Chapter Six #2
“Disposal moving to Poultry now.” Aronson paused. “I have people in the horse barns. Head to Goats and Sheep and then the swine.”
“Copy.”
Jake waved to the team assembling outside the Poultry Barn, then turned to jog downhill. They passed the horse stable and the show ring, their steps slowing as they approached the building on far west side of the fairgrounds. On impulse, he grabbed Cass’s radio and spoke into it.
“I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence the sheep, swine and poultry are kept away from the main drag.”
Cass didn’t disappoint. “If fairgoers want to experience the stinkier species, they know where to find them.”
“It’s hard to believe horses and cows are deemed the better option,” he countered.
“Where are you? Obviously not Goats and Sheep or Swine barns.”
“Yet,” he added. “We found one at Poultry, nothing at Rabbits.”
“So, we’re up to seven.”
She started to say more, but he cut her off when another call came through on the official channel. “Number eight is in Cattle Barn 1.”
“We’re getting close,” Cass said, her voice a mix of tension and hopefulness. There was a pause and then she spoke softly. “It’s almost two, Jake. Don’t go in there yet.”
“I’ll remind the others to fall back for a few minutes.” He turned in the direction of the midway. Jake checked his watch. It was four minutes to the hour. He called to base. “Top of the hour. Should we take ten, Chief?”
A moment later, Aronson replied. “Yeah, everyone fall back until five past.”
Without giving it much thought, Jake clicked his tongue and he and Max headed for the midway.
When they arrived at the carousel, they found Cass sitting slumped against a glittery green seahorse, her expression a heart-wrenching mix of loneliness and determination.
She whirled past, her attention fixed on the bench across from her.
“Hey.”
Her head popped up. “Oh. Hey. You came back.”
Trying to play it cool even though his heart raced as he and Max hopped onto the moving platform, he shrugged. “We’re taking ten to clear the top of the hour.”
She nodded, pressing her lips together as she took the information in. “Aronson must have a lot of faith in your word if he’s agreed to pause the hunt based on a hunch.”
“I think he has faith in our combined theory.” He pulled a collapsable water bowl from Max’s vest and shook it open. Cracking the cap on a bottle of water, he dumped half of it into the bowl before taking a long pull of what was left for himself. “Besides, it’s the only one we’ve got so far.”
Cass checked the display on her phone. “One fifty-nine.”
Her voice was tense. Jake wished there was something he could say to ease her anxiety, but he knew anything he attempted would sound trite.
It was clear the person behind all this was targeting Cass, and there was no way to make her feel better about any of it.
But he felt compelled to try. He opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut again when Max straightened abruptly then plunked his big muzzle down on Cass’s leg.
“Oh!” she gasped in surprise.
“Max,” Jake said, a note of reprimand in his tone.
But the shepherd didn’t budge. Instead, he looked up at Cass, large ears twitching and amber eyes sincere.
“Sweet boy,” she cooed, resting her hand on the dog’s head.
Jake stared at his partner, lips parted in surprise.
Max was a good dog. An obedient dog. A well-trained and enthusiastic officer at work, and an easy companion with him.
But Jake never referred to Max as a sweet boy.
Sure, he was friendly and even a little affectionate toward Jake, but Max was extremely task-oriented.
He worked, ate, ran and slept. Bred to be a K-9 officer, usually Max barely acknowledged any human other than Jake.
“Wow,” Jake managed to say at last.
Cass tilted her head, her hair falling to the side as she eyed him curiously. “What?”
“He doesn’t…” Stopping to clear the croak from his throat, he gave a short chuckle. “I’ve never seen him do that.”
“No?” She turned her full attention to Max. “Maybe he’s not into you,” she teased, gracing his partner with a warm, conspiratorial smile. “Maybe he’s a ladies’ man…dog,” she crooned, wrinkling her nose at Max as she beamed approval at him.
