Bite moves, p.1
Bite Moves, page 1
Copyright 2024 Summer Prescott Books
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying, or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.
**This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.
BITE MOVES
SEARCH AND RESCUE COZY MYSTERIES, BOOK 5
PATTI BENNING
SUMMER PRESCOTT BOOKS PUBLISHING
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
Also by Patti Benning
Author’s Note
Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing
CHAPTER ONE
There was very little Evelyn Foster hated more than being late to work. Not because she was worried she would lose her job, or because it would add more to her to-do list, but because it meant she wouldn’t have time to stop at the Granite Mug for her usual pre-work latte.
This particular Friday morning, a series of unrelated but unfortunate events had put her severely behind schedule. Atlas, one of her two German Shepherds, had somehow managed to tip over his freshly filled water bowl, spilling the contents across her kitchen floor; her blow dryer had given up the ghost and decided to only blow cold air; and the pants she had been planning on wearing were still wet because she had forgotten to put her laundry in the dryer the night before, so she had to scramble to find something else to wear instead.
None of those things was disastrous, but all together, it meant she had just enough time to get to the dental clinic before it opened. She didn’t have time for any more delays, such as swinging by the coffee shop to pick up whatever their daily special was.
The weather matched her mood as she pulled out of her driveway. It was an overcast day with a chilly wind that sent dry leaves skittering across the road with every gust. It was a true fall day here in Northern Michigan, the sort that made Eve want to curl up in a comfy armchair with a good book and a warm drink.
She would get her warm drink, but it was going to be the cheap coffee pods the dental clinic kept in stock, and her comfy armchair was going to be the swivel chair behind the desk. Her cozy book? The patients’ files.
She guided her car through town mournfully, well aware that she was being dramatic. She could survive a day without a latte, but she had been looking forward to the treat. It made it easier to get through the day. She didn’t mind her job, and she got to work alongside her best friend, Tiana Darden, every day. But Fridays always dragged. By the end of the week, she was looking forward to whatever she had planned for the weekend.
And this weekend was going to be a fun one. Tiana’s long-term boyfriend, Levi, had the upcoming week off of work. He was a long-haul trucker, and so often spent weeks at a time gone. Whenever he had time off and could return to the little apartment he shared with Tiana, they spent a lot of time socializing and having fun. Between training her dogs and spending time with Tiana and Levi, this weekend was sure to be great.
Just thinking about her plans was enough to boost her mood, and she was a little more cheerful by the time she hit Main Street. Idly, she noticed the man who had spent the last week protesting in front of the sandwich shop across the street was gone. She still wasn’t clear on what exactly he was protesting—something about the quality of meat the shop was using—because if she was being honest, she hadn’t paid much attention to him. The sandwich shop, Superior Slices, was her go to spot for lunch during the week, and out of solidarity with the owner, a nice man in his sixties who had her favorite order memorized, she had done her best to ignore the protester.
Maybe he gave up, she thought as she turned into the dental clinic’s parking lot. I know it’s a free country, but it can’t be legal for him to sit outside of Superior Slices all day and drive away business.
Maybe she and Tiana could go there today for lunch and ask the owner about it. Granite was a small town, and the singular protester was the most exciting thing that had happened so far this month.
She parked in her usual spot and was taking off her seatbelt when another car pulled into the parking lot and parked next to her. Tiana. She waved at her friend through the window, then got out of her car and took a deep breath, enjoying the scent of dry leaves and the faintest hint of winter in the air. Sure, she hadn’t been able to get her usual latte, but that was hardly the end of the world. She knew she didn’t have much to complain about in the grand scheme of things.
No one’s life was perfect, but hers was pretty darn close.
“This wind is terrible,” Tiana complained as she got out of her car. Her curly black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but the scarf that was wrapped around her neck threatened to fly away before she grabbed it and tucked it back around itself. “I hope the bridge doesn’t get shut down. Levi will be crossing it in a couple of hours.”
The Mackinac Bridge, a suspension bridge that linked Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas, was prone to temporary closures in bad weather. Even with the closures, Eve had seen more than a handful of stories about big trucks getting blown off course in the high winds as they crossed the lake.
“He’ll be okay,” she said as the two of them walked around the building toward the front door. “It can’t be this windy everywhere in the state.”
“I hope you’re right. Of course, I’d rather he get delayed than try to cross if it’s unsafe, but I miss him.” Tiana sighed. “I know he loves his job, and most of the time I’m fine with it, but it’s fall. I want to carve pumpkins and watch scary movies and cuddle up with my beau. That’s hard to do when he’s driving a semitruck across Colorado.”
“I’ll carve pumpkins with you,” Eve offered. “I don’t want you to feel lonely. I forget sometimes how different it is to live alone without pets.”
