Chapter One

We have to go. Chap put one paw on Francesca Durand’s shoulder and connected his thoughts with her dream world, projecting the scene of a fire.

Mostly still asleep, Chessie stumbled out of bed and pulled on a shirt and jeans. Her hooded sweatshirt sprawled across the overstuffed chair beside the fireplace, looking as exhausted as Chessie felt when she tossed it there before falling into bed. Her running shoes lay criss-crossed on the hand-made rag rug where she sat to slip them on.

Then, with a hand on Chap’s furry head, she touched the merkaba necklace encircling her neck to transport herself and her collie to the nearby small town of Mystic in Oregon’s coastal foothills.

When they arrived, Chap ran toward the wooden clapboard house, in spite of flames visible through the windows and smoke seeping out the eaves.

“Chap! Stop!” Chessie dropped to her knees as her collie pushed open the side door and disappeared inside. She felt the intensity of the blaze as it singed his fur. Struggled to breathe as smoke filled his lungs.

Suddenly, she was eight years old again, standing beside the crooked wooden cross that marked Chap’s grave. Tears tracked down her cheeks as anger at her grandfather blazed through her belly. He could have paid for the surgery to keep Chap alive after he was hit by a car saving a young boy’s life. But Alston refused.

“You were a mean old man,” Chessie whispered.

Never again, my beloved granddaughter. As Alston’s voice whispered in her mind, Chessie drew a deep breath into her lungs and the burning against her skin cooled as the night air caressed her arms.

Inside the burning building, Chap hunkered low to the floor, moving in a serpentine path around smoldering furniture and chunks of burning papers and melting movie cases toward the bedrooms.

Use your angelic powers. Alston’s image shimmered amid the flames in front of Chap. You are not limited by your physical body.

Chap closed his eyes, envisioning a glass-like tunnel impervious to the fire and heat, leading to the doorway of the bedroom where a child lay, still clutching a mewling gray and white kitten in his arms.

Chap grabbed the boy’s pants leg in his teeth and tugged, inching his way backward through the tunnel and toward the door, dragging the semi-conscious boy and the kitten.

Finally, Chap stumbled across the threshold and into the night, backlit by the flames of the fire, and was instantly soaked with the spray of water from the firefighters’ hoses.

“Omigod! Omigod! Brecken!” The mother’s water-drenched hair clung in flame-tinted strands against the pallor of her face as she fell to her knees beside her child. “He was right beside me a minute ago!”

~ * ~

As the firefighters turned their attention to the child, Chap staggered onto the lawn of a nearby house and collapsed at Chessie’s side, where she had been banished by law enforcement controlling onlookers at the scene.

Chessie touched the necklace of triangles amid a circle around her neck and envisioned her suite of rooms at the farm, as she always did when commanding the merkaba necklace to take them home. But when she opened her eyes, she still knelt beside Chap on the lawn of a house near the fire.

Shivering now in the chill of the autumn air, Chessie once again touched the merkaba and envisioned her home. Nothing. A third time and still no response from the merkaba. Baffled, she cried out, “You’re not going to die on me again, Chap. Come on, dammit!”

“Here, let’s wrap him in this and I’ll hook up an oxygen mask.”

Through tear-filled eyes, Chessie watched the blurred shape lift Chap gently into the burn sheet to cool his furry body, then held an oxygen mask over the dog’s nose.

Chap immediately sneezed and shook his head.

“Good job, boy.”

As Chap struggled to get up, the man placed a gentle hand on him to rub the dog. “Just lay there a minute and relax, my friend.”

With a swipe of her sleeve across her eyes, Chessie looked at the man to thank him—and realized it was Doug Burkhart, who Chap had died saving when Doug was a little boy.

Now an adult, Doug wore the uniform of a deputy sheriff, smudged with soot from the fire and stained with water from the hoses. He stared at her with narrowed eyes. “Heard you got another collie.”

Momentarily speechless, Chessie wasn’t sure how to explain in fifty words or less how this wasn’t another collie, but Chap come back from the Other Side. “And you saved him.”

“Doesn’t make up for causing Chap’s death some twenty years ago.”

