Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
A foolish thought had my hand going to the handle to open the door, but my wiser-than-me dog shoved it away with his snout and warned me away with a growl.
The man agreed with Mo, shaking his head. His eyes were wide with fright, and he shot a quick glance to the right before he focused on me once again. Only this time he mouthed clearly enough for me to understand, DANGER, then he took off.
Mo knows me too well. He got himself between me and the door handle, blocking me from chasing after him, which I so desperately wanted to do. Instead, I grabbed my cell phone off the coffee table and called my dad.
“Don’t you dare go after him!” my dad ordered after I explained what happened. “I’m on my way and call Ian and get him over there now.”
I heard him yell, “Josh” just before he ended the call.
He didn’t give me a chance to tell him that I intended to call Ian but before I could someone dashed past the French doors. He was a blur with the rain falling so heavily. The vanishing guy was being pursued and with the possibility of him being vital to solving this mystery, I just couldn’t stand there and do nothing.
I rushed to slip on my rain boots and into my rain jacket and thought about leaving Mo behind, but that wasn’t an option since I found him sitting in front of the French doors with his vest in his mouth.
I got it on him quickly, then took a moment to send a quick text to Ian. In pursuit, two, call sheriff. Mo with me.
Mo is a brilliant dog with many talents, tracking being one of them. He took off as soon as we stepped on the deck. Dogs can track in heavy rain though the rain makes it harder for them scent-wise. From the look of it, Mo wasn’t having any difficulty following a scent.
The rain came down in sheets, turning the forest floor into a swampy obstacle course. Trees loomed overhead, their branches swatting like fly swatters, and the rain hitting the leaves with the force of rapid gunfire.
“Mo, be careful!” I called, swiping rain from my face repeatedly.
Mo raced ahead like a wolf born to the wild. Water dripped from his vest and thick coat, but he was unbothered by it, too intent on the hunt.
I caught flashes of movement in the gray blur of rain through the trees up ahead, and my heart thudded in my chest, hoping I might finally get hold of the vanishing guy.
I shouted encouragement. “You got this, Mo!”
I did my best to keep up with Mo, though if it wasn’t for the rain I doubt I would have been able to. My lungs protested, but adrenaline kept me going.
Mo slowed for a moment, his ears perking up, and with one sharp bark, he was off like a furry missile. His paws barely touched the ground as he zigzagged through the trees, a blur of wet fur and sheer determination.
I huffed, doing my best to match his pace but failing, though I did manage to keep him and one guy in sight. He was weaving through the trees, his pace slowing and I wondered if he had lost sight of the vanishing guy who might just have vanished again.
Mo didn’t hesitate, he surged forward with the force of a furry freight train.
The rain blurred everything except the moment it happened—Mo launched himself with all the precision of a canine catapult, crashing square into the guy’s side. They hit the ground hard, splashing into a puddle with a satisfying smack.
“Get this beast off me!” the man yelled with annoyance, though wisely didn’t raise his hand to Mo to push him off his chest where his paws were solidly planted.
I was panting by the time I reached Mo and was quick to praise him. “Great job, Mo! Hold him there.”
Mo’s ears twitched at my voice, but his eyes stayed locked on the guy, his stance firm and watchful like he was guarding a vault of gold.
I cast a quick look in the distance, but the rain made it impossible to see too far. The vanishing guy had vanished again.
“Call your dog off, Pepper.”
I turned, hearing my name, and stooped down some to give Mo a pat on the head, his fur drenched, reminding me we needed to bring this to an end fast, and to finally get a look at the guy Mo had captured.
It was Damian Stone.
Damian’s scowl deepened as he glared up at me, rainwater soaking his face. “This is ridiculous. Call off your mutt.”
“Not until you tell me why you were in hot pursuit of a guy in my neck of the woods like you were auditioning for a crime drama,” I said, planting my hands on my hips after standing straight. “And Mo does not take well to being called a mutt.”
Mo confirmed with a low, warning growl, and Damian’s eyes flicked to him with a mix of fear and frustration.
“Fine, fine!” Damian snapped, holding his hands up briefly in surrender. “But I’m not saying a word until you call him off.”
“Okay,” I agreed, then warned, “but just remember, Mo can easily bring you down again. Mo, release.”
Mo didn’t move right away, giving Damian one last, hard stare before slowly backing off. His eyes never left him, though, and his body stayed tense, ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble.
Damian dragged himself out of the rain puddle with all the enthusiasm of a cat taking a bath. He flicked mud off his jacket with a grimace, glancing at Mo as if bracing for Round Two of Canine Wrestling Championships.
“You’re lucky I’m feeling generous, Pepper,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, you’re dripping with generosity,” I shot back, wiping the rain off my face. “But save the charm. We’ll talk inside.”
“For once, we agree,” Damian said.
Halfway to my cabin, Ian and Beau emerged from the trees like some rugged, handsome rescue team, decked out in rain gear. Ian’s sharp eyes locked on Damian, his jaw tightening like he was ready to brawl.
“Mo convinced him to talk,” I said, managing a soggy grin so he would realize there was no need to trade blows.
“You’re soaked—again,” Ian said and, to my relief, returned my grin and took hold of my hand.
I shrugged. “Hazard of the job. How did you know where to find me?” I asked, but then it hit me. “The tracker on Mo.”
Ian’s grin widened as we headed home, Beau making sure Damian kept pace with us.
By the time we reached the cabin, my dad was on my half-built deck with what looked like the entire Willow Lake police force, maybe not quite all, but close to it. Rain dripped off the plastic covering his sheriff hat, his glare sharp enough to slice through the downpour.
“What part of ‘don’t go after him’ wasn’t clear?” he barked.
