Chapter One
“Isawhimbacktherefirst,” Madison Smith, seventeen years old and babysitting in star-shaped acne stickers and SpongeBob pajamas, said as she pointed down the yard.The sweep of her finger, nail polish bright blue and chipped, took in the unruly undergrowth that poked through and over the chain-link fence that marked the property line of the neat ranch-style home on Buckthorn Road.“I thought maybe he’d lost his dog or cat or something?You know?”
Nerves made her seem younger than her years as she looked at Cloister for backup on her statement with an earnest, uneasy expression.
“I get that,” Cloister agreed.He gave Bon a gentle push with his knee to let her know she was up.The big black K-9 took his cue and padded over to give Madison’s leg a nudge, her cold nose leaving a wet mark on the flannel bottoms.When Madison looked down at her, the dog that had made a hardened biker scream like a baby for someone to help him, gave her puppy-dog eyes and a lolled-tongue smile.While Bon worked her magic, Cloister asked the questions.“What happened then?”
Madison was too distracted being charmed by Bourneville to answer for a moment.She went “um” and then sat down on the back step, bare feet crossed over each other protectively, so she could pay proper attention to Bon’s ears as she talked.She traced the furry outer edges up to the point and then down the other side.
“So I watched him for a while, and he just stood there,” she said.“For ages.Then I realized he wastalkingto someone.”
The two deputies who’d caught the call glanced at each other.Cloister hadn’t worked with either of them before, but he at least knew Boyd.Even if the rookie was so new that she still had a pleat pressed into her buff-colored uniform trousers.He didn’t think he’d ever met Gardner before, even from before he was stationed in Plenty.
Things had changed while he’d been away.It had only been four weeks—the longest he’d ever been off work, admittedly, still not that long—but apparently that was enough.
Boyd pulled her notebook out of her belt and flicked it open.
“There were two men?”she asked as she licked the nib of her pencil and tapped it against the page.“You said ‘one’ on the call.”
Madison’s fingers stopped moving on Bourneville’s ears as she tried to redirect her train of thought to follow Boyd’s question.She looked up as she tried to recall.
“Umm,” she mumbled.“I guess…maybe?I mean, I didn’tseeanyone else.There could have been someone.Do you think there was someone?”
Boyd scribbled something down.“Well, if he was talking to someone, then—”
“We don’t know,” Cloister interrupted.“If you didn’t see anyone, that’s all that matters.”
Madison looked back at him.“There could have been someone crouched next to him?”
It was still a question.Give her ten minutes and she’d have a better description of the “maybe” second prowler than she did the first.Cloister cleared his throat to get her attention on him so he could get her focused on what he needed.
“What happened next?”he asked as he dropped to his haunches so he didn’t loom over her.Much.There were times when being six-three and having a face that looked like it was spoiling for a fight was an advantage.Interviewing a spooked five-foot-nothing seventeen-year-old wasn’t one of them.“Did the man stay at the fence?Or did he move?”
Boyd gave him an annoyed look as she scribbled on her page.Cloister ignored her.The only rookies he dealt with were the trainee K-9s; everyone was happier that way.While he waited for an answer, he reached up to rub the back of his neck where the collar rubbed.His shirts had gotten bundled in with Javi’s dry cleaning by “mistake,” which he wasn’t entirely sure he believed, and now everything was starched to an inch of its life in a way he wasn’t used to.
“Oh no.He didn’t stay there,” Madison said.She sounded more confident as she went on.“I wouldn’t have called you if that was it.He could have just been on Bluetooth, right?No, I watched him, and he talked to himself, and then he climbed the fence.And I know this sounds stupid, but it was really creepy.He got down on the ground and crawled into the playhouse.”
She pointed again.This time at the plastic princess fort that was staked out in the garden between the trampoline and the swing set.
They all looked at it.Madison kept her hand up for a second and then went back to petting Bourneville.
“That’s when I freaked out,” she said.“I called Mr.and Mrs.Giles first.They said to get in touch ifanythinghappened, because there’s been a bunch of robberies in the area and they’ve only just moved here, but when I called, they didn’t answer.I tried again, and that’s when I heard him open the back door.”
“I would have shit myself,” Cloister said matter-of-factly.
Gardner lifted his hand to casually hide his smirk.Boyd couldn’t have boggled at him more if hehad.
Madison gawped at him for a moment, mouth slack with surprise, and then gave an inelegant snort of laughter.“Chat, me too!”she said through the nervy giggle.“I swear the back door was locked.It was.I’d been out earlier for some…fresh air….”
The verbal edit couldn’t have telegraphed the lie more.Cloister watched as Madison took one hand off Bourneville’s head to check something vape-shaped was securely tucked into the pocket of her pyjamas.That wasn’t his problem.It was weed, he could smell that, but this was Plenty.If it wasn’t fentanyl or meth, he left it to parents to bust their kids.
“But he still got it open,” Madison went on quickly.“That’s when I screamed that if he didn’t leave, I’d call the cops, and he did, but I called you anyhow.”
Gardner leaned down and patted Madison’s shoulder reassuringly with a freckled hand.
“That was the right thing to do,” he said.“Why don’t you go inside with Boyd and call your parents.How does that sound?”
Madison hesitated, her hands clenched in Bourneville’s ruff, fingers buried in the dense black fur.
