A Dog's Life

by Myra Love

       Chapter VI 

Anita was a careful driver, too careful for the chief, who kept telling her to step on it.  She ignored him and continued to drive slowly up towards the small wooded hills outside of town.  The chief turned his attention to me.  “The judge is going to be pretty upset that you didn’t show up to fetch those warrants, especially after I bugged him to get them ready today.  Maybe you should call and apologize.”

I had no desire to call the judge, so I told the chief that my cell phone was out of juice.  He glared at me for a moment, then shook his head.  “Mine too,” he said with a chuckle.  “Don’t know that I’ve ever had it ready to go when I needed it.”  His eyes twinkled briefly.  “Anita?” he asked.  “Can Andy borrow your cell phone?”

She snorted.  “Ridiculous!  Both of you know quite well that I don’t have such a thing.”

The chief’s chuckle grew more pronounced.  “Well, I’ve been hearing rumors that you hang out at electronics stores, so I thought you might have reconsidered.”

“Well I haven’t!” she replied crisply.  “If people want to talk to me on the telephone, they’ll have to do it when I’m at home.”

“What if there’s an emergency?” the chief teased.  “You’d miss it.”

Anita sighed impatiently.  “That’s enough, Carl,” she said.  “We’re here.”
I’d never heard anyone call the chief by his first name, not even his wife.  I was so taken aback that I didn’t notice where “here” was.  The chief did though.  “Come on, Anita,” he protested.  “This isn’t Jim’s cabin.”

She had already pulled her key out of the ignition.  “I’m very well aware of that, Carl.  I never said we were driving to Jim’s cabin, merely that he had one.”

The chief rolled his eyes.  “Then why in tarnation did you drive us out here?”

Anita opened the driver’s side door and stepped out.  “Coming?  Or do you plan to sit in there and sulk?”

The chief got out of the car and I followed.  Anita started down a short, steep trail through some woods.  The chief grumbled loudly as he stumbled after her.  Soon a clearing came into view.

“Recognize that?” Anita asked.

The chief shook his head.  “No, it’s not his cabin.”  He definitely had a one-track mind.

“I recognize it,” I said softly, hoping the chief wouldn’t hold it against me.  “It’s that old, public use hut.  It’s been deserted for about ten years, ever since the state stopped paying for upkeep.”

Anita nodded.  “That’s right.  I’d forgotten about it until Marcus mentioned that it was just on the other side of the piece of land Jim owns.”

“I know where we are,” the chief announced, as he came around the small, rundown structure.  “I just didn’t recognize it from the back.”

“Uh, maybe you shouldn’t peer into the window like that,” I said tentatively, as the chief put his face against the dirty glass.

“It’s public property,” he said, “and I’m a public servant.”  He pushed at the door that started to open slowly, then stuck.  “I thought the park service had put a padlock on this place.”

“The metal latch has been broken off and the padlock came with it,” Anita replied tersely, pointing to a splintered area on the wooden door.  “You won’t be able to get that open very far.  Someone has installed a chain.  That way the door can be secured from the inside.”

“But that’s against the law,” the chief sputtered, getting red in the face as he pulled on the door.  “Private citizens can’t put door chains on public property.”

“Be that as it may,” Anita replied.  She reached into the tote bag that she always carried.  “Would you like to do the honors or shall I?” she asked, extracting a heavy bolt cutter.

“Good heavens, woman,” the chief called out, more amused than anything else, “you’re armed!”

Anita pursed her lips.  Without further ado, she reached through the gap and cut the chain.

“That’s breaking and entering,” the chief teased her.

“So arrest me!” she replied, leading us into the small, rundown space.
The windows were so dirty that the interior of the hut was dark.  The chief switched on his flashlight.  “What exactly are we looking for?” he demanded.

Anita inhaled loudly, a sound she only made when at the end of her patience.  “Traces of dog,” she said crisply. “Or to be more precise, indications that an English bulldog named Doctor Phil is or has been in residence.”

The chief waved his flashlight around, casting light on all the walls.  The cobwebs hanging thickly from the ceiling looked spooky, and when a large spider came sliding down, the chief jumped backwards and then tripped over something.  He swore and illuminated the floor at his feet.