“But it does. He saved you and now you saved him. The debt is paid.”

Standing up, sadness filled Doug’s eyes. “Don’t try to give me an easy out.”

As he walked away, Chessie pulled out her cell phone and called her best friend, Kiki. If the merkaba wouldn’t transport her and Chap, they would just have to get home the old-fashioned way–riding in a car.

Fortunately, the farm wasn’t far away, and soon the warm, caring arms of her best friend enfolded Chessie in a tight hug. “We were so worried when we got your call.”

For a moment, Chessie relaxed into Kiki’s embrace. When she opened her eyes, she also saw her grandmother, Maeve, in jeans and a plaid shirt, trying to be a “normal” woman in this rural community. In her mind, Maeve would always be the mysterious shaman with a healing touch who showed up on the farm several months ago and spent the summer introducing Chessie to the mystical ways of their Irish ancestors.

“Your mother’s best apron would be in a wad if she knew what you were doing.” With one eyebrow slightly raised, Maeve surveyed the scene around her.

Firefighters were making steady progress knocking down the house fire with a barrage of streaming water that sizzled and turned to steam as it tangled with the flames. The smell of sodden and charred wood was beginning to replace the heavy smoke that had so recently hung on the air.

The truth of her grandmother’s statement made Chessie catch her breath. The agreement that allowed Chap to come back to Earth Three and keep his powers as an angel was he and Chessie would go on assignments to help those in need.

Though some assignments, like this one, terrified her for Chap’s safety, she was so very proud of her collie. The satisfaction of seeing a boy and his kitten rescued was the kind of heart-warming news Chessie usually shared with her mother. However, knowing Marlise would indeed lose sleep worrying, Chessie kept these assignments to herself. Her mother had been hurt so much, but always had a hug and words of encouragement. The least she could do was protect her mother from more stress and worry.

“The fire investigators will have questions for you.” Doug Burkhart had returned, his formal tone of voice brought Chessie back to the current situation.

“We’ll be at the farm. You know that address, don’t you?”

Doug nodded as he jotted something in his notebook.

“You might also want my phone number.” Kiki gave him the number. “In case you have questions. About anything.”

A reddish tinge flushed Doug’s face as he brushed at the soot on the sleeve of his uniform. “Th-thank you, ladies.”

“He was blushing,” Kiki whispered to Chessie.

“Just the glow from the fire.” As adrenaline waned, exhaustion filled Chessie. “I’m more than ready to go home.”

In the car on the way back to the farm, Chessie crawled into the back seat and cuddled with Chap, while Kiki chattered to Maeve about the cute deputy.

Was I selfish in wanting you to return to the physical world? Chessie telepathically asked Chap. I didn’t think about the cost to you. I only thought about what I wanted. Of how much I missed you.

This was my choice too, Chap replied. It’s just taking me some time to figure out how to use my angelic powers within the limitations of a physical body. It will get better.

The merkaba didn’t work either. I thought I was powering the necklace and helping by transporting us to the fire, but it wouldn’t take us home.

We’ll figure this out. Chap nuzzled Chessie’s face and settled deeper into her arms.

But Chessie wasn’t so sure. If Chap’s angelic powers weren’t as strong as before and the merkaba stopped working, what would prevent him from dying again? Especially if all his missions were as dangerous as running into a burning building to rescue a child.

~ * ~

“Remember these coordinates. They will bring you back to this stargate here at the farm.” Peter Stravel stared at RT, a teenager who had accidentally fallen into the stargate and was now hooked on the adventure of traveling the dimensions. Over the time he had been with Chessie’s family, his purple hair had grown out to a brownish-blond and was now trimmed short. However, his attitude of not considering consequences remained from his earlier life with a drug-addicted mother.

Peter, RT, and a half-grown, black and white pitbull named Zodiak, stood in front of a huge slab of rock about a hundred yards inside a cave on the farm. The slab closed off a stargate that allowed travel to other dimensions. Worlds different than life here on Earth Three.

“Can’t I just write them down?”

“So you can lose the piece of paper or invite every evil demon back here?” Peter reminded himself to be patient as the young man repeated the coordinates over and over until he could do so without stumbling or looking to Peter for a clue. Children in his home dimension were always obedient, not like so many of the out-of-control youngsters here on Earth Three.

