Case of the Hot Dog

by Erik Schubach

  I whined back, “I'm not whining.”

  She smiled wider and prodded as she started unwrapping the tape from my arms, “Fine.”

  I growled back, “Fine!”

  She got in my face, and I stretched my lips, to try to grab hers, “Fine!”

  She asked calmly, “Are you on something Fin?”

  I giggled.

  Oh, wait. I was. “The jerks drugged me.”

  She was just nodding as we were surrounded by a flurry of action as more first responders showed up. An EMT put a blanket over my shoulders even though it was still hot out. He had me sit on the curb to take my blood pressure and look over the cuts, and Jane finally let go of my hand, like she were afraid I'd vanish if she stopped touching me.

  “Just a second, Fin, there's someone who will be excited to see you.” She moved to her car and opened the door. A moment later, Calvin came bounding out, making his way to me with his tail swishing. My heart ached as I saw him favoring a leg.

  I dug my fingers into his pelt and pulled the excited boy into a hug. And I found myself bawling into his fur. He was ok. I hugged and kissed his head. The opportunistic boy took the chance to give me a big wet slurping lick to my cheek. “Hi, Cal. Love you too. I'm so sorry you got hurt. It was my fault boy.”

  Of everything, knowing that he was ok let me know this nightmare was over.

  I looked over to where police and EMTs were grouped around Raife as his hands were wrapped.

  Jane stepped beside me and gripped my shoulder with a hand and gave a little squeeze, making me feel loved. She said, “Rafiel put out a Broken Leash for you. That's how I found you.”

  I nodded and gave him a little wave when I caught his eyes. He gave a tight-lipped smile. I guess that for a cheating ex, he wasn't too big of a jerk face.

  The EMT stood and offered a hand. “Let's get you to the hospital. You're going to need a head CT

  miss.”

  I panicked, and Jane said, “I'll be right behind you, Fin.”

  I nodded once, and as I was being led to one of the waiting ambulances, we passed some officers walking a ragged looking Suit to another. His face bloody and swelling from the beating Raife had given him. I stomped his toe on the way past, growling, “That's for Calvin.”

  Jane moved between us when he yelped, as she dragged me away, pointing out, “That's assault, Fin.”

  I muttered, “Arrest me.”

  I hesitated when I looked up at her. The fond but amused look on her face almost looked like one of... love?

  I swallowed.

  Then I breathed a sigh of relief when they helped me into an ambulance and Jane helped Calvin up into it. At least one of my family would be with me. The EMT started to argue with her. She just cocked an eyebrow in challenge and tapped Calvin's service bib. This seemed to placate the man, and then Jane stepped back as another EMT shut the door.

  I started to panic as I felt like I had just been closed into another metal cage. I was about to tear out of the hand of the man who was dressing the cut on my cheek when Calvin laid his head in my lap. I closed my eyes, gathered up my defenses then took a deep cleansing breath. I loved my Cal, he always knew what I needed. I wasn't locked up, and I wasn't alone.

  I reached out a hand and placed it on the window in the back door of the ambulance like I could touch the dark SUV following us, its siren off and lights flashing.

  Jane.

  Chapter 12 – Bedrest

  Gah! They wouldn't let me out of the hospital bed to clean up the chaos around me the past two days. The last time the nurses caught me up and about trying to organize everything when Jane had to go to the restroom, they chastised me and threatened to use the restraints if I did it again before the doctors cleared me.

  Concussion, moncussion. They didn't understand. The cards and well wishes were strewn about everywhere, along with the get well balloons, flowers, and a zoo of stuffed animals just haphazardly placed around the room with no regard for order was driving me crazy. I swear my evil family and Jane did it on purpose.

  I thought I liked Jess. But when she bit her cheek and placed her pink roses with the yellow ones with a grin, I decided she was just pure evil. She knows what she did, and she's on my list now. No wonder Jane broke up with her. Fine whatever, she was being extra sweet. Shut up.

