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His head dropped forward. He blew out a gust of breath. He counted to ten as he stared at the ground between his boots.
When he looked up at her, he said, “I gave you fair warning.”
Chapter 31
As they drove away from Crystal’s house, Ledge got on his phone and called Don. “The other night when Rusty ambushed me in the bar, there was a guy playing pool with some buddies. I didn’t even turn around to look when Rusty hassled him about dogfighting. Rusty called him by name. Dawkins?”
Arden, in the passenger seat, heard Don say, “Hawkins. Dwayne Hawkins.”
“Do you know where he lives? Or where he holds the fights? Rusty mentioned an old barn.”
“You’re not taking to that sport, I hope.”
“Come on.”
“Then why are you asking about it?”
“A friend of mine had a run-in with a vicious stray. He thought it might belong to this Hawkimans character.”
Don said, “I’ll ask around and get back to you.”
“My friend needs to know now.”
“What’s the rush?”
“The dog may still be loose in his neighborhood. There’re kids around.”
“Then he should call animal control.”
“I need that info, Don. Please?” He clicked off and propped the phone in the cup holder.
“You told a fib,” she said.
“I edited the truth.”
“A skill you’ve perfected.”
He didn’t respond to that.
She noticed that they’d driven past the same water tower twice. “We’re driving in circles, aren’t we?”
“For the time being, yeah.”
“Why?”
“To see if somebody is tailing us.”
“Is someone?”
“Not that I can tell now, but somebody had to have told Hawkins where we could be found. Rusty’s got every deputy in the department in his back pocket. He had them on the lookout. Your car was spotted at Crystal’s. Eventually, you would have come back for it.”
“I could have been inside the house.”
“To get to your car, you’d have had to go outside.”
“I was the target?”
“Good. You’re finally beginning to catch on.” He turned into the parking lot of a closed business and brought the truck to a stop. “We’ll wait here for Don to call back. I’m burning up gas, and I don’t know how far we’ll have to drive.”
