Chapter 98

Scooter turned the picture frame he was holding so Andy could see it. “Ma would smack me upside the head if I did anything that stupid,” he said. “She knew Jason, and she met Kat a few times just before she died, but she never met any of the other strays we’ve picked up over the years. But I think she would have liked them…all of them. Even Jeff. She loved this place. Anyone who called it home would be in her good graces.”

The woman taking up most of the photograph was in her late forties, early fifties maybe. She had a familiar face: the same kind eyes, the same dark hair, scraped back from her face into a ponytail. She was looking coyly over her shoulder at the photographer, half a smile on her lips. Behind her rose Dockside, not quite new, but less ragged and storm-worn than it currently was. It made Andy smile. “She looks nice,” Andy said. “Definitely see the resemblance.” He kissed Scooter’s shoulder.