Chapter 24—Fair Skies Tomorrow

A/N: This is the final chapter of this story. I want to thank all of you for your patience while I get our business off the ground. I also want to thank all of you for your kind reviews. I just wanted to finish this while I had a chance so you wouldn't have to wait so long. Next story will be Talladega Nightmares.

Natalia sat on the old, worn blue sofa and glanced all around her. She wanted to respect the peaceful, quiet feel the old, gentle house had about it.

Angela Miller sat down in a faded brown armchair opposite from the CSI. "Thanks for coming, Miss, uh…."

"Boa Vista" she corrected.

Angela Miller nodded numbly. "Boa Vista." She furrowed her eyebrows. "Interesting name. Can I get you anything, Miss, uh, Boa Vista?"

Smokey lumbered up to Natalia and sniffed her legs and feet. She gently patted his curious gray nose. "No Ma'am, thank you. I'm just here to let you know what happened."

She looked down numbly as though to brace herself. "It wasn't an accident, was it?"

The CSI paused. "No, it wasn't. We found evidence that your car's brakes were tampered with, Mrs. Miller. We've arrested several suspects in the case."

The lady continued to look down, but she furrowed her eyebrows. "Several suspects?"

"Mrs. Miller—"

She suddenly looked up. "Did Melissa Matherson have anything to do with this?" she almost demanded.

Natalia paused. "Yes, Ma'am."

The gentle, elegant, blonde-haired widow seemed resigned to her fate. She settled back in the armchair and nodded sadly. "When we left Houston, I figured it was finally over between my husband and Melissa." She looked down at the old coffee table and absentmindedly followed the scratches. "I knew what was going on between Eric and that woman. I guess I just didn't want to accept it."

The brown-haired CSI looked around the old, simple house now. Angela Miller studied her. "I know what you're thinking" she finally said. "It's okay. You can ask."

"Ma'am?"

"I guess you know all about our lottery winnings. You're probably wondering how we could have all that money and live like this. Why don't we have a Star Island mansion or a villa in the South of France or something, right?"

Natalia shrugged. "In my line of work, you see people do all kinds of things."

Angela Miller suddenly changed from being a grieving widow to an understanding older woman. "When Eric and I first started out, we lived in a basement apartment in Colorado. Do you know how cold it gets in the Rockies? It starts to drop below freezing in October. But looking back, we did all right. Eric was a deejay, and I was the secretary at a small station. We lived pretty simply. We thought we were struggling. Then we won that lottery." She leaned back and sighed. "We thought our hardships were over, but they were just getting started. Word got out, and then they started to show up at our door. Literally."

"They?"

"Strangers in need, long-lost relatives we never knew we had. So-and-so needed an operation. Low-lifes would tell us how we could triple our earnings with such-and-such a land deal. Eric's truck got broken into twice. I guess people were looking for money. We liked that little basement apartment, but the landlady threw us out because of all the nutjobs that were coming around and harassing us. Eric didn't really want to give up broadcasting, and I loved working at that little station. But there was no going back. We were the big-time lottery winners. We finally changed our names and left the state." She sighed. "Funny. You don't know what you have until it's gone. We couldn't have the one thing we really wanted. We just wanted peace and quiet and to live our lives. Some things you just can't put a price tag on, Miss Boa Vista."

Natalia simply nodded as she listened.

"So we kept enough for ourselves to pay off some debts. Buy a new pickup truck. Eric went back to college and got his meteorology degree. We kept the money in an account in the Cayman Islands and just took out a little bit when we wanted to spoil ourselves. We've had this house, we've had each other, and old Smokey here keeps me company. No, Eric and I learned that all those things just wear out after a while." She looked at the sad old Weimaraner who glanced up and thumped his tail on the hardwood floor at the sound of his name.

"Something I don't understand, though, Mrs. Miller."

"What's that, dear?"

"You went through all the trouble of changing your names and leaving Colorado. But Eric Miller was in a job where he was on TV all the time."

Angela Miller shrugged. "That's how much he loved what he did. The lottery thing had blown over. But I guess the wrong people found out who we were." She looked down again. "Miss Boa Vista, Melissa Matherson's not going to get any money from Eric's will, is she?"

