Page 65 of Her Rugged Guardian

“She’s pretty certain whoever is watching her has also been doing so when she’s run errands in town.”

“Uh-huh.” His look remaining incredulous, he tossed the bag aside and sat down, planting his feet on his desk and leaning back. “Look. You forget how many times I’ve been inside the main house at Tangerine Sunset. I know the driveway. If she told you this mystery person was standing at the end, then you need to go look for yourself. There’s no way she could have seenwhether it was a man or woman from that distance. She could have thought one of the of the big maple trees was some dude. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know given the work you’ve done on the place.”

Sadly, he was right, but Cass was convinced and I had to believe her.

“Now, what about this phone call?” he pressed.

“There’s more.”

“Fine. What?” I could tell the man didn’t believe me.

“Someone went into her house and purposely left the door open, coaxing her dog outside. Either Moose was lured to the swamp or was taken there.”

Bart rubbed his eyes. “Hold on. You’re losing me. Her house was broken into?”

I had to shake my head. “No sign of that.”

“Then what? I appreciate that you like this girl but you’re jumping to some pretty big conclusions.”

Leaning forward, I dropped my head. “Yeah, I know. Look. Margaret left a spare key underneath one of the flowerpots out back. I lifted the pot. The key had been moved.”

“You’re certain of that.”

“With all the rains we’ve had this year, the deck was damp underneath leaving a dark spot except where the key had been.”

He tilted his head. “O-kay. So someone let the dog out. It’s entirely possible the pup wandered over to the swamp based on smells.”

“That’s what I originally thought but when we found Moose, he was tangled in rope. It had been purposely tied around the dog’s leg.”

Snorting, he took another sip of coffee before placing the mug on his desk. “You do know this sounds farfetched as fuck.”

“Maybe so but the phone call she had last night wasn’t the first. She’s had several unknown callers since she arrived.”

He stared at the cigarette butt. “This isn’t much to go on. The folks in the lab are working overtime like I am.”

“That’s your job. Right? You’re going to check the butt out for DNA, right?”

He laughed. “You must really like this girl.”

“I don’t want to see her hurt. She’s being targeted like Margaret was. Malcolm will stop at nothing to get her property, including trying to scare Cassandra into leaving.”

“Whoa. Hold the fuck on and stop jumping to these kinds of ridiculous conclusions. Margaret died of cancer. You know that as well as everyone else who knew her.”

“She was in remission, Bart. You didn’t know how alive she was, how healthy she appeared. Up to the last goddamn day.”

“You seem to forget my sister died of cancer. She was also in remission, the relapse sudden and unexpected. She was dead less than two weeks later.”

Yeah, I knew everything I was saying sounded farfetched. Still, I believed Cass was in danger. “That’s not what happened. I know it. There was no autopsy done.”

“Because she died of cancer. I’m telling you. What is going on with you?”

“Nothin’. Just check the butt. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong.”

“Fine, I’ll have it checked but given the condition it’s in, I doubt I’ll get shit off it.”

“Just fuckin’ do it!”

Bart shrank back hearing my raised voice, a smirk slowly crossing his face. “Wow. I think you’ve fallen hard and it’s been what…” He glanced at his watch for dramatic effect. “All of three days?”

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