by Mary Hiker
What would he need those for?
As the video continued, Chevy got a scratch on the head then trotted over to a complete stranger and plopped down on the cool concrete floor, watching as the bearded man swept a pile of wallets and credit cards off a table and into a backpack.
Pick pocketing!
I knew something fishy had been going on down there.
My finger pressed pause on the computer just before my thumb speed dialed Don.
Don answered on the first ring and didn’t bother to say hello. “Avery, will you let me get back to work on this investigation?”
I looked at the phone and frowned. “Yeah, I’d be happy to. Get back over here and look at this new evidence I’ve got for you.”
#
Don leaned in close to the computer screen. “There were several reports of wallets missing during the festival.” He looked closer. “That’s Donny D. We arrested him a couple times last year for pickpocketing.”
“I had fifty bucks disappear,” I said, now even more miffed at Jacob.
Don glanced at me. “How did you get this video?”
“Chevy wanted to try out the gift Tonya gave us.” I opened my hands and gave him my best innocent look. “The dogs just happened to go in the maintenance barn while the camera was rolling.”
“Hmmm.” Don returned his focus to the computer screen.
Gunner photo-bombed the video as he did a play bow, trying to get Chevy to play. There were more dizzying chase scenes until Chevy trotted over to Jacob and tried to stick his nose into an over-sized duffle bag just as the man dumped an armful of cash inside.
Don stopped the video. “I thought they stored all the cash up here.”
“They did.” My face grew hot as I recalled how Jacob bullied Tonya about the missing money.
“A set up – Jacob steals the money and blames Tonya.” Don leaned back and glared at the computer screen. “Then he tries to force Tonya into repaying the money to Big Diesel. If she can’t pay it off, she ends up in jail and they claim it on insurance.”
“He keeps the money and Big Diesel is taken care of either way.” I nodded and pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes.
Don studied the frozen video screen with money pouring out of Jacob’s arms.
“A double set up.” He snapped his fingers and pointed at the screen. “There’s more cash there than what could fit in Tonya’s safe.”
I opened the secret door behind the desk to double check the size of her safe.
Don stood and reached for his radio. “Maybe his guys robbed both Mel Medlock and Tonya’s safe.”
“…and pick pocketed half the crowd at the fair,” I added.
Don nodded in agreement. “Let me get some help out here. Lock up, will you?”
“But…” I followed him outside.
“There’s still the issue of Tonya’s gun and the murder.” Don spoke to me, but his eyes stayed on the maintenance barn. “The gun was stored in her safe and she’s already admitted that no one else had the combination.”
My shoulders slumped as I let out a disappointed breath. Don was right about the safe. It was still sitting in Tonya’s office, unharmed.
No matter how hard I tried, the evidence kept leading back to Tonya.
Chapter 13
I collapsed into Tonya’s office chair as I listened to Jacob Tanner’s truck race past the lodge and down the driveway, followed by his buddies. I heard a siren in the distance and figured either Don or one of the deputies pulled the whole crowd over.
Soon after, another deputy car flew down the dirt road and skidded to a stop at the maintenance building. I sat in the office chair and stared at the screen for a minute, then hit ‘play’ to view the rest of Chevy’s video. There wasn’t much more to it, Jacob shooed Chevy away from the money bags and the dogs headed back outside.
My phone rang and I picked up, keeping my eye on the doggie cam video footage of Gunner and Chevy playing on the foot path outside the maintenance shed. Mostly I saw close-ups of Gunner’s animated face as the two wrestled.
“Jacob didn’t have the money in his truck and is playing dumb,” Don said. “The guys are still hunting for the other two that flew out of the campground.”
He was interrupted by dispatch and after a moment, continued, “The maintenance barn has been cleared out. The way they all took off out of there, it seems like they were tipped off.”
“What are you saying? There’s no one here to tip them off, Don.” I looked past the computer and teddy bear sitting on Tonya’s desk at the napping dogs. “It was just us.”
“Calm down, I wasn’t accusing you of anything.”
“Right, so that leaves the dogs and a teddy bear.”
“Huh?”
“The teddy bear Jacob left for Tonya…” The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I started at the little bear. I picked up the cute toy and squeezed its soft belly. Something reflected back at me and I took a closer look.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” I yelled. I was so upset, so enraged that I jolted back too far and flipped backwards out of the chair.
#
Don bolted through the office door and found me lying on the floor rubbing my head, hugging a teddy bear and surrounded by two worried dogs.
I looked up as he bent over the top of me. “He did it the same way I did.”
“What?”
“It’s one of those bears with a tiny hidden camera inside.” I reached up and handed him the teddy bear. “It’s been sitting on Tonya’s desk pointed right at the safe combination lock.”
Don studied the stuffed bear. “This is one high tech piece of equipment.”
“Jacob just waited and watched until Tonya opened the safe and was able to get the combination. He had plenty of time to stash the gun back in her safe while she helped me get some dry clothes the other night. He also had full access all weekend during the festival.”
“And he probably just saw us watching the dog cam video.” Don reached out and helped me to my feet. “That just leaves one question… where’s the money?”
Chapter 14
My hiking boots kicked up dust as I walked down the hill to the maintenance building. I wanted to take a look around the place for myself. Chevy and Gunner played tug-o-war in the doorway and two deputies were elbowing each other in the ribs. I’d never seen grown men giggling like that before, at least not while they were in uniform.
“Ooh, Tonya’s gonna be mad at you Chevy. Those fancy ones are expensive.”
I walked up to the dogs to see what had the deputies so intrigued. Gunner and Chevy were playing tug with a brand new lacy white bra. The tags from an expensive lingerie shop were still attached. An empty gift box lay on the ground next to them.
