Then she directed him in a sweep of the center of the room. Robo’s ears shot forward as he approached the table. Without warning, he leaped on top. To her relief, the table wobbled but bore up under his weight. He sat down on top of it, his indication that he’d found something. He looked at her expectantly and opened his mouth in a pant, his pink tongue drooping.
“Good boy,” Mattie praised him, thumping his sides in a firm pat. She could see nothing but had no doubt that trace scent from the cocaine that had been bagged and forced down Belle’s throat the day before lingered on the table. Had the rest of Mike’s dogs gotten the same treatment? Was he using all the dogs as mules?
Had he killed Grace?
They finished up the room with no further alerts from Robo and then moved outside. She mentally marked out a grid on the ground in front of the cabin and asked Robo to search as she slowly led him back and forth. He quartered the area, sniffing from side to side. About halfway through, he stopped and nudged some dirt aside with his nose. He touched something with his mouth, sat, and looked at Mattie.
Her adrenalin surged. Robo had been taught to touch with his mouth—but not disturb—anything outside of the environmental norm when searching for evidence.
“Did you find something?”
There, in the dirt, lay a spent brass casing, its golden glint evident in the sunlight, upturned from the dusting of earth that had concealed it from human eyes.
Detective LoSasso came from around the cabin’s corner just as Mattie was raising her eyes from the casing in disbelief.
“What?” Stella asked.
“Robo found a brass cartridge case.”
A look of intensity filled Stella’s face. “That’s one hell of a dog you’ve got there, Deputy.”
Chapter 10
Cole hit the speed dial on his cell phone for his home number, and Jessie answered. “How’s Angela doing now?” he asked.
“She’s a little better. Pretty washed out, but she’s starting to keep liquids down, I think.”
“I’ve called Tess to come in and help me with surgery on this dog. Its leg is swollen and cold this morning, and the bullet needs to come out. Can you hold down the fort a little longer?”
There was a silence that stretched out for several seconds before Jessie answered. “I suppose so. I have no choice. But when are you going to tell Angela about her friend? You can’t keep it from her forever.”
Cole groaned. “Come on, Jess, don’t bust my chops. I’m doing the best I can here.”
“I’m just calling it the way I see it, and I’m seeing things more clearly now. I’m thinking your lack of involvement with your kids has something to do with your wife leaving.”
Cole rubbed his forehead, trying to unwind the painful knot that was forming there. He heard Tess coming in the back door of the clinic. “I can’t talk right now. Tess just came in and we need to get this dog into surgery. I’ll come down to the house right after, okay?”
“Where have I heard that before?”
Cole gritted his teeth. Damn, this woman is impossible. “Good-bye, Jess.”
“You need to be prepared to talk with Angela by the time you get home.”
“Good-bye,” he said firmly, a grim feeling taking hold of him. He disconnected the call.
For the love of Pete, Jessie was more tenacious than a pit bull.
From the other room, Tess called out in a singsong, “Hi, hi!”
Pulling himself back to the task at hand, Cole left the office and went into the surgery room where Tess was already getting out supplies and setting up the stainless steel surgical tray.
“The sheriff is sending over a deputy to be here when we take out this bullet.” Cole had tried to reach Deputy Cobb, but she’d evidently left the office and couldn’t be reached. “He should be here any minute.”
“Okay.”
Cole went into the kennel room to get Belle. She lifted her head and regarded him with a stoic expression. He’d bathed her and run lab tests earlier this morning, and he thought she would tolerate the surgery. Her wound had been seeping during the night, so her blood volume was slightly low and she was still dehydrated. But he couldn’t wait any longer to remove the bullet; he didn’t want her to lose that leg if he could help it.
When he led Belle into the surgery room, he saw that the deputy had arrived and he was standing back in the corner. He was a tall, lean kid who introduced himself as Deputy Johnson.
“I asked him to stand back out of the way,” Tess said.
“Do you want to stand by the table to watch?” Cole asked.
“No, sir. This is okay over here. I just need to be present when you remove the evidence.”
“All right. We’ll get started.”
Cole pulled preanesthesia medicine into a syringe, and Tess held Belle still while he found a vein and injected her. After she slumped to the floor, they lifted her to the stainless steel surgery table. Out of the corner of his eye, Cole saw Johnson sway. The kid’s face was pale, his freckles standing out like tiny copper pennies.
Good Lord, we’ve barely gotten started.
“Sit down on the floor, Deputy. Bend over and lower your head between your knees,” Cole told him.
Tess glanced at Johnson while he did as he was told but continued to help Cole position Belle on the table.
“Tell you what. Don’t watch us at all. When I’m about to take out the bullet, I’ll tell you and you can look up,” Cole said.
“Okay,” Johnson said, head lowered and voice muffled.
Even though Tess had put on a surgical mask, Cole could read her smile in her eyes. He injected a small amount of barbiturate in Belle’s vein, placed a tube in her throat, and hooked her up to the anesthesia machine. He picked up the electric clipper and shaved the inside of her thigh over the area where he knew the bullet had lodged.
Tess cleaned the surgical site while he moved to the sink to scrub. He took off his wedding ring to put in his pocket, pausing for a moment to examine it and wonder why he still bothered to wear it. After washing, he put on surgical gloves, the latex cuffs snapping into place. From the open surgical pack, he removed green draping to place over Belle’s leg. “I need you to stay on top of her pulse and oxygenation. She’s dehydrated, and I don’t want the anesthesia to put her too deep.”
“You got it,” Tess said.
“You okay, Deputy Johnson?” The kid remained sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, knees bent and head between his knees.
“Doing great, Doc.” Head still down, voice still muffled.
Cole shook his head slightly at Tess and then focused on his work. Planning his first incision, he glanced at the radiograph hanging in the light box. While his eyes found the bullet on the x-ray, his fingertips gently palpated the dog’s inner thigh, searching for the leaden lump.
He made an incision through the skin and then dissected the glossy, opaque layer of fascia immediately below. He inspected the opening, looking for the thin white nerves and the dark red arteries and veins. He avoided slicing into the large thigh muscle as he dissected around it, going toward the bone.
Once he’d cleared an opening, he probed the surgical wound with his finger and felt the hard lead bullet at the bottom.