Maximum Security (A Dog Park Mystery)

by C. A. Newsome

  “We’re doing this my way, now, Carleen. Get the electrical cords out of my truck, the long ones.” He tossed her his keys.

  Fearful, Carleen scampered out the door. Lia kept her eyes downcast, submissive.

  Keys. I have my keys. I’m not helpless. Thank you, Peter, for being such a good boyfriend. She stretched her shoulders, moved her hands casually down beside her hips.

  “Hands back where I can see them.” Billy walked up to her, swinging the gun in her face.

  Lia tracked the gun as it swung inches from her, carefully returning her hands to her lap. She looked at Kate sideways. Kate pleaded with eyes shining white all around, terror coming off her in waves.

  Lia remembered that feeling. She’d had a gun to her head and she’d been shot once. It no longer petrified her. She was able to think, and that was the important thing. She had to pay attention, look for an opportunity. Right now there was nothing she could do. Best to continue acting compliant.

  Carleen returned with a pair of orange, heavy-duty electrical cords. Each coil looked to be twenty or more feet long. Lia had one of these in her studio for running her power tools.

  “Hands in front of you, and get in the chairs,” Billy said. The two women obeyed. He walked over and put the muzzle of the gun against Kate’s head. Lia’s stomach clenched as she imagined how Kate must feel at that moment.

  “This is how it’s going to go,” Billy announced. “I keep this gun right here while Carleen ties you up.” He poked the side of Kate’s head with the barrel for emphasis. “The minute either of you tries anything, it goes off. Understand? Carleen, tie the skinny one’s hands to the back of that chair. Then tie her ankles to the legs. Make it tight.”

  Unable to do anything else, Lia allowed Carleen to pull her hands behind her. She thought about the kubotan in her hip pocket. So close! Yet what good was it against a gun?

  Carleen fussed over the slippery cord and the knots, irritating Billy, who yelled at her. Finally she was finished with Lia and went over to Kate. Lia hid her relief when Billy moved away from Kate to let Carleen tie her up. She had a feeling that he’d stick that gun right back into Kate’s head if he knew how much anxiety it caused her.

  Billy walked over and pressed the muzzle into Lia’s temple. She froze up, her mind blanking out. Slowly, one breath at a time, she regained control of her thoughts, using an exercise she learned in therapy. Thank you, Asia. I can handle this.

  When Carleen was finished, she turned to Billy with an apprehensive look.

  Billy pulled the third chair in front of his prisoners, reversed and straddled it. He draped one arm across the back of the chair and scratched his head with the muzzle of the gun.

  “This is fucked up . . . Gotta do this right. First thing, the dog has to go. I’m taking it down to the pound. They’ll get their damn dog back and nobody will have any reason to come looking for us. You’re going to watch these two. Keep the gun on them.” He handed the weapon to Carleen. “Where’s the collar that mutt came with?”

  “It’s in the junk drawer in the kitchen, Billy.”

  Lia could hear him rooting around then banging the drawer shut. He walked back in. “Give me my keys. I’ll be back in half an hour, tops. Think you can keep them under control that long?”

  “Yes, Billy.”

  “You’d better, if you know what’s good for you.”

  Billy slammed the back door on the way out. The three women waited. Lia heard the starter of a truck crank, grind, crank again, then catch. The truck pulled out and the tension in the room slipped several notches.

  “Carleen,” Lia broke the silence. “You’ve got to untie us!”

  “I don’t have to do any such thing. I let you go, he’ll kill me.”

  “It was an accident when you killed George. That’s manslaughter. You won’t serve five years. You know he’s not going to release us. That makes you an accessory to murder. You could get life for that. This is way out of control, you’ve got to see that.”

  Carleen turned flat, mud-brown eyes on Lia. “All I have to see is what will happen if you’re not here when he gets back. You hear what he said about George? He’ll do that to me if you’re gone, only he won’t bother to kill me first.”

  “You can tell him something,” Lia improvised. “Tell him someone came after us and forced their way in . . . You can leave with us . . . You don’t have to stay here with him.”

