Chapter Eighteen
A nna’s stomach clenched. “What dog would that be?”
“Look, I been all over this town tryin’ to find you, lady. The vet’s office wouldn’t tell me squat—privacy regulations, they said.” He scoffed. “Like those laws apply to animals. But the little gal down at the pet store said she knew you had a new puppy. I think it’s mine.”
Neither Bea nor Pearl could, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered a little gal , so the information must’ve come from the high school kid who worked part-time at Happy Pets. Kid probably didn’t know any better than to reveal a customer’s details to a stranger.
Anna fingers curled into fists at her sides. “Can’t help you, sorry.”
“It’s a Papillon white, brown, and black, ’bout ten, twelve weeks old.” His smile reminded her of the Cheshire cat in the old Disney Alice in Wonderland animated film. “Sound familiar?”
“Nope.” Anna shook her head firmly.
Suddenly, she remembered where she’d seen the man before. It was on the internet when she’d been researching information about Papillons. He’d been named in an article about puppy mills. His place had been raided recently by HSUS after they’d received calls of inhumane conditions at his Papillon breeding farm up north.
The governor had only recently signed the Canine Standard of Care bill into law that regulated the retail sale of dogs, and cities and counties were cracking down on breeders. Since the bill was passed, pet stores could only accept dogs from breeders that followed the Purdue standards, and some of the worst puppy mills had been shut down. There’d been a video of him with a shotgun, trying to chase them off his property. The humane society had rescued about fifty dogs from his place, which had looked horrible in the video. He was arrested for animal cruelty. Chances were good he’d been forbidden to breed dogs again.
“My nephew had a puppy break loose from his truck while he was delivering a dog for me down here last month. Been looking all up and down the river for it.” The man lied so smoothly if Anna hadn’t already known the truth, she’d have believed him. He was slick.
“Sorry, can’t help you.” No way was Anna going to let him know she had Trixie. He wasn’t even supposed to own a dog at this point. In fact, he should’ve been in jail up in Jasper County.
His face grew ruddy. “Lady, I know you’ve got my bitch, and you’d damn well better turn her over to me, or I’ll go right to your sheriff and get a warrant and…”
Anna laughed. “Look, mister. I know who you are. I saw you on the internet. You and that filthy hellhole you call a breeding farm. You haven’t been down here looking for the dog, you’ve been in jail until just a couple days ago. If you think I’d turn a rabid rat over to you—”
“So, you do have her!” Cutler looked exultant, then changed his voice to a softer, coaxing tone. “Listen, she’s a valuable dog and the last of my breeding stock since they…” He stopped. “Anyway, I want her back.”
No way that was true either—Sawyer had told her that Trixie shouldn’t be bred because of her wonky eye color. No, this guy just wanted her back so he could sell her and make a few bucks.
“Well, I have a puppy that I found abandoned in a field. She was hurt and hungry and scared.” Anna chose her words carefully.
There was nothing he could offer her. Trixie wasn’t going anywhere with this nasty creature—or with anyone.
“Some evil person had left her out there to die, She could’ve starved or been eaten by a coyote or a hawk. But I rescued her. She’s mine .”
He released a frustrated breath. “She wasn’t going to starve. He said he left a bag of—” He snapped his mouth shut and scowled, his face turning even redder, clearly aware that he’d just admitted to abandoning Trixie. “She’s my dog.”
The other women had gathered around by that time with Sam coming forward to put hand on Anna’s trembling shoulder. “Is the dog chipped?”
“No, Sawyer checked for a chip when we brought her in.” Anna leaned into her friend. Having an attorney close at hand was comforting—and empowering.
“Then you’re going to have to go to court to prove she’s yours, sir,” Sam said in her authoritative attorney voice.
“Who the hell are you ?” Cutler sneered.
Sam smiled. “I’m her attorney.”
Harley held up her phone. “And I’m guessing you’ll play hell getting her back since you’ve already been arrested for animal cruelty, and had your animals up north confiscated.”
Anna nearly wept with gratitude. “How’d you find that?”
Harley grinned. “I just googled his name and there it was.” She turned the phone around. “And I’ve been recording this.”
Anna pivoted and faced Cutler triumphantly. “You can’t have her. She’s mine.” The words came out fierce and fiery, and even as she said them, Anna reveled in the truth of them. That little puppy was hers and nobody, not this criminal and not the Papillon rescue were going take her away. She was keeping Trixie.
Ryker Lange strolled up just then with a uniformed deputy in tow. “Evening, ladies. Everything good here?”
“Here’s our police lieutenant, Mr. Cutler.” Anna swept her arm out toward Ryker. “Didn’t you say you needed to speak to him about a dog you abandoned?”
Mr. Cutler spluttered something unintelligible as Ryker stared steadily at him. “Excuse me, sir, is that your pickup illegally parked over by the overlook?” He pointed to a fairly new diesel dually parked right beside a fire hydrant.
Cutler’s shoulders fell. “I’ll go move it.”
“Actually, my deputy here is pretty sure he smelled marijuana when we walked up to check on your truck. When we peeked in the window, saw what could be a controlled substance right there on the passenger seat. Gives me probable cause to search your vehicle.”
“Wait a damn minute here!” Cutler objected.
“Let’s go take a look.” Ryker gestured toward the truck. “If I’m wrong and you’ve got a Ziploc of sage in that truck, I’ll write a parking violation. Then you can be on your way right out of town, ’cause, you know, you can pay that fine on the internet or mail it in. If, on the other hand, you do have a controlled substance in your possession, then we got a whole ’nother story going on.” Ryker tilted his head toward the deputy, who extended his hand to Cutler, leading him away. “You okay, Annabelle?”
Anna threw her arms around him. “How did you know to come down here?”
“ Oof .” He returned the hug. “Tee texted me. I was just right down the Walk there. Heard pretty much all of it.” He put both hands on her shoulders. “You don’t have to worry about that guy. He’s got way more trouble than trying to take that puppy away from you.”
“Thank you, Rye.” Then she spun around to hug Sam. “And thank you !”
Sam grinned. “If he causes you any problems in the future, we’ll take him to court. But you ask that hot new vet if she’s too young to be microchipped, and if she’s not, do it.”
“I will!”
Everyone scattered then with hugs and promises to be back on the River Walk bright and early the next morning. Anna was working in Melinda’s booth first thing and looking forward to showing people the photos her kids had taken. Harley and Holly walked with her as far as Second Street, where she veered off toward home, thinking about taking Trixie outside, and checking in with Sawyer to tell him what had happened. She needed to hear his voice, tell him everything, find out how his day went, and let him know she was thinking of him.
Everything felt right and good.