by Betina Krahn
“You have to wait here for your dad,” Kate told Ben, who immediately began to argue for a chance to go with her. “No, you have to stay here with Gran. Your dad will be here any minute, and I don’t think you’ll be going to the farm. You’ll have to see Goldie and Soldier another time.”
She gave him a hug, remanded him to Nance’s care and went into the office to tell Isabelle that she and Hines were going to take Miguel to find the breeder’s location. Isabelle was already on the phone with a friendly judge, getting the legal process moving. She motioned for Kate to wait a moment and produced a county map from a desk drawer. Kate declined with a grin.
“I’ve got Hines.”
“Still, things change and it’s easy to get lost on those back roads,” she said, pushing the map into Kate’s hand. “Good luck.”
After a quick trip to the bathroom and a stop in the kitchen for bottles of water, she headed out to her Jeep and found Hines in the front seat and Miguel in the back with Nance. Kate glared at her grandmother.
“Where’s Ben?”
“With Harry and Linda—out by the shed.”
Kate’s glower downgraded to a dark look.
“What?” Nance said with her chin up. “I’m not going to stay here to babysit and miss all the fun.”
“All right,” Kate said grudgingly. “Buckle up.”
When Miguel wasn’t scanning the roads for landmarks, he was pointing at familiar farms where he and his uncle had worked. He seemed genuinely eager to help them find the puppy mill. Hines delivered a history lesson on nearly every bit of land they passed—who had owned the acreage and what they had grown, who married whom to join properties and who lost which parcels in a poker game. After forty minutes and what seemed like as many miles, Kate heard a familiar voice from the cargo area: “Can I come out now?”
She put on the brakes and when they were stopped on the shoulder of the ill-paved county road, she turned in her seat. Confronting her were two faces, one brazenly unrepentant and the other glowing with heat and excitement.
“What the heck is he doing here?” she demanded of Nance. “You said he was with Harry and Linda.”
“He was. For a while. But he wanted to come, and I figured it couldn’t hurt.”
“I begged her to let me come,” Ben said, worried by her irritation. “I want to help, too.”
“You went on puppy mill raids with me when you were not much older than him,” Nance said, crossing her arms and refusing to be cowed.
Kate thought of Nick’s reaction to that very fact and steamed at the fix her grandmother’s meddling had put her in. “How am I going to explain this to Nick? He doesn’t want Ben anywhere near such a thing. He said so in no uncertain terms.”
That registered with Nance, who looked less confident but still made no apology.
“He get over it, Katie,” Hines—always a source of good sense—declared, patting her arm. “We not in danger. We jus’ lookin’.”
All of which was true, she realized, and prayed Nick would see it that way, too. She took a deep breath, gave Ben a hard look and picked up her phone to call Nick. She had no reception. “Dead.” Her heart sank.
“Climb over and get into a seat belt right now,” she ordered Ben. “You and I have to talk about your headstrong behavior, young man.”
She watched until he was installed safely between Nance and Miguel, then turned and put the Jeep in gear. As they moved on, Hines tried to distract them with more historical commentary and Kate wrestled with misgivings. She should turn the vehicle around and take Ben straight back to the shelter, but that was half a county away by now, and she couldn’t bring herself to let this lead go. They couldn’t come this far and not find the place where animals were suffering.
Everyone grew quiet as the roads deteriorated into narrow, dusty farm roads. The navigation screen showed nothing but green with occasional lines that indicated road crossings, and even Hines had to stop and orient himself from time to time. But Miguel seemed confident they were in the right area and watched eagerly for things he recognized.
“There!” He pointed to trees crowding the road ahead of them. “Old woman—she live there.” A rustle of anticipation stirred in the Jeep.
Kate lowered her window and rolled slowly forward until she located an opening in the growth that turned out to be a track for vehicles. An aged mailbox was mostly covered by weeds, but she was able to make out faded letters on the side: Crowder. Miguel pointed and said the house was farther down the road.
Kate had her phone on the dashboard, prepared to take pictures as they moved along the edge of the property. They spotted what was once a cleared area but was being retaken by vegetation. A house came into view through the scrubby growth, a sagging patchwork of construction badly in need of paint. Other structures were visible behind it—a ramshackle barn surrounded by sheds with rusting tin roofs. Old farm equipment sat here and there, and pens were visible around some of the structures. As she slowed the Jeep further, she heard barking.
She snapped photos as far as her phone’s camera would focus, and Nance suggested she try adding the farm as a destination on her navigation system. She did just that, then rolled quietly by the property to stop a few hundred yards beyond the clearing.
“I didn’t see anything obvious,” she said. “We need to get a closer look. I’ll have to go back on foot—use the trees and brush as cover.”
“No, no.” Miguel shook his head, alarmed. “Old woman has gun. Shoot at people who come.” He motioned circles around the side of his head. “She...loco.”
“She’s crazy?” Ben asked, watching Miguel eagerly.
“Sí.” Miguel nodded. “Crazy old woman.”
