I shrugged. "That way, maybe there's a steak or two left for me once in a while."
He kissed me again. "Thank you. It's the tastiest present I've ever gotten."
Leaning closer, he whispered in my ear. "At least until we get home tonight, and I get you into that red dress."
My face turned as red as the dress, but luckily, my phone buzzed. Saved by the smartphone. I glanced down at it and then up at Jack, my amusement fading. "It's Dallas."
We walked out onto the porch and answered via video chat.
"Hey, Dallas. What's up? We're just celebrating Jack and Shelley's birthdays."
Dallas gave us a thumbs up. "Happy birthday, dude. Listen, I checked the footage of the road by your shop from yesterday morning, Tess. Not much of anything until a gray Toyota sedan drove really slowly up and down the road next to your parking lot a few times. At zero-seven-thirty."
"Just before I got to work," I said. "But there are lots of cars on that road in the morning."
Dallas shrugged. "Yeah, but not Toyotas. Dead End is more of an American-made-car town. And why were they driving so slowly? Guy wore a hat pulled low; didn't get a shot of his face. But when they saw Tess's car coming, they pulled a three-point turn and sped off in the opposite direction."
"That is suspicious," Jack said, face grim. "License plate?"
"Nope. Conveniently covered with mud. No face, no plate, but you know what we did see? A dog in the backseat looking out the window. You think that could be your pet dumper?"
I inhaled sharply. "What is happening? You think they were going to dump another dog?"
Dallas nodded. "I kind of do, but then you scared them off. Anyway, we'll keep watching, but cameras can't do anything about obscured license plates. Talk soon."
"Thanks, Dallas."
"Sure, Tess. Happy birthday to the little one. Tell her we'll give her coding lessons next time she comes by."
After we hung up, Jack turned to me, his face hardening. "You know where I saw several Toyotas all in a line? At the UltraShopMart site."
I rolled my eyes. "Jack. Toyotas are wonderful cars, and tons of people own them. Don't make too much of that."
"I wouldn't, except the cars I saw at the site had license plates smeared with mud. Now we're back to coincidences I don't like. Not even a little."
"I don't like it, either, but where do we go from here? We can't call Andy and say, 'hey, we think reps of an international corporate conglomerate are dumping pets outside my shop.' He'd think we were nuts." I shrugged. "And we probably are. What possible reason could Craven or UltraShopMart have to do that?"
"I don't have a clue. Maybe it's not enough for Andy, but it's enough for me to take another look at that site," he said grimly. "Tell your family thanks again for me? I need to head out."
I grabbed his arm. "I don't think it's a good idea. What if that Merks guy—Chuckles—is there? He looked like he wanted a fight."
Jack bared his teeth. "I'm okay with that."
"Jack!"
"I'll call you later. Don't worry." He kissed me, leapt over the porch railing, ran to his truck, and drove off before I could formulate a good argument for why he should stay.
I'd just about decided I was going to follow him out to the site when my phone rang again.
Lorraine.
"Hello, Lorraine. How are—"
"You, me, and Eleanor are going to stake out the vet clinic tonight!"
I blinked. "I'm sorry? I thought you said—"
"We heard they suspect that nice Phin of being behind these crimes in town, and we know that's not possible. We're going to stake out the clinic and catch the people who keep painting stuff on it." Her voice held a world of indignation. "We need to catch these scumbags. And we need to keep that new vet in town. She might leave if this keeps up."
