Chapter 3
CURRENT DAY
CROW
“Pull over!”
I looked at my son’s reflection in the rearview mirror when I heard the panic in his voice and could tell by the look on his face he was serious. I turned on my blinker and then my hazards as I pulled over onto the grass, being careful not to let my tires slip down into the ditch.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I put the truck in park.
“There was . . . I saw . . .” Griffin stammered as he unlatched his seatbelt and turned around to look out the back window. “Crow, there are puppies back there!”
“What?” I asked as I looked around at the flat landscape that was only interrupted by the occasional mesquite bush and barbed wire fencing. “Griff, there aren’t —”
“Look, Crow! Do you see them? What are they doing out here?” Griffin yelled as he reached for the door handle.
“No!” I shouted before he could open it. As horrible as it seemed, I wasn’t surprised by this. I knew people dumped dogs out here in the country more than anyone would care to admit. “This is a two-lane road, and it’s not safe for you to be out beside it. I’ll go take a look and then report back.”
“How did they get all the way out here? Where is their mama, Crow?”
“Let me see what’s going on, and then we’ll talk about it,” I hedged, hoping I’d find nothing more than oddly shaped trash so I could avoid the conversation about how shitty and heartless some people could be when it came to animals. “Stay in the truck, okay? Don’t even open the door.”
“Yessir,” Griffin said without taking his eyes off the ditch behind us.
I looked over my shoulder to make sure we were still alone on the road.
When I saw that it was clear, I opened the door and got out, steeling myself for what I really hoped I wasn’t about to find.
I was about fifty yards from the truck when I spotted them and sighed when I realized Griffin had been right.
There were puppies out here, and from the looks of them, they were all either dead or close to it.
“Well, fuck,” I muttered as I squatted down beside the black plastic bag.
The smell almost knocked me over, and I gagged as I lifted the ripped edge of the bag that had obviously been tied in the hopes of either suffocating the poor animals inside or at least keeping them contained until they died from dehydration or starvation.
“This would make anyone understand just how fucked up people can be.”
I realized that one of the puppies that had managed to make its way out of the bag was still alive, and as I reached for it, another one squirmed.
I had one in each hand and was looking over the others, four of which I could tell had been dead for quite some time, when I saw a small puppy’s sides heaving in and out.
I put the puppies on the grass and pulled off my shirt. Once it was lying on the grass, I settled the three living puppies on it and then held my breath while I made sure the others were really gone.
As the puppies squirmed weakly against each other, I looked around and wondered what the hell I should do now.
I didn’t have a shovel or anything with me to bury the ones that were already gone, and I wasn’t about to take them back to the truck where my son was waiting, so I decided there was no other choice but to leave them there.
“I hate people so much right now,” I muttered as I covered the puppies with the edges of my shirt and then gently scooped them up into my arms. As I walked back to the truck, I grimaced when I saw Griffin’s excited face pressed against the back window.
Shit. I could guarantee this scenario wasn’t in any parenting book, and I’d read many since Griffin was born.
I truly hated the feeling of helplessness that came over me when I thought about having to explain to my son what had happened to these animals.
“If I ever feel the urge to go on a killing spree, I’m gonna use this shit as my defense.
I won’t spend a fucking minute in prison, I swear to God. ”
When I got back to the truck, I opened the front passenger door and laid the puppies on the floorboard, well out of Griffin’s reach and sight so he wouldn’t have to witness it if any of them died before we made it back to Rojo.
Griffin leaned over the console and stared down at my T-shirt with tears in his eyes as he asked, “Why did their mama leave them all alone?”
“Oh, kiddo, I’m sure their mama had nothing to do with this,” I said as I reached for my water bottle with one hand and flipped open the glove box with the other.
“Give me the straw out of your soda, son.” Griffin handed it over, and I dipped it into my water before I leaned in and held the straw against each puppy’s mouth in the hopes of giving them at least a few drops to better their chance of survival.
After each of them had licked the straw a few times, I tossed it onto the floorboard and used the rest of the water to rinse my hands.
“Open my phone and call Nichole. She’ll know what to do. ”
“She’s out of town with Hank, Shannon, and Grunt,” Griffin reminded me.
