night?”
Chloe was about to answer when one of her phone lights started to blink. By the time she slipped on her headphones, took the call, and radioed out, another line was blinking. Before she knew it, she was swamped.
Two hours later, she and Sue got their first lull. Chloe’s latte was stone cold, but she took a grateful sip anyway. Sue propped her feet on her desk.
“Wednesdays. Don’t you love them? I swear it’s a middle-of-the-week syndrome. People cause trouble so they won’t die of boredom.”
“Full moon.”
“That, too, I suppose.” Sue rubbed her temples. Then she kicked up, lowered her feet to the floor, and fixed Chloe with a curious look. “So why didn’t you get any sleep last night? You never got a chance to say.”
Chloe launched into the story about her son’s sick puppy. She had just described Jeremy’s emergency bicycle ride to Cinnamon Ridge when Deputy Schuck entered by the front door. Every afternoon, shortly after five, he stopped in to do paperwork. There was a back entrance, but he never used it, preferring to pass through Chloe’s work area to reach the glass cubicle behind her.
“Evening, ladies.”
Chloe broke off and pasted on a smile. Bobby Lee seemed like a nice guy, but for reasons she couldn’t pinpoint he made her uncomfortable. She guessed itwas a chemical reaction of sorts—a wary, very dis interested female reacting to an interested male’s pheromones. She had no intention of complicating her life with a sticky situation at work.
He drew his sunglasses low on the bridge of his nose to look at her over the rims. He had a high-voltage grin and gorgeous baby blues lined with thick, black lashes. The effect was wasted. The only man in Chloe’s life was her son. Bobby Lee’s khaki uniform shirt, worn a half-size small to showcase his muscular chest, didn’t hold a candle to Jeremy’s freckles and curly cowlick.
“Did I hear you say Cinnamon Ridge?”
Red alert. Chloe was relieved when her phone started to blink. She went to line three, hoping Bobby Lee would start doing paperwork and forget the question. Unfortunately, while she handled the call and dispatched out to a deputy, Bobby Lee cornered Sue. By the time Chloe got off the radio, he had heard about the sick puppy and Jeremy’s mercy flight to Cinnamon Ridge.
Hooking his glasses over his shirt pocket, he turned a questioning look on Chloe. “So what did you see up there on the ridge?”
Because Jeremy had told her about his agreement with Ben Longtree to tell no one about Methuselah, and she had promised to keep the secret as well, Chloe couldn’t possibly answer that question. A deplorably bad liar, she stuck as close to the truth as possible. “Mostly Ponderosa pines. No wonder the place is called Cinnamon Ridge.”
“I know you saw trees, Chloe. I’m more interested in what else you saw.”
She drew her eyebrows together in what she hoped was a bewildered frown. “The manzanita bushes are losing their blooms, and there’s a great view of themountains from up top. Not that I had time to appreciate it.”
“You must have seen something more than trees and bushes.”
“I saw Longtree’s house.”
Bobby Lee raked a hand through his hair, the very picture of a frustrated male. “Did you see any animals?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere. What kind?”
“A wolf.” Chloe didn’t have to fake a shudder. “Have you ever seen that thing? It has fangs an inch long. Yesterday at the feed store—”
The deputy cut her short. “A hybrid and perfectly legal. I’m more interested in any wild animals you saw, particularly any in cages.”
“Why would anyone want to keep wild animals in cages?”
Bobby Lee settled a wondering gaze on her. His expression said more clearly than words that he thought she had a room temperature IQ. “Did you see any? That’s the question.”
“I didn’t see a single cage.” That wasn’t precisely a lie. She’d seen several cages.