“The night of your interview at the K-9 Ranch, and before you came back up to give your demonstration, this was found on the fence there.” He pulled his phone from his pocket, fiddled with it some and then thrust it toward her.
A photo was there depicting the front gate up the driveway to the main house at the K-9 Ranch.
And on it was a sign: Be Careful Who You Hire.
Doug watched Elissa’s expression carefully. No hint of knowledge or recognition appeared in the horror displayed by her huge eyes and open mouth.
“How terrible!” she exclaimed. “I don’t think Amber was close to hiring anyone else, so that must refer to me. And yet she hired me anyway. Why? But I’m so glad she did. Who could have left that? Was it the same person who broke in here?”
“We don’t know...yet,” Doug answered truthfully. “Any of the answers. But frankly, that’s one reason I came here to try to help you figure out what happened with Peace. You appear to be on at least one person’s radar, and we need to figure out who—and why.” Both dogs started barking then, and Doug figured he knew the reason. “I suspect the local cops are here.”
The nearly immediate ringing of the doorbell indicated he was right. He initially stepped outside with Hooper to greet them and tell them what was going on. They didn’t seem too impressed but as a professional accommodation to Doug one of them radioed in to request a crime scene team, then both entered to look around and interview Elissa.
They were quick and efficient, including the crime scene investigators, who arrived fairly quickly.
What they were not was fortunate enough to come up with any answers. Apparently the perpetrator had worn gloves—no surprise. No other evidence was found, either. They promised to send patrols by frequently, without saying how often. Then, after exchanging contact information with Doug—and patting Hooper and Peace—the two officers and crime scene folks left.
“Let’s go back into the kitchen,” Doug suggested. He needed to leave, too. But he also needed to try once more to get Elissa to see reason.
“Sure,” she said. “Only, I suspect you need to get back to Chance to actually do some of your own police work.” They both remained standing near the door, and the look she shot him appeared ironic with a hint of gratitude. “I’ll be fine now. As I said earlier, the intruder isn’t likely to come back, especially with the extra police car patrols those officers promised. And now that I’m aware, I’ll be particularly careful. There is, in fact, one neighbor I can call on who sometimes walks her dog with Peace and me. I’ll at least have company, and it would be harder for someone to harm two of us instead of just me.”
“Well, that’s better than nothing but—”
“Look, I don’t know why Amber hired me, but she’s clearly not giving in to whoever did this. Well, neither am I. I’ll try to get my landlord to have some kind of security system installed, but in any event, as I said, I’ll be careful. And I’m not giving in to someone trying to scare me.” But she seemed to wilt a little then. “I just wish I had some idea who it is, and why.”
“Yeah, me, too.” He had a sudden urge to take her into his arms, hold her tightly against him, maybe attempt to cheer her a little by kissing that alluring yet sad mouth of hers...
But of course he wouldn’t do that. Never mind that he felt attracted to her, or that he wanted to fix things for her. He had plenty of reasons not to get involved with her other than as a civilian who needed help. But she did happen to be a civilian who needed help.
A vision of his uncle Cy’s face flashed in his mind, encouraging him and Maisie to become cops like him—and to act like professionals at all times. And never, ever, to get involved except as cops with any of those civilians they were bound to be seeing a lot of as crime victims or otherwise.
Cy had gotten involved, more than once, and, after professional scolding and even a divorce, had learned to regret it...
“Anyway,” she said, “I’ll be working at my local hospital tomorrow and Sunday, both as a nurse and doing therapy dog work, so I won’t be home much this weekend. Then I’ll head back up to Chance on Monday to give my first therapy dog training class. I’ll call you then and maybe we can catch up on what’s going on here and there.”
“All right,” Doug conceded. What else could he do? He might be concerned about this attractive, dog-loving civilian, but he wasn’t even a cop in the jurisdiction where she lived who could theoretically give her orders—or at least conduct some of those patrols and drop in on her sometimes.
And he clearly wasn’t convincing her to do something else—except to walk her dog along with a neighbor. Some of the time. Without additional protection at night.
“Well, be sure to keep in touch.” He recognized that his words had come out in a tone of command, which appeared somehow to amuse her.
He wanted to kiss that smile right off her lovely face...but didn’t.
He motioned for Hooper to join him at the door, where he removed his dog’s leash from his pocket and snapped it on his collar. “Let’s go,” he told his well-trained partner.
Peace also came to the door to see them off. While they stood there, Elissa petted both dogs. Then, to his surprise, she leaned toward him. “Drive carefully,” she said, and planted a soft and swift kiss on his lips before backing away. “And I can’t thank you enough for all your help.”
You just did, he thought, but all he said was, “You’re welcome. Be careful, keep in touch, and we’ll see you next week.”
Now, why on earth had she done that? Elissa scolded herself as she shut and locked the door behind Doug and Hooper. No matter how much she liked the guy, he was a cop. He was acting like a cop. Helping her as a cop would. Trying to figure out what was going on and how to keep her safe.
And, more important to him, attempting to learn the origin of an apparent threat to a person in his own jurisdiction.
Shaking her head, she decided to call Glynnis Crandal, the friend and neighbor she’d been referring to when she’d spoken with Doug about having a companion to walk dogs with. It was late afternoon now, nearly five o’clock, and Glynnis, a middle school teacher, was likely to be home.
Elissa couldn’t plan on taking all her walks with Peace with Glynnis, too, but a couple tonight should at least give her a sense of whether she also needed to work something out with another neighbor.
“Peace, come.” Elissa motioned to her pup, who followed her into the kitchen. There, after clearing off the table and taking a few more sips of water, she used her cell phone to call Glynnis, who answered right away.
“Hi,” Elissa said. “I’m looking for a little company on my walks with Peace this evening. Partially as a therapy dog training thing. Are you and Socia available?” Socia was Glynnis’s smart and friendly Rottweiler.
“Sure!” There was a happy lilt to her voice, as if she was thrilled by the idea.
Elissa suspected she wouldn’t be so thrilled when Peace and she arrived at Glynnis’s front door and explained
