I grabbed him and kissed him, hard, and then pointed to where Merks was climbing in the getaway truck. "Jack!"
"Got him." Jack shifted and flew across the ground toward the truck.
People think cheetahs are fast, and they probably are, but records say that an adult tiger can run up to forty miles per hour.
Jack destroyed that record.
Before Merks could back up, the tiger was on the top of the truck. With one mighty paw, Jack peeled the roof of the truck cab clear off. Merks tried to shoot him, but Jack smacked the gun out of his hand and then shifted back.
Human now, Jack grabbed the killer by the shoulder and yanked him up and out of the truck. Then he threw him a dozen feet through the air.
Merks hit the ground hard enough that he wasn't going to be fighting back for a while.
The sound of dozens of sirens flooded the air, and the reinforcements Aunt Ruby had called in swarmed the scene. Several of them took custody of Merks, Craven, and the rest of the thugs.
EMTs had extricated Andy from the truck, and they were carrying him toward the ambulance. I saw Charithra was right next to him, holding his hand.
Phin, though, was running up the stairs of the second trailer, and I remembered Otis.
"The dogs!"
Jack and I followed Phin to the trailer and found him on the floor, being mobbed by a half-dozen excited dogs who were all doing their best to lick him to death. One puppy caught Jack's scent and stared up at him with enormous eyes, his ears trembling, and then belly-crawled over to say hello.
I sat down, right there on the floor, because my legs suddenly wouldn't hold me anymore, and I pulled the puppy into my arms.
"Next time, bring me along," I told Jack, and then I started laughing.
That's how Uncle Mike found us. Sitting on the floor, surrounded by dogs, holding onto each other, and laughing.
"Merry Christmas," he said, grinning at both of us.
Merry Christmas indeed.
42
Tess
It was still Christmas Eve, even after all that, so we went home and ate a fine dinner Shelley and Aunt Ruby cooked. And we learned more details then and over the next weeks as texts and calls came in from all the various law enforcement agencies and personnel.
Andy:He was going to be okay. He had a broken arm, three broken ribs, and a concussion. Charithra stayed in the hospital with him all day and overnight, which was better than pain pills, I guessed.
The dogs: one thug had decided that a way to convince us we needed more police presence—or animal control—was to kidnap animals from a shelter in Alabama and dump them on the road outside my shop. Charithra and Phin took them all into the clinic and were caring for them, and each one already had an adoptive family waiting.
The klepto tree: Chuckles and his gang couldn't figure out what the heck was happening, so they'd piled up the stolen presents in a corner of a trailer and burned the tree. Probably for the best, but I had a twinge of sadness for the poor tree. It had only wanted some Christmas spirit, after all. Several Dead Enders took the presents back to the families where they belonged.
The coins: Turned out it was an actual treasure site in that pit. Historians would fight over the proper way to excavate for a while. We forced UltraShopMart to return the property to Dead End, though, so the coins belonged to the town. Aunt Ruby was thrilled about that.
Craven:Mr. sixty-two-million dollars was going to jail forever and ever, and I couldn't be happier about that. The feds froze all his accounts, too.
Merks:Jack, despite his fury, had been careful not to hurt him too badly. Justice demanded that Chuckles spend the rest of his life in prison for killing Darryl Peterson.
And Dead End was safe again, saved by our citizens. Or, as Mrs. Frost said when I returned her crossbow: "Dang right we kicked their butts! We Dead Enders don't put up with any crap! Especially not on Christmas."
EPILOGUE
Tess
My first Christmas with Jack was even more wonderful than I'd dreamed it could be. He loved the freezer and immediately made plans to put it in my new garage, since we always had cookouts at my house.