“I know you’re always there,” Tiana said. “And that means a lot. But sometimes I want to do all of that stuff with my boyfriend, not with my best friend, you know?”
“I get it.”
Eve glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye. She happened to know something Tiana didn’t; Levi was planning on proposing to her soon. Eve had helped him pick out a ring and everything. He was just waiting for the perfect opportunity. She hoped he would do it this week, but she didn’t want Tiana to pick up on her excitement and realize what was going on. Her friend could be scarily observant sometimes.
“So, obviously, Levi and I are going to spend some time together just the two of us tonight, but I’m thinking maybe tomorrow all three of us could go—”
Tiana, who had been reaching into her purse for her keys to the clinic as she chatted, froze. Eve nearly bumped into her when she saw what had caught her friend’s attention.
The glass of the dental clinic’s door was shattered. Somehow, she had been so distracted by the thought of Levi’s upcoming proposal that she hadn’t noticed the damage until they were standing right in front of the door, but now that she saw it, she wondered how no one else had reported it yet. It was just before nine on a Friday morning, as close to rush hour as the town got, and the clinic was on Main Street.
Broken glass sparkled on the sidewalk in front of the door, but most of it was on the inside of the building. She turned in place, but if whoever had done this was nearby, there was no sign of them. Beside her, Tiana reached for the door, found that it was still locked, and used her key to open it.
“There’s no way I’m crawling through that broken glass,” she muttered. “But I’d bet my bottom dollar that whoever did this didn’t just break the window for fun. They did it to break in.”
“Who would break into a dental clinic?” Eve asked. “What is there to steal? Fluoride rinse?”
“We do keep some restricted drugs on hand,” Tiana mused, pulling the door open even though the broken glass left a gaping hole they could see just fine through. Her shoes crunched on some of the glass, and she looked down, her nose scrunching up in distaste.
“We probably shouldn’t touch anything,” Eve said, though she peered past her friend into the darkened clinic, equally curious. From this angle, it wasn’t clear whether anything else had been damaged or taken. “I’m going to call the police. Will you call the Clarks?”
The Drs. Clark were the husband-and-wife team who owned the clinic. Eve and Tiana had taken to jokingly calling them Mr. or Mrs. Doctor Clark depending on which one was working, but their real names were Amelia and Brent. They seemed like good people and were easygoing bosses, but Eve imagined that they were going to be more than a little miffed when they learned their clinic had been broken into.
It looked like the Superior Slices’ protester wasn’t the most interesting thing that had happened all month anymore.
CHAPTER TWO
“The building is clear.” Deputy Hu bble stood in the doorway, not seeming to notice as his tough leather boots crunched on the glass. “Whoever did this is long gone, so it should be safe for you to come in. Just watch the glass. I’ll need someone to confirm whether any of your controlled substances are missing. Do you have any security in the building?”
The doctors, Amelia and Brent Clark, exchanged a look, and Eve felt her stomach twist at the question. She knew the answer as well as any of them—sure, there was security … technically. Except, they had been having an issue with the motion sensors going off at random points throughout the day, so Dr. Brent Clark had told her to disable them until they figured out what was going on, and the outlet the security camera was plugged into would trip the circuit breaker if they plugged in the vacuum at the same time, so they usually didn’t bother.
It hadn’t been an issue before. This was Granite, for goodness’ sake. None of them had expected something like this break-in to happen.
While Amelia answered Deputy Hubble’s questions about the clinic’s security, or lack thereof, Brent and Tiana went inside to take inventory of the controlled substances. Eve wasn’t sure what to do, so she ended up just waiting on the sidewalk with Amelia while she talked to the deputy. She was just a dental assistant and didn’t have the clearance to work with any of the controlled substances, so she couldn’t be much help inside. She knew she should be glad that no one was hurt, but that niggling guilt wouldn’t go away.
She was pretty sure she was the one who had unplugged the security camera earlier this week when she vacuumed the waiting room, which meant it was her fault it wasn’t plugged in right now.
From inside the clinic, she heard Tiana’s voice, high-pitched with shock, say, “What the heck?! Dr. Clark, come here, quickly!”
Detective Hubble and Amelia stopped talking, and all three of them peered into the clinic. A moment later, Dr. Clark called out to his wife to come join them, and Eve followed behind her and the deputy, shamelessly curious.
They were standing in the back pantry, a locked room where the controlled drugs were kept, along with the prescription pad and other valuables such as their diamond-headed cutting tools. There was a fridge for the drugs that had to be kept chilled, and the fridge was what Tiana was peering into as if it held a deep mystery. As far as Eve could see, none of the drugs were missing, but she knew her friend must have had a reason to call attention to it.
“What am I looking at?” Deputy Hubble asked, as he crouched in front of the fridge.
“The teeth are missing.”
The deputy looked up at her, his brows crinkled in confusion with a hint of concern. “Teeth? You keep people’s teeth?”