  “And what am I going to do about my kids, huh? You think it’s easy, raising two kids with no one to help? George used to give me money sometimes, but now he’s dead. Billy’s all I’ve got. ‘Sides, he ain’t gonna forget I asked him to take care of George’s body for me. You think anything you say is gonna make a difference?”

  While Carleen ranted, Lia twisted her left hand, stretching, attempting to reach two fingers into her pocket. So close! She brushed against the tips of her keys. She slid a key between her index and middle finger and carefully began to work it upward.

  “What are you doing? Why are you twisting around like that?” Carleen walked over behind Lia, grabbed the keys and yanked them out of Lia’s pocket. She shook them in Lia’s face. “What did you think you were going to do with this, use the keys to cut the cord?” She snorted and dropped the kubotan on the milk crate, then sat down backwards on the third chair, holding the gun steady on the chair back.

  Lia glanced over at Kate. There was an intent expression on Kate’s face, a subtle shift to her shoulders. Is Kate untying herself? She scrambled for some way to distract Carleen, give Kate time. How much longer would Billy take? The SPCA was barely a mile away.

  “What are you and Billy going to do after we go missing? People know where we are. It’s not going to work, Carleen.”

  “Billy will think of something. They haven’t found the car and they won’t find you, either. They won’t be able to prove anything.”

  Lia shifted in her seat. “You keep telling yourself that.” Just keep talking.

  “Why are you squirming like that?” Carleen stood up from her chair and walked back over to Lia, checking her knots.

  “You try being tied up in one of these chairs.” She shifted again. And she prayed.

  Hands freed, Kate launched herself at Carleen’s back. Carleen shrieked and the two women fell over. Kate’s ankles were still tied to the chair and it banged against Kate’s legs then twisted and slipped over to the side, dragging her legs with it. Carleen flipped over, flailing her free arm as she kept the gun out of Kate’s reach. Kate grunted as Carleen shoved a hand in her face, pushing her away. Kate dug her short fingernails into Carleen’s arm. Kate had longer arms, but she was still hampered by the chair and Carleen had wiry strength from her years lifting boxes of stock at the store.

  Frantic, Lia looked for a way to help. She could work at her bonds, but she didn’t have time to undo them. She had to act fast. If Carleen rolled close enough, maybe she could lean back and drop a chair leg onto Carleen. That would hurt.

  Carleen held the gun back over her head with one hand, and pulled Kate’s hair with the other, trying to get Kate to let go of her wrist. Lia rocked her chair to the side and dumped herself on top of Carleen’s exposed hip. Carleen lost her grip and the gun skittered across the floor. Kate clawed for it, dragging the chair.

  Her hand fell on a black workman’s boot.

  Billy bent down, picked up the gun. “Looking for this?” He pointed the gun down at Kate’s face, out of reach of her hands. “The only reason I don’t shoot you right now is I don’t want blood all over the house. Get up Carleen.”

  Lia thumped down on the floor sideways as Carleen worked her way out from under her. The small woman stood up painfully. Her face was bleeding where Kate scratched it. She rubbed the hip Lia fell on and looked fearfully at Billy.

  “I leave you for ten minutes and you can’t even control a couple of tied-up women with a gun in your hand. I oughta smack you good, Carleen.”

  “Sorry Billy. I didn’t realize—”

&n
bsp; “Shut up, Carleen! I gotta think . . . . Tie her back up,” he said, nodding at Kate. “Get her loose from that chair and tie her hands behind her back. We’re going for a walk . . . . You, Girlie,” he said to Lia. “We’re going to untie you. You make one wrong move and your friend is dead, blood or no blood.”

  “Where are we going, Billy? Somebody will see us.”

  “We’re going out the back way, through the woods. Nobody will see us this time of day. I left my tire iron out back. We can use that on them. I don’t want to use the gun if I don’t have to. Get the duct tape. Can’t have them screaming. We’ll either dump them in the woods or break into the back of that foreclosure on Chambers.”

  Carleen finished tying Kate’s hands and went for the tape. She came back with the tape and a pair of scissors, cut a strip of tape off, then applied it to Kate’s trembling mouth.

  “Okay, now pull the electrical cord down from her hands and tie it around one ankle,” Billy instructed.

  Carleen complied.

