Ruff Way to Go (7 page)

He gave me a
nervous smile as he jogged up our steps, and I suddenly remembered that he wasn’t
simply dropping by unannounced.
Damn it all! We had a date tonight!

He held a
hand out to Trevor, who’d paused before making his departure as if to learn the
identity of my visitor. “Hi. Russell Greene.”

“Trevor Cunningham.”
He hesitated. When neither of us spoke, he forced a smile. “Guess I’ve taken up
enough of your time, Allida. I just...” He ran his hand through his unruly
hair. “If you hear anything, if he comes back, please let me know.”

“I will.”

“Have a good
evening.”

“Call me if
he’s at your place when you get back.”

Trevor
nodded, then got into his car and drove away.

We watched
him go. “Missing dog?” Russell correctly surmised.

“Yes, under
excruciating circumstances. My neighbor was murdered a few hours ago in Trevor’s
backyard, and the dog apparently ran off.”

“Your
neighbor was
murdered!
Oh, my God. I’m sorry, Allida.” He turned to face
the Cunninghams’ house. “I wondered what all of the police-scene tape was for.”
He searched my face, his own expression downhearted. “I guess we should take a
rain check on our date, huh?”

His
willingness to postpone our date made me less eager to desert the idea myself.
I suspected that curious friends and acquaintances would be calling constantly
tonight, as soon as word got out that there was a murder in Berthoud. Staying
home and fielding those calls was infinitely less appealing than being wined
and dined by Russell. “No, but I’ll need some time to get ready.”

“You look…great
the way you are. Don’t feel you need to change on my account.”

This was
truly generous of him, as I was wearing the khakis and simple blue cotton
blouse that my mother had brought to me at the police station.

“Russell,
hello,” Mom exclaimed from behind me. She was smiling broadly and rushed up to
greet him. She and I hadn’t discussed the topic, but Mom seemed to have a
closer affinity for Russell than for any other man I’d dated. I suspected that
was largely because he was the antithesis of my former fiance in so many ways.
That one factor scored huge bonus points with Mom, as well as with me. “I didn’t
realize you two had a date tonight.”

“How are
you, Mrs. Babcock?”

“For heaven’s
sake. You don’t need to be so formal. Please. Call me Marilyn.”

At least she
hadn’t suggested he call her “Mom.” Come to think of it, this date wasn’t well
timed for Mom’s sake.

“Oh, Mom. I
just realized you shouldn’t be home alone after what just happened. Maybe I
should—”

“Don’t be
silly. The police will be all over the neighborhood. This’ll be the safest
block in the country tonight. You two go and have fun.”

We went back
and forth on the issue for a short time, but I actually agreed with her
assessment of her safety. I fetched my purse, said goodbye to the dogs, then
joined Russell and Mom on the front porch.

“I’ll have her
back home safe and sound in a couple of hours, Marilyn.”

She gave him
a frighteningly warm smile, her dark eyes positively sparkling with motherly
joy. “Keep her out as long as you like, Russ.”

I felt my
cheeks warming and headed down the walkway ahead of Russell in an attempt to
end this conversation as quickly as possible. Ever the gentleman, Russell
outraced me and opened the door for me. I could feel Mom watching me as I
fastened my seat belt.

This entire
incident served as a timely reminder not to dally too long before looking for a
new place to live. Despite the disaster my first Boulder rental had
been—I’d accidentally rented a room from a lunatic—the bottom line
was that I was too old to be getting a parental send-off for dates. Russell
gave her a cheerful wave, which I was disinclined to second, and we left.

We’d barely
turned the corner before Russell asked, “Do the police have any prime suspects?”

“At least
one.” Not wanting to risk slipping into a morass of self pity, I didn’t let on
that I was referring to myself.

“Do you
think it could have been one of your neighbors? Such as that guy you were just
talking to?”