Of course, potential parents on Earth Five were not allowed to procreate until they attended parenting school and passed rigorous physical and mental exams to prove their fitness as a parent. Rather like obtaining a college degree here on Earth Three, Peter imagined. After preparation, their names were placed on a list to await an opening in the population chart. Only when a citizen chose to transition was a new life allowed to be brought onto Earth Five to avoid overpopulation of the domed cities. Then the entire community would help raise the child, as Peter had been raised.

No child on Earth Five was abused or made to feel his only option to survive was to run away as RT had done to save his life and that of his beloved pitbulls; a female named Star who gave birth to four puppies last summer, including the half-grown male who followed RT everywhere.

“Okay, got it.” RT rattled off the coordinates with confidence and Peter nodded.

“Now, take us to Celtic Zero.”

The smug look on RT’s face dissolved into a few minutes of concentration. Zodiak woofed encouragement. “Um, I’m not sure how. The stargate just sucked me in before and that’s where I ended up.”

“Did you bring your computer tablet?”

RT dug the tablet out of his backpack and handed it to Peter.

“I’m going to program the coordinates for Celtic Zero into your computer. I’ll also enter the coordinates for this stargate here on the farm.”

“Then why did you have me memorize the farm coordinates?” RT scowled.

“So you can always get home. What if your tablet is lost or stolen or destroyed?”

RT shrugged in reluctant acknowledgement of Peter’s statement.

“Rule number one of stargate travel is to always know where you are going. You got lucky when you were sucked into the stargate for your maiden voyage. You landed among a friendly hunting party. Could have easily been cannibals who would shrink your head and eat the rest of you for dinner.”

“I don’t scare that easy.”

“Think, RT, think. And be prepared.”

“Nobody cares what happens to me–”

“If you’re going to pull that attitude, we’ll stop stargate travel right now.”

“You can’t do that!”

“I can, and I will. You’re as close to heaven as you’re going to get in this dimension with Chessie and her family. They were terrified for you, and I could have landed in an ambush when I followed you through that stargate. We could have both died and devastated Chessie’s family–”

“Okay, okay, I get the message.” RT set his jaw and turned away from Peter. Zodiak whined at him.

“Do you, RT? Do you feel their love? Are you man enough to really let them into your heart?”

RT’s eyes blazed when he whirled back to confront Peter. “I’m a man. I’ve been through more than most adults.”

Peter stared at him a moment, then opened his arms. “Then give me a hug.”

RT stepped back and looked at Peter warily.

With the lift of an eyebrow, Peter dared RT to do as he asked.

“You-you’re just crazy.” RT shook his head and turned away again.

“What if takes more courage to love than to fight? Or to run away?”

“They were gonna kill Star. That’s why I ran.”

“This isn’t about Chessie and her family at all, is it? It’s about the hell-hole of a life you endured before you came here.”

“Yeah.” RT closed his eyes as he hugged the dog, who put his paws on RT’s chest and licked his face. “When Bennie gets out of jail and comes after my dogs, I can take them and escape through the stargate. He won’t ever find us.”

“And if he kills Chessie and her family because they won’t–and can’t–tell him where you are?”

“Chessie’s merkaba will protect her. And Grandfather Alston will intervene. And Marlise has her shotgun. They all have something to defend themselves.”

“They have each other, RT. And you’re one of the family now. I’m still a maybe family member, but they’ve fully accepted you. Could you really betray them?”

RT’s deeply in-drawn breath echoed in a jagged sigh off the walls of the cave. “I don’t know how to be part of a real family. You know, one that really cares what happens to me. People who would miss me if I died.”

“You get to learn.” Peter handed the computer tablet back to RT. “With each different destination we travel to, I’ll enter another set of coordinates in your computer and you can jot down your thoughts and whether you want to go back. Ready to go to Celtic Zero?”

“Yeah. Just one thing…”

“What’s that?”

RT held out his arms and Peter embraced the younger man. “We both have a lot to learn about this very interesting Earth Three family. Now, let’s go see your friend.”

