This didn’t appear to him like anybody had stolen the dog. It seemed to him like the dog was on her own mission. He kept following along the sidewalk, and, when he lost track of the hair again, he stopped, then backtracked to where it was and searched the area again, finally coming up to a spot where it looked like the dog had laid down in the grass.
He found just a bit of her undercoat dusting the surface by a shrub. He sat down beside it, where the dog would have been, and looked. A house was across the road, set back on a bigger driveway. As he watched, a truck backed down the driveway and took off on the road. A good size dent was on its bumper. Probably lots of vehicles sported those. Didn’t necessarily mean it was involved in the fender bender on the day Kona disappeared. He looked down at the spot where the dog had been.
“Something about this bothered you, didn’t it, girl?”
He realized he was giving human traits to the animal, but it felt right. So, if that is the case, where are you?
With the truck gone, he freely walked up the driveway, looking for a ready excuse in case somebody questioned his presence. He did a search of the front yard and didn’t see any sign of the dog hair. Then he headed around the back, where he found trees and brush behind a yard. It had been tended at one time but was currently a bit overrun. So either the person here didn’t really care about gardening or was renting.
He checked through the edge of the gardens and, sure enough, found tufts of hair caught in little bits and pieces. So you came here? He quickly wrote down the address and sent it to Badger. He would prefer to have a contact in town, and that thought reminded him that he hadn’t contacted the cops yet.
Hearing a noise, he slipped into the trees and crossed over to the neighbor’s yard. He watched as that same truck came bombing up the driveway again. It parked, and a big male walked out. He wore jeans, work boots, and T-shirt. He stormed into the house, obviously upset about something.
Standing in the shelter of the trees, Greyson quickly took a picture of the truck and the license plate, including the damage to the front, sending it to Badger to trace. Then he slipped back to where he’d come from. So where did you go from here, Kona? He stood with his hands on his hips and turned around slowly because he had no doubt that the dog had been here for a while, but then she either hadn’t stayed or had gone and come back.
For whatever reason, this house was of interest. And, if it was of interest to the dog, it was sure as hell of interest to Greyson. With one last look, he headed up the hill, wondering where else the dog had gone, determined to find out.
Chapter 3
In the mall, Jessica and her son spent a relaxing morning, picking up a few items she needed for Danny. She walked into the dollar store to get a few crafty things, and then, with her bags attached to the stroller, she slowly meandered her way home. She stopped at a grocery store, picked up a little milk, a few eggs, and some grapes, then headed home. At least inside the mall she’d managed to get rid of that eerie feeling.
But now that she was on her way home again, out of the public eye, she felt it all again. As if somebody were watching her. She kept glancing around but couldn’t see anything. Nobody drove by. Nobody was outside walking.
“Danny, I’m losing it,” she joked.
He just gurgled happily. But soon he shifted, nearly falling asleep.
“When we get home, it will be naptime,” she promised.
He mumbled something, but it was unintelligible. She reached between the handles of the stroller and gently stroked her son’s blond hair. He was almost asleep. They were about a mile away from the house, and, as she walked, her phone rang again. Fearing that it was another prank call, she was surprised that it was her sister. “Hey, Lisa. How are you?” she asked in an attempt at her happy-go-lucky voice.
“Mom told me how you feel like you are being watched,” she said. “Did you go to the police?”
“Mom told me not to,” she said in a dry tone.
“You should have gone there in the first place, right after the fender bender and that man threatening you,” Lisa scolded her. “There’s absolutely no reason not to.”
“I was afraid it was George,” she said.
“And?”
“You know he’s got cop friends everywhere,” Jessica said. “I figured it would get back to him, and nobody would believe me.”
There was silence on her sister’s end of the phone. “I guess that’s possible,” Lisa said, in grudging acknowledgment. “But it’s pretty shitty to have to worry about that at this point.”
“I know,” she said, “but what are my choices?”
“If anything else happens,” Lisa said, “you have to go to the police—no matter what.”
“I will,” she said. “Unfortunately I think he’s making prank phone calls to me all the time too.”
Her sister gasped in horror. “That louse. When will it get bad enough for you to do something?” she shouted.
“Well, that’s why I was talking to Mom,” she said.
“And that’s the worst thing you could have done,” Lisa said. “All I’ve heard all morning is how, if you’d stayed married, you wouldn’t be in this position.”
“How very convenient for her,” she said in a dry tone.
“Exactly,” Lisa said.
“You know what George was like. He threatened me a lot.”
“And yet you never told us,” her sister complained, her voice softer now. “You know we would have helped you.”
“It’s just as well that we separated and filed for divorce,” Jessica said firmly. “He didn’t want his son, so that was an easy answer.”
“Says you,” she said.