“I believe you’ve found what we’re looking for,” Anita said cheerfully.  She bent over and picked up an empty dish.  Dried dog food was stuck to the edges.  “Thank you, Carl.”

“The chief smiled tightly.  “I don’t see a dog, and I don’t smell one either.”

Anita’s smile was more genuine.  “The dog is obviously not here.  But it was here.  Recently.  You can’t smell it because the other smells are so strong.”
She was right about the strong smells.  The place smelled like mildew, old shoes, and vomit, with a bit of wood smoke adding sharpness to the mix.

“Maybe a dog was here,” the chief granted, “but maybe it wasn’t the dog we’re concerned with.  Someone could have stopped off who had a dog with him.  Nothing links this place to theft of Mattie’s bulldog.”

Anita nodded. “That’s true.  But we’re getting closer.”

“Right.  But closer to what?”

At that point, I lost interest in their argument because I came across a large tub filled with cans of dog food and a few bags of kibble.  “I don’t think the dog is gone for good,” I announced, shining my light into the tub.

The chief came over and glanced in.  “Well, maybe we should leave you here, Andy.  Just in case whoever it is shows up again.”

I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, I admit.  “Uh,” I mumbled, but I didn’t know how to protest without seeming insubordinate.

“I have a better, well, another idea, Carl,” Anita said.

“I’m listening.”

“If Andy waits out here without a car and without back-up, he’ll be stranded.  There’s no telling how desperate Jim’s associates are.”

God bless Anita, I thought, but I didn’t say a word.

“Oh, come on,” the chief snorted.  “We’re not talking about big time criminals.  They’re scam artists at most.  And we don’t even know that the dog whose food’s in here is Mattie’s dog at all.”

“Right,” Anita said scornfully.  “It could just be a tourist enjoying the refined elegance of this hut.”

“Okay,” the chief said.  “What’s your idea?”

“Back-up for Andy,” she said, “and a car.  Alternatively, if you prefer, you can call for a car and go back in it to the station.  Andy and I will stay up here and wait in my car.”

“This is a police investigation,” the chief grumbled.  “You can’t participate.”

Anita rolled her eyes.  “I promise that if anyone dangerous shows up I’ll let Andy handle it.  I’ll sit demurely in my car and read my book.”  She pulled a book with pictures of old pens on the cover out of her tote.

The chief laughed.  He couldn’t help himself.  “What else do you have in there?  Pick locks?  A gun?  Keys to the county jail?”

I grinned, relieved that the chief’s sense of humor was back.  He looked at me and scowled.  “What are you laughing at?”

“Your joke,” I replied, recognizing that his scowl wasn’t for real.

“We don’t have any back-up, and we all know it, Anita, so don’t rub it in.  I’d be just as happy to go back to the station, but how am I supposed to call for a car?” he asked, reminding Anita that both of our mobile phones were out of juice.

She looked at me.  I blushed.  “Well,” I conceded, “maybe there’s enough battery on mine to make one call.”

The chief grunted and mumbled, “Liars all around me.”

I just shrugged and phoned the station.  Donald picked up and was delighted to get a chance to drive one of the police cruisers.  The chief grabbed the phone and yelled at him, “You take Andy’s car, do you hear?  An extra key for it is on the third hook inside my office.”  He then handed the phone to Anita.  “You can give him directions, if you don’t mind.  I just want to get out of here.”  He stalked out of the hut.

“Donald,” I heard Anita ask, “do you have a charged cell phone at the station?”

“Good!” she said crisply after a few seconds.  “Bring it along.  Now here’s how you get to where we are.”

“Anita,” I asked, as she led me out of the hut, “how are we going to see if anyone shows up from your car back in the woods?”

She winked at me.  “We’re not.”

“But you told the chief…” I started to protest.

“I said nothing about leaving the car where it is now.  Nor did I say we’d see someone coming.” she cut me off.

“But he’ll see you.  And he’ll kick you off his property.”

She cut me off again.  “I won’t be on anybody’s property.  Neither will you.  Let’s go back to the car.”  She took off back up the trail we’d come down, and I had no choice but to follow.  I expected her to open the door and get into the driver’s seat, so I went around to the passenger door.

