Shattered Secrets (Cold Creek #1)(46)

“That painted part is the canine wing,” Gabe said. “Sam keeps his dogs under a roof. Sometimes I think he treats them better than people.”

He pulled into a small, turnaround loop and killed the engine. The minute Tess opened her door, she heard barking. “I hope there’s not a guard dog loose,” she said.

“Hasn’t been before. And probably not so a visitor doesn’t get hurt, but one of his dogs. He’s real fussy about who buys and adopts them.”

Just as Tess closed the passenger door, she glimpsed the garbage bag with the mounted pit bull Gabe had put on the floor of the backseat. She imagined it was barking too. She knew he planned to show it to John Hillman but not Sam.

“Maybe he’s asleep or not here,” she said, surprised Sam didn’t realize he had visitors with all the noise.

“I see his truck’s in the old barn over there, but that doesn’t mean—”

Sam came to the door and walked out with a single hound behind him. Tess was relieved to see he was unarmed. She had the funniest feeling about this place, even though it wasn’t familiar to her.

“Hey, Sheriff. Heard you drive in. How you doin’? And that you, Miss Lockwood?”

They all shook hands and went through the usual greetings and small talk. In the old days in the hills, to “set a spell and get caught up” was essential before getting down to business.

“Tess wanted to come along just to say thanks for trying to track her years ago,” Gabe explained since the talk had mostly been between the two men—also hill-country custom. “And I sure appreciate the effort with Boo the other day,” he said, patting the dog on the head. “Hear you found a wounded stag up yonder.”

“Did. Took John and Dane with me, but it died. John won out to claim it, though I get the venison. It was hurtin’ real bad when we got there, so Dane used some of that pain med stuff to get it to stop thrashing around. You know, what he uses on people’s pets in agony so he can set a leg and such.”

As they talked, Tess glanced around. Surely she would have recalled yelping dogs if she’d ever been kept here. But was it at all suspicious that it took Sam a while to come out to greet them, as if maybe he had to hide someone or something first? He and Gabe were talking about trapping, but Gabe managed to get the conversation around to when Sam left the area with John and Dane and when they came back. He was probably going to ask the other two men the same to see if their information matched.

“You got time to come in and set a spell?” Sam asked Gabe, as if she weren’t even there. At least that meant he had nothing to hide inside, didn’t it?

Gabe turned him down, saying he had to get Tess home. “Someone hit her utility pole last night and her place went dark,” Gabe said. “You old boys weren’t out on the road after drinking last night, were you?”

How Sam found that amusing, she wasn’t sure, but somehow Gabe conned his way into looking at the bumper of Sam’s beat-up old truck out in the doorless shed he used as a garage.

Glad the hound Boo didn’t show any interest in her, Tess didn’t go with them but walked closer to the house. A slant-door of an old-fashioned root cellar with a padlock on it caught her interest. In this refrigerator age, root cellars were outdated, and people never locked them.

Checking to be sure the men weren’t looking, Tess bent and knocked on the wood. The root cellar had been repaired with new boards, one with Mason’s Mill stamped on it. She knocked on the wood again. Nothing. No answer, but what did she expect? Sandy Kenton to scream out that she needed help?

“Now, Miss Lockwood,” Sam said when the men ambled back over, “I never would ’spect you trying to get to my best moonshine.”

Tess blushed. He’d seen her. She’d made a mess of this, probably was wrong to insist Gabe bring her.

“I thought it was another place for dogs,” she blurted, probably making herself look even more stupid.

“Bad dogs, you mean?” he said with a wink and a shake of his shaggy head. “Naw, it’s not really moonshine, Sheriff, but I don’t think you came lookin’ for that. Keeps my beer cool, though. Want one, I’ll bet, eh, Sheriff, but not when you’re on duty?”

There was more small talk, all between Gabe and Sam, followed by some back-slapping. Tess walked ahead and got in the cruiser.

“Sorry I screwed that up,” she said the minute Gabe got back in.

“Almost.”

“No marks or dents on his truck, right?”

“Nope.”

“Do you really think he uses that old root cellar for storing beer?”

“No way to know without a search warrant, and the Falls County judge I use would never give me one on what I know.”

“I promise to keep even quieter—that is, say next to nothing—at Hillman’s place.”

“Tess, you did fine. But didn’t you hear what Sam divulged about Dane? I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me before. The man uses veterinarian drugs. They not only cover pain, but could cause amnesia, I’ll bet. Somehow I’ve got to find out what Dane uses, check into that.”

He pulled out of the crooked driveway, and they started down the hill. “I see what you mean,” she said. “A long shot, but—”

“But I’m desperate. And maybe it’s not just that you were too young or traumatized so you didn’t recall details of your captivity. I had a friend who had a colonoscopy—he was dreading it—but they gave him an IV that didn’t knock him out so that he could follow orders, but it kept him from recalling the details of the unpleasant procedure afterward.”