He twisted ever-so-slightly and looked behind him but couldn’t see her. But he had that inner sense that he was being watched. It could be something else, but he was hoping that the only thing out here looking and following him would be the dog he was after. He kept going, carefully keeping an eye on the world around him, but she never showed herself. Just before he walked back toward the pavement, he dropped one more pile of treats and then kept on going.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve got to find a place to stay for the night and to see about getting the rest of my equipment. I’ll return in the morning.” And he headed toward his truck.
As he got there, a group of teens—five of them—hung around his rental.
“Can I help you?” he said.
One of the kids looked at him guiltily.
“You got a problem?” Kurt asked him.
The guy immediately started to bluster. “Hey, we thought it was stolen.”
“Yeah, what would make you think it was stolen?” he asked. “It’s got rental stickers all over it.”
They just shrugged and said, “Hell, we didn’t know that.”
“Ah, because it says it right there.” And he pointed it out.
“Hey, smart-ass,” one of the kids said, “you don’t have to be nasty.”
“That’s nasty?” he asked with his eyebrows tilted.
“Whatever,” the first guy said. “Come on, guys. Let’s leave it.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Kurt said. “Leave the truck alone.”
“I’ve got nothing to do with you, old man.”
At that, he snorted. “I’m an old man? What are you? Still in diapers?”
One of the guys turned and sneered at him. “You don’t want to push it,” he said. “We don’t take kindly to strangers around here.”
“Well, if you think I’m scared, think again,” he said. “I’m not scared of little punks like you.”
At that, the guy roared, turned around, and came at him, running. Kurt braced himself for the blow and just before the kid caught up to him, Kurt smacked him hard with a hook right into the elbow swinging his way. As soon as he connected with the bone, the kid started screaming.
“Oh, my God, oh, my God,” he said, “you broke my arm.”
“Wow, that’s funny. How could I break your arm when you were the one attacking me?”
“Well, I saw everything,” his friend said. “You attacked him.”
Kurt laughed. “You think video cameras aren’t all around the truck stop?”
At that, the boys turned and looked at the cameras. One of the guys said, “Come on, Quinsy. Let’s go.”
“Fuck off,” Quinsy said. “He fucking broke my arm.”
“Come on. We have to get out of here,” the other kid snapped.
“My arm is broken! Remember?”
“Let’s go get it looked at.” Finally, at the other one’s insistence, the kids took off.
The last thing Kurt wanted was any more trouble. But, when trouble came his way, he didn’t back down.
And then a voice behind him said, “I didn’t think I’d see that day.”
He stopped, frowned, and turned to look at a cop standing nearby, his hands on his hips, studying Kurt carefully. He looked at him, and then the memory hit. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Amos Packard,” he said.
“Detective Amos Packard, if you don’t mind,” he said, crossing his arms. “It really is you, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s certainly me,” Kurt said. “Funny how, in my first day back in town, I see two people I know. Who’d have thought it?”
“Well, I can say that I fully expected you to be in trouble again.”
He looked at him in surprise, then looked at the kids. “That wasn’t trouble,” he said. “They were just kids in trouble.”
“You would recognize that, wouldn’t you?”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I sure would. I was a pain in the ass back then, wasn’t I?”
“Yep, you sure were,” Amos said. “The question is, are you still?”
He grinned at him. “Thirteen years in the navy, as a Navy SEAL, before I was medically discharged.” He watched the shock and the surprise in Amos’s eyes.
“Seriously?”
Kurt nodded. “The US Navy was the best thing for me,” he said. “It took a bit, and I didn’t learn quickly, but I did eventually learn and straightened up pretty decent too.”
“Wow,” he said; then he frowned. “Medically discharged?”
“Yes, an underwater accident,” he said. “Took my lower leg, compromised my lungs, crushed a few ribs.” He shrugged and said, “You know how accidents happen.”
“Apparently,” he said. Studying Kurt’s legs, he asked, “You lost a leg?”
For that answer, Kurt reached down and hitched up his jeans, so Amos could see the prosthetic.
“Wow, okay then. So what are you doing back in town?”
“I’m here,” Kurt said, wondering if maybe Amos would be of help, “looking for a War Dog last seen in this vicinity.”
Amos frowned. “War Dog?” he asked cautiously.
Kurt explained the problem.
“Interesting,” Amos said. “I did hear a dog was around here and that she was attacking people.”
“Well, I don’t know that Sabine would attack people,” Kurt said, “because that certainly wouldn’t be normal behavior for her.”
“Normal or not,” he said, “that’s the rumors and that’s the reports we’ve had.”
“Anybody find her yet?”
The detective shook his head. “No, not yet. So you are looking for it too?”
“I am. I thought maybe she was following me in the bush back here. But I didn’t catch sight of her.”
“Well, I certainly won’t be upset if you catch her,” the detective said, “because that’s an open case, and we’re still trying to find her before she attacks somebody else.”
“Well, I guess it depends on who she was attacking. If it was stupid kids like that, who were just looking for trouble, then they deserve every bite they get,” he said calmly, leaning against the rental truck, his arms over his chest, as he studied the detective. He understood that there would be a certain amount of bad feelings between him and the community because he had certainly caused his own share of trouble. “And I’m not here to cause trouble for anybody. I want to save the dog.”
“Interesting,” Amos murmured, as he studied Kurt. “I really want to believe that you’ve had a change of heart and have done some growing up, but I’m not sure anybody will put the time and effort into a dog like that.”
“And isn’t that just too damn bad that that’s hard to believe?” Kurt said. “But if you don’t trust me, you can call my boss.” And he gave him Badger’s card, with the number for Titanium Corp.
“Fine,” he said, “I will do that.”
“Good. In the meantime, I have to find a motel or a place to stay.”