“Ain’t a good time to go nosin’ around, Katie,” Hines said gravely, casting a meaningful look back at Ben. “Folk in these parts—they don’t take kindly to strangers.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to come back another time,” Kate said, reading his cautionary look and weighing the possible consequences. “We have to have more than this to get a warrant. We need pictures.”
Miguel popped his seat belt and slid forward. “I get pictures. She not shoot me. I make pictures for you.”
It was brave of him to volunteer for such a mission, but she couldn’t be responsible for sending him into a dangerous situation.
“He’s got a point,” Nance said, studying Miguel’s determined face. “The old woman knows him and probably would just think he was there to work. He’s probably the only one who could get in and get the proof we need to start things rolling.”
“She’s right, Katie,” Hines chimed in. “Miguel here, he could get in an’ out quick. He’s a smart kid. He’ll be okay.”
It was a tough decision. She searched Miguel, knowing Ben was watching. She chewed her lip. “Do you know how to use a phone camera?”
Miguel wasn’t familiar with her phone, but he caught on quickly and took photos of each of them in the Jeep and of the trees outside for practice. After nodding through numerous warnings, he slipped out of the vehicle and quickly disappeared through the woods in the direction of the Crowder farmstead.
The wait was excruciating. Even Hines grew jittery as thirty minutes, then forty-five passed. Kate had to turn off the engine to conserve gas and they rolled down the windows, grateful it was too early in the day for mosquitos. Ben climbed into the rear cargo compartment to keep watch for Miguel. The heat, confinement and waiting began to fray his young nerves, and he asked repeatedly what could be taking so long and if they thought Miguel was all right. No one had an answer for him.
Just when Kate was ready to leave the vehicle and go in search of him, Miguel appeared through the trees and they all heaved a sigh of relief. Ben wanted to vault out of the Jeep to meet him, but Nance restrained him.
“What happened?” Kate asked as Miguel sl
ipped back into the vehicle. “Did she see you? Did you take any pictures?”
“Give the boy a chance to get his breath,” Hines chided.
Miguel laid his head back against the seat but produced Kate’s phone and held it out to her. She quickly woke up the screen and went to her pictures. With Nance and Hines looking over her shoulders, she found shots of sad-eyed animals in small cages made of chicken wire, and dirt pens filled with feces...dogs so matted and overgrown they were scarcely recognizable. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard.
“Here. Take this.” She handed the phone to Nance, told everyone to buckle up and started the Jeep.
The trip back to the shelter took less time than the trip out. Kate was determined to drive Miguel home, but he was just as insistent that they drop him off at a small gas station and convenience store in a rural part of Manatee County. He said his cousin stopped there often, and the clerk would let him use a phone. She stepped out of the Jeep with him and managed to tuck some cash into his shirt pocket—for emergencies, she said—and included one of her business cards from the Jeep’s console.
“You’re such a brave young man, Miguel.” Her throat tightened. “I wish we had a way to repay you.” She watched his big, dark eyes moisten, and couldn’t resist the urge to draw him into a hug. Something tugged in her chest as she felt his thin arms circle her, and realized he was trembling. After a moment, she released him.
“That card has my number. Promise me you’ll call if you need help.”
Miguel looked from her face to Ben’s, Nance’s and Hines’s. A wistful expression came over him. “I call you.” He ran across the parking lot and into the convenience store.
Hines’s deep voice sounded reverent as he gave words to what they all were thinking. “God bless that boy’s brave heart.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NICK PACED BACK and forth on the porch outside Harbor’s offices, fists clenching and jaw taut with anger he was struggling to master. Isabelle Conti was less than convincing as she assured him that Ben was with Kate. From years in the military and the FHP, he could tell when someone was holding back information.
She’d said they had gotten a lead on the puppy mill and had taken a drive into the country to try to find it. What she hadn’t said was the nature of that lead, whether it could be trusted and what possessed Kate Everly to take his son along on such a risky venture.
“She knew I was swinging by the shelter to take them to the farm,” he said to Isabelle. “Why didn’t she wait to talk to me before taking Ben out to the back of beyond with her?”
“It seemed like something we had to act on fast.” Isabelle avoided his gaze. “I don’t think she intended to—to be gone long.”
“Just what was this intel that had to be acted on right away?”
Isabelle looked ready to bolt, and he softened his approach.
“Please, Isabelle, I have to know. Ben is with her, and she knows how I feel about exposing him to such things.”
Isabelle sighed and waved him inside, motioning him into the kitchen. She made him a coffee as she talked.
“We caught the kid you chased that day—the one who dropped off the puppies. Kate got him to tell us who he is and where the puppies came from. He was scared half to death. He took a risk telling us that much, Nick. He said his uncle works for the old woman who runs the place, so he may be in trouble if the uncle finds out he helped turn her in.
“When he agreed to show them where the puppies came from, Kate told Ben to stay here with us and wait for you. But I got busy making phone calls and lining up support to clear out the place.” She reddened. “I thought he was with Harry and Linda, out in the kennels. When I went to look for him, they said they had seen him heading around the side of the offices. That was where Kate had parked.”
