Drool Baby (A Dog Park Mystery) (Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries) (27 page)

"Oh, Peter loves you, does he? And have you returned the sentiment? . . . Thought not. Come on out, and I'll finish it with a bullet to the head, quick and
painless. Or shall we continue discussing uncomfortable truths? . . . Cat got your tongue? . . . Oh, wait, you don't like cats."

Lia compressed the wound in her thigh with her hands. It hurt terribly. Blood was soaking into her jeans and running down her leg. She could still walk,
for now, but she was feeling dizzy and she'd need medical care before long. She'd have to make a move.

Anna heard a noise behind the elevator shack. She edged to her right, around the corner of the little room. Something barreled into her lower back and tossed her
forward. Her grip lost, the gun soared, spinning end over end in a lazy arc past the lip of the roof as she slammed face down into the tar paper.

Lia fell on top of Anna, pounding her wherever she could reach with her fists. Anna whipped over onto her back and grabbed Lia's neck with both hands. They
rolled until Lia was under her, Anna still choking her. Lia clawed at Anna's hands but couldn't get any leverage. She attempted to buck Anna off, but the
woman was too heavy.

Anna's eyes focused on Lia's face. She had an avid, animal expression of satisfaction as her thumbs pressed into Lia's throat. Her face grew more intent as
black spots began to explode in front of Lia's eyes. Anna's bared teeth became a manic, gleeful grin as she drove her thumbs in further. This was the last
thing Lia saw as her hands clawed the roof and her world dimmed to one pinpoint.

Lia felt something under her fingers. It was small and metallic, the little knife she'd tossed over the shack to distract Anna. She whipped up her hand and
stabbed the pocket knife blindly. The knife found something soft to penetrate, then stuck, pulling out of Lia's hand. Anna screamed and reared back. Lia
planted the foot of her good leg into Anna's stomach and shoved with all her might. Anna fell back, turning as she fell, then lay still.

Lia sat up and leaned against the wall, eyeing Anna while she waited for her heart-rate to slow. Anna lay with her face against the tar paper. The only
movement was the pool of blood forming around her face. The only sounds were the pounding of her heart and her own harsh breathing.

After a while, she stood up and limped over to Anna, nudged a hand with her foot. No movement. She picked up the lax hand and felt at the wrist for a
pulse. Nothing. She rolled Anna over. The impact of Anna's face on the roof had driven the knife through Anna's eye into her brain. The other eye stared at
nothing.

Lia turned away and vomited in dry heaves, convulsing on her hands and knees as what little remained in her stomach mixed with the pool of blood.
She dropped over onto her side as the convulsions turned into sobs and she fell into a daze.

She lay on the roof, gradually becoming aware that she could not remain there. No one knew where she was. A hint of dawn touched the horizon. If she
figured correctly, this was Sunday and the likelihood of flagging a passerby was zip.

She'd have to climb back down the ladder and drop through the hatch
while trying not to make her wound worse. Then what? Stumble along until she found a house and a phone? Scare the residents half to death? If they called the police on her, she imagined they would take her somewhere to get stitched up, and that would
be fine with her.

It was gruesome, digging through Anna's pockets. When she found Anna's keyring, she realized that Anna had probably driven over. She could take Anna's car.
If she figured right, District Five was about a mile away. She checked Anna's other pockets, and found a single key with a tag that read "Ellis St." She
found no phone.

Her trip down the elevator shaft was painful. She lowered her good leg first, then her other leg, then bore her weight on her arms as she lowered her good
leg to the next step. She reached the top of the elevator and discovered a step ladder inside the car, explaining how Anna had made it to the roof. She
silently gave thanks and continued her journey. When she made it to the bottom of the ladder, she wanted to kiss the rusty floor.

She was resting on the outside stoop when four police cruisers pulled up. Peter jumped out of the first car before it was fully stopped.

"You're . . . late . . . Dourson," she gasped past the burning in her throat, "I . . . could . . . use . . . a ride." Then she fainted.

