Woof at the Door

by Laura Morrigan

  I looked into his eyes and took a deep, relaxing breath.

  “Okay, boy, give me something. Something I can call in to the hotline that will get LaBryce out of jail.” And keep me from having to dig myself any deeper into this mess. I didn’t push it. I stayed gentle and calm as I brought what little I’d learned about the murder to the front of my mind.

  Jax had been outside looking in. It was dark.

  For a moment, I sensed his memory stirring. I could feel his anticipation, wanting Mark to open the back door so he could greet the person. But in an instant the memory was gone. Jax began to whimper and quake.

  I immediately backed off. “All right, Jax, you’re okay.” I felt a pang of guilt. Forcing Jax to remember was cruel and wrong. I would just have to make do with what I had.

  Scolding myself, I decided to make amends by throwing the tennis ball for him a few times. I pulled the ball out of my shorts pocket. “Okay, boy, you want it? Go get it!” I hurled the ball down the beach.

  Jax flew joyfully after the ball, scooped it up mid-bounce, and bounded back.

  Moss, wanting no part in the game, started to wander off, nose to the ground.

  “You have some nerve!”

  Startled, I turned toward the shrill accusing voice. It was our neighbor, Mr. Cavanaugh. The old man had a perfect potbelly and skin the color and texture of a World War II bomber jacket. He held a metal detector in one hand and something that looked like a large cat litter scooper in the other. Glaring, he gestured with both as he spoke.

  “Those animals do not belong on this beach!”

  I reached out and secured Jax by his collar. I forced a smile. “Hello, Mr. Cavanaugh—”

  “Don’t you ‘hello’ me.” He advanced toward us.

  Moss, who had been inquisitively sniffing at a crab hole a few feet away, turned his wolflike eyes toward the complaining man. I sensed his unease and moved toward him. I bade both the dogs to stay calm. Easy. It’s okay.

  Jax reacted to my request and sat obediently. Moss, on the other hand, reserved judgment.

  Mr. Cavanaugh, clearly incensed, took another step in our direction. “Filthy. Leave their droppings for me to find.”

  I had a feeling there would be a sticky note on the door for Emma today.

  “It’s an outrage!” He swung the metal detector to point at Moss, and it emitted a long high-pitched weeeeeeer! Barely audible to me, I knew it was like a foghorn to the dogs.

  Moss let out a deep disapproving growl. Jax followed his lead. The old man didn’t seem to notice and continued toward us, punctuating his censure by thrusting at them with the squeaking metal detector.

  By now I could feel the weeeeeer! ringing in my head.

  “Moss . . .” He had taken all he could. I reached for his collar and had barely wrapped my fingers around it when he lunged at the metal detector.

  Mr. Cavanaugh tumbled back onto the ground. His bony, liver-spotted legs kicked at the air and his arms flailed in the sand. He looked like an animated rotisserie chicken.

  It took all of my strength, but I managed to bring the dogs under control. I pulled them away from the piercing noise of the metal detector.

  “I should have you arrested! Those animals are a menace!” he shrieked, scrambling to get to his feet.

  “I’m sorry. They don’t understand the metal detector. It hurts their ears. They weren’t after you—”

  “Explain that to animal control!” With that last barb, the old man stomped furiously away.

  “Great.” Now Emma would really be hearing from the old goat. The door would probably be covered with sticky notes. I needed to find time to go house hunting before the condo association started hassling my sister. Frowning, I led the two dogs back to the condo. I brushed them both off with an old towel before letting them inside.

  I had just hung the leashes in the foyer closet when I heard the ring tone of my cell. Hurrying into the kitchen, I plucked the phone off the counter and flipped it open.

  I started to say hello, but realized I had missed the call. I looked at the number; it wasn’t one I recognized.

  I listened to my messages. The first was from Preston White, who identified himself as LaBryce’s attorney. Mr. White spoke in short, clipped sentences. He informed me that LaBryce would not be bonded out until the judge had “more information” and asked, on his client’s behalf, that I look after Charm until further notice.

