The care ledger claimed my retired K9 had been fed steak for six months, but the dog sleeping on my floor weighed thirty pounds and ate leaves.

Earl stopped the truck fifty yards down the tree line, hiding the vehicle behind a cluster of overgrown hemlocks.

"What are we doing?" Earl asked, pulling a heavy iron tire iron from beneath his seat.

"We wait for the IG," I said, my heart pounding against my ribs like a war drum. "Sarah said the state police and federal investigators were on their way with the warrant."

"Look there," Earl pointed a gnarled finger through the wet windshield.

Near the side door of the main steel building, a white commercial box van had just pulled up, backing in close to the loading bay. Two men in yellow plastic rain ponchos stepped out, carrying heavy plastic crates toward the rear doors.

They were loading the building out before the federal marshals arrived.

"They're moving them," I whispered. "They're clearing the evidence."

I didn't wait for Sarah, and I didn't wait for the state police.

I opened the truck door and stepped out into the freezing mud. Rocky didn't hesitate; he dropped out of the cab right behind me, his paws hitting the gravel with a low, purposeful thud. Earl grabbed his tire iron and scrambled out of the driver's side, his old boots splashing through the puddles.

We reached the chain-link gate just as one of the workers in the rain ponchos walked over with a ring of keys to unlock the main padlocks from the inside, preparing for the van to drive out.

The worker looked up, saw a six-foot-two sergeant in full service uniform standing in the rain with a scarred Malinois beside him, and froze.

"Facility is closed to the public!" the worker yelled over the wind. "Get off the property!"

I reached through the chain-link mesh, grabbed the front of his rain poncho with one hand, and pulled him hard against the steel wire.

"Unlock the gate," I said.

His eyes went wide as he looked down at Rocky, who had lowered his head into a classic assault stance, his upper lip curling back to reveal rows of bright, clean teeth, a low, guttural growl vibrating deep inside his chest.