He had to get something out of Jonas before he accused Ann of anything. She was a lot smarter than her brothers, so, as tough as they were, Gabe was betting she wouldn’t crack as easily.

The minute he stepped into the yard, about ten pit bulls behind a wire fence went wild, barking, snarling.

Jonas stuck his head out the front door, looking like death warmed over.

“Hey, Sheriff,” he said, laughing and scratching his belly through a loose flannel shirt. “You come to ask me for Ann’s hand? I’d agree to a shotgun wedding. Should I go get mine?”

Gabe moved closer but not too close. At least the man seemed to be in a good mood, but he knew it wouldn’t last too long.

“Step out so we can have a talk please,” Gabe called to him. “I’m here to ask why you didn’t come in Friday morning to retrieve your dog. The one John Hillman mounted for you before it was stolen from the taxidermy shop. Ann did give you a quick call from the office as soon as she knew about it, didn’t she?”

Gabe watched the big man closely as he stepped out of the house but saw no hint Jonas got what he was implying. Although the man really annoyed him, Gabe kept his game face on, as impassive as possible. He glanced around at the open door, the front windows, the side of the house he could see, in case Jonas wasn’t alone.

“I heard the dog doc shot and killed himself,” Jonas said, coming no closer than the edge of the porch. Gabe kept an eye on his hands. He could have a gun stuck in his waistband under that loose shirt.

“Answer my question, Jonas. I told you to be there on Friday. Dr. Thompson died yesterday. Since this is Sunday, you’re a couple of days late.”

“Didn’t come in ’cause I had to work at the mill. And ’cause I didn’t want to get questions from you like this. I don’t have nothing to do with nothing. And I don’t like the way you been treating Ann lately,” he said, propping his fists on his hips, which at least suggested there was no hidden gun.

“You didn’t want questions because you have something to hide?”

Jonas came down off the porch. Gabe stood his ground.

“You trying to say I’m fighting dogs again? You just go see if any of them look torn up.”

“I would imagine you get rid of the ones who are injured. Bury them in the woods? No, I came to tell you that I have information you’re tied to the gang of meth cookers.”

“What? Says who?” he said, edging toward the dog cages instead of coming closer.

“Stay there. Stay put,” Gabe commanded.

“You mean like ‘heel’? I ain’t someone you can order around, like Ann, just ’cause she works for you, is soft on you.”

“You give me your contact’s name in that gang—Hank’s last name—and where I can find him, and things will go a lot easier for you in court.”

Gabe saw the man’s eyes widen when he heard the name Hank.

“You’re nuts, man! You come out here, accusing me of...of what? You been tapping my phone? You can’t prove nothing! How would I know anything about any meth lab gang? I can prove where I was last night!”

“Last night? You mean someone tipped off the meth lab gang last night, so that’s when you need an alibi? I didn’t mention last night, and you wouldn’t have to be with them to tip them off. No, I haven’t tapped your phone, but since you’re innocent, how about you just let me check calls on your cell? I will tell you Hank and his friends are going to be charged with attempted murder when we arrest them, so you might want to come into the station and make a statement to help me locate them faster than I’m going to anyway. That would make it go easier on you and anyone else who is tipping you off so you can tip them off. And quit shuffling toward that dog compound. You loose those dogs on me, I’ll have to shoot them. I’d rather not, nor would Deputy Miller, who has my back right now.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Really?” Gabe said. “Deputy Miller,” he called, without taking his eyes off Jonas. “You there?”

“Fully armed, Sheriff!” Jace called out. He shot a single bullet into the air, which made Gabe jump as much as Jonas did.

Gabe put his hand on the holster of his gun. At first he thought Jonas would lunge to free the dogs, but instead he looked as if he was going to cry.

“Don’t mind for me,” he said, as if talking to the dogs, “but for Ann.”

Finally, Gabe thought, he’d found Jonas’s soft spot. “Like I said, your cooperation—and Ann’s,” Gabe said, “will go a long way in all this. How about you let me take you in, make a statement? She can too.”

“I’m not friends with those lowlifes, Hank McGuffey and his crew, just could use the extra money. Mill don’t pay enough, selling extra firewood neither. Don’t need no bank foreclosing on my dream home here.”

Again, the big man looked as if he was close to tears.

Gabe had expected a fight, was even, if those dogs got loose, prepared to have to climb a tree. With all this hitting him at once: losing Ann in the office, suspecting Marva as a possible suspect for the kidnappings, wanting to protect Tess but afraid he couldn’t—in more ways than one, he felt he was up a tree whatever happened next.

“Jonas,” he said. “I’m going to read you your Miranda rights and explain them.”

“I’ll cooperate. That should go a long ways with you and in court. Ann had no idea I was passing things on. Told her I was just interested in police work, and asked her stuff.”

Gabe didn’t believe any of that, and realized this might not be smooth sailing after all.

* * *

Sunday morning Tess fixed breakfast for herself and Vic, since Gabe was long gone. “The pancakes are great,” Vic said, tucking into his second stack of them. “So much better than those toaster waffles and quick-fix stuff. I’m a disaster in the kitchen.”

“I thought you were married.”

“Was,” he said, pouring on syrup. “Can’t be married to a wife and the career I’ve had. I don’t blame her for taking a hike. I was married though, when I was here for your case, and she suffered right along with me until you turned up. See,” he said, his hands resting with his fork and knife beside his plate, “we lost our daughter to cancer when she was young. My wife was real happy when your mother got you back. Our Tiffany had neuroblastoma—rare but with only about a five percent survival rate.”

“Vic, I’m sorry,” she said, sinking into the chair across the table from him. Tears burned her eyes, but she blinked them back.

He sighed. “Well, yeah. Thanks. I think it’s why I was really shook when Jill Stillwell went missing, and I was assigned somewhere else so I couldn’t work that case. And now the Kenton girl. I might come off hard as nails, but I know how it feels to lose a young girl.”

“Speaking of marriage under the strain of the man’s career, it was obviously hard for Gabe’s mother.”

He started to eat again. “Speaking of obvious, I had no idea you didn’t know about your father and Gabe’s mom.”

“It’s best I know. I don’t hold it against you. My family should have told me. But what you said about your wife too—no wonder Gabe has never married in his position.”

He narrowed his eyes and stared straight at her. “He and Ann were done before he found out she betrayed him, you know.”

“That’s what he said.”

“You thinking of the two of you—him and you?”

“Of course not. With all that’s going on, and I’ve only known him—as adults—for six days, no way! I’m heading back to Michigan as soon as this is all over.”

“‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much.’ That’s Shakespeare—impressive, huh? Look, I can see you two care for each other. That’s why he asked me to keep a good eye on you today at the church service for Sandy, the candle walk, all that.”

“I’ll be fine in the crowd.”

“Because the person or persons out to scare you off or keep you quiet only come out of cornfields and we’ll be uptown? Nope, I’m sticking by you today. You know,” he said, with a shake of his head and slight smile as he poured more maple syrup on his last few bites, “I saw a tabloid newspaper when Jill Stillwell went missing that claimed ‘the Hillbilly Kidnappings’ were done by the same aliens that make crop circles in the fields.”