Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
They got out and hiked into the woods at the north end about three hundred yards before they stopped.
Jace was in the distance. He had several small, orange flags on wire stands sticking out his back pocket. When he saw them, he pulled one out, planted it where he was and jogged their way.
Jesus, these two guys had it down.
Riggs gave the command to Gia so she wouldn’t flip Jace out, and Jess showed him what they found.
It was a hole dug in the ground. Not deep, but it looked like an animal did it with their front paws, the soil flung back several feet from the hole. It also wasn’t fresh, but who, or whatever dug that hole did it relatively recently.
Beside the hole was a rusted metal can, like one beans came in. No label.
He turned his attention to the twins. “They’re using metal detectors.”
The twins exchanged a glance and looked back to him.
Jace nodded. “You snapped to that quickly. And it was our take. People do metal detecting as a hobby. But they don’t claw like a dog at what they found.”
Riggs turned his attention to Gia.
She’d come to sit by his side and didn’t seem to have any interest in the hole or the can.
She was trained to stick by her person, but he hadn’t given her that command, so she was free to roam.
And if there was any residue of food left in that can—though, considering the state of it and its apparent age, that’d be impossible—he would suspect she’d have some interest. Even the hole, if it had the scent of an animal, might interest her. Enough she’d at least eye it.
She was squinting into the breeze and panting.
Because no animal had interest in metal.
And no animal clawed up that hole.
Jess piped up. “Called Harry. He’s sending Sean out to take pictures and grab the can for evidence and printing. There’s a lot of rust, not likely they’ll get a hit, but they might. And anything they got could help them paint a picture.”
“Right, thanks,” Riggs replied.
“You came to the same conclusion we did right off, sorry I pulled you from work to look at this,” Jess said.
“I’d wanna see it, so I’m not sorry. Glad you did and grateful you men are helping out,” Riggs returned.
“Not a problem,” Jace said, then on a nod, he took off with his flags.
Jess turned to him, but Riggs said, “Me and Gia will walk back. We can use the exercise.”
Jess nodded too, and he turned to head toward Jace.
Riggs and Gia found the lake trail, and that was something else he needed to turn his attention to. His running was not going to keep it clear. And he’d wanted to edge the entirety of it with stone because it would look good. It’d also be an indication to people who weren’t supposed to be there that someone maintained, thus owned that property, so if they missed the signs, they should take a hike.
He was momentarily indecisive about whether to take the east side, which had been crawled over in the last week by six people, or the west.
He chose west and kept his eyes peeled, but he didn’t see anything.
He’d washed up and was in the kitchen, making himself a sandwich, when Nadia came in the door.
“Hey, honey,” he called. “MB get off okay?”
“Yes,” she replied, giving Gia her greeting before coming to the bar, tossing her purse on the end of it, then moving to him and tipping her head back.
He took the invitation and brushed his lips against hers.
She looked to the counter and requested, “Can I have one of those?”
In answer, Riggs reached for the bread.
She rounded the bar, hefted her ass on a stool and got right down to it.
“Okay, before you say anything, Maribeth lectured me halfway to Seattle. She’s right, Harry’s right, you’re right, and I’ll add, Gia was also right. That’s why we got her. I need to let her do what she told me she needed to do. But I honestly did think it was just kids, especially since that one kid’s dad is the kind of dad that isn’t good with pointing out how life can teach you lessons, and you should learn them. I also got worried that I couldn’t control her. Hutch said we may have graduated, but I need to keep up her training, at least an hour a day, so she stays sharp, and I can come to trust I have command of her.”
She gave him that, Riggs didn’t make a deal of it.
Instead, he said, “When I bring Ledge back from school, after his snack, I think we should all work with her.”
For a beat, she seemed startled about that suggestion, then it hit her how important it would be, especially as things were now, that Gia was used to adhering to commands from all of them, and she nodded.