by Diane Kelly
I found myself too choked up to respond. Before I would have been able to anyway, the dogs came to the glass door and barked, wanting in. I slid the door open and they aimed right for the water bowl, lapping up water like they’d never get enough.
When it was time for Seth to take me and Brigit home, I gave Lisa a hug. “It was great to see you again.”
She hugged me tight. “You, too.”
I stepped over to the recliner, where Oliver had once again planted himself.
He looked up at me. “I’m not a hugger.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “I won’t force one on you.” No sense pushing too hard too fast. I reached out and gave his arm a soft squeeze. Oliver tensed at my touch, going rigid as steel, as if it had been a long time since he’d received any physical affection. He’d be a tough nut to crack, but I was determined to do whatever I could to break through his shell.
I released him and stepped back. “I hope to see you again soon.”
He didn’t return the sentiment, but he didn’t scold me for touching him, either. I’d take that as progress.
* * *
More than two weeks passed without incident. Not a single call had come in from Ryan or Adriana. The security patrolman phoned me once to say he’d seen a blond woman leave Ryan’s unit at a very late hour, but it could very well have been Danielle. I swung by but saw nothing suspicious. Ryan’s car and work truck were both in the parking lot, and the lights were out in his apartment.
Yep, like the Lollipop Bandit, the two seemed to be lying low. Maybe whichever one of them was pulling the stupid stunts had got everything out of their system and decided to turn their attention elsewhere. A big part of me hoped that would be the case. Another part of me wondered whether I’d ever feel a sense of closure if the stalking simply stopped and no arrest was ever made. When a serial killer hasn’t murdered anyone in a while, law enforcement never knew what it meant. Had the killer died? Moved away? Suffered a debilitating injury or health condition that prevented the killer from committing another murder? Or was he or she working behind the scenes, plotting and planning an even more heinous crime?
Not knowing was unsettling.
It was near the end of August now, and I was working the swing shift this week. Swing shift wasn’t so bad. It started at 4 P.M. and ran until 1 A.M. That gave me the daytime to run errands, do chores at the house, or train with Brigit. I’d done errands and chores yesterday, so today I chose training.
K-9s had critical skills for certain situations and were a vital tool in law enforcement. Nonetheless, those skills were not put to constant use, which made training important to keep the K-9 team up to speed when the need arose. Today, Brigit and I were at Forest Park, playing hide-and-seek with a bag of weed I’d checked out of evidence. Seth had the day off, so he and Blast had come along with us. While having another dog in the midst was a distraction for Brigit, it was also helpful. Police K-9s had to learn to work and focus despite distractions.
The sky was overcast today, but you’d get no complaints from us. The clouds kept the sun at bay, and the temperature was a bearable 86 degrees rather than the usual upper nineties or low one hundreds.
While Seth held on to Brigit’s leash, I ventured into the wooded area, looking for a place to hide the dope. My stomach involuntarily clenched as I walked past the spot where I’d found a dead body a few months ago. To say the man’s face had been pulverized would be an understatement. The image was the type of thing nightmares were made of, and would be forever seared into my memory.
Forcing myself to move on, I found a tree with a low branch and used it to hoist myself higher up. I tucked the bag of weed into a crook about nine feet high and dropped back to the ground. Lest Brigit simply track my steps to this spot, I hurriedly ran back and forth and round and round in the general area to mix things up before exiting the woods farther down and circling back to Seth and the dogs.
“You’re up, girl!” I told her. I issued the order for her to scent for drugs.
She lifted her snout into the air and worked her nose, her nostrils twitching. Sniff-sniff. With the rest of us following along, she set off, sometimes stopping and lifting her nose again, then taking off in a slightly different direction. She ventured into the woods, her nose continuing to quiver. With her head lifted high, she appeared to be prancing as she trotted along. But while she might look as if she were playing around, she was actually hard at work.
She sped up as the scent grew stronger. She sniffed and sniffed and eventually circled the tree where I’d planted the weed, rising up on one leg on the trunk to verify that, yep, the drugs were up the tree. With one final sniff she plunked her butt down on the ground and looked up into the tree, issuing her passive alert.
I grabbed the limb and pulled myself up, snagging the bag of weed. “Good girl!” I told Brigit, giving her an energetic scratch and a couple of liver treats. Though he’d done nothing to earn it, other than being a sweetie, Blast got a liver treat, too.
A trio of teenage boys wandered by, throwing sticks and rocks. One of them looked at the bag in my hand, “Is that weed?”
I was dressed in civilian clothes, but I could make an arrest if needed. “You looking to score?”
He looked me up and down, then glanced over at Brigit, apparently putting two and two together and realizing I could be a cop. Any offer to buy the drug from me would land his butt in booking. He was smarter than he looked. “No, man!” he said. “I’m not trying to make a buy. I was just curious, that’s all.”
I gave him a pointed look and a suspicious mm-hm. “You sure about that?”
The boys muttered among themselves and hurried on.
Once they were gone, Seth chuckled. “I think you scared ’em.”
“I hope I scared them. They’ve got no business with weed.”