Zodiak woofed and wagged his tail as Peter and RT settled their backpacks over their shoulders.

With a nod, RT consulted the coordinates on his tablet and realized Peter had also programmed the computer to operate the stargate so he didn’t have to use his shield. A bit disappointed, RT hoisted the shield to take with him anyway. Kind of an oversized good luck charm.

~ * ~

When Peter, RT and Zodiak stepped out of the stargate, RT paused and leaned against the rock wall of the canyon that framed the stargate. “I feel funny.”

Peter looked at him. “I should have explained the energetic vibration of your body will change to match the vibration in that dimension. This adjustment is part of the coordinates we use to access different dimensions. I’ve done so much travel through stargates I take it for granted. Simply rest for a few moments as you are doing and breathe deeply. Like getting your sea legs when you are on a boat. It won’t take long to adjust for a healthy, young man like you.”

“Why didn’t I feel this the last time I traveled here?”

“Your adrenaline was probably running so high from being sucked into the stargate and dumped in this dimension you didn’t notice the more subtle adjustment to your energies. Your body was in survival mode.”

“Makes sense. I think I can walk without staggering now.” A few slow steps away, RT turned to look at the stargate. “It looks like a circular entry to a garden. Where does the path on the other side lead to? Or is it just an illusion?”

“I haven’t done any exploring in this dimension. This is only my second visit here also.” With the stargate closed, a stone pathway was now visible. Framed by lush, jungle-like foliage, the path disappeared around a bend a short distance away where Zodiak now sniffed with interest. “Maybe we’ll have time to explore this side after we talk to the elders of your friend’s tribe. Come on, Zodiak.”

With a longing look down the pathway, Zodiak turned and joined RT and Peter.

As on Earth Three, the autumn season was aging on Celtic Zero. Where Peter’s earlier visit saw ripening corn and rows of pumpkins, today the corn stalks were dried stubs and only a few misshapen pumpkins remained in the gardens. A stark contrast to the lush, green foliage visible beyond the stargate.

The fire pit in the center of the village of sod houses still offered flames of warmth, but no aromas of roasting meat as on their previous visit, simply a large pot of a porridge-looking substance.

Kelby greeted RT with enthusiasm as they entered the village, and when Kelby’s father bowed to Peter, he returned the greeting in kind.

“Fall seems more advanced on this side of the canyon.”

“It has always been,” Kelby’s father stated. “Although rains have been scarce this year, and our crops dried earlier than before.”

“Have you considered moving into the canyon or at least gathering food from there?” Peter asked.

“It is forbidden.”

Before Peter could ask by whom, other elders began gathering around the fire pit. In deference to the cooler weather, many of those assembled wore an animal skin vest or cape.

Peter and RT were welcomed warmly, if a bit cautiously, and invited for the meal. This visit, they had come prepared with loaves of bread, cheese, and other food to share.

With some animals plentiful in this dimension that were extinct in other parts of the galaxy, Peter hoped he could transport pairs of them to Chessie’s farm on Earth Three to breed and repopulate. Thanks to the universal translator included in the computer implant in his wrist, Peter could listen to the discussion of the elders as they sat around the campfire.

When they finished the meal and turned to discussion of his proposal, Peter watched their reactions closely. He also noted the interaction between RT and his friend, Kelby, who turned out to be the son of the one of the elders. Peter had the feeling that friendship could lead to mischief, as both young men seemed to crave adventure without the wisdom to temper sometimes rash decisions. Even Zodiak’s doggie eyes glowed with a thirst for adventure.

Peter thought the proposal was well received by most of the elders, with one or two raising concerns about game not being as plentiful since the rains had not come as needed.

“You’re not going to die on me again, Chap.” Chessie’s desperate cry reverberated through Peter’s mind as if she stood beside him instead of being in a different dimension. As Peter tuned into her energy field, he felt the intense heat of a fire and saw the flashing lights of fire trucks and police cars. Chessie knelt on the wet grass cradling her collie.

“My apologies,” Peter said to the elders in their language. “I have received a distress signal from my Chosen One–my intended mate. I must return to her immediately.”

