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

leaving Miami and coming here? Fantastic. I thought he would never leave Miami unless he was retiring,” Harris said.

“He thinks that he’ll have it easier being down here instead of having to be our Miami go-to on the phone.”

Harris laughed. “That’s not the way he’ll spin it.  He just got tired of bailing our sorry asses out of trouble whenever we get a real case, so he might as well come down here and solve them before they get kicked upstairs.”

Sharkey’s phone rang.

“Detective Sharkey, this is Mckenzie Jones.  Are your cases closed?”

“They are. If you can come in, I’ll gladly give you all the details.”

“I’ll be right over. Connor is coming with me.”

“Looking forward to seeing you.”

It was less than fifteen minutes later that McKenzie and Connor appeared at his door.

“Well, is it all over and you can finally talk?” McKenzie asked.

He filled them in on what had happened.

“The woman that was found was Harris’s daughter?”

“Right.”

“Wow, that’s quite a story. How’s he holding up?”

“Good. He’s getting married.  He has grandchildren and a new son. He has a whole new life.”

Mckenzie’s eyes were filled with excitement.

“How did you get Harris’s grandson back?”

“He was let off on a corner and one of our young street kids found him and took care of him, By the way, his name is Billy Nash and he’s quite a guy. Thanks to him, Tyler was saved from an unsavory character who is going to be put away for an exceptionally long time.  By the way, I understand that he has been working for a long time selling palm flowers and shell jewelry to get enough money to buy one of those bicycle taxi carts. Sounds like a good fundraiser item to reward a good person who went out of their way to help someone he didn’t need to help.”

“I think I can get that started,” Connor said. Turning to Mckenzie, “You need to interview him and get the public contributing.”

“Great idea, I will. I see a wonderful human-interest story here. Can I talk to some of the people involved?”

“Sure.  You might want to end with the memorial service for Susan Abbott in a few weeks. The father of one of her children is a real hero. He took a bullet to save a woman who had his child.”

“You guys are heroes, you know. Sorry I gave you such grief.”

“You didn’t, Mackenzie. I appreciate our ‘pit-bull newspaper’ and everyone who works there, especially your O’Brian. Sharp eyes keeping watch does help us.”

“Okay, I’ll be on my best behavior.  It sounds like that family has been through enough.”

“Yeah, thanks for your patience.”

    Three weeks later - the rest of the story

Rex called and asked that Sharkey, Harris, Sloan, Alex, and families, along with Javier, Mateo and Stephanie were all invited to come over to his house after the memorial service for Susan Abbott.  It was a lovely afternoon in Key West. Rex and family greeted them as they arrived.

Rex stood when everyone was seated. “I’m going to keep this brief because it’s been a long, sad day for all of us. Even though most of us never got to meet Susan Abbott personally, the events after her death informed and united us around her life. We all feel that we want to bring Javier, Tyler and Mateo into our family of good friends.

“Harris will be keeping Mateo until Javier returns from completing his tasks in Chile. We all need to make them feel welcome and we look forward to the possibility that Javier will return and live here in Key West.”

A round of applause went up.

“So now we need to introduce the families and celebrate our new friends. The barbeque is hot, and the beer and pop are cold, so everyone enjoy.”

Harris walked over to Javier. “I just wanted to say that I could feel Susan’s presence today stronger than ever. I know that she understands what you went through, and she loves you.”

Javier was filled with emotion. “I could feel it too. I won’t let her down. And I won’t let my family down. You and Amy are my family now.”

Stephanie caught Harris’s eye. He walked over to her.

“I just wanted to say that you outdid yourself on the service. Didn’t know you had it in you,” Stephanie said. “So, you and Amy are keeping Tyler?”

“That’s right.  We love both our grandsons.”

“Well, if you can find it in your heart to love that baby…you can’t be all bad.  I’d have sent him packing with his father.”

“Yeah, I bet you would have.”

An older man walked over and slipped his arm around Stephanie.

“Detective Burt Harris, this is Theodore Neilson. He came all the way from Sarasota to pick me up.” Stephanie said with a smug smile.

“Nice to meet, you,” Harris said, shaking the man’s hand.

“Are you ready, Stephanie?”

“Yes. Take care of those boys and send pictures so I can watch Tyler grow.”

Harris took a deep breath, “I’ll see if we can do that. Take care.”

Amy walked over to Harris after Stephanie walked away with her friend.

“She doesn’t waste time, does she?”

“She never did. She’s always looking out for her future.  I love you. What do you say to getting hitched next weekend?”

“I would love it. It will be a perfect way to start our family.”

Harris walked over to Sharkey. “I wanted to ask you about Consuela.”

“She’s under the care of a psychiatrist and is said to be doing well. Javier said that she has accepted his offer of the new house that Vasquez bought for her. She’s now anxious to go home to Chile and live there. She was never a part of Vasquez’s plot to steal Mateo. She still loves Vasquez and is content