“I don’t believe I know you,” Delilah said. “Are you visiting here? Maybe I know your people.”
The simple Southern way of connecting felt charming to Katie, even though she had no people.
“I just moved here. I’ll be teaching first grade when the school year begins.”
Delilah smiled again. “Oh! You rented Louise’s cottage with the blue door. She keeps that for special people, so you must be special. Welcome to Borden’s Gap.”
“Thank you,” Katie said.
Rhett yapped, and they both laughed.
“He was welcoming you, too,” Delilah said. “I’m sure glad you were out walking or he’d still be running. My granddaughter used to walk Rhett for me, but she’s gone away to college now.”
“I’ll be walking most every day that the weather allows until I start work,” Katie said. “I’d be more than happy to swing by here and take your lover boy for a little trot around the block.”
“Really?” Delilah said. “That would be so thoughtful of you. He’s ten years old, so a walk around the block is more than enough. He usually gets carried the last block home.”
“I can do that,” Katie said.
“I’d pay you,” Delilah offered.
“No, ma’am. It would be my pleasure. I don’t have a man in my life, and who wouldn’t want Rhett Butler.”
Delilah clapped her hands. “This is just wonderful. Do you want to start tomorrow, or—”
“How about right now? I can walk him a couple of blocks, then head back this way.”
“What about the dog poop?”
Katie threw back her head and laughed. “I teach first- graders. I’ve had throw-up in my lap, in my shoes, and down the back of my shirt while I was sitting down. Picking up a little dog poop in a plastic bag is nothing. Let’s go get Rhett’s leash and a pooper bag, and you get yourself something cold to drink and wait on the porch for us to come back. Okay?”
“You are so precious,” Delilah said. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she added as they started toward the house.
“I don’t need thanks. This will be a delight, and it will give you time to find someone permanent to walk him.”
“Perfect,” Delilah said, and once they reached the house, she handed Rhett back to Katie. “Give me a couple of minutes.”
“Don’t rush. We’ll just be here standing in the shade having ourselves a drink,” Katie said. And as soon as the old woman went inside, Katie poured a little of her water into an indentation in the sidewalk, and Rhett promptly lapped it up. “More?” she asked, and poured a little more.
The little Yorkie lapped that up, too, and then waited for Katie to pick him up again.
Delilah returned. They clipped the leash on Rhett, and Katie stuffed the pooper bag into her back pocket.
The moment Katie clipped the leash onto Rhett’s collar, he turned his head, picked up the leash in his mouth, and waited for her to start walking.
“Oh, I forgot to mention, Rhett likes to be in charge of his leash. He takes himself for walks. All you have to do is hang on,” Delilah said.
Katie was in love. “This is the best day I’ve had in a very long time. Thank you, Delilah. We’ll see you soon.”
Delilah waved them off, then climbed the steps back up to her verandah and sat down. So now she’d met the new teacher. She was one up on all of her friends and couldn’t wait to tell them what a sweetheart Katie was.
***
Sam was on his way to the house to drop off lunch and groceries for Roxie and the girls when he saw Katie walking toward him on the opposite side of the street. He recognized Rhett Butler immediately because at one time or another, all of the officers in town had been put on alert that the little Yorkie was on the run. Rhett Butler had more BOLOs on him than a hardened criminal.
Sam slowed a bit just so he could look at Katie longer. Like Rhett, she walked with a bounce in her step and her chin up. Even though she was wearing sunglasses, he couldn’t help but notice how happy she appeared, and when she suddenly saw him driving toward her, she waved and smiled.
Sam’s heart skipped a beat as he gave her a thumbs-up.
After he’d driven past, he wished he’d stopped long enough to say hello. When he’d dropped off the groceries, he retraced his path, but she was gone. As he drove back to the station, he couldn’t help but wonder how she and Delilah Cash had come to meet. It must have been a momentous occasion for Delilah to let Katie walk her precious Yorkie.
Less than an hour after he got back to the station, a dangerous situation arose. The Tennessee Highway Patrol was in pursuit of Leif Munson, an inmate who had escaped from the jail in Nashville. It was reported that he’d hot-wired a car and made it out of the city, then robbed and beat up an elderly couple in Jackson before stealing a hunting rifle and their car.
Borden’s Gap had been given a heads-up because the inmate had grown up in the hills east of town and was suspected to be heading that way.
The moment Sam found out, he headed straight to dispatch.
“Frank, dispatch all available officers to the west edge of town, ASAP. I want roadblocks set up on the far side of the city limit signs. This is the BOLO I received. Give them a heads-up on the car, but do not read out the driver’s name on the radio because everyone in town who has a scanner would hear it.”
“Will do, Chief, but why not?” Frank asked.
“Because the escapee grew up in the area. I’ll be on scene,” Sam said, and took off out the back.
Frank’s eyes widened, but he never said another word and began dispatching officers and relaying orders.
Everything but the immediate need to stop a felon went out of Sam’s mind. They couldn’t let him get past the roadblock and go flying through town, putting everyone in danger.
He called Roxie on the way and told her to stay inside with the girls until she heard from him, then ran hot out of town with lights flashing and his siren screaming, with other patrol cars converging behind him, heading west out of town.
Within minutes of their arrival, Sam and his officers had their patrol cars parked at angles blocking the highway and portable barriers and stop strips in place.
Their radios were crackling with updates, and they had advised the highway patrol of the evasive tactics they had in place. They were each standing behind an open door on their patrol cars, weapons drawn, braced for whatever was coming at them.
They’d cut the sirens, but the lights were flashing. The sun was at their backs, which meant it would be in the escaped prisoner’s eyes. Every man standing knew Leif Munson, and this situation had just put them on opposite sides of the law.