The Dog Who Ate The Flintlock

by Edward Coburn

  “Did she really recognize the bear in the picture that she had when she just a baby?” Sheila asked.

  “She said she did. But honestly, I’m guessing that she remembered it from some bear she saw when she was older. I do not doubt her recollections per se, but I’ve read that virtually no one remembers anything from before about seven years old once they age past seven. It’s a phenomenon called childhood amnesia, and it strikes all of us. Now, remembering something that long ago does happen, but it’s apparently very rare.”

  “So she probably isn’t remembering that particular bear?” Sheila said.

  “Probably not, although it’s not impossible. Can you remember one of you stuffed toys from when you were a baby?” Adam asked.

  Sheila thought for a minute. “I remember Boo Boo,” she said.

  Adam glanced questioningly at Sarah.

  “Boo Boo is a ghost that she’s had since she was a little baby.” She looked at Sheila. “But I’m not sure that would constitute a memory from infancy, sweetheart, since you still have Boo Boo.”

  “I suppose not,” Sheila admitted.

  “Do you remember any toys that you don’t still have?” asked Adam.

  Shelia scanned the hospital room as if an answer was hanging on one of the walls. “How about Harry,” she gazed at her mother hopefully.

  “I don’t think Harry is an old memory either. Remember you gave Harry to the toy drive just last year.”

  “That’s right, I did.” Shelia turned to Adam with a frown. “I’m sorry Uncle Adam. I guess I don’t remember anything.”

  Adam chucked slightly at the look on her face and her words. “There’s no reason to be sorry. This wasn’t a contest to see who could remember things.” He snapped his fingers as if an idea had just occurred to him. “Hey, how about some supper. I’ll bet you guys haven’t eaten for a while.”

  “They haven’t,” Mary admitted. “We didn’t have time. We left just after they got home from school.”

  “Well, then. I’d guess it’s time. Dare I ask what you would like?”

  “Pizza,” was Ryan’s immediate and enthusiastic response. It was always his answer.

  Adam studied Sheila. “Would that be okay with you?”

  She nodded. “It’s okay.”

  He turned to Mary. “How do you feel about pizza Aunt Mary?”

  “Whatever the kids want is fine with me.”

  He then turned to Sarah. “Is pizza for them okay with you, Sis?”

  “I don’t see why not.” She glanced at Ryan. “I swear he’d eat pizza for every meal including breakfast.”

  “Ah Mom,” Ryan said.

  “Do you deny it, young man?”

  “I might stop at breakfast. But I have heard that cold pizza makes a good breakfast.” He grinned because he was able to one-up his mother.

  “Now you know as well as I do that Pizza doesn’t last until breakfast in our house.” She smiled knowing she was speaking the facts. Of course, she didn’t mention the fact that they usually got just enough pizza for supper and Ryan ate whatever was left if any—sometimes for a midnight snack.

  “When you’re right you’re right,” Ryan admitted. He looked at Adam. “Shall we go?”

  “Can we bring you back anything, Sis?”

  “I could go for a latte.”

  “I’ll have to check with the doctor for that one,” Adam said. “I don’t know if lattes are part of your hospital diet.”

  “But there’s nothing wrong with me that a good shot of caffeine won’t fix,” Sarah protested.

  “I’ve never heard that caffeine had any medicinal qualities,” Adam said with a grin. “But I’ll ask.”

  “You do that,” Sarah said. It was more of an order than a request. Adam knew she was only kidding, however.

  “Let’s go,” he said to no one in particular. They all headed for the door. When Adam opened the door, he almost ran headlong into the doctor coming into Sarah’s room. “Are you Sarah’s doctor?”

  “I am. I’m Dr. Fisher.”

  “I’m Adam. Sarah’s brother. Anything I should know Doc?”

  “Not anything other than the obvious. She’s got a few scratches on her face, one on her arm, and a cut on her head. Everything will heal just fine. She was lucky. The ambulance techs said her car was a disaster.”

  “I assume the guy who hit her is in custody,” Adam said.

