Killing Trail: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery Read online

  But deciding what she was going to do about Brody proved to be much more difficult. She thought about her conversation with Tommy. When he first mentioned Brody, it was in conjunction with Mike Chadron and the dogs. She suspected Tommy knew more about the cocaine traffic through town than he was saying, but why would he implicate Brody? Unless Brody really did have something to do with drug traffic. But Tommy might have also been trying to draw her attention away from himself to mislead her. She shouldn’t rush to conclusions too quickly.

  But then there was also this golf tournament thing, possibly putting Brody in Phoenix when the murder weapon was stolen.

  Shit! There was nothing worse than a dirty cop. She’d known Brody for seven years, and it was hard to believe he might have turned. But the evidence was mounting against him.

  On her way back to the station, she drove past the O’Malley place one last time, but there was nothing to be seen. She made a mental note to call the mine in Rigby in the morning to determine if the O’Malleys were on the payroll there.

  When she checked in at the station, she learned that Brody had left for the day. The duty roster told her that he’d signed out right at the end of shift, which was unusual for him. He usually hung around for a bit, making sure no one signed out early or put in any unauthorized overtime.

  Stella had left for home, taking the diary with her. She would probably be able to brief them on information it might contain about the case by morning. Mattie finished up her paperwork, said good-night to Rainbow, and then she and Robo left for the day.

  *

  Cole moved about the kitchen, heating the casserole from the Brennamans and guiding Sophie in her salad-making adventure. Angela had taken her cell phone up to her room, presumably to talk to a friend. He hoped the conversation with another girl from their friendship circle would do them both some good. Sophie stood on a step stool while he supervised her using a paring knife to cut celery. She had a pretty good technique going, using the knife exactly how he demonstrated, so he let his mind wander.

  After Belle left, both kids had barely picked at their lunch. It had been a hard afternoon primarily filled with movies and television and occasional sniffles as one or the other of them teared up. He was going to have to come up with something to distract everyone, himself included, for the evening.

  “These carrots are tough,” Sophie said, forcing his attention back to her as she sawed on a baby carrot.

  “Let me help you,” he said, placing a hand over hers on the knife handle. Together they finished up. “You put the salads on the table, and I’ll get out the casserole.”

  It smelled delicious as he placed the dish on the table and took off the hot lid. It looked like a tuna concoction with soup and broccoli mixed in and crushed potato chips on top. The scent wafted up and made his stomach growl. He realized with a feeling of guilt that his appetite had kicked back in tonight, the first time since learning of Grace’s death. “Sophie-bug, go get Angie,” he said.

  When she returned, she said, “She’s not hungry,” and took a place at the table, dragging her old stuffed rabbit with her. Until today, Cole hadn’t seen that thing in years.

  “She’s got to eat.” Cole went to the bottom of the stairway and called up. “Angie?”

  Angie yelled from inside her room. “What, Dad?”

  “You’ve got to eat something. Come join us.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Come anyway.”

  “Dad!”

  “Come on, now. Sophie made a salad and everything. You’ve got to come down and try to eat at least a little bit.”

  “Oh, all right.” There was a long pause while Cole assumed she was saying good-bye to her friend. Then her bedroom door opened, and she started down the stairs looking ashen and weary. Concern made him decide on an early bedtime for everyone.

  Once seated, Cole dished out a heaping portion of the tuna casserole for each of them while Angela gave him a stare that would have wilted a lesser man. “What kind of salad dressing do you want, Sophie?”

  She removed the rabbit’s ear from her mouth to respond. “Ranch.”

  “Here, let me have that rabbit and put him on the chair over here by me so you can eat.”

  He tried not to flinch when his fingers learned that the rabbit was wet clear down to its shoulders. He was going to have to lose this thing before bedtime.

  They ate in silence, Angela picking at her meal while he and Sophie dug in to theirs. Cole noticed, however, that Sophie picked out the broccoli to leave on her plate while Angela sifted through the casserole, eating bites of broccoli and leaving the chips. “At least take one bite of broccoli, squirt,” he said, using Liv’s one-bite-required rule. Without thinking, he added, “That’s what your mother would want.”