As he stood, murmurs swept through the elders. Some sympathetic; some suspicious. Well, if these negotiations fell through, so be it. Chessie’s life was more important.

“I will go with you.” Kelby also stood and his father frowned. “With your permission, of course, Father. I can check out this farm where they wish to take our animals and determine if it will be suitable.”

“One of our more experienced warriors should go,” another elder spoke up.

“No others wish to go into the Forbidden Paradise to travel to this place our guests call home. Let me prove my courage as a warrior by doing this.”

“The boy is right.” Kelby’s father turned to Peter. “You can guarantee my son’s safety?”

“He will be as safe as on a hunting trip with your tribe.” Peter understood the man’s concern for Kelby’s safety, since he felt the same urgency about the danger Chessie faced.

“You will return within three sundowns.”

Peter bowed to the elders and urged Kelby to quickly gather what he needed for their journey through the stargate. Not for the first time, Peter wished for Chessie’s ability to transport from anywhere using the merkaba and not need to access a stargate to move through dimensions.

Peter, RT and Kelby set off at a trot toward the canyon, accompanied by Zodiak and a half dozen warriors from the tribe. At the steep stone walls framing the Forbidden Paradise, the warriors stopped and watched warily as the trio of humans and the dog continued into the sacred land where the stargate was located.

Peter briefed Kelby on what to expect with this first experience and cautioned him about feeling disoriented when they arrived on Earth Three.

Indeed, Kelby appeared stunned when they materialized. He watched in silence as the stargate inside the cave slid closed at Peter’s instruction. With curious eyes, he continued a silent assessment as they moved quickly past the heated mist of the hot springs, beneath the red-brown arch of stone that formed the cave, and up the slight incline leading into the evening.

When they emerged from the cave’s entrance behind the waterfall, Kelby turned to stare at the sparkling water tumbling from a ridge above them and into a pool of nearly transparent water.

Though Peter could appreciate the young man’s admiration of the scenery, his own concern for Chessie didn’t allow time for such a luxury right now.

“We’re going to hang out here for a while,” RT said. “See you back at the farmhouse.”

Relieved, Peter waved a hand in acknowledgement of RT’s statement and quickened his pace to a run toward the farmhouse.

Under evening stars twinkling in the purple-tinted sky, he raced past the centuries-old family cemetery, across the meadow where the livestock normally grazed, and skirted around the big red barn where the animals had settled in for the night.

When Peter slipped inside Chessie’s suite of rooms, all seemed normal. She snuggled under a puffy quilt in soft colors of beige and cream with the red-gold strands of her hair curling over her pillow.

Beside her on a matching but lower bed, her collie lifted his head off his paws and woofed softly at Peter.

Chessie stirred and a sleepy smile settled on her face as she reached for Peter’s hand.

“You’re safe.” Peter grasped the hand of his Chosen One tightly and kissed the palm.

“Mm-hmm. Maeve and Kiki came for us.”

Peter sat on the bed beside Chessie as he looked for any sign of injury. Her hair was damp, but smelled of the soft shampoo she used, indicating she had showered since returning home.

“In my mind, I saw you kneeling on grass with Chap lying beside you and a fire burning nearby.”

“House fire in town. Chap saved a little boy and his kitten.” Chessie yawned and snuggled closer to Peter; eyelashes dusting her cheeks as her eyes closed again.

Peter ran his fingers over her face, relief flooding his body that she was safe. That Chap was safe. He understood the angelic agreement Chessie and Chap made to help those in need as the condition for Chap being able to return to this dimension in physical form, but she seemed exhausted. Surely there was a way to allow enough time between assignments that her health didn’t suffer.

Suddenly, Chessie jerked awake and scrambled to get out of bed as Chap jumped up beside her. “Shoes.”

As Chessie slipped her feet into the shoes setting beside the bed, she said, “Please make sure all the animals are fed if we aren’t back before morning feeding time.”

In a swirl of sparkling mist, she and Chap disappeared.

