Tucker

by Dale Mayer

  She looked up at him, her ears pointed, alert. He smiled, nodded, and unhooked her leash. He kept the collar on, and, with her at his side, he walked over toward the area where the burn was. Then he stopped and said, “Okay, go find it.”

  She looked at him again uncertainly, and he knew it wasn’t the right command, but, until he connected with her previous trainers, it was a little hard for him to judge. Yet she seemed to get the idea, as she turned, looked toward the burned area, and headed over, her nose down, sniffing the entire area. She wandered, while he watched, wondering if this was a complete waste of time.

  When she got to the far corner and the far wall that had taken the worst of the hit, she stopped and sat down. She gave a short bark. He walked over and patted her and gave her several treats. “Good girl,” he said. “Good girl.”

  He studied the area and realized that, short of anybody taking samples, it would be hard to know just what she had found. He sent off messages to Badger, asking if he had found any military K9 specialist there. Waiting on word from Badger, Tucker noted the flooring had space below it. He removed several of the charred floorboards, as was most of the floor. Down below was what looked like ashes. He called Rodney over.

  Rodney walked up, Addie beside him, and they both took a look.

  “Looks to me like you’ve got some questionable material down here,” Tucker said. “Probably filled with gasoline or some kind of retardant and then lit on fire from this point. And it makes sense if you look at where the burn pattern is.”

  “Wow,” Rodney said, looking from the floor underneath to the dog. “Do you think she’d recognize that scent again?”

  “Well, she would,” he said. “I just don’t know if I can help her to understand what I need from her.”

  “And that’s always the problem, isn’t it? But the animals know and are trying to tell us.” Addie smiled at Bernie. “Good girl.” Bernie leaned against her leg, her tail wagging cheerfully.

  “I do think they keep trying to tell us,” Tucker said. “I don’t think we understand them very well.”

  Heavy footsteps and voices approached at the front.

  “And who’s that?” Tucker asked, ordering Bernie back to his side. She was still an unknown quality.

  “Likely the insurance adjuster and my foreman,” Rodney said.

  “Keep them inside, please.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “I don’t want them knowing about the dog.”

  With that, Tucker hooked up the leash to Bernie, and, pulling Addie closer to him, he led the two of them across the floor to one of the back exits.

  “Should we be leaving?” she asked quietly. “Don’t you think Bernie should have a chance to sniff everybody?”

  “I think Rodney has an idea of who the problem is, but he doesn’t quite understand how to prove it.”

  “Ah, so then he was hoping the dog might give him some ammunition toward that?”

  “Again I haven’t spoken with him, but that sounds like a likely scenario, yes.”

  “Right,” she said, “so then we’ll just have to watch and see. What if the arsonist doesn’t even work here?”

  “Rodney’s paying a lot of people to keep them on this project, so he doesn’t lose them.” At that, they heard several vehicles drive up to the site.

  “Wow,” she said, “that’s a lot of new visitors all of a sudden.”

  “Well, could be a shift coming on. That’s possible, if they’ve gotten some okay to carry on in the unaffected portions,” he said. “It’s also fairly late in the afternoon, so I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a meeting as much as anything?”

  “Or another protest,” she murmured.

  He nodded slowly. “And that’s possible too.”

  “Other than the loss of the pristine land out here, I never thought people would care about a building like this. Especially out here. Wouldn’t it bring with it more jobs to this area?”

  “And more vehicles, so more air pollution. More people, so more water pollution.” Tucker shrugged. “I think it’s just that everybody is upset the economy is not what it’s supposed to be, and people are suffering. This is just another example of what’s wrong in their world.”

  “It’s just condos,” she said.

  “But, like you said earlier, it probably used to be a place where they grew up and could wander as children quite happily,” he reminded her.

  He walked her around the building, and she saw how far along the building project had gotten everywhere else. “So why do they start at one end and just kind of develop as they go?”

  “Every builder has a different system. Sometimes with condo complexes, they take a whole unit and bring it up to the finish point, so they can rent it. Then they go complete the next unit. Other times they run through and do all the plumbing, all the wiring, and then all the interior walls, et cetera, layers after layers,” he said. “It just depends on what they’re comfortable with and what their time frame is.”

  “Okay,” she said, studying it. “I don’t have any experience with construction at all.”

  “Your father never built a house?”

  “No,” she said, “he’s not an outdoor person at all. No, he’s a doctor. So hopefully that’s where his specialty is.”

  “Obviously, yes,” he said.

  She stared around. “I like this area. I wouldn’t mind buying a place like this myself.”

  “But then where would you work?” he asked her. “It’s a long commute.”

  “I know,” she said. “I was thinking it might be time to change locations anyway, but I don’t know where yet. I’m not a great one for making changes.”

  “Sometimes we get in a rut,” he said, “and it’s easier to not change. However, when we do make a change,” he said, “it’s often the best thing we could have done.”

  “I get that,” she said. “I really do, but change can be scary.”

  “Sure it can be, and often it just makes life that much better afterward. If it’s something you’re afraid to do, you need to push yourself and get past that.”

  “Argh,” she said, “more of those life lessons.”

