Rescue me, p.9
Rescue Me, page 9
“You talk to your mom about the dog you want and have her call me. We can make that happen.” Jeremy reminded Mitchell so much of himself when he was his age. Jeremy said he wanted to be a vet like Mitchell and had asked him a million questions over the months. Mitchell had done his best to encourage him and told him the kinds of classes he needed to take in school in order to help prepare.
“I will. I know just which one I want. The terrier, Scamper. He’s great and not too big. I think a large dog will scare Mom, but he’s not too old and he likes me.” Jeremy practically jumped out of his skin, he was so excited. “I’ll tell Mom and have her call.”
“You do that.” Mitchell patted his shoulder, and Jeremy jumped onto his old red ten-speed and pedaled down the drive and out onto the side of the road.
Mitchell waited until he was gone before opening the barn door. He stepped inside, and the dogs greeted him with yips, barks, and wagging tails. “I know, Jeremy was here and you’re all excited.” When Mitchell got to work, they settled down.
Mitchell put some of the larger dogs into the runs, including the pit bull, whose attitude and demeanor had shifted a little. He knew the strong-willed, muscular dog was going to be hard to find a home for, but Mitchell was determined to try. After checking on everyone, he left the shelter and walked across the yard.
About halfway to the door, he stopped, the hair in the back of his neck standing up. Mitchell checked around him but didn’t see anyone. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. He hurried toward the house and went right inside. He missed having Randi in the house. But the little dog would be happier with Beau and Jessica. Speaking of the little stinker, he called the clinic and left a message for Bonnie to let him know how she was doing when she came in that evening. Mitchell had already sent Beau a message to tell him that she had been better when he left the clinic but that she wouldn’t truly be out of the woods until the morning. By then, he hoped her appetite would be back.
He went to the kitchen and made a sandwich for dinner and was just finishing when the phone rang. It was the clinic. His breath caught as he answered. “This is Mitchell.”
“Doctor, it’s Bonnie. I just got here, and Randi….” He stilled, bracing for bad news. “She’s up and about, and I gave her a little water.” She sounded happy. “That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”
Mitchell breathed deeply. “Yes. That’s really great. Is the IV done?”
“Yes. I was about to take it out and get her settled for the night.”
He smiled. “That’s great. Remove the IV and give her some water and we’ll give her some food in the morning. We need to give her belly a chance to settle, but this is very good news. Keep her calm and get her to rest as best you can. That’s the best thing for her.” He ended the call and made one to Beau.
“How is Randi?” Beau asked without any lead-in.
“Much better. She’s up and drinking. We’ll get her to rest, and you can come get her in the morning. Did you find what she might have gotten into?” He wondered if Beau wanted him to come down, but he didn’t want to ask. Maybe Beau needed some space. Mitchell didn’t want to crowd him.
“I might have. But I’m not sure.” He seemed so tentative. “Can you come look?”
“I’ll be right there.” He hung up and left the house, looking around again as he got into the car, trying to shake that feeling that someone was there. He thought about calling the police, but what was he going to say? That he had this feeling? It sounded dumb when he ran it through his head, never mind saying it out loud.
The drive to Beau’s took a few minutes, and Beau met him outside with Jessica sleeping on his shoulder. “What do you have?” he whispered.
“It looks like something was scattered over here beside the back door. But it’s hard to tell.” Beau pointed, and Mitchell bent down to take a closer took. Sure enough, it seemed that something that was most likely rat poison had been spread on the dirt.
“What the hell?” He glanced up at Beau. “You didn’t have anything like this in your trash, did you?” Mitchell gathered a few of the stray granules.
“No. Of course not,” Beau snapped. “How can you ask that? I would never poison Randi.”
Mitchell stood. “I didn’t mean it that way. Of course you wouldn’t.” Beau was upset, but Mitchell hadn’t meant to accuse him of anything. “I just wanted to make sure that you hadn’t thrown something in the trash that might have gotten on the ground.”
