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But I had noticed.
Seeing Lamise unable to just be happy about where she was in her life, particularly being with me, left me feeling nothing less than frustrated. She deserved to be happy, and I intended to give it to her.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think I was going to find what I needed, sitting here at the dog park, waiting around for someone who may or may not be involved to show up.
Hating the feeling of defeat that washed over me, I got up and made my way to my vehicle. I needed to find a new angle for this, so I was going to head back to the office and review the case files Blaze had received from the Steel RidgePD.
I was so caught up in my thoughts and frustration I was feeling over the whole case, I forgot what I was doing. Normally, the only reason I wound up in this part of town was if I came out to the cemetery with Rhys to visit Violet’s grave. I’d usually head home afterward, not the office.
So, instead of leaving and going in the direction I should have to head to Harper Security, I wound up taking the faster route through a neighborhood I normally drove through in order to take myself back to my house.
Perhaps being slightly distracted was the best thing that could have happened to me, though. Because it was as I was driving through that neighborhood when it happened. A woman was walking along the sidewalk, and she had a dog with her. The dog looked exactly like the dog in the pictures of Henry Lamise had sent to my phone.
Not wanting to be suspicious or draw any attention to myself, but also knowing I needed to see where this woman wound up, I decided to pull over. If anyone saw me or started looking at me like they suspected anything, I’d get out and pop my hood. I could easily pretend to be inspecting something in the engine bay.
I just hoped the woman would finish her walk soon, so I could be out before anyone noticed I was there at all.
In the first bout of luck I’d had since this whole mess began, the woman moved past two more houses before turning and walking up to the door of the third house, Henry having no choice but to follow along beside her. It was then I noticed the open garage door, one that contained an SUV that matched the description of the one Lamise had seen on Sunday.
I quickly noted the address, turned around, and took off back toward the office. And on my way there, I had to admit I didn’t like the feeling that washed over me.
To say I was unsettled would have been an understatement. I’d just watched as a woman walked through a nice neighborhood with Lamise’s dog. The markings on the dog were identical to Henry, which was the only thing I was clinging to. Well, that and the SUV in the garage. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have believed this was possible.
Could this woman and her spouse or boyfriend be responsible for the dognapping? Was it possible they were somehow connected to what happened to Graham? Or, did someone else find Henry and pass the dog off to these people?
“I think we should do a stakeout.”
Those were the words I’d said to both Blaze and Paxton.
It was an hour after I’d gotten back to the office. I’d filled the guys in on what I’d stumbled upon. They were both excited about finally having a break in the case, and Blaze was quick to pull up the county records to see who owned the property. Much to our initial dismay, the property was owned by an LLC. While it wasn’t unheard of for people to form an entity to purchase property for privacy and other reasons, it didn’t exactly give me warm and fuzzy feelings in this case.
Blaze intended to do a bit more research into the company to see what he could come up with, while Pax asked how I intended or wanted to proceed with this case.
“A stakeout?” Pax repeated.
Nodding, I explained, “We don’t have a whole lot to work with at this point, and this is something. I can handle watching the house, if you want to stay on at the park.”
“Yeah, it’s probably best we keep our eyes open there, just until we’re sure there’s nothing useful to the case,” he agreed.
“You might want to bring in a couple more guys,” Blaze suggested.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Blaze’s eyes were slightly narrowed, his mind clearly working. Following a beat of silence, he replied, “Obviously, the best-case scenario would be that Pax witnessed a random drug deal, and the people you saw with Henry happened to rescue him. But I’m just not getting the sense we’re in a best-case scenario type of situation. I get the feeling there’s something more going on here, and I think it’d be better to have a few more sets of eyes on this.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. “Alright. I’ll talk to Jax and Forrest to see if they can help out.”
“Forrest is on vacation right now,” Pax chimed in.
“Really? Where’d he go?” I asked.
“He went and got a cabin at the ski resort like he does every year. He didn’t want to go far, but he needed some time away.”
That made sense. I couldn’t say I blamed him. I’d only recently gotten back to work, and though the situation was different, I couldn’t say the time away didn’t help. It had. Tremendously.
“Alright, so then I’ll talk to Ty,” I decided. “What about you, Blaze? Can you try to see what you can find out about the owners of that LLC?”
“Already planned on it,” he assured me.