“It’s
possible, I guess.” Actually, it was more than a mere “possible”—more on
the order of “likely”—but Russell’s face paled visibly even at that. His
obvious fear for my safety made me reach for other theories. “It could somehow
be tied in with Cassandra’s adopted dog. The owner of the mother dog wants her
back once he’s out of jail. Maybe this was a career criminal who hired a buddy to
go get his dog back, and the guy accidentally hit her too hard.”

“You think
somebody might have killed a person over a
dog?”

I couldn’t
help it; I tensed and glared at Russell for saying the word “dog” as I might
say “cockroach.”

He cleared
his throat, then asked quickly, “Was she a friend of yours?”

“No, I’m not
as... extroverted as I wish I were. Maybe if I’d been more aware of everyone’s
comings and goings...Oh, I don’t know. There’s no way I’m going to figure this
thing out. I’ll just have to trust that it’s an isolated incident, because
otherwise, Mom and I are right across the street, like a pair of proverbial
sitting ducks.”

We formed an
unspoken agreement to change subjects at that point and made small talk
instead. We reached the northern side of Main Street in Longmont and stopped
for a red light. A small dog caught my eye just as we were crossing the
intersection. He was running alone down the shadowy sidewalk, heading away from
us.

“Turn right!
Follow that dog!”

My cry had
come too late for us to make the turn safely. Russell hit the brakes, which set
off a cacophony of honking horns behind us.

“What dog? I
don’t see a dog!” Russell blurted over the noise of his squealing tires from
his sudden hard right turn. We managed to squeeze into the street that the dog
had run down without causing a fender bender, but I was already too
focused on
catching sight of the dog again to feel as grateful, or as contrite, as I
probably should have.

“I thought I
saw Shogun. The dog that’s missing.”

“Way out
here in Longmont?”

“This isn’t
too far for a dog to have gotten on foot in several hours. He could have come
looking for Trevor, his owner.”

I strained
my eyes and made a constant sweep of vision as we slowly drove ahead. It was
getting hard to see in the rapidly darkening evening. There was no sign of the
dog and our search was probably futile.

Just then I
saw the dog darting around the corner ahead of us. “There he goes! Down that
alley!”

“It’s
one-way the other direction,” Russell pointed out as he drove past the alley. I
craned my neck to get a better look at the dog and was certain it was some
breed of long-haired terrier.

“I’ve got to
get him. Even if it’s not Shogun, he could get hit by a car. Let me out of the
car.”

Russell
signaled and pulled out of traffic. “I can’t park here. I’ll go find a space
and come help,” he said while I scrambled out of the car.

I ran down
the alley. Though it was, thankfully, reasonably well lit by the outdoor lights
on the back of the buildings, the dog was already out of sight once again.

I’d gotten
halfway down the narrow alley when someone suddenly stepped out from behind a
dumpster. I gasped and automatically jumped back.

The man
grabbed my wrist.

I choked
back a scream.

The man who
grabbed my arm was not much taller than Russell—roughly five-foot-six.
Unlike Russell, this man had been looking up at life from the bottom of the
drain for quite a while now. His clothes were filthy and in tatters, his dark
hair matted, and his leathery skin smeared with dirt.

“Hey, little
girly,” he said, leering at my chest. “You got any money?”

I twisted my
arm around so fast that I wrenched it free from his grasp. “No, and I don’t
have time for this right now,” I said with deliberate attitude. If there was
anything I’d learned from being a petite woman who often works with large,
aggressive dogs, it was that you can’t gain dominance by letting yourself show
fear. “I’m trying to find a dog I saw run this direction.”

I took a
step deeper into the alley, but he stepped sideways, blocking my path. This
time, at least, he didn’t touch me. “You mean the little mutt? Charlie?”

As he spoke,
I got a disgusting whiff of alcohol on the man’s breath. I had to get out of
here. The dog was probably not Shogun in the first place.

Feigning a
casualness I didn’t feel, I asked, “You know the dog I’m talking about?”

