The anger seemed excessive, considering Baumer hadn’t been on duty all week. Still, if positions were reversed, Gabe might’ve resented being left out of the loop. “I was planning to tell you at our first Friday meeting…which started a minute ago.”

Baumer stood still for a moment, then sighed. “Yeah, sorry. I’m not good with surprises.”

“You might have chosen the wrong career.” Moving on, Gabe tapped the screen. “What do you know about these two men?” Considering the size of the town, Baumer would know most of the inhabitants after living here a year.

“Chevy and Knox? They share a few acres off the grid. Each has a cabin. Winters, the guys work up in Prudhoe Bay to bring in cash. Chevy has a wife and a couple of youngsters. Knox’s woman left him a few months ago.”

“Any idea where we’ll find them today?”

Baumer glanced at the window looking out onto Main Street. “Actually, I saw them going into Dante’s a few minutes ago.”

“They probably wanted to see the reaction to their vandalism.”

Baumer shrugged. “All they’ll see is a pissed-off owner. No one else cares. Even a judge would only slap their hands.”

“For the paint, true. They also busted the windows.” And the Victorian had a lot of windows. “I figure that’ll cost over five hundred dollars to fix and elevates this to Class C criminal mischief.”

“That’s…that’s a felony.”

“Yep.” Gabe motioned to the screen. “Notice they’re not wearing gloves.”

“Shit.” Baumer frowned. “You got them on tape already. You don’t need their fingerprints.”

“Not for this crime, no. However, our perps never pick up after themselves, so I’ve got the spray paint used on other vandalized sites. And the ax used to destroy construction supplies at Bull’s bar. Everything has been fingerprinted and logged in as evidence.”

Gabe half-grinned. It’d been awhile since he’d processed a crime scene. The LAPD was big enough that fingerprinting was usually done by techs. Here, in Rescue, he and Baumer would do everything.

He rather liked the idea. “I’m afraid these two are in for a world of hurt. Bull’s pissed-off.”

“No gloves. The dumbasses,” Baumer muttered.

“Yep. Let’s go get them.”

Outside, Gabe headed for the grocery store, followed by the officer.

The two vandals stepped out of Dante’s, each carrying a grocery bag. Chatting amiably, Julie and Bull walked out after them.

“Chevy is yours,” Gabe told Baumer before raising his voice, “Knox, I’d like to speak with you, please.”

Both men froze. When Baumer pulled out his cuffs, the idiots attacked.

Gabe blocked a swing by Chevy and kicked him toward Baumer. The officer was sure slow as molasses at stepping into the fight.

“Fucking cop.” Knox threw his groceries at Gabe.

Gabe dodged the hail of cans and raised his arm in expectation of a follow-up punch.

Nothing.