The Friend (4 page)

She wasn’t going to give up, though. Sooner or
later, Piper was sure to bring her dog for a run.

A
powdery snow flurried outside, and Piper was happy to be sitting in front of the
fireplace in the family room. She was working on sketches of designs for the
cake for her cousin’s wedding. The nuptials were going to be performed on a
Florida beach. Piper was trying to decide if the cake should be festooned with
sugar sand dollars or seahorses.

She had been frequently checking Facebook for the
past several days. She’d seen no new posts from Splendor Wilkins. Nor had the
yoga student named Splendor returned to class. Piper was beginning to think that
she’d been concerned for nothing.

“Emmett, cut it out, will you?” demanded Piper as
the dog tugged at the toe of her sock. She pulled her foot away and continued to
draw. She could feel Emmett looking at her with his dark eyes.

“What?” asked Piper. “What do you want?”

The dog wagged his tail and took a couple of steps
toward the door.

“You want to go out, Em? All right,” said Piper,
getting off the couch. “Let’s go to the dog park. You’ve been a pain all
afternoon. You need a good run.”

S
he
inhaled deeply as she spotted the sedan. When Splendor drew closer and confirmed
the license plate number, her heart pounded. Finally.

There were only a few dogs and owners in the park.
Splendor immediately honed in on Piper. She was laughing as she tossed out a
ball and her terrier scampered to retrieve it.

It was not going to be easy to be invisible.
Splendor was glad she had scoped the area in advance. She knew where she could
leave her car without its being seen, knew where the blind spots were.

She parked and reached around to take the package
of Piper’s brand of dog treats from the backseat. Splendor scooped out a handful
and put them in her pocket. Getting out of the car, she walked to the rear
fence, taking care to stay out of Piper’s field of vision.

There was a spot where the wire fence had come
undone with a little help from a pair of pliers on one of Splendor’s advance
reconnaissance missions. Now, she was able to wedge her way through. She
crouched down to peer from behind the barren bottom branches of an old boxwood
hedge that lined the inside of the fence.

It was getting darker now. The owners were leashing
their dogs and leaving the park. Splendor watched as Piper threw the ball again
and again while Emmett ran after and returned it. The dog was going to be
exhausted. Better for Splendor.

“Okay, Em. We’ve got to get going. This is the last
one,” Piper called as she reached back and threw the ball with all her strength.
At the same time, Splendor took the Fido Fudgies from her pocket.

P
iper
waited for her dog to come running back.

“Come on, Emmett. Come here, buddy.”

She squinted through the semi-darkness, straining
to catch sight of the terrier. “Emmett,” she shouted. “Come.”

Trudging across the snow and mud to the rear of the
park, Piper was annoyed that the dog wasn’t obeying. Emmett was such a clever
little thing. He knew that she was going to take him home now, and he didn’t
want to go yet.

“Emmett. I’m not kidding. Get over here. Now.”

She continued to look around in vain, her
exasperation turning to panic when she saw the rubber ball next to the open
space in the wire fence.

T
here
were no lights on at home. Splendor was relieved. Her mother wasn’t home from
work yet. Splendor carried the dog into the house and right down the hall to her
room.

“There, Emmett. There, boy,” she said. She took
another treat from her pocket and fed it to the terrier. “I’m going to take real
good care of you. But you have to stay quiet. Please, Emmett. You have to stay
quiet. I’ll give you lots of treats if you just don’t bark.”

She opened the closet door and cleared the shoes
from the floor. “I’m going to make a nice bed for you, boy.”

Taking the pillows from her bed, Splendor lined the
bottom of the closet. “See? Nice and comfy,” she said, patting the cushy
surface. “You’ll be fine in here.”

She sat down and cradled the dog in her lap,
stroking his coat. When some white hair came off on her jeans, Splendor didn’t
mind. She enjoyed it, knowing that Piper must have experienced the very same
thing.

W
ith
the car’s windows open, calling Emmett’s name, Piper drove up and down the
streets near the dog park. She stopped to ask anyone she saw walking along if
they had seen her dog. No one had.

She called her parents and told them what had
happened. Her father and mother immediately got into their other car and joined
her in the hunt. Hours later, they were all still looking.

“I think we should call it a night now, Piper,”
said Vin when they met up again in the dog park lot. “I’ll let the police know
and ask them to be on the lookout for Emmett on their patrols tonight. And don’t
forget, lovey, Emmett has his microchip.”

“That’s right, sweetheart,” said Terri. “I’m so
glad we had that done. It’s going to be all right, honey. You’ll see. Emmett is
going to turn up.”

Despite their reassuring words, Piper knew her
parents were as worried as she was. “You two go on home,” she said, her voice
breaking. “I want to keep looking.”

It was after midnight when Piper finally pulled
into the Donovans’ driveway. Alone. It was only then that she let herself
cry.

U
sually, Splendor hated it when she woke up knowing that the night
before her mother had gone directly after work to the bar she routinely
frequented. This time Splendor was glad about it. Emmett had whimpered steadily
during the night, even barking at times, but her alcohol-plied mother had slept
right through it.

Splendor sat on the floor of the closet, petting
the dog until she heard the front door slam. Once she heard her mother drive
away, she rose and let the terrier out into the fenced backyard. She told
herself that, if she just got home today before her mother did, everything was
going to be all right.

P
iper
barely slept. As she tossed and turned, she tried to take some comfort in the
thought of the identifying microchip inserted under Emmett’s skin. If Emmett
were brought to an animal shelter or veterinarian’s office, he would be scanned.
The Donovans would be notified and reunited with their beloved pet.

The security service also provided a lost pet alert
to all members of the network within a 25-mile radius of where the dog was last
seen. But what if Emmett didn’t get to a vet or shelter? What if Emmett didn’t
come in contact with anyone in the recovery network?

Getting up in the middle of the night, Piper turned
on her computer. Her throat tightened as she gazed at photos of Emmett. His
mischievous personality expressed itself in every shot.

“Where are you, Em?” she whispered. “Where are you,
buddy?”

Selecting one of her favorite pictures, Piper
attached it to a blank page and added a
MISSING DOG
headline. Beneath the photo,
Piper composed a short list of information including the terrier’s name, where
the elfin creature had last been seen, and the phone number to call if the dog
was spotted. Then she printed fifty copies.