Key West Gone into the Night Elizabeth Hilleren (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

Stephanie’s mouth was drawn down into a frown. She thought for a long moment. “I would like it to be here. There’s no one back in Miami who knows her anymore.”

“How much longer before they think you can get out of here?” Harris asked.”

“Oh…about a week, maybe two. Who knows?”

“I’ll get someone from the funeral home to stop by and you can pick out flowers, if you’re up to it. Have them send me the bill.”

“She just loved red roses. Can you afford roses? You never sent me any….”

“Do whatever she would want.  Look, I gotta go. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Thanks for thinking of me. My longtime friend will be here next week. He’s taking time off to stay with me.”

“Yeah, sure. See ya,” Harris said with a wave.

“He’s a banker…very rich,” she said to the empty door.

*    *    *

Harris had Amy bring Tyler to see Mateo and Javier in the hospital. He had been moved to a private room and was resting comfortably.

“Hey, Tyler, Amy,” said Javier from his bed.

Tyler ran over to the bed. “Are you going to be all right?” His eyes were huge.

“Yes, the doctors did a good job.  Want to see the bandage?”

“Yeah, ooh…We went down to see Mateo.  He looks so cute. He smiled at me.”

Javier smiled. “Of course. He’s your brother.”

“That’s right.  Are you going to live here with Grampa and my new Gramma?”

“In time. I have some things I have to do in Chile before I can come back here to stay with Mateo and you.” Javier said.

“How about some ice cream?” Amy asked.

“Sure. See you, Javier.”

“See you, Tyler. Thanks for visiting.”

Javier turned to Harris. “You know I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I know that I have a recovery of weeks. I would like to get a place here for Mateo and me. But first I will have to return to my home and discuss my vineyard with my lawyer. Oh, and Vasquez’s lawyer called and wants to work with me. Seems that I am the sole heir to his property.  His will was written long ago, and he never changed it.”

“If you need us to care for Mateo,” Amy said, “we will take care of him until you decide what you want to do.”

“I don’t want to break the brothers up. They need each other. As Susan pointed out to me, they are both citizens of this county and her last words were they should be here in their homeland.  Sloan said that because there was no record of any agreement with my uncle and he’s deceased, there’s no money to pay back. I should be in better-than-expected financial shape when this is all settled.”

“You think you would be happy here in the states?”

“I have only a graveyard of family left in Chile.  If I can sell the vineyard and business there, I could make a new start here.”

“Well,” Harris said, “I think that would make my daughter very happy.”

“It hurts my heart that perhaps I could have done that with her here. I did love her.”

“And I believe that she loved you. But it would have been much different. She changed the future for you and her children. You get better and we’ll talk again tomorrow.  We can take Mateo as soon as you want. Amy said she will bring him to see you every day.”

“That would be wonderful.”

“They are getting me up and out of bed today and I will be officially on the road to recovery. I did call my uncle’s lawyer and he’s making arrangements to return his body to Chile.”

“Keep me in the loop.”

Javier smiled.  “I owe you everything. I can never repay you for all you are doing, but I will spend my life working on it.”

“You just get better, okay, kid?”

Javier laughed. “Okay, Harris.”

*    *    *

Sharkey spent the morning writing up reports on each of the cases. The death of Susan was closed when the Miami police searched Carl Abbott’s home and found a pair of boots in his closet with blood spots that matched Susan’s blood type. His food and lodging receipts confirmed that he was in Key West at the time and place of Susan Abbott’s death.

The case against Kirk Polly was pursued by the District Attorney. Kirk Polly would be tried for the murder of Carl Abbott and the attempted murder of Stephanie Williams.

Stephanie Williams was not arrested for her shooting of Rita Polly as it was considered by the DA to be self-defense even after some significant arguing by Kirk Polly’s attorney. It was likely that Polly’s defense would hinge on the self-defense against the crazed attack where they were drawn into a death trap set by Stephanie Williams who then tried to assassinate them both by shooting first.

Javier was not arrested for any involvement in the abduction of the children. His voluntary, selfless, and dangerous help to capture Ricardo Vasquez and Manuel Rodriguez was considered to be of significant importance in that decision. His work in retrieving the children and protection of Consuela Lopez at the cost of getting shot also helped his case.

*    *    *

Later that day Sharkey and Harris were sitting in their office having a piece of coffee cake and coffee.

“Man, things are quiet around here now that Webber has finally dropped the other shoe and let us know that he and Gloria are moving to Miami. I’m gonna miss him.”

“I will too.  We were together a long time,” Sharkey said. “The chief sent this memo down just a few minutes ago.”  Sharkey floated the paper over to Harris.  Sharkey watched Harris’ eyes get big as he read.

“Seth McBride is