Lydia Larkin stood, feet apart, in the classic shooting position, both hands clamped on her smoking gun. "No, no, no," Cynthia moaned as Dean bent over the bleeding body of Brandon Westlake. "He wasn't going to hurt us!"

"His gun. . ." Lydia mumbled, "he raised his gun. I thought. . . ."

There was no doubt that Brandon Westlake was dead. The bullet had caught him full in the chest, driving him backward into the scooped out grotto where his uncle had lain for more than half a century.

Dean rose to his feet and went over to the officer, gently pushing her down to a sitting position. "Take a few deep breaths," he said as he took the gun from her hand and slipped it into her holster.

"He would have killed you," she said, but there was no conviction in her words. She turned on her knees and vomited behind her while Cynthia closed her eyes and wept.

Dean took his wife's hand and pulled her to her feet and held her until her sobbing subsided. "Let's all get out of here," he said. "There's nothing more to do." Lydia staggered to her feet and joined them, leaving the grisly sight behind.

In the days that followed, the shooting was ruled justified and Lydia Larkin was cleared of any wrongdoing. The Deans let the facts speak for themselves, explaining the situation truthfully while leaving speculation to others. When pressed, they opined only that Brandon Westlake acted more suicidal than threatening but they had been with him for several minutes where Lydia had just arrived. Dean did not suggest that Officer Larkin who answered the 911 call in Jake Weller's absence had acted hastily, though in his mind he questioned the shooting. He couldn't help but remember her agitated state of mind after learning of Fitzgerald's death.

While rumors abounded, there was never an official verdict on the death of Acting Sheriff Fitzgerald. One school of thought held that he was a victim of unproven rumors about Billy Langstrom's accident, spread to Denver by Billy's high school friends. Another held him accountable, with remorse causing him to take his own life. While the autopsy questioned the day-old curious knife wound in his backside, it was assumed he'd stupidly sat on a very sharp object. Lydia Larkin was never brought into the picture. Dean privately disclosed to Jake Weller Brandon Westlake's final statement of visiting Fitzgerald. Both men felt the old man had probably killed him, but Westlake's brief disclosure was insufficient to pursue the matter and as both men were dead, there was little incentive to do so. If Lydia Larkin had heard Westlake's admission before she fired the fatal shot, it was apparently lost in her mind in the mayhem that followed.




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