Page 106 of Call it Reckless

I knew from experience I wouldn’t get out of this if I didn’t humor her. “Any other evidence of aliens?”

She frowned. “No, but they’re sneaky devils, you know. Maybe they’re disguised as dogs. Saw a bunch of those, too, but—”

That caught my attention. “You saw dogs?”

“Well, they looked like dogs, but they might be aliens. They seemed to only be running in circles.”

I reached out and grabbed her shoulders, planting a big kiss on her cheek. “Tillie, I think you just saved me weeks, if not months, of work. You’re the best.”

Her head jerked back, and she stared at me with wide, brown eyes. “And they callmecrazy,” she muttered as I left her standing there in the middle of the sidewalk and hurried back toward my truck, phoning Zane to meet me at Silver Creek Farm.

* * *

Chase camearound the side of his huge farmhouse. His usual smile was missing as both Zane and I climbed out of our official vehicles.

“Morning, Reid. Zane. I’d say it’s good to see you, but this doesn’t look like a social call.”

“Wish it were.”

“What’s going on?”

I hated to involve him, but we could use his help, or, at least, his property, to learn more about what else Tillie had seen.

“How well do you know your neighbor?”

“Jack? He’s kind of quiet. He moved in a couple of years ago after Melinda Stevens moved to Florida. He seems friendly enough when I see him, which is pretty rare, to be honest. I usually take some harvest from my summer garden over to be neighborly, as well as some of the Christmas cookies Marta makes. He’s always real appreciative. Invited me in for a beer once, but I had somewhere else I had to be. I think I saw him come to our Christmas on the Farm a couple of times, but there are tons of people who come out to that. I see him sometimes around town, and he always smiles and waves, but we don’t talk much beyond just the normalhow you doin’kind of thing.”

“Have you ever seen anything suspicious over there? Lots of cars coming and going?”

“Can’t say that I have, but you can see that there’s a lot of land separating our properties. Like I said, I don’t really know him well. Now that I think about it, it’s really pretty sad since we’re neighbors. Why are you asking about him?”

It was still an active investigation, so I didn’t want to tell him everything. “Is there any fencing between your properties?”

Chase frowned. “That would be way too expensive. The small patch of woods has always been used as the property line. Guess my ancestors never had a reason to really worry about it before.” He looked around, his brow furrowing. “Should I be now?”

“Probably not, but would you mind if we looked around some more on your property on his side?”

“No. But it’s big. Why don’t you take my Gator? If you’re searching for something, it will look less suspicious than taking your sheriff’s vehicle. In fact, maybe you should borrow a couple of jackets to cover up your uniform shirt.”

“Good idea.”

He led us to the shed where he stored the UTV and some other farm vehicles. After loaning us a couple of plaid shirts, Zane and I headed through a small section of woods that separated Chase’s property from his neighbor’s. When the brush grew thicker, we started walking.

Zane nudged my arm. Tillie had been right. Several yards in, on Jack’s property, there was a chain linked fence around several square yards. There were some crude wooden shelters. Only they weren’t crop circles, they were dirt rings made by the dogs who’d worn away the grass in the perimeter of where they were staked.

“Should we tell Sinclair?” Zane questioned.

“Yeah, we probably should, but hell, Zane. I honestly don’t know if he’s involved or not. For the moment, we’re just responding to a complaint of a citizen.”

“You’re right. I haven’t wanted to say it, but I’m starting to suspect a leak. Everyone in the department knew we were getting ready to explore those roads. Someone left in a hurry, as if they knew we’d be coming. They threw in some meth paraphernalia as a misdirect. Genius, really. If Jonathan hadn’t found that bag of syringes in the pile of lumber, we wouldn’t have had any reason to suspect anything else. And who knows, maybe they were doing both.”

“God help us.”

A memory floated through my brain. Griff had mentioned he’d picked up a pup down the highway. Could he have meant this farm? Was he somehow connected, or did he innocently pick up a dog unknowingly saving it from a life of fear and violence? There definitely hadn’t been a sign outside when we’d come by. And Griff just happened to come into the garage the same day another guy quit. What were the odds of that?

My gut stirred. I’d look into him once we were back in town.

“As much as I hate to leave those dogs there for even another minute, I think we need to head back and formulate a plan. We need warrants and more people, including the Humane Society, and probably someone at the state level. At the minimum, this is animal neglect. At worst, we have at least two felonies going on here.”

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