Page 70 of Men or Paws

I had already searched the entire backyard for Houdini, but he was nowhere to be found. I would never forgive myself if something happened to him.

“Uh-oh,” Holly said. “Tell me quickly! What happened?”

I rushed down the long, winding driveway toward the street, trying to keep my balance as I talked on the phone. “You don’t want to know.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Houdini!” I called out and stopped, looking to the left, then the right. “Rocco’s dog escaped, but this time I can’t find him anywhere on the property. Let me call you back.”

“Wait!” Holly said, sensing that I was just about to disconnect the call. “I thought his property was enclosed behind a security gate.”

“It is,” I said.

“That’s so weird you can’t find him. Do you think somebody stole him?”

“What? No! Why would someone steal him?”

“Hello? Rocco is worth millions. Maybe they’re going to hold the dog for ransom until he coughs up a bunch of money.”

I stopped on the driveway. “Why would you put that in my head?”

“Because it happens! Remember what happened to Lady Gaga?”

I didn’t even want to think about that.

What a horrible thing for anyone to have to go through.

“I need to focus on simple solutions, not worst-case scenarios that will break Rocco’s heart,” I said.

“Sorry—you’re right,” Holly said. “What are you going to do?”

“I read online that eighty percent of lost pets are found within a mile of the home, so I should check around the neighborhood and talk with neighbors.

“Good. What about a posting on Nextdoor?”

“Not yet. That could easily get back to Rocco and I want him to find out from me if I can’t find Houdini. I just need a little more time before I get to that point. How could he have gotten off the property if the gate was closed?”

“Well, his name is Houdini, so he obviously found a way,” Holly said. “Nobody there could’ve left the gate open by accident?”

“No,” I said. “I’m the only one who is—”

Wait a minute.

Rocco mentioned there was going to be a crew working on a security system down at the main gate. They would have had to open the gate to work on it, right?

“Oh, no,” I mumbled to myself, wondering if Houdini had gotten out and was now wandering around the neighborhood.

Rocco lived on a private road, so I didn’t have to worry about cars rushing by. Still, Houdini could be anywhere, especially since the house was very close to a huge nature preserve.

“What happened?” Holly asked. “Beth, are you there?”

“Yeah—I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back,” I said, disconnecting the call and running down to the bottom of the driveway where I found the gate wide open.

There were three workers there, all wearing jeans and matching company T-shirts with logos on the chest. They were busy working on various tasks as music played from one of their phones.

“Have any of you seen a golden retriever around here?” I asked, gasping for breath.

All three guys turned around, all three of them shook their heads.