A Bobwhite Killing Read Online Free PDF Page A

whole new dimension of meaning in my eyes.
    “Thought I recognized that red head of yours,” my savior announced.
    I took a deep breath, straightened up and turned around.
    Crazy Eddie Edvarg, my old DNR pal, was standing next to Tom, who was looking more than a little shocky himself. He jovially thumped Tom on the back. “Scared you, huh? That big old cat was just having some fun with you. He gets fed plenty, but he misses the hunt. Instinct, you know.”
    Tom nodded slowly. “Yeah, right,” he croaked. “Instinct.”
    “Let me take a wild stab here,” I said, my heart returning to its normal rhythm.
    Eddie laughed. “Wild stab. Funny, Bob.”
    I slid him my not-funny-at-all look. “You’re not the one who just thought he was going to be lunch.” I waved my hand at the edge of the woods. “You’re doing some kind of electronics job.” I glanced back at the tiger that was sprawled in the tall grasses behind me. “And judging from the jolt that cat must have taken, I’d say you’ve got one heck of a powerful invisible electric fence installed here.”
    Eddie tapped the tip of his nose. “Got it in one, Bob. I just finished getting it online earlier this week. When Kami called me up—that’s the owner here, Kami Marsden—to tell me she was having trouble with her old security system, I hustled on down here to check it out. You sure don’t want glitches when you’ve got a tiger for a house pet.” He nodded at the now snoring big cat. “I was tracking Nigel today with my remote sensors when I saw your vehicle turning into the meadow. I didn’t think there’d be a problem with the invisible fence, but Kami’s had some sections of both the wire and electronic fencing randomly go down this week, so I thought I’d play it safe. Especially since this portion of the fencing hasn’t been functioning properly since very early this morning.”
    He held up a black, palm-sized box in his hand.
    “It’s a manual control for Nigel’s collar,” he explained. “If the electric fencing was down, I could shock him to sleep myself. But I didn’t have to. The new program I installed on the fence worked like a charm—it zapped Nigel as soon as he hit the new perimeter, which is ten feet inside the wire fence.”
    “Inside the fence?”
    “Of course. You think a wire fence could keep Nigel in?” Eddie snorted. “We’re talking about six hundred and fifty pounds of Bengal tiger here, Bob. The wire fence is to keep people out. The invisible fence is to keep Nigel in.”
    He scanned the ground around us until he saw what he was apparently looking for, some ten yards away partially hidden behind an oak tree.
    “Looks like we had some more vandalism last night,” he said, pointing to the section of wire fencing that peeked out from one side of the tree. “I just checked this perimeter yesterday, and it was solid. All I can figure is that somebody’s got a death wish if they’re trying to break into Kami’s sanctuary.”
    Tom pointed to the wire fencing that ran the length of the meadow and disappeared over the rolling hills. “So this is a wildlife sanctuary? I never had a clue it was anything but private property.”
    “Not wildlife sanctuary,” Eddie said. “Exotic animal sanctuary. There’s a difference.”
    Eddie tucked the control box into the breast pocket of his trademark flannel shirt. I noticed that his white beard was growing back to its customary Santa-shape after having been close-cropped the last time I’d seen him.
    “And I’m not surprised you didn’t know about it,” he continued. “Kami’s a pretty private person. She’s had this place a good twenty years now and never had any problems with her animals getting loose till the last couple of weeks. I think she’s always figured if she was going to keep exotic animals here, she’d best keep a low profile. Better that way for both her and her animals.”
    On the other side of the fence, Nigel started to stir. I automatically