  Fork poised in midbite, Angela glared at him. “Mom’s not here, Dad.”

  “I guess not, but it’s a good rule.”

  “Then tell her you want her to eat it. Don’t bring up Mom. She wants nothing to do with us.”

  Stricken, Sophie rose from her chair and started around the table toward the rabbit. Cole caught her with one arm and lifted her up to his lap. “Sit here for a minute, Sophie. Let’s talk.”

  He wrapped his arms around the child and focused his gaze on his oldest. “Angel, we can’t say your mom wants nothing to do with you.”

  “Well, she won’t let us visit her. Even though we’ve been in Denver most of the summer, she wouldn’t let us come over.”

  “I know, I know. Your mom’s having a tough time right now. You know the doctor has put her on some medicine, and she’s getting some counseling. She just needs a little time. She’ll get better.”

  “Before she left, I heard Mom tell Marci on the phone that you’re never around,” Angela said. “You never help her with us kids, and you never listen to her.”

  A pain flared up in Cole’s midsection, and the tuna casserole he’d consumed became a lump in his stomach. Marci, Liv’s old college roommate, had welcomed her into her home and made it easy for Olivia to leave her family and never look back. But Olivia’s words were what truly hurt. Because even though he wanted to deny it, he recognized them as partially true.

  “I know I’ve been too busy at work, but it’s how we make a living. It’s how I pay for our house and put food on our table. And what went on between your mom and me is our business alone,” he said, giving his eldest a pointed look.

  Sophie put her thumb in her mouth, another habit long past, and Cole could feel the tension in her small, sturdy body. He gave her a little squeeze.

  “One of the things I’ve learned lately is that communication goes two ways, you guys,” he said. “I hope that’s something we can remember as we go on from here.”

  In a voice that quivered and caught, Sophie said, “Maybe you won’t want us either.”

  “Aww . . . Sophie-bug, it breaks my heart for you to even think that. I want you guys forever and ever. You’re the most precious people in my world, and I wish I could make things right for you. It’s going to be hard, putting things back together here at home without Mom, but I know we can do it. We need to make a plan.”

  “Do you plan to keep shipping us off to Denver to stay with Aunt Jessie?” Angela asked.

  “Angel, cut me some slack. Maybe that was a mistake, but I didn’t know what else to do. I thought you had a lot of things there to entertain you, and it would be a fun summer for you. We just don’t have much help here in Timber Creek, and I didn’t think it was fair to leave you guys with Grandma or here at home by yourselves all day. How boring would that be? And besides . . .”

  Angela gave him a searching look.

  “Well, besides, I thought maybe your mom would change her mind and come back by the end of the summer.”

  Sophie took her thumb out of her mouth long enough to say, “Maybe she will.”

  Miserable, Cole said, “No, little bit, the divorce is final. None of us should plan on your mom coming home.”

&nbs
p; Sophie pressed her fingers into her eyes while Angela remained stone faced and silent.

  Gently, Cole took Sophie’s hands from her face before she could damage herself and held them in his. They felt small and sticky.

  “Let’s make some plans,” he said. “It feels lonely around here tonight without Aunt Jessie and Belle. Maybe we should think about getting a dog.”

  “You can’t just pacify us with a dog, Dad. That won’t fix anything,” Angela said.

  Sophie said, “I just want Belle.”

  Cole kept himself from sighing. “Okay, let’s wait and discuss that again another time. Aunt Jessie plans to put an ad on the Internet and see if she can get us a housekeeper.”

  Angela nodded, relaxing the stone face somewhat. “She told me that before she left. She said she wants to get someone to cook and clean for us, so I don’t have to do that and can still be a kid.”

  Cole eyed her, thinking she was closer to being a young woman these days than a kid. “Are you on board with that?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want to be one of those families where the oldest kid does all the work.”

