Jenner, page 4
“Do that, please.” She gave him a grateful nod. “I hate locking up if everybody isn’t tucked up in their beds.”
He grinned at her. “I bet you’d make a great Santa Claus.” With that, he walked out and down to the house in question. As he wandered along the roadside, he saw nothing but lots of barns.
The house he wanted to check was blanketed in darkness; no vehicles were parked out front. The residence showed some disrepair, and yet, if the family hadn’t been gone for more than two months, it shouldn’t be showing this much, unless they’d had been living here under pretty rough conditions already.
He walked up to the front door and knocked. When no answer came, he called out, “Hello, hello.”
Still, there was no answer. Frowning, he walked down the full length of the big long veranda and looked in the windows. He saw absolutely no furniture, nothing. Frowning at that, he headed around to the back of the house, wondering if the guy had just gotten up in the middle of the night and had disappeared.
As Jenner walked around to the side of the house, he heard a faint cry. He followed the sound, calling out, “Hello,” and then came another faint cry. He followed it farther into the field and found a man crumpled on his back, down in a ditch. Jenner immediately raced to his side. “Hey.”
“Oh thank God,” the man cried out.
“Jesus. Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay.” He groaned. “I hate to say it, but I need an ambulance.”
Jenner noted that one leg was bent underneath him at an odd angle, but, even more so, he was missing the other leg. “Hang on,” he told him. “I’ll get you an ambulance. I would pick you up and move you, but I’m afraid about that leg.”
“I’ve been through so much already,” the other man said, gasping in pain. “Just get the ambulance. I don’t want to lose the other leg.”
“Got it,” he said. “I’ve got a prosthetic myself, so I understand.”
The guy looked at Jenner and then groaned again. “Jesus, the pain.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” Jenner asked, as he quickly put through the phone call. With that done, he looked at the other man. When he didn’t answer his question, Jenner asked again quite forcefully. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“I came over here to look at my parents’ place,” he replied. “I hadn’t been here for a while. I was in surgery, trying to get the leg fixed, but it’s been a rough couple months since my parents died.” He gasped at the pain again. “There was … some guy here, with a whole pile of dogs. I was supposed to come here and look after and take care of the place, but the surgeries held me back.”
“You are the son?” Jenner asked.
The guy looked at him and said, “Yeah. My parents owned this place since forever. I was raised in this house. But some asshole was living here, and, when I confronted him about it, we ended up in a hell of a fight, which I, of course, completely lost. It was stupid. Emotions got the better of me, but he knocked me out. What I should have done was to just bring in the cops and have him arrested.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jenner muttered. “I’m staying at the B&B up the road. She thought the other guy was the son though.”
“I haven’t been here in years,” he explained. “I don’t really have a whole lot to do with this place, since I went into the military and got injured. Now I was hoping to come home and to look after it and to have a place for me that maybe, if I could get it wheelchair accessible, … I could actually live here again. It is mine, but this squatter took over the place, and then he dumped me in the back here.”
“And it looks like he’s buggered off too.”
“Good,” he muttered, “although I would sure as hell like to know what the heck he was doing here.”
“I gather he’s been here for quite a few weeks too.”
The guy stared at him in shock. “Jesus. I sure as hell hope he didn’t cause any damage, and, if he’s gone now, that’s great.”
“I looked in the living room window, and it looks like all the big pieces have been cleaned out. Saw some papers on the floor. Don’t know whether that was wrapping paper to move the stuff or some documents. How long have you been here in the ditch?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Overnight for sure.”
“Jesus, well, I’m glad I found you now.”
“I tried to drag myself forward,” he noted, “then I kind of slid into the ditch. The damn leg.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine now,” Jenner told him.
“The squatter might have been moving out already,” he guessed. “I don’t know. When I saw him, he had a big truck here.”
Jenner nodded. “It looks to be cleaned out right now. Let’s get you fixed up, and then we can sort it out.” He asked him gently, “So your parents?”
The guy nodded. “Yeah”—gasping in agony—“what about them?”
“I understand that they died in a car accident.”
“Yes,” he confirmed, “that’s what I just said.”
“Right, and they had a War Dog, didn’t they?”
The guy looked at Jenner and then nodded slowly. “Yeah, they did. Why?”
“Because I’m here on behalf of the war department, wondering what happened to the dog. Somebody did a welfare check, and there was a problem.”
“Yeah, my parents died,” he snapped, “but I’m not even sure what happened to the dog.”
“Apparently the bed-and-breakfast owner, Kellie, didn’t see one like it around.”
“It may have taken off on its own, without my parents here. Maybe one of the neighbors stole it. I don’t know what happened, but I’ll find out. I am so sorry. I didn’t realize that they had any animals left to even look after, and I was caught up in the hospital, so I wasn’t exactly doing much about it. The sheriff did say that he didn’t see any animals on the premises.”
“Interesting,” Jenner murmured.
“Right,” the son noted. “Honestly, I have no clue. One more thing to get to the bottom of, while wondering if I can get back on my feet.”
