Suddenly, though, something occurred to me.
“The dog. Where’s the dog?” I asked, my eyes darting around quickly.
Luke shook his head, and Detective O’Keefe walked over, shoving his notebook into his breast pocket.
“No dog. Haven’t seen one since I got here,” O’Keefe said.
Something was niggling at my brain, and it took my eyes looking at the blanket soaking up the blood again for me to finally separate it out from my jumbled brain.
“The dog. The dog never left the baby alone. He was obsessed with her. Slept with her at night. Find the dog,” I said suddenly.
O’Keefe and Luke stared at me like I’d lost my mind, but I was shaking my head before either one could dispute my claim.
“For real. Find the fuckin’ dog. Comet followed them all the way to the pediatrician’s office twenty minutes into town at Angel’s first appointment. They had to keep him locked up when they left from then on. They’d made the mistake three more times since then, and each time he found a way out of the house and followed them. Please, look for the dog. He’s got a microchip on him that tracks. They had to do that after he left the last time,” I reemphasized.
Needless to say, they looked for the dog.***“Holy fucking shit. You were right!” John crowed twenty minutes later.
I nodded. “Good fuckin’ job, man. I knew you could do it.”
He shrugged, throwing off the compliment as if it was no biggie, but it was.
“Beacon located at 65556 CR 968,” John said, reading the address off his screen.
The team wasted no time gearing up.
I didn’t either. There was no way they were keeping me out of this.
We all looked somber as we made our way out to the armored truck we used for raids.
All of us except Downy, that was.
He was obtaining our warrant from the judge, and would be meeting us there.
I drove for five long, silent minutes to a nice subdivision in the middle of Kilgore proper. It was less than a five minute drive from everything, and one of the biggest family neighborhoods in the area.
My confidence that the dog wouldn’t leave the baby started to wane.
Certainly a neighborhood like this wouldn’t house a killer…right?
Nonetheless, I parked about a quarter mile away, pulling over under a corpse of trees that shaded nearly the entire street.
Our black vehicle blended in flawlessly with the shadows, as it was meant to.
Although it would be visible if somebody looked closely, it also wasn’t going to be obvious if one was just scanning the area.
“Downy’s here,” I said, watching as his personal vehicle pulled up behind us.
He got out, dressed much the same as us, only his vest now also had K-9 on the upper right corner.
“Good,” Luke sighed.
Downy let the dog out of his truck door before locking it manually and heading straight to us with Mocha close to his feet.
He came around to the passenger side since the backdoors didn’t open from the outside without a key.
I hit the unlock button just as his hand met the door handle.
He didn’t have to utter a word as the newest member of our team, Mocha, hopped inside and settled herself down on the floor between the two seats.
“I got it. Judge Rice was fucking livid, too. He was the one to give temporary custody to Candice and Guy. Needless to say, he didn’t take much convincing,” Downy rumbled, eyes scanning the neighborhood beyond.
I snorted, no it wouldn’t take much that was for sure.
The Spears family was very well known in our small town. With Guy being a war hero, and then the family taking in all the foster kids they could handle, they were a revered, loving and caring couple in the community.
“Alright, so here’s what we’re going to do,” Luke called from the back.
The two of us watched the monitor up front at what was going on in the back, watching as Luke planned out what we’d do.
While we’d been talking, a line of cop cars had started behind us. Some from the sheriff’s department, others from highway patrol. The majority, though, came from KPD off duty cops.
Once we had our directions, the team got out and relayed the parts that the other cops, not on the SWAT team would have, telling them where to go and what to do.
Cops were a resilient bunch.
They could handle any situation and barely blink an eye; they took orders well. They wanted the op to go smoothly, and anything they could do to help, they would.
“Everybody clear?” Luke asked.
Since there was only one way in and one way out, and we were parked at the entrance, we had only one option.
Walk down to the house.
Which was what we did.
After an officer knocked on each door telling them to remain in their homes, we made our way down to the house, hugging the neighboring homes as we went.
“Scope, you in position?” Luke asked through his mic.
We’d all spread out, each of us taking a different direction to get to the house.
I was in the back, crossing over fences.
At least the cops had gotten all the animals in. Sometimes I wasn’t that lucky and just had to move fast.
My AR-15 was strapped to my back as I hopped privacy fence after privacy fence.
It was a soothing, heavy weight from right shoulder to left kidney.
Stun grenades strapped to my belt, and my Taser at my side, my .45 ACP was strapped to my right thigh. Everything was where it was supposed to be.
If I had to pull a weapon, that’d be the one I’d go for unless I was sure what was surrounding me. It wouldn’t due to take out a bystander with the large rounds that the AR used.
I jumped the final fence before the house we were going in, and came to a stop at the edge of the light put off by the streetlight out front.
Pulling out the camera that was the size of a pink eraser, I hooked it onto the fence and said quietly into my mic, “Camera’s on in the back.”