by Dale Mayer
“Both of them?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t mean Pete. I meant his brother, Ross. From what I heard, Pete is not likely coming home.” She stopped writing and looked at him. “I could use some ID.”
He raised an eyebrow, reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, showing her his driver’s license.
“Pierce Carlton.” She nodded. “Welcome to the county, Pierce. Just remember. The sheriff doesn’t like dogs. Most people around here don’t like dogs that attack.”
“Nobody does.” His voice was calm, neutral. “But I train dogs to attack. When it’s the right time, they often save your life.”
“You’re a dog trainer?” She frowned. “You don’t look like it.”
“I’m a navy veteran,” he said quietly. “Trained dogs for years. Been at loose ends lately. Somebody asked me to stop by and check on Salem and make sure she was okay and in a good home.”
“She was but not for very long,” Hedi said simply. She reached out and shook his hand. “I’m Hedi. Here’s my card. If you run into any trouble, give me a shout. Better you call me than the sheriff. He’d just as soon lock you up as not. If you’re not from around here, and you’re causing trouble, he’ll call you a vagabond and toss you in jail for the night.”
“Nice county you got here.”
As she walked back to the driver’s side of her vehicle, she flashed a grin his way. “It used to be. Hasn’t been for a few years now.”
“When did it used to be?” He studied her with an intense gaze.
“When my dad was the sheriff,” she said with a wistful smile. She got back into her cruiser, turned on the engine and headed down the road. She had more than enough trouble up ahead of her to stay here and brew some more.
If Jed had found that damn bottle again, those kids would be in more danger. The last thing she wanted to do was shoot their father in front of them, but she wouldn’t let him hurt those kids anymore, not while she was there and able to stop it.
In her rearview mirror she could see the dust as the black truck turned off the highway and followed her. She realized he would be behind her for at least ten or fifteen minutes because the two properties, although not side by side, were well within walking distance of each other. When she got to his destination, she honked her horn, and, with her arm out the window, pointed where he needed to go, and then she sped on past. Gratified, she watched as he slowed and turned into the driveway. She hoped, really hoped Ross would be sober and could talk today.
Somehow she doubted it. Ross was nothing if not consistent. And this whole area had a problem with alcoholics. A lot of jobs used to be in town, mostly attributed to the mill until it closed. Then things got pretty ugly a few years back, savings ran out, odd jobs were taken up. Now most people lived hand-to-mouth, and it made them an ugly bunch.
What she never understood was how they still found money for booze. And it wasn’t just Jed and Ross. Two other men, twin brothers, Billy and Bobby, were not only drunks but she suspected they were making moonshine in the back of their property. She wouldn’t put it past them. It was the cheapest way to get alcohol, and they didn’t seem to care if they drank one hundred proof either. Their guts would rot from the inside out, but again she didn’t think they gave a damn.
She drove up to the front step of Jed Johanson’s place and parked. Even as she opened the door to her cruiser, she could hear kids crying inside. She hopped out, walked up the steps of the house, rapped hard and then shoved the door open. It looked like she was just in time.
With a sigh she opened her arms, and two of the little kids raced toward her. All in a day’s work in this job, damn it.
Pierce parked beside a battered old truck. What he saw was a run-down farm with an oversize barn and an open workshop/machine shop with several other unidentified outbuildings dotting the same area. An old tractor was parked outside on the left, and an even older car was parked on the right.
With his gaze sweeping the area, not hearing the sound of a dog or seeing signs of any other animal, Pierce slowly strode up to the front door, where he stopped and listened. There was no sound of anything anywhere. He reached up and rapped a knuckle. A startled sound came from inside, as if a chair had slammed down onto all fours. He waited a few seconds until the door was opened abruptly. He studied the swollen red nose and red eyes. “Ross, by any chance?”
“Who’s asking?” the man asked belligerently.
“A friend of Salem’s,” he said calmly.
The man just blinked at him and then blinked again. “Who?”
“The dog you got rid of,” he said.
“That bitch,” he snarled. “Damn near bit me several times. And she did bite someone else. The brother of a friend of mine.”
Pierce couldn’t help but cheer the dog on. “Well, were you going to kick it or hit it with something?” Pierce asked. “They do tend to attack when provoked.”
“I didn’t do nothing to her,” he growled. “She always had a chip on her shoulder.”
“She loved Pete very much,” Pierce said, keeping his voice even. “Obviously it was hard for her when he went into the center.”
“Maybe. Doesn’t mean she had to take it out on me.” He glared. “The dog is not here, so what the hell do you want with me?”
“I was wondering if you knew what happened to her,” Pierce asked.
Ross shook his head, spittle flying from the corner of his mouth as he did so. “Nope. After she bit Chester, the cops came, took the dog away and kept her in the fenced lot. Last I heard, some crazy cut the fence and let the dog out. I hope the dog bit him in the ass for that.”
“Interesting,” Pierce said. “And you have no idea who would have loved the dog enough to have saved it?”
“There was nothing lovable about that dog,” he snarled. “She ate me out of house and home. Didn’t do nothing. We had an intruder in here, stole all kinds of dog shit, and she didn’t do nothing.”