~ * ~

Chessie and Chap landed with a silent thump behind the largest tree in the Mystic city park. A horseshoe-shaped rock wall outlined the grassy area dominated by this centuries-old tree. Every autumn for as long as Chessie could remember, its leaves stayed green long after other trees dotted vibrant orange and red among the evergreens. Then seemingly in one day, the leaves of this tree blazed in brief, autumn colors and fell to the ground that night in a carpet of crimson.

This night, its green leafy branches nearly reached the ground, providing a perfect hiding place for Chessie and her collie.

A short distance away, the blackened remains of the house that had burned earlier cast broken shadows in the lights of the emergency vehicles still mopping up as investigators poked through the debris.

“What are we supposed to do here?” Chessie whispered to Chap.

I smell people nearby. Chap lifted his nose to the air for a moment.

Soon, two shadowy figures appeared a short distance away, staying at the edge of the light cast by street lights hung like lanterns on black metal lamp posts. After looking around furtively, they began talking in fiercely quiet voices.

“This was supposed to be a clean job and you almost screwed it up. Good thing that dog dragged the kid out.”

Chap and Chessie looked at each other. They’re talking about the house fire.

“You told me no one would be there.” The other man pointed his finger at his companion’s chest, its distorted shadow as jagged as the remains of the house. “You’re the one who screwed up.”

“This is getting us nowhere. I’m not going to pay you for a botched job.”

“Wait a minute. Are you backing out on our deal? You got what you wanted.”

“No pay-off from the insurance until the investigation is done. That could be weeks.”

The other man hissed out an angry breath. “I need that money now.”

“I won’t have it until I get the wad from the insurance.”

“Alright. Here’s another option…” The man looked around again before lowering his voice so Chessie could no longer hear him.

A few minutes later, they took another look around, split up and hurried off in opposite directions. Chessie tried to get a good look at them, to no avail.

Want me to go after one of them? Chap asked.

“I’m not sure what we’d do with them. Did you hear what they said?”

Chap nodded. That it would be easy to frame Logan Woods for the fire, and they talked about how to do that.

“Logan is the man who was renting the house?”

Sounded like it.

“I couldn’t see either of these guys. Could you describe them to the police?”

Sure. They smelled suspicious too.

“Smelled suspicious?”

Humans give off a certain odor if they are doing something they know they shouldn’t be.

“That’s interesting.”

It’s stinky. Dogs avoid them if possible.

“Let’s go see if Doug is still at the fire site. And maybe he can give us a ride home.”

You could just command the merkaba to take us home.

Chessie touched her necklace doubtfully. “Let’s find Doug first.”

 

~ * ~

 

Doug Burkhart stood silently in a corner of a small room at the hospital where one of the county fire investigators had cornered Logan Woods. Doug sipped what passed for coffee, knowing he would need the caffeine when the adrenaline drained out of his system.

“Is this going to take long?” Logan craned his neck toward the room where his son was being held for observation. “I really want to get back to my family.”

Axe Archard’s already stony-faced manner hardened. He ignored the man’s question and asked one of his own. “You were in the house when the fire erupted, correct?”

“Yeah. My girlfriend and son had gone to bed, but I was still up.”

“Where did the fire start?”

“I smelled smoke coming from the kitchen, and when I went to check it out, the fire was spreading along the countertop.”

“Were you cooking anything? Maybe left a pan on the stove?”

Logan Woods shook his head. “No. We’d finished dinner several hours before.”

“Was a burner of the cook stove still on? Maybe with some napkins or something else combustible from dinner?”

“No. No burners on.”

“You’re sure about this? Maybe the little boy was playing with the knobs?”

“The knobs are behind the burners. He can’t reach them.”

“And you’re sure you or your girlfriend didn’t leave a burner on?”

“I’m sure. Her parents were paranoid about their house burning down and she double-checks everything.”

“Don’t you think it odd that a woman so careful about fire would have a house burn down, nearly trapping her and her son inside?”

“What are you getting at? Aubrey would not endanger our son’s life.”

“Would you, Mr. Woods?”

Logan sucked in a breath. He had that same emotionally drowning feeling when he realized his business wasn’t going to make it. When he received the pink slip several days ago from the job he finally landed after months of searching. “I love my son.”

“That’s not what I asked. I asked if you would endanger his life. Perhaps to act the hero so you and your girlfriend wouldn’t fight so much anymore.”

