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Puzzled, he struggled to regain control of the conversation. “About tonight.”
“They’ll still fight. It would be a shock if they postponed when you consider the dogs that they took.”
“Strong dogs?”
“Bait dogs,” she replied, her voice cracking. She cleared her throat. “Aside from Daisy, they only took smaller, weaker dogs. I can’t imagine they really want to keep them around for very long.”
She was right. He imagined dogs that wouldn’t or couldn’t fight well would give confidence to a dog coming up the ranks. His stomach rolled as his mind's eye filled in details he’d rather not consider. “If you don’t want to do this tonight…” He had to give her the option.
“I’m not letting this go on any longer than necessary. Tell me what to do to bring down Lester and his operation and I’ll do it.”
“Thanks.” This would be so much simpler if Lester were the only problem. He should tell her his suspicions about the corruption reaching right into the Columbia FBI office. He should be honest with her about the lack of back up. If she bailed on him and forced him to handle this alone, it would be no more than he deserved.
“It seems like the Haleswood Sheriff’s Department is off the hook,” she said. “Daisy didn’t have any kind of adverse reaction when she saw the uniforms.”
“A fact which makes you happy.”
“It does. I didn’t like the idea that someone close to J.C. might be involved.”
“Who did you suspect?”
“I didn’t want to suspect anyone.”
“But you did.”
“Well I had concerns after I found one of the fighting sites. I knew it couldn’t be J.C. or the sheriff but…”
He listened for several minutes as she went through the department employees from deputies right down to the janitors who cleaned the courthouse and the landscapers who maintained the grounds.
“Do you know everyone in Haleswood?”
“Pretty much. They all come into the Rooster at some time or another.”
“Or the courthouse.”
She shrugged. “I’m not there as much as I used to be.”
He should ask why, sensing there was a clue to her life choices in that mild revelation. Except he wasn’t supposed to be interested in her life. This was a two-day op and then they would go their separate ways. For better or worse.
He didn’t care for the twitch that thought created at the back of his neck.
“How do you stand it?” He hadn’t meant to blurt out his second question, but he realized he wanted an answer. Needed one. Small towns crowded him. Where some people found assurance and security—people like Heather apparently—he only felt the pressure of more people second-guessing his decisions. He’d never understand the draw of everyone nosing in to everyone else’s business.
“The Rooster?”
He laughed, the sound ringing bitterly in his ears. “No. Haleswood.”
“Oh.”
She went still and quiet and he had just decided she wouldn’t give him an answer when she told him to turn at the next intersection.
“Why?”
“Because we’ll need gear if we’re going to find the dogfight tonight.”
“We will not interfere, so we don’t need much gear beyond a camera,” he countered. “I have a good one at my place, which works for us because we also need to be seen back in Columbia.”
“You think they’re watching your house?”
