Framed Shadows: Shadows Landing #6 Page 19

  “Where did you get that list of properties?” Paxton asked Bridget.

  “My son.” That was all she said. Tinsley could tell Paxton wanted to know more, but that was all he was going to get.

  “Now that we’re all dressed and you have your pie, let’s take Annie and Bridget to see the paintings.” Tinsley turned to her aunt and friend. “I’ve stored them with cotton balls and the polyester strips just like you asked.”

  “Great. That will help the girls with their tracking.” Bridget whistled and three dogs raced to her side. “This is Robyn. She’s a Vizsla who belongs to a family friend but has one heck of a nose on her,” Bridget said, introducing the red dog that had climbed the tree. Bridget then pointed to the tan lithe dog. “This is Susi the Malinois. The last dog is obviously a Bloodhound.” Bridget smiled at the dog with the large floppy ears, big black nose, wrinkly face, and oversized jowls. She was black along her body and then tan on her legs and head, and Tinsley just wanted to snuggle her. “This is Buttercup,” Bridget told them as she rubbed the Bloodhound’s head, sending her big ears flapping. Buttercup’s tongue lolled happily to the side as she leaned against Bridget’s legs.

  “I didn’t think Bloodhounds were used to track anything besides people,” Paxton said, smiling at the happy dog.

  “We brought a diverse team. Susi is great for tracking hot trails. If someone or something was recently in an area, she would find it. Plus she’s a patrol dog and can take a criminal down faster than any dog I have trained. Think of Susi as an all-around dog. Robyn is good for scent work, too, but is a little more specialized. Plus she’s smart—scarily smart. She can find a trail and won’t freak out if she loses it. She’ll work the area until she finds it again. And then there’s our scent specialist, Buttercup. Bloodhounds are amazing at working cold trails. Scent work is all Buttercup does. She’ll take the scent from the scent article and will be off. She can even sniff the air for the scent. Buttercup had gone to a crime scene before where a woman’s body was found laid out in a city park. It was obvious the murder hadn’t been committed there. Buttercup backtracked the woman’s scent out of the park, down an alley, into the back door of an apartment, into a stairwell, up three flights, down the hall, to a specific apartment, and then straight to the bathtub. Police found the woman’s blood in the drain and arrested the apartment owner for her murder. That’s what Buttercup can do. She’s the tortoise, where Susi is the hare.”

  “What is Robyn in that scenario?” Paxton asked.

  “Robyn would have called an Uber and met the others there,” Bridget said with an affectionate smile.

  Tinsley felt hope bloom as her aunt and Miss B said hello to Miss Winnie and Miss Ruby before they headed out to look at their paintings. Energy surged through her body and she suddenly couldn’t wait to get Annie and Bridget the scent items and have them on their way to Atlanta.

  Paxton absently rubbed Robyn’s head as Annie and Bridget stared in wonder at the paintings.

  “First, this is the coolest church ever,” Annie said. “Second, these paintings are . . . just wow.”

  Paxton watch Bridget put each scent item into its own plastic evidence bag. She labeled them and put them in her backpack. The dogs sniffed around and Bridget smiled at Buttercup. “Want to see how she works?”

  “I’d love to see,” Paxton answered.

  “How long ago were these paintings put in here?” Bridget asked.

  “Sunday, so five days,” Tinsley answered.

  “Bring me something with scent on it from one person who carried a painting in,” Bridget instructed.

  “My brother, Ridge, sat in the pew on Sunday. Can Buttercup use that?” Tinsley asked.

  Bridget pulled out a small package containing a sterile gauze. “Show me.”

  Annie and Reverend Winston stayed with the dogs, but Paxton followed to see how this worked. Bridget took the gauze and rubbed it over the pew where Ridge had touched the wood. They walked back down to where the dogs were. Bridget held the gauze out for Buttercup. “Scent.”

  Buttercup took in a big snorting breath and then stuck her nose up in the air. She sniffed the air with deep breaths that made her jowls jiggle. Then her nose turned to one of the paintings. She sniffed the painting and bayed, the soulful song of a Bloodhound.

  “Good girl. Scent,” Bridget told her.