Beau shook his head hard. “I don’t even have that in the house.” His eyes grew huge and he gasped quietly. “Then where did it come from?” Anger gripped him and Beau clenched his fist. “You don’t think…?”
Mitchell wished he had some answers. “I don’t know. It would be a really cruel thing to do to try to hurt Randi. Would Gerome do that, do you think? Is that something he’d be capable of? Is there someone else who might want to hurt you?” He drew closer, brushing off his hands.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought Gerome would do half the things he did, but trying to hurt a dog? That’s pretty twisted.” He began to shake, and Jessica whimpered.
“Go on inside and take care of her. Do you have a push broom? I can clear this away and wash down the area so Randi doesn’t get into any of it again.”
“In the shed over there,” Beau answered, still shaken up. “Thank you.” He went inside, and Mitchell went to get the shovel.
The shed was small and filled with stuff that had probably been left by the previous owners. Mitchell didn’t see Beau bringing all this crap with him when he moved. Most of it was halfway to garbage, with five-gallon buckets of what seemed to be lamp parts and bits of metal. He stepped around them to get to the shovel, careful not to brush against the old tool bench against the side wall. Still, he managed to push over an old folding chair before he reached the shovel at the back. He grabbed it and turned to leave, but he knocked a paper bag off the tool bench. It fell to the floor, granules spilling out onto the wood.
Mitchell paused and bent to look closer. He picked up a few granules and ran them through his fingers. “Damn….” The air cooled instantly around him as his thoughts ran a million miles an hour. He wondered how long this had been here. The bag itself looked fresh and not too old. It wasn’t crinkled all over and was still a deeper brown. He wondered if someone had brought this stuff or if it had been here. Whatever the answer, someone had either brought or found this in the shed and spread some of it around the side of the house. He had hoped his suspicions were wrong, but it seemed that someone had indeed spread the poison for Randi to find. That was the height of cruel. Mitchell’s belly clenched as old memories he’d thought he’d buried surged to the surface.
Pushing the hurt aside, he grabbed the shovel and got out of the shed, then closed and latched the door. Mitchell cleaned up the area near the house, removing all of the pellets he could see, and then grabbed the hose and washed the area down well. He made sure he saw nothing more before giving the area a second hosing down. Hopefully that would clean up the mess. Mitchell then returned the shovel to the shed and swept up the spilled poison. He brought the bag in with him.
He was nervous about telling Beau what he’d found, but he knew he had to. It was upsetting for him, and Mitchell could just imagine how Beau was going to feel. He already blamed himself for what happened to Randi, but Mitchell was becoming more and more convinced that someone else was behind what had happened. “It’s all cleaned up,” he said when he came in through the back door.
“Thank you.” Beau came in without Jessica, and Mitchell heard her in her swing. She sure loved that thing. “What’s that?”
“I found it in the shed.” He showed it to Beau, who paled.
“I never saw that before.”
“I believe you. The bag was on the workbench.” He wadded it up, and Beau handed him a few plastic bags. Mitchell double encased it and placed the poison deep in the trash and closed the child-locked cupboard under the sink. “I’ll take the whole thing with me when I go and put it in the medical waste container at the clinic.”
“But how did it get there?” Beau asked. Mitchell had an idea that Beau already knew the answer to that question. “God.” He pulled out one of the scuffed wooden kitchen chairs and sank into it. “I don’t want to believe that Gerome….”
“I think someone has been using your shed to watch things. That would explain the email and the feeling of being watched.” Though it didn’t account for the fact that Mitchell had felt the same way at his place. Maybe he needed to search for a hiding place on his property. If someone wanted to poison dogs, Mitchell had plenty of them. Someone could cause a great deal of hurt if they wanted to.
“Jesus….” Beau rocked slightly, and Mitchell sat in the nearest chair, taking Beau’s hand.
“You had nothing to do with what happened to Randi. Someone put that stuff out there on purpose. Otherwise it couldn’t have gotten there from the shed, and I don’t think it had been there long.” He gently stroked the back of Beau’s hands with his thumbs. “She’s going to be okay, and she’ll be really happy to be home. For a while I’d suggest you stay with her while she’s outside if you can. I washed down the area, and if there’s any more, a good rain should take care of it. But until then….”