It slowly dawned on him. “You mean you don’t know for sure that he’s with Kate?”
“I tried calling, but cell service is spotty out in those rural areas. I couldn’t get her.”
“How long ago was that?”
“An hour or so.”
He pulled a chair out onto the porch and sat staring at the road, holding his half-empty coffee cup.
He thought he and Kate had an understanding regarding Ben’s welfare: that he intended to keep Ben safe and to discipline his headstrong tendencies. She must know he’d be beside himself with worry—not sure where they were or when they’d return—unable to contact her.
As the wait stretched on, he recalled Kate’s words on her porch the other night. She cared about Ben, and she said she wanted to protect him, too. But she couldn’t feel the responsibility for his son that he did. And what did it say about her that she’d put locating a puppy mill above his son’s safety? Could he trust her judgment? The woman had pythons running loose in her house, for God’s sake!
And Ben—what did it say about his son that he insisted on going along on a mission to find a place where dogs were being starved and mistreated? That he had a good and caring heart, and that he acted more on feelings than common sense. He was so grown-up in some ways, and so very much a kid in others.
Those thoughts gradually tempered his anger at what originally looked like Kate’s careless betrayal. He made himself recall her fondness for Ben and her matter-of-fact treatment of his curiosity and impetuous behavior. She treated his intelligence and drive to learn with what could only be called respect. He was not just a kid to her, he was a person, and she wanted to foster his unique curiosity and love of learning. But she could no more predict when he would switch back into kid mode than he could. That made dealing with him a real challenge.
Strangely, just having some time to think about it brought things into better focus for him. Ben didn’t need somebody to shepherd his schoolwork or keep him busy with activities. He was already motivated to care about others and to learn and grow and discover. What Ben needed was an older, more experienced guide to help him fill in the gaps in his development, to steer him past the pitfalls of youth and inexperience. Sarah had tried to tell him something like that, but he hadn’t quite understood what she was saying.
Could he do that, be that for his son?
It was almost an hour later that Kate’s Jeep pulled into Harbor’s parking lot, and he could see by the tension in her face that she was dreading his reaction. He wasn’t certain what was happening between them or how he felt about this incident anymore, and he wasn’t ready to process it with her right now. He did know he needed to have a serious talk with his son.
When they spilled out of the Jeep, he was surprised to see Hines Jackson and Nance with Kate and Ben. He hadn’t realized they were along for the ride. Had Isabelle mentioned that?
* * *
“I’M SORRY, NICK,” Kate said as she walked straight over to him, and he stepped off the porch to meet her. His face was set and unreadable. “I tried to call, but I had no service out there.”
“So Isabelle said. You might have found time to call before you took off for God knows where.”
He transferred his gaze to Ben. “And you, young man, have some explaining to do. You know better than to go anywhere without asking. You clear all invitations with Nana or me.”
Ben reddened and looked at Kate. She raised her eyebrows at him in a “see what happens” expression.
“It wasn’t exactly by invitation,” she said, wondering if Ben was going to be punished for his recklessness and feeling on some level he should be. But then, who would punish her gran for encouraging it? “He climbed in the back of my Jeep, and I didn’t know he was in there until we were already far away. We decided not to waste the chance to collect evidence for a warrant, and Miguel went into the barns and pens to take pictures.”
“Miguel?” he asked, looking between her and Hines, who had come up behind her.
“Boy that brought the puppies,”
Hines said.
“Hines and Harry Mueller caught him near the kennels this afternoon,” she said, wishing he would meet her gaze. “We got him to show us where the puppies came from, and he volunteered to go in to take pictures.” She pulled out her phone and handed it to Isabelle, who had just come out of the offices. She immediately began to flip through the photos.
“Gutsy kid,” Hines said. “Said he’d go in because the ol’ lady knew ’im and wouldn’t shoot ’im.”
“Shoot him?” Nick turned a glare on her. “What the hell?”
“Apparently the old woman has a shotgun and is not fond of strangers,” Kate explained.
“And if you’d take a look at the photos, you’d see why going out there was so important,” Nance said, planting herself beside Kate with her arms crossed. “The place is a pigsty. And worse. Those dogs need rescuing.”
“Oh, my God,” Isabelle said, looking up from the phone, her tanned face paling. “This isn’t just a puppy mill, it’s a...charnel house. Who would treat any creature this way, much less small, defenseless dogs?” She tried to hand Nick the phone, but he took a step back and looked at Kate.
“I’ll call you.” He grabbed Ben by the wrist and headed for his vehicle.
It was all she could do to keep from running after him. Or yelling “See what you’ve done!” at her pigheaded grandmother. She stood with clenched fists, her heart sinking as she watched his SUV accelerate out of sight.
No one would meet her gaze. Even Nance knew this episode had caused a rift between her and Nick.
“We need to talk,” she said to her grandmother. “Now.”
Isabelle excused herself to download the evidence to her computer, and Hines mentioned that he had a couple of stops to make before going home to Moose. Moments later Kate and Nance were alone in the kitchen, staring at each other across the kitchen-surgery table.
