Page 11 of Puppy Love & Snowflake Kisses
She was caught off guard at his concern. She was beginning to think they would be at odds for the rest of their lives.
She nodded. “I am, but Odie isn’t.”
Just then she heard footsteps behind her. Belle turned to the approaching deputies. What did they learn? A clue to where Odie had been taken?
“The house is clear,” Deputy Williams said. “Whoever broke in is long gone.”
“Hey, boss,” Deputy Stark said. “I thought you had the evening off.”
“I thought so, too, but plans change.” Parker planted his hands on his trim waist.
Belle noticed how he didn’t bother to explain his appearance at her house. She couldn’t help but wonder if he normally showed up at scenes on his evening off. Or was she a special case?
Chapter Five
Thiswasafirst.
A dognapping in Kringle Falls.
Parker quite honestly never had a case like this one. There were protocols for human kidnappings. They would call in the state police and the FBI, but that wasn’t going to work for a dognapping.
He and the deputies walked the scene while he had Belle wait in her car. He didn’t want her with them, because there was just something about her that inevitably distracted him.
Normally, he’d let his deputies handle the call. If they needed him, they knew to call. But when he’d heard the call go out over the scanner, he recognized the address from Belle’s driver’s license. He knew she was in trouble, and he’d grabbed his keys and headed out the door.
When he was satisfied that Belle’s house was secure for the moment, he had her join them in the living room. He had her repeat the events that had led her to call nine-one-one.
“So, you think whoever broke in took your dog?” he asked.
“I know they did.” She led them to the kitchen, and there on the island was a handwritten note.
When she went to pick it up, he stopped her. “We’ll need to check it for fingerprints. Did you pick it up before?”
She opened her mouth to answer but then wordlessly closed her mouth.
“It’s okay if you did,” he said. “We’ll just need to take your fingerprints for elimination.”
Worry lines creased her beautiful face. “I… I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
“It’s okay. We’ll get this figured out.” He turned to Deputy Stark. “Can you bag and tag this? Then I want you both to go outside and check the perimeter. See if you see any footsteps or any other signs that someone has been here.”
Once they left, he turned back to Belle. He could tell by the torment in her eyes that she loved her dog very much. “Are you absolutely sure that you closed and locked the front door? Is there any chance you were in such a rush to get back to work that you forgot to close it?”
She frowned at him. “Really? You’re trying to blame this on me. You think that I played a part in my Odie being dognapped?”
He shook his head. That wasn’t what he was implying. But from the deputies’ accounts of the inside, there were no other points of entry. This was done either by a professional, which he didn’t think was the case, or by someone she knew—someone who knew her routines and their way around the place. He tried again. “Think about it. Is there anyone that has a key to your house?” When she shook her head, he said, “Do you leave a key outside, like under a mat or in one of those little garden decorations?”
She once more shook her head. “No. I haven’t done any of those things.”
He frowned. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No.”
He ignored the happiness that zinged through him upon learning that she was single. After all, he had a job to do. Besides, Belle was all wrong for him. She didn’t follow the rules, she was stubborn, and the one time he’d asked her out, she’d shot him down.
Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, he said, “Can you look around and tell us what’s missing?”
“You mean besides Odie? Because he’s all that I really care about.” When the sheriff nodded, she said, “I… I’ll try.”
