Rescuing Finley (A Forever Home Novel Book 1) Read online

  Rescuing Finley

  A Forever Home Novel

  Book 1

  By Dan Walsh

  Rescuing Finley

  Copyright © 2015 Dan Walsh

  All rights reserved

  Published by Bainbridge Press

  Cover design by Lynnette Bonner of Indie Cover Design www.indiecoverdesign.com

  Cover photo by Isaac Walsh

  Dog Model for Finley – Nalu (owned by Brittany Willey)

  Interior Formatting by Polgarus Studio

  Praise for Some of Dan Walsh’s Other Novels:

  “With a gift for pulling the heartstrings and encouraging a slow build of tears within his reader, Dan Walsh is quickly becoming one of my favorite go-to storytellers for sweet romance and intricately woven parallel storylines.” — USA Today

  “Dan Walsh is an artist who paints with words. His canvas is the novel, where he uses different colors and hues of words to create a masterpiece.” — New York Journal of Books

  “When I’m in the mood for a heartfelt and moving book, I know Dan Walsh always delivers.” — FIRST for Women magazine

  Table of Contents

  Part I: Two Years Ago

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  Part II: The Present

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  Part III: Two Months Later

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  Want to Read More?

  Sneak Peek of Finding Riley

  Want to read more of Dan’s novels?

  Want to Help Dan?

  Author’s Note about Rescuing Finley

  About The Author

  Acknowledgments

  Part I

  Two Years Ago

  1

  She could get arrested for this.

  Amy knew that, walking into the mall. Signs were everywhere. Shoplifting is a crime! Shoplifters will be prosecuted!

  But Amy Wallace didn’t need a sign to tell her she was doing wrong. She’d been raised a church girl. Thou shalt not steal. She’d stolen plenty before now. The worst kind. Not just stores, but from family. And not just once, many times. One too many. They’d finally gotten sick of it, all her lies, and threw her out of the house.

  That was over a year ago. Since then, she’d been on her own.

  At the moment, Amy considered herself a recovering meth addict. Clean five days now, ever since she’d lost her job after failing a drug test. The temptation to start using again had gotten really bad recently. Today it had been especially strong.

  “Are you ready?”

  Amy looked up at Sandy’s face. Sandy was the ringleader of their little trio. Standing beside her was Chloe. The two of them were close friends; Amy was the outsider. Neither of them were users, and that was a good thing.

  “I’m ready.” She stood and looked around. “Are you sure we should do this?”

  “Yes,” Sandy said. “I’ve done it just like this five times already. Never got caught. Never even had to run. Just do like I told you. You’ll be fine.”

  Sandy was so confident. But her confidence did nothing to calm Amy’s nerves.

  The three of them stood outside the department store entrance dressed in expensive outfits they had stolen from this same store last week. This time the stakes were higher. They were going for jewelry, the high-end kind. The kind you could turn into quick cash. Sandy had said they needed to dress the part. Look like girls who belonged in a place like this. She needed to look even better; like a girl who could afford to buy sapphires and diamonds.

  They walked past a full-length mirror attached to one of the mall pillars. Amy barely recognized her reflection. Sandy could do wonders with hair and makeup.

  “Okay,” Sandy said, “Time to split up. You all know what to do, right?”

  Chloe nodded.

  “Can’t I change places with Chloe?” Amy said. “Be the distraction?”

  “No, it’s all set. Besides, you run faster than Chloe. You need to be the one that gets the ring out of the store. Anyway, I got the hardest job. I have to do all the talking.”

  Amy nodded. Not like she had a choice. It wasn’t just how much Sandy intimidated her. Amy really did need the money. Her bank account was nearly empty. The only food she had left were some leftovers in the fridge. If she couldn’t come up with two hundred dollars by Friday, she’d be out on the street again.

  That happened, she’d be back on meth in no time.

  They split up, but stayed within eyesight of each other as they walked into the store. Amy went left, Chloe went right. Sandy walked slowly down the main aisle toward the jewelry section. After she arrived there, Chloe relocated to a spot two aisles away.

  Amy pretended to care about something at eye level on a nearby shelf. She watched Sandy walk up to the sales clerk at the jewelry counter. A tall brunette. In no time at all, Sandy had her laughing about something. She was good at small talk. After a minute or so, Sandy said something else. The two women walked down toward the glass case with the diamonds. Sandy leaned over slightly and pointed at several diamond rings.

  Amy knew she was picking out one that cost well over a thousand dollars. That was the plan. In a few moments, the clerk had unlocked the cabinet and set the ring down on a square of satiny blue cloth. Sandy picked the ring up, looked at it closely then held it to the light, as if checking the quality of the stone. All the while, chatting away and flashing her photogenic smile. She asked the clerk a question. Amy couldn’t hear clearly, but she knew what it was. Could she try on the ring? The clerk nodded yes.

