6 Beach Blanket Barbie (11 page)

When I arrived at Zak’s with Cody, Scooter was in the family room playing video games, which allowed me to introduce Cody to Zak and Lambda before the source of his angst was brought into the room. Cody was a sweet, well-adjusted dog who greeted both Zak and Lambda with enthusiasm. After we felt that Cody had adapted to his situation, I clipped a leash onto his collar, which I attached to a hook Zak had installed on the wall. I gave Cody a treat and a blanket to lay on and he settled right down. Zak went to fetch Scooter. At first, Cody just looked at Scooter as he trotted into the room. Zak instructed Scooter to have a seat at the table, which he did after only a small amount of negotiation. Charlie and Lambda were instructed to lay down on rugs of their own as the three of us settled down to eat. I slowly let out the breath I’d been holding as Scooter waited patiently for his food to be served.

“Can I have soda?” Scooter asked.

“I think milk would be better.” Zak set a glass of milk in front of the child.

“I want soda.” Scooter knocked over the glass with the swipe of h
is hand. The milk flowed everywhere, including into Scooter’s lap. The kid jumped up and started screaming, which caused Cody to stand up and begin barking. Cody got the other dogs barking as well, and before you knew it, all hell had broken loose. Zak grabbed Scooter and headed toward the stairs, while I mopped up the spilled milk. By the time Zak returned, the dogs had calmed down, but dinner was ruined.

“Maybe I should take the dogs to the boathouse for the night,” I suggested.

“That might be a good idea,” Zak admitted. “Maybe you can drop Cody and Lambda off on your way into town tomorrow.”

“Are you sure that trying to get Scooter and Cody together is a good idea? I mean
, what if Cody bites Scooter again?”

“I’ll be careful. Don’t worry
.” He kissed my nose. “It will be fine.”

I had serious doubts about that but agreed to Zak’s plan. I kissed
him and then headed toward my truck with all three dogs. If Scooter hadn’t completely destroyed Zak’s house by morning, I supposed we could try again. 

The next morning, I stopped by Zak’s to drop off Lambda and Cody, as we’d discussed. I remembered that Jeremy was going to be in late due to Mrs. Broman’s doctor’s appointment, so I’d gotten an early start. Luckily, I decided to leave the dogs in the truck until I had a chance to check out the situation. When I opened the front door, I couldn’t help but gasp. It looked like a tornado had blown through the place.

“What happened?”
I asked Zak as he staggered into the room with a cup of coffee in his hand.

“Apparently
, Scooter has some fairly strong opinions about such things as dishwashing, bathing, and bedtimes.”

“I’m sorry
.” I put my hand over my mouth in an attempt to hide my smile. “I don’t know why I’m laughing. This really isn’t funny.”

Zak looked around the room and smiled. “I guess it’s a little funny.”

We both broke out laughing. “How did that T-shirt end up hooked over the blade of the ceiling fan? The fan has to be at least twenty feet off the ground.”

“Scooter has
an excellent aim.” Zak chuckled.

“As evidenced by the ketchup on your Mona Lisa print.” I laughed harder. Luckily
, the print was encased in glass and easily cleaned.

“Yes, well
, you should see where his shoes ended up. The kid has a future in the NBA.”

“Maybe I’d better just take Cody with me today,” I s
aid. “I can bring Lambda as well, if you’d like.” I looked around the room, which was going to take most of the day to clean.

“No, I think
things will be fine. Somewhere around two a.m., Scooter and I came to an understanding.”

“You didn’t hit him?”

“No,” Zak assured me, “I didn’t hit him. Let’s just say I discovered his weak spot.”

“Weak spot?” I was almost afraid to ask.

“The kid loves jets. I told him if he behaved while he was with me, I’d talk to his dad about taking him for a ride.”

“You have a jet?”
Zak had never mentioned having an airplane, but there was so much about his life outside of Ashton Falls that I was still discovering.

“No, but I have a friend who has
one, and he owes me a couple of favors. I told Scooter that if he is cooperative and behaves himself for the remainder of his visit, I’d ask my friend to take us for a ride the next time he’s in the area.”

“I like jets,” I offered. “Especially those heading toward exotic beaches.”
I began to imagine the possibility of running away to an exotic beach with Zak for a couple of days. I love my life and the people in it, but at times the distractions that come with having a full life can cut into the private time I want to spend with the man I love.

