“Are you thinking about doing it?”
Another rescue crew came into the cafeteria, adding noise and distraction, but Jason kept his eyes on Creed’s and Creed could see the answer.
“You accepted a puppy from me,” Creed told him. He leaned down and scratched Grace behind the ears. “I understood you’d be around to take care of him.”
“A dog?” Jason half snorted, half chuckled, like he didn’t think Creed was serious.
“There’s been a time or two that these dogs were the only reason I stuck around.”
Jason got quiet and eyed him suspiciously, as if still waiting for a punch line.
“You don’t owe Hannah a thing, and you certainly don’t owe me, but you have an obligation to Scout. Yeah, a dog.” He sat up and leaned his elbows on the table, hands wrapped around his mug again. “You take a dog in, you earn his trust, his unconditional love. If you think there’s a chance that you might not be sticking around, then you need to give him back to me.”
“Seriously?”
Creed held his eyes, saw that what he was presenting was actually a decision for Jason to make, despite his attempt to make light of it now.
“Yeah, I’m serious. Most of my dogs have already been abandoned in some way. You need to remember when I found that puppy he was stuffed into a burlap bag with his siblings, ready to be tossed into the river. If you’re planning on offing yourself and abandoning that dog again, you might as well give him back now.”
Jason’s eyes flitted away, suddenly interested in the rescue members shedding gear and clanking trays and silverware. He looked at Creed again and there was still too much curiosity when he asked, “Did you see your dad do it?”
Creed wondered if the kid had heard a word he’d said because he certainly didn’t seem to take any of it seriously.
“No,” he told Jason, “but I was the one who found him.”
Creed saw Oliver Vance across the room. When he spotted Creed he waved at him. He had shed his gear and, though still a giant of a man, he looked half normal. He made his way toward them.
Creed put his mug on the table with an exaggerated tap and told Jason, “Time to work.”
“How are you doing?” Vance asked, pulling up one of the metal folding chairs. He swung his leg over it like he was saddling a horse, sitting on it backward so he could lean his arms on the back.
“I feel like I rolled down a mountain,” Creed told him.
The big man laughed, loud and hard.
“Actually, the mountain rolled on top of you.”
“Oliver Vance, this is one of my trainers, Jason Seaver.”
“Call me Ollie,” he said, holding out his hand to shake Jason’s, and when he realized Jason’s right hand wasn’t there, Vance didn’t flinch. He simply switched and offered his left one.
Then he looked at Creed, not wasting time and getting down to business. “I heard that your Mr. Logan wants you back up there to recover those bodies we found. Last night we pulled two more people alive out of the rubble of what used to be their home. They’re pretty beat-up but there’s a good chance they’ll make it.”
“That’s great,” Jason said.
Vance’s eyes stayed on Creed’s. “Just got word that an eighty-two-year-old woman across the bridge over in the Hillcrest development’s been missing since the first night. They got some flooding over there but houses are intact. None of the properties were affected by the slide. She has dementia. They think she might have walked off, looking for her daughter. They live together and the daughter got caught up in the downpours. Got home late. Found the front door left open. Family’s been searching the woods. No sign of her. That’s two nights she’s been out in the dark, alone, confused, lost. Temperature’s supposed to drop tonight so we can add cold to that list.”
“If she’s still alive,” Creed said.
“That’s true. I’ve got a few hours before I have to get back to work. I thought I’d run over there.” Vance glanced around the cafeteria. A group was leaving and waved at him. He waved back. “All I know is there’s a chance one of your dogs might be able to find her. Save her life if she is still alive. Those bodies Logan wants you to find . . . Hey, I know he’s paying you and you gotta do the job.”
Vance looked around again, and Creed wasn’t sure if he was expecting Logan to walk in the door at any minute. Then his eyes came back and locked on Creed’s as he said, “All I’m saying is that those dead guys aren’t going anywhere. Maybe they can wait a little while longer.”
24.
Washington, D.C.