Robo’s chest heaved, indicating he was starting to breathe on his own. Cole unhooked the intubation tube from the respirator while Tess turned the knob to shut it off. The beautiful sound of strong and steady exhalations whooshed through the short tube that was still secure within Robo’s trachea.
Moving fast, Cole deflated the cuff on the intubation tube, unwrapped the tape that held it in place, and withdrew the tube entirely. At this point Robo’s eyes opened, and he started to struggle against the safety restraints. “Let’s unstrap him.”
They released the straps on both sides of the table. Gripping Robo to keep him from falling, Cole skirted the surgical table to get behind the big dog. “Stay back,” he warned Tess. “He could bite.”
Robo wouldn’t mean to, but his bite-reflex might be strong before he became fully aware of his surroundings. Risking a bite himself, he clasped Robo around the chest and transferred him to the floor in one smooth movement. Then he backed away to give the dog the room he needed to fully recover.
Robo flopped a couple of times before he could right himself. He paused for a few seconds, looking around to take in his surroundings, and then gave his head a mighty shake. Though Cole was tempted to kneel beside him, he stood back, waiting for Robo to adjust to his environment on his own.
In all his years of practice, he’d never been so relieved to watch a recovery. The antidote had worked exactly as it was supposed to, reversing the action of the opioid and restoring Robo’s ability to breathe and move within minutes.
Robo anchored his front feet and pushed the top half of his body up to sit, resting for a brief moment before standing with a quick lurch. He shook his whole body, including his tail, his feet lifting from the floor in small hops. When he finished, he focused on Cole and offered a half tail wag before sweeping the room with his eyes. He trotted toward the exit, alternating between nose down to sniff the floor and nose up to sniff the air.
Cole felt certain he was searching for Mattie.
“Well, that was a miracle,” Tess murmured.
“Is he going to be okay?” Riley asked, her voice thick with pent-up emotion.
Deciding it was safe to approach now, Cole went to Robo and bent to stroke him gently on his side. “Let’s ask him,” he answered in a quiet tone. “Are you going to be okay, buddy?”
Robo looked up at Cole, waved his tail a couple beats, and then focused his stare on the door, lifting one paw to scrape it in a request to be let outside.
Cole continued to pet him in long, firm, soothing strokes. “I think he’s going to be fine, Riley. Thank goodness you found him when you did. He wouldn’t have lasted on his own much longer. How did you happen to be there?”
Riley looked at Cole for a second before letting her gaze slide away. “Mattie told me to come over.”
He’d been around teenage girls enough to know when one wasn’t being as truthful as she should. He gave her his stern dad face. “Are you sure? She told you to come over this late at night?”
Color infused the girl’s pale face. “Well, she said she’d call in ten minutes, but when she didn’t, I tried to call her. She didn’t answer, so I rode my bike over to her house.”
Cole nodded, watching Robo and thinking this version sounded closer to the truth. Robo waited patiently beside him, willing the door to open with his eyes, and Cole bent to place his stethoscope against his chest to listen to the strong, steady heartbeat for a minute. He felt confident that the opioid had been neutralized and all of the dog’s systems had returned to normal.
While he was listening to Robo’s chest, another thought occurred to him. “Riley, I need to look at your cell phone logs. I need the time that Mattie texted you and the time that you called her. That will lock in the gap of time when Robo was sedated.”
And when Mattie went missing, he thought. Dread washed through him as the inevitable conclusion hit. When Sophie went missing a month ago, he’d vowed he’d never let someone he loved get taken from him again. But he had a bad feeling that’s what had just happened.
Riley looked embarrassed as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “I might have called her more than once.”
“Doesn’t matter. Let me jot down the times.” He reached for the phone, and Riley gave it over with reluctance. He imagined it held information that she considered private. “All I want to look at are your texts to Mattie and your call log.”
When Cole went to the countertop for notepad and paper, Robo gave up on the door and trotted around the room, giving everything a cursory sniff. He whined, darting back to the door to paw at it before dashing around the room again.
Cole located the string of texts to and from Mattie. The last one from Mattie told Riley she would call in ten minutes, after she took care of Robo. He recorded the time the text had been sent—10:10 PM. The call log showed five calls from Riley that Mattie didn’t answer, one right after the other, starting at 10:30. A twenty minute gap of time.
As he dialed McCoy, he watched Robo search the premises for Mattie’s scent, the dog acting more and more distressed.
The sheriff answered immediately, and there was an edge of anxiety in his typically calm voice. “Yes, Cole. Any news?”
“We reversed the drug. Robo’s up and moving around.”
“Thank goodness.”
“Riley and Mattie had been texting this evening, and we can narrow down the time that Mattie stopped answering her phone.” Cole couldn’t bring himself to say the words “went missing.” He explained the time gap between texts and calls.
“I’ll get that information to the officers that are canvassing the neighborhood for anything suspicious. It helps to know an exact timeframe.”
“Robo is already looking for Mattie here at the clinic. I’m going to bring him over, see what he can find.”
“Are you sure he’s healthy enough for that?”
“The antidote reversed the drug that was used on him, and he’s back to normal. And Sheriff, if the same drug was used on Mattie, it won’t be easy for her. We need to find her.”
When Cole disconnected the call, he looked at Tess. “Do we have a box I can put that dart in? I need to make sure no one gets a needle stick and an accidental exposure.”
“I’ll find one.” Tess headed for the back storage room.
“Where is your dad, Riley?”
“He’s working in Hightower tonight. He won’t get home until after two.”
“That makes for a late night.” He wondered if Riley would be safe at her house. All of sudden danger seemed to loom everywhere, and he didn’t want to leave her alone. “Do you want to sleep on the couch in our den? You could text your dad and let him know where you are.”
“Can I go with you?” He shook his head, and she didn’t argue. “Then I want to stay at your house. Could you call me if you find Mattie?”
He took a moment to enter her number into his contacts list. Tess came back with a box that would work, and he enclosed the dart inside. He thanked Tess for coming in to help and grabbed a short leash and a long, retractable one from off a hook by the exam room door. He clipped the short one onto Robo’s collar.
As he locked the clinic door behind him, he wondered how someone could obtain the powerful drug that had been used on Robo. It was a schedule two opioid that couldn’t be purchased without a doctor’s or a veterinarian’s prescription.
The niggling thought that the same drug might have been used on Mattie continued to poke at him, and now that he was no longer absorbed with Robo’s care, it broke free to torment him full-blown. Ed Lovejoy’s words sent a chill down his spine—without reversal, recovery would be ugly.