“She’ll know who else we can call,” I assured him as I dried my hands with the last of the fast food napkins I kept in my glove box. “Right now, there’s not much more we can do, bud.”
When I glanced over, Griffin was wiping the tears off his cheeks. It was hard to hold back my own tears when he looked up at me with heartbreak in his eyes. “Drive fast, Crow. You have to hurry.”
Even though I wasn’t sure that anything other than a miracle was going to save the pitiful animals who were so still and quiet as they lay there on the floorboard, I knew I’d do just about anything to ease his pain, so I nodded in agreement before I shut the door and jogged around to the driver’s side.
So much for a relaxing day of fishing and hanging out at the lake with my favorite kid one last time before school started.
Now we had much more important and probably heartbreaking things to take care of.
◆◆◆
DARCY
“Thank you for calling the Paw Spa. This is Tansy,” I heard my sister say as she held the phone between her shoulder and her ear. “Oh! Hello, Nichole!”
I assumed the caller was Nichole Grissom, the veterinarian we’d met soon after we moved to Rojo, and she had a new rescue that needed grooming, so I took a tray off the shelf and walked into the storage room where I kept my supplies.
There were too many variables for me to gather the exact things I would need, but there were some basics that I could go ahead and get ready.
I grabbed the flea and tick shampoo I preferred, a kit I would need to clean the animal’s ears, and a package of clippers and files.
Since I wasn’t sure of the animal’s size, I stacked a few microfiber towels on the tray and then carried it out into what we referred to as the “gen pop” area, where the dogs who were here for daycare hung out when they weren’t playing outside.
Half a dozen dogs were in the midst of their morning nap, so I maneuvered my way around them and set the tray of supplies against the wall.
With that ready, I walked into a different room where we kept animals who weren’t quite even-tempered enough to roam freely so I could give them some attention until the next client arrived.
I had just gotten Ursula out of her pen when I heard Tansy walk in. I looked over my shoulder before I said, “Fair warning! Ursula is out, and she hasn’t had a sip of blood in at least two hours.”
“I can’t figure out why that dog hates me so damn much,” Tansy complained.
At the sound of her voice, the tiny chihuahua in my arms started to tremble, but I knew from experience that it wasn't from fear. The little ball of homicidal rage was building up her power so she could attack my sister’s face, or at least her ankles, since that was about as high as she could reach.
“Ursula, you’ve gotta chill, girl. That woman is the one who makes the food you love so much.
Haven’t you ever heard the expression, ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you’? ”
“She wouldn’t just bite it; she’d probably gnaw it off and carry it around as a trophy,” Tansy grumbled, highly irritated that even though she’d never done anything to make the dog hate her, she did .
. . with a passion. “At least it’s not just me she hates.
I think the only people in the world she likes are you and Jewel. ”
“She doesn’t like us either. She just tolerates us,” I offered, trying to console Tansy. “She’d eat my face off, too, if it suited her purposes.”
“I firmly believe she’s a reincarnated serial killer,” Tansy said as she scowled over my shoulder.
Ursula bared her tiny razor-sharp teeth and started to growl, so I ran my hand over her head to calm her.
“Nichole called with an emergency for you. There’s a man and his kid on their way with three puppies.
She’s still out of town, so she hasn’t seen them, but from the description he gave her, it seems like they were just recently born. ”
“She doesn’t have the staff for that, I’m sure.”
“No. She said if she were here, she’d take them home so her husband could dote on them, but then she’d end up with three more dogs because he can never seem to let an animal go that he’s cared for.”
“That could be a problem since she owns a shelter,” I pointed out with a chuckle before I kissed Ursula’s head and then set her back on the bed inside her pen and then covered her with the blanket her owner brought in with her every day before I shut the door and turned toward my sister.
Tansy had just picked up Athena, a Pomeranian with almost the same temperament as Ursula, who was relaxed after her grooming appointment this morning, when the front door chimed as someone came in. “I’ll get that.”
“Thanks. I’m in need of some snuggles after the terrifying encounter with that beast,” Tansy joked as she let Athena snuggle up under her neck. “You go ahead. This little sweetie will protect me.”