Strange Outfit: An Avery Barks Dog Mystery (Avery Barks Dog Mysteries Book 2) (5 page)

I heard the rumbling of Rocky’s truck coming up the muddy drive.  I felt a strange happy energy burst through me, which I didn’t like one bit.  He drove up and rolled down the truck window.

“How’s Ben doing?”  I was worried about my new friend.

“He’s conscious, but they want to keep him there for a few more days.  He’s a tough old bird.” Rocky looked tired.

“Are you okay watching the dogs until Ben gets out of the hospital?”

“Yes, of course,” I said hurriedly, happy to help.  “I think I’ll call him this afternoon and give him a pep talk.  By the way, I found a driver’s license up in the woods.  It looks like the guy who died.”  I pulled the driver’s license out of my pocket and handed it to Rocky.  It made me realize that I should search my truck to find another set of clothes to wear.

Rocky stared at the photo for a minute, then abruptly excused himself and stepped over near his truck.  He sat on the rain soaked tailgate and made a quick phone call.

When he came back I gave him more news.  “I saw some guys camping up in the woods and they had shovels.” I pointed to the ridgeline. “Is that your land up there?”

Rocky looked in the direction I was pointing, then back at me, his brow wrinkled in concern. “Avery, don’t go out exploring anymore until things calm down. I don’t want you to get hurt.”  He reached into his truck and grabbed a hand gun from between his truck seats.  He put a jean jacket on over his shirt, both for protection from the drizzling rain and to hide the gun from view.

“I would feel better if you would wait in the house with the dogs while I go run them off,” he said as he walked away.

“Maybe we should call 911,” I called after him.  The serious look on his face made me nervous.

Rocky didn’t reply, and he didn’t turn around.  He walked straight up the hill toward the mysterious campers by himself with a pistol tucked in the back of his jeans.

Chevy followed me back to the house while I waited it out.  My phone was at the ready and my ears were alert to any sounds that may come through the open windows.

I had just finished toweling Chevy off, and looked up through the window and saw four men walking down the hill, dragging tents and carrying some miscellaneous camping gear. Rocky followed a short distance behind them with a confident stride.  All four guys walked directly to Rocky’s truck and threw their gear in the back.  They climbed into the bed of the truck as Rocky got in the driver’s seat.  As the truck moved slowly down the drive my phone rang.

“You should be safe now,” Rocky’s voice made me plop down on the couch with relief. “I’m going to drop them off on the front steps of the sheriff’s office.  That should give them a clear message.  I’ll also give the driver’s license you found to the deputies while I’m there.”

“How did the guys get up in these woods in the first place?”

“Who knows.  I do know that they won’t come back.  The digging mystery is now solved.  They said they’ve been trying to find some historical burial ground.”

Or a treasure burial ground, I thought to myself.

My thoughts turned to Ben and I imagined him lying in a sterile hospital room bed.  Even though I had just met him, it was obvious he loved his home and his dogs.  He probably missed them terribly.  I decided to give him a call to check up on him and let him talk to his dogs over the phone. 

When the hospital operator answered, I was transferred to the nurse’s station nearest Ben’s room.  The phone rang one time and a nurse picked up.

“Hi, could I speak to Ben Fix please?”  I politely asked.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Fix is asleep.  The doctor requested he get no phone calls or visitors at this time.” The nurse sternly replied.

“Do you know when would be a good time for me to call him back?”

“Only direct family members are allowed to contact him for the next several days.  As I already told you, the doctor ordered him to rest.”  She almost sounded rude.

“Thanks for the info.”  I hung up the phone.

As the woman hung up the phone on the other end, a dark haired man in a navy blue suit towered over her as he spoke. “Good job Anna.  Here’s something for your trouble.” He held out a one hundred dollar bill.

“Thank you Mr. Mayor,” she nervously took the money from his hands.

“Let me know if anyone tries to visit him, will you?  I don’t want my new friend to be disturbed by any outsiders.”  He handed her another hundred dollars in advance.

