Chapter 2 #4
“Yes,” she confirmed, “my brother-in-law, Timmy, but then somebody tried to drown him,” she cried out, “and the dog went missing.”
“Did the dog go missing before or after?”
After a moment of silence, she replied, “I guess I don’t know. We’re all still in shock over what happened to Timmy.”
“And when you say a team is going down looking for the dog, what team is that?”
“My husband, Jackson, and his father, Derek, probably a couple or so cousins.”
“Are they looking to bring the dog back, or are they looking to terminate the dog?” Riley asked, his tone hard.
She gasped. “There’s no reason to terminate a good, healthy animal, but if he’s responsible for what happened to Timmy, I really can’t say what kind of reception the family will give him.”
He gave a hard laugh. “The only reason the War Dog could have had anything to do with Timmy’s accident was if somebody was down there fighting Timmy, and he got knocked into the water and they left him there, or they took away the War Dog or hurt it.
This is a trained K9 we’re talking about, …
not your average house pet,” he declared.
Selene sighed. “I’m pretty sure they want the dog for Timmy, hoping the dog will help him come out of the vegetative state he’s in. Timmy and Cain were really close.”
“Give me your husband’s contact information because I want to come.”
“Well, I …”
“Let me formally rephrase my request. I am here on behalf of the US War Department,” he snapped, his tone firm, “and that War Dog is the one that I came here to find, and I will not stop until I locate Cain.” He felt Gail’s shock across the table, and the other woman on the other end of the call finally relented.
“Fine, I’ll give you the number for their dad.”
Riley quickly wrote it down. “Thank you. I’ll contact him now.” With that, he ended the call and returned her phone. “How do you know her?”
She stated, “Well, you know her too. Selene.”
He frowned at her. “She sounded really scattered, not what I would have expected.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve also met Timmy,” she explained, “one of the grandsons in the Beltran family who owns the pub. Timmy’s now like twenty-two or so, Derek’s son.
” Then she added, “You should also know that Granddad Beltran, who has owned the pub for decades, has publicly announced that his youngest grandson, Timmy, will inherit it.”
He stared at her, nodding.
She nodded. “So, there could be some validity in Derek being concerned as to what happened. Timmy’s father is bound and determined that this is looked at as a murder attempt, but the police were saying it was an accidental drowning.”
“Of course,” Riley muttered. “That gets them off the hook, doesn’t it?”
She asked, “Are you really here to find a dog?”
“Not just a dog,” he clarified. “It’s a highly decorated, very-well-trained military War Dog.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone into this one animal.
They are not retired and then adopted casually, and the government’s intent is that they can live out the rest of their lives in a positive environment.
So, when one goes missing like this, believe me that it triggers all kinds of governmental alerts.
” He continued. “They asked me to pick up this case. So, yes, I’m here partially for the dog. ”
“And the other reason?”
“I wanted to see you,” he admitted. “I wanted to clear the deck and to move forward. If you’re happily married, I understand that. Which I guess you are.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Apparently you’re getting married soon,” he noted, “and I needed to know that I was good to go find a life for myself now that I’m healed as well. Believe me, with everything that happened to me, let’s just say our breakup left a bad taste in my mouth.”
She went reddish for a moment and then took a deep breath. “Yeah, it did for me too,” she conceded. “So maybe, … maybe we can forgive and forget.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know about forgiving and forgetting about your father because his part in this is a much bigger issue,” he shared. “I’m not at all sure that I’m prepared to let that go, and there might very well be a need for me to do something about that.”
“Please don’t. I understand fully why you would want to, but anybody who argues with my dad? It ends up badly, … for all the parties involved.”
He considered her, trying hard to let that go, but that only intensified his hate.
“Your father has raised you in a climate of fear and retribution, and he did the same thing to us. I am not that kid anymore,” he told her quietly.
“I was quite prepared to take you far away from them in order for you to actually have a life, and then all hell broke loose. I understand why your sister did what she did but not to the extent that she did it.”
She stared at him, nodding. “She blew up my world.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “and mine too. Then again, you also let her.”
With that, her phone rang again. As he nodded for her to take that, he grabbed his own phone and dialed the number Selene had given him.