Chapter 14 #3
“Woo-hoo. Good press for the Zullies.” Rock was enjoying himself.
Granted, he could be right. We’d had some bad press lately based on a fire in the fall, a situation that had gotten out of control.
The fault of an arsonist who’d followed us around, starting other fires to make our jobs a living hell.
Then he’d gone and gotten himself killed in the process.
That was the other half of the city and why there’d been a call to shut the program down. That’s why any act of arson was taken very seriously.
I’d wished the arsonist good riddance after almost losing two of our own. Not the best thing to say on camera.
“Yeah, well, that’s not enough.” The jumper with the nickname Raptor seemed more irritated than normal. Maybe because he’d been one of the men who’d almost lost his life trying to save the arsonist.
The captain turned his angered energy his way. “What Axe and Steel did was a damn good thing and that woman and child are lucky to be alive. Needless to say, don’t let it go to your heads. The press might come around sniffing so refer them to our public relations people.”
Oops. I’d already given a plug to the reporters snooping around after the Jeep’s fire.
“Hey, did you get her number at least, Mr. Hero?” one of the Zullies from the back called.
“He already has it,” Axe confided. With another collective sound made by the entire crew, this time my look was one for the history books.
And could easily drill his ass into the ground.
“I have two words,” I started.
“That’s enough. We need to move onto something serious. Chief Taylor. Do you want to start us off?”
“Sure, Captain Daughtry.” The chief of police was a take no bullshit kind of man, which was generally appreciated.
“You heard right. We do have a gang in town, which is somewhat unusual. From what we can tell, they’re a group of kids who are likely bored and since they’re out of school, they’re prone to getting into trouble.
We generally see an uptick this time of year every year.
But this year is a little different. Almost as if their actions are revenge based. ”
“So why are we involved?” Rock asked. He stood like normal with his arms folded, skeptical of the information.
“Because the kids have escalated from a little breaking and entering to starting fires for the fuck of it. Including at the local high school where I suspect most of them attended, although we haven’t been able to prove anything at this point. They are a little more organized than usual.”
“Any other fires?” I asked.
“Well, they did start one at a local breeder and on top of that, they stole a bunch of purebred black labrador puppies worth a lot of money. They were about to head to their new homes. Anyway, after stealing about eight of them, they tried to burn down the facility. Their methods are crude, which is why the fire department was able to douse the flames before they got out of hand.”
“Were the puppies found?” Axe asked.
“Most but not all. However, I won’t tell you what these… kids did to a couple of them. Their methods are escalating into animal torture. Including with horses at one of the local ranches. There’re a couple other fires that we think they were responsible for, but can’t prove a thing.”
“Shit,” Viper hissed. “I need to warn Grace. The animal sanctuary could be hit.”
If anything happened to his wife’s sanctuary, she would hunt the kids down herself. And I’d help her.
“Last night, there was a report of a house fire that could be attributed to them. Then there was a break-in at a local hardware store, where they stole more supplies. And with what the owner reported missing, we have a bad feeling they’re planning something much bigger.
We’re putting everyone on notice. Every police station.
Every fire department. Now, you guys. The park ranger found some evidence that they’ve been camping out.
Including some evidence of some crude explosives. ”
Black lab puppies.
Zorro. Shit. That could be why the puppy was tangled in rope.
How could I break it to Violet, let alone Damon?
“The fire we had a couple days ago almost took the life of one of our firefighters. Since we’re not dealing with experts, these kids don’t know how dangerous and volatile the material being used can be,” the fire chief added.
“Sorry to call some of you in on your day off, but we’re concerned about their escalated activities,” Chief Taylor said, sighing as he did.
For some reason, I had a bad feeling there was more to the story. “Do you have the name of the breeder?”
“Yeah, it’s with the captain. Needless to say, if you see any of the pups, give them a call. Don’t let the fact that by all appearances we’re dealing with teenagers fool you. I have a very bad feeling about what they might do. We need to stop them before they kill someone.”
Even before the meeting ended, my thoughts turned to both Violet and Damon.
The rope hadn’t been on my property. Was it possible the kids had planned on doing something?
Whatever the case, I had yet another urge to keep her safe.
At all costs.