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I ran through my mental catalog for each new dog and checked what I’d written. That was all of them . . . I was pretty sure.
He appeared in the doorway and made a disgruntled noise as he took in more dogs. Sadie barked her head off as he approached her kennel.
But the acute sound of his pencil rubbing on the paper was loud and clear.
Once he moved down the row of kennels, I discreetly dropped treats into Sadie’s. Her barks turned into smacking . . . until she finished her biscuit.Woof. Woof.The smarty pants barked again. I fed her another treat and wished this man would hurry up and finish before I had to give her the whole tin.
Miss Adeline widened her eyes at me. The woman knew when to speak and when to be quiet. She hadn’t said a word to the man.
“Your papers?” he asked when he’d finished perusing—okay, more like scrutinizing.
I jumped. “Here’s the log.”
Sadie barked the second I stepped away. Even Inspector Dawson’s nasty look didn’t quiet her. If anything, it amped her up.
“The business license?” He sounded beyond unimpressed that I hadn’t collected everything in a timely manner.
“I thought I’d picked it up.” I pulled on one strap of my overall in a nervous fidget. “Let me grab it.”
Once I set it in front of him, he barely glanced at the document. “This facility is only authorized to safely house eight dogs.” What? Where did it say that on any paperwork we had from the city and state? Inspector Smith never mentioned it. And wealwayshad more than eight dogs.
Miss Adeline opened her mouth, but I held up a hand.
“Please show me—”
“You have forty-eight hours to rectify the situation.” He narrowed his gaze on me. “And I’m being generous. If I come back and there are nine dogs, I’m shutting you down.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Pepper
“Give me his card.”
My hands trembled as I pulled the cardboard square from my pocket and handed it to Daniel.
I slumped against the counter, where I’d been since Inspector Dawson left, along with his list of violations.
I glanced to Miss Adeline in awhat are we going to dolook. She’d resumed feeding the dogs, though her movements were stilted and aggressive.
“I’m sorry we weren’t here.” Muriella placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“We can’t adopt out that many dogs in two days,” I said more to myself than anyone else.
Miss Adeline grunted. She still hadn’t spoken. When she was quiet for this long, it was a little scary. Except I was already terrified.
“Did we mention we have a lot of space?” Vivian’s voice was full of determination. “That jerk wants to play? Then let’s play.”
How did we go up against power? We couldn’t afford an attorney and even if we could, there wasn’t enough time.
All the innocent faces in those kennels . . . they were depending on us to protect them. If we were shut down, they’d take the dogs. Visions of them in the overcrowded city shelter bleached my brain.
They did the best they could. We’d taken dogs off their hands before.
But they killed.
I white-knuckled the edge of the counter.
Nausea rolled through my stomach in a wave.
