Kascius, page 5
“I’ve been sent here on behalf of the US military. I represent the War Dog department, and we care about what happened to that dog.”
The guy immediately flushed beet red, glanced at his boss again, and then stared down at his feet.
Kascius spoke softly but with a very specific intent. “Why don’t you tell me what you did with Beamer?”
Immediately his gaze went up, then hit the floor again, trying to look anywhere but at Kascius or Henry.
“Jesus.” Henry stared at the kid. “Did you take that War Dog?”
Terry shrugged. “What was I supposed to do? It was sitting here, doing nothing, and obviously nobody gave a shit about it.”
Kascius spoke up again. “Yeah, so the question is, did you give a shit about it or did you just sell it to the highest bidder?”
The kid’s face turned fifty shades of red and then immediately paled to white.
At that point, Henry started to swear. “Good God, Terry. You do realize that War Dog wasn’t yours to do anything with and, in fact, belongs to the United States government, right? A government that cares so much about their dog that they flew this man clear over here to find it?”
Terry swallowed several times. “Look. I just … He didn’t have anybody. He didn’t. He needed somebody to look after him.” He was frantically looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Right,” Henry growled. “Let’s not even pretend you cared about who would look after Beamer.”
“So, you sold him?” Kascius asked.
Terry flushed again. “My buddy, he has dogs.”
“Yeah, that’s nice. So what did he want another one for?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Please tell me that it’s not for dogfighting.”
At that, the kid’s eyes widened, and he staggered back slightly. “How did you know?”
“Just had a feeling, and that is the absolute worst answer for this War Dog.”
“No, no, you don’t understand,” the kid said eagerly. “It’s a War Dog. It’s trained for this.”
Kascius sighed and took a deep breath. “Those dogs are slated for death, you asshole. You are talking about an injured War Dog. He’s got pins in his spine and a pin in his ankle. That dog has been to hell and back, saving your country as well as ours, and this is what your sorry little ass did to Beamer?” He looked over at Henry, who still stared at the kid, looking as shocked as he was angry. “So, what can you do about this, Henry?”
“For starters, this kid is fired as of now.”
Immediately Terry turned to his boss. “No, no, please, you can’t. I need this job.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you sold someone else’s property that you were specifically entrusted to care for and to secure. You not only stole Beamer from here, but then you sold him knowingly to a member of a dogfighting ring, which you know full well is illegal. Jesus Christ, I still can’t even fucking believe it.” He walked several feet away, rubbing his hands down his face, before coming back, ever-so-slightly calmer.
Kascius stepped forward again. “Give me the name of your friend and the address.”
The kid shook his head. “You don’t understand. I … I’ll get in trouble.”
“No, you don’t understand, Terry. You are already in trouble,” Henry snapped, pointing to a couple airport security staff members coming toward them. When Henry quickly explained what had happened, they turned and looked at the kid.
Flustered, Terry stammered, “These guys, … like, …. you don’t understand. I mean, I know it’s illegal,” he admitted, shamefaced. “But I’ve watched them for years, so I didn’t really think anything of it. These guys really get into it.”
“Right, you never thought anything of it,” Kascius spat. “You didn’t think about the poor animals involved, did you? Or the fact that this War Dog is likely to be put in a position where he can’t even defend himself, so he’s what? … Bait?”
Terry flushed. “I can call him.” He pulled out his phone.
Immediately Kascius grabbed Terry’s phone. “I want the number, and you’re not to talk to him.” Kascius addressed Henry and the two security guards. “I’m not sure how you guys feel, but if dogfighting is as illegal in your country as it is in mine, we’ll want to look at taking down the entire ring.”
“Definitely,” replied one of the airport security guys. “We’ve already put a call in to our local police force here.”
“Good. I want to talk to them about this.”
For the next few minutes, they all stood around, waiting for the police to show up. When they did, the explanations started all over again. The minute the local authorities heard what had happened, they turned on the kid full force.
He immediately held up his hands. “I know. I know. It was stupid.”
“Beyond stupid, kid,” barked one of the policemen. “Now you’re going down to the station to get booked. You need to produce the information on this friend of yours, including the address.”
“I want to be in on this deal,” Kascius noted.
The cop immediately turned and frowned, shaking his head.
“Look,” Kascius explained. “I came here from the States specifically for this War Dog. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t know anything about this, so the least you can do is keep me in the loop.”
“Keeping you in the loop is one thing,” the officer noted, “but having you weigh in on the whole scenario? That’s not possible.”
Kascius frowned at him. “I’ll take what I can get, but I want that War Dog, and I want Beamer alive, so we don’t have any time to waste. Hopefully you can set it up so you have something decent to charge this group with—and potentially that family who adopted Beamer too.”
“That we’ll have to look at,” the lead cop replied. “Send us the information on the family, and we’ll go have a talk with them.”
Kascius nodded. “I already called my boss, who has requested the video camera footage from the airport here as well. I’m interested in seeing how it all played out and how the family’s teenage son got Beamer to run away.”
“Right,” the cop stated, shaking his head. “Jesus, can you imagine getting your kid to do that?”