Zak pulled me into his arms and kissed me. “
Maybe if you’re a good girl . . .”

“Oh
, I can be very good.” I wrapped my arms around Zak’s neck and then remembered that we had a nine-year-old in the house and took a step back. “Rain check?” I groaned.

“Definitely.” Zak took a deep breath.

“Seriously, though,” I refocused on the challenge at hand, “maybe I should just take Cody with me today. I’d hate to have another incident. You know what they say about three strikes.”

“
Don’t worry. We’ll be fine,” Zak assured me again. “Is he in the truck?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll walk out with you.”

“Okay
.” I shrugged. “It’s your funeral.”

I arrived at the Zoo to find Tank, our nighttime staff, pacing back and forth in the hallway in front of the wild animal cages. “Something is wrong with Goliath,” Tank informed me. “When I went in to feed him his breakfast, he was breathing but unresponsive.”

“Did you call Scott?” I referred to our vet.

“He’s on his way.”

I left Ch
arlie with Tank before heading to Goliath’s cage. The staff was able to give Goliath food and water through a small window that allowed access to the cage without their having to actually enter the structure. Jeremy and I were the only two with the combination to open the door; we’d been trained to deal with wild animals, while the others had not. I grabbed a tranquilizer gun as a precaution and entered the enclosure. As Tank had indicated, Goliath was breathing but not conscious. I was kneeling down to check his heart rate when Scott came into the pen from the hallway.

“He’s not responding to stimulation
,” I informed him.

“We’d better give him a sedative just to be safe,” he cautioned.
“Wouldn’t want him waking up at an inopportune time.”

Scott gave the mountain lion a shot
, then knelt to check his vitals.

“Is he going t
o be okay?” I asked.

“It’s too
early to tell,” Scott answered as he removed the cone from the animal’s head, as well as the bandage he’d previously applied. “It looks like infection has set in. I’m going to give him some stronger antibiotics. We’ll need to keep him sedated so we can monitor his progress. You’ll need to give him injections every eight hours. I know you’ve given injections before, and I can show Tank and Gunner what to do, since they’ll be here in the evenings.”

“Is he dangerous?” I hated to think of Tank or Gunner
, who really hadn’t had a lot of training, having to deal with a cranky mountain lion.

“Not if you give him his injections on time. Don’t miss one
, though, because if he comes out of it, he could be extremely dangerous.”

“Yeah
, okay, we’ll stay on top of it,” I assured Scott.

“I’ll be by after I close the clinic for the day to
recheck his bandages,” the vet informed me.

After Scott left
, I did my rounds, checking on the rest of the animals. It was always tough when we lost one, especially a wild beauty like Goliath. Scott was an excellent vet and we were careful to follow his instructions, but every now and then Mother Nature took over, and despite our best efforts, we’d lose to nature’s natural rhythm.

“How’s he doing?” Tiffany asked when I joined her in the exercise area
, where she was playing with several of the dogs.

“It’s too
soon to tell.”

“He seemed much better yesterday. Is there something we could have done to prevent this from happening?”

Was there? I didn’t know. Maybe if we’d monitored him more closely, or limited his mobility? Sometimes, in spite of doing everything right, some animals made it while others didn’t. We’d had a dog the previous summer that had gotten into a tug-of-war with some rusted barbed wire. He was in pretty bad shape when he arrived, but he’d seemed to be doing better before taking a turn for the worse. He died in my arms two days after we’d taken him in.

“Zoe?” Tiffany asked when I didn’t answer.

“Sorry. No, I don’t think there was anything we could have done differently. We’ll need to give him his injections and keep a close eye on him. Scott will be back later in the day to check on things.”

“Poor Tank was a mess when he left. He feels like what happened to Goliath
was his fault because he was supposed to be keeping an eye on him.”

“I doubt there
’s anything Tank could have done. Sometimes these things just happen.”

“I guess. Still
, I hope we got to him in time. Scott had the same worried look in his eyes that he had when the golden retriever that was hit by the car on the highway was brought in.”

“Scott’s a good vet. If something can be done to save Goliath
, I promise you it’ll be done. All we can do is follow Scott’s directions and keep an eye on him. I think I’ll come back to take the night shift. If Goliath wakes up, I’d prefer that I was the one who was here.”