  I let out a sigh. Not because I minded looking after Charm, but because I hated that LaBryce was stuck in jail, sitting in a cell while the cops looked for evidence that would keep him there.

  The second message was from a man named Bo Bishop. He said he was Mark Richardson’s brother and was hoping to adopt Jax. I wondered why he and Mark didn’t share the same last name, but let the thought go. As long as he was willing and able to give Jax a good home after the mandatory quarantine, I didn’t care. The guy sounded a little country—lots of ma’ams and few ain’ts—but at least he seemed genuinely concerned about the dog.

  I smiled and decided to call him back and set up a time to meet with him.

  I hung up and started to hit Redial, but the phone rang before I could press the Send button.

  This time it was Kai.

  I hesitated a moment before answering. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Grace, it’s Kai Duncan. I’m on my way out to LaBryce Walker’s house. There’s already a lot of media there. Just ignore them and come up to the front of the house. I’ll wait for you.”

  The sound of his voice gave me a jolt of apprehension. “I’m on my way.”

  “See you soon,” was all he said before hanging up.

  I stood for a moment, tapping my finger thoughtfully on the counter, and then walked into the hall bath. I yanked my hair out of the wind-whipped ponytail and carefully twisted it into a perfect bun. I ran my fingers over my hair, checking for lumps. Satisfied that I looked professional, I grabbed my keys, dropped my phone into my purse, and bade farewell to the dogs.

  “Here we go,” I muttered and walked out the door.

  • • •

  I elbowed through the reporters and ducked under the yellow police tape that marked the crime scene perimeter in front of LaBryce’s house. An officer whose obvious duty was to keep people from breaching the line walked importantly toward me.

  “Ma’am, I’m sorry, you can’t be here.”

  Spotting Kai, I waved. He motioned for me to step forward, making sure that the officer saw him.

  My heart pounded a little harder as I walked over the lush lawn toward the house. I forced a slow, calming breath before looking up at Kai. He was standing next to a young Asian man who, judging from the matching field case, was also a member of the crime scene unit.

  Kai turned to speak to me. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Sure.” Though my nerves were humming like a bee, I refused to let it show. I clamped down on the little ripple of anxiety I felt and focused on Kai’s introductions.

  “Grace,” Kai said. “This is Charlie Yamada. He’s with the Crime Lab.”

  “I assumed as much.” I nodded at Charlie then looked back at Kai. “Ready?”

  “We’ve been waiting for you.” He looked at the grocery bag I was carrying. “Breakfast?”

  “Beef—for Charm, not me.”

  He nodded and motioned inside.

  We walked through the open front door and made our way to the kitchen.

  “I’ll just get her fed. Then I can call you and you can come on in.”

  I glanced at Charlie and decided I didn’t necessarily want anyone else to hear the conversation I was going to have with Kai. Plus, I had to remember to flirt, and there was no way I could pull that off with an audience. Heck, I wasn’t sure I could pull it off without one.

  “Um
, it would probably be best if just one person searched the enclosure. Too many people might make her a little nervous.”

  Charlie grinned at me in obvious relief. “Fine by me. I’ll go over the perimeter again. I might find something in the daylight.”

  Kai nodded. “Thanks, Charlie.”

  I opened the grocery bag and pulled out the beef shank. It was vacuum sealed in heavy-duty cellophane. “I need some scissors.”

  We both started opening drawers until Kai found a pair and handed them to me.

  I cut open the wrapper and placed the shank on a cookie sheet. I saw a bottle on the counter. It looked like a large vitamin bottle except that there was a homemade label wrapped around it. The words were written with a marker. They read: X-mix, followed by one tbls in AM. I opened the bottle, and saw that the tablespoon scoop was inside. There was barely one scoop left. Sighing, I sprinkled it on the meat. “Have you talked to Alex Burke yet?”

  “No. I think Jake has called him. We haven’t heard back.”