In the distance Jenner heard the sirens. “Or first off, you need to look after you. Once I point the EMTs in your direction, I’ll take a look around, see if the War Dog’s here, if you don’t mind.”
“Yeah, please do.” He hesitated and then added, “I don’t know if you’ve got a few minutes, but could you do an inventory, let me know if there’s anything to come home to?”
“Sure will. At least I’ll go in and take some photos.” He quickly got the guy’s phone number, so he could tag him later. “Let’s get you taken care of first.” With that, he raced to the driveway, directed the ambulance to the back, where they came and found him. Jenner asked the son, “What’s your name?”
“Jim. Call the sheriff too, will you?”
“Will do,” Jenner replied. “Where’s your phone?”
“No clue. I think I lost it on the ground, where I started dragging myself, and I didn’t have the energy to get back there.”
“I’ll go take a look.” Following Jim’s rough directions, even as the ambulance drove closer to Jim, Jenner found the phone by ringing it with his own. It had been left out in the elements, but it was still here. He raced back to the ambulance and handed it to him. “At least now you have a phone.”
“Great, I’ll call the sheriff myself.”
“You do that, and I’ll contact you after I’ve been through the house.”
And, with that, Jenner watched as the ambulance took off. He headed back to Jim’s house and took various photos. As he got into the front door, he stopped and swore. It’s not that too much damage had been done by the squatter or just by the passage of time and not enough money to fix things, but, whatever had been here of the family’s, it was long gone. Furniture was all gone. Some of the floorboards were scratched, as if not much care had been taken when dragging out the heavier pieces.
Jenner figured this squatter had just decided, with Jim’s sudden appearance, that he would lose the place, so he might as well just take what he wanted, and that was certainly possible here. Or it sounded like the squatter had already been in the process of moving to begin with. Jenner wandered through, took a bunch of photos, knowing that, if there had been family heirlooms here, they were long gone too.
Upstairs it was the same story; the place had been cleaned out thoroughly. He presumed there would have been probably decent sturdy stuff here but not likely too high-end. The house itself was old but nice enough, very much a country family home. It would be devastating for Jim to restock everything, but it could be so much worse. This squatting asshole could have come in and burned the place to the ground.
It didn’t explain where the War Dog was. As soon as Jenner was done, he walked downstairs, needing to check the kitchen, but headed outside and inspected all the outbuildings, before it got too dark. When he was finished with that, he heard a vehicle coming up to the front door of the house. It was getting dark out, and, as Jenner headed to the front yard, he saw the vehicle marked with the sheriff’s symbol on the side panel. Jenner walked over and introduced himself.
“You’re the guy who found Jim,” the sheriff noted, reaching out and shaking his hand.
“Yeah, and I told him that I’d send him some photos of his place because Jim thought the squatter has been cleaning it out. I am sorry to say, but nothing is left in there.”
The sheriff swore at that. “What the hell is the world coming to that they clean out the house after the family’s been killed off?”
“So sorry about that,” Jenner noted. “I’m looking for the War Dog that the family had.” At that, the sheriff looked at him. “Did you know about it?”
“I did, indeed,” the sheriff confirmed. “I figured the dog just took off or maybe the parents made other arrangements, but it wasn’t here when I came and checked on the property. After a death like that, it’s an automatic welfare check, looking to see what animals need to be taken care of, but no dog was here.”
“That’s a hell of a mystery,” Jenner replied, looking around. “Jim didn’t seem to know anything about it either.”
“No, Jim’s had a pretty rough couple years. He’s been in and out of surgeries constantly. He was in a coma for a while. We didn’t think he would make it. I know the parents were absolutely ecstatic when he pulled back out. He was getting rehabbed and back on his feet again. But, while he had been in the coma, one of his legs didn’t work properly, and he lost it,” the sheriff explained, with a headshake. “I think they were actually on their way home from the hospital when they died.”
“Ouch, that’s a double whammy for Jim too.”
“Exactly, but this?” The sheriff motioned at the house, as he walked up to the front door. “This is just disgusting. To think somebody would come in here and just strip it clean.”
“And I think the squatter had been living here for a while,” he related.
At that, the sheriff spun to look at him. “What?”
“If you talk to Kellie at the bed-and-breakfast, she told me how his dogs circled her to the point that she was terrified to move, and, if the dogs’ owner hadn’t been there, she didn’t think that the dogs would have been called off. She pretty well thought that the dogs would kill her.”
He swore. “Why didn’t she say something?”
“I’m not sure,” Jenner replied. “I get the impression that she didn’t know what to do, but the dog’s owner scared her really badly too.”
“Well, that wouldn’t have been Jim.”
“I gather she didn’t know Jim and that she was speaking of the squatter,” he noted.
“No, not too many people have seen Jim around recently. It’s been quite a few years since he was back home. He was supposed to come home, but all of this blew up.”
“I’m sorry for Kellie’s sake, and I’m sorry she didn’t mention it to anybody.”