  Buttercup’s big nose went to the dirt floor. Instead of heading out the way they had come into the storage area—through the front door of the church and behind the altar—Buttercup led them out the back door, down a long, dark dirty hallway, and out a back door of sorts that led them to the cemetery. Her nose never left the ground as she walked behind the buildings and turned left at the art gallery. She headed straight for the gate to the small courtyard, through Tinsley’s back door, and through the gallery to the front door. Tinsley opened it and Buttercup shot through the door, crossed the street, and pawed at the front door to Harper’s bar. Paxton opened it and Buttercup trotted through the bar to where Ridge was leaning against the kitchen door talking to Harper. Buttercup sat down and bayed again.

  “What the hell?” Ridge yelled as he jumped in surprise at finding a Bloodhound sitting directly behind him.

  “Good girl!” Bridget said, tossing Buttercup a treat.

  Paxton was impressed, but it also gave him an idea.

  “Can you wipe down what our suspects have touched in the gallery and use Buttercup to track them in Atlanta? They had to pick up the artwork so their scent should also be there,” he asked Bridget as Tinsley told Harper what was going on.

  “Of course. You’ve seen what she can do.”

  “Let me show you where Maurice touched the most.” Paxton led Bridget back across the street while Harper and Ridge talked to their aunt and played with the dogs.

  An hour later they’d collected all the samples, had an early lunch with the Faulkners, and then Annie, Bridget, and the dogs were on their way to Atlanta.

  Paxton’s phone rang and he answered it as Tinsley drove him back to her house. “Connor, is there any news?”

  “Cy is one scary-ass dude. But then I met Ahmed last night and almost crapped my pants. Your girlfriend has some very scary friends. You should remember that if you’re serious about her. These guys could make you disappear in a second. Cy and Ahmed are having a contest to see who can make the gang members cry the fastest. I’m simultaneously petrified and encouraged. We’re getting leads left and right now.”

  “Bridget, Ahmed’s wife is on her way with Cade’s wife, Annie. They have scent-tracking dogs with them. They have your number but you have to swear you don’t tell the men the women are in town. They’ve decided they’re going to find the art before their husbands do,” Paxton told Connor, feeling as if he were living in an alternate universe even as he said it.

  “You’re kidding, right? This is nuts. They’re having fun. They brought in a military helicopter so they could fast-rope into a warehouse last night. They raced down the ropes. Then there’s this guy named Pierce who keeps using our computers to doctor pictures of the guys to make it look like they’re fishing. I’m at a loss for words, but there’s no way in hell I’ll send them away. I want to keep them forever. They’ve taken down more gang members, confiscated more guns and drugs, and destroyed more meth labs in one week than we did in the past eighteen months.”

  “I guess that’s good, right?” Paxton said, not knowing what else to say since Connor sounded dazed.

  “Yeah, I guess so. I just thought you should know if I disappear for some reason, it was probably this Ahmed guy. I’ll be on the lookout for the wives. They’re nice, right? They won’t dismember me for fun?”

  “Annie might,” Tinsley whispered with a huge smile on her face.

  “Nope, great ladies. Oh, and Connor, get the dogs some pie and they’ll love you. Call me if they get anything.” Paxton hung up the phone and stared out the car window, taking it all in. “I really don’t know what to say.”

  Tinsley p
ulled into her driveway and parked her car. “Good, what I’m thinking of doesn’t involve words.”

  She got out of the car and stepped out of her shoes the second she hit her patio. Her shirt followed and then Paxton was running after her. Paxton didn’t know what to make of her Keeneston family, but when Tinsley’s bra was tossed onto the couch, all thoughts of her family fled and he knew exactly what to do.

  24

  Neither Maurice nor Murray called Tinsley over the weekend. They had lain low Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Saturday, Tinsley’s family had come over for dinner and game night. Somehow Paxton had ended up with baby Chase for most of the charade game. His finger was chewed on, there was drool down his shirt, and Paxton had to admit he loved it.

  Tinsley, marriage, babies, and family—those thoughts were consuming him even as Connor and Annie kept him up to date on the case. The days he and Tinsley were able to spend together only made his feelings for her to grow and deepen. He felt as if roots were being laid deep in his heart for both Tinsley and Shadows Landing. Which was what had him wide awake at four o’clock Sunday morning.