After having Brigit find the drugs two more times, we moved on to tracking exercises. Seth hid on the far side of the swimming pool. Brigit got on his trail and found him in no time. Next he hid at the far end of the zoo’s parking lot. She found him there, too. The three boys came around again to watch. If they were dabbling in drugs, maybe seeing how interesting police work could be would turn them around, entice them to be on the right side of law enforcement. “Want to join in?” I asked them.
“Hell, yeah!” their leader cried.
“Okay,” I told him. “You’ve got two minutes to go somewhere and hide. My dog will come find you.”
Seth gave them an “on your mark, get set, go!” The boys took off running into the woods. I watched the timer app on my phone. When the two minutes were up and the alert sounded, I gave Brigit the command to trail the disturbance.
I followed along after her as she tracked the boys, her nose to the ground. She snuffled around, at one point sniffing around the base of a tree and putting a paw up on it as she sniffed the air around its lower limbs. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts the boys had climbed the tree in an attempt to throw her off. She lowered her head and found their trail again, trotting along at a good clip with me trotting after her.
She found the boys hunkered down behind a berm on the bank of the Trinity River. When she found them, she looked up at me as if to say, Treat me, Megan.
“You got one smart dog, lady!” one of the boys said.
“Thanks,” I replied on Brigit’s behalf, giving her another liver treat.
The boys asked if they could give her a treat, too. I handed each of them one treat. They tossed them into the air, laughing as she rose onto her hind legs to catch them and gobble them down.
After we’d trained for a couple of hours, we were hot and sweaty and sunbaked and nearly done for. Brigit’s and Blast’s ears perked up and they looked to the parking lot. It was another few seconds before my inferior human ears heard tinny music. A white truck with a snow cone painted on the side pulled to the curb. People streamed over to get a cold treat.
“I could go for a snow cone,” Seth said. “How about you?”
> I sure could. Hot as I was, I wouldn’t mind a couple scoops of ice to stick in my bra, as well.
We walked over to the truck and read over the numerous flavor options listed on the menu. When it was our turn, I stepped up to the window. “Blue raspberry, please.”
The server at the window turned to Seth. “What about you?”
“Give me a cherry snow cone,” Seth said. “I like the classics.”
When the man noticed the dogs wagging their tails down below, he threw in two plain balls of ice for free. The dogs had fun rolling the balls around with their noses and crunching them up with their teeth.
Brigit and I parted ways with Seth and Blast around 3 P.M. That gave me just enough time to shower and dress for my shift.
* * *
My fluffy partner and I cruised around W1, circling through the Mistletoe Heights neighborhood, rolling on through Berkeley Place, continuing on to University Park. We slowly cruised the medical district, keeping a keen eye out for a man in scrubs armed with a grape Tootsie Roll Pop. Nothing. Had the Lollipop Bandit given up his life of crime? Or had he simply been more careful when he snagged the suckers and thus avoided being spotted committing his crimes?
Around five, rush hour began and the streets got busier. A fender-bender on Berry took up half an hour, as I wrote a report and directed oncoming traffic around the cars. A driver checking out the accident inadvertently swerved too close and nearly sideswiped me.
“Watch it!” I yelled after him.
Once the tow trucks had hauled off the cars, Brigit and I set back out on the streets. While Texas Christian University had its own police department, I decided to take a cruise through the campus and revisit some of the spots from a recent undercover drug case I’d worked there. Over there was the dorm I’d lived in. Beyond that was the library where I’d pretended to study while actually spying on the students I suspected could be dealing Molly. Another turn and I was driving past the common area where the students had snagged free nachos after Essie Espinoza, an aspiring senatorial candidate, had given a rousing speech. Good times.
I pulled into a spot reserved for law enforcement so Brigit could take a potty break in one of the grassy areas. After she’d relieved herself, a group of students came over to say hello. Brigit wagged her tail as they approached.
“Are you two the cops who broke up the Molly ring?” asked a boy in a ball cap featuring the university’s horned frog mascot.
“Yep,” I said. “That’s us.” Living legends.
“Can I get a picture with you?”
“Sure.”
He handed his phone to one of the other students to take the pic. I stepped into place next to him and ordered Brigit to sit at our feet.
Click.
“Can I get one, too?” another student asked.
“Of c-course.”
We spent the next couple of minutes taking pictures with the students. While I certainly didn’t go into police work to become some type of celebrity, I had to admit it was nice to feel appreciated. Of course I knew the students would have been unlikely to recognize me without Brigit by my side and that she was the true star of the show. But I was fine with being her human sidekick.
We bade good-bye to the kids and headed back to our cruiser. On the way, a familiar voice called our names. “Megan! Brigit!”
We turned to see a boy with dark curls, his hand raised in greeting. Hunter. He lived in the same dorm where Brigit and I had lived when working undercover on the drug case. If I’d been five years younger and unattached, I could’ve had a huge crush on the kid. He was cute, sweet, and smart, not to mention a dog lover. Everything a girl could want in a boyfriend.
I gave him a smile as he approached, while Brigit greeted him with a wagging tail and a happy woof! “How’s it going, Hunter?”
