For shits and grins.
Obviously, both men had mental illnesses.
But that wasn’t for me to worry about.
Perhaps the therapists in prison could sort their crap.
Mr.Flannery’sfraudulent will was overturned, the one he’d commissioned under his own steam was reinstated, and Lacey Diever and her family took rightful possession of their land.
She was reportedly very happy about this, but the win was bittersweet, considering Enstrom, Buress and their men leveled a cabin that had been on that patch for over a hundred years, and they sold or discarded everything in it, including pictures, diaries and family heirlooms.
Nevertheless, the Flannery family had their land back.The feds had seized then cleared it of everything portable, namely the houses, equipment, ATVs and the shed, and they auctioned those off.
Lacey and her family razed the church and the fence, but kept the pole and cattle barns, pigsty and chicken coop because Lacey’s son and his wife were going to build on that land, and they wanted to raise animals there.
They also did a lot of replanting so they could grow back the trees that Enstrom’s crew had cleared.
So that, too, had a happy ending.
And there’d be decent neighbors for whoever rented Mrs.Matthews’s cabin next.
One thing did happenwhen the trials were on at the Fret County courthouse…
Harry got ahold of me.
He shared Paisley would be there to testify, and while she was, she wanted to meet me.
Since I didn’t want to ask her up to Stony Bluff (for obvious reasons), I asked Abigail and Brett if we could use her living room, and they agreed.
Paisley came in with her mom and dad.No old-fashioned nightdress, no Washington State zealots’ version of aHandmaid’s Talegown.She was wearing a cute skirt, boots, sweater and makeup.
The first thing she did was hug me.
The next thing she did was whisper, “Thank you,” in my ear.
The last thing she did was start weeping softly.
I held on and joined her.
I really didn’t do much of anything.
But care.
Though I told her Hutch, Harry and Rus were the ones to thank, and she did that right then with Hutch being there with me.She’d already done her thing with Harry and Rus and the team.
We sat down and she told us she kept in touch with most of the other women.
There were ups and downs.Some were handling it better than others.Even if those who were handling it relatively well were getting on with things, there were dark times.
Just like life.
It would take a couple of years before we got the invitation to her wedding.
It was happening in Sonoma.
Doc, Ledger, Stormy and Jaeger looked after our dogs.
Because Hutch and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