“She should have at least let me know about the damn dogs,” the sheriff complained. “I can’t have that happening, and maybe that’s what moved the squatter out. Maybe he figured, after that incident with her, he had better start looking for another place.” He nodded. “I’ll give her a ring and see what she’s got to add.” He looked back over at Jenner. “What will you do now?”
“I need to find the War Dog,” Jenner stated. “I’m out here on behalf of the War department. I won’t walk away without getting something.”
The sheriff frowned at that and kicked a couple rocks. “The parents didn’t have any problems with that dog. There was no reason for it not to be here,” he explained. “Honestly, I did come back soon after their deaths. I was here a few times that week, but, when I found no dog, there just wasn’t any reason to return. I was waiting for Jim to get back here instead.”
“Do you know if the parents might have sent the dog to a temporary home to be cared for? Did they have any friends who raised animals, anything like that?”
“No, and they loved that dog,” the sheriff confirmed. “All I can think about was that it took off.”
“It might have taken off if the squatter had come in and obviously a well-disciplined War Dog would have some issues with the squatter’s aggressive dogs. That War Dog’s got a damaged ankle or two, and he is trained to defend himself and others, but he would be looking for people who actually protected him too. He wouldn’t have expected to be attacked.”
“I hate to say it, but it’s quite possible that I just didn’t see it here. I know that the Stippletones had some issues with the dog wanting to be left alone. So maybe it just didn’t want to come to me because it didn’t recognize me. Then, when the squatter moved in, the dog may have just decided to take off, rather than get attacked.”
“So this squatter could have moved in right after the parents died a couple months ago, but we know for sure, from Kellie, that the guy’s been there for a few weeks,” Jenner muttered, looking at the sheriff intently.
He shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
It’s obvious that the sheriff didn’t know anything and was getting tired of having anything even brought up along that line. Jenner nodded. “I’ll keep looking around. Maybe the War Dog’s loose in the countryside.”
“If that were the case, I should have heard about it,” the sheriff replied. “People don’t take kindly to wild dogs on the run here. Everybody’s got horses, and people are pretty protective about their livestock.”
“The War Dog wouldn’t hurt livestock …” Then Jenner stopped. “No, I can’t say that. The dog’s got to eat.”
Chapter 3
The next morning Kellie got up bright and early, wondering if she should phone the sheriff’s office, since seeing him go down the road, along with the ambulance last night. She had only stayed up long enough for her boarder to return so she could lock up, and he had just raced upstairs. So she hadn’t gotten any answers from him. She wanted to ask but there hadn’t been any update online in the news either. She made coffee and set about putting sausages on. When the coffee was done, she turned down the sausages and settled on the back porch with a cup, leaving the rear door to the kitchen open.
Hearing movement inside, she called out, “Coffee’s in the kitchen.”
“Got it.” He hesitated at her back door, even though open.
“Hey, you’re welcome to come out.”
“Thank you,” he replied, “I’m always very mindful when in somebody else’s house.”
“I think I gave up a lot of that privacy when I turned it into a bed-and-breakfast, but I happen to like people, so it works.”
“I’m glad for you. It’s not something that everybody would be comfortable doing.”
She nodded. “So can I ask a question?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“Last night,” she noted, “I heard the ambulance, and I thought I saw the sheriff’s vehicle.” He nodded and quickly told her what he had found, when he went back down to Jim’s house. She stared at him, her jaw dropping. “Good Lord.” She tried to assimilate the news. It was heartbreaking. “So, not only is the man I’ve been dealing with not the son,” she said, “but the real son, who came to check on his parents’ place, was beaten up, and he’s injured?”
“He is missing a leg, like I am,” he confirmed, with a kick of his bad leg. “Anyway I went through the homestead, took a bunch of photos for Jim, and I talked with the sheriff briefly. He was asking to talk to you about your altercations with this man.”
She gulped. “Wow. Now if only I had called him at the time. But I was determined to avoid any kind of issues, so I just kept quiet.”
“And the problem with keeping quiet is then you never really know if it was something that needed to be reported,” he murmured.
“Yes, exactly.” She raised both her hands, palms up. “I just didn’t even think that something like that was possible. That poor man.”
“You and a lot of other people, I’m sure,” he murmured. “So you’ve never met Jim?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve spoken to his parents a lot, but I’ve only been back here myself for the last three odd years. I lived here a long time ago, of course, since it’s my family’s estate, but I only bought it from them somewhat recently. It stood empty for a couple years, while they traveled and decided what they would do, and while I figured out how to run this place,” she explained.
“Ah, got it. I assumed that you’ve been here for the last decade plus.”
“No, no, not at all,” she replied. “Just how weird is that though?”
“Right? Anyway, expect a phone call from the sheriff today.”
She winced at that. “He’s not exactly one of my favorite people.”
“Are the police anybody’s favorite people?” he asked, with a cheeky grin.
She smiled. “I guess for some people. For me though, I always feel like I’ve done something wrong when I talk to him.”
“Even though you haven’t done anything and probably never have in your entire life.”