Lia sat in a nest of pillows on the couch and stared at the mosaic design she was attempting to refine for Renee. It wasn't going well. She closed her
drawing pad and set it down, rubbing her temples. Maybe it was too soon for her to get back to work, but she didn't know what else to do with herself. She
had to do something to get her mind off the ache in her thigh and the events that caused it.

Honey and Chewy looked up at the sound of Peter's car. Viola scrabbled out from under the couch. All eight eyes faced Peter when he walked in the door.

"Honey, I'm home," he intoned.

"You're very early. Are all the criminals in Cincinnati taking a holiday?"

"Roller called me into the office. Reamed me a good one for going off the reservation and involving citizens. Then he sent me home and said not to come back for a
week. I'm supposed to be looking after your welfare."

"Are you now?"

"Yep. I guess he's got a soft spot for vigilante artists. So what do you need?" He sat down on the couch by her feet, laying a hand on her good leg.

"I can't stop thinking about everything that happened. I need serious distraction."

"And how are we to accomplish that? Would you like to watch movies? Play Scrabble?"

"Let's see," she said, tapping her lip. She looked at him sideways. "You could always play Nubian slave to my Egyptian princess."

"Lady," he said gravely as he bowed his head, "your wish is my command."

"In that case," She pointed imperiously to the door, "Slave, fetch me pizza!"

"Somebody needs to talk to Dewy's about delivering," Peter said as he walked back in the door. "Keeping a pizza warm in an open chariot is a pain in the
ass."

"Thy language is crude, Slave."

"I beg your pardon, Princess. I should have said it was painful in the hind-most end."

"That should not be possible. I did not ask for a pizza with jalapeno peppers, and you, Slave, have not been given permission to eat it."

"I was being metaphorical, my princess. One thousand apologies. Thy pizza is adorned with olives and garlic, as you commanded. Wouldst thou liketh thy
pizza on thy couch? Wouldst thou care for dishes and silver? What is thy command?"

"You are a good and loyal slave. You may share half my pizza or have one of my kisses instead."

"My princess, one of thy kisses is worth my paltry life, a thousand times. It would be a gift beyond anything I can imagine. But if I share your pizza, it
will give me strength to serve you more. And if my lips should touch where thy lips have touched, I should die a happy man."

"A meritorious answer, Loyal One. Carry me to my bower, and feed me with thine own hands. I need not dishes or silver. I shall reward you with pizza and a
kiss. But keep the hounds at bay, they do endeavor to abscond with my dinner."

The dogs, salivating, followed Peter into the kitchen. He stashed the pizza on top of the refrigerator, then picked up Lia and carried her out of the
living room.

"How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter," Peter said as they made their way to the bedroom. "Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the
work of a master hand."

"How knowest you this poetry?"

"As a young boy, I crept into the room where they kept the holy of holies, and read the sacred books. These words were burned forever in my heart, waiting
for you."

"You must speak it to me, Slave."

Peter set her down on the bed. "Then I must show you as well." He lifted the hem of her t-shirt.

"Thou wishes my garments away?"

"Yes, Princess, if I am to show you properly." Lia lifted her arms and he removed her shirt. "Your navel," he continued, "is a rounded bowl that never
lacks mixed wine." He leaned over and kissed her belly button, then placed his hands on either side of it. "Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with
lilies."

"Though takest liberties, Slave. Still, I wish that you tell me more. But, my repast grows cold. How will you solve this dilemma?"

"Shall I recite poetry while I feed you, Princess?"

"You are ingenious as well as meritorious. Proceed."

Peter brought the pizza in and set it down on the bed. He opened the box and removed a slice, holding it up to Lia's lips.

"I shall take a bite, Slave, but you must take one also, a bite for every one of mine. Time enough for poetry later, and you must have strength."

When they finished the pizza, Peter lured the dogs out of the room with the crusts and shut the door. He leaned over Lia and kissed the top of each breast.
"Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies . . ."

