Page 9 of Kent's Watch
“Which one did he get?”
Rita sighed heavily and looked at him with sad eyes. Jim had been there to see all the dogs about two weeks before the classes stated. “Bluey.” At his frown, she grinned. “The brindle bull mastiff. The runt.”
“Really? I thought you wanted to keep him.”
“Yeah, but he went to a good home. At least I hope he did.” She walked back out into the main area of the building, and watched as Jim headed toward the door, saying he would be back before they finished for the day, but to call him if something came up and they had to quit earlier than planned. Rita assured him she would, then headed back to her office. She looked at her watch and made a quick decision.
In her office, she wrote everything up that had happened with Jim, then with that and what she’d written the day before, she sent both statements and the flash drive of Tim Vickers clearly abusing his dog to her lawyer. She explained what had happened, and why Sheriff Jim had been there that morning. It was always better to err on the side of caution in case this went further. She wanted her lawyer to have a heads up in case she had to go to court.
CHAPTER 4
During their lunchbreak from training, Kent sat off to the side with Tate lying beside him. As the dog slept, Kent ate the lunch he had packed for himself that morning. He found it was easier than to go someplace off campus to get something to eat. When he was done, he lounged back beside the dog and looked at the others who had the same idea he had, bringing their own lunch. He frowned when he saw Lisa give Charlie a treat. He couldn’t see any reason for it, but it wasn’t his place to question her training technique.
“May I join you?” came a voice from above, and Kent gave a start when he saw Rita standing there with Zeke by her side.
“Sure,” he waited until she sat, and after Zeke sniffed Tate, he settled down beside the pup. “What’s up?” Kent asked, shocked Rita had sought him out. All morning he had the impression that she was pissed at him for some reason.
“Where did you train dogs before?” She didn’t waste any time in questioning him.
“I didn’t.”
“I’m going to call you on that lie,” she said bitterly. “Not that it matters, but I hate liars.”
“Whatever, but I don’t lie. I told you this yesterday, I never trained dogs before, however, I worked with trained dogs and their handlers before. I paid attention and asked questions of the handlers on why he did certain things.”
Rita scowled at him, and it took everything Kent had not to get up and walk away from the hostility coming off her in waves. “Believe what you want. Am I failing the class?”
“No,” she bit out reluctantly.
“Then what’s your beef with me. Don’t say nothing, because I’ve felt hostility coming off you in waves all morning.”
Rita continued to glare at him, then with her head turned away, she said, “You need to stay after class.”
“Why? What did I do wrong?”
“Nothing, yet.” Rita stood and hurried away, making sure Zeke was beside her as she did. Kent shook his head as he watched her go. If it wasn’t for her bitchy attitude, she could be someone he would like to get to know better, but not now. He didn’t know who pissed in her Wheaties, but her attitude was a gigantic turn-off to him. On a heavy sigh, he looked at Tate who was watching him with his head on his paws.
“Yeah, we’re going to have to get you fixed so you don’t have bitch problems in the future.” Kent grinned when the pup gave a slight whine, as if he knew what Kent had just threatened him with.
Before he could get up and head back into the building to continue training for the afternoon session, Julie came over to him to see if everything was okay.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Kent stood, then looked out at the others and shook his head. He turned toward Julie, and asked, “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“What bug crawled up Rita’s ass? She came over a few minutes ago and told me I had to stay after class. She wasn’t nice about it.”
Julie laughed and waved her hand at him in a dismissive manner. “Oh, you’ll have to forgive her, she just needs to get laid. Or drunk, or maybe both.”
“Excuse me?” Kent looked at her in shock. “Did you just say what I think you did?”
“Probably,” Julie laughed, and they both saw Rita turn and glare at the two of them. “Yep, she needs to get laid.” Julie looked at him with a grin, and when she saw his expression, she laughed harder. “Sorry, I’ve known Rita for almost thirty years. We met in the first grade and have been best friends ever since. I learned a long time ago to speak my mind with her. I even told her last night that she needed to find someone and get laid.” She continued to grin as she blew a raspberry at Rita standing on the other side of the small lawn glaring at them. “Or,” she said as she turned back to Kent.
“Or what?”
“Or she needs new batteries in her toys.” Julie was called away then, and Kent sputtered as he saw her walk away. He looked down at his dog and shook his head at him.
“Don’t say it.” He made sure his lunch was picked up, walked Tate over to the doggie bathroom area, picked up after him, disposed of the items, then went back into the building. He was in his usual spot at the back of the room when classes resumed. The entire time only half of his attention was on the instructions Rita was giving. The other half of his attention was on what he could do with Rita to help relieve the tension Julie implied she had, and the many ways he could do it. He shook his head when Rita had to call his name twice to get his attention to the proceedings before him. The thoughts he had made for a long afternoon.
