Three girls with too much makeup, ill fitting clothes, and sneers on their faces moved in behind the five young men who had stood up at Demon’s approach, posturing with clenched fists and sullen stares. Demon stopped near the tallest gang member. The young man’s long black hair, tied tightly back in a pony tail under his red bandanna, framed a thin, pock marked face. He grinned down at Demon and kicked some dirt from the swing-set base at the growling dog.
“Best get yo’ mutt out of my face, Melvin.”
The girls laughed at the putdown and added their own insults. The other guys kept their silence, watching Demon. Mike could tell they didn’t want anything to do with him. Demon gave off an aura to those he wished to intimidate. It had little effect on the leader. That would change, Mike thought. He hoped the police would come soon before Demon demonstrated his true nature. “Stacey Americh is missing. She’s only ten. We’re looking for her.”
The leader snorted, shrugging as he gave sideways glances at his crew. “What’s that to us, cuz? We look like babysitters?”
More laughter and a louder hum of violent promise emanating from Demon. The leader stood up straighter, gesturing at Demon. “I said get the mutt! We don’t know nothin’ ‘bout some little bitch!”
“Demon thinks different,” Mike replied, watching the reaction Demon’s name generated on the faces of the other teens. “Stay still and don’t move your hands. The police will be here shortly. They’ll explain.”
The leader’s grin reformed into a tight lipped grimace as sirens sounded near the park. “We’re outta’ here.”
Demon blocked his way. The young man reached under his black hoodie. Mike shot forward, covering his hand.
“You don’t want to do that. Demon won’t let you get it past your pants, Jesse.”
“Oh, you think you know me?”
“Yeah, I know most of your names from Arroyo.” Mike reasoned while Jesse tried unsuccessfully to remove Mike’s hand. He recognized six of the gang. They attended Arroyo High School when they showed up. “You’re Jesse Montoya. It won’t do any good to run off before the police get here. They’ll be at your house next, even if Demon let you get out of here.”
Dan, Gail, Stan, and Jerry had moved in a semicircle between the gang and the Crosby Street connection.
Kathy Americh pushed forward around Jenny. “If you know where my daughter is you all better damn well tell us!”
Jesse pushed free of Mike as two squad cars rolled with sirens blaring through the park from the front entrance. He made two steps into full flight when Demon took him face first to the dirt. Mike anchored the downed teen to the ground while Demon raced around the other gang members, his snapping snarls and barks freezing them in place. The squad cars came to a halt where a crowd was now gathering near the playground, disgorging four uniformed officers. A short, Asian American officer who reminded Mike of Jet Li led the other officers over.
“This is Jesse Montoya. He has a gun,” Mike stated to the approaching Jet Li lookalike with Huang on his nametag.
Huang nodded, gesturing for Mike to back away from the loudly raging Montoya. Huang put a restraining hand on Montoya’s back. “My name is Officer Tom Huang. Relax your arms. I’m going to cuff you.”
Huang cuffed Montoya with rapid expertise as his partner had already drawn his sidearm when a gun was mentioned. Seconds later a red faced Jesse Montoya stood with his hands cuffed behind his back and Officer Huang checking for weapons. The 9mm Glock he removed from Montoya’s waistband was enough to generate a call for backup. Huang faced off the other gang members with only a cursory glance down at Demon.
“I want the rest of you to lock your fingers behind your heads right now!”
The gang members did as they were told under the watchful eyes of Officer Huang’s cohorts. Two more squad cars arrived. With four more officers on hand, Huang set two of them on crowd control while the others searched and confiscated myriad weapons from the gang members, including knives, stun-guns, and another 9mm handgun. Huang found a stash of pills on Jesse along with a roll of cash. After securing the teens in the squad cars while keeping Montoya with him, Huang turned to Mike.
“What’s this all about?”
“Jesse has something to do with Stacey Americh’s disappearance,” Mike stated.
“He’s lyin’. I ain’t got nothin’-”
“Shut up!” Huang warned Montoya. “I’ll get to you in a moment. Go on. How do you know this?”
“My dog Demon followed his scent from the Colhane house where Stacey spent the night.”
