Walker’s face blanched, and he sagged forward to place his head in his hands. “Good God,” he murmured.
Mattie gave him a moment, thinking how she would phrase her next questions.
After a minute or two, he sat up and stared at her with red-rimmed eyes. “How are you going to find who killed her?”
“Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt her?”
“Of course not. She’s just a kid.”
Mattie gestured toward the bag of dope. “Someone put these balloons inside Belle. Could it have been Grace?”
“No way! This dog was her baby. There’s no way she would’ve force-fed Belle.”
“Could Grace have been involved with the drug traffic we’ve been having through the national forests?”
Walker stood, his hand clenched. “No. Don’t even go that way. Grace was a good kid, a smart kid. She’s an honors student, for Pete’s sake.”
Mattie tried not to let her skepticism show. There were plenty of honors students across the nation who intellectualized themselves into trouble with the police every day.
“We’ll need to talk with your daughter. The one you said was friends with Grace.”
He looked startled. “But she doesn’t even know yet.”
“I know you’ll need to tell her first, prepare her. But we still need to talk to her sometime in the morning. Maybe late morning?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your daughter could have information about Grace that we need to know. It’s important.”
He looked down at the floor, and she could see he was thinking it through. She hoped he’d get past his knee-jerk, protective response. Finally, he nodded. “We’ll set something up. Call me in the morning.”
“Do you happen to know if Belle came out of Mike Chadron’s kennel?”
“Yes, she did. Garrett bought the dog as a pup from Mike and gave her to Grace last summer.”
“What do you know about Mike? Does he take good care of his dogs?”
“Mike seems like a responsible guy. Keeps health records on his dogs, takes them to dog shows. Appears affectionate toward his animals.” Walker paused. “Why do you ask? I don’t think Mike has anything to do with Belle, other than being the one who sold her to the Hartmans.”
The information matched what Mattie knew about Mike. Because of the dog kennel, she knew more about him than most of the guys in town. He was in his early twenties, grew up in Timber Creek, and worked as a cook at Clucken House.
Thinking aloud, she said, “I wonder if he makes much money off the dog kennel.”
Walker frowned. “Mike wants to make a living off his kennel and quit his job at the restaurant. Usually, he asks me to bill him and set up monthly payments for his dogs’ care. But the last couple times he’s been in, he’s paid his bill in cash.”
One thing related to the drug trade was cash, and lots of it. “Do you think Mike would use his dogs as mules?”
Walker shook his head. “I can’t imagine it, but I guess anything’s possible. Maybe to help pay his kennel expenses? I don’t know. But what does this have to do with Grace?”
Mattie didn’t feel she could tell him her reasoning yet. She looked back down at the sick dog. “What do we do for Belle now?”
“I need to x-ray her belly, see if there are any other foreign objects in it. I might as well x-ray her leg while I’m at it.”
“I can stay for a few minutes and help. I know you have a lot to do here.”
“I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a hand with the x-rays. Can you stay for a half hour?”
“Sure. Then I’d better take this evidence over to the office and get it locked away for the night.”
Walker fell silent and looked grim as he set up his x-ray machine. His eyes burned as he handed Mattie a lead apron and mitts. “If someone shot one of my girls, I’d kill him.”
She shared similar feelings. “We’ll track this person down. It’s just a matter of time.”
He nodded, breathed a sigh, and focused his attention on positioning the x-ray machine above Belle. Mattie watched him, a dedicated father who wanted to protect his children from harm. So different from her own upbringing.
She decided she liked this person, a feeling that, when it came to men, she rarely allowed.
Chapter 7
Cole slipped the x-rays into the clip at the top of the light box, turned on the light switch, and stepped back to view the films. Deputy Cobb stood beside him, apparently as anxious as he to see what they would show.
The view of Belle’s abdomen looked clean.
“See this?” Cole said, pointing out various anatomical landmarks. “Here’s her stomach, intestines, and bowel. There’s nothing more inside her.”
“Good.”
He turned his attention to the x-ray of Belle’s leg. He pointed out a white spot adjacent to her femur. “There’s the bullet, right there. It looks like it’s lodged against her thigh bone, toward the inside.”
“Will that be a problem to take out?”
“It could be. Lots of blood vessels and nerves there. The bone doesn’t appear fractured. We’re lucky about that. We’ll have to see how she is in the morning. I’m guessing she may not be well enough for surgery. It may have to wait until the next day.”
“Would that be hard on her?”
“She’d suffer less than she would if I used anesthesia on her in this condition. Besides, we don’t know yet if she’ll recover.”
Concern filled the deputy’s face, and Cole realized he’d been too blunt. “I bet she’ll pull through. She’s strong and healthy. Let’s move her to the floor, and you can go if you want.”
Together they lifted the heavy dog off the exam table.
“Will you be staying with her tonight?” the deputy asked.
“Yes, at least until I get this bag of fluid into her. Then I’ll see how she looks.”
“I can take a shift watching her tonight. I couldn’t help but notice that you look pretty beat.”
Cole drew a hand over his face. “You’re right. I’m going on forty-eight hours without sleep. But you go. You’ve got your own work to do.”
“After I run this dope over to the department, I could come back for a few hours. You could go to your house and get some rest.”
Cole looked at Belle, still stretched out on the linoleum. It would take several hours to drip this IV bag of Ringer’s. After that, there’d be nothing more he could do tonight. His body craved sleep, and his eyes were starting to blur. If he could lie down for a few hours, it would make a big difference.
“I’ll take you up on it,” he said. “Come back when you can, but wash up real well before you go. I don’t want you taking anything to your own dog if this happens to be contagious. I think the diarrhea was caused by the foreign objects in her gut, but you need to take precautions just in case.”
“Sure.”
When she removed her lab coat, Cole noticed the angry bruise on her knee. “Did you put some ice on that knee?”
She glanced down at it as she went to the sink to wash. “No, but it’ll be fine. I’ve had worse.”
“Suit yourself,” Cole said, annoyed. He left to go spray down the floor in Belle’s run. What is it with women? They never seem to listen to good advice.
The deputy appeared in the doorway. “I’ll be back in a half hour or so.”