  That was the first cue.

  Chloe knocked something off the shelf. Whatever it was, it made a loud noise. Startled Sandy and the clerk. Chloe made an even louder fuss, apologizing profusely. The sales clerk said something to Sandy, then left the counter to see what Chloe had done.

  That was Amy’s cue.

  She came out from where she’d been standing and walked quickly toward Sandy. Sandy palmed the ring and stuck her hand behind her back. As Amy went past her, she took the ring, shoved it into her pocket and kept walking. She turned left down the main aisle toward the exit leading to the parking lot.

  Sandy waited until Amy was safely out of sight then began to scream, “That girl, she just stole the ring!”

  Amy couldn’t see what happened next. She dared not turn around. She just kept walking. Sandy had explained how this scheme worked the other times they did it. The clerk would instantly leave Chloe and rush back to Sandy. Chloe would then slip away and head for another exit. Sandy would act all frantic and upset. When asked which way the thief went, she’d point toward the exit that led back into the mall. By the time security arrived on the scene, Amy would be safely out the door and hea
ded for the car.

  The double-glass doors were just up ahead. She was so nervous but did her best not to let it show. She walked quickly but tried not to appear in a hurry.

  Calm down, you’re almost there.

  A few more steps and she reached the first set of doors. She walked through the middle section, and was just about to push open the door to the parking lot when she felt a strong hand grip her shoulder and pull her back.

  Then a deep voice. “Where you think you’re going with that ring?”

  2

  Amy was trembling inside. She didn’t know if it showed. In handcuffs, she sat in a straight back chair next to a metal desk. The security guard who’d put her in this little room said he’d be right back. He was not a nice man; shoving her and squeezing her arm as they walked through the store. She was sure she had bruises. And he scolded her like a child, though he wasn’t more than a few years older than she was.

  Where were Sandy and Chloe? Hopefully, they’d made it out of the store okay. It wasn’t concern for their welfare, but her own. They weren’t really friends. Amy was certain if either of them had gotten caught they’d make the whole thing out to be her idea.

  She heard footsteps. The door opened. Two men entered. The original security guard and another guy dressed in street clothes.

  He spoke first. “That was a pretty stupid thing you did out there.” He stepped closer. “My name’s Alec. I’m in charge of security at the store. The police are on their way. It’ll go better for you if you cooperate.”

  Amy held up her handcuffs. “If you’re not the police, what gives you the right to put these on me? Am I under arrest?”

  “We can’t arrest you,” he said, “but we can detain you until they get here. And we can use whatever means we feel is necessary to keep you from escaping custody.”

  “Don’t you have some papers for me to fill out? It’ll be hard to do that with these on.”

  Alec leaned against the desk. The uniformed guard remained standing near the doorway. “So you’ve done this before,” Alec said. “You know the routine.”

  “No, my friend told me what happens when people get caught shoplifting.” Amy was lying. She had gotten caught in another store last year. They had her sign some papers and agree to pay a fine and restitution. The police got involved, but she got off with community service.

  “That’s good. So you’re willing to admit you were shoplifting. That’s a start, anyway.”

  “Well, it wouldn’t do any good to deny it. I had the ring in my pocket.”

  “That’s right, you did. And we’ve got more evidence than that.”

  “Why don’t you show her?” the other guard said. “I’ve got the video queued up.”

  “Good idea,” Alec said. He looked at Amy. “Stand up.”

  She did. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Not far. Just to another security room.”

  They led her out of that room down a cement hallway to another room with several flat screen TV monitors hanging on the wall. Each showed a different section of the store. The uniformed guard sat in front of a keyboard. Amy instantly recognized the picture paused on the screen above it. It showed a perfect angle of the entire jewelry area. Sandy was standing in front of a glass case with the sales clerk; the ring, resting on the blue satin square. You couldn’t really see Sandy’s face.

  “I was in here watching you and your friends the whole time,” the guard said.

  “And I was watching you from just a few aisles away,” Alec said.

  Amy tensed up. She should’ve listened to her gut and turned Sandy down.

  “Go ahead and play it,” Alec said.

  The guard pressed a button and Amy watched the whole thing unfold. Near the top of the screen, she saw an arm push a silver teapot set off the shelf. Sandy and the clerk jumped at the noise. But you couldn’t see Chloe’s face, just her arm. The clerk turned toward the noise, said something to Sandy, then walked over and bent down near the fallen merchandise. Sandy put the ring behind her back and held it out, palm up.

  “Freeze that,” Alec said. He pointed to the picture on the screen. “Clearly, you were working as a team. My guess is, the girl that knocked that teapot over was part of it, too. Who are they?”

  So they had escaped. Amy didn’t answer.

  “You know who they are,” he said. “Why should you take all the blame for this?”

  Still, Amy didn’t answer.

  “Suit yourself. Keep going.”