“Okay, I understand,” he said absently as though he were in shock. “I can’t believe something like this is happening.” He scratched his head and then lowered his hands to the table, wringing them slowly. “I mean… I keep hoping that this is some accident, but I don’t know how it can be.” He lifted his gaze, which was filled with hurt. “I think I should call the police… but what am I going to tell them? That we already cleaned up and destroyed any evidence that we might have had?”
“Shit,” Mitchell swore. “I should have thought of that.” His thoughts had been on trying to protect Randi from getting into the poison again, but instead he might have messed up finding the person who was behind this. “I think I’m going to call Red anyway. At least let him know what’s going on and what we suspect.” There certainly wasn’t any harm in it.
“Yeah, I think I’d feel better,” Beau agreed, and Mitchell made the call and explained what had happened and what they’d found.
“I know we probably already contaminated the area when we tried to clean it up. But we couldn’t take any chances.”
“All right,” Red said soothingly. “And you’re sure that Beau didn’t have anything like that in the house?”
Mitchell turned to Beau, relaying the question. Beau shook his head. “I’ve brought as little dangerous stuff into the house as I can because of Jessica. I never had any rat poison or mouse bait stuff. As far as I know, there hasn’t been any need for it.”
“Did you hear him?” Mitchell asked Red, his nerves jangling more and more. He needed to calm down and get his mind into gear. He wasn’t going to be able to help anyone if he was a twitchy mess.
“There are a couple of possibilities that I can think of. The first is that it was some sort of accident. I don’t think that’s likely, though, given what you described. I doubt I’m going to get much evidence off the ground or the bag since they were disturbed. My best advice is to keep your eyes open and watch for anything or anyone suspicious.”
“Okay. We can do that.” They already were anyway.
“Does either of you know anyone who might have done this?” Red asked.
Mitchell explained about Beau’s ex-husband and what he wanted from Beau. Red agreed that he needed to be looked into. “Anger and hurt are strong and sometimes irrational motivators.” That matched with what Mitchell thought. “Unfortunately, I don’t have something concrete to tell you other than to keep on the lookout and call me or the sheriff’s department right away if anything happens. Be sure to explain that you have been in contact with me, and that way I can be brought in to try to help.”
“Thanks,” Mitchell said. He hadn’t expected Red to be able to tell them much more than that, but he was grateful for his advice. At least Red didn’t get angry with them for what they had already done. “I appreciate the help.”
“Any time.” Red hung up, and Mitchell put his phone back in his pocket.
“I wish I had thought this through before messing things up.”
“It’s okay.” Beau sighed, and Mitchell knew he was feeling pretty low. Heck, he was too, and to top things off, their ray of energetic sunshine wasn’t there. “Can we at least see if she’s all right?” Beau asked.
Mitchell nodded. “Sure. If you want to get Jessica ready, we can go down to the clinic.” Maybe seeing that Randi was doing better would help both of them. Mitchell felt bad about cleaning things up and not even thinking of calling the police first. But he knew Beau felt worse about Randi getting sick.
It took a while to get Jessica ready and into the car. Beau drove down to the clinic and parked in front. The parking area was empty, so Bonnie must have already gone for the night. Mitchell got out, unlocked the door, and waited for Beau and Jessica. Once inside, he left them in the reception area and quietly went in back.
Sometimes the effect of poisons was delayed and animals got better initially only to take a turn for the worse. He hadn’t thought that was the case with Randi and was relieved to find the little girl standing up in her cage, wagging her tail, as he came inside. Part of her leg was bald from where he had had to shave her for the IV, but otherwise she seemed in good shape. “Sweetheart,” he said softly and opened the door. He lifted her out and carried her to where Beau sat bouncing his leg.
Randi barked happily when she saw Jessica. Mitchell set her down, and she hurried over and pranced around Beau’s legs until he reached down to pet her. “Is she really going to be okay?”