“Hey, let go.”
Gunner obeyed, letting loose of his end of the undergarment while Chevy kept hold of his, causing the elastic band to snap back and shoot the end of the bra onto Chevy’s head.
The deputies really got a laugh out of that one.
“That looks like you on a Saturday night,” the young deputy ribbed the older one.
“Give me that, Chevy.” He dropped the bra in my hand. “Where’d you get that, anyway?”
Once I had the material in my hand, it was immediately apparent that it didn’t belong to Tonya. She had an athletic figure and who ever owned this item was, could you say, extra gifted.
“What were those guys doing in here all weekend, entertaining a bunch of ladies and buying them gifts?” The young deputy stepped inside the building looking for more clues.
I looked down the path at the deep tracks made in the mud during the recent storm. “Not a bunch of ladies, just one well-endowed one.” I raced down the path and called out, “Follow me!”
All the foot prints back and forth on this path suddenly made sense. They weren’t from Tonya’s shoes, they were created by the woman. The intended recipient of Jacob’s gift.
I followed the deep tracks where they cut
through a gap in the woods and popped out near the back door of the Medlock’s double-wide mobile home. Mel, ever on the alert since the robbery, burst out his back door with a hunting rifle trained on me.
Heather Medlock clung to her husband’s waist from behind and announced, “I told you that girl had been following me. She’s friends with that thief, Tonya.”
“You’ve arrived on private property, ma’am,” Mel said and got in a shooting stance. “And if you move a muscle, you won’t be leaving here alive.”
I knew Mel’s skills and one shot would be all it’d take to send me to heaven.
“Call the cops, Heather,” he looked over his shoulder.
Heather started pacing. “She robbed us Mel, shoot her.”
“No, I didn’t…”
I was interrupted when the older deputy almost knocked me over as he staggered out of the woods, wheezing and holding his chest. Mel lowered his gun and held it behind the doorframe when he saw the deputy, but he didn’t put it down.
I tried not to move a muscle and spoke to the deputy. “Jacob Tanner had a lock down on the maintenance building for more reasons than the money his team was stealing.”
The deputy looked from person to person.
“Mel’s wife is the only one I know that could fit that bra,” I continued.
“Oh. Ohhhh.” The deputy finally figured it out and radioed his team.
Chevy and Gunner flew out of the woods into the backyard, went up to Heather and begged for a handout. A dead giveaway - she’d probably been giving them treats when they visited Jacob’s office.
Heather realized her secret was out and grabbed her husband’s gun. As if in slow motion, she took a pot shot in my direction. I dove to the ground and rolled. The loud noise right next to their ears startled the dogs and Gunner jumped up, pawing at Heather’s arm. Worried about the dogs, I got back to my feet and ran toward her as the deputy pulled his weapon.
Mel grabbed the gun and threw it to the ground. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
As Don and the other deputy’s surrounded Heather to place her in custody, I tried to tell the rest of the story.
“Heather’s been using this trail to visit Jacob at the maintenance building. And I’ll bet she shot D. Leonardo using Tonya’s gun.”
Mel stared from me to his wife and back again. “Why would my little lady do something like that?” Mel questioned, glaring at me.
“Because….” I looked him straight in the eye. “Leonardo messed up when he didn’t kill you.”
Chapter 15
Deputies searched the Medlock’s house and walked out with a duffle bag full of cash. Mel Medlock swore up and down that he didn’t know anything about it and I believed him. Once Jacob was arrested and learned his hot girlfriend was trying to pin a murder on him, he rolled over like a trick pony.
Jacob and Heather had been having an affair and decided to take it to another level. Heather decided she wanted a new man without being bogged down by another ex. The hot looking woman came up with a cold blooded plan that, surprisingly, almost worked.
After all the investigations, Don explained it to me something like this:
Heather hired a known pickpocket and some of his buddies to work the crowd at the fair and offered an extra bonus. One of them was talked into robbing Mel’s safe and was supposed to kill Mel with Tonya’s gun in the process. That way, Heather would get the death benefits, the cash from the safe and her new man, Jacob.
When the pickpocket couldn’t upgrade to murder, Heather wouldn’t let that derail her dream and she shot the thief at close range in her front yard. The man later staggered up the road, finally collapsing at Tonya’s gate.
With Tonya blamed for theft and murder, she’d have to sell off her land quickly and Heather would be ready to buy it at a cheap price….coincidently the amount that Tonya owed Big Diesel… because Jacob and Heather had stolen that money too.
It almost worked, until two dogs played tug-o-war with a bra.
#
Over the next couple weeks, every single person who reported missing money at the festival received a new wallet in their mailbox stuffed with five hundred dollars and a handwritten apology from Big Diesel… along with a seven hundred dollar coupon for a discount off a new truck from his dealership.
Don delivered my new wallet from Big Diesel in person. I sat on my front porch in the rocking chair, inspected the contents and chuckled. “That guy knows how to turn anything into a selling opportunity.”
It was just like Big Diesel to step in and make things right, even if none of it was his fault.
As for Tonya? The generous car dealer insisted she get double her cut of the festival profits and promised to pick up the tab on the campground’s new dog park. And of course, he’d spare no expense.
Two months later, Tonya cut the ribbon on the park with a grand celebration. It was rightly named The Triple D.
The End
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More Books by Mary Hiker
If you like this book, you may enjoy the other books in the Avery Barks Dog Mysteries series.
Butterfly Boy
Strange Outfit
Play Fetch
Underwater
The Author
Mary Hiker is a fixture in North Carolina’s mountains. She enjoys writing about dogs, nature and mystery adventures. She's a true animal lover at heart and her own dogs are the inspiration for Chevy's antics in the Avery Barks Dog Mystery series.
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