"I'm not an estate attorney, Mrs. Miller. But she's never going to be a problem to you ever again."

She now buried her hand in her face. "I miss him" she sobbed quietly.

Natalia wanted to reach out and hug the woman. She could only remember Nick. Despite the pain, she understood what the woman was going through. Nick was dead now, but there had once been a simple love between them, much like this woman experienced. "I know what you're going through" she finally said.

Angela Miller looked up, tears on her face. "You do?"

Natalia shrugged with a sad smile. "I've sort of been there." She paused. "So what do you think you'll do now?"

"I don't know, dear." She looked distantly out the picture window. "Are you a widow too?"

"Yes and no" Natalia told her with a sad smile. "We split up, and he's dead now."

Angela Miller held out her hand and kissed. "Smokey? Come here, boy." The gray Weimaraner sadly lumbered over to his owner and put his gray head under her hand. She gently petted him as he sat with his eyes closed blissfully. His cropped tail thumped on the hardwood floor. "Smokey's still waiting for Daddy to come home and play with him. I guess it's gonna take some time for us. I know. Maybe I should just go somewhere and blow some of that money." She sighed deeply. "I just don't feel the need."

"Have you ever thought about donating it to a charity? A battered women's shelter, perhaps?"

"That might be a good thing. Lord knows I'd just rather take a long walk, well, with Smokey." She looked at the floor. "Now that Eric's gone. I wish I could thank you enough, Miss Boa Vista. And I'm sorry about your husband."

"Thank you, Ma'am." Natalia stood up. "I better go now. Call us if there's anything else we can do."

The widow stood up behind her. Smokey walked dutifully next to his owner as she followed Natalia to the brown front door. "Well, thank you, dear, I mean, Officer."

"'Dear' is fine" Natalia said with a smile. "If there are any new developments, I'll certainly call you." She shook hands with the pretty, blonde-haired widow. "Take care, Mrs. Miller."

Emmie typed on the laptop that was balanced on her injured leg when she heard a knock at the door. "It's open!"

Ryan carried more case files in his arms as he slowly opened her front door. "How you feeling?"

She looked up from her laptop. "Oh, hi Ryan." She shrugged. "I slept a little. What have you got?"

"More work from the lab. You shouldn't have complained to H that you're bored." He grinned at her as he laid the folders on her coffee table.

She reached for the folders and thumbed through them. "Great. I finished the stack you brought me yesterday. So how are things going over there?"

"Same old." He picked up the stack of folders that she had left on the couch for him. "Got any dinner plans?"

Emmie shrugged at him with a smile. "Not really."

"How about I cook something?"

"I don't want you to trouble yourself, Ryan."

The CSI stepped into her small kitchen and glanced through her cabinets. "It's no trouble at all. Just let me eat some of it too. Okay if I just make up something?"

"Well, whatever it is, it has to be better than Cheese Twists and coffee. I mean, I really can't stand up for too long."

"Sounds good. You just stay there. I'll take care of it."

Emmie set her laptop aside and picked up her TV remote. She flipped through the channels randomly. "I've been working as much as I could. Gonna see what's going on out there."

From the WTVM Weather Center, for one last recap of Miami-Dade weather, here's our new Senior Meteorologist, Al Coleman.

The tall, blonde-haired meteorologist smiled and clasped his hands as he faced the camera.

"Thank you, Tonya. Thank you, John. Before tonight's last recap of the Miami-Dade regional weather, I'd like to give one last salute to our Heroes of the Day, the Miami-Dade Police Department. Like all of our first responders in the South Florida area, they were some of our real heroes during the storms that we'd had over the last couple of weeks. Miami-Dade Police, give yourselves a round of applause." He paused and smiled again. "Weatherwise, I'm happy to announce that the low pressure system that caused that mess is long gone. It's out of here. We're going to see some warming temperatures with highs in the eighties for the daytime and lows in the sixties. Very slim chance of a pop-up shower over the beaches, but it looks like things will finally be getting back to normal." He smiled again as he faced the camera. "We'll see you on the eleven o'clock broadcast with more weather updates. This is Al Coleman. Good night."