Bear the Great – Chapter Nine.
“Hey, hon. Do we have any wirecutters? Tin snips? I’d hate to ruin a perfectly good pair of toenail clippers.”
“Somewhere. Let me look. What do you need them for? Obviously not for toenails.”
“Oh, it’s just a little home improvement project I’ve got going. No big deal. Let me know what you find.”
“Okay.”
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Man, it was stuff like this that really set Chris off. He hated anything that disrupted his normal daily routine. Today while prepping to back up the security tapes, he’d looked at the screen of his laptop and saw that all four camera feeds were blank. All of them? What the HELL?
“Julianne? You notice anything off with the cameras last night?”
“Nope.”
“Well, something’s off this morning. I better go out and see what’s up.”
He had to be at work in less than an hour. And he was on deadline. This had better not take too goddamn long. It was always something.
“I’m letting the dogs out to pee.”
“Okay.”
*********
Chris found the wires leading to each of their four recently-installed outdoor security cameras had been neatly – and intentionally – cut. Clearly it was not a faulty install or an accident. When they’d first gone up, he’d made sure there were no blind spots, front or back. That was very important. And it was fun sometimes to watch a mama bear at 3AM lumbering up the walk with her cubs in tow. Once he’d even seen a powerful mountain lion dragging what might have been a mule deer carcass across the back yard. Yikes. Something like that was enough to make the hair stand straight up on the back of your neck. Gotta love Mother Nature.
But these were never intended as wildlife cams. They were installed to make sure that nobody – not the neighbors, not the HOA, nobody – messed with any of their property. Their back deck was crammed with all kinds of stuff in addition to the hot tub and their patio furniture. There was an expensive gas BBQ grill. A gas fire pit that had cost them an arm and a leg. A little metal memorial pyramid containing the ashes of one of their previous pets who’d crossed over the rainbow bridge. And a bunch of knick-knacks he wasn’t even sure they had any use for anymore. But what the hell: Anybody who thought they could cart any of it off would soon have another think coming. They’d be caught on tape, with all evidence turned over to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office forthwith for swift and certain prosecution.
********
Julieanne could also watch for clients headed up to their front door, and thereby avert disaster should they be so foolish as to try ringing the bell. That unwise course of action always set their own dogs off into a frenzy of ferocious yaps and howls entirely disproportionate to the dogs’ stature. The smaller the dog, the louder the ruckus. They put up a sign clearly telling people to respect their “Reactive Dogs.” But of course there was always some Bozo who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – read plain English. People could be so stupid. Or mean. Or both.
********
“What was up with the cameras this morning? You get that figured out?”
“Yeah. Somebody cut the wires.”
“WHAT???”
“I think it might have been the guy next door. I could tell that idiot got his panties in a bunch when the electrician was here doing the install.”
“That motherfucker. If I catch him messing with any of our stuff again, I’ll cut off his balls with a pair of tin snips and stuff them down his goddamn throat.”
Julianne always did have a way with words. It made Chris smile.
“No worries. A little electrical tape and now everything’s back as good as new. I’ll keep an eye on the feeds to make sure nobody does it again.”
“Good.”