  “Yeah, I agree, but I’m still going to need you both to help out. Right? You’re still going to have to assume responsibilities here around the house. Don’t worry, I will, too. And I plan to be around a lot more than you’re used to. You might even get sick of me.” He tried a slight smile to see if it would bounce off unacknowledged, and he was gratified to see Angela’s expression ease and return it in a small way.

  “You guys are going with me to the clinic in the morning. Tess is going to show you how to do some of the office work.” Cole saw a spark of interest animate Angela’s wan face. “But there’s always going to be emergencies in the early morning or at night, and we need a plan for that. Especially now, before we get some help. Angela, do you think you could watch your sister if I get called out?”

  The two girls eyed one another. “Yeah,” Angela said. “Would I get paid?”

  “I don’t need to be baby-sitted.”

  “Sophie, you’re too young to be left alone for a long time, although I’m sure you’d be fine for a short spell. And yeah, Angie, we could arrange something. As long as you’re kind to your sister and you help her if she needs something. You know, do the right thing by her.”

  Angie made a face at Sophie. “So that means I can’t torture her?”

  Cole leaned over so he could see Sophie smile back at her sister, and it did his heart good to see that they could still be playful. “Right,” he said. “No funny business either. I expect you two to get along.”

  “Sure, Dad,” Angela said and Sophie echoed.

  Why did Cole feel like this wasn’t going to be that easy? Perhaps because he’d been around the house enough previously to know that things weren’t always peace and harmony between the two. At least the truce they’d had in force since returning home from Denver still seemed to be in place.

  “Can we watch TV now?” Sophie asked, that whiny tone returning to her voice.

  “We’ve had enough TV for one day. Maybe we should do something else together, like play a game.”

  “Like what?”

  Cole thought for a moment. “I could teach you guys how to play blackjack.”

  Just then his cell phone jingled in his pocket. Good Lord, I hope it’s not an emergency. He glanced at the caller ID. “Just a minute, kids. This is Garrett Hartman. Let me see what he needs.”

  “I hope Belle’s okay,” Sophie said. Both girls tuned in to his conversation.

  He pressed the screen to accept the call. “Hello, Garrett. What can I do for you? Is Belle doing okay?”

  “She seems fine, Cole. Physically. But she’s gone into Grace’s room and won’t come out. She won’t take anything to eat or drink since she came home. All she does is lie on the floor by Gracie’s bed and look at us with the saddest eyes you can imagine. We can’t stand it.”

  “Oh, man . . .”

  “Leslie and I’ve talked it over. She seemed to be doing okay at your house with your kids. We’d like them to have her if it’s okay with you. We think it would be best for us all.”

  The kids couldn’t hear Garrett’s side of the conversation, and they looked worried as they watched, trying to determine what was being said, perhaps imagining the worst about Belle. Cole couldn’t wait to see their faces change when he told them the news.

  “That would be great, Garrett,” he said. “We’ll come right out to get her.”

  Chapter 21

  Almost midnight. Moonlight streamed through the window, striking Mattie’s face. But that wasn’t the reason she couldn’t sleep.

  The walls kept closing in on her.

  She’d had this problem as long as she could recall, and sleeping with the window open usually helped. Even in winter, she would pile on quilts so that she could leave her window open a crack.

  Nothing seemed to help tonight. Thoughts about Brody kept circling through her mind.

  With a sigh, she pushed off her covers and sat up on the edge of the bed. From his dog cushion on the floor, Robo raised his head, alert.

  “Want to go for a run?”

  He was out of bed in a flash, toenails skittering on the wooden floor.

  After putting on her running shorts and a white tank, Mattie strapped on a shoulder holster to carry her Smith & Wesson .38 revolver. She wasn’t in the habit of taking a weapon with her when she went out to run, but in light of the recent attempt on Robo’s life, she felt it necessary. She covered the handgun with a light sweatshirt that zipped up the front.