“Yes sir.”  Anna went back to her janitorial duties and mopped the nurse’s station, thankful she could now buy enough groceries for her daughters for at least another week.

=+=+=+

Chevy pawed at my leg for some attention.  As I reached down and scratched his head, I noticed that his friend Princess wasn’t in sight.  They had been joined at the hip since the attempted dog napping, so it made me a little nervous.  I searched each room of the mobile home until I found her sleeping in a laundry basket, snuggled up with Ben’s worn shirts.  She must have missed him and wanted to be close to his smell.  It broke my heart.

I called out to her, “Hey Princess, the hospital people said only close family can visit Ben, but I say that you and Bullfrog ARE his family!  Get ready for a road trip little girl, ‘cause we’re going to see your daddy!” 

I jumped up and down and grabbed all the dogs’ leashes.  The dogs could tell from the tone of my voice that we were heading toward an adventure.  They all started to bark and ran to the door.  We were headed to town!

=+=+=+

As I walked down the quiet hospital corridor towards Ben’s room, I noticed two ladies near the nurses’ station.  The nurse was doing work on the computer and the other was sweeping the floor. I walked up to the counter and asked to see Ben.

“Are you Avery?” asked the dark haired nurse with a sweet smile.  Her name badge read, Honey.  “Ben described you perfectly.  He’s been asking to see you.”

The second woman’s face turned beet red, and she stopped cleaning and hurried away.  I noticed her looking back at me before she picked up a phone at another desk.  Strange.  My thoughts were interrupted by Honey, who had lifted her delicate arm and pointed out Ben’s room.  “You can go right in.”

When I walked in, he sat up and I gave him a big hug.

“How’re you doing Ben?  I’ve got the dogs in the truck and I’m hoping to sneak them in.” I was serious.

Ben beamed at me, his radiant smile lighting up his face.  He slowly lifted his hands in the air and waved, “I knew you would come.”  Then, his face grew serious as he took my hand and placed a wadded up piece of paper in it, and closed my fingers into a fist around it. 

“Take this quick, and don’t show it to anyone else.”  He whispered with a sense of urgency that made my heart beat faster.

He looked toward the door then continued whispering, “Listen closely.  If anyone tells you that your outfit looks strange, you just tell them, it’s as strange as they come.”  When he finished what he needed to say, he leaned back on his pillow and gave a big sigh of relief.

“Wha??”

Ben put his finger to his lips. “Ssshhhh.”

The sound of hurried steps came across the hall, along with hushed voices that seemed to be arguing.  All the sounds stopped as they arrived outside Ben’s hospital room door.  Ben’s eyes grew large, alarmed, and I instinctively tucked his secret paper ball into my pants pocket.  In the most cheerful voice I could come up with, I said, “Chevy led us to Princess, and your neighbor…” 

I paused as Nurse Honey burst into the room.  I heard another set of feet shuffling outside the door, but they didn’t step into view.

“Oh, hi,” I said to the nurse.  “I was just telling Ben how my dog Chevy and his neighbor, Big T. helped save Ben’s little dog.”

Nurse Honey adjusted Ben’s blanket and said, “You must be talking about Princess.  Ben’s told me all about how cute she is.”

Ben had tears in his eyes and said, “Tell Chevy thanks for saving my little Princess.  He’s our hero.” 

I knew he missed his dogs.  I gave him a get well card that was ‘signed’ by the dogs, when I had traced an outline of their footprint.  That made the tears stream down his face.

Ben asked nurse Honey, “Can my dogs come up and see me?” 

The nurse’s eyes revealed her regret, “I’m sorry Ben, hospital rules. But Avery could drive around to this corner of the parking lot and you could see them through the window.”

“I’ll take it!”  Ben clapped his hands.

“Yes!” I gave a big smile to the nurse, excited about her suggestion, then looked back at my smiling friend.  “I’ll see you later Ben.”