The man
tried to muster some dignity and self-confidence by squaring his shoulders and
meeting my eyes. His were bloodshot and red-rimmed. “Yeah. The one that jus’
run by me, right? He’s just a stray, but I got to callin’ him Charlie.”

“I doubt we’re
talking about the same dog. This one looked to me to be a full bred terrier.”
In truth, I hadn’t been close enough to conclude any such thing, but had gotten
the impression that this dog was too healthy to have been a stray.

“Naw. He’s
jus’ a mutt. Tell ya what, though. Seein’ as you want him so bad, how’s ‘bout I
sell him to you for twenty bucks?” He took a step in that direction and had a
glint in his eye that worried me.

“Um, okay. I’ll
go get some money.”

“Meet you
back here in jus’ a minute, then,” the man said, then took off down the alley.

I turned and
headed the other direction. I wasn’t about to wait around and find out what his
intentions were. Bravura’s one thing, but out-and-out stupidity is quite
another. For all I knew, he’d come back with another man or two.

Russell met
me before I’d gotten all the way out of the alley. I breathed a little easier
at the sight of him.

In a tribute
to his superior planning skills, he’d brought a flashlight. “Couldn’t find the
dog?” he asked.

“No, and
what’s worse, I ran into someone who apparently makes this alley his home. He
says he’ll sell me the dog for twenty dollars.”

“Hmm. Well,
if it turns out the dog is Shogun, I’ll give him the money.”

“That’s
generous of you, except we might get knifed in the process.” I gestured at our
surroundings, deserted except for the cars that were streaming past on the
adjoining street. “This isn’t exactly a safe house for business dealings.”

“True.” He
held out his keys to me. “The car is parked a block and a half from here, just
off of Fifth Avenue. Why don’t you go and wait for me there? I’ll bring the
dog, if the guy comes back with him.”

This was an
extremely magnanimous suggestion on his part, as Russell has a substantial fear
of dogs.

“No,
Russell. We either both wait or we both leave. I’m not going to get you into a
potentially dangerous situation and then wait demurely in your car to see if
you come through it safely.”

“Then we’ll
wait here. Otherwise we’ll probably never know for sure if this is the dog you’re
looking for or not.”

My heartbeat
had returned to normal, and I felt safe with Russell, even in this setting. “Okay.”
I turned on Russell’s flashlight and trained the beam along the general area
the dog had been running. “I suspect he’ll come back with some stray dog
instead. Still, it’s worth twenty dollars to me to get a stray off the street
and safe at the animal shelter.” I grinned and joked, “Especially since it’s
your money.”

There was a
puddle nearby, and fortunately, the dog had run directly through it. I circled
a wet paw print with my fingers. As far as I could recall, it was approximately
the size of the prints on Edith’s deck. This verified to me that a small
terrier could have left those prints, as could one of the puppies.

Russell
watched me with a furrowed brow, but made no comment.

We both
straightened at the sound of footfalls approaching up ahead. I felt Russell
stiffen at the frightening appearance of the man who’d grabbed me. He’d
returned, empty-handed. He sneered at Russell, then focused on me. “Okay. I got
the dog in a box for you, right around the corner. Got my twenty bucks?”

“Give us the
dog and we’ll give you the money,” Russell said logically.

The man
shook his head. “Naw. I ain’t gonna let you see the dog till I get paid for
him. If it ain’t him, you still owe me, and I got no guarantee your girlfriend
here will live up to her end of the deal. Give me the money up front or else no
dog.”

Russell got
out his wallet. “Here’s a five. You’ll get the rest when you bring the dog.”

He frowned,
stared at the bill in his hand then shoved it into a pocket. “Okay. Be right
back. Wait here.”

The man took
a couple of casual steps then broke into a run.

Russell
sighed, then looked at me. “Thought so. He hasn’t got the dog, and we just got
scammed. I just played along in the hopes that he’ll use the money to get
himself a decent meal.”