“What are you doing, Andy?  I need you to help me get something out of the trunk.”

I stopped and changed directions.  She opened the trunk and indicated a cardboard box tucked into the corner.  It wasn’t too big and didn’t look heavy, but I knew she’d been having some problems with her back lately, so I leaned over and pulled it out for her.

“All right,” she said with a smile.  “Now we set it up.”

She led me back to the hut.  “Flashlight, please!” she said crisply.

I lit up the interior as well I could with my Maglite.  “Over there,” she said, “in the corner.”  She pointed to a small ledge that was half-hidden behind a sad excuse for a set of shelves.  I followed her directions and placed the box on the top shelf.  When I opened it, I found a pair of two-way radio transceivers.  I looked at her, and she grinned.  “Turn one on and wedge it into the corner of the ledge behind the shelf.  I’ll take the other up to the car and we’ll see if this works.”

I handed her the box and she headed out the door.  Less than five minutes later, I heard her voice.  “Andy, it you can hear me, give a holler.”

“I can hear you,” I replied.

“Good.  Now step over to the door and say that again.”

She could hear me.  “I’m going to move the car a little further away and then I’ll try again,” she said.

I heard the engine turn over and a minute later, her voice came through again.  “Okay, Andy?”

“Okay,” I replied.

“Good.  Come out, walk back up the hill, and turn right.  I’m down the road on the left.”

I left the hut, carefully pulling the door closed behind me.  I wondered how long it would take whoever showed up to realize the chain had been cut. Undoubtedly when he realized, he’d take off.  Anita’s plan depended, I thought, on our being able to catch him before he ran.  When I got to the car, she held her index finger to her lips, so I got in carefully and closed the door as quietly as I could.  She smiled and winked at me, then pulled out a book and started to read silently.  I scratched my arm and fidgeted, then leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes, telling myself I’d be able to hear better without visual distraction.

I must have dozed off because the sound of the engine and the motion of the car woke me.  “What…”

Anita shushed me.  “Almost there.”  She pulled up behind the hut in time to see someone come lumbering out and head for the road on foot.  “Can you catch him?” she asked.

“On foot?”

She nodded, and I jumped out of the car and took off after him.  He was slow, and it didn’t take me long to close to within a few feet of him.

“Stop!” I yelled, “or I’ll shoot.”  I pulled my gun out, still running.

The lumbering figure came to a dead stop and put his hands in the air.

“Don’t shoot me,” he yelled.  “I’m just doing my job.”

“Keep your hands in the air and turn around,” I ordered.

He complied.  His legs shook and he looked as if he were about to cry.  He was Tad Jackson, the young caretaker at CC Clausen’s dealership.  Before I had a chance to say another word, Anita was standing next to me, holding onto Dr. Phil’s collar.  “Tad,” she said in an amiable tone of voice, “don’t you have his leash someplace?”  The dog kept trying to pull himself loose, and Anita had a hard time hanging onto him as he leapt into the air and twisted.
Jackson nodded.  “In the truck,” he replied.  “Do you want me to get it?”he added, eyeing my drawn gun nervously.

“You can put that away, Andy,” Anita said.
As soon as I’d holstered my gun, Tad Jackson took a deep breath.  “I was only doing my job,” he said again.  “Mr. and Mrs. Keeley told Mr. Clausen they needed someone to take care of her dog, and he put it on me.  So I’ve been…”

“Get the leash, and then we can talk,” Anita said sharply.  Dr. Phil was pulling her arm nearly out of its socket in his attempts to leap up and lick her face.  I’d have found it funny, except that I was really upset by what Tad Jackson had just said.  My face must have reflected my distress because Anita pushed Dr. Phil down onto the ground and snapped, “Sit!” in the kind of voice that even an untrained dog would be scared to disobey.  Dr. Phil whined, but he stayed down.  Anita looked at me.  “I wouldn’t place too much credence in what he just said, Andy.  We need to ask a few pointed questions before accepting that Mattie was in on this scam.”

I appreciated her attempt to spare my feelings, but I still felt depressed and a bit angry too, to tell the truth, about having been dragged into the mess.  Jackson came back, leash in hand, and snapped it onto Dr. Phil’s collar with difficulty.  The dog got a couple of good licks onto his face before he was able to get the leash attached.

