Isabel planted her feet on the floor, and both Velma and Toby hopped up. As soon as a human moved around in the morning, they took it as their signal that it was time to eat and go for a walk.
I shifted myself into a sitting position, and every muscle in my body screamed at me. Sleeping on the floor after the accident probably hadn’t been the best choice. But at least I’d slept.
“I can take them out if you want,” Isabel said.
“That obvious I’m hurting?”
“Not really. I’m just familiar with how bad second-day injuries can feel. Besides”—she scrubbed Velma in the spot that made her back foot come up off the ground and beat the air—“I’ve always loved dogs, and I can’t exactly have one in my food truck. Not even a small one. I’d like to take the chance while I have it.”
Part of me wanted to argue with her again about leaving, but she’d made it clear she wasn’t going to change her mind.
I crawled to my feet. “I’ll get their jackets and leashes if you can feed them.”
Isabel retrieved their bowls and filled them. “Jerrod brought home a German Shepherd puppy a few years after we were married. Duke, he named him.”
She set the bowls into the custom stands I’d gotten for them so the dogs could eat at a comfortable height.
“I don’t know why he did it,” she continued, “except he expected a dog would give him complete adoration and obedience. I’d always wanted a dog, so I really didn’t care what his reasons were.”
She paused, and the slurpy noises of my dogs eating filled the gap.
She watched them with obvious sadness. “It was a mess right from the start. Jerrod got jealous when I paid any attention to Duke. Then around the time Duke was six months old or so, Jerrod hit me and Duke growled at him. Jerrod packed him up in the car and took him to the pound. I wasn’t even allowed to cry.”
She told the story now without tears, too, but there was an underlying note that let me know it still hurt her and that she still loved and missed that puppy who’d tried to defend her.
I wish I’d known her then. Maybe I could have convinced her to press charges against her husband for his abuse. Maybe she wouldn’t be stuck into the life she had now.
“Anyway,” Isabel gave a little shudder like she was trying to shake the memory off, “I’ll happily take care of your dogs for you while you rest and recover. You’ll actually be doing me a favor.”
“It’ll more likely be while I try to figure out a way to still link Henry McCloud to my accident, the police officer’s murder, and our missing police chief.”
“And getting ready for your wedding.”
“That too.”
Once the dogs finished eating, I snapped Velma’s jacket on.
Isabel pointed at Velma’s orange vest. “Interesting fashion statement.”
I really was a better-safe-than-sorry type of person. “I put them on for deer-hunting season so they couldn’t be mistaken for deer while running through the bush. Everyone keeps telling me that all the hunters have gone home now, but I’m waiting another few weeks to be safe.”
I expected her to make a comment on how there weren’t any black-and-white deer so Velma should be safe no matter what.
Instead, Isabel fingered the edge of the vest. “The past case. The police chief died in a hunting cabin, didn’t he?”
I bent over to put Toby’s jacket on, and he tried to lick my face. I dodged. His first owner had basically let him smooch her whenever he wanted, but I wasn’t as big a fan of doggie drool all over me. One time he’d caught me in the lips.
“Yeah,” I said. “The man who was arrested tried to stage it as an accident.”
I wasn’t following her train of thought. Was she afraid Jerrod might be out there and try to kill her with a rifle, like she’d been accidentally shot?
He didn’t strike me as a man who’d kill from a distance. Besides, hunting season was over. There’d be no faking an accident this time of year.
I probably should stop worrying and take the orange vests off the dogs’ jackets. They were goofy-looking.
“And the hunting cabins are empty this time of year?” Isabel asked.
Oh, wait. She’d said she couldn’t even lease an apartment for fear Jerrod would locate her. Maybe she was thinking of squatting in a hunting cabin over the winter rather than in her truck. Some owners might even give her permission to stay for free and without signing a lease. It wasn’t like they’d be renting them out again until the summer tourist season.
I strapped Toby in. I hadn’t given up on convincing her to stay as much as I liked to tell myself. “I’ve heard the cabins only have wood stoves for heat, but if you’re okay with that, I’m sure we could find you one.”
“It’s not that. I was thinking that people are creatures of habit. If the guy behind all that’s been going on used a hunting cabin once, he might have used it again to either kill or hold your current police chief. They’re isolated, right? It’s not like anyone would hear someone calling for help.”
Toby caught me with his tongue, but I almost didn’t mind. It was a long shot, but her logic was sound.
If Henry were following his past patterns, Chief McTavish might even still be alive. Henry had worked hard to win key people over to his side. He had to know that killing McTavish would only bring more investigators in, and his chances of keeping his clandestine business running would fall to almost zero.
But if he could turn Chief McTavish to his side the way he had former Chief Wilson, he could be assured of being able to continue. Even if he planned to kill McTavish, he would have wanted to strategically choose and place the man who’d become chief instead. That could take time, and as long as Chief McTavish were only missing, not dead, they wouldn’t replace him.
“I need to call Detective Dillion.”
25
“We found him.” Static made Erik’s voice cut in and out like he was in an area with poor cellular reception. “He’s alive and already named Henry McCloud as the one who kidnapped him. Henry wanted him to implicate Quincey in the corruption investigation and then join him in continuing the underground deals he’d made.”
I squeezed Mark’s hand and smiled at Isabel. We’d all been waiting together at my house for news since Mark and I were barred from traipsing around in the woods on the search teams due to our injuries.
They found him, I mouthed.