  “I couldn’t say,” Dr. Fisher said. “I’m only here to patch people up. Everything else is somebody else’s job.

  “Does she have any dietary restrictions? We’re going for pizza, and she requested a latte.”

  “That’s okay. She’s not on any kind of special diet. We do want to keep her overnight in case something is wrong that we missed, but she should be okay to go home tomorrow, so a latte will be just fine.”

  Adam turned back to Sarah. “Anything you want for supper?”

  “No. I’ll just have whatever they serve here. I’ve heard they have a new cook and the food is good. After all, I’ll probably have to pay for it whether I eat it or not.”

  “Or the other guy’s insurance will,” Adam said as he left the room followed by the other three.

  Chapter 43

  Marti had gone to Adam’s house to make sure the dogs were taken out into the backyard for their evening constitutional when she noticed the Boggle cubes had been dumped on the floor and Bagel had separated six from the rest. He had pulled out and turned the dice with his nose and paws until the letter A, M, D, W, P, and another A were showing. She didn’t have to write the letters on a piece of paper as Adam, and she typically did because she immediately saw what she could make from the letters. She looked over at Bagel laying on his blanket beside Butter who was in the process of feeding her brood. “Yes, I miss him too sweetheart. But he’ll be back soon.” She had arranged the letters in her mind to form ADAM if the W and P were ignored.

  After that, she took the dogs into the back yard and then fed them on the back porch. When all of them came back in Marti saw that the puppies had been playing with the Boggle dice. She watched them rolling around and biting the dice with their small but extremely pointed teeth. That isn’t a good idea, she said to herself as she picked up the dice and put them back in the shaker box. She had to fight with a couple of the puppies to get them to let go of the dice, telling them the dice aren’t things they should play with.

  As soon as she put the shaker box back on the shelf Bagel knocked it off again. He pulled out six of the dice again and turned them with his nose and paws until he seemed satisfied with the results. This time he had pulled out the letters D, W, A, E, P, and a second D. Marti stared at the letters for a few seconds before she started to reach for a pad of paper when the letters fell into place in her mind. Oh no, she said to herself. She glared at Bagel. “Surely you don’t mean it,” she said with an edge in her voice. Marti had formed the word DEAD in her mind. The combination of this with Bagel’s last message was too ominous for her to contemplate.

  She immediately pulled out her phone and called Adam.

  “Hello, sweetheart. I’m sorry I can’t talk long. Aunt Mary and the kids and I are just about to go out to eat.”

  She breathed a deep sigh of relief. “So you’re okay then?”

  “Yes, I’m okay. My sister was in the accident, not me. And she’s okay too by the way. What made you call and why the deep sigh?”

  She explained the words she’d found in Bagel’s selections, and he asked if those were the only words she could have found. “Probably not,” she agreed. “I didn’t actually look. Finding DEAD after seeing your name in Bagel’s first selection threw me for such a loop I didn’t even look for other words.”

  “Well, maybe you should.”

  “I will, but you’d better be extra careful now.”

  “I’m always careful, and we’re only going out for supper. But I’ll definitely ‘watch out for the other guy’ on the way to the restaurant.” He quoted the old catchphrase. “Okay, I
guess I’d better go now. I think everybody is hungry.” He held out the phone toward Sheila and Ryan. “Say hello to Marti.” They obliged by chorusing “Hello.”

  “That was Sheila and Ryan in case you didn’t know.”

  “I think I could have figured that out. And yes, you’d better go. Ryan sounds hungry.”

  Adam held out the phone and stared at it for a second. “You just made that up.”

  “Sure I did. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. From what I heard on our last visit, he’s always hungry.”

  “I believe that’s the case. I’ll talk to you later. “

  “You’d better,” was her closing comment.

  Marti had just finished writing down the letters that Bagel found so she could find other words when her phone rang. She broke out into a sweat thinking Adam was calling back with bad news, but it was only one of her students. The girl had earned a large part in the next school play Marti was directing and was having difficulties with her role. Marti agreed to meet her at the school to help her. The list of letters was set aside. Marti promised herself she would get back to them. She pucked up the dice to stop the puppies from playing with them.

