kidding me?” I dropped to my knees. “Logan, come here, boy.”
He trotted over and plopped at my feet, but he whined and pawed at his face, one eye squinting and not opening all the way.
“What did they do to you? Jesus.”
I looked around fruitlessly for a towel or a rag or something to clean him up, but there was nothing. When he moved to lick his side, I shouted, startling both him and Percy.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.” My nerves were on edge.
“Stop it, Logan. Don’t do that. Don’t lick. You can’t lick the paint. Dammit.”
Percy stood a few feet away, concern etched all over his young face. “Is he okay? Why’s he making his eye do that?”
“I don’t know.” I tore my shirt over my head since there was nothing else around and wiped at Logan’s face, keeping him still with a rough hand under his muzzle. “It’s okay, boy. We’ll clean you up. Damn those kids. Is your eye okay?”
There didn’t seem to be paint near his eye, but it was slightly irritated and red. I scrubbed his ear and wiped my shirt over the spot on his side. It had begun to dry, and all I managed to do was make a bigger mess, smearing it.
The sound of a car coming up the service road caught my attention. Logan’s ears perked with the noise, and Percy swung his head toward the road. A cruiser weaved along the curve in the near distance before driving alongside the barn and stopping.
“Is that Chief Elkhart?” Percy asked.
“No. That’s Constable Bygrove.”
“Oh. He comes to my house to check on Dad sometimes too. I like him.”
Another cruiser appeared along the dirt road and pulled in behind Bygrove’s just as the young constable got out of his car. It looked like the chief wasn’t going to let this one go without getting involved too.
Having wiped the majority of the wet paint from Logan, I stood as the two police officers came around the back of the barn and noted the fresh graffiti. Chief Elkhart closed his eyes and shook his head before opening them and facing me.
The barn was the least of my concerns. “They spray painted my dog. I’m about tired of this shit.”
John Bygrove and Windsor’s heads snapped to Logan, eyes widening when they saw the smear of paint I couldn’t get off his fur.
“Jesus,” Windsor muttered. “This is bad enough.” He waved a hand at the offensive art. “But this.” He motioned to Logan. “This is not okay.” He turned to his constable. “Get on the radio and put out an APB. I want the McMillian kid, the Dobson kid, and the Garner brothers brought in to the station ASAP. Get out there and find them. No more dicking around. This is enough.”
I knew the chief had no evidence, only a strong gut feeling about who was responsible, but it was clear he was at the end of his rope. Those kids had caused more trouble in town than anyone. I wasn’t their only target for vandalism, but I was certainly their favorite. It wasn’t hard to attribute blame to anyone else when they all-out advertised their contempt for every authoritative figure in town.
Constable Bygrove got back in his car and slammed the door. He spent another minute on his radio before turning around and heading back down the service road, leaving a cloud of dust behind him.
“I’m sorry, East. I’ll take care of this mess.”
“Yeah. How? I have enough problems without having to fork over money to fix bullshit graffiti and broken fences every time I turn around. Look at this.” I swung an arm, disgusted at the blatant attack on my sexuality done by a bunch of no good teenagers.
“At least it’s on the back of the barn. No one’s gonna see it if it takes time to get it cleaned up.”
“No one, huh? What about the riders takin’ that trail there?” I gestured to the outlook where Matthew and his small group had been passing by when he’d noticed the mess. “They saw it just fine. How do you think I knew about it? Christ, Windsor. I’m up to my eyeballs as it is. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it’s a big deal to me. Not only do I not have the money to be fixing shit like this, but I don’t have time, either.”
“Whoa.” The chief of police held up a calming hand. “Take a breath. I never