“Yeah, then the father threw the kid under the bus, so he didn’t blame himself, and so he would avoid paying the thousand dollar delivery fee.” With that, Kascius turned and walked away.
Everybody had exchanged contact information and had been assigned tasks as to what could be done for the moment. But what Kascius needed was the address where Beamer was at. He had a general idea of the vicinity but not all of it. He stopped off to the side and waited until they hauled the kid away.
The police officer in charge walked back over to him. “Listen. I can’t have you interfering in the investigation.” The statement was simple and stern.
Despite the obvious warning, Kascius chose to ignore it anyway. “That depends on how quickly you’ll get to the dogfighting location. That War Dog is in no condition to fight. If you won’t get Beamer out of there quickly, I’ll go undercover and try to buy it. And, if that doesn’t work, well, … I guess I might just kick someone’s ass to get Beamer back.” He explained the fear, the urgency twisting inside him to find Beamer—before he was put in the ring to fight to the death.
Immediately he got a frown in return from the head cop.
Kascius shook his head. “Don’t expect me not to do something to save this War Dog. There’s probably some fight left in Beamer, but, with his wartime injuries, chances are, if he goes down, he won’t get back up again. That kid Terry condemned him to his death, unless we get Beamer out of there immediately.”
“The kid will pay for it, for stealing and for whatever else we can charge him with, but the dogfighting element is huge. We’ve been trying to put a stop to it for a long time.”
“Yeah, I get that. We’ve got the same problem back in the States, but it still doesn’t make me any happier.”
The officer sighed and frowned. “Look. Come on down to the station with us, and we’ll take a look at the security footage and see what else we can come up with. I’ve got the address where the War Dog went to, and we’ll keep investigating. We’ve taken Terry’s phone away, so he can’t contact his friend. And we’re checking all the other contacts in this kid’s phone too. So we’ve got this.”
“That’s good to know because that friend of his needs to be taken down.”
“That’s the plan,” the officer stated cheerfully. “And, if you want in on it, that’s all good, and we’re happy to have you on the sidelines, but I can’t have you in the midst of any action.”
“Shit,” Kascius said in disgust. “Being on the sidelines is not what I’m used to.”
The cop chuckled at that. “No, I can see that. Still doesn’t mean that it’s not good for you every once in a while.”
Kascius swore at that but agreed. “Okay, I’ll meet you down at the station. I’ve got my truck here.”
“Good enough.” And, with that, the police headed out.
Immediately Henry walked over to Kascius. “Seriously? Terry, the little shit, sold Beamer to a dogfighting ring?”
“Yeah, and we need to get Beamer back fast,” Kascius muttered. “Hopefully before he’s dead or will need thousands of dollars in veterinary care to put him right again. I find myself wondering now if the father had anything to do with that.” He looked over at Henry, who seemed confused and perplexed. “Because that would give us a hell of a reason to charge the father.”
“Ah.” Henry brightened. “That’s something you should dig into a little further.”
“I’ll have to see if he’s got any connections to the dog ring. That would explain why they went to all the trouble of bringing it over.”
At that, Henry snorted in disgust. “Jesus, if I didn’t hate that father already, you can bet I hate him now.”
Chapter 3
Kascius woke up too early the next morning, still adjusting to the time change and pissed off that, so far, nothing had happened in terms of the names and addresses he was supposed to get from the police. Yesterday he’d called and texted and had gone to the station. No one would talk to him. As far as he understood, when the cops had gone to the dogfighting buyer’s home, it was empty, with no sign of the War Dog. Kascius wanted to track down anybody involved in the dogfighting ring, but he also had absolutely no jurisdiction to do anything here.
Kascius snorted. The cops even had the airport security cam footage and refused to show him one second of it. Still, whatever the cops saw captured on multiple airport cams had them at least believing Kascius’s earlier report about the father and the son abandoning the dog at the airport. They would confirm that in an affidavit, so that the airport would, in theory, be reimbursed for those thousand dollars in transport fees regarding Beamer’s overseas flight.
He shook his head, brought up Beamer’s picture on his phone. As always, the image made him smile yet also pissed him off.
The whole thing was driving him crazy. As he tried to figure out what to do next, he texted Badger with an update. Badger immediately sent back a message, asking what time it was there in Scotland.
He checked his phone and groaned. Three in the morning, he wrote back. And, yeah, I should be sleeping, but I’m too pissed off about what happened to Beamer to sleep. He got up, had a quick shower, and dressed as quickly as his prosthetic allowed him to. He headed for the kitchen, intent on putting on a pot of coffee and hoping not to wake anybody up. Yet, as soon as he got there, his middle brother already sat at the kitchen table, looking a little bleary-eyed, but up and ready for whatever the day would bring.
Liam looked up. “Hey, you’re up early.”
“Still adjusting to time change, I think.”
“Seems to me that you were always one of the early risers.”
“I am.” He looked over at his brother as he passed him, heading to the coffeepot. “How is Mam doing?”
“She’s holding. I checked on her earlier this morning, and she was awake, of course, but she’s not ready for tea yet.”
