Chapter 40 Jagg
JAGG
With Sunny and crew waiting patiently outside, I checked Griggs’ clothes out of evidence, logging the time, date, and purpose, leaving everything but a blood sample and rights to my unborn child. Then, I met Sunny and Max under a shaded, grassy area behind the station.
While Max was a bouncing ball of energy, Brute stayed at Sunny’s feet, never leaving her heels.
I stepped back and watched Sunny do her thing with Max.
The process was interesting. She’d hidden several bags among the trees and shrubbery, each holding various articles of clothing.
The bag holding Griggs’ clothes was placed next to a budding sapling.
Sunny guided Max to each bag muttering commands, giving him a treat each time they reached Griggs’ bag.
After a few rounds of this, Brute tired and meandered over to me where he sat an inch from my boot.
I kneeled down, scratched behind his ears, then gently rubbed his shoulder.
A massage always helped me. The dog practically melted into my touch as we watched our master work.
“Whose clothes are in the other bags?” I asked.
“Mine in one, one of your T-shirt’s in another, a leash from your brother’s kennel in one, and the rest filled with clothes I got from the thrift store on the way in. Lots of different scents.”
“Good to know the Jagger brothers are covered.”
“We’ll see,” she winked.
I watched her work, fascinated. “Explain this to me.”
“It’s really not that complicated. Just takes a lot of repetition.
Once Max sniffs Griggs’ clothes, I take him around to each bag.
When we come to Griggs’, I praise him and cue him to bark, then take him to the next bag where I don’t.
And on and on we go, until he eventually goes directly to Griggs’ bag after sniffing something with Griggs’ scent.
He should be able to pick up every person’s scent on the clothes and will bark when he comes into contact with that person.
” She glanced over her shoulder. “Hopefully, the third person from my attack.”
If that person came within ten feet of Sunny, he or she was as good as exposed—and very likely soon to be missing a front tooth. It was a long shot, but at that moment, I was willing to try anything to get a break in a case that seemed to get fuzzier with every passing hour. On that note…
“Hey, what do you think about Max hanging out with me today?” I asked. “While you take Brute to the vet?”
“No. And it’s Brutus.”
“Not between me and him.”
“Oh you guys are BFFs now?” She looked over her shoulder.
“Only women use the term BFFs.”
She looked back at Max who was still moving from bag to bag, having a blast with this new, little game.
“I don’t know… Why do you want to ‘hang out’ with him?”
Max suddenly barked, leaping and pawing at the bag of clothes holding Griggs’.
“That’s why. I’ll be making a lot of rounds today, following up on leads regarding your case and Seagrave’s. Who knows what this guy could pick up.”
“Meaning, you think you might cross paths with the third person?”
“Never know.” I nodded to the beast. “Max could be my partner for the day. You know, like Turner and Hooch.”
“You’re old.”
“Thanks.”
She looked back and forth between me and her son.
“I don’t know… He’s a lot to handle, Jagg.”
“Comes with the name.” I winked, this earning me another eye roll. “Sunny, how’s he going to help at my brother’s house? What’s there? Let the old boy stretch his legs. Learn how to be a real man for a day.”
“Because the fact that his owner is a woman makes him less of a man?”
“Yes.”
She fisted her hands on her hips. “That’s chauvinistic.”
“No, it’s the truth. Men can do things women can’t, and vice versa. There’s certain things men have that women don’t, and vice versa. For example…” I unbuttoned my pants and started with the zipper—
She slapped a hand over her eyes. “Okay, okay, geez, point taken.”
I chuckled, zipped up.
She uncovered her eyes. “Fine. You can take Max for the day and teach him how to pee standing up.”
“He’ll be in good hands.”
“I hope so. Just remember, he’ll listen to you, Jagg. Just be firm. Strong. You know, like a woman.”
“If you were any other woman than yourself, I’d take that as an insult.”
“Thanks… I think.”
Max jogged over, his entire backside shaking with his tail.
“See? He’s excited. We’ll have fun, do man things.”
“Like go to the titty bar? Chop some wood, maybe compare ball size after a burping contest?”
“We’ll throw lunch in there, too.”
“Well, that’s something I can help with.” She reached into the bed of her truck and lifted a cooler from the bungalow. “Lunch.”
My brow furrowed with both shock and confusion.
“What?”
“Lunch.”
“… Why?”
“Are you familiar with how lunch works?”
“Not someone bringing it to me.”
“Well, brace yourself then, because this one involves a blanket and three courses.”