"Peter, I don't know if I'm ready for this." Lia sat in Peter's SUV, looking at all the cars in the parking lot. Jim was here, and Nadine, Terry, Marie,
Jose, and a number of semi-regulars she hadn't seen for a while. She wondered if they all showed up to get the gossip.

"Relax. Asia will be here soon, and you two can go talk while I take the dogs and run interference with everybody. They care about you. It's not fair to
shut them out."

"They're going to hate me for killing Anna."

"I don't think so. Everyone knows what happened by now. I made sure of it."

"You always going to have my back, Kentucky Boy?"

"I hope so. If you'll let me." He kissed her forehead and pulled her into a tight hug. Honey barked to get out and Chewy reared up against the back seat
and butted Lia's arm with his nose. Viola whined.

"Hey, can't a guy make a little time here, you bunch of punks?"

Lia snorted. "I think the rule is 'pee first, cuddle later.' Go on and take them. I'll be okay until Asia shows up."

She watched as Peter trotted the dogs up the curving drive. He was always taking care of her, as if she were breakable. She felt breakable these days. She
wondered if she let herself feel that way because she knew he'd be there for her.

Asia pulled up next to Peter's Blazer. As she exited the sporty little Kia, Lia noticed that her usual grand edifice of hair had been replaced by spiraling
corn-rows.

"What's with the hair?"

"If I'm going to make time for you every morning for the next week, something has to go. It's a sacrifice, but I can live with it."

Asia placed a comforting hand on Lia's shoulder as they turned towards the park. "Let's go find a quiet spot, then you can tell me what's going on."

Lia leaned on her crutch and limped up the drive. "I can't go far."

"Whatever you want to do." They settled on a table at the front of the small dog park, which was empty.

It took a while for Lia to pour out her story. Asia sat beside her on their table, shaking her head and giving her "you-poor-child" looks. "I wish you had
trusted me enough to let me know what was happening," she said.

"I wasn't sure where the law began and ended with your duty to report. I didn't want create a conflict for you. Anyway, we had enough to talk about without
all that."

"Oh?"

"That, and I halfway wasn't believing it. I didn't believe it, not until I woke up in that building. I treated the whole thing like it was an annoying game."

"But the important thing is you did believe it, and you took care of yourself."

"If that's what you want to call killing a friend."

Asia caught her eye and held it. "She wasn't your friend. She may have said things that friends say, and done things that friends do, but it was all
make-believe to her. She was all about keeping control of her little world. And if one of her dolls misbehaved, she smashed it. Do you get that?"

Lia shrugged.

"From what you've told me, she enjoyed smashing her dolls. You may have been her favorite doll, she may have left you all her money, but in the end you
were just as disposable as everyone else. Real people with real feelings don't deliberately harm others."

"I hurt her. I stabbed her and she died."

"You weren't hurting the Anna you knew. You were protecting yourself from the monster inside her. From everything you've told me about her journal, you
didn't have a choice. She was not going to stop until she killed you."

"I didn't want to kill her. It just happened. I only wanted to stop her."

"Of course you only wanted to stop her. That's because you have compassion, a compassion that she was probably drawn to but didn't understand. It sounds
like she wanted you to be her little pet, that she wanted to own you. That's not love, no matter how pretty it looks from the outside."

"But why didn't I see it? I knew her for years."

"Lia, this isn't like Luthor. You may not have known exactly what Luthor was up to, but on some level, you knew it wasn't working. He did kick off your
intuition. Why you kept him around is an entirely different matter.

"Someone like Anna is called a psychopath. It's someone who doesn't have feelings. They're very detached, dead inside, and much of their life is putting on
an act so everyone will think they're normal. Since they lack normal emotions, it's easy for them to do things that sicken normal people. It's also easy
for them to deceive people. They can even fool lie detectors. It wasn't just you who was fooled. I bet everyone around her was fooled. It's important for
you not to blame yourself for missing it."

"I still feel like I should have known."