Chapter 21
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After a quick exam of Devon’s, aka Birdie’s, house, finding nothing of interest, Doreen and Mack returned to his truck. “The place wasn’t tossed,” she pointed out.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Yet it very much looks like somebody had something to hide. They had been careful.”
“I don’t know about something to hide, but we surely have somebody who wants to find something.”
“And you think this person hired the B&E group to find it?”
Mack shrugged. “It makes sense to me.”
She thought about it and slowly nodded. “It’s definitely an option, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it sure is,” he agreed. “Somebody, somewhere knows something about this mess.”
“Always,” she declared. “It’s just never quite that easy for us to figure out. Did you get a go-ahead to search the two suspects’ homes?”
“We have a team over at the first man’s house right now,” he shared. “His name is Fin Lloyd.”
“Oh good.”
“You want to go there?”
“No, I want to go to the second one’s place. Mike Howard, right? He’s the one who will have the interesting stuff.”
He smiled and agreed. “I’m still waiting on approval for that one.”
She shrugged as they all climbed into Mack’s truck. “He’s the one who should have had the approval first.”
“But he also came into our custody second,” he pointed out.
“Right,” she muttered.
Just then his phone rang. He answered it and smiled over at her. “Okay, great. … No, the two of us will head down there now. I know. … I know. I know. Yeah, I’ll talk to her.” And, with that, he hung up and groaned.
“Uh-oh, complaints?”
“The captain is a little worried after that last scenario at the mall,” he began, with a smile. “They’ve gotten lots of calls about how you should be hired by the police force.”
“Oh goodness, but I don’t want to do that.”
“You might not want to do that,” he noted, with a chuckle, “but that doesn’t mean that all of this isn’t creating that sentiment and added pressure.”
“Okay, I’m more than willing to keep some of that down.”
“Good,” he said. “Let’s hope that some Rosemoor people can also keep some of that down too. And … we have the approval to search Mike Howard’s house.”
“Ooh, good.” Mugs barked at her, as if saying, Finally. She laughed, then bent over to cuddle Goliath, but Mugs wasn’t having it and immediately nudged her arm, knocking Goliath to the floorboard.
Goliath immediately jumped up and took a swipe at Mugs, then the two of them jumped into the back seat and went at it.
“Goodness,” Mack muttered, shaking his head, on their way now to the next house. “They really don’t let up, do they?”
“Sometimes they don’t,” she said sheepishly, “and I’m apologizing left, right, and center for them.”
He laughed. “You can keep apologizing, but I’m good,” he noted. “However, now that we’re heading to Mike’s place, it would be nice if they behaved.”
She frowned at the animals, and then, in the strongest tone of voice she could summon, she stated, “Stop.” They glanced at her, completely ignoring her until she added, “Or you’re not coming into the next house.
” Immediately both animals turned to her in outrage.
She nodded. “Listen up or you’re not going inside. ”
Goliath slumped down onto the back seat of the truck and just glared at Mugs.
“I really wasn’t expecting that to work,” Mack admitted.
“And often it wouldn’t, but they are on a case now,” she explained, “and we all take that very seriously.”
When Mugs barked at that, Mack shook his head, but she shrugged.
“Hey, this isn’t something we play around with,” she pointed out.
“Now obviously sometimes we have issues with all my team members,” she conceded, glaring at two of them.
“But as long as we can keep things moving at a steady pace, then everybody can work out their own differences, right?” she asked, glaring at two of her animals.
Goliath refused to look at her, but Mugs gave a happy bark again.
Mack snorted. “So does that mean that Mugs is willing to work with it, and Goliath is not?”
“Perhaps, but you can never count on that assumption. At the moment, Mugs is still the big puppy, and Goliath is the instigator in the back.”
“Yeah, but I have seen Mugs instigate plenty,” he muttered.
“Absolutely,” she agreed, “which is why both of them get punished whenever they cross those boundaries.” She gave a big sigh, then quickly clipped them onto their leashes before letting them out of the vehicle.
As soon as they were leashed, they were both right there and ready to go.
She smiled. “See? … All business now. They really do care about being on the job.”
With a smug look in Mack’s direction, Doreen led her animals toward the front door.