Wilden (The K9 Files #31)

Prologue

Badger leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms. Then he shifted ever-so-slightly to a more comfortable position as he studied his wife, organizing files on the large table.

The boardroom table, they mockingly called it, but it ended up being a greet-all, meet-all, do-all-kinds-of-stuff table.

He never expected them to ever need this, but, now that they had it, he couldn’t imagine doing without it.

Kat looked up, smiled, and then returned to the paperwork in front of her.

She smirked, tilted her head at him, and nodded. “Just a few.”

He snorted at that. “What do you mean, just a few?” Then he dropped his arms, stepped closer, and added, “I thought Timber would be handling these.”

“Well, maybe when Timber’s life calms down and when he has a chance to look up from the chaos of his world so he can even see what needs to be done, then maybe he will,” she explained, with a nod. “In the meantime, you and I both know he has his hands full.”

Not much Badger could say about that since Timber was caught up in the roaring success of his animal sanctuary so far.

Yet the ongoing construction was endless, the needs of the animals endless, the needs of the people volunteering to help also endless.

Badger imagined that checking on one of these War Dog cases would probably be out of the scope of what Timber could do right now.

“How is it that we were so sure he could take them on down the road?” she wondered, out loud.

“Not sure. Regardless,” he said, as he looked at the number of files on the desk, “this is more than a few files.” He couldn’t see each one as they were thin and tightly stacked together now.

“I know it’s a lot to handle for one person, but it was always the plan that, at some point, Timber could take over what I’m doing,” she said, looking up at him, yet with a bright smile.

“Doing what exactly?” he asked, teasing her.

“Finding people to deal with these cases. But better yet—”

He nodded and interrupted, “Better yet that War Dogs stop going missing—or that their owners stop going missing—and that the government close those gaps in this entire routine. That way, we don’t end up with all these cases.

” He noted she was holding one, clutched in her hands.

He sighed and asked, “And who is it you are pulling off my team for this now?”

She chuckled. “It’s not that I’m pulling out anybody, but you do have a bunch of new people.”

“Yeah, I had to bring in new recruits,” he muttered, shaking his head. “So many of the guys we were working with headed up to Timber’s place and now have decided to stay there permanently.”

“Well, if they went there, and that’s where they are needed, then that’s where they belong,” she stated firmly.

“I know. I do understand,” Badger acknowledged. “It’s just handy when we have men to cover all the trades right here. It’s a nuisance when we’re missing a few, … like right now.”

She shrugged. “Oh, come on. A couple plumbers will be back from Timber’s place soon enough.”

“I know,” he conceded, “but I could really use another electrician right now too.”

She nodded. “Actually this guy is a welder, or he was a welder anyway.” She frowned as she glanced down at the paperwork in her hand. “He also was a field medic for a while.” Kat smiled at her husband and added, “He’s a highly certified mechanic.”

“Great,” Badger said excitedly. “You know that we always need them.”

She laughed and laughed. “Maybe, and maybe they need something other than us, even if just for a few days.”

He nodded, his good cheer falling away. “I get it,” he muttered. “So, who is it that you’re planning on pulling out of here now?”

She smiled. “Wilden.”

Badger’s eyebrows shot up. “Wilden Hookman?”

“Yes,” she confirmed, with a sideways glance in his direction. He frowned at her as she nodded. “I know that he’s been a big help for you.”

“It’s not only that I have a lot of use for him,” he protested, “but I’m not sure he’s ready for too much excitement. He’s here because he wants peace and quiet,” he pointed out. “Just because you think he might be perfect for this case doesn’t mean he’s ready for all it may entail.”

“True,” she admitted, her smile broad and understanding, “and you will always take their side if you think it’s something they need to be protected from.”

He shuffled a little uneasily, and then stepped forward, grabbed the closest chair, and sat down. “I’m not trying to protect them,” he grumbled.

“Yes, you are,” she said, “and I understand. You see them for who they are, but I see them for who they can be.”

He stopped and stared, then frowned. “Somehow your version of the story always sounds better than mine,” he muttered, “and I’m not sure how I got on the opposite side of this.”

“There is no opposite side,” she declared, with a pat of his hand. “Just like I’m looking to always improve their prosthetics and to see how to maximize what they can do, you see them at the broken, wounded stage of who they are now, needing that hideaway spot, needing a place, a safe haven.”

“That’s Timber’s domain now,” he muttered.

“And ours in many ways,” she added. “We have helped these guys get back on their feet, and we’ll continue to do that. As you well know, it’s not one and done by any means.”

He shifted, thinking it over, because she was right. “In this case, I would say that Wilden is quite possibly ready to do something more and that this could be a good option. Will he want to? I don’t know.”

“I really hope he does because it’ll also involve his family.”

“Ah,” Badger muttered, now understanding. “That’s why you chose him.”

“To a certain extent, yes, that’s why I chose him,” she confirmed, with a chuckle.

“So, maybe you need to bring him in and ask him if he’s even interested.”

“Interested in what?” a man asked.

A deep booming voice behind Badger made him start and turn toward the doorway. Wilden, tall and blond, stood in the doorway, his hair pushed back as if he’d been running his fingers through it in frustration, or maybe in an attempt to control it, or just to enjoy being out in the wind.

Badger invited him to sit and filled him in.

Wilden sat here for a few moments, his face devoid of any emotional expressions or any indication of how he felt about this proposal.

“So, what do you think?” Badger asked Wilden.

“She did mention it to me,” he said cautiously, pointing to Kat, “but I hadn’t spoken to you about it because I didn’t think it was imminent.”

Badger nodded and said, “Believe me, if my wife has spoken to you about almost anything, it’s as good as gold, and you should consider it imminent.”

