Scent of Murder (7 page)

He said in a very low voice, “I don't think you guys want to say too much right now. Our friends down here don't like it when people abuse animals.” All three men looked at the dogs.

Hallett pressed his knee against Rocky's shoulder—their secret cue for the dog to growl—then rubbed the knee down slightly so that Rocky snapped at the men, making them scatter a few feet. This dog was 100 percent pure ham. He loved to play-act.

Claire was talking to the teenage driver at the front of the truck, and Hallett heard him admit to what they were doing. His father was the fishing guide from the town of Moore Haven on the north side of Lake Okeechobee and had promised that these jerk-offs could catch an alligator.

Claire said, “Who did they steal the dogs from?”

The young man said, “He didn't steal them, he bought them. There's an old lady in Clewiston who sells them for a hundred dollars apiece.”

That really pissed Hallett off. Now he had the immediate problem of teaching these asswipes a lesson.

Hallett said, “We have two ways we can deal with the situation.”

The guide knew he was in over his head. All he said was, “Yes, sir, what are our options?”

“Dump all your poaching equipment in the canal, including the rifle. Give me your word you'll never do anything like this again and be out of our sight by the time I count thirty.”

The New Yorker said, “Or else what happens?”

“I let my hairy friend loose and see if three against one is a fair fight. Chances are only one of you will lose your testicles and the other two will just have severe lacerations that require stitches.”

The second customer, the one who hadn't said anything, immediately grabbed the rifle by the barrel, along with two gaffs, and tossed them hard toward the middle of the canal.

The guide said, “Hey, wait a minute.” But then he looked at Rocky and didn't say a word. He scooped up some coiled rope and a long chain with a nasty-looking meat hook on the end and tossed them.

Then the men just stared at Hallett until he said, “One. Two.”

All three men scrambled to get back in the truck.

Claire had calmed down the young driver, who casually stepped toward the open driver's door.

Hallett said, “Leave the poodles.”

“Say what?” said the guide.

This time he had his own growl in his voice. “I said, leave the goddamn poodles here.”

The fishing guide said, “I paid a hundred bucks apiece for them.”

Hallett dug in his pocket and pulled out his meager wad of cash and threw it in the car. “There's forty-three bucks. I think you're getting a bargain.” To emphasize the point, Rocky gave him another snarl.

The guide tossed the small poodles out of the truck onto the damp ground. They started running around in circles with the rope leashes trailing behind them, yapping at the bigger dogs.

Hallett felt a sincere wave of satisfaction as he watched the taillights of the truck disappear down the shell-rock road.

Claire said, “We let them off easy.”

Hallett smiled. “Joke's on them. I only had thirty-three bucks in my pocket.”

*   *   *

Junior had just about convinced himself to leave the safety of his father's Oldsmobile and take action when, in the calm night air, he felt a vibration and heard a low rumble. At first he thought it was thunder, but the sky was clear. Then, at the far end of the road in the direction of the highway, he caught a glimpse of a headlight.

Maybe it was just a neighbor coming home. With any luck they lived at the far end of the park. Then Junior noticed a second and third light.
What the hell?
It didn't take long for him to realize the lights belonged to at least five motorcycles, and the motorcycles had to be Harleys, judging by the noise they were throwing off.

He almost could have predicted they would pull into the driveway of Katie Ziegler's trailer. Junior could clearly see the burly men dismount from their motorcycles. They all had on vests, but he couldn't see which club they belonged to. Then the light came on and all he saw was the word
OUTLAWS
. Essentially the most feared motorcycle gang in the country.

Common sense finally overwhelmed his urge. Junior headed home with enough guilt and shame built up in him to do something really nasty, really soon.

 

7

Hallett carefully set the cardboard box he had the two little poodles in on the backseat. As he closed up the tailgate to his Tahoe, Darren stretched and said, “Gotta get home, too. I'm having breakfast with my parents and have to come up with a lie about my future. They'll demand to see my transcript from this semester if I appear too irresponsible. Living up to a stereotype is tough.”