“Does she get up this early?”
“She doesn’t get up per se, … and she doesn’t sleep very much anymore.”
“Right.” Kascius opened the cupboard and reached for a mug.
“She did ask for Ainsley to come in early this morning. Mam wants a bath.”
“That’s a good sign that she’s doing better, isn’t it?” Kascius brought his full coffee mug to the table and sat.
“Maybe. I asked Mam if she wanted to see you, and she gave me a blank look, as if she didn’t understand who you were.”
Kascius winced at that. “Right. Such an odd feeling to not even register in her brain.”
“Don’t take it personally. I’m not sure she recognized me. She looked a little off.”
“Good, but off?” he asked. “I don’t get it.”
Liam gave him a half smile. “Yeah. It’s a tricky thing. Not seeing her on a day-to-day basis, I can see how that wouldn’t make sense to you. Give it a little time.”
“Coffee, that’s what I need,” Kascius said, rotating his hot cup with a smile to his brother. “It’s surprising how much it helps when it comes to understanding things that just don’t make sense.”
Liam chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth. It’s such a weird stage of life right now.”
“I agree with you there, although I’m not sure we’re talking about the same stages.”
At that, Liam looked at him and then shrugged. “No, you’re right. I guess our individual stages are quite different, but it’s still the passing of an era when Mam goes, and the arrival of a new era when my child is born. I always thought our parents would be around for that.”
“Of course you did. Plus, it’s the first and potentially the only grandchild of the family. Isn’t that something to think about?” he noted, staring at Liam.
“Yes, it sure is.”
“You know, when we were growing up, it seemed we would all get married, have kids, and be together. A big happy family, you know? Then something happened, and I don’t even know what it was.”
“I think a family grows apart with the years,” Liam suggested.
Kascius nodded. “You make a decision that has a huge impact on the rest of your world, and sometimes you stay in love with it, make peace with it, and sometimes you must get out.”
“Is that what it was for you?” Liam asked him. “Was it a case of needing to get out?”
“After you were given the farm, and I became the disgraced one, it was a little hard to sit here. I had obviously overstayed my welcome.”
Liam didn’t even bother flinching at that. “I told Dad not to do it.”
“I don’t doubt that, but it doesn’t matter because they did it anyway.”
“Yeah, they did. I told him that they were ruining something between us and that there was no need to make it my farm, but they wouldn’t listen.”
“For all of Dad’s faults, one of the worst was his anger and his stubbornness.” Kascius shook his head. “Always angry.”
“Something about your relationship with Dad brought the worst out of him,” Liam murmured, staring at his eldest brother. “I never caught that same anger myself, although I did see it directed at you.”
“You never caught it because you never bucked him. You were happy to be a farmer, to stay here, and to marry your high school sweetheart, and to do whatever Dad told you to do. That was never for me. I could never make him see that I would die here if I stayed and that I could never be what Dad wanted me to be, which was a clone of himself.” He looked at Liam in awe, adding in a wry tone, “You had already filled that position in many ways. No way I could compete, and I didn’t even want to try.”
“No child should ever have to compete,” Liam snapped. “Maybe I wasn’t great at making that point clear to them, but, now that I have a child coming myself, it seems as if a lot of the mistakes I made growing up are about to come back and confront me.”
At that, Kascius stared at him. “Meaning?”
“I don’t even know, but, for a fact, I wasn’t a great brother to you. I sure as hell tried harder with Angus, but I wasn’t exactly a great brother there either.”
“That’s interesting. I find myself wondering what it is great brothers are supposed to do?” Kascius asked curiously. “It wasn’t your job to make peace in the family. You had to make a life for yourself, and thankfully you were happy to do what Dad wanted you to do.” At that, he asked, “Or were you?”
Liam looked at him. “What?”
“Were you happy to take over the farm, or did you feel like you were pushed into it?”
“I felt as if I was pushed into it in some ways, but otherwise I was very happy about it. I was happy enough when they handed it to me on a platter, aside from the trouble it caused. Everybody wants to make their own way in the world, and I got a huge head start handed to me.”
“I’ll have to admit, I was surprised they cut Angus out.”
“I think that’s partly what Mam was trying to change,” Liam added. “And I don’t know how I feel about her trying to change it, after it was given to me. Operating capital is important when it comes to making this place run.”
“Do you have the deed?”
“Yes, but Mam still owns part of it. Only a small part but enough that she’d stay fine until her death. She may have left the rest of it to Angus too. I don’t know.”
Kascius nodded. “I can see her doing that, and it probably would have been one of the few times she bucked Dad.”
“They had a couple fights toward the end, and I’m pretty sure it was about the farm.”
“How would you feel if you co-owned it with Angus?” Liam shot him a look at that. “Right.” Kascius laughed. “About as good as I felt about taking on the entire family responsibility and looking after everybody if I got it.”
At that, Liam stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe you didn’t have the same stipulations that I did, but Dad made it very clear that I was expected to take on the farm, but also all of your and Angus’s care and see to your education, plus care for Mam. If I took on the farm, I wasn’t really given a choice about what my life would be.”
