren placed an arm around me. The waiting room was empty now, save for the two of us.
    “Huckleberry is going to be okay,” Warren said. “He’s a tough pup.”
    I tried to stop crying, but the tears just kept on flowing.
     

 
    Chapter 18
     
    The blue sky was beginning to fall into shades of purple as I walked toward downtown. An icy wind rocked the trees back and forth. The temperature began to plummet as the light faded.
    I picked up the pace.
    I hadn’t gone into work that day.
    Later that morning, we were able to take Huckleberry home from the vet. When they carried him out of the backroom, I swear that I felt my heart cracking.
    His body was wrapped up in bandages, along with his left front leg. He was woozy and out of it after the sedatives they’d given him, and his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth unnaturally.  
    Kara drove us home, and I spent the afternoon watching him sleep in his doggy bed.
    I felt sad and guilty, but as the hours dragged on and I had more time to think, another feeling was starting to take hold.
    Anger.
    I flashed back on those harsh, dangerous eyes behind the ski mask.
    I shivered thinking about the man kicking my dog. About Huckleberry’s chilling whimpers.
    The thought that the man might get away with it filled me with rage.
    I wanted to see him pay for what he did. I wanted to see him suffer the way my poor little Hucks was suffering right now.
    Deputy McHale had been pushy and insensitive. But I knew that underneath that smug, judgmental exterior, he was only trying to do his job. And I’d just been in such a state of hysteria that I hadn’t been able to appreciate that.
    I came to the conclusion that I didn’t much care for Deputy McHale. But Daniel had said he was good at what he did. In fact, of all the deputies at the department, Daniel seemed to think Deputy McHale was the most capable, trumping Trumbow by a longshot.
    Maybe there was something I wasn’t seeing in him.
    Chunky flakes of snow began to cascade down as the dusky purple sky faded into hollow greys.
    I pulled my hood over my red knit hat and tried to walk faster, my snow boots crunching loudly against the sidewalk.
    My car was in the shop getting fixed up and wouldn’t be ready until sometime the next day. Hence, the reason I was walking instead of driving.
    I thought back to the man in the ski mask. His words echoed in my head. 
    You better listen if you don’t want to end up like your dog.
    Try as I might to understand, I didn’t know what that meant.
    Listen to what?
    I didn’t know why someone would want to hurt me. 
    I couldn’t think of any enemies I’d made. For the most part, I was just a lady who loved baking pies. My life was simple. I hadn’t done anybody great wrong, and I tried to live my life as a decent citizen.
    Save for my fierce Gingerbread Junction streak and the fact that I was marrying the sheriff of Pohly County, I couldn’t think of any reason anybody would hold a grudge against me.
    The snow picked up its intensity.
    I turned the corner. The faded brown sign for the sheriff’s station squeaked loudly in the wind.
    Regardless of what I thought about Deputy McHale, he would have to do his job and help me.
     

Chapter 19
     
    It was 15 minutes to 5, and the Christmas River police station was a ghost town.
    The lights were all off, like I was coming in at 3 in the morning instead of a few minutes before the end of the work day.  
    A lone deputy, Billy Jasper, sat at the front desk staring at the computer intensely and clicking his mouse.
    I would have bet $10 he was playing solitaire.
    “Hey Billy, is Deputy McHale around?”
    Billy jumped up in his chair,