  “I’m going to need to talk to him.” I rubbed the powder into the beef, the way someone would work in a special marinade for a barbeque. “This vitamin mix is gone. It looks like something he made up himself. Charm has had a lot of health problems—it might be something she needs.”

  “I’ll make sure he calls you after we talk to him.”

  “Don’t you think it’s weird that he just stopped coming to work?”

  “He wouldn’t be the first guy who Houdini-ed on a job.”

  “Pretty irresponsible.”

  “Yes.”

  To me this meant he didn’t care about Charm. Something about that didn’t seem right. Most trainers and handlers I knew were loyal to the animals they cared for. I had to assume he was no different. Maybe I’d call Alex Burke myself, see what was going on.

  I noticed that Kai was watching me carefully. Probably looking for clues to my big secret. Well, he wasn’t going to get that. Not today anyway.

  I picked up the cookie sheet. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  By the light of day, the separation of the two rooms was more obvious.

  Charm was stretched out in the morning sun on a platform made to look like a large rock. She spotted me and nimbly leapt off her perch.

  I pointed to the rope wrapped around the cleat next to the guillotine door. “Go ahead and pull open this door and close it behind me.”

  “Got it.” He pulled on the rope, and I bent over to step inside.

  “I’ll call you and let you know it’s okay to come in,” I said over my shoulder.

  He nodded and slipped the door back into place.

  I waited a moment while Kai closed the first door behind me before opening the second leading into the enclosure. Charm was waiting anxiously on the other side. She let out a happy growl as I moved inside. Bottle?

  “Don’t start that again. Here.” I set the shank down in front of her.

  The big cat collapsed onto her belly and began munching.

  I looked over to see Kai standing by the glass wall, looking in at us. I tried to read his expression but couldn’t. He just seemed to be watching. Suddenly, I was self-conscious. This was what it was like to be a goldfish. No. I didn’t think goldfish could feel awkward. And I was feeling awkward as hell.

  I tried to remember the tips my sister had given me before she left that morning. Make eye contact. Pay him some compliments. Smile. I tried a casual smile. It felt thin and fake.

  Charm crunched on the shank bone and growled with possessive pleasure. I turned and watched her licking the bone clean. She wouldn’t need to eat again until tomorrow. Maybe LaBryce would be back by then. I was starting to think that I might be able to talk Kai into believing that LaBryce was innocent. I had come up with a convincing speech. At least I thought it was convincing. I’d find out.

  In an alarmingly short amount of time, Charm finished off the shank, crunching down to the tasty marrow. I’ve worked with all kinds of big cats, but it’s always a bit disturbing to be reminded of how quickly they can devour meat and bone. She lifted her head. Bottle?

  “No. Come over here, pretty girl, you need to sit with me.” Grinning, I led the cat over to the same log I had sat on last night. Unconcerned with dirt and grime this time, I plopped myself down on the damp log. “You’re going to have a visitor.”

  Charm looked to where Kai stood on the other side of the glass.

  “Yep, that’s him.” I focused on expressing friendship and trust. The jaguar needed to know that Kai was not a threat, and he wasn’t food. Thankfully, Charm accepted my assessment of Kai and went back to begging for a bottle by butting her head persistently against my knee.

  I nodded at Kai, who opened the guillotine door and stooped, moving cautiously into the enclosure.

  I felt sudden tension from the big cat. Charm growled in warning.

  “Stop, Kai.”

  He froze.

  I concentrated on identifying the object of Charm’s aversion. After a moment I was successful. “She doesn’t like that case. Set it down and back away from it.”

  Kai did as I asked.

  I released the cat and Charm stalked up to the case and sniffed it for a few moments. Then she turned her interest to Kai.

  I watched, amused, as Kai flinched at the inspection. “Don’t move, just let her smell you.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not going to move.”

  I couldn’t help but smile as I watched. Charm examined Kai thoroughly, even licking at the back of one of his hands. “She likes you.”

