[WP] 11:11 pm. Winter. A dog trainer can't understand why their most well-behaved dog is acting so anxious and panicked. Over and over, the dog slaps its paws on a string of Pet Speech Buttons: "NO/OUTSIDE/BAD/AFRAID", and does everything it can to keep you from approaching the front door...
*****
Daybreak brought its special form of exhaustion, which was quite understandable seeing how I had spent it watching my captive shout, bicker and talk big about getting a lawyer got his unlawful bondage and the conditions in which he was being kept. That made me laugh, because 50 years ago if he was caught in this position, he would have been orating for me to forgive and forget, or face the prospect of getting lynched by an irate mob tired of thieves like him.
Right now, men like him could comfortably sit down and spew trash about having rights and his so-called inhumane treatment. Left to me, I would have stomped his face for a guard, my booth print would be tattooed on his cheek. But no, the Sheriff wouldn't like that kind of behaviour, so I had to put up with his bickering calmly.
"You have no proof at all that I was one of these thieves that entered these grounds, kc they evet happened. I just happened to ve debt and entered these grounds, and now I'm being bound to a stake and interrogated. What the hell is this?! Get me down from here-"
I cocked my rifle. "There's only so much I can endure, and right now you're pushing those boundaries, and your reward in the form of an air canal through your thigh if you don't shut the hell up and wait for the Sheriff's arrival, got it punk?"
I didn't know this man from Adam, so it was quite shocking to see him sober up and become quite compliant with the instructions given. Perhaps, he knew about me, and how serious I took my words. I knew my boundaries around the law, and there was going to be a lot of explaining tondo, followed by unnecessary court cases if I acted according to my impulses.
While it would have given me a decent amount of joy to put a bullet through the man's leg, I had to maintain control and ignore all the crazy stuff that was happening.
"Sheriff Mason here!" I heard the voice say and I turned. A crowd of men were gathered at my gate which was quite a good distance from the house, so they explained how he got in. His brown horse, Comet was as sturdy and healthy as ever, understandably so since he bought it from me. We were good friends, but our friendship was one I much preferred when we did not have to cross paths in this setting.
"I got your letter almost as fast as the word of mouth reached me, and I came here as fast as I could. Looks like we've got another barn raider on our hands here now, haven't we?" He asked, pointing at the captive whose face was scrunched in a scowl.
"What the hell? Are you supposed to tone a sheriff? Are you supposed to be representing the law here? You see a man tied to a stake and you can use comfortably with the scene before your eyes? I have never once seen a more backwards, sh*tty place like-"
"At the rate which you bicker and raise hell, creating unnecessary levels of noise, it's surprising that my friend Craig here hasn't shot you up already, or given you a taste of the treatment used to handle thieves like you back then," he said, laughing before turning to me. "Who knew that you would ever get a hold of that temper, Craig?"
He patted me on the shoulder. We both finished from the same local high school in the town before I left in search of new experiences and a taste of the outside world, which I intended to stay in forever. We weren't close friends then or anything; I was more of an introvert, good with my hands, and for, but never actually wanting to commit to any extracurricular work. He was on the wrestling team. We knew each other, nodded greetings regularly, but that was the extent of it.
"Not really if I'm being honest. But I'm not in the mood for all the processes and actions that would result from that act. Maybe I got control of it since I can now put the future in focus, rather than the 'now', you get me?"
He nodded. "What do you think the men were looking for though?"
"I didn't want to bother too much about but after Thrasher, I got missing a few days ago and then I found them in the same barn again today, the very same barn I just returned Thrasher to, I'm beginning to suspect that there's something about that barn that is drawing them there and that something, in particular, might just be worth finding first."
"Then we'll need to search the barn properly. Most importantly, we'll be taking that loudmouth back to the station, where he can be asked questions in a more conducive room using state of the art apparatus and modern, highly effective procedures."
The conspiratorial tone he used, loud enough for the captive to hear, was enough to send a few shivers down my spine. Although most of it was just talk, there were a few rumours about how Sheriff Mason got his suspects to talk, and I didn't want to find out how true they were.
*****
TO BE CONTINUED.