“He did, Officer.” Kathy Americh pointed her finger at Montoya. “The dog never hesitated. He led us right to this kid. You’ve got to believe it and get my Stacey back.”
Huang looked down at Demon doubtfully, but he heard the crowd murmurs when they heard the name Demon mentioned. His partner, who had holstered his sidearm, walked over to stand near Huang. He towered over his partner. His ebony face transformed from stern concentration to grinning recognition as he stared down at Demon.
“I know this dog.” The officer with Travers on his nametag glanced at Mike. “You bunch were the ones that found the girl at Alcatraz, right?”
“Yes, Sir. Demon has a gift.”
“Let’s give the kid a chance, Tom. We got all these punks for weapons and drugs. It can’t hurt to follow this out. What you want to do, kid, go to Montoya’s house with the dog?”
Demon shook his head at Mike. He sniffed around Montoya, circling him slowly. Demon growled one final time as Montoya cringed away from him.
“Do you know where Stacey is, D?” Mike asked, as the bewildered police officers exchanged glances with Huang rolling his eyes when he didn’t think anyone was watching.
Demon nodded and ran a short way back toward Crosby Street before pausing and looking back. When he saw everyone was watching, Demon went into a pointer stance, and then did a little circle dance before repeating the pointer movement.
“What the hell?” Huang mumbled.
“He’s getting impatient, Officer,” Dan put in, smiling out at the dog. “Mike. Maybe we should just follow Demon.”
“Let’s go! I’m not waiting!” Kathy Americh jogged over to where Demon still pointed.
Mike looked at his Dad for guidance. In answer Dan and Jenny followed Kathy’s lead with Stan, Jerry, and Gail right behind them. “Demon’s never wrong, Sir.” Mike stated before hurrying after them.
Travers grabbed Montoya’s arm. “C’mon Tom. We’ll take Ace here with us.”
Huang nodded and left orders with their backup. The two policemen pushed Montoya along ahead of them. They caught up to Demon’s crew. The dog led off immediately after Huang and Travers caught up. Hustling along to the left on Crosby Street, Demon crossed to the left again at Purdue Street, sniffing furiously as he went. A few houses up the road, Demon stopped in front of a house with out of control weeds and a big tree in the small front lawn. A faded red and white ‘For Sale’ sign jutted crookedly up out of the weeds. As they approached the rundown house Montoya began fighting to slow down. Travers and Huang exchanged startled looks.
“The damn dog is on it, John,” Huang admitted, calling for backup.
“I want a lawyer!” Montoya gave up all semblance of ignorance and dug his heels in at the sidewalk while eyeing the house uneasily.
“One more sound out of you and I Tase you, Bro,” Travers warned him. “Make it easy on yourself shit-for-brains. Is there anyone in the house other than the girl?”
“I don’t know nothin’.”
“Boy, they’re goin’ to love you at Folsom, Bambi.”
Demon had run up to the door, dancing around in frustration as Mike sought to calm him down. “Easy D, easy.”
“Backups on the way,” Huang called out. “Stay put!”
Mike glanced into Kathy Americh’s eyes and knew she was going to jump right out of her skin. He looked down and Demon nodded at him before hunching down into an attack position. Mike stepped back a
couple paces and slammed into the door full force, splintering the jamb. The door whipped backward, revealing a startled looking man with scraggly black beard and a handgun stuffed in his waistband. Demon took him down in one leap, pinning the screaming man to the floor with his mouth around his neck. Mike pulled the gun out of the man’s waistband, as the two cursing police officers had to thread their way through Demon’s search party, and handed it back to Dan.
Demon released the man’s neck and raced down the trash littered hallway to the left. He plowed full speed into the thin, partially open bedroom door at the back of the hallway, slamming it into the wall behind. Mike heard screams as he ran through the doorway to find Demon nipping and jumping on a stubble faced, shirtless man pinned to the wall under a boarded up window. Stacey Americh, her hands clenched into fists pressed against her mouth and legs tightly folded underneath her, lay huddled on a filthy bed to the right.
Mike dived on top of the downed man as Huang and Travers burst inside the small bedroom with their guns drawn. Mike and Travers flipped Demon’s captive over and Travers handcuffed him. Kathy Americh, next through the door, yelped in joyous delight, gathering up the sobbing Stacey in a fierce hug of relief before removing the duct tape on her wrists and mouth with shaking hands. Demon retreated back to his group of well wishers at the bedroom door who mobbed him.