For the first time since Max had sprung from his trainer’s kennel, Jake felt a pang of jealousy. The problem was, he didn’t know if he was envious of Cass’s easy manner with Max, or the fact she’d looked at Max the same way she used to look at him.
Like he was…everything.
His mind flashed to the last weekend he and Cass had spent together.
The transition from high school to college had been tough.
The three hours between them feeling endless.
Their phone calls stretched into the nights, but often they’d end up bickering more than talking.
In a desperate attempt to get back on the same page, he’d come down from Fayetteville for the weekend, and they’d come here. To the fair.
They’d eaten their fill of fried food, ridden every ride, and even played a few of the rigged games.
On the surface, it had felt like a good day, but something was off.
Cass was distant. Standoffish. She hadn’t smiled at him, like once, the whole time they’d been together.
And then he’d heard she’d been spending time with a classmate who’d attended their high school—a guy Jake knew for a fact had always liked Cass—and he’d decided to cut and run before she decided to dump him.
“Jake?”
Her voice jolted him from his reverie. “Huh?”
“It’s two minutes past two.” She spoke so softly it was almost a whisper.
As if remembering his dignity, Max lifted his chin from her knee and stretched out on his stomach between them. Jake glanced down at his dog then up at her. Their eyes met, and she offered him a tremulous little smile. Her eyes shone with hope, but his stomach filled with dread.
This moment felt so much like day at the fair so long ago. Jake remembered wanting everything to be right and easy between them. To feel the way they used to feel. Without doubts or questions. Then Cassidy spoke the two worst words in the English language out loud.
“What if—”
But she didn’t get to complete the thought before her phone buzzed with an incoming message.
Have your pals been messing with the presents I left for you, Lieutenant?
She held the phone out for Jake to see. “I’m guessing the pirate ship was supposed to be two o’clock.”
“Maybe so.” Jake radioed Aronson. “Another message. Looks like we preempted the pyrotechnics planned for two o’clock.”
A faint cheer rose from the far side of the carnival. Jake stood and was about to turn to leave when Cass called him back. “Wait! Look.” She thrust the phone at him again. This time, the person on the other end hadn’t bothered to make a new thread.
You want to speed up the timeline? Fine by me.
He opened his mouth to question the meaning of the message but his words were drowned out by a substantial blast. The explosion made everything around them shudder and shake.
“Oh, no,” Cass moaned, rising to her feet. She pressed one hand to her mouth as she gripped the seahorse’s head for balance.
An eerie moment of silence swallowed the first burst of commotion.
Then a jumble of voices on both radios broke through.
A plume of smoke rose from the direction of the livestock barns.
The warning blip of an emergency vehicle siren sliced through the mayhem.
He caught the words “Cattle Barn” loud and clear.
Jake glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
But Cass turned back to the bench where she’d left her own radio. He and Max hopped off the ride and ran halfway across the concourse when he caught sight of an ambulance parked on the hill outside Cattle Barn 4.
He broke into a jog, Max loping along easily at his side. When they rounded the open doors at the back of the ambulance, Jake spotted Sergeant Winter seated on the metal deck, a blood-soaked wad of cloth in his hand. An EMS tech was working on closing a wound on his cheek with a butterfly bandage.
“How are your guys?”
“They’re fine. We were heading back in when it blew. I didn’t hit the dirt fast enough. Caught a big splinter,” Winter reported.
Jake turned to look at the gaping hole where the massive cow had stood a short time before. A bevy of first responders tended to the blast site while what appeared to be the entire fair security team did their best to move some freaked-out cattle from the other end of the building.
Cass’s voice came across the channel she and her team kept open, and he stepped away from the commotion to better hear her. But she wasn’t speaking to him. Instead, she was barking orders to her own team.
“Bud, get me a phone I can use and the name and number for whoever is in charge at the Air Force Base. We need to get some records pulled.”
Jake allowed himself a grim smile. Cassidy Walker was done being a pawn in whatever game this joker thought they were playing. It was game on.