“Let me know if there
’s anything I can do,” Tiffany offered. “Anything at all.”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

“Hey, Zoe,” Jeremy interrupted. He’d come out into the yard, where Tiffany and I were talking, from the side door that can be accessed only by shelter staff. “I just got a call from the sheriff’s office. They want someone to respond to the fire out on the highway to take possession of a couple of dogs.”

“Fire?”

“That old junkyard on the way out of town. Guess someone torched it.”

“One Man’s Trash
?” I wondered.

Jeremy shrugged. “I guess. I can go
, if you want.”

“No, that’s okay
, I’ll go. I’ll leave Charlie with you, though. I wouldn’t want him getting underfoot.”

As I pulled my truck onto the highway and began traveling north
, I could see a plume of smoke in the distance. I called my dad, a volunteer firefighter who has shifted from fighting fires to manning the control center as he’s gotten older. He confirmed that the antiques store had all but burned to the ground. According to Dad, the store had been closed and the owner was yet to be located. Luckily, the fire department had arrived in time to rescue the two guard dogs that were locked in the gated area surrounding the store. The fire had completely destroyed not only the main building but the out buildings that were also on the premises.

“Arson?” I asked the deputy in charge after taking possession of the two dogs and securing them in my truck.

“Too early to tell for certain, but based on the heat of the thing, I think it’s likely.”

I watched as the fire department continued to spray thousands of gallons of water on the structure
, even though there wasn’t really anything left to save.

“Anyone caught inside?”
I hoped not. If someone had been trapped inside when the fire started, they were most likely dead now.

“As far as we can tell
, the place was unoccupied at the time the fire ignited. Good thing we got here when we did or those dogs would be crispy critters.”

I grimaced at the thought. “Is Salinger around?”

“He was
here, but he headed back into town. We mostly just have clean up at this point.”

“Excuse me
, Deputy Collins, but one of my men found something just outside the perimeter of the property that we think you should see.”

“What is it?”
the deputy asked.

“Well
. . .” The firefighter looked at me and hesitated.

“Spit it out. What’s so important that you’d interrupt my conversation with this pretty lady?”

Oh, please.
The guy was a total tool. Was everyone who was employed by the Ashton Lake branch of the Bryton Lake Sheriff’s Department a moron?

“We found the owner of the building
, sir. He’s in the forest, just beyond the fence. He’s been shot. He’s alive, but barely. A couple of the guys are with him. We’ve called an ambulance.”

“Well
, why didn’t you say so in the first place?” The deputy hurried off toward the location the volunteer fireman had indicated.

The firefighter shook his head and looked at me. “And I’m the one volunteering my time while he’s getting paid.”

“Did the man look like he’d been shot where the body was found?” I asked.

“No
, ma’am. He’d definitely been moved.”

Ma
’am?
Really?

“I need to get back,” the man informed me. “You’d best stand back out of the way. What’s left of the building is going to collapse any minute now.”

“Okay, I’ll be going.” I paused. “I’m sorry I don’t know your name. I’m Zoe Donovan.”

“Hank
’s daughter?”

“That’d be me.”

The man held out a hand blackened by soot. “Happy to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. My name is Trevor Seymore. I just moved to the area a month ago.”

“Happy to meet you as well
, Trevor.”

After dropping the dogs off at the Zoo, I continued into town in the hope of having a conversation with Salinger. If the owner of One Man’s Trash had bought the clock at the auction, and if Barbie had indeed broken in to steal the clock, then it made sense that the clock could in some way be related to her death. Of course, if the clock was destroyed in the fire, we had little chance of using it as a means of pulling this whole mystery together.

The fact that the owner of One Man’s Trash was shot and then dumped in the woods seemed to indicate that someone had picked up where Barbie left off. My best guess was that the owner had interrupted whomever had broken in and been shot for his effort
s. I’d called the hospital and was informed that the man was alive but not yet conscious. Perhaps if and when he woke up, he’d be able to fill in a few of the blanks. I half-expected Salinger to be out investigating the attempted murder of the shop owner, but when I arrived at the sheriff’s office he was alone in his office. His secretary wasn’t at her desk, so I knocked on his door and was waved in.