Hallett laughed and patted his buddy on the shoulder, saying, “You really care about police work. That should be enough for them.”

“I've tried to explain it's about duty and answering the call, whatever the call may be.” He leaned down and scratched Brutus's back. “Brutus and I are ready as long as the call involves a tennis ball or Frisbee.”

That earned another laugh. Hallett said, “Rocky and I need to check on the animals.”

Hallett watched as Rocky and Brutus silently sniffed around each other, then stood almost nose-to-nose. It looked like a good-bye from Hallett's perspective.

Darren said, “I'll trade you my trailer behind the Baptist school for your trailer behind the nondenominational school.” He kept his face emotionless, as if they were playing poker, and Hallett couldn't tell if he was joking.

Hallett smiled. “What difference does it make? They're both free and pay utilities. All we have to do is keep an eye on the place at night.”

“The Baptists are tough. They don't want me drinking or bringing women by the trailer. Your people don't even check on you and let you keep that zoo right there.”

“It's not exactly a zoo. It's just a few animals, and one of the teachers uses them with the kids.”

“A few animals! You got a goddamn boa constrictor. Not to mention the llama and how many cats?”

Hallett looked down at Rocky, who was anxious to leave, his farewell to Brutus complete. “It's not a llama, it's an alpaca. The exact count on the cats is in dispute. And, for your information, the school is not crazy about the cats. Now there's so many of them running around, the school administrators worry it might be a health hazard.”

Darren said, “You still got a better deal than I have with the Baptists.”

Finally, Hallett said, “I've got the morning to spend with Josh, so I better get some sleep.” He patted his friend on the shoulder, turned, and followed Rocky out to the Tahoe. That was one of the reasons he was anxious to leave; he could sense Rocky wanting to head home for the night.

*   *   *

Rocky could hardly contain himself, he was so excited about the new additions to the family. All he wanted to do was play with the odd-looking little dogs. They reminded him of when he was little and had so many other puppies to play with on the wide, open fields. Except now
he
would have to be the mother to these dogs. They were small, and funny-looking, but they had interesting scents. They also yapped a lot, but he understood they were just scared and this was a new place to them. He couldn't wait till they saw the animals in the cages. No dog could be used to all those different kinds of animals.

Earlier in the evening, Rocky had sensed how angry Tim had been with the men who had the little dogs. He was about to boil over he was so mad. It made Rocky want to bite those men, but Tim wouldn't let him. Now Tim was back to his usual self. Fun, light, friendly. And Rocky liked the way he chuckled every time he looked down at the new little dogs.

Every night he and Tim always explored the property. First Rocky would run along the fence line as Tim jiggled the gates to make sure they wouldn't open. Rocky knew to make sure there were no predators on the property, but he sometimes got distracted by the cats or rabbits that wandered past the fence. After they were done with that, he would walk with Tim through the area that held all the strange animals. He knew a few of the names of the animals from hearing Tim or Josh say them over and over again. The white fluffy things with long ears were rabbits. The things that walked around freely and never seemed to be in a good mood of any kind were cats. Turtles had hard shells, and some of them tried to bite him. After that, Rocky just knew if animals were big or small, dangerous or not. The most interesting animal to him was white with a long neck and the sour smell. It was not ever friendly, but it was still his responsibility to keep it safe.

As they walked back toward the house, Rocky saw a chance to play a game that always seemed to make Tim happy. Tim called it “tag.” It was a simple game where he nipped at Tim and then Tim tried to catch him. It got his heart racing, and he liked seeing Tim happy. It took a while for Rocky to understand that Tim showed his happiness by baring his teeth. He was learning new things about his man every day, and that was fine with Rocky. All he wanted to do was make Tim happy.

*   *   *

The Belle Glade Christian School where Hallett lived in a trailer had twenty acres of open fields, buildings, and long perimeter. He lived rent-free in exchange for keeping an eye on the sprawling complex. Every time they arrived on the school grounds, Hallett and Rocky conducted the customary survey of the area before heading to the double-wide. He never found anything wrong, but it was the least he could do considering they provided him with a place to live and paid his utilities.