“Yes. She should be fine.” Mitchell grinned as Beau lifted her up and hugged her gently. When she kissed his cheek, he closed his eyes.
“I’m going to be more careful, I promise,” he said softly. “But you scared the life out of me, little one.” Randi soaked up the attention, and when Beau set her on his lap, she settled right there, curling up into a ball. The tension released from Beau’s shoulders and he actually smiled. “I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Mitchell told him. He was convinced that someone had spread the rat poison on purpose, and he was determined to find out who and why. He had felt someone watching him, and Beau had said the same. It was pretty obvious to him that the shed had been the lookout post at Beau’s. He needed to check his own property for the same kind of thing. But what baffled him was why both of them had developed a stalker at the same damned time. He and Beau hadn’t known each other for very long, and other than a few outings, they hadn’t spent that much time together outside their homes.
“I keep thinking it is. I should have been more careful and watchful. Having a dog is a real responsibility, and I let her down.” Randi nudged Beau’s hand when he stopped petting her.
“I think you’re forgiven,” he said gently, and they shared a smile. Mitchell drew closer and knelt near Beau and Randi. He gently cupped Beau’s cheeks in his hands, waiting to see if Beau pulled away. He didn’t, and Mitchell closed the distance between them. The kiss started gently, but then Beau pressed closer, his lips firm and warm. Mitchell pulled back, not wanting to push in case Beau wasn’t ready for more. “Was that okay?”
Beau nodded slowly. “It was so much more than okay.” He placed his hands on Mitchell’s arms and rested them there. “I’ve been so unsure of myself when it comes to you and being with anyone again.”
“I know, and I understand. It took me a long time before I could be close to anyone.” Mitchell closed his eyes for a few seconds to be alone with his own thoughts, but forced himself to open them again. “It’s time for me to try again. I know that it can be hard to trust after being hurt.” He slid his hands away from Beau’s cheeks. “But I want you to know that I won’t purposely hurt you.” He swallowed hard as his heart raced. Beau looked amazing, even when he bit his lower lip a little nervously, and Mitchell inhaled deeply, Beau’s scent setting his head on fire. Something about Beau got his engine revving. He was hot, that was for sure, but there was something else, something more visceral. Maybe it was that Beau was a wonderful, incredibly caring guy. Dogs knew a good heart, and Beau definitely had one of those. But he also knew and understood what Mitchell had been through, and Mitchell understood some of what Beau was feeling. Not that everyone was the same and dealt with hurt the same way, but Mitchell understood the lump that could form in a person’s belly just because of the way something smelled or a sound in the background that connected with a memory he hadn’t really paid attention to until something clicked. Even the near panic that could come from nowhere because of what someone said at a party or something.
To Mitchell’s surprise, Beau initiated the next kiss. Mitchell was really into it, especially the way Beau sucked on his upper lip.
“I’m sorry,” Bonnie stammered.
Mitchell tried to back away, got his feet tangled, and ended up on the floor flat on his back. He stared up at the ceiling as Bonnie snickered at him.
“I forgot something when I was here earlier.” She hurried to the counter as Mitchell did his best to get up without looking like a complete idiot. Hell, it was too late for that. “I’ll be on my way, and you boys can get back to what you were doing.” She hurried to the front door. “Though I’d think you could find a better place for it.” The front door closed behind her, and Mitchell wished a hole would open up under him and suck him down.
“She’s something else,” Beau said as Mitchell finally managed to get off the floor. Randi blinked at him from Beau’s lap like he was crazy. You knew it was bad when a dog thought you were nuts. “Are you all right?”
Mitchell got his balance again. “I’m fine. I wasn’t expecting someone to come in, and I didn’t hear her.” Maybe he’d discovered a deficiency in his mind or something. When he was kissing, his ears shut off. Now that was ridiculous. “Though I should probably shower. This is the floor of a vet’s office, and we all know what ends up down there.” Accidents went with the territory, though they always cleaned and disinfected afterward. Still, it wasn’t like he should be rolling around on the floor.
