Jack Beale 00 - Dangerous Shoals

footprint and the finger-painting swipes. He took samples of the blood and ran a field test that confirmed it was not human blood. He was just finishing when he heard, “Hello, anybody here?”
    Tom recognized the voice, “I’m up here, Court,” he called back.
    “Tom?” she answered. Then he heard the sound of her footsteps on the stairs. “What are you doing here? I saw the cruiser, where’s Max and Jack?”
    “They’re not here.”
    She took several steps toward him, but stopped when she reached the couch and saw him kneeling over what looked like blood on the floor. “Is that blood?”
    “Yes,” he answered. “So don’t come over here. Better yet, could you just stay over there?” He motioned to where she had come from. “Watch where you step and don’t touch anything.”
    She stepped back and then, with a higher pitch to her voice, asked, “What the hell happened and why are you here? What’s going on?”
    “There was a break-in…”
    Before he could say anything else she interrupted, her voice a notch higher, “A break-in?
    “Yes, and Cat was injured, so they took her to the vet.”
    “Injured?” The pitch in her voice rose again, this time hinting of panic.
    “Calm down. I’m sure Cat will be fine. There’s nothing to worry about,” he said as calmly as possible.
    “Nothing to worry about! There is blood all over the floor, you tell me there was a break-in, somehow Cat was injured, and then you say there is nothing to worry about!”
    He could see that she was on the verge of freaking out, so he walked over toward her and in the most soothing voice he could muster said, “Court. It’s okay. Calm down.”
    She took a deep breath. “Fine. I’m calm. Now, what happened?”
    “I’m not really sure. I’ve only just begun the investigation.”
    “Tom, cut the crap. What happened?”
    Their years of friendship trumped proper procedure as he told her the story.
    * * *
    As soon as Jack’s truck pulled into the drive, Tom and Court stepped off her porch to meet them. The first thing Courtney said, even before hello, was, “How’s Cat?”
    “She’s fine. She’ll be at the vet’s for a few days, or at least until she can get around. The cut on her leg was pretty deep, but he stitched it up,” replied Jack.
    “She’s on antibiotics and is wearing a lampshade,” added Max. Her voice betrayed her fatigue and concern.
    “That’s great!” Courtney tried to sound upbeat. “Come. You look like you could use a glass of wine.” And with that she took Max’s hand and gently pulled her into the house. Jack and Tom remained standing in the drive, silently watching the two women disappear.
    The awkward silence ended when Jack said, “She put up a good fight.”
    “Who? Max?”
    “Cat! She put up a good fight.”
    “How do you know that?” asked Tom.
    “Whoever did this probably has a cat claw in his hand.”
    “Interesting.”
    “Did you find anything?” Jack asked.
    Tom looked up toward the window. “There was a partial shoeprint in the blood upstairs. Did either you or Max step in it?”
    “No.”
    “I didn’t think so, but I had to ask. It’s not real clear, but maybe we’ll get lucky. Also, one of the drops of blood was smeared, like a finger had been swiped through it. Other than that, there wasn’t much else upstairs.”
    Jack was silent for a moment then he said to Tom, “Who would do something like this?”
    For a moment Tom ceased being a cop and was just a friend. He said, “A really sick and twisted bastard, that’s who. I’ve never understood why anyone would do something like this to a defenseless animal.”
    Neither said anything for a long awkward moment.
    Changing the subject Jack asked, “Did you find anything out here?”
    “Same. Not much. I’m assuming you left your door unlocked,” he said.
    “Guilty as charged. We were only going to be gone for a few minutes.”
    “Well, that’s how he got in, and there’s no doubt he went out through the window. There were no clear footprints where he dropped, and it looks like he left by a boat of some type.”
    “A boat?”
    “Yeah. I found where it had been pulled up in the grass. I went back to the bridge with the hope of maybe catching him, but no luck. No one at the Harbor had seen anyone or anything either.”
    “Tom, the marsh isn’t that big. If he was in a boat I’d think he should be easy to find.”
    “You’d think, but not necessarily. Tomorrow, in the daylight, we’ll be