Page 72 of Wild Card
Prince stepped off the sidewalk, falling into step with me as I crossed the parking lot. “I think we both know why. I’ve been pushing you about running for sheriff. Pushing too hard, I think.”
“Maybe.”
“You’ve got reasons you don’t want to be sheriff. I respect that. But I think you’re the kind of man who cares about this town. And I think you know Elkhorn County isn’t best served by Hale.”
I paused next to my car with a sigh. “Say I do agree with that. It doesn’t mean I would be the perfect choice either.”
“Perfect? Maybe not. But better…” The mayor’s smile turned wry. “I think we both know that wouldn’t take much.”
I chuckled. “So setting the bar low is your new strategy?”
“It wouldn’t below. I don’t think that. I’m not sure evenyouthink that. I don’t know what your reasons are for hesitating, butplease, give it some hard thought. It won’t be long until we hit campaign filing deadlines.”
I couldn’t brush him off as easily after the conversation inside. It was bad enough when Hale was making exceptions for his son. But if he was actually taking bribes and twisting the law into his personal payday, then something had to be done.
“I’ll think about it.”
Mayor Prince clapped my arm. “Good man.”
He started to turn away when a thought occurred to me. “Hey, Mayor, can I ask a favor?”
He turned back. “Anything. What is it?”
“Well, I took a tour of the animal shelter the other day. It’s underfunded and strained.”
The mayor nodded. “The budget cuts have been tough. A lot of departments are suffering.”
“Right. Well, the thing is, some folks are dumping their pets out on County Road 15 by the junkyard. Axel Wilder has been taking them in. But he’s just one guy, and it shouldn’t be his responsibility to save our abandoned pets, you know? I was thinking if we could get some sort of program formalized…”
“That’s a good point, but he can take those pets to the shelter.”
“Well, he could, but they don’t have the space or the funds to accommodate more animals.”
The mayor sighed. “It’s a catch-22, isn’t it?”
“Your daughter looked into grants for me, but it seems most of those would apply to private efforts. It’s more than Axel wants to take on, so I’m just looking for other solutions.”
“Well, I could talk to the City Council. It’s already against the law to abandon animals, but clearly, we need to step up enforcement. We can introduce stricter fines to deter folks and step up patrols out there. We need to nip this in the bud.”
That wasn’t what I’d had in mind when I brought it up, but if folks realized they couldn’t get away with dumping their pets, they might think twice about it.
“Thanks, Mayor, and if there’s any way at all the shelter could get more funding…”
“I’ll keep it in mind, Deputy.”
I climbed into my car and started the engine. I had a list of Granville complaints that needed to be checked out when I got there, but I should have time to stop in and catch Bodie at practice before heading back to the station.
I should focus on that instead of Axel, but I pulled out my phone anyway. I stared at the text thread with Axel, my screen taken up with messages from me.
Dalton:
I was a dick.
Dalton:
I freaked out and blamed you. I shouldn’t have done that.
Dalton:
