When Mattie broke through the trees, she spotted Moose and Robo crouched and barking near the base of the falls. White water spilled off a cliff, crashing over boulders, filling the air with a fine mist. Robo’s bark sounded ferocious as he jumped at the water’s edge, landing elbows-deep in the pool and then backing out to trade places with Moose.
Both dogs raced back and forth in a fury, their eyes pinned on a felled pine that lay partially underwater, its trunk upended but still anchored to shore by a root system that rose into the air. Mattie called Robo as she ran, but his attention was fixed on something within the submerged part of the tree and he wasn’t listening.
Mattie raced the last hundred yards and came up to the dogs only a few paces ahead of Glenna. As she rounded the felled tree, Robo spotted her and came at once, his eyes bright and snapping with excitement. Mattie’s first glance didn’t reveal anything, and she allowed herself to relax, thinking it must be a squirrel or chipmunk that had taunted the dogs.
But Robo whirled to go back to Moose, obviously still drawn to whatever the ridgeback was barking at. In a stern voice, Mattie told Robo to “leave it” and made him come to her. Moose was so fixated on the tree boughs that he wouldn’t break away when Glenna called him. She charged down to the water’s edge to grab his collar.
Glenna captured Moose and had started to drag him away when surprise crossed her face, followed by a look of horror. She straightened, one hand on Moose’s collar while the other went to her chest. “Oh no!” she said, loud enough for Mattie to hear over the roar of the falls.
“What is it?” Mattie shouted, reaching for the pistol she’d strapped into a shoulder holster under her loose shirt.
Glenna’s eyes were still fixed on whatever she’d seen as she dragged Moose up the bank. “It’s a body, Mattie. Snagged in the tree. Or at least I think it is.”
Surely not a body. Mattie returned the pistol to its holster. She needed to subdue Robo and get him back under control. She feared he would leap into the water, which swept past the tree and into the torrent. “Robo, down. Stay.”
He obeyed, panting, his eyes now pinned on her as he watched her every move. Glenna struggled to get control of Moose as he continued to bark and pull against her. With a feeling of dread, Mattie inched her way down the tree trunk, searching the water within the submerged branches.
Then she spotted it. White and bloated, facedown, bobbing about six inches below the water. One arm floated upward, its hand swollen like a puffer fish with sausage-like digits. A body, hung up in the snag of branches and debris from the felled pine. The current rushed against it, threatening to loosen the tree’s hold and wash it away at any minute.
Below this point the river ran in rapids and white water until it spilled out of the bowl and rushed downhill, where it joined with other streams and runoff. If this body slipped from its mooring, it would be damaged as it bounced over the boulders in the riverbed. And if it floated past the rim to the next falls, it might be lost forever. Mattie couldn’t let that happen.
She raised her eyes from the grisly sight and looked at Glenna. “We need to get it out.”
TWO
For the past few weeks, it had been tough sledding for Cole in his vet clinic, and he’d grown tired of it. With the exception of his office manager, Tess, who was always cheerful, everyone he employed had been giving him the cold shoulder. Of course, his other two employees happened to be teenagers—one his very own daughter, for Pete’s sake—and the two happened to be friends, so that didn’t help any.
The girls weren’t exactly being disrespectful. Cole could’ve managed open hostility better than this stony-faced silence. He enjoyed his work and he liked to joke around under the right circumstances, like when he and the kids were mucking out stalls, cleaning cages, or just hanging out between client visits. Their sudden distance had lasted longer than he’d thought it would, and it chafed him like an ill-fitting harness on a workhorse.
Preparing for his next client, Cole assembled his mobile X-ray system in the back room. He’d yet to meet this woman who’d recently moved to Timber Creek. Her female German shepherd was scheduled for hip films that would be sent to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals for soundness rating. When he’d commented to his older daughter, Angela, that he was excited to meet another German shepherd like Robo, she’d responded with a withering look before turning away to update his last client’s records on the computer.
He’d thought he’d built a solid relationship with his sixteen-year-old, but during the past few weeks she’d turned into someone unfamiliar. Or maybe her behavior held hints of familiarity that concerned him. If he was being honest, she might be treating him with the same touch of disdain he’d received in the past from her mother, his ex.
The older Angie got, the more she looked like her mom, too. Tall and thin with white-blond hair and blue eyes, Angie seemed to resent her own appearance, because her anger toward her mom was something else the kid happened to be dealing with this summer. And one thing he knew for certain was that mentioning the mother-daughter similarity to Angela was the wrong tack to take.
His other teen employee, Riley Flynn, whose freckle-faced countenance often wore a broad grin, came through the door from the equine treatment area and startled as if she hadn’t expected to see him. Though she’d worn a pleasant expression and had almost smiled when their eyes met, she quickly rearranged her features into a flat mask that looked nothing like her typically animated appearance.
“Hey, Riley. Are you done with sweeping the cement pad?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, staying the course she’d set toward the inner office. “I’ll ask Tess what to do next.”
“I could use some help here.”
Riley paused her march through the room and placed her hand on the side braid that she wore her unruly brunet hair in for work. “Okay,” she said, sounding unsure of herself as she glanced toward the door that led to the reception area, where Angie was working on the computer.
Cole had decided that Angie was the leader in this disagreeable situation, and Riley’s response only added confirmation. “I’ve got a new client coming in named Mrs. Vaughn. She’s bringing a female German shepherd that needs hip X-rays. I could use some help with that.”
A twinkle of excitement sparked in the girl’s eye before she extinguished it. “Okay.”
Tess usually assisted Cole with procedures, and he hoped that inviting Riley to help would extend an olive branch. He knew why the two girls were mad at him, but he didn’t plan to do anything about it.
Angie resented that he’d fallen in love with Mattie; she’d made that point very clear when they’d talked about his new relationship a few weeks ago. Angie had evidently enlisted Riley to join her side—easy to do, since Riley’s widowed father had also begun to date, a situation that didn’t please her either. Cole realized these were tough issues the teenagers had to deal with, and he hoped to wear them out by showing them he was still there for them, no matter what.
Cole gave Riley one of his most charming smiles. “Go get the lead aprons and gloves. There are three sets, and we keep them in the utility room. I’ll get the X-ray plates.”
The girl headed for the door to the utility as Tess entered the room from the small-animal treatment area. Tess wore her hair short, spiky, and colored an unnatural shade of red, sometimes with blue tips on the end. Today was one of those times—red and blue. “Ruth Vaughn is here,” she said.
“Great. I’m just about ready. Riley’s going to help. Could you get a radiation monitor for her to wear? She’s getting the aprons and gloves.”
“Sounds good. She can learn to help hold.”
Cole had been lucky to hire Tess ten years earlier, and she’d been a godsend when his ex-wife, Olivia, left him and his daughters in the lurch. His family had faced some tough adjustments, but Tess had been there to teach both Angie and his nine-year-old, Sophie, various jobs at the clinic to keep them busy after school before he found his live-in
housekeeper, Mrs. Gibbs.
Life had been rocky back then. He hoped things would smooth out again soon, because it wore him out when his loved ones were unhappy.
Cole placed a set of X-ray plates beside the machine and followed Tess through the small-animal treatment room and into the main office. A tall woman who wore her dark-blond hair in a large bun at her nape below a small cap of white fabric waited in the lobby. Several towheaded kids peeked out from behind her calf-length blue skirt and white apron, while a young girl about Angie’s age, dressed in garb like her mother’s, stood holding the leash of a gorgeous German shepherd.
After Cole extended his hand and introduced himself, the woman raised her gaze to his briefly before diverting her eyes. She returned his handshake with the tips of her fingers and responded in a demure voice, “And this is my daughter, Hannah.”
Cole received another tentative fingertip handshake from Hannah, who was the image of her mother from head to toe. Both wore white anklets and black lace-up shoes that reminded him of those worn by his grandmother in her later years.