I gave him a quick hug.  “We’ll be out there in a couple minutes.”

I pushed the door open and brushed past a frowning man in a dark suit as I headed down the brightly lit hallway.  My feet flew down four flights of stairs and all the way across the hospital parking lot to my truck full of dogs.  We pulled into the designated spot and parked next to a nice grassy area within sight of Ben’s window.   Nurse Honey and Ben stood at the third floor window right above us. I honked the horn and jumped out of the truck.

The first one out was Princess, and I held her in my arms like Ben normally did.  I took her little paw in my hand and waved to her daddy.  Ben wiped away tears and waved his arms in the air.

Next up was Bullfrog.  I had to help him get out of the back of the truck and on the ground, but we made it happen.  Chevy decided it was time for him to come out too.  I knelt down on the grass next to Bullfrog and attempted to help him give a wave toward Ben.  He lied down in the grass instead, and rolled over asking for a belly rub which made Ben laugh.  I helped Chevy wave and my dog topped it off with a kiss for Princess.

Ben mouthed, ‘Thank You’ and hugged the nurse as they wiped their eyes.

Once nurse Honey led Ben away from the window, I loaded everyone up and wiped away my own tears as I started up my truck.

As I pulled off through the parking lot, I noticed the man in the blue suit appear at the window in Ben’s room.

Back at Ben’s house, I carefully opened the crinkled secret message that had been stuffed in my pocket.  It took a minute to smooth it out on the kitchen table so I could read the words written on it:

‘Get the bag from in the fridge.  Wear the clothes inside it when you walk with Princess for the town parade on Saturday.  Make sure to carry the bag with you.  Very important.’

There’s a bag in a refrigerator?  Saturday is tomorrow.  This is the craziest job I ever had!

I went to the refrigerator and opened the door.  Stuffed in the vegetable drawer under some greens was an old style paper grocery bag with handles on it.  Inside, I found a few items of clothes that a guy would wear.

After a couple phone calls, I had directions to a little family oriented town parade that was held at the end of summer each year.  The only requirement to be in the dog section was to show up with a dog by ten a.m.

All three dogs started barking at once in response to a loud pounding on the door.  I hid the paper bag back in the refrigerator and looked out the peep hole.  Big T. and Misty stood on the porch holding hands.  I opened the door and let the dogs out to play while we had a little chat.

Big T. said, “Me and Misty stopped by to make sure you were doing okay.”  Misty smiled while Big T. did the talking.  “They won’t let us visit Ben.  It’s some kind of a conspiracy.”

I nodded, “There seems to be something weird going on over there, but I got in his room for a couple minutes and he looked good.”

  Big T.’s voice got louder, “Things used to be so peaceful in this county.   A man could work hard and settle down with his woman.  Nowadays, even a man’s own dog isn’t safe!”  His face was getting red.

“How long have you lived here?” I asked.

“All my life.  I’ve stayed right down the road there, since I was a kid.” Big T. hugged Misty with one arm as he pointed toward his home with the other. “Me and Misty are gonna raise a family there too.”

“Who lived here before Ben?”

“Nobody since Boomer passed on.  Now, he lived in town his whole life, but this was all his property.  When I was a kid he gave me my first job.  Boomer hired a guy to put up this mobile home and live in it one summer.  The guy planted all these maples and cleared out these pastures with help from some local boys.  Old Boomer sure loved nature.  My job was to deliver him lunch and drinks.  That was a pretty good job for a twelve year old.”  The memories made Big T. smile.

Misty spoke for the first time, “His son, B.J., sold it to Ben this past year.” 

“Hope it stays peaceful and beautiful and country, just like my girl.”  He gave Misty a kiss on the cheek and said, “Let’s go back home, country girl.”  Misty giggled and waved good-bye as they headed back to the truck.

I liked Big T. and Misty, and by the way all three dogs followed them out to the truck, it was obvious they liked them too.

Ben was lucky to have such good neighbors.