  Paxton had wanted that promotion in the FBI. He wanted to rise in the ranks and while he was technically now a higher rank as the head of art crimes than when he was in gangs, it had felt like a punishment. Until now.

  Paxton lay in the bed with his arm around Tinsley and punishment was the complete opposite of what he was feeling. He needed to sit down with Peter and talk about his career. He needed to pull the transfer he’d had Peter put in for New York and Chicago the day before this case had started. Instead, he was determined to grow in the agency, only this time he was going to expand the art crimes division here in Charleston so he could stay with Tinsley. It felt right.

  The screen to his cell phone lit up and Paxton had to untangle himself from Tinsley to answer it. “Hello?” he whispered into the phone.

  “It’s Annie. Buttercup hit on Maurice’s scent. We’re going in. I thought you’d like to watch.”

  “Yes,” Paxton said, swinging his feet over the side of the bed and not trying to be quiet. “Put it on video. Did you call Connor?”

  “Yes, but he’s tied up with our husbands. He’ll get here as soon as he can. We’re moving in because we just saw a light turn on in a bedroom,” Annie whispered. “We can’t chance them leaving. Here we go.”

  “What’s going on?” Tinsley asked sleepily.

  “Buttercup is on a scent,” Paxton told her as he turned on the video call and began to record it.

  That woke Tinsley right up and she moved to sit next to him as they stared at the video feed of a home in a middle-class neighborhood. “That’s Maurice’s car,” Tinsley whispered.

  Paxton nodded. His heart beat wildly in his chest as if he were on the raid with them. Where was Connor? Two women shouldn’t go into the house alone. They would be outnumbered. He should be there with them.

  Buttercup led them right to the car, then up the walkway, and to the front door. Instead of baying, she sat and rested her nose against the closed door.

  “Annie, take Robyn around back and put her on a sit-stay,” Bridget whispered. The video then showed Annie and Robyn running silently around the house to the back patio. Annie put Robyn on a sit-stay hidden in the shadows between two patio chairs before running back to the front of the house. Bridget came back into view. Buttercup was on a long tracking leash that Bridget held in her left hand. On her right, Susi was on a short leash, obviously amped up and ready to go. Bridget opened a package and told Susi, “Scent.”

  “Open it,” Bridget whispered as Annie moved to place the phone in a backpack strap on her chest.

  With two free hands, Annie picked the front door lock and then pulled out her weapon. Bridget handed her Buttercup’s leash and then reached out with her free hand and slowly opened the door. “Scent,” Bridget whispered to her dogs.

  Paxton saw a gun appear in Bridget’s hand as Susi took the lead and strode inside with her nose to the ground. The house was a ranch style and Susi headed straight for the side of the house where all the bedrooms were located. Maurice must be sleeping. However, Buttercup took a detour. She headed straight for a door off the kitchen.

  Annie opened it slowly and flipped on the tactical flashlight attachment to her Glock. She made her way down the stairs into a basement that couldn’t be seen from the street. Buttercup pulled her through the dark, and Paxton held his breath as he watched the scan of the light while Annie cleared the area. Buttercup had something. She was pulling hard as she led Annie away from the stairs.

  He saw what Buttercup had scented at the same time Tinsley did. He heard her gasp next to him. “I think we found your paintings,” Annie whispered as she used her flashlight to scan the area. At least forty wrapped items were leaning against the far wall.

  They couldn’t celebrate, though. Suddenly there was shouting from upstairs. Annie was running with Buttercup beside her. She took the basement stairs two at a time to find the front door open and the back of Curtis Engle running out of the house.

  “Stellen!” Bridget yelled from deep inside the house. Susi shot past Annie and out the open front door.

  Annie raced after her and Paxton watched as Susi leaped onto the car. She was snarling and barking on the hood of the car as she used her paws to try to claw at Curtis through the windshield. It was too late, though. Curtis threw the car into reverse. Annie called for Susi who leaped from the moving car and into the front yard. Annie was about to go after Curtis, but then they all heard Bridget.