I gave my most innocent smile, which, judging by his expression, didn’t help much. “I’ll explain everything. Just let us all dry off first.”
My dad grumbled something as he turned that sounded suspiciously like “trouble magnet” before waving off most of the officers. Josh was one of the two left and, of course, he had to smile gleefully at me.
Grow up , I mouthed, as he wagged his finger at me like we were still kids and laughed. Typical Josh.
Josh was instructed to follow me, Mo, Ian, Beau, and Damian to the garage where I handed Damian a mismatched outfit from the pile of “products to review,” while Mo got a thorough towel-dry and a dog biscuit the size of my arm for his heroic efforts. He followed me into the house, proudly carrying his reward.
My dad was waiting in the kitchen with the kettle boiling. “Tea to warm you.” He gave a nod to Mo, who had parked himself in front of the cold fireplace to enjoy his bone. “That’s one great dog you’ve got.”
“He sure is and you’re the best, Dad,” I said with a huge smile, hoping my truthful praise would soften his annoyance with me.
“We’ll see how you feel about that once I get done questioning you,” he warned, trying to suppress a smile and failing.
Ian was less amused when he joined me in the bedroom. “Two. You follow two men into the woods in the rain, Pep. Really?” He shook his head. “Not a wise move.”
“One of them plastered himself to my French doors like some creepy Halloween decoration and warned me of danger before taking off and Damian pursuing him, though I didn’t know it was Damian at the time. But I did know the Halloween decoration.”
“Who was it?” Ian asked.
“The vanishing guy.”
Ian shook his head again. “And you thought it a brilliant idea to follow when the guy just warned you of danger?”
“It made sense at the time,” I mumbled. “Besides, you would have done the same.”
“You’ve got me there,” he agreed as he wrapped his arm around my waist, smiling softly.
“I don’t need my hair turning white just yet, Pep.”
I laughed softly at his reference to my dad constantly complaining that all my antics, mishaps, and stubbornness had caused his hair to turn white.
“You’d look distinguished in white hair,” I teased, though meant it.
“Not yet.” His reply was interrupted by raised voices from the living room.
We hurried to finish and rushed to see what was going on.
We found Dad nose-to-nose with Stone.
“I don’t have to stay here,” Stone said, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child.
“Actually, you do,” I said. “Mo let you go on the condition that you answer my question. What were you doing following that guy and while you’re at it, how do you know him?”
Stone looked nothing like a hardcore biker in sweats and a sweatshirt and I thought how looks could deceive just as a smile could if one wasn’t aware how to distinguish the difference between a genuine one and a false one. Not that Stone was smiling. It was clear that he was annoyed.
“I don’t know the guy,” Stone said. “I came by to talk to you, and I spotted him lurking around. He took off when I came around the corner of your cabin and saw him plastered against your door. I figured I’d follow him and find out what he was doing here.”
My dad didn’t miss a beat. “What if it was the other way around? What if the guy you chased had come here to talk with Pepper, saw you lurking, and once you spotted him, you chased after him?”
“That’s not what happened, and like I said, I don’t know the guy,” Stone argued and turned to me. “I wanted to talk to you about that professor. I don’t think you should trust him.”
“Because?” I prompted.
“He’s out for himself.”
“You mean he’s out for your treasure,” I corrected.
“Yeah, I believe he is, and if he’s not truthful about that, then how do you trust him? I’m not here to hurt anybody, Pepper. I came to get what’s mine and that’s all.”
“Professor Anderson told you that even if there is Willow treasure to be found, you have no claim to it. The mansion and everything in it became the property of the town once taxes were failed to be paid, then the Willow Lake Historical Society bought it and is now the rightful owner. You have no claim on any Willow holdings,” I said.
“We’ll see about that,” Stone threatened.
Ian took a quick step towards him. “Is that a threat?”
Stone drew his shoulders back. “I came here to get what’s mine and I’m not leaving until I get it.”
“I can promise you are definitely going to get what you deserve before you leave here,” Ian said, his tone alone threatening.
Stone smirked as he took a sudden step at Ian.
It happened so fast it was like a blip on a screen. Ian didn’t back down, he moved forward, and so did my dad, but Mo beat them all to it. He launched himself over the couch like being sprung from a catapult and Damian found himself sprawled out on the floor Mo’s large paws keeping him pinned there just like in the woods. This time, however, Mo planted his face close to Stone’s, growling so fiercely that saliva dripped from his mouth onto his face.
“Pepper!” Fear shivered Stone’s shout.
“Mo, release,” I ordered, and Mo moved off him and came to my side and sat.
Stone bounced up on his feet and glared at Ian. “I don’t need a dog to defend me.”
I nudged myself against Ian to prevent him from stepping forward and refreshing the whole ordeal, though it wasn’t necessary. My dad used his I’m-in-charge sheriff’s tone to end it.
“A lawyer would serve you better, Mr. Stone, since my deputy here,” —my dad nodded at Josh— “is going to take you to the police station for further questioning.”
“You can’t. I haven’t done anything wrong,” Stone protested.
“That has yet to be determined,” my dad said with another nod to Josh who shoved the plastic bag that held Damian’s wet clothes at him, then took him by the arm and walked him out of the house.
Naturally, Stone had to yell, “We’re not finished yet, pretty boy.”
He shouldn’t have spoken in an angry tone. Mo took off, Stone hearing his rapid approach urged Josh to hurry.
“Get me out of here now!”
Mo didn’t stop. He followed Josh and Stone out the door and rammed his head into Stone’s backside, knocking him free of Josh’s hold and sending him into a rather large rain puddle, yet again.
Dripping wet, Stone struggled to get to his feet. “You’re going to pay for this, Pepper.”