K-9 Blues (Paws & Claws Book 3)

by Ralph Vaughan

  “Good for him,” Sunny said.

  “Why was Arnold given an out?” Levi asked.

  “It would have solidified the case against Antony, quelled some of the support Antony had,” Rex answered. “Many of the dogs did not believe he would do such a thing.”

  “Of course he wouldn’t!” Sunny exclaimed.

  “And Arnold either,” Yoda added. “The idea is preposterous.”

  “There were dogs who wanted to believe in the truth of that evidence, but more against Antony than Arnold,” Rex continued. “I think it was an opportunity for the Captain to get rid of Antony; he has wanted Antony out of the Unit almost from the moment he took command.”

  “Why is that?” Levi asked.

  Rex looked at the Dachshund-mix in surprise. “You know how Antony can be – brusque, imperious, inflexible and overly critical.”

  “Wow, do we ever!” Yoda snapped. “He can be more prickly than a furious hedgehog. There was this one time when…”

  “However, he is an excellent K-9 officer,” Levi interrupted.

  “That he is, Levi,” Rex agreed. “But being right all the time, and knowing it, will not win you friends. Both Antony and Arnold are excellent investigators, the best we have, and have solved more cases than all the other officers put together. And most of those cases came to our attention through the efforts of the lads themselves, not the direction of the regular police.”

  “Does not your Captain value their record?” Sunny asked.

  “Not as much as you might think,” Rex said. “Captain Reese values efficiency above all else. He transferred to our Unit from the San Francisco International Airport, where every dog carried out his orders without question, without any show of initiative. When he took over the Unit from our retiring Captain, he was shocked that our investigators were allowed to develop their own leads and were not required to limit their activities to details alongside or assigned by the regular police. He wanted to put a stop to it, but it has been part of the Unit so long he dared not.”

  “Doesn’t sound like much of an alpha to me,” Yoda said.

  “He’d have to be one to retain control, right?” Sunny said.

  “Captain Reese is an alpha, but not quite what you would call a natural,” Rex said. “He knows all the tricks for keeping dogs in line, maintaining order. Most of the time, though, he remains aloof from the Unit, letting others do the dirty work.”

  “Meaning you, Rex?” Levi asked.

  After a long moment, Rex said: “Usually.”

  “Why put up with that?” Yoda demanded. “I bet you could…”

  “Because I place the welfare of the Unit above my own,” Rex replied. “This morning, however, Reese kept me out of it entirely; he knew how I felt so he made sure I was not there to challenge the hearing.” The German Shepherd snorted bitterly. “A drumhead hearing if there ever was one.”

  “A what?” Yoda asked. “Never heard of that.”

  “It’s an old army term,” Levi explained. “It is a court hearing where the accused is not allowed to speak against his own guilt. It’s a proceeding dogs first encountered during the War Between the States, but it started before that in Europe. It is a practice that should never have entered canine society, but is favored by the desperate and the despotic. In such a hearing, there can only be one verdict.”

  “That’s despicable,” Sunny murmured.

  “Rex, we suspect the reason Antony and Arnold were sent out this morning was twofold,” Levi said.

  “To get them out of the way so the evidence could be planted,” Rex acknowledged. “What would be the other reason?”

  “To make sure Slim Shady would end up in the Shelter,” Levi explained.

  “Their claim about being sent after Slim Shady made no sense at all,” Rex said. “That really weakened their defense. Everybody knows that Whippet’s story, what a lost soul he is. And it did not help one bit when they claimed it was Boris who sent them out. Even I snapped at them when I heard it. It was absurd!”

  “And Boris was the one who confirmed the evidence,” Yoda noted suspiciously.

  “Yes,” Rex agreed, “but it was not possible for him to plant the evidence. He was working at the waterfront this morning and did not enter the kennels until Reese asked him to evaluate the scents.”

  “It still seems hinky to me,” Yoda declared.

  “Hinky?” Rex questioned. “What does that even mean?”