  When they got in Adam’s rental car, Ryan suggested they go to a pizza buffet that he knew. He said the pizza was great and they had other things such as salads as well. Mary thought that was a great idea and Sheila didn’t object so Adam followed Ryan’s directions and they arrived without missing a turn. True to his promise to Marti he was extra vigilant about watching out for the other drivers.

  Adam followed the other three into the restaurant. The restaurant required payment up front so they all stopped at the counter so Adam could pay. A rather fetching young woman with short dark hair, named Jenny according to her name tag, came from the back and rang up his order. As he handed her two twenties and a ten to pay the tab his hand grazed hers and immediately his face turned red, and his shoulders started twitching. The other three all knew what that meant, and Ryan softly said, “Oh no. Here we go again.”

  In his mind’s eye, Adam saw the young woman at the counter wearing a nurse’s uniform and picking up a baby from a bassinet just as if he were standing beside her. When he came back from his vision, Jenny was staring at him and had started to reach for him as if to shake him out of the trance she didn’t understand.

  “Are you all right, sir?” In Jenny’s two years of nurses training and her time on the street patching up other hookers she had never seen symptoms like this man demonstrated but she had the instinct to help him if she could. He had gone into what almost seemed like an epileptic seizure, but it was unlike any seizure she had ever witnessed on the street or seen in any of the videos she’d been shown in college.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Adam said. He was accustomed to people reacting the way Jenny had reacted, and he gave her his practiced answer. “I just got a little dizzy there for a moment. I’ll be okay.” He didn’t know what to make of what he’d seen. His visions virtually always revolved around the person or persons that were the object of what or who he touched and they generally meant something had been, was or was about to be amiss. But he didn’t know what to make of this young woman in a nurses gown picking up a baby in a nursery. Because he did recognize what he saw as a hospital nursery. Maybe Jenny was a nurse and only worked a second job at this restaurant. He shook his head with a lack of understanding because he saw nothing sinister in a nurse performing the simple task of picking up a baby from a bassinet.

  Ryan asked, “What’d you see Uncle Adam?”

  “Shhh,” Adam whispered holding his finger to his lips. “I’ll tell you later.” When Jenny handed Adam his change, he deliberately brushed her hand and was again overtaken by a vision. This time all he saw was the tattoo on the back of Jenny’s right leg. When he was himself again, he combined the visions and knew what they meant. He had read newspaper accounts of the kidnapping of a baby in California, and knew the woman had been disguised as a nurse and had a rose tattoo on her leg just like the one he’d seen in his vision. He instinctively knew he had found the kidnapper.

  Adam accompanied the other three to the table but left them there because he had something to do that was very important. All three of them knew about Adam’s abilities and how he had helped countless people in the past, so they nodded and watched him walk back to the front.

  “I forgot my pills in my car,” Adam said to Jenny. “Is it okay if I get them? I’m supposed to take them when I eat.”

  “Certainly Sir. I’ll stay right here until you get back so there will be no question that you haven’t already paid for your meal.”

  “Thank you,” Adam said with a smile although he actually felt like reaching out and strangling her until she revealed where the baby was she’d stolen. He had found so many bodies of young children that had been tortured over the years he felt kidnappers were the scum of the earth—almost as low as pedophiles. He knew what he had to do. He knew what he absolutely must do.

  When Adam had parked in the restaurant parking lot, he’d seen a police vehicle several spots from where he stopped and had noticed a policeman seated in front. Now as he exited the restaurant, he went immediately to the squad car. He knocked on the window until the officer rolled the window down.

  “Is there a problem sir?” he asked.

  “Do you remember the kidnapping of the infant from the California hospital several weeks ago?”

  “Of course I do. What about it.” The officer opened his door slowly as he forced Adam to back up. He got out and faced Adam. He was at least six-foot-four, and his shoulders were almost as wide as the car door. Even in his uniform, Adam could see his muscles bulging under the fabric. After he was out of the car, he glared at Adam. “Now, do you know something about the kidnapping?”