  “I think they’re great,” he said with a bright smile.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know about that.”

  By the time they continued their walk, discussing the various design elements, she was surprised that they had already come all the way around.

  “He does nice work,” she said. “These should sell for a nice penny.”

  “Which is, of course, the problem,” he said. “When you think about it, probably the locals themselves can’t afford these.”

  “But they should be that much cheaper, being farther out, like he said.”

  “Yet, if you look at the area, it’s not terribly wealthy. So likely still out of their price range.”

  “Hadn’t considered that,” she said. “And nobody likes change. Nobody likes progress. So I guess I sound just like the people around here.”

  “And that’s where the problem comes in.”

  She nodded. “Interesting,” she said, as she pointed out a half-dozen vehicles.

  “Could be just people coming in to talk to Rodney. It could also be a new shift. It could be people trying to figure out when they’re coming back to work. Maybe he called them in to discuss what they’ll do about the burn area,” he said with a shrug.

  “Did he really offer you a job?”

  “Yes,” he said, “and it’s something I certainly could do. The question is, is it something I want to do?”

  “Nice to know you have so many skills,” she said.

  “But, like you in the ER, it doesn’t mean that I necessarily want to utilize those skills,” he murmured.

  She winced. “I know. Sometimes it’s easier to take a different path.”

  “But you can’t feel guilty about that because we must do what makes us happy, not to just get through the days but to thrive,” he said. “You’ve not had the easiest o
f upbringings, so you need to find something in life that makes you smile.”

  “And I thought that was doing the ER work,” she said, “but I did find it extremely stressful. Changing that was hard, but it was the right thing to do.”

  Chapter 6

  Tucker and Addie walked toward the crowd. “I suppose we should be watching Bernie’s reaction?” she murmured to Tucker.

  “Absolutely,” he said, his voice equally quiet. “It’s the dog I’ll be focusing on,” he said. “So let’s see what Bernie comes up with.”

  As they walked toward the crowd, it opened slightly as Rodney stepped back to include them. He introduced them to various workers and the one insurance adjuster here.

  “What kind of dog is that?” one of the guys said.

  “A War Dog,” Tucker said easily. And then gave a short explanation of what she’d been doing in the military. For Addie, it was interesting to see the men’s reactions. Everybody was smiling and happy to see the dog. However, one guy wasn’t. He caught her gaze on him and looked at her a little warily. Maybe he was scared of dogs, which was fair, because a lot of people were scared of large dogs.

  Nobody questioned who she was, so she presumed they all thought that she was Tucker’s partner. And that was okay with her right now. She looked over at the adjuster, busily taking notes, who seemed to be in a private conversation with Rodney. Finally the two men shook hands, and the adjuster walked away. Addie looked at Rodney, one eyebrow raised. He just smiled and nodded at her. She realized that nobody else understood what was going on either. One of the crew turned to Rodney and asked, “So when can we go back to work?”

  “Waiting on the insurance,” he said with a nod toward the adjuster who just left. “He’ll give me a report in the next two days, and we should be back to work then.”

  “Right,” the guy said with an eye-roll. “Like that’ll happen.”

  “How many weeks does this set you back?” Addie asked Rodney.

  “Because of where we were at in the construction process,” he said, “I’ll have to get new rafters brought in and new trusses, but probably,” he frowned and said, “maybe two weeks.”

  “That’s not too bad,” she said, “considering that you’re so much more ahead on the other units.”

  “Sure but we generally don’t sell or have move-ins until everything’s completed,” he said. “So, in theory, two weeks is quite disastrous.”

  “But it’s two weeks, not four weeks or four months,” she said, reminding him.

  He chuckled. “Yes, but every day in our world is about money,” he said. “So it doesn’t sound like a whole lot for somebody not in the industry, but it makes a huge difference in my world.”

  “I guess,” she said. She didn’t understand, but she saw the other guys were nodding with him. She thought about all the wages that went into keeping a crew on board and ready and able to work, even though they didn’t put in an hour of labor, and thought that she might have a better understanding.

  “Maybe we should head back now,” Tucker said. He looked down at Addie. “Are you ready to go home?”

  She smiled, nodded, and tucked her hand into his, as they walked around the crowd and headed toward Tucker’s truck. As they passed a couple vehicles in the parking lot where two men stood nearby, the dog stopped, and her tail went down. Bernie looked at Tucker, but he pulled on her leash, trying to move her. He stopped, looked at her, and asked, “What’s the matter, girl?”

  Several vehicles were parked here, and the group of people had now reformed in front of them. He looked at the two men who had been standing here. He didn’t know how they were any different from the others. They were just extra crewmen to him. But not to the War Dog. He looked at Bernie and smiled, as he crouched and cuddled her gently. “Can you smell it again?”

  Given Bernie’s reaction, Tucker knew he needed to check every one of the vehicles. He said to Addie, “Let’s go for a walk.” Then Tucker turned to Rodney. “I’ll just take Bernie over there, so she can have a look.” And he headed down toward the rougher side of the property, where it wasn’t paved, and then he bent to talk to Bernie. “Do you want to go to work?”