My jaw literally dropped as my gaze shifted back and forth from the cooler to the woman holding it. Never, in my life, had anyone brought me lunch.
“I mean, why?” I asked like a blubbering Neanderthal.
She swallowed deeply, quickly, as if nerves had suddenly flustered her. “It’s just my way to say thank you. For the tires, for helping take care of my dogs, for finding me a place to stay… Dammit, for taking care of me, okay?”
The words, so uncomfortable to her, so consuming to me.
“Okay, then. Lunch sounds good. Where should we sit?”
She smiled, appreciating the drop of emotions. I liked that she wasn’t all emotional. It was becoming one of my favorite things about her.
“There’s a really pretty tree just outside of City Park with a small clearing under it. Just about a football field from here.”
I grinned and bit my tongue at her use of measurement.
“Grab the blanket and leashes and help Brutus. Please.”
My grin widened at her obvious effort. She’d put thought into not only the lunch, but her behavior.
This woman.
After replacing Griggs’ clothes, we took off across the grass, a picnic basket, blanket, and two dogs in tow.
Five minutes later, Sunny spread the blanket under the one and only Voodoo Tree. That’s right—the tree that had once been encased in candles and voodoo dolls was now the site of our picnic.
Irony.
Or was it?
The tree looked completely different in the light of day. Almost magical, like a tree you’d see in Lord of the Rings, with long, outstretched branches covered in lush, green leaves. A blue and black butterfly flittered from branch to branch next to us.
I smoothed out the blanket while Sunny tied the dogs to the tree trunk and gave them water from a portable bowl.
Handy.
“Sit.” This to me, not the dogs. I did, feeling immediate release in my back as I took the weight off my feet.
A breeze swept past, cooler under the thick shade of the tree.
Surrounded by woods, we were out of view of the public, and I wondered if that was done on purpose.
Was she embarrassed to be seen with me? Or did she know I was being chastised for being seen with her? My gut told me the latter.
Sunny settled next to me and slapped my hand away as I attempted to help unpack the cooler.
I took a sip of the tea she’d given me—sweetened to perfection.
“Bon Appetit.”
I looked down at the bowl she’d placed in front of me. “Uh… what’s this?”
“Gino’s Flaming Farro salad. Try it and you’ll know why it’s worth leaving your house for.”
I glanced at Brute, who snorted. I grinned. She didn’t.
I took another sip, reminding myself I’d eaten way worse overseas. I dug in while she did the same with her matching salad. It was delicious. Cool, flavorful, light but filling.
“Eh?”
“Not bad.” I mumbled around another bite.
Sunny broke her breadstick in half and tossed the pieces to the dogs. No gluten. I did the same.
“Do you come here a lot?” I asked.
“The park, yes. Well I used to, anyway. Sometimes after a jog I’d walk through the woods and this tree catches my eye every time.”
“You’re not the only one.” I told her about the shrine, the candles, the voodoo dolls that had covered its branches earlier that week.
“Well,” she shrugged as if were no big deal. “Good someone’s putting its beauty to use.”
“You think using this tree as a Wiccan shrine is putting it to good use?”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s vandalism.”
She laughed—at me. “Oh give me a break. Sounds like someone was peacefully honoring whatever God they choose to.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re kind of narrow-minded, you know that?”
Not lately, I thought. My decisions had been anything but on-track.
“Well, that stuff doesn’t fly in this town. Especially that it was constructed the day of Lieutenant Seagrave’s funeral.”
“You think the tree’s somehow connected?”
I surprised myself at my hesitation. “I’m trying to figure that out. That, and what feels like a million different things.”
“Well, forget it all for now. Eat. Relax. Enjoy the beauty and shade this marvelous voodoo-tree gives us.”
A few moments passed while we ate, watching the squirrels, birds, swatted at the flies.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” She said.
“What were you like in high school?”
“You mean, why did I date someone like Kenzo?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” she sipped her tea. “You know how I told you that Kenzo was popular, athletic, a jock?”
“Yeah.”
“I was none of the above.”
“I refuse to believe that the daughter of a millionaire didn’t have a group of friends.”
She looked at me, cocked her head. “Do you think money makes people more valuable?”
“Without question.”
“That’s a very short-sided, cynical way to look at the world.”
“You obviously came from a lot of it.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
When I didn’t expand on the subject, she pried. “What were you like in high school?”
I almost laughed at the image that popped into my head.
“I was a tall, gangly, unathletic kid with braces, who also happened to be the captain of the math club and the science club. I was smart, which made me a nerd. And I was dirt poor which made me a target.”