Page 19 of Cannon

Pres has stuck me with Vortex as a chaperone and he also told me that since I had my truck now, I was to use that rather than my hog. I understand the reasoning, I really do, but for fuck’s sake, do I honestly need a babysitter?

Vortex knows exactly what is going through my head as he keeps grinning at me. I imagine it would be just the same for him if the roles were reversed.

“Suck it up, Cannon. It could all be over in no time.” Vortex winks at me. I’ve noticed this winking thing creeping in at the MC. Not all the time, but every now and again someone does it. Where the hell has that come from, I wonder?

First stop this morning is a visit to the guys at the pet crem to see what’s going on there. Last time I was here there was no dog to be found anywhere and I’m sure Barbara found it odd that I had to ask what Whisky looked like. I suppose the guys could have dealt with him already, but they would have had to have worked damn fast to get him done so quickly.

At the crem I leave the pickup round the back of the building away from any prying eyes, and take Vortex on a quick tour. While we’re looking at the furnace Prophet joins us.

“Very amusing, Cannon. Where is it?” Prophet folds his arms across his chest and looks anything but amused.

“Oh, good. What’s amusing and where is what?” I fold my arms across my chest just to copy him.

“Hiding the body. Now, where is it? I need to get on with it. These things have a habit of decomposing, you know.” He looks at me with the most unamused face he can muster.

“What body am I supposed to have hidden? Talk sense, man.” This is all getting a little too weird for me now.

Winger and Zion walk up at this point, both grinning at me.

“What are you two grinning at? What do you know about whatever it is he thinks I’ve done that you’ve obviously had a hand in?” I have to take a breath after all that.

“It was very funny when we came in and spent ages running around looking for a missing dead dog, but it’s kinda worn off now. So, where is it?” Winger asks and looks at me for an answer.

“Let me put this in as simple terms as I can, so you three numbnuts can understand. I don’t have a fuckin’ clue what you're talking about. Is that simple enough?” I look at Vortex, though heaven knows why, to see if he has a clue.

“Don’t look at me,” he says, raising his hands in mock surrender. “I am as clueless as you are.”

“Did you or did you not hide Barbara’s dead dog?” Zion asks me outright, and I look at him flabbergasted.

“Don’t tell me you’ve lost a fucking dead animal? Don’t tell me you’ve lost my Barbara’s dead animal? Her neighbor's dog, Whisky? How the fuck do you lose a dead dog?” I feel my temper rising at an astronomical level. “I thought you’d processed him damn fast, but it never occurred to me you’d lost him.”

“When did you last see him?” Winger asks me.

“I’ve never seen him. I thought it odd that there was no dog when I was here yesterday, but I thought you guys had been super-efficient, not super-negligent.”

“He was here yesterday morning, I know that much. I didn’t check to see if he’d gone before we locked up, but he wasn’t here when I opened up this morning.” Winger looks genuine enough when he tells us this, and the other two look so confused that I don’t think they are lying.

“So, what we’re saying is that sometime between yesterday's opening time and me coming in, a dead dog got up and walked off without anyone seeing a thing? What were you all doing yesterday?” I find all this a bit much to take in. How the hell have they lost a dead dog?

“From the moment a dead animal, pet, whatever, comes into the building, talk me through the process.” Vortex looks at the four of us, and I run through the process for him. “So at no time would he have had to be put on ice or into a cooled area or such like?”

“Yes, normally they would but we were going to deal with him quickly as a favor to Barbara,” Prophet informs him.

“But none of you did anything once he was wheeled in here on his gurney?” Vortex looks from one to the other, and we all shake our heads.

“Let’s have one last look around and then we’ll go to the cameras and see if anyone snuck in and stole a dead dog.” Vortex has taken control, and we all disappear in different directions to search. Once we’ve looked in every corner of the building, twice, we gather back at Vortex and report no success.

“Okay, I’ve been onto Bull and he’s checked the security footage. He’s found where Prophet wheels him in and he’s put just out of camera shot. No one comes in or out of the back doors other than you guys, so there is no intruder. Only you guys come in and out from the connecting door to the front of the building, so no intruder from there. There is no evidence that the dog gets up and walks away by himself. So, other than divine intervention, he just evaporated into thin air.” Vortex shakes his head and holds his palms open to us to say he’s done all he can.

His phone rings, and he takes a call that he tells us is Bull again. He looks at me, wide-eyed, and then runs out the back door. We all follow and look around the lot, expecting to see Whisky trotting around. When we don’t see him or anything out of the ordinary, we just stare dumbly at Vortex as he puts his phone away.

“Bull has all the brothers on alert and he’s checking any cameras he can access in town. Sorry, Cannon, but we’ll find it.” Vortex reaches out and places his hand reassuringly on my shoulder.

“It’s just a dead dog at the end of the day. Prophet lost it, he’ll just have to find some roadkill that we can put in a coffin so there are ashes for the family to bury. We just need to be more careful in the future. We don’t need the brothers tearing up the town looking for a zombie dog wandering the streets.” I don’t think Whisky, bless him, deserves all this attention.

“They’re not looking for the damn dog. They’re looking for the scumbags that stole your truck while we were inside.” Vortex looks at the empty spot where my truck had been parked.

Sitting in Pres’ office, I watch the footage from the crem parking lot for the tenth time. A young guy walks nonchalantly over to my truck, fiddles with the door for only a few seconds, opens the door, slips inside, and in under a minute sedately drives away. I was convinced that the thief would be Santos, but that is definitely not him on the screen.