Page 67 of Caught in the Crossfire

Not surprising, he supposed. “When did he check in?”

“Yesterday afternoon.”

Plenty of time to hunt down Mason and dump ketamine into his drink. The muscles in his jaw twitched. “He’s a veterinarian.”

Zane was silent a moment. “He’d have a ready drug supply handy, including ketamine. What will you do?”

“Have a talk with him if I run into him.”

A snort. “You’ll find a way to cross paths with him.”

Smart man. “Otter Creek is a small town.”

“You might sell that to Blackhawk, but don’t bet on it. Anything else I can help with?”

“I meant to call you earlier about the security footage and haven’t had a chance. Did you get more information from the recording?”

“A tattoo on the driver’s left hand. Couldn’t clean up the image enough to really see it, but you can at least be on the lookout for the marking. Sorry I can’t tell you more.”

How many men in town had tattoos on their hands? He could think of at least eight off hand, including Patton and Fisher. “Pass the information on to Ethan Blackhawk.” The longer Mason delayed seeing the police chief in person, the better his chances of talking to Gage before Ethan warned him to stay away from the man.

“I’ll take care of it. If I can help further, let me know.”

Mason ended the call, tossing ideas around in his head. Should he confront Gage and ask him if he’d poisoned Mason’s drink?

A lot of good that would do. If he was guilty, why would Gage admit it? At the moment, the police had nothing to go on and no reason to suspect Gage of a crime.

Mason considered his options. Going to the B & B would be asking for Ethan to come down on him hard. However, if he happened to be in the same place as Gage at the same time, no one could accuse Mason of instigating a confrontation.

There were only so many places a visitor could eat dinner in Otter Creek. Gage wasn’t one to visit fast food places so that left the higher end restaurants. Maybe Tennessee Steakhouse on the other end of town.

Gage could also drive to Cherry Hill or one of the other towns nearby where he’d find a greater variety of restaurants. He might have left town already. As brothers, Gage and Todd were close. He might have driven to town to check on Todd and lend him a hand until he was ready to return to Liberty.

Mason parked in front of the supply store and went inside. He nodded at Bill, the sales clerk behind the counter. “How’s it going, Bill?”

“Can’t complain. You back already?”

“More replacement locks. Same amount as yesterday.”

The older man’s eyebrows rose. “The original ones we sold you didn’t work?”

“They’re fine. We’ve had a rash of vandalism in the apartment buildings and needed the higher end locking system.”

Bill came around the counter and led Mason through the store to the appropriate aisle. “Don’t know what the world’s coming to. In my day working construction, we didn’t have to worry about such things.” He held up his hands to showcase the swollen joints of his fingers. “I’d still be working construction if I didn’t have arthritis. Creating something beautiful and useful out of raw materials is more satisfying and a lot more fun that working on this end of the business.”

Minutes later, Mason stowed the new locks in the cab of his truck and climbed behind the wheel. When he strode into Building 9 with the box of locks in one hand and his tool box in the other, Dean glanced at him from his perch on a ladder.

“Did you see your friend?”

Frowning, he set the boxes down. “What friend?”

“You must have missed him. He didn’t leave his name, but said he was from your hometown.”

“Was he wearing a cast or a sling on his arm?”

Dean’s eyebrows rose. “Nope. You have more than one friend from home in town?”

He wouldn’t call them friends. “The guy with the arm injury is the one who punched me in the face. I didn’t know the second man was in town until a few minutes ago.”

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