  After pausing to stretch in the shadows on the porch, she opted to head out to the highway to run on its wide shoulder where the moon could light her path. She expected very little traffic this time of night.

  Mattie stayed on the left side with Robo trotting beside her. It didn’t take long to warm up; despite the daytime heat, the night had turned cool, a sign that autumn was coming. She lengthened her stride, her feet pounding the asphalt in a rhythm she found soothing. She let her mind release and focused on her breath, feeling her muscles loosen and working out the knots that had formed in her shoulders.

  While she was out, she might as well take another look at Brody’s house. There’d been no one at home when she’d driven by earlier in the evening. He lived in a white clapboard house with blue trim, the paint job looking tired and old, built close to the highway on the way out of town. Not much in the way of a yard: some tall, old spruce trees growing beside the driveway. Nothing fancy, but he kept the place tidy; there was very little clutter. For a single guy, he picked up after himself pretty well.

  She slowed as she approached his house, peering toward it through the darkness. He’d turned a light on at the front porch, and she could see his cruiser parked out front. The main level of the house was lit behind the curtains. Seemed rather late for him to be awake, but then, who was she to talk? She couldn’t see any activity or tell where Brody was within the house.

  After jogging past, Mattie once again picked up her pace. Soon she ran beyond the city limits, where the jagged silhouette of the mountains on her left stood out black against a sky lit by a moon that was almost full. The valley on her right stretched out flat and empty. She’d chosen the highway instead of her usual route up T-hill because tonight she needed a clear path to run. So she continued to go all out on the pavement, making Robo break from his trot into a lope.

  Headlights breeched a curve up ahead and tires squealed, bearing down the highway at a speed that had to be exceeding the limit. She wished she was in her cruiser with her radar so she could bust the son of a bitch. She got off the highway and pulled Robo in close, bracing herself to get a make on the vehicle and read the license plate, but the lights blinded her as it raced by, buffeting her with its backlash.

  Robo went crazy, barking and trying to chase the vehicle.

  “Stop that.” Mattie gave him a quick correction with his leash. She tried to read the rear plate, but the plate l
ight was out. She could tell that the vehicle was a dark four-wheel-drive vehicle of some kind, boxy in back, but that’s all she could get.

  Robo continued to bark, staring at the fading taillights, lifting his front feet up off the ground with each woof.

  “No, Robo! Stop your barking,” Mattie said, giving him another correction.

  Must be the darkness making him so squirrelly.

  Knowing she could do nothing about the speeding vehicle right now, Mattie turned to resume her run. She hesitated, though, when she spotted another figure approaching in the night, running along the opposite side of the highway. She unzipped her jacket and touched the handle of her .38, making sure she could get to it.

  Charging out to the end of his leash, eyes pinned on the other runner, Robo barked again.

  “Is that Robo?” the runner called.

  It took only moments for Mattie to place the voice.

  “Dr. Walker?”

  “Yes, it’s me. Cole.”

  “Stop that, Robo.”

  Walker slowed his pace, crossing to join Mattie on her side of the highway. “What are you doing out this time of night?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  “Couldn’t sleep.”

  “Ditto.”

  He was breathing pretty hard. “Did that guy almost run you down?”

  “No, we were well off to the side of the road. He was sure hauling.”

  “He caught some air back there by the curve. Too bad you weren’t in your patrol car.”

  “Maybe the night shift will spot him when he hits town. We can hope.”

  Walker was patting Robo’s side. The dog had greeted him like an old friend, fawning against his legs. She decided to let him, giving him a moment to bond with his new doctor.

  “Aren’t you concerned about being out here at night by yourself?” Walker asked.

  “I have my partner with me.”

  “True, and he’s pretty protective, but still.”

  “I’m not sure you should be out here alone either, but sometimes we do what we gotta do.”

  “I know. I didn’t think twice until that guy passed me, and then, well, it kind of gave me the creeps for some reason. I think I’ll head back home now, so I’ll turn around and go your way.”