"Not to mention it gave her extra ammunition to push her lie about Lynn and Noah," Jo said.

"Too bad she didn’t know we could get Lynn’s phone records." Kevin held up a sheet of paper that was on his desk. "Verizon finally came through, and Lynn had made calls to Roger Bannister. We would’ve tracked him down eventually and found out about the company’s troubles."

"Yeah, Reese really helped speed things up with that one." Jo looked at Sam pointedly. "She might be a little green, but I think she’s a great asset to the team."

"Agreed. Maybe we should give her more to do." Sam glanced at the piles of resumes that were still on the corner of Jo’s desk. "I suppose we still have to hire someone new, though."

He glanced at Kevin just in case the officer had changed his mind about coming on full time. Kevin looked away.

The door opened, and Dupont entered. Instead of his usual scowling face, he looked almost jovial.

"Congratulations on solving the Palmer case! This is wonderful news." He clapped Sam on the back, and Sam nodded and stepped away. He still didn’t trust Dupont and didn’t need his praise.

"I hope it brings some closure to her parents," Sam said.

"I’ve talked to them. They are relieved. Of course, they’re upset that it was a friend of Lynn’s but glad that justice will be done." Dupont glanced over at Tyler’s desk and back at Sam. "How are the new hires coming along?"

"We’ve been kind of too busy solving this case to interview people, but now that it’s over, I guess I’ll have to start weeding through the resumes." Sam put the donut down. Suddenly, he didn’t have an appetite.

"Good. I want to make sure this town is in tiptop shape. Show the citizens that I keep crime to a minimum here and that I’m the best man for the job of mayor," Dupont said.

Across from Sam, Kevin’s eyes widened. He was facing the door, and Sam turned around too late to see Reese coming in with Lucy. Lucy saw Dupont and growled, her hackles rising.

Dupont whirled around.

"Have you people been keeping this dog here?" He jerked his head back in Sam’s direction. "I thought I told you to get rid of her. It won’t do to have dogs in the police station. I’m running for reelection, and I can’t have any blemish on my reputation."

Sam didn’t give a crap about Dupont’s reputation and was about to say so when Reese cut in.

"Oh, don’t worry about that, Mayor Dupont," Reese said.

"Don’t give me any bullshit about bringing her to the shelter. You people have told me that twice already. Now, I want to tell you there are no—"

"It’s not that," Reese interrupted him, but in the nicest way possible. She went over to her computer and hit a few keys. The printer hummed to life and spit out a page. Reese grabbed it and held it up. "I thought you knew. We’ve been accepted for a K-9 LEAP grant. Lucy is an official K-9 dog now."

Dupont ripped the paper out of Reese’s hand and glowered at it. "K-9 program? That costs the town money. I don’t remember authorizing this."

"Actually, it’s a grant. It won’t cost any taxpayer money from the town. In fact, I’ve talked to a bunch of people in town, and they are very impressed with how you were able to get this extra resource for the town without having to raise taxes." Reese smiled at Dupont. "Very clever of you."

Dupont’s demeanor faltered. "They are?"

"Yes. Everyone knows that Lucy was instrumental in solving this last murder. Having her here as a resource will be a great asset to the town and help keep crime levels low."

Dupont cleared his throat. "Well, I see what you mean."

He looked down at Lucy and held a tentative hand out toward her. The dog eyed him suspiciously but gave his hand an obligatory sniff.

"Very well, then." Dupont tapped his lips with his finger. "Maybe this is something I should play out in my campaign. People like dogs, right?"

"Absolutely, they do," Reese said.

"Good. Well, carry on." Dupont exited, and Jo turned back to Reese.

"What was that all about? Did you make that up?"

Reese laughed. "No. Remember the other day when we were talking and you said it was too bad we couldn’t hire Lucy?"

"Yeah, but I was joking."

"That got me thinking. I know other precincts have K-9 dogs, and I did some research and asked around at school. It turns out there’s a grant program. So I took the initiative to apply." Reese looked sheepishly at Sam. "I hope you don’t mind me doing it without asking, but you were busy with the case, and I figured it was a long shot, so I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up."

"I don’t mind at all. But how did you get it past the mayor’s office? Don’t they have to sign off on this?" Sam asked.

"Sure they do, but I have a friend that works in city hall, and she just happened to put the paperwork in along with a bunch of other paperwork, and Henley Jamison, the vice mayor, rubber-stamped it. Then I have another friend who’s really good with computers, and we managed to, um... fast-track the application."

Sam narrowed his gaze. "Fast-track? How did you do that?"

Reese grimaced. "Well, I—"

Sam held up his palm. "Never mind. I don’t want to know. The important thing is you got it done."

Reese beamed. "Now Lucy can be here officially all day. We don’t have to bring her to the shelter. She could stay here in the cell, or someone can take her home at night. And she won’t be alone all day while we’re at work. Plus, she really did help out. The grant pays for dog food, a bulletproof dog vest, even a dog bed."

"Excellent work." Sam squatted down, and Lucy trotted over. Maybe it was his imagination, but her fur looked a little shinier today. The rip in her ear looked to be healing.

Jo crouched down beside him and scratched Lucy’s neck. Even Kevin bent down to pet the dog. Sam glanced back at Tyler’s empty desk in the corner, then at his crew now huddled around Lucy. They were happy, laughing. Even the dog was smiling. Maybe things were looking up for the White Rock Police Department.

Epilogue

Two weeks later...

Sam pushed the stack of resumes onto Jo’s desk, nudging the white donut bag aside. "I want you to look through these. I only see three applicants that would be good for the job, but I want to get your take on it."

"Sure thing." Jo leaned back in her chair, slapping her feet up on the open desk drawer. Things had been quiet since they’d closed the Palmer murder case.

They’d had the usual small-town disturbances. Finding the owners of lost pets, arbitrating problems between neighbors, even solving the fascinating case of the missing milk bottles from Mrs. Murphy’s steps. It turned out some bored kids had been playing pranks on her.

But, even though it was quiet, things were looming in the future.

"You going to the town council meeting tonight?" Jo asked as if sensing Sam’s gloomy thoughts.

That night, the town council was meeting on a rezoning law. Thorne wanted to rezone a parcel of land he’d purchased so he could continue on the build-out of his resort. Sam was alarmed at the rate that Thorne was buying up properties from the old-timers. He suspected there might be some strong-arming or at least hard persuasion going on to get that land but had no way to prove it.

"You bet. I don’t know who Dupont thinks he’s kidding. He can’t keep influencing the council members so that Thorne can ruin the land and build more hotels and restaurants."