She frowned. “Just the lamp?”
He nodded. “Odd robbery, that. Usually the perps carry off anything they can get their hands on.”
“I know.” She smiled sheepishly. “I was with the FBI for two years.”
“I heard about that. In fact,” he added while she started coffee brewing, “that’s why I’m here.”
“You need help with the robbery investigation?” she asked, pulling two mugs out of the cabinet.
“I need help, period,” he replied. “My investigator just quit to go live in California with his new wife. She’s from there. Left me shorthanded. We’re on a tight budget, like most small law enforcement agencies. I only have the one investigator. Had, that is.” He eyed her. “I thought you might be interested in the job,” he added with a warm smile.
She almost dropped the mugs. “Me?”
“Yes. Your father said you had experience in law enforcement before you went with the Bureau and that you were noted for your investigative abilities.”
“Noted wasn’t quite the word they used,” she said, remembering the rage her boss had unleashed when she blew the interrogation of a witness. That also brought back memories of the brutality the man had used against her in the physical attack. To be fair to her boss, he didn’t know the prisoner had attacked her until after he’d read her the riot act. He’d apologized handsomely, but the damage was already done.
“Well, the FBI has its own way of doing things. So do I.” He accepted the hot mug of coffee with a smile. “Thanks. I live on black coffee.”
“So do I.” She laughed, sitting down at the table with him to put cream and sugar in her own. She noticed that he took his straight up. He had nice hands. Very masculine and strong-looking. No wedding band. No telltale ring where one had been, either. She guessed that he’d never been married, but it was too personal a question to ask a relative stranger.
“I need an investigator and you’re out of work. What do you say?”
She thought about the possibilities. She smiled. Here it was, like fate, a chance to prove to the world that she could be a good investigator. It was like the answer to a prayer.
She grinned. “I’ll take it, and thank you.”
He let out the breath he’d been holding. “No. Thankyou. I can’t handle the load alone. When can you start?”
“It’s Friday. How about first thing Monday morning?” she asked.
“That would be fine. I’ll put you on the day shift to begin. You’ll need to report to my office by seven a.m. Too early?”
“Oh, no. I’m usually in bed by eight and up by five in the morning.”
His eyebrows raised.
“It’s my dog,” she sighed. “She sleeps on the bed with me, and she wakes up at five. She wants to eat and play. So I can’t go back to sleep or she’ll eat the carpet.”
He laughed. “What breed is she?”
“She’s a white Siberian husky with red highlights. Beautiful.”
“Where is she?”
She caught her breath as she realized that she’d let Snow out to go to the bathroom an hour earlier, and she hadn’t scratched at the door. “Oh, dear,” she muttered as she realized where the dog was likely to be.
Along with that thought came a very angry knock at the back door, near where she was sitting with the sheriff.
Apprehensively, she got up and opened the door. And there he was. Dal Blake, with Snow on a makeshift lead. He wasn’t smiling.
“Your dog invited herself to breakfast. Again. She came right into my damned house through the dog door!”
She knew that Dal didn’t have a dog anymore. His old Labrador had died a few weeks ago, her foreman had told her, and the man had mourned the old dog. He’d had it for almost fourteen years, he’d added.
“I’m sorry,” Meadow said with a grimace. “Snow. Bad girl!” she muttered.
The husky with her laughing blue eyes came bounding over to her mistress and started licking her.