Page 104
Story: Whistle
“Dougie?”
“The dog. Big one. A Lab. Five shots. Dougie was moving fast. First two missed him.”
“You go stay with the son. I’ll talk to Mrs. Wilford.”
He found her in the kitchen, but not before seeing Dougie, motionless on his side on the gray broadloom next to the coffee table in the living room.
Mrs. Wilford, a dark-haired woman in her mid-thirties, dressed in black slacks and a black silk blouse, a strand of pearls at her neck, sat at the table, staring into space. Harry took a seat, introduced himself.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened.”
“Dougie went crazy. He’s the kindest, gentlest dog in the whole world. Never bit a soul. We could always trust him with Tyler. I don’t... I can’t understand how he could... he turned into a wild animal, snarling and baring his teeth and oh God Trevor loved him so much and I don’t know what I’m going to tell him.”
“Trevor?”
“My husband. He’s in Boston on business. He won’t believe me when I tell him. Tyler was upstairs—he’s home today, he woke up with a funny tummy, but he got over it once I said he didn’t have to go to school, you know how kids are—and he was playing, andDougie was down here, and he started growling and barking and coming after me. Look.”
She pushed back her chair and extended her right leg. Her pants were torn below the knee, and there was blood on her calf.
“You need to get that tended to,” Harry said.
“He was chasing me around the living room and into the kitchen, and I jumped up onto a chair and he leapt up, and that’s when he bit my leg.”
“Tell me about the gun.”
“Trevor bought it for me. Protection for when he was away. I keep it up there.” She nodded toward the kitchen cabinetry. “Above the microwave.”
“So you managed to get to the gun, and then?”
“I started firing. I was scared Tyler would come downstairs, or Dougie would go up there, after him. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Her eyes welled up with tears. “I missed a couple of times. He jumped right at me, baring his teeth. I though he was going to kill me. When Tyler heard the shots he came running down and I screamed at him to stay in his room. How could something like this happen? I just don’t understand.”
Harry gave her arm a squeeze. “I’m going to go up and check on Tyler and see if Officer Bloodworth can do something about getting Dougie out of the house.”
The woman nodded.
As Harry left the kitchen, he heard a sound from upstairs. A sound that should have been innocuous enough, but gave him a chill when he heard it.
Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuff
Harry climbed the stairs and poked his head into the room where the sound was coming from. Stick was sitting on the floor with theboy, Tyler, watching a toy train go around an oval of track. Stick got to his feet and said, “Tyler here was showing me his awesome new train set.”
Harry pulled Stick aside and said to him quietly, “Get Dougie out of the house.”
Stick nodded and slipped out of the room. Harry took a knee and smiled at Tyler.
“Hey, Tyler. You mind if we slow that train down for a second? I want to talk to you.”
Tyler eased back on the transformer throttle. The train came to a stop and went silent.
“I’m real sorry about what happened to your dog.”
The boy’s lower lip extended and he said, “Mom said he must have got rabies or something.”
“You never saw him act like that before?”
Tyler’s head went back and forth.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104 (Reading here)
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154