Kona had taken up residence at his feet and stared up at him, watching every hand movement as he wielded the small knife.
When Jessica had a few pieces of cheese cut into small bits, Greyson mixed the ham and cheese together and put them in a small bowl, placing it down for Kona. She looked at him.
He smiled and said, “Okay, go ahead and eat.” She immediately lowered her head and worked away on the cheese and ham.
“She has excellent manners,” Jessica said in surprise.
“All the War Dogs are very well trained,” he said.
“What a different world this must seem like for her,” she said sadly. “You would think that a dog coming back from military service in a war-torn country should be able to rest, not sit here and try to save a mother and her son from a stalker.”
“And yet it’s a good thing she did,” he said. “I’m still not so sure the stalker has gone very far.”
“That’s very disconcerting,” she said.
Just then a knock came at the door. Kona growled, lifting her head from the empty bowl. Greyson picked up her leash and walked to the front door. It was one of the cops.
“We need to come in and ask some more questions,” he said.
“Come on in then,” he said. “We’re just having a cup of tea.” As he walked past, he picked up Kona’s empty bowl, put it in the sink, and filled it with water.
Jessica had been busy cleaning up the kitchen, and she turned to the cop. “Did you find him?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “We’re still trying to get a K9 unit.”
“As I said, I’m willing to try,” Greyson said. “This is Kona, a War Dog. She’s highly trained.”
At the mention of War Dog, the cop looked down at Kona in surprise. “Interesting,” he said. “I don’t know much about the program.”
“Well, dogs have different specialties,” Greyson said, “but they all have extremely thorough training and excellent obedience. She certainly thought she had a bead on the attacker’s scent earlier.”
He hesitated and then said, “It can’t hurt.”
“No, it can’t,” Greyson said. He walked out onto the rear veranda and said, “I need her to get his scent again.” When he spotted the balaclava he’d ripped off the guy’s head, he picked it up and shoved it under Kona’s nose and said, “Let’s go find him.”
Kona immediately started barking. She wanted to go back through the house and out the front. Greyson looked over at the cop and said, “I’ll go hunt,” he said, “but Jessica and her son need to be protected in case that asshole comes around through the back again.” The cop nodded and said, “I’ll be here, and I’m telling my partners that you’re headed out.”
“Good. Wish us luck.” And, with that, he headed out the front door and down the street. It was all he could do to keep up with Kona as she pulled on the rope. He’d left it as a simple slipknot around her neck, which would choke her if she kept pulling, so he tried to stay up with her. But she was on a mission, and she wasn’t about to let it go anytime soon.
Chapter 7
After her first cup of tea, Jessica paced. “How long do you think he’ll be?”
“Well, the stalker had a good head start,” the cop admitted, “so I don’t know. He could be hours.”
She glared at him. “You should have let him go right at the beginning.”
“I shouldn’t be letting him out there at all,” the cop corrected her. “He’s a civilian and not trained. I also don’t have permission from my boss.”
“Yet, if he finds the guy, you’ll get a commendation, and, if he doesn’t find the guy, you’ll get a slap on the wrist,” she said.
“Quite possibly, yes,” he said. “I’d just as soon catch this asshole.” He glared out the front window. “Remember. Two of my friends were attacked too.”
“What about their vehicle?” she asked. “My car is in the garage, and your police car is stopping me from getting it out.”
“Forensics is working on it right now,” he said. “They arrived about five minutes ago.”
She looked at him in surprise, walked to the dining room, where she could see out the window. Sure enough, people were going over the vehicle. “I’m surprised they don’t just tow it back to the station.”
“They will,” he said. “They just want to make sure nothing of interest is in there first.”
She nodded. “I can tell you that you should also be looking for this guy’s truck,” she said, frowning at the reminder. She’d worked hard to forget all that unpleasant mess. “I don’t remember much, only that the license plate ended with N.”
He looked at her in surprise. “When did you see his vehicle?”
She proceeded to fill him in on the fender bender and the threat that he made against her.
He whistled at that. “Have you had any contact with your ex?”
“Nothing except for divorce-related communications with our lawyers. Not until that fender bender message,” she said, “and, since then, my phone has had a million unidentified calls, where nothing is said, and then he hangs up. I accused the silent person on the other end of being George,” she said with a frown. “I heard a startled gasp but no acknowledgment.”
“Of course not,” he said. “It’s not likely he’s willing to give up his identity, is he?”
“No. Although I sure as hell wish he would,” she said. “I’m really pissed off about how this whole mess is affecting Danny.”
“Do you think this is all about child custody?”
“George didn’t want anything to do with my son when I was pregnant,” she said. “He wanted to break up so he wasn’t responsible for child support and wanted it known that, as far as he was concerned, I was supposed to have an abortion, and it went against his wishes to keep my son alive.”
The cop stared at her steadily. “And is that how