“Now, Tad,” Anita said, “how did you happen to be taking care of Mrs. Keeley’s dog?  Start from the beginning, please.”

The young man stopped and thought for a few seconds.  “Mr. Clausen, my boss,” he began, looking at Anita for permission to continue.  She nodded encouragingly. “Yes, we know you work for Mr. Clausen.  Go on.”

“Well, he told me that Mr. and Mrs. Keeley needed someone to look after the dog and had asked him to find someone.  He said he’d pay me overtime if I took care of the dog when I wasn’t working on the lot.”

“What happens to the dog when you aren’t taking care of it?” Anita asked.

Jackson shrugged.  “I bring it out here and leave it in the little cabin with food and water.  I figured out a way to reach in from outside and use the chain lock.”  He looked very proud of himself, but his expression changed as he went on.  “Mr. Clausen got the chain from Mrs. Keeley.  But now someone has cut it.  He’s gonna be really mad if he has to buy another chain.”

Anita smiled at him.  “Don’t worry about that, Tad.”

He shook his head.  “He’ll be mad.  He gets mad real easy.”

Anita put her hand on his arm.  “Do you like working for Mr. Clausen, Tad?  Is he nice to you?”

Tad shook his head again.  “He’s a mean man, but he pays me.  I couldn’t find a job with anyone else since I’m not real smart.”

I expected Anita to say something comforting to him, but she just shrugged.  “Not everyone is smart, Tad.  You’re a good worker, aren’t you?”

He nodded and grinned at her proudly.  “Very good.  I never miss work and I do everything Mr. Clausen tells me to do.”

“I bet you have a good memory, Tad.”

His grin revealed large, crooked, very yellow teeth.  “Yeah, I remember stuff.”

“Do you remember seeing Mrs. Keeley talk with Mr. Clausen?   Did you hear her tell him she needed someone to take care of the dog?”

Jackson frowned with the effort to remember.  He nodded and then shook his head in confusion.  “She was there when Mr. Clausen told me.  I don’t remember ‘xactly whether she or Mr. Keeley said it though.”  He brightened.  “I can remember the time before when she talked to Mr. Clausen.  That was just after last Christmas.  She was mad at him then and yelled and yelled.”

Did you see her hand him the chain for the hut?” I interjected.

He looked bewildered.  “What?”

Anita looked at me and shook her head.  “Tad, how do you know Mrs. Keeley gave Mr. Clausen the chain for the little cabin?”

He smiled beatifically.  “He told me.  He told me in a nice voice.  He didn’t yell.”

I made eye contact with Anita.  She had that “I told you so” look on her face, but I still wasn’t convinced Mattie was in the clear.

“Can I go now?” Jackson asked.  “I need to tell Mr. Clausen about the chain.”

“What are you going to do about the dog?  You can’t leave him in the little cabin without locking up, can you?” I ventured.

Anita glowered at me.  “We can keep the dog,” she grumbled.

“I don’t think so,” I replied, looking at Jackson’s startled face.  “Tad here will get in trouble if he turns the dog over to someone else, and we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?”  I didn’t pause to give Anita or Jackson the chance to reply.  “No, we certainly wouldn’t.  So, Tad will just have to take the dog with him when he goes to see Mr. Clausen.  Right, Tad?”

Tad looked about ready to cry. “I can’t,” he said with a sob in his voice.  “I’m supposed to keep the dog out of town.  Mr. Clausen would kill me if I brought it right to his office.”

“Gee, that’s a shame,” I replied, trying to sound sincere.  “I guess we will have to take the dog then.  And you’ll have to tell Mr. Clausen the police confiscated it because it couldn’t be allowed to run loose.”

Jackson was so upset that his knees started to shake.  “I don’t know what to do,” he bawled.  “I’ll lose my job.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Anita cut me off. “That’s enough, Andy.  We’ll take the dog.”

“But you can’t!” Jackson insisted.  “Mr. Clausen will be very angry.”

“Don’t worry,” Anita reassured him, but he was not reassured.

© 2015 Myra Love - All Rights Reserved