  The video continued. From the other side of the screen, Amy watched herself come down the aisle in front of the jewelry counter, right behind Sandy. She took the ring and put it into her pocket. She noticed now how much she had picked up her pace. Once she had pocketed the ring, she turned left down the main aisle.”

  “Did you see that?” The uniformed guard said, pausing the screen. “You can see the blonde girl who just handed her the ring looking right at her as she walks away. And look how long she waits before she says anything?”

  Alec looked at Amy. “She was giving you time to get away. But as you can see, it didn’t work. She’s the one who got away. You’re sitting here with us. Who is she? And who’s the other girl, the one that knocked the teapot over?”

  Amy didn’t say anything. Alec stared at her more sternly. “Why should I tell you? You’ve got me, and you’ve got your ring back. Getting them in trouble’s not gonna help me. Just give me whatever papers you want me to sign, and let’s get this over with.”

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Alec said. “This isn’t like you stole a pack of cigarettes, or even an expensive blouse. That ring sells for twelve hundred dollars. In Florida, it only takes three hundred dollars to move shoplifting from misdemeanor to third-degree felony. We’ve got you with the ring in your possession, and we got you on video. I’m not going to give you any papers to fill out. You’re not gonna pay some fine and get a slap on the wrist here. You’re going to prison for this. The only question is…how long?”

  Amy felt like she was going to be sick.

  “When the time comes, the judge can either throw the book at you and give you the maximum, or he might show some mercy, give you a lighter sentence. That’s why I suggest you tell us who your friends are. That kind of cooperation could help you out.”

  Amy didn’t know what to do.

  “Look,” Alec continued, “what kind of friends are they anyway to take off and leave you to catch all the heat by yourself? I can tell you’re not the leader of this little group. My guess is, it’s that blonde, the one at the counter. And I’m also guessing by the look on your face, she didn’t tell you that going after such expensive merchandise made this a felony, did she?”

  She did not. Sandy had said it was no big deal whether they stole some clothes or jewelry. Big stores like this had insurance to cover shoplifting losses. But if she gave up Sandy and Chloe to the police, Amy would be a snitch. Everything she’d always heard said that snitches get beat up in prison. “When the police get here,” she said, “they’re going to read me my rights, aren’t they?”

  “They are.”

  “One of those rights is the right to be silent. So I’m all done talking.”

  The guard’s radio squawked. He picked it up, pressed a button and said, “Go ahead.”

  A scratchy female voice responded. “The police are here. I just sent them back.”

  3

  Finley

  Why’d she leave him closed up in this little room again? He could barely walk or even stretch without bumping into something. His legs ached to run. He kept listening under the door. All he heard was the irritating hum of the exhaust fan over the tub.

  The mother put Finley in here. She was starting to do that now every time she went out. Chaz was Finley’s owner. He would never do this to him. Chaz and the mother argued about it many times.

  But here Finley was again.

  He wished he saw it coming, but he fell for it every time. The mother would start talking to hi
m in that high-pitched, happy voice. Using his name instead of “that dog.” She’d get out a treat and start waving it in front of his nose. He felt powerless. Then she’d lead him down the hall. Like a fool, he’d follow. Even wagging his tail. In some vague, undefined place in his mind, Finley knew where she was taking him. But it was always the same. At that moment, it didn’t matter.

  That soft, chewy beefy treat was amazing.

  Finally, she would stop at the doorway, turn the light on in the small room, bend down and face him. Once again, she’d wave the treat right in front of his nose. “You want this? Do you want this?”

  Of course he did. More than anything else in the world.

  She’d toss it on the floor. He’d watch it glide across the tile and bang into the back wall. He’d tear off after it and just as he’d reach it, the same thing would always happen. The fan would turn on and the door would close behind him. He’d gobble down the treat and try not to think about the fact that he’d fallen for it again.

  The last thing he’d hear was her voice through the closed door, as she walked down the hall. “I won’t be gone long. You be good in there, Finley. Don’t bark!”

  But she’d always be gone long. Being stuck in a closed room for five minutes was too long. She’d be gone for hours. It felt like forever.

  A sound.

  Finley sat up, ears up. Were those footsteps? Voices? He waited, listened. They were muffled, but there could be no doubt. Someone was nearby. No, two people. He cocked his head. Two male voices. He stood, his tail began to thump against the cabinet.

  Jingling keys at the front door.

  He pawed at the floor.

  The front door opened. “Mom, I’m home.”

  It was Chaz. Finley couldn’t help himself. He began to bark and scratch at the door. The mother would scold him harshly whenever he did. But she wasn’t here. Chaz was here. Chaz was everything. Chaz would get him out of this place.

  “Mom?”

  “She’s not here, Chaz. Can’t you hear Finn barking? But maybe that’s a good thing. Give you more time to figure out what you’re gonna say.”