  “Leave about a foot and tie it around the other ankle . . . run the rest of the cord up through her hands and give it to me . . . get the other one. Put the tape over her mouth first. Billy turned toward Lia to supervise. Billy had unconsciously dropped the nose of the gun while he was directing Carleen. It was no longer pointing at Kate, but down, toward the floor.

  Carleen knelt down, wrestling with a strip of duct tape. Lia felt Carleen’s hot breath on her face as she laid one end of the sticky tape on Lia’s cheek and stretched it across Lia’s mouth. While Carleen was blocking her from Billy’s view, Lia slipped one loose hand behind her, grabbed the kubotan off the milk crate.

  Lia flipped the safety off the kubotan and swung it over Carleen’s shoulder, pointing the bottom end at Billy.

  Sorry, Kate.

  She depressed keyring swivel, releasing a cloud of pepper spray across the room.

  Billy and Kate screamed while Lia rammed the end of the kubotan into Carleen’s temple. Billy dropped the gun and fell, clutching his eyes. Carleen yanked Lia’s hair, drawing tears. Lia struck Carleen again with the kubotan, hitting a pressure-point in her shoulder.

  ~

  Kitty rolled on the floor, sightless, groping for the gun through a haze of pain. She felt the barrel between her tied hands and snatched it toward her, fumbling, scrabbling to get a firing grip on the weapon while Billy howled. She pointed blindly in the direction of his screams and pulled the trigger. The gun roared in her ear and the recoil send her arms flying up over her head. She ignored the ringing in her ears as she lowered the weapon and fired again.

  ~

  Stunned, Lia and Carleen stopped their grappling to see the red stain spreading on Billy’s shirt. Carleen pulled away from Lia and ran to him. She pawed through the pooling blood on his clothing, looking for the wound in his side as more blood streamed over her fingers. Kate fired again, this time hitting the sofa. Lia freed her other hand and began dragging herself and the chair across the floor to help Kate.

  The front door blew open as a trio of officers poured in with guns drawn, Peter and Brent two steps behind them. The officers quickly assessed the circumstances. Brent relieved Kate of the gun while the others surrounded Carleen and Billy. An ambulance siren sounded in the distance.

  Peter stood over Lia, taking in the strip of duct tape dangling from her face and the tangle of her legs, the chair and electrical cord. He stooped down to untie her. “You okay, Babe?”

  “Babe,” she muttered, “is a pig.”

  Day 18

  Saturday, October 26

  Peter sat on the picnic table next to Lia, holding her hand. They were surrounded by the usual morning crowd, plus Kate, Max and Daisy.

  “. . . I was sitting at my desk, reviewing reports when I get this butt dial from Lia. I’m about to hang up when I decide to listen in for a while and maybe make a loud, rude noise at an inopportune moment. Only instead of hearing her gossip with Bailey, I hear all hell breaking loose. Then I hear Stryker’s voice. When I heard Carleen’s voice, I knew where you must be. We had all available units meet down the block with their sirens off. We were in the process of surrounding the house and figuring the best plan of action to avoid a hostage situation when we heard Stryker screaming. All bets were off then, but before we could break in, the gun went off.”

  “So I maced Kate for nothing?”

  “It’s quite all right, Dear,” Kate said, patting Lia’s free hand. “You didn’t know.”

  “Not nothing,” Peter said. “You gave us the opening to rush in and grab Stryker and Thomas before Carleen got her wits about her and grabbed the gun from Kate. Things could have gotten a lot worse. There’s a reason hostage situations usually last for hours.

  “Carleen became hysterical and began talking before we could get her properly Mirandized and into the station. She seems to think she’s a victim in this. Never mind it was her prints on the crossbow.

  “Stryker clammed up and demanded a lawyer. Thanks to your statements, we’ve got him on accessory after the fact and interfering with a corpse. I heard him planning over the phone, so we’ve got them both on conspiracy to commit murder.

  “What was up with Carleen’s hair? Why did she dye it brown?” Kate asked. “I might have recognized her if it wasn’t for that.”

  “Apparently Stryker is a Fundamentalist at heart. Carleen only became a blonde after her divorce because Stryker would never let her bleach her hair. Wouldn’t let her wear nail polish or make up, either. When he agreed to come back, he insisted she dye it brown and get rid of the cosmetics so she wouldn’t look like a whore anymore.”