Wilden shrugged. “Not that it’s a done deal,” he began, “but, because of what Kat mentioned, it feels as if I need to go home anyway.”

Kat asked him, “Did you think about my offer or do you just want to go home and not even consider the work for us?”

“The missing War Dog does give me a reasonable excuse to go home,” he replied, “but I should be going home for my grandmother.”

“Your grandmother?” Badger asked.

“Yeah, she’s the only family I have left,” he shared. “So, if I can do something to help her, I will.”

Badger frowned. “And yet you’ve had the time and the chance to do this earlier, but you haven’t gone home before?”

“No,” he said, “because my father was still alive. According to Kat, he apparently passed away in the last couple weeks.”

“You didn’t know?” Badger asked, staring at him.

“I didn’t know about it because nobody told me,” Wilden explained, with a pensive look.

“You don’t talk to anyone back home?” Badger asked.

“Not recently,” he said, shaking his head. “So, I’m preparing to go home, I guess.” He hesitated and asked, “As long as you don’t have a problem with that?”

Badger waved that off. “If you need to go home, you go home. Anything happening here is neither here nor there, as far as I’m concerned. Family comes first.”

Wilden smiled and said, “I was hoping you would be okay with it.”

“Absolutely. And is your grandmother likely to welcome you with open arms?”

“She would have at one time,” he noted, with a dry laugh. “My father made a point of making sure nothing was there for me and kept himself squarely between her and me. So, I don’t know what I’ll find when I get back to Wichita.” He looked over at Kat and asked, “Did you get the file on the dog?”

“I have it here,” she said, as she dropped it on the table in front of him. “This is all we have.”

He opened it up, and, even as he read through it, he shot her a look.

She nodded and grimaced. “Sorry. That’s usually all we end up with, one single page. In this case, the dog’s name is Sarge, and he was given to a veteran who had worked with dogs a lot during his own time in the military. As far as we knew, he and the dog were fine.”

“What happened?”

“The dog was found loose, running around town. When he was scanned, the microchip triggered an alert. Apparently the adoptee has disappeared, and nobody knows anything about where he went. The dog is currently waiting at the clinic, but they are having a lot of trouble getting him to stay.”

“As in?”

“He’s trying to escape his cage, and they feel very strongly that he’s trying to help his owner, but only one person works there, and she doesn’t have anybody to give her a hand. She’s also just lost one of her partners.”

“Lost, as in?”

“Her partner in the practice has moved away, leaving her alone to run a practice meant for three working vets. So she is overwhelmed and has no time to go looking for the missing man. She’s keeping the dog safe, but his behavior means keeping him locked up.”

Wilden frowned. “That could be for a lot of reasons.”

“Absolutely it could be.” She shrugged. “The bottom line is that somebody needs to figure out what’s going on, and Sarge needs some home care.”

“Any specific reason for that?”

“Yeah,” she said, with a nod. “He was injured, but I didn’t get a report from her as to what the injuries were.”

“Not enough to stop him from trying to escape apparently,” Wilden noted, with a smile.

“And we do know that a lot of animals will forget their own injuries in order to help others.”

“Exactly,” he said. “How long has this been going on?”

“A couple days,” she said.

“So, it hasn’t been very long. What about the owner?”

“We have no police report. I don’t have anything on him except that a wellness check was done at his place at my behest, and there’s no sign of him, though it sounded as if the place has been tossed.

But they don’t consider it a missing person’s case because he’s an adult and hasn’t been gone all that long.

” Then she sighed and shrugged. “If you knew how many times we’ve been told that story because the local authorities don’t want to be bothered,” she noted, “it would make your heart sick.”

“Oh, I get it,” he said. “I’ve seen it time and time again.” He looked over at her. “What’s the name of the old guy?”

“Jackson Russell,” she said.

His eyebrows shot up. “Jackson Russell? Jeez, he’s got to be close to my grandmother’s age.” Then he frowned and thought about it for a moment. “No, I guess he would probably be a generation younger. But they were friends, way back when. How soon can I get there?” He stood, ready to leave.

“You’re booked on a flight tonight, if you’re okay with it.”

“I’m definitely okay with it,” he agreed, turning, almost stumbling, and now swearing.

Kat called out to him, “Take it easy on that leg, and, when you come back, we’ll get that new prototype set up.”

He turned to her and asked, “Is that something you do for everybody who goes after your missing War Dogs?”

“It’s something I do for everybody,” she clarified. “Yet, if you’ll put it through some rough days, you’ll need an upgrade. I don’t have anything here and ready for you now, but, if you go after this dog, we’ll see what you need when you get back. You take good care of yourself.”

He nodded. “Sometimes shit happens, doesn’t it?”

“Shit always happens,” Badger noted. “It’s how you handle it that makes all the difference. Whether you’ve got a teaspoon or a shovel,” he added, “it’s up to you to make the best of it.”

And, with that, Wilden shot him a hard look. “I’m okay to make the best of it,” he said, “but sometimes there’s just no making anything else out of something like this.” And, with that, he turned and walked out.

Badger looked over at Kat, who just shrugged and explained, “My understanding is a major dispute came up between father and son way back when. Although Wilden was raised by his grandmother, some issues have since appeared.”

“Probably to do with the military,” he suggested.

“That’s very possible,” she murmured. “And, now that his father has passed, Wilden’s willing to go back, and this War Dog case will give him a chance to deal with his family issues. If we’re lucky, we can help a veteran and his dog.”

Badger studied his wife and smiled. “Wow, you’re just aiming higher every time, aren’t you?”

She chuckled. “In this case, I think it’s warranted.”