Page 37 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

K at stared at Badger, a big grin on her face. “It really worked,” she crowed.

He just shook his head. “I can’t believe it, and Rox actually called you?”

“I knew about Austin, and she knew about Austin, so you know about stubbornness. Sometimes you just have to try to get people to do something that maybe they didn’t think they should do,” she explained, followed by a laugh, “but I am thrilled.”

“So am I.” Badger shook his head. “Just amazing. So is there only one more?”

“Only one, at least for the moment,” she clarified, as she looked at the file in front of them.

Badger asked, “You’ve got Mateo for this one?”

“I do, and I’ve asked him about it, but I haven’t really told him what it is.”

“Of course not, but you may want to give him a heads-up though.”

“He told me that he’s ready for anything. He just needs to get out and to find something else to do with his life. So, I thought this might be a good one for him.”

“Maybe, maybe it is. Where is it?”

“In Virginia,” she replied. “I don’t even have very much. I just have the adopted family and a note saying that a wellness check didn’t show any signs of anybody being there.”

“So, we don’t know what happened?”

“I followed up with the local police, and all they had was that the entire family has gone missing.”

“The entire family?”

“Yeah.” Kat nodded, looking at Badger worriedly. “As in, from one day to the next, nobody has seen them. The vehicle is still there but nothing else.”

“Murdered?”

“We don’t know, but…”

“What about anybody else? Anybody got anything?”

Kat sighed. “One of the neighbors mentioned a young woman had come and gone a couple times, trying to raise some attention to the case, but I’m not sure that anybody was necessarily looking into it to her satisfaction.

So I’ll put Mateo in touch with her, and we’ll see if we can get this one solved too. ”

“I would hate to think the last one would beat us,” Badger muttered.

“It won’t,” Kat declared.

Badger walked closer and wrapped his arms around her. “I have faith in you.”

She smiled up at her husband. “That could be misplaced faith.”

“It could be, but, even if so, it’s still good.”

“We have done something… really phenomenal.”

He stopped, then laughed. “No, you have done something phenomenal. So, trust in that and rejoice. We’ll see this one through and then see what happens. So far you haven’t been wrong yet.”

She grinned at him, a twinkle in her eye. “Let’s hope I’m not this time either.”