And then his eyes were drawn to the shepherd. Obviously female, with a graceful head and smaller boned than Robo, she sat beside Hannah’s left heel, her sharp gaze watching his every movement. When he looked at her, she opened her mouth slightly in a pant as if overcome by a sudden case of nerves, though she remained quite still otherwise. Like Robo, she was predominantly black with mahogany markings.
“Wow,” Cole said, with a smile for Hannah. “Your dog’s a beauty.”
Hannah returned his smile with a slight upward tilt of her lips, then lowered her face in the same demure manner as her mother.
“Her name is Sassy,” Ruth said, her voice a quiet contralto that made Cole strain to hear. “I have her records here.”
She reached inside a denim bag she wore slung from one shoulder and brought out a booklet that she offered to Cole. He took it, flipping it open to see a birth date and completed-vaccination list. Everything looked up-to-date.
He handed the booklet to Angie, who remained seated at her reception desk. “Could you set up a record for Sassy while I get started?”
While she took the booklet from his fingers, Angie looked beyond him toward Hannah and gave her a welcoming smile. Cole had to hand it to his kid: at least she could maintain a warm attitude toward his customers while still freezing out her dear old dad. Hannah responded differently to Angie than she had to him, meeting Angie’s gaze directly, her face now lit with a friendly smile.
Cole turned toward his treatment room, holding the door open for the family to enter. “Let’s take Sassy here to the table where I can take a look at her,” he said to Hannah as she passed through the door.
Now that Ruth and her children were mobilized, he could count three of the small ones, each of a different size but all with light hair—two girls in pigtails wearing pint-sized versions of their mother’s dress, and a boy with a bowl-shaped haircut dressed in a blue chambray shirt and denim pants with an elastic waist instead of a zipper. He resisted the urge to tousle the boy’s hair as he passed by, sensing that the child’s shyness might make any kind of boisterous gesture unwelcome.
He watched Sassy walk to the exam table, her gait steady and even. While she possessed the sloping hip that matched the breed standard for a German shepherd, her legs moved well at the joints, and there was no apparent limitation when she walked.
Movement on the other side of the room caught Cole’s eye. Riley slipped through the door and tried to melt into the wall, looking toward Cole as if seeking permission. He gave her a nod before speaking to his clients. “This is Riley. She helps out here at the clinic.”
Hannah and Ruth both said hello and then turned back to Cole, Hannah’s gaze lingering for a bit on Riley.
“I see that Sassy just turned two,” Cole said to Ruth, referring to the birth date he’d seen on the shepherd’s vaccination record. “You’re thinking of having some puppies?”
Now Ruth raised her face to meet his gaze. “That’s why we need the OFA test.”
It sounded like this woman had some experience with breeding shepherds. “Did you purchase her, or did she come from one of your own litters?”
“The breeder I bought her from said he would guarantee she passed this hip test and he’d replace her if she didn’t.” Ruth smiled slightly, and the bit of animation transformed her bland face. “But I don’t know how we’d ever do that. The children and I couldn’t give her up.”
“Do you know the OFA ratings on Sassy’s parents?”
“The father was rated excellent and the mother good. The breeder had pups from a female that also had an excellent rating, but I couldn’t afford one from that litter.”
“I know what you mean.” Cole had been watching Sassy while they talked, and the dog had settled back down to sit at Hannah’s heel without being told. She scanned the room, taking in everything, but she seemed unusually calm compared to most dogs that came to the clinic for the first time. “She has a pretty laid-back personality?”
“She’s been great. She adjusted well to the kids, and Hannah works with her constantly. Sassy’s made a good pet for our family.”
“Is it okay if I give her a treat to make friends?”
“Certainly.”
Cole went to the counter where he kept his dog treats, picked one from the jar, and walked over to Sassy, keeping his voice low and his words slow to limit agitation. He offered his hand, palm down, the treat tucked inside his fist. Sassy sniffed his fingers daintily and touched his hand with her tongue, as soft as a butterfly kiss.
He opened his hand so she could take the treat, then followed up with firm strokes to her neck and back. She didn’t offer any sign of fear or resistance—well socialized, even temperament. Cole looked at Hannah. “Can you help me lift her onto the table? She’ll be happier if you do.”
