Claw Back (Louis Kincaid) Read Online Free PDF Page B

serious?”
                  Louis felt sucker-punched. He had thought Mobley was serious, at least as far as seeing just how much shit Louis would take to wear a badge again.
                  “Yeah,” Louis said. “I thought you were being straight with me because I thought you were a man of your word. Even when you were drunk.”
                  Mobley’s smile vanished and his face flushed with color as he glared at Louis. The phone started ringing but Mobley made no move to answer it. Finally, the secretary intercepted it and the office was quiet again. Mobley was still staring at him so Louis decided he’d simply keep arguing.
                  “I don’t think the cat- napper is a trophy hunter,” Louis said. “I think he wanted to mate the male and female panthers. But the male, Bruce, got away from him.”
                  “Okay, I’ll bite,’ Mobley said. “Why would a guy want a litter of panther kitties?”
                  “Maybe he wants his own family of cats,” Louis said, thinking of the strange people who lived in the Everglades in shanties and tents. “Maybe he’s trying to help stave off extinction. I don’t know. But I do know that if I’m right about hi m wanting to mate two panthers, he will come back for another male. And when he does, someone could get hurt.”
                  Mobley’s phone started ringing and again he ignored it. His gaze dropped to Louis’s hand. “What do you have in that envelope?” he asked.
                  Louis opened the envelope and dumped the photographs Katy had given him on the desk. Most were shots of Bruce and Grace, obviously taken with telephoto lenses, but with an artist’s eye for the beauty of the lithe animals.
                  The last four pictures were of Bruce lying half-dead on the Lehigh Acres patio, Bruce with his leg splinted, a close-up shot of Grace’s severed collar and last, a picture of Katy holding a spotted panther kitten , back-dropped by the green foliage of the Everglades.
                  “Who’s this?” Mobley asked.
                  “The Fish and Game officer in charge of the panthers.”
                  Mobley sifted through the photos. The phone started up again, this time followed a second ringing on the other line. Voices echoed from down the hall. Louis knew his time was running out.
                  “Sheriff,” Louis said. “Everyone loves a good animal rescue story. Think of the great PR you’ll get when we find Grace.”
                  “It’s only great PR if you find the thing alive, Kincaid.” Mobley tossed the photos down and stood up. “What do you need?”
                  “A CSI team in the Everglades as soon as possible,” Louis said. “I could use some techs who specialize in tire and animal tracks.”
                  Mobley gave him a withering look. “What else?”
                  “I want to talk to people who’ve been arrested for animal abuse or poaching in the glades,” Louis said. “So, I’ll need access to your criminal database.”
                  “I’ll have Ginger arrange authorization.”
                  “I’ll also a four-wheel drive vehicle.”
                  A clamor of voices rose in the outer office. Louis glanced over his shoulder to see a huddle of men in suits and sweaty uniformed officers waiting to see Mobley. Behind them, he spotted a TV cameraman. 
                  When he turned back, Mobley was holding out a small leather wallet.
                  “You’ll need this, too,” Mobley said.
                  Louis took the wallet and opened it. On one side was a gold deputy’s badge with the Lee County Sheriff’s seal. On the other, where the official ID would go, was a white card