“Deeeeeeeee!” Stan hugged Demon, while Gail and Jerry snapped pictures and took movies with their cell-phones of the whole scene. “Dog… I don’t know how the hell you do it. It’s Miller time!”
“Arf!”
“Did our backup get here?” Huang asked as he and Travers manhandled the now cursing suspect to his feet.
“They have him,” Dan answered from the hallway, where he and Jenny laughed at Demon’s one syllable affirmation for a beer. “Sorry we all got in your way.”
“Forget it,” Huang replied looking over at the Kathy and Stacey. “That damn dog of yours gives me the creeps.”
“I’m putting him in my fav five,” Travers said, holding up his cell-phone with his free hand to much laughter. “Demon’s an official consultant to the San Leandro police department. C’mon folks, let’s back on out of here. We all got a long afternoon of question and answer bullshit so we make sure these scumbags get put away.”
Travers put a headlock on the suspect, shutting off his monosyllabic tirade, and marching him down the hall. “You, Sir, have the right to remain silent. Don’t make me have to help you.”
Huang stopped Mike before he got to the door. He kept his voice low. “That was incredibly stupid, Mike. You could have had your head blown off the moment you broke through the front door with your goofy dog.”
“I’m sorry, Officer Huang. I… I knew you couldn’t bust in… and… and Demon just knows stuff. He senses exactly what the right thing is to do. If-”
“It’s okay.” Huang waved his hand in dismissive fashion as he remained between Mike and the door. “You’re right. We didn’t have probable cause and finding Stacey was… well… the best day I’ve had in quite a while. You ever think of being a cop?”
“I’m a pretty good mechanic and my Dad owns his own repair shop. I have a mechanic’s outlook on law enforcement. I’d probably be in prison a month after I started in the police department.”
Huang laughed, clapping Mike on the shoulder. “You’d be better than you think. Give me a call when you’ve got all your schooling out of the way. I’ll be around. How is this thing working with your dog?”
Mike glanced back toward the bedroom door where Demon waited patiently. “He’s the best thing that ever happened to me, but where it’s all going as far as this ghost and lost business is anybody’s guess. I wish I could get you to believe half the stuff Demon’s capable of. Anyway, thanks for putting up with me and the mob today. We won one.”
Huang held out his hand which Mike shook with exuberance. “We did indeed. Here’s my card. You call me if anything else gets highlighted in our area.”
Mike took the proffered card with a nod. “You will be contacted first before we do anything in this area. Do you really think this will be a mess down at the station?”
Huang put his arm around Mike’s shoulders. “Come, young Jedi, and see what actually awaits on the other side of justice.”
“You’re scaring me, Officer Huang.” Mike gave Demon a head shake and the dog fell in behind them, his tail wagging.
Huang sighed. “Welcome to my world.”
* * *
“Wow, that was fun.” Stan plopped down in a patio chair with Jerry, Gail, and Demon surrounding him at the table outside. “You’d think we kidnapped Stacey.”
Mike came outside with a portable ice chest and a bowl. “Dad said he’s ordering pizza and we are rationed to two beers, one before the pizza, and one during.”
“I love you, man!” Jerry cried out, digging into the ice chest and passing out the beer while Mike filled Demon’s bowl with one.
Mike took the beer from Gail. “Sorry, but Dad said he needs to hear an okay from your Dad before you can have one. House rules.”
Gail frowned, took out her cell-phone, and trudged inside.
Jerry leaned forward. “Gail and I sent everything we took to Jan. She’s better at putting that stuff on YouTube. Gail said her Dad will take what we have and work it into our presentation, but that takes time. Jan says anything with the word Demon in it is turning up our videos at the top of the page on the YouTube search engine because of his popularity. After this episode, the advertisers will be laying some money on us.”
“Saving Stacey today in our own neighborhood really stoked me,” Mike replied. “It’s not that the money doesn’t mean anything to me. It does, but seeing Mrs. Colhane and Stacey together afterward was tight. That Travers guy wasn’t kidding about putting Demon on their go to list. He told me at the station he meant every word of it. We have the magic dog to thank for all this.”
