“Where’s Pablo?” Jake squawked when they returned to the salon.
Without thinking, Sandi fell back into her old routine of explaining her actions to Jake. “He has to stay in the other room. Dogs can’t be in the beauty salon.”
“Poor Pablo. Poor Pablo. Bad boy. Bad boy.”
“Pablo has not been a bad boy, Jake. It’s Jake who’s a bad boy.”
Only after all of them were settled did Debbie Sue ask about the whereabouts of Waffle.
“He’s, uh, disappeared,” Aunt Ed said. “I let him outside to go potty this morning and we haven’t seen him since.”
Debbie Sue’s jaw dropped. “Edwina-Perkins Martin. You are shitting me.”
Aunt Ed shook her head. “I know, I know. It’s my fault. I take full responsibility.”
“But that doesn’t get the dog back,” Debbie Sue replied. “As much as I hate it, we’re going to have to go see Billy Don and tell him. In case Waffle’s been dognapped.”
“Pablo’s dognapped,” Jake said and made a sound like a guffaw. “Poor Pablo.” He hopped to a higher perch.
“Who’s Billy Don?” Sandi asked.
“Who’s Billy Don?” Jake repeated.
“Our sheriff,” Debbie Sue answered. “Since we don’t have an animal control department in this town, he’s in charge of that, too.”
“Nine-one-one,” Jake squawked. “Call the cops.”
Sandi stepped back and raised her palms. “Just hold on, y’all. I’m not sure about getting the sheriff involved. I don’t want to make a big issue of this. For one thing, I don’t want Nick to know I’ve let Waffle disappear. He’ll think I’m an irresponsible dog owner.”
Debbie Sue gave her a pointed look. “Why do you care what he thinks?”
Sandi squared her shoulders and looked directly at Debbie Sue. “I don’t.”
Debbie Sue planted her fists on her hips. “Hasn’t it occurred to you that Nick could have taken Waffle?”
“What is this?” Aunt Ed asked, looking at her partner with a frown. “Yesterday, you were on his side.”
“Fuck that. Today I’m not. I don’t believe Waffle ran away. I think Nick stole him.”
On a gasp, Aunt Ed slapped her forehead with her palm. “Oh. My. God. You’re right, Debbie Sue. Waffle just vanished. No noise, no commotion. That was because Nick was somebody he knew. My back yard isn’t burglar-proof. Any kid could easily open the gate. So Nick just walked right up, opened the gate and let Waffle out.”
Debbie Sue’s chest puffed up and she gave a smug grin. “See? That’s why we’re detectives. Because we know how to figure things out.”
Sandi had little interest in why her aunt and partner were detectives. She was more concerned that Aunt Ed had just turned Waffle out into the yard alone.
“Damn,” she stage whispered.
“Even if I think he’s really Nick’s dog,” Debbie Sue said to Aunt Ed, “for the guy to sneak into your private property and take something you didn’t give him is just fuckin’ rude. And you know what you always say about rude behavior, Ed.”
Aunt Ed pointed a finger at Debbie Due. “You’re right. Let’s go see Billy Don.”
As the three of them trouped into Debbie Sue’s red pickup truck, Sandi had an eerie feeling she had completely lost control of events. Her aunt and Debbie Sue were like steamrollers.
The sheriff’s office was a low-slung rectangle made of ugly pinkish brick. An obviously hand-painted sign that said JAIL hung on one end. A fence taller than the building and topped by razor wire showed from behind the building. Another sign that said OFFICE hung over a door in the middle of the building. Sandi blinked. She had never seen anything quite like it. “This is the sheriff’s office? And the jail is in the same building?”
“Yeah. Also Billy Don’s living quarters.”
Sandi’s gaze swung to the opposite end of the building where tiny flower beds flanked a screen door and a patch of grass grew in front. A skinny cowboy stood out front swinging a lariat loops around a fire hydrant.
“Billy Don’s the sheriff, but his dream is to be a calf-roper,” Debbie Sue explained.
Sandi was acquainted with people in law enforcement and every single one of them was too busy to rope fire hydrants. Every cell in her brain told her that what she and her new crazy companions were doing was a mistake. She couldn’t keep from asking, “He doesn’t have anything else to do?”
“Trust me, darlin’, we’re all better off if he doesn’t do anything,” Aunt Ed answered.
As Debbie Sue shoved the transmission into park, the cowboy gathered his lariat and sauntered over to the driver’s side window with a big grin. “What are you ladies up to so early in the morning?”
“Ed’s niece’s dog has been dognapped,” Debbie Sue answered.
“Uh-oh,” Billy Don said. “Well, come on in and give me the details.” He ambled toward the door under the OFFICE sign.
Sandi and her aunt and Debbie Sue scooted out and followed him into the tiny office where they told their story and gave Waffle’s description.
“Any idea who would just snatch him out of Edwina’s back yard?” the sheriff asked. “Must’ve been a stranger.” The sheriff gave a huffy heh-heh-heh. “Everybody knows who Edwina’s husband is.”
“We think it was the new general manager out at Harley’s ranch,” Debbie Sue said.
“Nick Conway?” The sheriff’s head began to shake. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Debbie Sue. Ol’ Nick is a square shooter. I doubt he’d steal anything, especially not somebody’s dog.”
“We want you to investigate,” Debbie Sue said.
“Why do you need me? You’re an investigator yourself. If you think he’s really got the dog, why don’t you drive out to the Flying C and tell him to give it back?”
“It’s a long story, Billy Don. Can you help us or not?”
“Debbie Sue, I don’t go out to Harley’s place for much. He takes care of his own problems. He might throttle me if he thought I was out there bothering one of his hands, especially his general manager.”
“But if the guy has broken the law—”
Billy Don tilted his head and raised a palm, stopping her. “We don’t know
