Something was very off with my pups. I walked into the kitchen, saw the note on the counter written in sloppy scrawl on my own damn notepad.
You keep asking questions and I’ll make you watch while I gut your dogs.
Then I’ll bleed you, too. You got lucky this time. BTW, 12DA was a piss poor stud and too small to sell as bait.
So, I shot him.
Can’t believe the little bastard lived.
Ohmygod that was the brand on Mack’s belly.
12DA.
CC’s brand read 63DA.
And these motherfuckers came into my house and threatened my dogs! Threatened me! Well, this shit just backfired on them. Because I had their number. Literally. Something I’d waited to tell Brody because of all the other feels last night.
I wasn’t scared of them. I was fucking pissed. Rage coursed through me. When I opened the back door for the dogs, I saw the busted window in my laundry room. Damn them.
Whipping out my phone, I dialed Brody as I walked around the house to see if anything else had been touched.
“Hey, darlin’, I’m getting ready to go to the doctor. Miss me already?”
“Those motherfuckers broke into my house and threatened to gut my dogs!” I turned back to the living room, scanning over everything.
“Say what now?”
“I found another note. They broke into my house last night. Threatened me, and the dogs, and said I was lucky I wasn’t here.”
I felt a rage like I’d never experienced before building under my skin. This must’ve been what a mother felt like protecting her young. It worked up my spine, over my shoulders and up my neck, down into my arms that were tense as a bow string and into my hands that I’d balled into fists.
I’d never been in a fist fight and had wondered from time to time about my fight or flight. Would I flee like Mack or would I go batshit like Jet?
I had my answer.
“Lily, calm down. You need to call the police. I’m on my way now.”
That snapped me out of it. “No. You can’t come, Brody. Not with cops. Not if we’re going to keep us a secret.”
“Shit. Goddamn motherfucking shit!” He pushed out a heavy breath, trying to get a grip on his own temper. “Okay. How’d they get in?”
“Hopped the fence and broke a window. And before you ask, I have a video doorbell and cameras for the front and back of the house that I haven’t installed yet.” Walking into my bedroom, I noticed my jewelry box open. “Shit. Please, please, please no.”
“Lily, what’s wrong?”
I picked through my jewelry, searching for the only thing that meant anything to me. “No. Please, no. Brody...they took my daddy’s championship ring.”
It wasn’t until I hung up and called the cops that I noticed the other thing that was missing.
The slip of paper on the edge of my desk with the name and phone number Brody and Hayes had managed to get out of the pet shop owner.
* * *
“We’ll check with neighbors to see if any of them have cameras that could have caught the thief. I’ll check into the name you gave me, but it’s only speculation at this point. Whoever came in got out clean. I’ll have forensics examine the letter for evidence.” Officer Johnson held up the plastic bag.
I told him about the mill and gave him the name and number Brody had gotten at the pet store. Come to find out Officer Johnson was a dog lover. He had a retired K-9 at home. “I’ll do some research into the mill, Ms. Costello, but you should let the professionals handle it. File a complaint, hand over your evidence, and let the appropriate authorities investigate.”
Yeah, because that won’t get buried and never happen. Besides, how did I file a complaint about animal abuse when I had no animals and no way of knowing when the next would show up?
I played along to get rid of him. “I’d just really like to get my dad’s ring back. What are the odds you guys will find it?”
His sympathetic smile made me want to smack him no matter how nice he and his partner were. “We’ll do our best.” His mouth said one thing, but his face said don’t bet on it. “You got someplace you can go for a few nights? Or maybe someone who can stay here with you?”
Nodding, I fidgeted with the inside of my lip.
Please leave so I can call Brody. I still needed to tell him what I’d told the cop.
Finally, he left, and I sank down on the step in my backyard, phone in hand.
Twenty minutes later, he showed up sans shoulder brace. “What did the cop say?”
“They’ll look into Andrew Brower, but unless they can connect him, they can’t do anything. They got out clean, but they’re going to check the letter. I feel like I got a very polite blow off. Takeaway: No blood or bodily harm pushed me way down the priority list.”
“Yeah, but your dad’s ring...”
I fiddled with a hangnail. “It’s insured, but that’s not the point.”
Brody pulled me into his arms. Lines were etched into his face that I’d never seen before. “I’m so sorry, darlin’.”
“I didn’t get to tell you last night because we were...” I cleared my throat.
“Playing hide the salami?” he added.
It had the desired effect.
A laugh burst from me and I leaned back to see his face. “While you were gone, I came up empty on Andrew Brower. What I did find, I didn’t think was our guy.”
“What makes you say that?” Brody picked up Mack’s ball, hurled it into the yard, and the dog darted after it.
“The first guy was an engineer relocated here from Seattle. The second was a journalist. Not exactly the guys you’d expect to be running a puppy farm. I gave the officer the name and number you got at the pet shop, and copies of my research. But what I couldn’t tell him was I gave the name and number to Carrie, too.”
“Why Carrie?” he asked.
“Um, because she’s a white hat hacker. She consults. Companies hire her to test their internet security systems for weak spots.”
Brody’s mouth dropped open. “Sweet little Carrie? I’ll be damned.” Brody guffawed. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Yeah, you don’t want to piss her off, trust me. She can clean out your accounts and have you declared legally dead inside of five minutes. I’m sure what she did must have been all kinds of illegal, but she managed to find out that Andrew Brower is most likely an alias, the phone was a burner phone someone paid cash for. BUT, she was able to pinpoint recent calls from that number to acreage about five miles northeast of the practice facility.” Brody’s grin began to stretch. “The land belongs to an elderly woman in an assisted living facility, land is still used for livestock, but it’s run by a farm manager who did a stint in Huntsville.”