Page 30 of Tied to Trouble

“This is all my fault, I’m so sorry, Az,” Mandy cried. “I should have listened to you when you said to stay away.”

Az couldn’t let her take all the blame, especially when she was coming to apologize to him for running from him. “It’s not all your fault, Mandy,” he replied gently. “I should have gotten us out of here immediately instead of spanking your little butt. That could have been taken care of later.” He huffed when she punched him in the shoulder.

“Or never,” she sassed.

“I should have put the clues together faster regarding the dumping Skeeter Davis was seeing, and the stray barrel that didn’t stay dumped.”

“Just remember that the next time you want to spank me,” she jibed. “If we survive this, you owe me one.”

When a chainsaw suddenly jumped to life, Mandy shrieked in fear, but Az knew this was their chance. “Now is the best time to try and get out of here, Mandy. They are cutting up the steer, and there is so much noise they won’t hear us.”

With his eyes starting to filter a little in the blackness, he moved Mandy aside and kicked at the door, trying to break it down. The sound of the chainsaw filled him with a grim sense of horror. The image of them being stuffed in pieces into a barrel like the leftover cows lent strength to his kicks. The idea of the darkness at the bottom of the lake held its own horror, he didn’t like deep water. That wasn’t going to be his final resting place if he could help it.

“It’s not working, Az,” Mandy cried, the terror in her voice giving him impetus to launch his shoulder against a rotten spot near the doorframe. It gave a little, but not nearly enough to race a chainsaw to completion of the work at hand.

Az didn’t intend to give up, though. He kept at it, trying to make a hole big enough to slip his hand through so he could reach the door latch on the outside. He was almost there when the chainsaw suddenly stopped. His blood froze.

Chapter 7

When the sudden soundof a police siren split the air, Az almost collapsed in relief. A loud voice, obviously coming through a megaphone, rang out in the darkness. “This is the police! We have you surrounded! Put down your weapons and lie on the ground with your hands behind your head.”

“It’s Sheriff Dorney,” Mandy cried joyfully. Tears of relief ran down her face, and she hugged Az around the neck, clinging shamelessly to his strong body.

“I do believe it is,” Az replied with a chuckle, enjoying the feel of her body close to his. In the next moment, the door was yanked open, and moonlight streamed in, temporarily blinding him as his eyes adjusted to the light. Mandy buried her face against his neck.

“Dang, boy,” the sheriff chuckled. “The way Mandy is holding onto you, maybe I should just close this door for a while.”

“We’re pretty glad to see you, Sheriff,” Az admitted, sticking his hand out to shake with his friend. “We weren’t quite sure where we were going to end up.”

“Well, I have to admit that we had you covered all along. I tried to get you at home after Randy Berenger called and said another cow had been shanghaied. He saw the truck this time, so we knew it happened tonight. Deputy Crane and I decided to stake out Possum Lake Road and watch for whoever was dumping. It seemed to go hand in hand after what Skeeter Davis told us.”

“The dumper has already been up here once tonight,” Az replied. “It was around 11:00 p.m. when I spotted him dumping. His name is Murphy, and he used to work for Genetico. He wanted revenge on Genetico for firing him.”

“Now, that I didn’t know,” the sheriff replied. “We got the call from Randy about thirty minutes ago and jumped right on it. I was surprised to see you and Mandy’s trucks up here, but when we moved in on foot, we saw you with those two fellas and decided to wait and see what came down. Then the other truck came too, so we followed you all over here with no lights. That old logging road is rough, but we made it. We had to wait for the chainsaw to stop before we could announce ourselves.”

“We’re glad you did,” Az replied.

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