  “Suspicious,” Yoda explained.

  “Then say suspicious,” Rex snapped. “Make that up, did you?”

  “No, I heard it on TV.”

  Rex shook his head in disgust. “You probably spend too much of your time in front of the TV. Maybe you could change your name to Clarence.”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind, it’s before your time.”

  “Rex, did Boris send them out after Slim Shady?” Levi asked in an effort to get things back on track. He, of all dogs, was in no position to criticize anyone’s television viewing habits.

  “As it turned out – yes,” Rex replied. “I was with the Captain when Boris came to him and fessed up, claimed that he had talked the lads into apprehending Slim Shady, but that it was all just a big misunderstanding, his misinterpretation of a casual statement by one of the officers…but he could not recall who.”

  “Shouldn’t that have been enough to make your Captain take a second look at the case?” Sunny suggested.

  “I thought so,” Rex said. “That’s what I told Reese, and that is what caused the final blow up between us. He was not about to go back on his decision because it would have been inefficient. I told him what he could do with his sense of efficiency.”

  “I imagine that did not go over well,” Sunny surmised.

  “No, Miss Sunny, it did not,” Rex said. “But what tore it was when he told Boris to ‘just keep quiet’ about it. Out the door I went…and here I am. Some of the other dogs don’t appreciate your activities, but I’ve never known you three to do anything but the right thing. And I knew you guys had a relationship with Antony and Arnold, rocky as it sometimes may be.”

  Levi and the others nodded in agreement.

  “You said it was important to get Slim Shady out of the way,” Rex pointed out. “Why?”

  “Early this morning, Slim Shady discovered a cache of fresh meat by a trash dumpster across from the police station,” Levi said

  “Meat like what was put in their kennels?”

  “And Slim Shady had a run-in with a dog called the Master,” Yoda added.

  Rex frowned. “The Master?”

  Levi related the story told them by Slim Shady and confirmed by Biggles. He also described the scent evidence and the bizarre paw print they found, with its primitive and archaic characteristics. The narrative of Swoon the British Shorthair closed the case on the existence of the Master – corroborating statements from three independent witnesses were absolute evidence in anyone’s court.

  As Levi and the others told Rex of their discoveries about the Master and their suspicions of what it all meant, the older dog’s jaw dropped in wonderment. They finished and waited for Rex’s reaction.

  “That has to be the most outlandish shaggy dog story I have ever heard,” the elderly German Shepherd said, shaking his head. “But I suppose it’s no more outlandish than all that’s happened to our two lads. And when you take it all together it seems to make a kind of perverted sense.”

  “Getting back to what happened in the kennels,” Levi said. “Is it possible the evidence was planted by Captain Reese himself?”

  Rex shook his head vehemently. “No! He wanted Antony out of the Unit, but he would not go that far. He may be a pompous knucklehead and something of a fraud, but he is not a killer. He has neither the guts nor the stomach for it. Besides, he would never soil his own paws.”

  “Someone in the Unit must have done it,” Levi pointed out. “Could it have been at the Captain’s direction?”

  “No, there are many other
ways he could have ousted Antony without resorting to this,” Rex replied. “But I think the main reason against it would be that it would give another dog a hold over him. Reese is the original Teflon dog – things would have to get pretty messy for anything to stick to him, and he never lets that happen. That’s just the way he is and why he has lasted so long in positions of authority.”

  “If all that is true,” Levi said, “it’s also very unlikely he would be working with or for the Master.”

  “I am confident that, whatever is rotten in the Unit, the Captain is clueless about it,” Rex posited. “Totally clueless.”

  “It’s unfortunate you’ve severed your ties with the K-9 Unit, Rex,” Levi suggested. “A dog on the inside would be handy.”

  “I see that now,” Rex admitted, “but at the time…”

  “Why do you think it would be important for the Master to put Antony and Arnold out of commission?” Sunny asked. “Were they working on anything big or out of the ordinary?”