  “Likes me as a friend or as food?” He remained stock-still.

  I managed to swallow the laugh that threatened to scamper out of my throat and called the cat off. All right, that’s enough. “Come here, Charm.”

  Charm waited a beat and then slunk back to me.

  Kai let out a long breath. “Can I move now?”

  “Sure.” The jaguar watched with interest as Kai pulled a flashlight from his case, turned it on, and started walking back and forth across the width of the enclosure.

  Taking a calming breath, I asked, “What are you looking for?”

  He glanced up. A smile played at his lips. “Clues.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Come on. Really.”

  “His gun would be nice.” He muttered as he scanned the earth and pine bark–covered floor.

  I knew LaBryce had a gun. It was a super-duper custom deal. He’d shown it to me on one of my visits. “You’re looking for the shiny one?”

  Kai’s gaze leapt up to latch onto mine. “You’ve seen it?”

  My knee-jerk reaction was to deny it. But I thought about Kai’s assumption the night before that I was involved with LaBryce and reconsidered. I’d have to earn Kai’s trust if I was going to have any hope of swaying his opinion.

  I nodded, hoping I looked eager to help. “LaBryce showed it to me just after he got it. He told me the gun was customized by some guy in Arizona, or maybe it was Texas—I don’t remember. It was actually kind of pretty, for a pistol. Big. Polished chrome with a jaguar on each side of the handle.”

  Kai nodded and went back to his search. “Arizona. We have a copy of the receipt.”

  Passed that test. Hoping to keep the goodwill flowing, I added, “He kept it in a case.”

  “It’s not in the case.”

  I felt a jolt of confusion. Where else would it be? “You think he used it to kill Mark and hid it in here?”

  “I have to look. LaBryce says he doesn’t know where the gun is. He locked it in its case and put it in a drawer.”

  It was obvious that Kai didn’t believe this story.

  I sat and pondered the missing gun for a while. LaBryce hung out with some folks that ran afoul of the law. He had parties. He had domestic help and an animal
trainer. All of them had access to the house and, presumably, his gun.

  “Maybe someone stole it.”

  “Yeah, that’s what he said.” Kai paused in his search and looked at me. “We’ve been checking with pawn shops and Jake has talked to his informant. No one’s seen a custom, chrome-plated, semiautomatic pistol.”

  “Oh,” was all I managed to say. This was not good news. I knew LaBryce was innocent, so I was not infected with the doubt that plagued Kai. But I had to admit the AWOL firearm looked bad. It would make it doubly hard to talk Kai into accepting the idea that LaBryce was not the gangster his PR firm wanted everyone to imagine he was.

  The real LaBryce was a kindhearted man who loved his mama and had a soft spot for animals.

  I couldn’t think of a way to express this without sounding antagonistic, so I changed the subject. “How long have you been doing this? Been a crime scene investigator?”

  Kai answered without stopping his examination of the enclosure. “I started with the CSU about ten years ago, as a grad student.”

  He didn’t expound like people tend to do, and I couldn’t think of a follow-up question. I suddenly wished I had paid more attention to Emma’s social techniques. Think of something to say, genius.

  As I cast about for a more fruitful subject, I reached out to place my hand on Charm. She sat with her back against the log, leaning her upper body against my legs. Not totally relaxed, she kept an eye on her new guest.

  I began massaging her sleek, supple neck, as much to comfort her as me. Within moments, feline contentment poured into me. Riding the gentle wave of blissful calm, I turned my attention back to Kai.

  He stopped, knelt, and leaned forward, gently flipping over a bit of bark for scrutiny. As he worked, I spotted something that sparked an idea.

  “Are you from Hawaii?”

  This time, he stopped his search and looked up at me. “Why would you think that?”

  “Your necklace.” I pointed to the swirl of carved bone that dangled on a woven cord. “It’s a fishhook, right?”

  “A makau.” He tucked the pendant back into his shirt. “A lot of surfers wear them.”

  “But not a lot of surfers have a name like Kai.”