  It was so just so weird that the two toughest women I knew seemed to dote over me in my forced convalescence. It made my detective a little uneasy when Jess did for some reason.

  It amazed me how many people had sent well wishes. I thought I was pretty isolated in the world, not having many friends. I was beginning to second guess that now. A few of the walkers I know were even able to smuggle smaller dogs in for a visit to cheer me up.

  The past couple days as I've been confined to my hospital bed as the doctors monitored my severe concussion and cracked orbital socket. If all went well, they'd be releasing me tonight into the wild, just to be confined to bedrest for another seventy-two hours.

  I really missed Jane. She's been in and out as she tied up all the loose ends of the case. But every free moment she has, she's sitting in the chair beside my bed. She makes me feel like I matter to her, and I can't tell you how that warms me inside.

  It made me question our odd relationship again if you can call it a relationship. I felt, well... I felt like I was her girlfriend, the way she looked at me with so much concern and warmth, and...

  aggravation. But she refuses to speak about it whenever I try to bring it up when we are alone in the room.

  She always just kisses the top of my head and run her fingers through my hair, “Hush now, Fin, just take the time to recover. We can talk when we get you back home and... what the hell? Why is the nurse call button labeled? Did your mother smuggle your labeler in here?”

  What? I get bored easily... a girl needs a hobby.

  The woman won't even talk about the case and threatens everyone else not to, that I need to rest and

  not worry about that stuff yet.

  This forced stay reminds me of the other time I had to be hospitalized. Back when I was thirteen, a couple weeks after dad died.

  Garrett and I had been out walking with the group of guys he hung out with, Dale, Jeremy, and Wiz. Huh, I never did learn what Wiz's real name was, he ran their Dungeons and Dragon's campaigns.

  They had dropped by because besides school, Gar and I had been almost barricading ourselves in our rooms at home. Nobody ever tells you how to fill the loss when someone you love passes on.

  Everything had felt off, knowing that dad wasn't going to be walking through the door after work and greet us before he flopped down into the overstuffed recliner to flip on the television to watch the news. And like a fool, that's exactly what I had expected every time I heard a door opening.

  My chest hurt all the time, and I was all cried out and was numb most of the time. I still don't know how mom was so strong through the sickness, the diagnosis, the chemo, then dad's death. She always shared with us that dad was her soulmate, and you could see that truth in her eyes when she sat vigil at his bedside the last couple days. She didn't see the sick and wheezing man, struggling to stay with us, she saw the big strong man he had always been, with a kind word and smile for everyone.

  Garrett looks so much like dad now.

  Us kids didn't know how to properly process it. Our emotions were on the surface, and we preferred to just hide away. But as mean and cruel as kids can be at times, they can sometimes surprise you with the depth of empathy they can exhibit at times.

  The boys had just shown up out of the blue and asked if we just wanted to hang out. Gar refused, but Wiz somehow talked him into just going out for a walk, and taking me with them. Now that I look back on things, I'm pretty sure Wiz sort of had a thing for me. I was too young and dense to figure it out back then. I saw his teasing like everyone else's and filed it in the 'go away and leave me alone'

  folder.

  They never even asked once if we were ok, or asked
about our dad, but we could feel their need to just be there for us. Looking back, that day held two turning points in my life as we just wandered through Liberty, just sharing a quiet comradery.

  I think that was the first time I processed that dad really wasn't coming home again, and I finally accepted it. It hurt like hell, but I accepted it. The world still spun, and life went on, and it was all so very unfair.

  The second was what happened when we passed a construction site down by the river. It was where I learned that I still had the ability to love.

  The guys were all talking over each other when they tried to pull us out of our funk by talking about

  the new modules for D&D that had been released, me trailing behind them. Then Gar held up a hand,

  “Guys, shut up a second. Do you hear that?”

  We all stopped and listened. I could just barely make out a small whimper on the wind. We moved to the construction fencing, that bright orange expanded plastic webbing stuff stretched between little posts spaced around the construction site.