  “Actually crime in Chula Vista seems to be on the decline, for the moment at least,” Rex reported. “That’s how Boris happened to be on the waterfront this morning, working a joint task force. The Unit has been helping other jurisdictions in the area. As for Antony and Arnold, their only assignments were security related, which is why they have had so much time to sniff out leads.”

  “Then something they were doing on their own initiatives must have been getting to close to the Master,” Levi mused. “Even if they were not aware of it.”

  “If we knew more about the Master,” Yoda said, “we might be able to figure out what ties it all together.”

  “That reminds me.” Levi looked at Kim. “Would you wake up your assistant, please?”

  Kim looked over at Little Kitty and rolled her eyes. She butted the Calico cat with her head.

  “Huh? What?” Little Kitty sputtered as she shot to her feet. “Who hit me?” She looked around. “Hey, what’s that strange dog doing here?”

  “Little Kitty,” Kim sighed. “You fell asleep.”

  “Did not!” the Calico protested. “I was resting my eyes.”

  “Your eye, you mean,” Yoda quipped.

  “Yoda, be nice,” Sunny warned.

  “That dog…” Little Kitty started to say. “Oh, I remember now. It’s the dog who looks a little like Sergeant Rex.”

  “Little Kitty, I have a job for you,” Levi said. “We need you to research something on the computer.”

  “Okay,” she agreed. “What is it?”

  “The word is Kolignosae,” Levi told her.

  “Say what?”

  Levi repeated the unfamiliar word slowly, then added: “I think that is a plural word, so if you do not get any hits, try searching it as Kolignos. Got it?”

  “Yeah, Kolignos is one of whatever,” she said as she stretched lazily. “Kolignosae is a bunch or a herd or who-cares-what. Yeah, I’ll be back, maybe.”

  Little Kitty hopped off the sofa and padded down the hallway. She paused, then jumped the folding gate into the room dedicated to cats, computers and quilting.

  “You should let me use the computer,” Yoda complained. “I think I would do a better job of it.”

  “Little Kitty has excellent computer skills,” Sunny pointed out.

  “Sunny’s right, Yoda,” Levi agreed. “Everybody knows that no one is better than a cat when it comes to handling a mouse.”

  Others groaned while Levi grinned.

  “Besides, Yoda, have you learned to levitate?” Levi asked.

  “Huh?”

  “The folding gate,” Sunny reminded the Pomeranian.

  “Humph, forgot about that,” Yoda said.

  “A dog must know his limitations,” Levi reminded the Pom. “Even though bigger than the average Pomeranian, jumping is still not your strong suit.”

  “Well, there’s still no reason to give Little Kitty all the work when it comes to computers,” Yoda retorted. “After all, you could sail over that gate with ease.”

  “No doubt,” Levi acknowledged. “But, then, I am not that good with computers – it’s not only important to know your limitations, but when to strive against them. For the good of the pack, this is not the time for anyone but Little Kitty to do what she does best.”

  “She is pretty good at it, I suppose,” Yoda grumbled.

  “Levi, what is that word you gave Little Kitty?” Rex asked. “I have never heard anything like it before.”

  Levi explained about the Master’s off-the-paw comment made while Swoon was in hiding.

  “While we don’t know what it means, at least not yet, context gives us something to go on,” Levi explained. “The Master inferred there was some connection between dogs and the Kolignosae, that the alphas who came to him were degenerate forms.”

  “So Kolignosae may be a lost breed?” Rex surmised. “It has happened before, breeds dying out. We’re a hardy species on the whole, but time and environment take a toll. The Molossos is gone and so are the Alaunt and the Kuri…though in the case of the Kuri that’s probably for the best considering they were looked upon as a food source.”

  “Yuck,” Yoda grimaced.

  “If it turns out the Kolignosae is some ancient breed, then all that Swoon saw at the abandoned citrus warehouse may start to make sense,” Levi said.

  “How so, Levi?” Sunny asked.

  “As you know, we dogs have many rites and rituals that we live by, some important, others relatively trivial,” Levi explained.

