When I saw the other refrigerator with the stainless door, I realized the glass front one was a wine cooler. They were both the same twenty cubic inch size. A tray with cheese, fruit, crackers and cocktail napkins was out on the counter next to the wine bucket icing a bottle of Dom Perignon. Another ice bucket in the sink was chilling two champagne flutes.
“Hey, Miss Blondie Rescue,” Daniel’s voice and face popped up on a small screen in the galley. He was up on the bridge at the wheel. “Please bring out a couple of beers and remove the plastic cover on that cheese tray I took all afternoon preparing for you.” The cheese tray was the ready-made type on a black tray with a clear plastic dome cover you pick up at grocery stores.
Jiff started laughing, and I also heard him suggest Daniel call me Brandy.
I helped myself to a slice of what looked like white cheddar and broke off a bite to give Rascal. Now, he would love me forever.
Rascal followed me and Jiff met us to help me carry the tray and drinks to the deck up top. Just when I was about to pick up Rascal he managed to climb up the stairs following the cheese tray.
“Is it safe up here for him” I asked Daniel handing him one of the beers I selected.
“Oh yeah. We’re not heading into anything rough. This is going to be a smooth sail. except for the wind in your face, you won’t even know we’re moving.”
“Then we won’t spill our drinks,” Jiff said.
Rascal jumped up on a cushioned seat and watched us. He looked from person to person when we spoke.
“Too bad this isn’t the life for a dog, cuz I’d love the companionship. I’d like to take him along with me,” Daniel said. “But there are days, sometimes weeks at a time he won’t set foot on land.”
“Dogs are adaptable and Schnauzers are smart. They will learn whatever you take the time to teach them,” I said. “But I will find him a perfect home, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“She will,” Jiff added. “This is the only breed she rescues, so she gives them her undivided attention.” He sounded so proud of me when he said it.
“Thanks. I think I’m already attached to the little guy,” Daniel said. “I can’t believe you two found his owner just this morning. Cops have any leads?”
“We didn’t hang around, but I got the name of a policewoman and a Beach Patrol dude that showed up. I was going to call him tomorrow to see if he found Rascal. He said he would keep looking for him when he was on patrol,” I said.
“Do you remember that guy’s name, the beach patrol guy?” Daniel asked.
“How could I forget? The name on his shirt was Magic Mike,” I said.
Daniel laughed. “That guy’s undercover, but don’t tell him or anyone else I said that. He’d kill me and don’t count on him helping look for this or any other dog.”
“Who are we gonna tell?” asked Jiff.
“How did you meet him?” I asked.
“Probably at a bar around here somewhere. There’s a great Tiki bar overlooking the gulf in Destin,” he said to us. “In fact, I saw Mike this morning at the West Marine Boat Supply when I went to pick up parts. They’ve been working a case along here, and he won’t tell me what’s involved. I think he said he was Special Forces. Those guys keep mostly to themselves—not exactly party animals. The name is to make you think he’s the lifeguard type.”
“The name’s working for him,” Jiff said and nodded at me.
The cruise lasted an hour longer than planned and I found out Jiff and Daniel had somewhat of a history together. They knew each other from law school. Daniel decided he had had it with the corporate world in America. After a big case he settled, he checked out, and bought this rig. He charters it to people, mostly Europeans, a week to six months at a time taking them anywhere in the world they want to go. Not bad.
While Jiff and Daniel were commiserating on law school, professors and their time spent there, I went to get another beer for Daniel and get champagne refills for me and Jiff. Rascal followed me. Cheese will do it every time. While I looked for the same beer Daniel was drinking, I noticed Rascal was scratching at his collar again. I saw him doing it a few times when we were up on deck.
I checked to see if it was too tight. I could barely get a finger between it and his skin so I loosened it. It was then I noticed the underside of his collar was lumpy. A piece of gross grain ribbon matching the color of his collar was stitched to hold the lumpy something in there. I pulled at the stitching and a sort of sleeve peeled off in my hand. Each end was stitched and I could feel something flat and rectangular-shaped inside that slide around. It felt like four different flat and rectangular somethings. I needed a ripping tool you use for sewing or scissors to open the sleeve and decided I’d do it later back at the condo with Jiff. I didn’t want to drag Daniel into more than he already bargained for, especially since he said he had plans to leave in the morning.
I put the sleeve from Rascal’s collar in my purse and planned to talk to Jiff about it later when I could open it and see what it hid. The sleeve and the dead girl seemed all too connected. I fit the collar back on Rascal and brought the beer up to Daniel.
“We’re going to the Grand Marlin after this. Do you want to join us?” Jiff was asking when I handed Daniel the beer.
“You really want me to tag along? I might try talking your pretty girlfriend here into sailing off into the sunset with me,” Daniel said. “She seems to know her way around sailboats.”
