Chapter 15
COLT
It had been three days since I’d seen Molly.
She worked nights this week, I worked days. We slept on alternate schedules. I’d even gone into the ER twice when she worked but I’d missed her. Once she was with a patient getting a CAT scan, another the nurses had no idea where she was.
I messaged. Texted. I felt like a tenth grader with his first girlfriend. I felt like a real stalker wanting to catch even a glimpse of her. My heart and my dick both missed her.
Something was up.
Molly had accused me of stalking her. It hadn’t been true before, but I was almost to stalker stage now. In fact, it was only Cam’s call that kept me from pulling into the hospital lot and finding my girl, even if she was in the morgue cutting up a dead body.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
“Dude, I need you over here.”
Cam was pretty levelheaded. He could handle his own. As a vet, the most dangerous patient he cared for was Mr. Bateman’s yippy chihuahua and that little fucker liked to bite. I knew because I’d been on more than one call for him doing just that.
I stiffened in my seat. “Is there an emergency?”
“No lights and sirens needed, but I got something to show you,” he said. From the tone of his voice, it didn’t sound like he was going to show me the letter that said he won the lottery.
Looking left and right, then in the rearview mirror, I did a one-eighty in the road and cut across town to Cam’s animal clinic.
It was on the edge of Devil’s Ditch where there was enough land for a large pen that was attached to the building.
He treated everything from birds and lizards to dogs and cats, but also large animals like sheep and cows.
Those didn’t come in through the front door on a leash, but were transported in a trailer and put in the pen.
I parked, waved to Louisa, his vet tech, who pointed me to his office.
Cam was in his desk chair and he swiveled to face me. I took off my hat. Beneath my coat, I was sweating. I didn’t like the idea of anything happening to my family and the fact that he hadn’t mentioned what it was had me coming up with all kinds of possibilities.
“Dude, you’re making me feel like Ma, freaking out when there’s something up with one of us,” I told him.
He smirked, then it slipped away. Not a good sign. “Sorry.”
“What the hell’s going on?”
He spun his chair back to his desk and pointed at his computer screen.
“Someone broke into the clinic last night.”
“What?” I asked, moving to get a better look. “Any damage? Did they take anything?”
Cam was opening his security feed and, using a mouse, hit rewind on a black and white recording. I moved so I could see even better and leaned my hip against the desk.
“There.” He hit play.
It was the front lobby from an odd angle where the camera was positioned to record a wide-angle view. It was empty and the windows were black indicating it’d been nighttime. The clock in the corner said nine-sixteen.
The door swung open, bounced off the wall and a woman came in. She shut the door behind her and stepped toward the counter. Cam paused the video.
I leaned closer. He zoomed in.
I froze.
Holy fucking hell.
It was Molly. She had on a black beanie, but I couldn’t miss the soft fringe of hair beneath the cuff. I knew those eyes. That mouth. Every inch of her body.
“Why the fuck’s your girlfriend breaking into my vet clinic?” he asked.
That was a really good, fucking question. Because that time last night, she was supposed to have been on shift at the hospital.
“Anything taken?” I asked, my tone laced with confusion and anger. It was real hard to separate out the man from the lawman in this.
He resumed play and we watched her head down the hall. “No. But the meds are all locked up in the safe at night.”
“What the fuck does she want with farm meds?” I wondered.
“I’d say ketamine,” he replied. “Can be used on people and animals.”
Molly wanted ketamine? To what, sell? It was a relaxant. Knocked people out. Used sometimes as a date rape drug. It made no sense.
“I only have the one camera,” Cam told me. His voice was almost apologetic, but who would want to break into a vet clinic that had secured drugs?
She was a doctor, which meant she knew medications and knew which ones to pick. Unless she was drugging random animals, I had to assume they were for people.
I spun on my heel and cut down the central hall that had patient rooms on either side. A dog barked and the scent of animal and disinfectant made my nose twitch. When I got to my patrol SUV, I spun about when I heard someone following, crunching gravel under quick feet. It was Cam.
“I’m coming with you,” he said, looking determined.
“I can do this on my own.”
He shook his head. “No way. I know how you feel about her. This time, you get back-up from me.”
He was in jeans, a plaid shirt, and a fleece vest on top. When he did surgeries, he wore scrubs, so it obviously wasn’t a spay and neutering day.
“Fine,” I muttered, then hopped in the car. Fortunately for Cam, he got his door shut before I sped out of the lot, my tires kicking up dirt and rock. I’d thought I knew Molly. That what we felt was like Ma and Pops.
It seemed there was a lot I didn’t know about the woman. In fact, after what I saw and the fact that she lied about being at work last night, I wasn’t even sure if she was the woman for me.