  “Levi,” Yoda cut in sharply, “this isn’t going to be another of those dissertations of yours, that go on and on until we either fall into a coma or run into traffic to escape, is it?”

  Levi sighed. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Go on, Levi,” Sunny urged. “Pay no attention to Yoda. He’s just having a bad-hair day…like every day.”

  “As I was saying,” Levi continued quickly, before Yoda had time to think of a come-back, “we have our rituals that we live by, most of which we do without even thinking about them, such as turning around before we lie down or taking food from our bowl and putting it on the ground before eating it.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s just you, Levi,” Yoda quipped.

  “And me,” Rex added, glaring at the Pomeranian.

  Yoda yawned.

  “Or yawning when we get nervous,” Levi pointed out. “Of course, the most important ritual is the greeting. While sniffing at the three points – butt, thigh and muzzle – does serve to let us know certain facts about each other, it might have originated in ancient times as a way to physically show non-hostility and trust.”

  “Those who violated that show of trust would become outlaws to all packs,” Rex pointed out. “The ritual would be strengthened by pack society, and packs would not tolerate violations. They would immediately savage those who trespassed upon the ritual.”

  “So, as the greeting ritual became more ingrained in canine society,” Sunny surmised, “those who refused to follow it would eventually die out.”

  “The ritual is less important to us today because we do not live in a world that is as overtly savage as that of our ancestors,” Levi said. “We have the teachings of First Dog and Anubis to enforce social conventions and civilized behavior, but the ritual persists. To us it is just a ritual, but to our ancestors it was a vital part of life, a way to guarantee behavior through actions that all dogs understood. Rituals were very important to the ancient dogs.”

  “So the alphas coming to the Master…” Sunny prompted.

  “An ancient ritual of submission perhaps,” Levi suggested. “If the Master is indeed an ancient breed of dog, so ancient that he is actually physically different than us…”

  “Which may be why he wears the mask,” Sunny suggested.

  “Maybe a monster without it,” Yoda said.

  “…that he is physically different,” Levi continued patiently, “then this ritual Swoon witnessed may mean more to him than it does to the alphas forced to
perform it.”

  “In which case, they may not be exactly the lackeys he expects them to be,” Yoda observed.

  “Indeed they may not,” Levi agreed, grinning. “The Master is cruel, vicious and barbaric, ruling through fear and violence. That sort of power is only effective when he is present, able to lash out. The alphas who came to him may have taken the meat…but put his collar around their necks? Maybe not so securely as he thinks.”

  Levi was about to move on to another subject when there was a commotion by the back door, cats hissing and spitting, yowling like air-raid sirens, and something banging against the wooden gates. The Dachshund-mix ran out of the living room and into the kitchen, to the door that was already being opened.

  “Thank you, Anubis,” Yoda whispered.

  The driveway gate was being pushed from the other side, and Levi saw a familiar face in the gap between.

  “Levi, open the gate, we need to talk to you,” Antony said. Then he added: “Please.”

  Chapter 12

  Blackie had learned early on that all members of the K-9 Unit, officers, trackers and sniffers, loved to talk, especially about themselves and their cases. Since they could not possibly brag to each other – there was always a difference of opinion about who actually solved a case, an inevitable clash of unleashed egos – the targets of the unlimited braggartism were the probationary dogs, the main reason the younger members of the Unit always tried to keep busy with other duties.

  Blackie planned on making himself available.

  He truly believed Arnold and Antony were innocent of the crimes of which they had been accused. Ever since they had been ejected from the Unit, he regretted the role he had played in exposing them. He had lost track of the number of times he had told himself that if he had not reported the odd smells coming from their kennels someone else would. He could not shake from himself the sense of guilt that constricted his throat like a too-tight collar.

  He had sent prayers up to First Dog and Anubis, even though he was not a devout follower of either, but when he encountered the two banished dogs in the parking garage, he came close to becoming one. It was a second chance for redemption – both theirs and his.