“Sometimes. It’s complicated. Eve uses them for her dog thing—and only if the patients sign a release, of course, but we had quite a few of them in storage here, and they’re all gone.”
“Did you take some teeth home with you recently, Eve?” Amelia asked. Suddenly, all of their eyes were on her, and she wasn’t sure she liked being the center of attention as the weirdo who collected teeth.
“Not for a while,” she said. “I’ve been taking a break from Atlas’s training now that he passed his test, and I usually only replace the teeth every other month or so. Tiana’s right, there should be a good number of teeth in there.”
The deputy stood up, frowning. “None of the drugs are missing?”
Tiana and the doctors quickly finished taking inventory and revealed that no, none of the drugs were missing, and the prescription pad was right where it usually was. The only thing missing was the teeth. The deputy scratched his head.
“Well, I can’t say I’ve seen this before. I wouldn’t worry too much. Chances are it’s just some kids pulling a prank. I’ll keep my eyes and ears peeled for any sign of those teeth, and in the meantime, I suggest you upgrade your security system. I’m afraid there isn’t much else I can do unless someone comes forward or those teeth turn up. I’ll write you a report for your insurance, of course. If you do end up noticing that something else is missing, please contact me right away.”
After filling out the report, he left. Amelia and Brent seemed just as flabbergasted by the whole thing as Tiana and Eve were, and they all spent a long moment staring at the broken door in silence.
“Tell you girls what,” Amelia said at last. “Help us clean up this glass, then you can take the rest of the day off.” She glanced at her husband. “We’re not going to be seeing any patients today.”
“We’ll try and get this door fixed by Monday,” her husband added. “Eve, I hate to give you more work, but can you handle rescheduling everyone we were supposed to see today? I’ll mark this as a half day in the schedule, so you’ll still get paid for the work you do.”
“Sure. This is weird, though, right?” Eve said. “I mean, I’ve only been working here a couple of months … but nothing like this has ever happened before, has it?”
Amelia shook her head. “No. We’ve never had a break-in before. And the fact that they took the teeth… I have no idea what anyone could want with a bunch of teeth. Except for you of course, Eve. But you’re the exception.”
It didn’t take very long to clean up the broken glass, not with all four of them working together. It took a little longer for Eve to reschedule all of the patients they were supposed to see that day, but Tiana waited for her. It wasn’t noon yet by the time she was done and free to go for the day.
Just a couple of hours ago, she had been selfishly hoping the day would go by as quickly as possible, but this wasn’t what she had in mind. She liked the clinic and the doctors, and she never would have wanted to get off of work for something like this.
“I’m going to go home and finish tidying up for when Levi gets here tonight,” Tiana said as they left the clinic. “I was going to have to rush to get it all done after work, so it will be nice not to have it hanging over my head all day. If I get done early, do you want to meet up for dinner or something? He’s not supposed to be here until eight, and I’m guessing with this wind, he’s going to be late.”
“Sure,” Eve said. “I’m not sure what I’ll do with my day yet, but I should probably do something productive. Maybe I’ll use this wind to my advantage and train the dogs. We don’t get enough practice in when the weather is bad.”
“I’d offer to help you, but I don’t know if I’ll have time between cleaning my apartment and getting ready for Levi,” Tiana said guiltily.
“Don’t worry about it. I know you’ve got your own stuff to do. I think I might ask Lucas for help. He’s been great so far.” As they walked toward their cars, she gave her friend a playful nudge. “And unlike some people, he doesn’t give his position away by screaming whenever a spider crawls on him.”
Tiana wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue. “You’d scream too, if you saw how big it was. It was the size of my hand, Eve, and it was on my neck.”
Laughing, Eve exchanged a final goodbye with her friend and got into her station wagon before she pulled out her phone to text Lucas. A couple of months ago, he had gotten lost during a camping trip, and Michigan Mutts Search and Aid had come to his rescue. Much like how Eve had been inspired to join Michigan Mutts after a similar incident she had experienced years ago, he had been touched by the experience and had started helping her train her dogs. He still hadn’t officially joined the search and rescue team, but she had a feeling it was just a matter of time.
While she waited for him to respond to the text she sent asking if he was free today, she glanced at the dental clinic one last time. Teeth. Someone had broken in to steal teeth.
What was the world coming to?
CHAPTER THREE
Lucas agreed to meet her at Shore Tail Ranch, the horse ranch her friend Sophia Martin owned. With its sprawling, forested acreage, winding trails, and the huge, mostly empty barn at the back of the property, it was perfect for training search and rescue dogs. All Eve had to do was stick to the trails that weren’t currently being used for horseback riding—which wasn’t difficult, since Sophia rotated them frequently to keep the trails from getting too torn up by the horse’s hooves—and make sure her dogs didn’t spook any of the horses or their riders.