Hannah nodded, bent, and grasped Sassy around her chest, lifting the front end of the seventy-pound dog while Cole reached to lift the shepherd’s hips and place her on the table. Sassy’s toenails clicked against the stainless-steel surface, and she broke into a light pant.
Cole stroked the dog with one hand while he removed his stethoscope from his lab coat pocket with the other. “If you’ll hold her there, Hannah, I can take a listen.”
The ker-thump of Sassy’s heart was steady and regular, and her lungs sounded clear. He examined her eyes and found them to be healthy looking and responsive. He turned to Ruth. “She looks like she’s calm enough for me to try to do the X-ray without sedation. And her heart and lungs sound good, so if I have to slip her a light sedative, she should do fine. I need you to sign a release form just in case.”
“All right.”
Before Cole could go to the pass-through to ask, Tess entered the room with the paperwork.
“Thanks, Tess.” Cole picked up a muzzle made from red nylon straps. “I’m going to slip this on her so that no one gets bit when we position her for the X-ray. It won’t hurt her, and it’ll ensure that we don’t get hurt either.”
Hannah frowned as she nodded. Cole went ahead and positioned the muzzle on Sassy, adjusting the straps so that they were comfortable. The dog appeared willing to cooperate, making him even more impressed with her temperament. He could hardly wait to tell Mattie about her.
Tess got the necessary signature, laid the form on the counter, and turned to Hannah. “I can take Sassy’s leash now. She’s going to the back room for her photo, and we’ll take good care of her.”
As Hannah relinquished the leash, Ruth spoke up. “If Hannah goes with Sassy, I’m sure she can get her to cooperate.”
Although the procedure involved holding a dog on its back, Cole typically didn’t have a problem getting a calm dog like this to lie still. A little belly scratching often did the trick. “I think Sassy will do fine. The exposure to radiation for an X-ray is low, but let’s have Hannah stay in the lobby with the rest of you.”
Cole followed Tess and Riley into the
back room, where they already had Sassy sitting on the thick pad below the X-ray machine. Riley was petting the dog while Tess coached her. “Low and slow, Riley. That’s what Dr. Walker says will keep a dog calm.”
Ah, Tess. Thank goodness someone enjoyed employee training, a task that made Cole cringe. “Sassy looks comfortable,” he said. “Let’s get her to lie down.”
Sassy’s obedience training became obvious when she responded to Cole’s first command. He let Tess show Riley how to gently press Sassy onto her side, and they took turns, one petting her while the other donned a lead apron. Tess laid the gloves within reach. Cole positioned the generator over Sassy’s body and then put on his own protective apron.
Though Sassy was well-groomed, she began to shed hair that floated from her body and clung to the spongy pad. Cole could tell she was nervous but still consolable.
Tess told Riley to put on her gloves and kneel beside Sassy, far enough back to stay out from under the generator. “Rub her chest right here to keep her calm.”
A quick glance told him that Tess was ready, and without needing to say a word, they worked in unison to position the plates beneath Sassy’s hips while swiftly turning her onto her back. Tess soothed the shepherd with her voice and scratched her belly with one hand while capturing her front legs with the other. For a split second, Sassy resisted, but her heart didn’t seem set on it and she stopped struggling almost at once.
Positioned at Sassy’s hips, Cole reached forward to take hold of the dog’s forelegs, using his arms to stabilize her body while Tess slipped on her leaden gloves. Then Tess took over while he slid on his own protective mitts, quickly adjusted the generator over Sassy’s hips into the perfect position for the X-ray, and made sure the remote switch was near his foot. In one swift motion, he grasped Sassy’s hind legs, stretched her into place, and stepped on the button to capture the shot.
They released Sassy and she rolled to her side, panting but not even shaken enough to try to get away. She lay still while Tess and Riley petted her and told her what a good girl she was. Cole felt certain the films would be fine and they wouldn’t need to redo them, but he told Tess to wait while he checked.
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