Demon gave his vibrating virtuoso burp as comment which elicited the usual hilarity as he delivered it right on cue. Mike refilled his bowl with the rest of the beer in Demon’s bottle. The dog straddled the bowl with his front paws and savored the brew slowly while paying attention to the discussion. Gail walked out to join them and retrieved the beer Mike had been holding back.
“What’d I miss?”
“Only the usual entertaining Demon beer burp,” Mike replied. “What’d your Dad say about our latest adventure?”
“Quote: I can’t leave you bunch and that damn dog alone for a minute.”
Mike nodded. “Yeah, but the only thing he really missed was hours of crapolla down at the police station.”
“I told him. He said he’d settle for adding our video and pictures to the website he’s working on for us. I hung back and listened when Huang did his cop recruitment spiel. Are you going to give it any thought?”
Mike started to give a dismissive answer to Gail but he saw Stan and Jerry were watching him in a serious manner. “Sure, but I love working at my Dad’s shop. Besides, why get all involved in police work when we have our own cases through the paranormal pup. I’m thinking about the military too. How about we keep the police academy question on hold while we hack our way into the unknown? Remember how many deals we’re cooking up for ourselves?”
Gail held up her finger. “One pregnant friend arriving.”
“Renting a place when we’re all living at home with our parents,” Jerry added.
“Figuring out city licenses, taxes, business plan, accounting… oh yeah, and that little thing called college studies.” Stan’s additions to the list brought on a contemplative silence that only another belch from Demon broke.
Mike ran his hands over his head before taking a long pull on his beer. “We’re nuts.”
“Oh… and your MMA career, Dempsey.” Gail laughed as Mike covered his face with his hands.
“Good one, Gail.” Stan held up his beer in toasting form. “Here’s to complications, exciting prospects, and the Demon.”
“Arf!” Demon acknowledged as the teens’ bottles clinked together.
Chapter 10
Match Ups
“Holy crap, Mike! Santana looks like he’s made out of stone,” Stan whispered during the formal weigh in. “I think you should have taken a couple more months off. Maybe by then Terry would be in prison where he belongs.”
Mike tried not to laugh but couldn’t squelch it with Jerry already laughing at his partner’s quip. Santana looked over at Mike from the scale with murder in his eyes.
“Terry thinks you guys are laughing at him,” Dan remarked. “I doubt that will help. Do you and Terry have some kind of history I don’t know about Mike?”
Mike shrugged. “Not from me, Dad. Some guys get themselves psyched by imagining stuff about their opponent. Maybe Terry’s one of them. He trains here in San Jose. We’ve seen him fight a couple times.”
“He takes no prisoners,” Jerry added. “He looks harder than the last time we saw him. We need a strategy.”
“Don’t get killed?”
“Thanks Stan.” Mike walked toward the weigh-in platform, slowing to allow Santana plenty of time to get clear of the area. Santana instead walked right up in Mike’s face. Despite his friends’ reservations about Santana, Mike matched with him on nearly every level of conditioning. Mike was a bit taller while Terry was a bit wider. “Hi Terry.”
Santana poked his finger into Mike’s chest. “Are you and your girlfriends over there laughing at me, punk?”
“Are you calling me stupid?”
“I didn’t call you anything, ass-wipe!”
Mike grinned. “You’re asking me if my crew and I were laughing at you so you must think I’m stupid. Think about it, Terry. What fighter in his right mind would make fun of an opponent he has to fight, especially in MMA? St-Pierre might have the skills to get away with it. I don’t.”
“Get outta’ my face, chump!”
Terry shoved Mike with both hands in a quick push off, but Mike was ready for it. He slid off to the side causing Terry to stumble forward off balance. Terry whipped a right back-fist in anger. Mike blocked it, stepping toward the weigh-in platform as security and Santana’s trainers grabbed Santana. Terry gestured in a rage at Mike while being pulled away from the confrontation, promising a beat down on Mike that would be legendary. Stan and Jerry danced around Santana’s escort to join Mike near the platform, leaving Dan shaking his head and smiling at the scene.
Demon (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 1) Page 13