  I felt panic inside, growing, and didn't understand it. Well maybe I did, something sounded scared, and I understood scared... and I didn't want it to be afraid. I had to help it.

  Wiz had glanced at the guys then at me, and he made a decision. He grabbed the bottom of the webbing and held it up for us, “Come on. Let's see what it is.”

  We all snuck under the fence and snuck behind some equipment and looked around the site. It was going to be the new Liberty City Hall when it was done. The space was huge, and they had foundations being pored by cement trucks with these big hoses held up by cranes as we watched.

  The whining was louder there. It sounded like it was coming from a huge sand pile that was almost two stories tall. After a backhoe trundled past where we were hiding, we all ran to behind the sand pile. We all know not to play in sand piles like that, too many times children get hurt ignoring what their parents say about the subject. But there on the back side of the pile were some little tunnels some kids had dug to create some makeshift hideouts.

  The whining was coming from a smaller tunnel, likely made by some grade schoolers, it was so small. We looked in to see about ten feet back was a little cocker spaniel puppy, maybe just a few weeks old. It looked like the sand had collapsed on it, pinning it down as it whined. Just its head and one paw were visible.

  Garrett tried to move into the tunnel, but he couldn't fit. He muttered, “I'm too big. Come on guys, let's dig it out.” They started digging at the front of the tunnel as I wrung my hands, feeling helpless as the poor puppy whined. It was so scared, and I was afraid for it.

  When their attempt to enlarge the tunnel were met with sand cascading down to almost block it off, they stopped. I had got on my knees and gently moved the new fallen sand away from the entrance. I remember saying my first words I had spoken that day, I hadn't had anything to say since they had convinced us to go out, “I think I can fit.”

  I was their age, but even for a girl, I was small, still am. I saw that little puppy back there, with wide, frantic eyes, and I fell in love. Before Garrett could protest, I had already squirmed in and was making my way to the dog.

  Wiz was encouraging me, “You're almost there, shrimp.”

  Then I got to the little puppy and shushed it as its squirming and whining got more frantic as it tried

  to get to me. “Shh... it's ok. I got you. It's going to be ok.” I patted its head and smiled at it as I slowly worked the sand from around it. Then I froze in horror when my hand found something long and fluffy. It was a dog's tail. I started panicking. Oh god, the puppy's mom was buried and unmoving. Was she living in the tunnel with her babies? Was this little one the last one alive after a collapse?

  I started hyperventilating, but Garrett's voice came down the tunnel. “It's ok, Flea, you got this.”

  I nodded and forced myself to calm my breathing, and I worked quickly to pull the puppy free.

  Then I had it. I dusted it off a bit and smiled. It was a little girl. I said to her, “Ok, sweetie, let's get out of here.”

  But with a swishing sound as the light from outside suddenly dimmed, I knew the tunnel was collapsing, and I curled myself around the puppy to protect it as the world crushed down upon me, pushing the air from my lungs. And everything went dark.

  I guess by the time the boys got the construction workers over to help. I hadn't been breathing when they dug me out. But the puppy was ok, I had shielded it. The construction workers started CPR

  until the ambulance arrived.

  To this day Garrett flinches when he hears a siren. He said he freaked out when they said I had no pulse. I was basically dead. But the EMTs got my heart started, and me breathing again and rushed me to the hospital. Mom met them there.

  I remember my initial panic, waking up and thinking I couldn't breathe as I clawed at a tube that was down my throat. And the tears. There were so many tears. Mine, Mom's, Garrett's – though you could never get him to admit it. Boys are weird that way.

  Once the tube was removed from me, the doctors subjected me to a million tests and a barrage of questions. Like what day was it, what was my name? Count backward from one hundred by threes.

  I was there for three days before they released me. Mom must have chastised me a thousand times by then. I could tell, she was just scared. We had just lost dad, and here I did something stupid, and she almost lost me too. I felt like the worst daughter in the world.

  I kept asking about the puppy, and she would just grump at me, “Don't you worry about the damn dog and concentrate on getting better.”

