Page 54 of Break Away
Today Zoey had partnered with anotherwildlife biologist, a recent college grad and new hire named JorgePadilla. It had been nice to have someone to work with. Lucy hadfound another patch of snow and spent an hour enthusiasticallydigging and rolling in the cold stuff. Zoey had spotted a goldeneagle plunging from the sky to capture a rabbit. She loved herjob.
Because pika were poor body temperatureregulators, the concern that climate change and warmingtemperatures would threaten the species made her current projectimperative. In the talus slopes where she and Jorge had spent theday, they’d found the animals were doing what they usually did inthe summer. Fecal pellets gave evidence that they were eating, andshe’d documented drying vegetation that formed the hay piles thepika brought under the rocks to store for the winter. The mammalsdidn’t hibernate, so they spent much of their summer preparing forthe cold winter. She found it reassuring that at least at hercurrent project location, the little mammal seemed to be doingfine.
She let Lucy out of the car and her babyimmediately looked toward Levi’s cabin. “Sorry, girl, your guyisn’t home.” She’d called Levi to check in as he’d requested, andhe had passed on the news that they were trying to hold Clausonlonger, but that he might make bail. That had cast a pall over whatotherwise had been a good day. Levi had mentioned that he’d be atsoftball practice that evening and invited her and Lucy to comewatch.
Zoey and Levi were at that in-between place.They’d hooked up, he’d asked her out on a date that had yet to bearranged, and he wanted her to check in with him during the day.Sure, that had been partly because of her evil stalker. But thecheck-in had gone both ways as he’d shared his day with her too.Being connected with someone like that was nice, but also a littleunnerving. She had been doing fine on her own, not needing anyone,and with no one besides Lucy depending on her. Now she was feelinglike half of a couple, and despite the obvious plus that the otherhalf was Levi Gallagher, it made her a little itchy about where thewhole relationship thing was going.
That itchiness was exacerbated even morebecause at odd times during the past few days, she’d found herselfwondering what being in love felt like. She’d never been in love.She’d dated, had lived with the cheater who’d given her Lucy, butdidn’t think that had edged over into love.
She’d been more pissed than brokenheartedwhen she’d kicked him to the curb. Was there some sort of “I’m inlove” checklist? Think about him all the time? Check. Heart ratespeeds up when his name is mentioned? Check. Want to lick him likea popsicle at the most inappropriate times? Check.
How many checks before they tallied up tolove? She could call Eva. This was exactly the kind of thing herfriend would know the answer to. But Eva was a Gallagher cousin,and she worked with Maddy, so there was way too much risk of herfriend spilling the beans. She might not intend to, but Eva likedto talk, and beans might be spilled nonetheless.
She wanted to watch the Guns’ softballpractice. She could tell herself that it would be fun, that it wassmart to let Lucy become familiar with the stadium and the peoplebefore the game Saturday where her job as team mascot meant she’dhave to be on her best behavior. But Zoey knew she was foolingherself. Watching your guy at practice was probably another box tobe checked.
Back in high school, she’d gone to plenty ofbaseball games solely for the pleasure of watching Levi in motion.It didn’t escape her notice that once again she was contemplatingspending an evening hanging out with a bunch of cops.
She could blame Levi for that too. He was agood man. Her experiences with cops in the past had been horrible,and Paul was still an issue for her, but it did not seem right toput Levi anywhere in the same universe as that man. Levi, Brad,Logan, Jack, all of them were proof that not all cops, not evenmost cops, were power-tripping predators.
Lucy trotted up the steps to the porch.
Zoey squinted to try to identify the lump onher doormat in front of the door. She hadn’t ordered anything andwasn’t expecting a delivery. The dog bounded up and began sniffingthe lump. “Lucy, no.”
Zoey ran up the steps. Lucy looked at herwith her “this looks yummy and I’m waiting for the magic word”look. Zoey snapped on the leash and pulled her dog down the stepsand away from what looked like a pile of raw ground beef.
She tied Lucy securely to the rail andcrossed the porch once again. She didn’t know why she was moving socautiously. It wasn’t like the disgusting pile of raw meat couldjump at her. She bent over to inspect it. It appeared the meat hadbeen there for a while. It had turned a grayish color, and flieshad found it, which meant there were likely already fly eggsdeposited in it. She thought there were unusual dark specks in themeat, but she wasn’t touching it to find out. She pulled her phonefrom her daypack and dialed Levi’s number. He picked upimmediately.
“Zoey.”
“There’s raw meat on my front doormat.”
“Raw meat?”
“Yeah. Like hamburger. It’s on a Styrofoamtray like you’d see in the grocery store meat section but withoutthe plastic wrap.”
“Did Lucy get into it?”
“No. She wanted to, but she was waiting forme to give her the okay signal.” Dread settled like a lead weighton her chest. “Levi, it could be poisoned. Someone could have beentrying to poison Lucy. Was Paul released on bail?”
“Yeah, about noon today, but I don’t see howhe could have pulled that off. We’ve been keeping an eye on him,and he went straight home and has stayed put. Regardless, we’llcheck this out. I’m on the other side of the lake, wrapping up acall. I’ll get over there as soon as I can, but I’ll have dispatchsend over a unit to pick up the meat. We’ll have it tested.” Hepaused, his voice changing in tone. “If you think someone is stillaround, or if Lucy is giving any indication of that, get in yourcar and get out of there. In fact, you should leave now to besafe.”
“I’m fine. If there was anyone here, Lucywould let me know.”
A sigh carried through the phone. “Don’ttouch the meat, or anything else.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Hisreassuring tone relieved some of the worry that was making her headache.
With Lucy on the leash beside her, Zoeywalked around her cottage, then around Levi’s cabin for goodmeasure, but didn’t find anything else unusual. Only the pile ofdisgusting raw meat with a puddle that looked like blood formingaround it.
An SUV with the Hangman’s Loss PD insignia onthe door and a light bar across the roof pulled into her drivewayto park next to her Prius. She walked over as Jack Morgan steppedout. He was so tall, she barely came up to his shoulder. He alwaysmade her feel like a little kid standing next to him. He gave Lucya good rub, then straightened to look at Zoey with his keen darkeyes. “Hey. Levi says you’ve got something to show me.”
“There’s raw meat in front of my door. Go onup and look. I don’t want to take Lucy close enough that she couldgive in to temptation and grab a bite, so we’re staying downhere.”
Jack went up the steps onto the porch. Shewatched him squat to examine the meat, waving a hand to shoo theflies. After a minute he rose to his feet to pull gloves and alarge plastic bag from a cargo pocket. He bagged the meat, thenplaced it in his vehicle, returning to retrieve her doormat.
“You’re taking my doormat, too?”