Tonight, Hallett and Rocky stopped at the trailer before moving to the rest of the property. Hallett fumbled with the box he'd retrieved from the backseat of his Tahoe. Rocky had carefully walked along beside him and was anxious as Hallett set the box on the ground. Rocky poked his head over the edge of the cardboard that contained the two poodles.

The little dogs were not nearly as active and loud as they were earlier. Hallett thought it was a little ironic that they were more afraid of him and Rocky than they were of the morons who were going to use them for gator bait, but he preferred them in this docile state.

He looked at Rocky and said, “Do we really need more animals around here? I'm not sure how to take care of these two.” He was so used to chatting with Rocky that sometimes he imagined the dog answered him. At least he rationalized that he was picking up on the dog's cues more effectively. He didn't want to think he was going crazy from living alone too long.

Hallett made a bed for the small dogs in the carport, behind a low fence he had built to house animals on a temporary basis before they got adopted or, more commonly, moved into his little zoo.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper had lived in the trailer before him and was transferred to North Florida just as Crystal had booted Hallett from the house they shared in Royal Palm Beach. He knew it'd never work with her, but he tried hard to do what was right once Josh was born four years ago. He still liked the idea of marriage and settling down to have more kids, but Crystal wasn't built for it. At least not on a cop's salary.

She was a great mother and mostly a good person, but she didn't much care to have a uniformed deputy sheriff living with her. She needed a high-end lawyer or doctor who kept regular hours.

He knew that was an easy excuse. In fact, when he and Crystal had first moved in together, he thought he'd found true peace. He couldn't spend enough time with her. She was fun and they were in love. But a lot had happened from their first six months to the last six months of cohabitation.

Neither family had ever accepted the arrangement, and it had nothing to do with the fact that Crystal's family was African American and his was not. Crystal's family thought being a policeman was not the type of job that could support their daughter, and Hallett's mother resented the attitude that no one in Crystal's family tried to hide. Her father was a prominent pediatrician and community leader who'd hoped his daughter would go on to medical school. Instead her looks had gotten her some modeling jobs while she was still a junior at the University of Florida, and it sidetracked her education. It had nothing to do with Hallett, but her father always seemed to blame him somehow.

Adding to the stress of the relationship was how their jobs had changed. Crystal lost a high-paying hostess job at a swanky Palm Beach restaurant, and he went from being a regular day-shift detective to working all kinds of shifts in uniform with a K-9 partner.

Rocky presented another challenge, but Hallett still had to take responsibility. He drank more, took his frustration out on Crystal, and misjudged what their little verbal sparring matches were doing to her.

Now it was just easier to make jokes about her and dismiss the whole relationship. In truth, though, he still missed her and what they once had. He was just too proud to ever admit it to anyone.

Hallett leaned down to pick up a plastic cup that had blown onto the grounds and he felt a pinch on the seat of his pants. He knew what that meant. Hallett stood up quickly and spun to face Rocky.

The dog was crouched with his hindquarters high in the air. It was his favorite game. Tag. It always started with Hallett bending over and Rocky giving him a friendly nip on the butt. Then he would challenge Hallett by crouching and moving in the opposite direction. It was a fast, choppy game that never failed to make Hallett laugh. It was like playing with another son.

Sometimes the games lasted an hour and sometimes only a few seconds. Hallett never refused, because he knew it was Rocky's way of forging a bond by doing something they both enjoyed.

After the game of tag, Rocky trotted along beside him gave a quick look at the school grounds across the open field and then walked back toward the trailer. His approach caused a stir of excitement in the animal pens next door. He was amazed that all the different critters, separated by chain-link fence, seemed to live in relative harmony. There was no doubt Rocky was the monarch of this little animal kingdom. He could stick his nose into any pen and no animal would snap at him or make a threatening sound.