  “Not as much as I know about the kidnapper, Officer Rand.” Adam read his nametag.

  “What’s that supposed to mean. Do you know the kidnapper personally?”

  “No, but I know where she is,” Adam said turning to the restaurant.

  “Oh, and where’s that?” Rand said. “And how do you know it’s her?”

  “She’s working inside the restaurant, and I know it’s her because I saw her picture in the paper.” There had never been a complete picture of her face in any paper. Only the images of her mostly hidden face the police in LA had copied from the video captured by the hospital’s cameras. Adam took the chance that the officer didn’t know that. However, there had been pictures of the tattoo, and Adam knew he was right about Jenny being the kidnapper because he recognized the tattoo. He knew she had to be taken into custody if there was any hope of her leading them to the baby. She worked in the restaurant, however, so there was no immediate threat of her leaving.

  The officer started toward the restaurant, but Adam grabbed his arm to stop him. “Get your hand off me,” the officer growled while he shrugged off Adam’s hand and balled up his fist in case Adam tried to keep him from doing his sworn duty. He took his job very seriously.

  “I’m sorry. But if you go in there you might spook her, and if you try to arrest her there you might cause a panic, and she might get away. Besides, she might be armed.” Adam threw that last one in simply to bolster his argument. He doubted she would be armed in a restaurant setting. He had to admit it was always possible, however.

  “I know how to handle myself,” Rand said. He took a step toward the restaurant but stopped and turned back to Adam. “On the other hand, maybe you’re right. I’ll call it in and let the detectives tell me what to do.” He walked back to his squad car and got back inside. He got on the radio and talked for several minutes before he got back out.

  “The detectives want me to wait. That is if you’re certain she was working there and wasn’t simply a customer."

  “She’s the one who took my money when I went in, so I’m sure she works there. And, speaking of that, I only came out to let you know she was in there, so I’d better go back in. We don’t want her getting suspiciou
s. Luckily there’s no window to the parking lot from where she’s waiting for me. But to be safe, perhaps you should get back in your car.”

  He gave Adam a hostile look. “I wish you’d stop telling me how to do my job but, once again you’re right. I’ll do that.” He grinned and gave Adam a wink while he climbed back in his squad car.

  Adam went back into the restaurant and waved at Jenny as he walked by the counter. She nodded in acknowledgment and then threw the pizza crust she was working on back in the air.

  “What’s up Adam?” Mary asked when he went back to the table with a plate full of pizza. He knew he had to play his part. Besides, he was hungry, and the pizza looked and smelled so good.

  Adam set his plate down and then settled himself in the booth. “I presume you’ve heard about the kidnapping of a baby from a hospital in California.”

  “It would be hard to miss it. It was all over the TV news a couple of weeks ago. What about it?”

  “Don’t get excited but I‘m sure that girl who waited on me at the counter is the one who kidnapped the baby.”

  “Are you sure?” Ryan asked then seemed slightly embarrassed. “Of course you are. I presume you saw her in one of your visions.”

  “I did. I saw her picking up a baby from a bassinet in a hospital nursery. I also saw the rose tattoo on her leg that was in the paper.”

  “You did?” Sheila asked, a look of wonder on her face. She knew what her uncle could do, but it still amazed her every time she heard of one of his exploits. “Aren’t you going to do anything?”

  “I already have,” Adam said simply. “When I went back outside I talked to a policeman I had seen when we drove up. He called his department, and some other officers are coming to help take her into custody.”

  “You didn’t tell him how you knew it was her did you?” Mary asked, concern on her face. She knew he was hiding from his past in the small town where he lived and knew his picture plastered all over the news wouldn’t do anything to help him keep his secret.

  “I fabricated a story, and luckily he bought it. I certainly hope nobody finds out who I really am, but I couldn’t just ignore the fact that I recognized who she is or what she did. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I had. I have seen the aftermath of kidnappings too many times to turn a blind eye. Even if that eye is only in my mind.” He smiled at his small joke.