  Gar almost went into giggle fits when one of the nurses, Evelyn, asked mom in hushed tones if I had been so obsessive before the accident.

  I hate him.

  Mom had chuckled too, saying simply, “No, that's my Fin.” What? The room was a mess, and the orderly didn't know how to make the empty bed beside mine correctly. You'd think they'd know how

  to make hospital corners in a hospital. They kept sending me back to bed when they caught me tidying.

  Don't look at me like that, you'd do the same, and you know it.

  When we got home, my heart just about broke when I found the puppy there waiting for us. Mom had taken her in. I almost felt guilty finding I could still love again after losing dad. Puddles was my lifeline to navigating my heartbreak. And I have loved dogs with a burning passion ever since.

  It didn't take long for me to discover why mom and Gar had named the little cocker spaniel Puddles, and it was my job to take care of her little messes if I wanted to keep her.

  I sighed as I sat in bed, running that memory through my head. Puddles was getting old now, slowing down, with only a couple good years left ahead of her. Mom spoils her senseless.

  I often wondered why we never had a dog before her, she has brought such joy and happy memories to our family. It was going to break my heart anew when the day finally comes that we have to say goodbye to the sweet girl. But until then, we're going to make so many more happy memories with her, and she always perks up and has fun when I bring Calvin over to visit.

  Calvin! I panicked a moment and looked around until I saw him curled up in the little dog bed beside me, wearing his service bib. I've been having acute anxiety and mini panic attacks every time I lose sight of him. It is going to take a while before I can convince myself that he's ok.

  He had been so brave defending me against Suit and Brute. And even braver to take care of Oscar when I told him to run. He should never have been hurt because of my stupidity. But how was I supposed to know that the breeders were the murderers?

  I think he could feel my eyes on him, as he looked up, cocked his head with his tongue lolling to the side as his tail swished once. I grinned at him and asked, “Who's a pretty boy?”

  A woman's voice made me look at the door to see Jess, looking as glamorous as ever and grinning there as she said, “Well, Calvin is, of course, you goof.”

  Mom woke up on the little couch by
the wall and gave the woman a tired smile. If it wasn't Jane sitting with me during visiting hours, it was mom. The two acted like I'd evaporate into the air if I wasn't watched. That first night, Jane even refused to leave my room even though it was well past visiting hours already. I think they gave her some leeway because of the badge on her shapely hip.

  Jess almost swayed her way into the room. “Knock knock.”

  I smiled and held a hand out, and she came to sit in the chair beside me to take my hand. “Hey, Mable.” Calvin stood to get his customary ear scritches from her with her free hand.

  She growled with a laugh in her tone, “Watch it, runt.” She leaned forward, kissed my forehead, and rubbed the back of my hand with her thumb. “I saw Jane parking in the garage, she'll be here in a minute. She was too slow taking the spot she was angling for, so I took it.” I could see it in my head,

  Jessie recklessly swerving around her and screeching to a stop in the parking spot, and most likely getting a middle finger from Jane before the poor cop had to find another spot in the overcrowded garage.

  Good lord of all that is fluffy, now that I was coming to terms with my new realizations about my sexuality, I couldn't help but appreciate how sexy this redhead was. I had almost as pleasant a reaction to her mock flirting as I had around our good Detective McLeary.

  I admit I've always been a flirty one after I graduated high school. Interacting with men who didn't know my unfortunate bullied past in school. And flirting is fun.

  I felt the tips of my ears heat as I grinned at her. “Looking good, lady.”

  She wiggled her eyebrows at me in fun. I almost giggled at myself. Who knew it could be just as much fun flirting with women? Then I thought of Jane. We... didn't flirt. At all. We argued and got on each other's nerves, yet she was the subject of all my most engaging fantasies. Yet another thing that was aggravating about the ebony haired Amazon.

  Almost on cue, my belly fluttered and my core heated at a voice at the door which left me biting my lower lip. “Paws off the merchandise, Red.” Jane stood in the doorway hanging a garment bag on the back hook.