“Sorry, what was that?” Pierce asked in confusion. “You’re saying somebody came in here and stole the dog’s stuff? Like what stuff?”
“Dog bed, leashes, harness, blankets, that kind of stuff.”
“Are you sure Pete didn’t send somebody to collect the dog stuff, hoping maybe he could find somebody to take the dog?”
“Don’t know nothing about that.” He tried to lean against the doorjamb, only missed and fell against the wall. He quickly straightened himself so he leaned properly. “And Pete didn’t say nothing to me about it.” He looked around the room with a frown on his face. “All I know is it was stolen.”
After saying that, Ross gave Pierce a sideways glance, confirming something Pierce had already suspected. “So what were you doing with the dog that she wasn’t here that day the intruder came?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No, of course you don’t,” he said. “What’s the chance you were out hunting and decided, when the dog was taken by the sheriff, to just ditch the rest of the dog stuff? Not like you were taking Salem back in again, were you?”
Ross straightened. “No way I would. But I got a gun. I can shoot my own damn deer. She was useless.”
“Maybe, but a dog can certainly flush them out of cover so you can shoot them, can’t they?”
At that, Ross had the grace to look ashamed. He looked around and said, “A man’s got to eat. Times are tough around here.”
“Well, you’ll starve now without the dog, won’t you?”
“I got a job coming up,” he said. “I’ll be just fine.”
“Too bad the dog isn’t though.” Pierce stepped back, turned to look around and said, “Is any of the dog’s stuff still here?”
He shook his head. “No. Whoever it was took everything. Every last bit of it.”
“Okay. Thanks for your help.” Pierce walked back to his truck.
The guy stepped onto the front step and called out, “Hey, what do you want the dog for anyways?�
��
“She’s a very expensive, well-trained dog,” Pierce said. “I would have bought her off of ya, giving you some good money for her. But, of course, since you let the cops take her away, and then somebody stole her, I guess I can’t do that, can I?” He started up the engine and reversed out of the guy’s yard, leaving him standing there openmouthed, as if he’d just lost a gold mine.
If it had come to that, Pierce would have paid to have the dog returned to a life she was better suited to. This place would have just been terrible for her. War Dogs weren’t allowed to hunt animals, unless they were the two-legged variety. At least not the dogs he trained. It wasn’t fair to the deer, and it sure as hell wasn’t fair to the dog.
Back out on the highway, Pierce took the same road where the deputy had gone. He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but he’d heard enough to realize it was ugly. But the useless sheriff, of course, wouldn’t help.
Seeing her car parked up at the neighbors, he pulled in behind it and hopped out. So much caterwauling was going on in the house that he didn’t think anybody would have heard his arrival.
As he stepped up to the front doorstep and knocked, he was correct. Kids were screaming, and Deputy Hedi stood nose to nose with a man holding a rifle in his hand.
She yelled at him, “Jed, put that gun down!”
“You ain’t taking my goddamn kids,” he roared, waving the gun around.
He wasn’t pointing it at her, which was a good thing. Pierce looked around to see four little kids of various sizes—one in diapers and barely standing on his own two feet; two little girls who looked to be twins with tears in their eyes, hanging on to Hedi’s pant legs. The other little girl, slightly older than the rest, stood off to the side, watching.
But it wasn’t shock on the eldest kid’s face. Pierce knew what was coming. He’d seen it before. He just didn’t know how to stop it.
Just then Jed shoved the deputy back. “Hedi, I told you to get the hell out of here. My kids are just fine.” This time he did raise the weapon, and he pointed at her. Even worse, he poked her in her chest with it. “Now you just get the hell off my property.”
She was spitting mad, Pierce could see that, but she also didn’t want to pull her gun and get into a gunfight that no one would win.
Pierce, on the other hand, didn’t have any such qualms. He took two steps inside. Just as the man realized somebody else was in the game, he turned to face the new threat. … Pierce had already pulled the rifle free of Jed’s hands and slapped the butt hard across Jed’s face, knocking him to the ground.
As the man struggled to turn around to see what the hell happened, Pierce pointed the rifle down at him and said, “Go ahead and move.”
The ice in Pierce’s voice had Jed falling back, so he was lying flat on the floor, staring up at him.
Hedi walked over and said, “Give me the gun please.” Her voice was calm but hard.
Pierce assessed her, then nodded and handed over the rifle, speaking to her but for Jed’s benefit as well. “Nobody ever points a gun at a woman or uses it to push a woman backward or threatens her with it in my presence. Especially a woman in uniform, disrespecting both the woman and the office she holds.” His tone was equally hard, even as he lowered his voice. “Never, ever in my presence.”
She studied him for a long moment, then nodded. She opened the rifle, pulled out the two cartridges, disarming it, and placed it on the table. She pocketed the shells.
In the meantime, Jed was lying there, rubbing his hand on his head, complaining about a headache. He didn’t appear to realize he had pulled a weapon on an officer. Or, if he did, he didn’t give a damn.
Hedi dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around the kids.
