Page 104 of The Rescuer

Panic welled inside her. “Reece! Do you see that?”

“Sure do. Did you ask anyone to check on the clinic tonight?”

“No!”

He swiveled his head side to side. “I don’t see the sheriff’s car or Shane’s.” As he nonchalantly rolled past the clinic, the beam winked out.

“Reece, someone’s got a flashlight. They might be trying to get inside!”

Wordlessly, he punched the accelerator and made a sharp turn at the next corner onto the unpaved side street, squaring off the block as he roared toward the back of the building. A slight figure in all black streaked through the truck’s headlights across the parking lot and hopped the back fence.

“Hang on!” Hand gripping the back of Neve’s seat, Reece reversed out of the parking lot, gaining purchase on the dirt surface as he cranked the wheel. The truck fishtailed. He straightened it and surged the vehicle forward, but the figure was nowhere to be seen.

“Call Shane,” he ordered.

“Reece, look!” Neve stabbed her finger toward a pair of racing taillights that flashed red before going dark. The shadowy outline of a vehicle veered toward the far end of Bowen Street before accelerating onto the highway. “They’re driving away without any lights!”

“Can you catch their plates?” he growled.

“Too far.” Neve held up her phone and zoomed the camera’s lens as high as it would go, but between the truck’s jostling, the distance, and the obstructions, she couldn’t make out anything. Blindly, she snapped a series of pictures anyway.

Reece sped down Bowen Street, and Neve hit Shane’s number. He answered with a groggy, “Yeah?”

“Shane, we think someone either broke in or was trying to break into the clinic. They sped out of here like a bat out of hell without their lights on.”

His voice sharpened. “Where are you?”

“Reece is chasing them out of town. I’m riding shotgun.”

“Tell him to cut the chase.Now. Too dangerous. Go back to the clinic and see if anything’s been damaged or is missing. I’ll meet you there in ten.”

“But—” Her protest was met with silence. He’d hung up. She relayed the message to Reece, who had already slowed the truck.

“Yeah, I heard him,” he grumbled. He pulled off on the shoulder and stared at the steering wheel, seeming to ponder, before flipping a U-turn and driving back toward town.

They pulled up to the back door, but Reece held her back. “Let me go check it out first.” He hefted a fourteen-inch Maglite from under his seat and exited the cab.

As she watched the light splash over the back of the building, Neve rubbed her arms to quiet the chills zipping along them. Nothing looked out of place. Reece tried the doorknob before loping back to the truck. “It’s locked. Doesn’t look like anyone’s messed with it. Wanna grab your keys, and we’ll go inside and check things out?”

They did, and Shane joined them shortly after. “So nothing’s been touched that you can tell?” He jotted in a small notepad.

Neve shook her head. “No. Do you think we scared off the person who’s been targeting my clinic?”

“Impossible to know. From your description, it could have been a kid doing kid things.”

Reece gave him a steely-eyed stare. “Whatkindof kid things?”

“Snooping around. Doing something on a dare.”

“Trying to break in and steal my drugs,” Neve huffed. “I took pictures, but I’m not sure they’re going to help.”

“Text them to me. Meanwhile, why don’t you two go home, and I’ll take a look-see up the road and around town?”

Neve considered protesting, demanding they stay until Shane completed his investigation, but she was exhausted, the adrenaline spike having long faded. After Reece extracted a promise from Shane to meet him back at the clinic in the morning, she readily went with Reece, and soon they were back at her house.

After he cut the engine, she placed a hand on his arm. “Reece, wait. The porch lights are off. I know I left them on.”

He peered through the windshield before hoisting himself out of the cab. “Give me the keys. I’ll check. You stay put.”

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