He returned my smile and shrugged. “Can’t complain. A little less exciting without you two around, though.”
Aww. Darn if I didn’t feel my cheeks heat up. “Everyone behaving themselves at the dorm?”
“Heck, yeah,” he said. “There are rumors that another undercover cop is living there. Nobody knows who it might be.” He arched a brow. “Care to share any inside information?”
I knew there was nobody from Fort Worth PD currently working undercover at TCU, but might as well let the students think it anyway. Anything that kept them from doing stupid, dangerous things, right? “Sorry, Hunter. My lips are sealed.”
At the mention of my lips, his gaze flickered to my mouth before returning to my eyes. “I better run,” he said. “I’ve got a study session for an exam. It was great seeing you.”
“Right back at ya.”
As he turned and walked away, my inner twenty-year-old coed heaved a sappy sigh.
Having stretched our legs, Brigit and I returned to the cruiser. As we exited the TCU campus, my cell phone rang. It was Adriana.
“Ryan’s following me!” she shrieked.
“Where are you?”
“In my car,” she said. “I’m heading north on McCart, almost to Park Hill.”
I punched the gas but didn’t turn on my lights or siren. The siren and lights would only warn Ryan I was coming, give him a chance to perform an evasive maneuver. So far, I hadn’t been able to catch either Adriana or Ryan in the act of committing a crime, which was the primary reason I’d been unable to make an arrest. There hadn’t been enough concrete evidence against either of them to prove which one was the stalker. Now, I had the chance to catch Ryan red-handed. I’d always suspected he was the guilty party. That is, when I wasn’t suspecting it was Adriana.
“Is he in his work truck or the Camaro?” I asked.
“His work truck.”
“Is he right behind you?”
“No, he’s two or three cars back,” she said. “I think he’s trying not to be noticed.”
“I’m on my way. Stay on the line and tell me each move you make.”
“Okay. I’m turning left on Park Hill now.”
“Where are you headed?” I asked.
“I was on my way to the grocery store, but now I’m afraid to stop. I don’t know what he might do if I get out of my car.”
I didn’t know, either. She was much safer if she kept moving until I arrived on the scene. “Just keep driving. I’ll get him.”
I sped east on McPherson, hooked a left to go north on Green Avenue, and intercepted the two there. Adriana’s beige Accent rolled by just as I reached the corner. She turned her head my way and raised her fingers from the steering wheel to let me know she’d seen me, but she kept driving. Not ten seconds later, Ryan drove past in his truck. He was so focused on the road ahead he failed to notice me. Dumbass.
I pulled out behind him and turned on my lights. Do you see me now?
His head angled upward as he checked his rearview mirror and spotted me behind him. His brake lights came on and he slowed, pulling over to the right and coming to a stop.
“I’m pulling him over,” I told Adriana as I eased to the curb behind his truck. “You go on. I’ll call you back later.”
I left Brigit in the car with the windows down as I exited and strolled up to Ryan’s window.
“Hey, Officer Luz,” he said. “Was I speeding or something?”
I gave him a pointed look. “You know exactly what you were doing, Ryan. And so do I.”
He looked away before turning back to me, his face hard. “So you know I was going to meet Adriana?”
Meet? “That’s not exactly how I’d put it. You were following her.”
“She’s up there somewhere?”
“Yes,” I said. “You followed her on three different turns.”
He raised his hands off the steering wheel in innocence. “I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t realize she was ahead of me. All I know is she went to Toby’s day camp today and told him to tell me that if I wanted my Wonder Woman #1 comic book I should meet her at a Mexican restaurant we used to go to.”
“Is that true?
” I asked. “Or are you just making up a story because I caught you here?”
“It’s true!” He frowned, fuming, his face turning red with rage. “That comic’s worth a shitload of money, and you police have done jack shit about getting it back for me! I didn’t want to see that crazy bitch ever again, but I want my comic book! You can’t blame me for agreeing to meet her.”
Once again I couldn’t prove the guy was lying to me. Heck, I didn’t even know if he was, in fact, lying. Maybe he was telling the truth. This case is really chapping my ass.
I pulled out my cell phone. “What’s your brother’s number? I want to talk to Toby. See if he backs up your story.”
Ryan smirked. “He will.”
As Ryan rattled off his brother’s cell number, I dialed it on my phone. When an adult male answered, I identified myself and said, “May I speak with Toby, please?”
“He’s playing in his room. Give me a second.”
I waited for a brief moment before Toby came on the line. “Hello?”
“Hi, Toby,” I said, trying to sound as pleasant as possible. “This is Megan Luz. I’m the police officer who came to your uncle’s door with my dog a while back. Remember us?”
“Mm-hm. Your dog is fluffy.”
“She sure is. Hey, can you tell me what happened at day camp today?”
“It was fun!” he said brightly. “We did scooter races in the gym and they gave us Popsicles.”
While I was glad he’d had a good time, this information was not exactly what I’d been looking for. “Did anyone come to see you at camp?”
“No.”
“No?” I glanced over at Ryan, raising accusatory brows. “So nobody said anything to you about your uncle Ryan and his comic book?”
“A girl did.”