  “You asshole!” Bridget yelled.

  “Susi!” Annie yelled but didn’t need to. The Mal was already bolting back into the house to rescue her handler.

  The sound of glass breaking had Annie turning from the hallway to the back door. There were the simultaneous sounds of men screaming. One from a bedroom and the other from the backyard.

  “Bridget?” Annie called out.

  “I’m good. Get the one who went out back!” Bridget yelled, but Annie was already running that way.

  Paxton chuckled as Annie opened the back door. “That’s my girl,” Paxton called out to where Robyn had Maurice by the balls—literally. Maurice was frozen in place with tears running down his face.

  “Get him off me,” he pleaded.

  Paxton had muted the phone and covered the camera. “We don’t want Maurice hearing or recognizing us,” he told Tinsley.

  “Only a girl would bring a man down by the balls, dimwit. Hold him, Robyn,” Annie ordered as she placed cuffs on Maurice.

  The sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance as Annie and Bridget hauled the men to the front porch. Connor was the first to arrive. The second vehicle was an SUV filled with Davies brothers.

  “What are you two doing here?” a man sputtered at Annie, who looked completely unconcerned.

  “That’s her husband, Cade,” Tinsley told him.

  “Weren’t you were going to a spa or something?” a very scary-looking man asked Bridget in an aggrieved voice.

  “That’s Ahmed,” Tinsley filled in. “And there’re Cy, Miles, and Marshall.”

  “Oh, we did. It was great. Had a mud bath and a facial. Then we found a hundred million dollars worth of stolen art and captured these two men,” Annie said with a smirk.

  “How’s your fishing trip going? Catch anything?” Bridget asked sweetly and Paxton lost it. He was glad he was on mute because he was laughing so hard Tinsley had to take the phone from him.

  “Yup, that’s my family,” she said, laughing.

  “I can’t wait to join this family,” Paxton admitted and liked seeing the radiant smile Tinsley gave him in return.

  “Really?”

  “Sweetheart, I love you even more because of your family. Maybe I didn’t make it clear enough when I told you that I love you, but I’m in this forever. Not just right now.”

  The Keeneston contingent was forgotten as Tinsley dropped the phone and vaulted into his arms. She knocked him back
onto the bed and kissed him deep enough to rock his world. They probably would have continued if Cy weren’t suddenly yelling Paxton’s name over the phone.

  When Paxton picked up the phone from the floor, he saw that Maurice and Murray were gone and everyone was down in the basement with the stolen art.

  “Kendry, you knew they were here and didn’t tell us?” Cy demanded.

  “You are not welcome on any guy trips,” Miles pouted.

  “Don’t worry, Paxton. You can come to the spa with us,” Annie said with a smirk.

  “Sorry, guys. A gentleman is only as good as his word and they made us promise not to say anything. And I’d be happy to go to a spa with you ladies anytime.”

  Robyn suddenly appeared and then disappeared from the screen as she jumped up and down like she was on a pogo stick. “Aw, there’s my good girl. I’ll give you some more apple pie next time I see you,” Paxton said, fully aware he was baby-talking over the phone to a dog who was now happily yipping and wagging her tail in response.

  “I’m surrounded by traitors,” Ahmed grumbled as he glared at Robyn. However, Robyn knew just what to do. She went to Ahmed, sat down, cocked her head, and placed her paw on his leg.

  “There’s my baby girl,” Ahmed said in matching baby-talk. He patted his chest and Robyn leaped into his arms. “I should have brought Nemi. Mother and daughter were working together. I’ll have Mo fly her here in his plane so we can catch that bad Curtis together. Would you like that?” he asked Robyn who licked his face in return.

  Suddenly all heads turned toward the camera. “Is there an engagement?” Cy asked.

  “No, Uncle Cy,” Tinsley said patiently.

  “Yet,” Paxton added with a wink to him.

  A wall of Davies brothers filled the screen. “We’ll come to Shadows Landing soon and we’ll decide if you can marry our niece.”

  Tinsley groaned. “You’re worse than Ridge.”

  “We’re older and have more experience at chasing off undeserving men,” Miles said, crossing his arms over his chest.