Page 156 of Cautious Love

When I get back to the station, Calder is waiting, and Sidney is already here for the night shift for dispatch. I got a twenty-minute nap played, with Dozer for a bit, and we’re back ready to settle in for hopefully a quiet night because I have a stingthat normally would take two more days to coordinate, to pull together in a night.

“Thanks, Calder, have a nice night.”

“No problem, boss,” he says and saunters out.

I head to my office and do a bit more paperwork before I start out on patrol.

“Hey Sid, do you mind watching Dozer?”

“Not at all. Sam should be here in a few hours. He can help me take him out.”

“Thank you, let me know so we can switch.”

“Will do.”

I head out for my cruiser and start the long night. Usually, we have two on patrol and one in the station, but we’ve been spread thin, which means night shift is even thinner. We have deputies on call if we need them, but hopefully we won’t.

While I’m patrolling, I get Lawrence on the phone and explain the situation. He agrees to be here tomorrow morning. All I can do is hope and pray Will is okay, and he can hang on for another eight hours.

I start on the side of town my house sits in, weaving in and out of streets. I head out of town and then turn around and go back through. It’s quiet, like it always used to be, but I can’t shake the weird feeling. It could simply be because I’m exhausted and need more than twenty minutes of sleep. I take a sip of coffee and head towards Shiloh’s place. At the very least, I can stake it out and keep an eye on her.Maybe I am a stalker.

She’s an eyewitness to a dangerous family, and in many cases, that usually means the witness is in danger. But she seems to believe she’s fine, and I don’t know how to get her to understand otherwise. Or maybe it’s because she’s scared to admit it.

I drive past her place, and everything is quiet, there’s nothing going on.

Then Sidney radios for a possible disturbance at Mrs. Thompson’s place. We get a call from her a minimum of once a week. Ever since Mr. Thompson passed, she’s been jumpy with everything. She is around 82 years old, so I can’t really blame her, and I don’t doubt that she heard something, but she has a terrible habit of feeding the wildlife, which we constantly remind her not to, but she does it anyway. So, nine times out of ten, it’s an animal digging through the trash, a moose, or some dog that got off its leash.

Heading west towards the center of town, I get to Mrs. Thompson’s house and look around before I get out. I radio in letting them know I’m there, and get out.

Mrs. Thompson throws the door open and waits for me to come up her stoop. “Mrs. Thompson, what seems to be the problem?” I ask her.

Her arms are wrapped tightly around herself, and her hair is in curlers wrapped in one of those scarf things. “Sheriff, I heard something in the backyard and I swear to you, it wasn’t a dog this time. It sounded much bigger.”

“Alright, Mrs. Thompson, why don’t you go back inside? I’ll go check it out and then I’ll meet you back here. Okay?”

She nods. “Be careful.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Mrs. Thompson closes the door, and I go around the corner of the house to the back. Sure enough, I hear movement. There’s no telling what it is.

Coming around the back corner of the house, I’m ready to draw, and then I see the half-ton animal stand up on its hind legs. Backing against the house, I peek around the corner again, and the bear digs through Mrs. Thompson’s garden.

I sigh and quietly come back around to the front of the house. I radio into the station through my walkie on my vest for them to send Tom out, again. The bear will either do his own thing andsaunter off, or we’ll have to tranq him and then call the guys over at US Fish and Wildlife, and I’m really not in the mood.

Sidney radios back that she called him.

I knock on the front door, and Mrs. Thompson lets me in, and I shut the door behind me.

“Mrs. Thompson, please don’t tell me you’ve still been putting food out for the …animals.”

She shrugs sheepishly. “It’s that time of the year. They’re hungry.”

I sigh, squeezing the bridge of my nose. “You’re right, Mrs. T, they are hungry, but that doesn’t mean we feed them. You’ve attracted another bear, and he’s a big one. So I need you to stay in the house, and please stop feeding them. You know they’re bulking up for hibernation this time of year. We don’t need to help them.”

“Oh dear,” she says, hand on her chest.

“Yeah, so I called Tom. He’ll be here soon. I hope the bear will go off on its own, otherwise we’ll have to call Fish and Wildlife.”