  Her ears immediately lifted, and she barked. With that, he uncoupled her leash and led her through the vehicles, up to one side and down the other. She sniffed and sniffed and sniffed, and, when they got to the far end, they reached a vehicle that had been here when they arrived, parked beside two newer arrivals. As Bernie went back and forth, she finally stopped and gave a short bark at a particular vehicle and sat down. Tucker walked over and gave her treats. “Good girl,” he said. “You’re a very good girl.”

  Tucker looked over at the group, still talking among themselves, and yelled out, “Rodney, can you come here for a sec?”

  Rodney nodded, made his excuses, and headed to where Tucker stood. “What’s up?”

  “Whose vehicle is this?” he asked.

  He looked around and said, “I’m not sure. It was here this morning.”

  “Well, the dog has sensed something, as far as I can tell, about this vehicle.”

  Rodney looked at Tucker, then at the dog.

  Tucker walked around the vehicle in question. The driver’s side door was unlocked. Tucker pulled it open, popped the trunk, and, sure enough, inside were gas cans, gloves, matches, some other accelerants, containers, and paper. Even small pieces of wood. He looked at Rodney and said, “Well, this is your arsonist’s vehicle.”

  He stood there, swearing gently under his breath.

  “Do you know whose it is?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t.”

  As Tucker looked over, Addie opened up the passenger side and got in the glove box and pulled out the paperwork. She walked toward Tucker and Rodney. “Paperwork’s here.” She handed it over.

  Rodney snatched it from her hand, looked at it, and said, “I don’t know this name.”

  “And it’s possible the owner has nothing to do with the arson either. The vehicle could have been stolen,” Addie said.

  “That could be possible too.” At that, Tucker pulled out his phone and called Badger. Addie watched him and then frowned at Rodney. “Shouldn’t we call the police?” she asked in a low voice.

  “You mean, call them again,” Rodney said, but he pulled up his phone and made some phone calls himself.

  She stepped back, while the men were talking.

  Tucker looked at her over his phone. He reached out a hand, she immediately placed hers in it. He whispered to her, while Badger was talking, “Are you okay?”

  She nodded slowly. “I am. This is all just so weird,” she murmured.

  He squeezed her fingers, let her go, and returned to his call.

  Chapter 7

  Addie walked around the car, noting no license plate in front or at the back of the vehicle, which gave more credence to the fact that it was likely stolen. But, at the same time, why would it have been left here? As she thought about it, it made more sense to leave it if it were stolen. The arsonist didn’t want to get caught in a stolen vehicle. Plus they didn’t have to take their mess with them and get caught with that either.

  She stared at the mass of people still gathered here and realized that all the men were now watching them, but nobody approached. She shivered and walked closer to Tucker. He was off the phone now. As she stepped up, she said, “Are they all just watching this?”

  “Yes,” he said, not looking at the crowd. “Interesting, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “Wouldn’t they want to be over here, asking questions about what we’re doing? That would be more normal.”

  “Or maybe they already know,” Rodney said in a hard voice. He looked at Tucker and said, “Stay here.” And he turned and joined the group.

  “Does he think somebody here might know something?”

  “It’s hard to imagine what anybody will know in this scenario,” Tucker said. “This is obviously the vehicle that was used.”

&
nbsp; “And left behind because it was stolen,” she said with a nod.

  “It is one way to get rid of a stolen vehicle, isn’t it?” he said.

  “Very strange day,” she said with a yawn.

  He looked at her with concern. “You shouldn’t have come with me,” he said.

  “Of course I should have,” she said. “My life would be completely boring without all this.”

  He burst into laughter and said, “You’re handling it well.”

  “I haven’t been handling things very well in a long time,” she said. “Seeing Bernie here, free and doing what she was meant to do, points it out for me.”

  “Hey,” he said, “don’t start getting depressed.”

  “I think it’s too late for that,” she said with a small laugh.

  “Do you want to go home?”

  “Soon,” she said. “It has been a long day.”

  “Are you going back to your sister’s?”

  “Hell no,” she said forcibly. “I won’t contact her voluntarily for quite a while,” she said. “I need time and distance from that too.”

  “And unfortunately,” he said, “that’s what your parents have been doing too.”

  “I know. It’s the same old thing. I was trying very hard way back then,” she said, “to deal with them and my sister. I don’t feel like I did a very good job now.”

  “And that’s probably how they feel. Unfortunately, once you give your power away to a person or persons,” he said, “it’s very hard to get it back.”

  “That’s what I did, didn’t I?” she asked in a soft voice. “I let her become the bully that she is.”

  “That’s on her,” he said in a firm voice. “What’s on you is your reaction and how you handled that. You gotta stand up to bullies.” Addie nodded, her expression grim. “Let me tell Rodney that we are leaving now.”

  Addie found the return trip just as comfortable as the initial trip and got even more familiar with him and Bernie as they made the long journey back. They stopped several times. Once just to get out and to stretch their legs, another to pick up coffee and snacks, and, when he suggested a late dinner out, she immediately agreed. Anything to keep this relationship ongoing.