“No. That’s preposterous–”

“Before the fire broke out tonight, one of your neighbors was walking their dog and heard the two of you fighting. Did you fight with your girlfriend tonight?”

“I don’t see the connection between a fight and the fire.”

“Don’t you, Mr. Woods?”

“I think you’re grasping at straws, and I want an attorney before I answer any more of your questions.”

“I want to get to the bottom of this, Mr. Woods. If you help me out, perhaps I can help you.”

The investigator let the silence stretch for a few moments, but Logan remained quiet, figuring he had already said too much.

“Here’s my card if you remember anything that might help us both.” Archard flipped a business card in Logan’s direction, which he reflexively caught.

Doug Burkhart, who had remained silent throughout this questioning, paused before he followed the fire investigator out of the room. “I’ll keep your son’s kitten until you all get resettled where you can have it again.”

Logan nodded in silent thanks, contemplating how things had taken a turn for the worse when he thought the horse crap couldn’t get any deeper.

“You just going to sit on your bum or are you going to do something to dig your way out of this?”

Logan tapped the business card against his knee and squinted at Alston. “I said I wasn’t answering any more questions without an attorney.”

“I’m not a cop.”

“Then who are you?”

“Maybe the only friend you have right now. With your girlfriend mad at you and your son almost dying because you left his kitten in the fire.”

“I just couldn’t find it. I never thought Brecken would go back inside after some mangy cat.”

“That cat is your son’s best friend. Don’t make the same mistake I did and have your son end up hating you because the cat dies.”

“I thought the cat was fine.”

“The kitten is in good hands. Doug Burkhart is one of the kindest men in this town.”

“He’s a cop.”

“Cops can be kind.”

“That will be a first.”

“I’ve known him since he was a boy. Trust me on this one.”

“You never did say who you were.”

“Someone who made a lot of mistakes and is trying to be sure no one is as foolish as I was.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You sit at the bar until you’re half-drunk, then stumble home and disparage your lady. In case you don’t know, disparage means to make nasty comments, like saying her clothes hang on her like a scarecrow, and that her meat loaf tastes like dried up worms.”

Logan’s eyes grew wide. “How did you know—”

Alston cut him off again. “I know a whole lot more, boy-o. If you would quit wasting money at the bar, your financial situation wouldn’t be so bad, and Aubrey could buy decent food and wouldn’t have to worry herself sick.”

The man’s shoulders slumped. “Things used to be okay. We hung together even after the business went belly-up. Finally found a job, then they started laying off guys. I figured it wouldn’t be long before they got to me. Aubrey doesn’t want to leave this town. She grew up here. But there just aren’t many jobs. A man should be able to provide for his family, ya know? And I just didn’t see a way I could do that and stay here and take care of Brecken. Then one day I came home and there was this scrawny little cat. One more mouth to feed and I had a pink slip in my pocket. Now the cops are leaning on me about the fire. We’re going down fast and I don’t know how to save us.”

“So you set the fire?”

“No.” The man shook his head. “The owner said he’d cut me in on the deal, but I just couldn’t. I’d already sunk pretty low, but I couldn’t do that. Guess I had some scrap of pride left after all.”

“You could have asked for help.”

“Most of the guys I know are in the same boat.”

“Help from the angels.”

“Aubrey believes in that garbage. Not me.”

Alston walked through the desk to confront Logan more directly.

Mumbling, the man shook his head. “I did not just see that.”

“Do you want me to sprout wings and fly around the room?”

The man just continued to shake his head.

“Good,” Alston said. “Because I haven’t earned my wings yet.”

“I thought all angels had wings.”

One side of Alston’s mouth twisted ruefully. “I’m not like most angels. I have a tendency to run afoul of the rules.”

The man laughed. “Just my luck. I get an angel who’s a trouble-maker.”

“Your wife asked for an angel, not you. I’m just a bonus.”

“You aren’t supposed to be here?”

“Let’s just say I’m skirting the edges of angel law.”

“Can you grant me three wishes?”

“I’m an angel, not a genie.”

With a shrug, the man said, “It was worth a try. So what can you do?”