  “Unbelievable,” Lia said. “I can’t understand why she turned to him.”

  “He was the one person she knew who wouldn’t balk at helping her out. I’m sure there’s more to it than that. Domestic violence is complicated.”

  “I’d like to know,” Jim said, “how Daisy wound up with you, Kate.”

  Kate smiled. “Lia arranged it.”

  “Stacy called me,” Lia said. “She got my number off one of our posters. When the SPCA called Monica to tell her they had Daisy, she told them Daisy’s owner was deceased, and could they please find the dog a good home. Stacy overheard, and she didn’t want Daisy going to strangers. She asked me to step in. Kate offered to take her.”

  “Poor Stacy,” Kate said. “I think she got the worst end of the deal.”

  “She’s tougher than you think. She holds her own with Monica, and she’ll be 18 before long,” Peter said. “That will give her leverage, if she chooses to use it.”

  “How so?” Lia asked.

  “As crazy as Monica is, I don’t think she wants to be left alone. Once Stacy’s an adult, she can leave home. She’s smart enough to get a scholarship for college, so Monica can’t hold her education over her head. If Monica wants Stacy to stick around, she’ll have to treat her better. I have a feeling Stacy will be okay.”

  “What about Jacob?” Jose asked.

  “He offered to pay restitution to Avis for the tire and he’s doing community service. Rumor has it he’s going to be picking up poop here at the park.

  “He also heard a couple of his classmates talking about the bottle bombs in his chem lab, so he did his civic duty and turned them in. And, Heaven help us, he asked me what it took to become a cop.”

  “Maybe that will keep him out of trouble,” Lia said.

  “Kate,” Bailey asked, “what are you going to do now?”

  “Daisy and I,” she hugged the dog, “are going back to Oklahoma.”

  “What about Max?” Jim asked.

  “Peter had a suggestion–” Lia said.

  Peter looked toward the corral. “And here she comes.” He waved his arm overhead. “Hey, Chris!”

  A tall, stocky woman with a skinny dog drew near. As she got closer, Lia could see the broad face, dark hair and hooked nose of Native American ancestry.

  “What a handsome Shepherd,” Bailey said as the dogs approached the ne
wcomer and began sniffing her hindquarters.

  “That’s Boo. She’s a Belgian Malinois,” Chris said. “They’re cousins of German Shepherds, bred for scent work.”

  “Oh!” Lia said, “You’re the one who came out to the crime scene the day we found the bones.”

  “That was us.” She stroked Boo’s head. “Boo did all the work. I just interpreted. I understand one of these dogs found the remains first.”

  “That’s Max,” Lia said, pointing to the dog now engaged in a mock-battle with Boo.

  “I’ve been looking for a second dog to train. Peter suggested Max had an aptitude for scent work. I’d like to run her through a couple tests, if that’s okay.”

  Kate and Max followed Chris and Boo to the small dog park. The rest of the group moved up front to the fence so they could watch.

  “I need three volunteers,” Chris said.

  Lia, Jim and Bailey left their dogs with Peter and went over. Chris signaled Boo to lay down. She then had Kate hold Max’s lead while she pulled a plastic jar out of her pocket and removed a liver treat. She showed the treat to Max, but kept it out of reach. She took the treat over to the trio of volunteers and asked them to hold their hands out. She placed the treat in one palm, out of sight from Max. The trio was instructed to close their hands into fists and walk to the other end of the small park. There they were to spread out, then hold their fists up, two feet apart.

  When everyone was in position, Chris unclipped Max. Max bounded across the park to Jim and jumped up by his left hand. Jim grinned, told Max to sit and gave her the treat.

  “So far, so good,” Chris said.

  Next, she had Kate take Max around the picnic shelter to the niche in back that was used to hose off dogs. Chris took another liver treat and put it inside a Kong ball. She then tossed the ball into the middle of the park.

  Kate released Max on Chris’s command. Max began searching, nosing around in the grass. It took her five minutes to find the ball. She was busy digging the treat out when Chris retrieved the ball, giving the delicacy to her.