Pierce took in the scene, and his heart melted. He reached down and belted Jed with his boot. “What kind of a man are you that you reduced your kids to this?” he snapped.
Jed just looked at him with hate in his eyes, but then his gaze fell on his kids bawling all around Hedi.
Pierce could see the sorrow and self-condemnation in the man’s eyes. He wasn’t just an asshole; he was somebody on a downward spiral. Pierce stepped past and walked to the front door. Sure enough, nearby was a gun cabinet full of weapons. He whistled and spoke over his shoulder. “Hedi, does he have licenses for all of these?”
“Not likely,” she said. “I’ve taken them away in the past, but the sheriff just hands them right back.”
He turned to stare at her.
She shrugged. “It won’t stop until something really ugly happens,” she said in a low voice.
“Where’s the mother?”
“She works at a Laundromat in town,” she said. “She’ll be home in time to cook dinner. But he’s supposed to be looking after these young ones.”
“Yeah, right. Find upstanding citizen you got here.” He walked back over and crouched beside Jed, who still lay on the ground. “So have you done anything decent for your family in the last couple years?”
Jed looked at him warily. “Who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter who I am,” Pierce said. “What I will be is your biggest nightmare for the next couple days until I find Salem.”
Confusion clouded Jed’s gaze. “Salem?”
“Yeah. The best damn dog anybody ever had that apparently this town has done nothing but treat like a piece of shit.”
Something flit into Jed’s gaze and had him shifting his eyes to the side.
Pierce studied him for a long moment, stood and turned toward Hedi. “I think the dog is here,” he said. “I want to take a look.”
“Not without his permission,” Hedi said firmly. “And he ain’t giving it.”
He glanced down at Jed, who sneered up at him. Pierce dropped to the ground and grabbed Jed’s wrist with his free hand. “You right-handed?”
Fear flared in Jed’s gaze. He tried to pull away his hand, but Pierce just crunched his fingers together.
“I want to see if you got my dog,” he snapped. And kept squeezing.
“She isn’t here. She isn’t here,” he cried out. “And it ain’t your dog.”
“She is now,” Pierce said. “Somebody has got to give a damn about her. And, if that ain’t you guys, it sure as hell is me.”
Chapter 3
Hedi studied the man with the vicelike grip on Jed’s hand, watching the hard coldness in his eyes and the panicked look on Jed’s face. She stepped closer. “Hey, you need to back down.”
Pierce turned slowly to look at her. “Hell no. Jed’s a bully, picking on kids, and only understands one thing, and that’s dominance.”
Even as she watched, he tightened his hand around Jed’s fingers and listened to him scream.
Urgently she rushed to his side. “But not in front of the children.”
Pierce looked at the children and smiled. “Hey guys, have you seen a big dog around here?”
The oldest one nodded. “Daddy had it for a while. But it took off.”
As Hedi watched, Pierce eased up the pressure on Jed’s fingers, helping Jed to sit up, but kept a grip on his shoulder where he knew he could render him unconscious if need be. “Any idea where the dog went?”
The little girl shook her head slowly. “He just wasn’t here one day.”
“He?” Pierce asked. “Do you know if it was a boy or a girl dog?”
She smiled, showing the beautiful young woman in her, if she ever had a life without fear.
“It was a girl dog,” she said proudly, as if that was an association she could be a part of. “She was a nice dog too.”
“Do you know why she took off?”
Her gaze slid toward her father and then back again, but she didn’t say a word. Pierce gripped Jed’s collarbone harder and in a low tone said, “I’ll owe you for that too then, won’t I? You’re stacking up reasons for me to teach you a hard lesson.”
Jed started blubbering.
“Go easy,” Hedi said, with a motion at the children.
“It’s hard to do if the sheriff won’t back me up,” she said in low tone.
Pierce nodded.
“He beats them,” she said in a low voice. “Not just his kids but also his wife.”
“And he also pointed an armed weapon at you,” Pierce said. “In no man’s law is that allowed.”
“I’ve tried to pull him in for that before too,” she said, “and the sheriff just lets him go.”
“And the population around here put that sheriff in power?”
At that, she fell silent.
He looked down at Jed. “Pretty sure you voted for him, didn’t you?”
“I’m sure he did,” Hedi said with feeling.
Jed just glared at them.
As if not liking the look in Jed’s eye—and who would, considering he looked feral—Pierce clamped down even tighter on the muscles behind Jed’s collarbone, with Jed screaming like a little girl. Pierce leaned down and whispered in Jed’s ear, “I’ve decided that I’ll be around for a long time. If I even hear you have hurt these kids or their mother or even threatened to hurt them, I’ll come back and pay you a visit in the dark of night.” His voice was soft and deadly. “And you don’t even want to think about what I’ll do to you if you ever pull a gun on Hedi again.”
Fear lit up Jed’s eyes as he stared into the cold darkness of Pierce’s. And that was one scary gaze. Hedi was stunned. She didn’t know who or where Pierce had come from but, not only was this guy completely dominating Jed, Pierce was worried about the condition of the children and herself, even the absent mother. More than that was the fact that Jed was terrified of this man. And that was something she could get behind.
