This Dog for Hire (31 page)

“Right,” I said. “There was a note. Where is that now?”

“In the file, Rach.”

“Could I see it, Marty?” I whispered, even though there was no one else around.

“Let me get this straight, you're standing there asking me to break the rules?”

Every cop lives by two rules, Marty had told me the first two hundred times I'd asked for information. Rule one, Keep your mouth shut. Rule two, Never break rule one.

“Just this once,” I said. As usual.

He rolled his eyes.

“You're a pain in my butt, did I ever tell you that?”

“You did,” I said. “Several times.”

“Okay, as long as it's on the record. Wait a minute. Wait right here.”

Information you don't
share
, he'd say, drawing out the significant word, can't come back to haunt you.

He opened the side door, the one that led to the kennels. Elwood and Watson ran inside, and then Marty disappeared, too. I waited in the alley, Dashiell at my side. In a few minutes Marty was back, a doughnut box in his hand, Elwood waddling along behind him.

“These are the doughnuts you accused me of feeding Elwood,” he said. “Here, take this home and read for yourself. These are
fat free
, Rachel. No way Elwood coulda got fat on these. I think it's his metabolism.”

I took the box and looked at Elwood, remembering that not so long ago he was thinner, faster, and
smarter
.

“You might have a point there, Marty. Have you ever had his thyroid function tested? He might be hypothyroid.”

“Yeah? Gluck has that, the guy at the desk. Blew up to two-fifty couple of years ago. Slept ten hours a night, sucked caffeine all day, and he was always looking to take a nap. Now he takes his pills, he's just like normal. I'll get El checked out. Thanks, Rach.”

“Thank
you
,” I said. “For the doughnut box.” I gave it a shake. “And the doughnut.”

“Don't mention it,” he said. Then he whispered, “I mean
really
don't mention it.”

I nodded.

“You take care, kid, okay?”

I clipped Dash's leash to his collar and headed back toward Tenth Street. As soon as I had turned the corner onto Hudson, heading south, I read the box, then opened it. There were two things inside. I pocketed the folded piece of paper, ditched the box in the trash basket on the corner, and ate the delectable-looking, full-fat, chocolate-covered doughnut on the way to Lisa's.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to:

John Douglas of Partners & Crime Booksellers, whose enthusiasm and encouragement helped me to sally forth into a new genre

Marty Berkowitz, Ph.D., Richard Siegel, M.S.W., Polly DeMille, R.N., B.S.N., M.A., Bonnie Wilcox, D.V.M., John Laub, Jan Bella Berkowitz, Larry Berg, and Captain Arthur Haggerty, who so generously shared their expertise, with a hug for Joe Celentano, M.S. W., whose genius was the inspiration for an important part of this book

The Bomb Dogs and their handlers at the Sixth Precinct, Greenwich Village

Alice Quinn, a friend in need

Evelyn Abrams, who taught me, by her sterling example, how to listen

Ann Loring, for her boundless enthusiasm and unfailing support

Los Angeles Food and Fiction Club and NYC's Loose Women's Book Club

Gail Hochman, my wonderful agent

Michael Seidman, Zen master with a blue pencil

with a hug for Job Michael Evans (you're still the favorite)

and love to my family, Stephen Lennard, my sweetheart, Victoria and Stephen Joubert, Jennifer Gutbezahl, Mimi Kahn and Dick Goodman, Flash, the Border collie, and Dexter, a stand-up dog if ever there was one

About the Author

Carol Lea Benjamin is the author of the Rachel Alexander and Dash mystery novels, which feature a Greenwich Village–based private investigator and her pit bull sidekick.
This Dog for Hire
, the first book in the series, won the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel. Benjamin has also been a teacher, worked as a private investigator, trained dogs, and written dog-training manuals such as
Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way to Train Your Dog
. She lives in New York City with her husband and two dogs.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1996 by Carol Lea Benjamin

Cover design by Neil Alexander Heacox

ISBN: 978-1-5040-0636-1

This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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New York, NY 10014

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