“I don’t think it would take much to convince me,” I said and Jiff gave me his hurt puppy dog face.
“What are you going to do with Rascal?” Daniel asked. “I can watch him here until you finish dinner and you can come pick him up on your way back to your condo. If you call me when you are on your way, I’ll even walk him to the end of the pier.”
“Deal,” Jiff and I answered together.
Chapter Four
The Grand Marlin overlooked Pensacola Bay. There was a restaurant inside, but we sat outside, in the bar area at a dining table. There was a one-man band playing an acoustic guitar or changing to a piano keyboard at one end of the outdoor area. The ceiling height had to be forty feet and the breeze off the bay felt like we were sitting somewhere at a really nice restaurant on an island in the Caribbean. The menu was, indeed, grand. I had a lobster appetizer that was perfect, and I ordered it as my whole meal. Jiff had fish of the day, a grilled Mahi Mahi that was marinated in rum and spices. He said it was the best he had ever eaten.
We finished our glass of wine and watched as ferries picked up people from the pier connected to the restaurant and shuttled them back to one of the five tower high-rise developments about a mile away. Maybe four to ten people would embark on the ferry each way. For a Saturday night there wasn’t much traffic. The lights at both ends of their destination had come on twinkling to welcome the ferry’s arrival and to light the way for guests to make their way up to the restaurant.
On our way back to the marina I was tempted to tell Jiff what I found on Rascal’s collar that might have something to do with the owner being killed. The fact was, I was afraid to see what it was. Now, this had escalated from finding a home for a little rescue abandoned by a bad situation to finding out what was inside that collar and what it might lead to.
My skin had that creepy crawly sensation every time I thought about what might be inside that dog’s collar. I did not want this to derail the remainder of our long weekend Jiff planned, but the sleeve was distracting me and my mind kept going back to it. I kept wondering what it was going to tell us. I couldn’t wait to get back to the condo to open it. I kept thinking I should tell him sooner rather than later, but there was something I just could not put my finger on as to why I was procrastinating. I convinced myself it would keep, and I didn’t want to ruin our pleasant evening here at this marvelous restaurant.
When we pulled into the marina parking lot, we saw Daniel standing at the end of the pier as planned. While Jiff looked for a parking place, a van ahead of us stop
ped in front of Daniel. Two guys got out and tried to take Rascal away from him. One guy was trying to pick up Rascal, but Rascal was snapping and maneuvering away from him.
Daniel was trying to talk to the bigger guy while the smaller man was trying to grab Rascal. The little dog was faring better by outmaneuvering his assailant than Daniel was. The two men looked menacing and were acting aggressive toward Daniel and the dog.
“Brandy, get down,” Jiff said slamming on the brakes. He jumped out of our car yelling, “Stop! Police!” at the two men. He flipped open his wallet and held up his hand like he was showing a badge or something.
The big guy punched Daniel knocking him down to the pier and pointed a gun at Jiff. He was about to fire a shot when Daniel did a sweep with his foot and knocked the guy off his feet. Then Daniel pushed Rascal in the water with his other foot.
The big guy let out a stream of expletives as he got up. The smaller guy who was trying to chase Rascal down kicked Daniel hard in the mid-section and they both jumped back in the van and took off.
“We ran toward Daniel and Jiff went to help him while I looked around in the water for Rascal. He was dog paddling his little heart out toward a boat a few slips away. I called to him. He turned and started paddling back toward me. A couple came off their boat to see what was causing all the commotion. I was lying flat on the pier trying to reach Rascal but he was about one foot too far away.
“I’ll go in after him,” I said as I stood up and kicked off my shoes. I ran onto a large sailboat near where Rascal was swimming toward. Its keel probably had at least a five-foot draw so I figured the water in the harbor was six to eight feet, definitely over my head. From the transom I did a giant stride into the water and Rascal swam right up to me. I held him away from me with one arm while I tread water with my other arm and legs. I worked my way back to where Daniel and Jiff were standing on the pier joined by the couple who came out to see what was going on.
“Wait,” the man said as Jiff tried to lean down to get Rascal but was about a foot short of reaching him like I had been. I couldn’t lift him out of the water high enough. “I have a net. I think we can scoop him up in it.”
“You didn’t even get your hair wet,” the woman said. We waited for the man to return with the net while I held Rascal and bobbed in the water.
“I took a Life Saving/First Aid class for water related sports and they teach you how to jump in and keep your head above water so you can keep an eye on the person, or in this case, dog, needing help,” I said. A boat passed in the marina and sent a gentle wake my way. Rascal and I bobbed with the wave.
The lady nodded and said, “That was impressive.”
When the man got back with the net, Jiff was flat on the pier reaching for Rascal while I pushed him toward Jiff. The man scooped his net under him and I pushed the rim of the net until Jiff grabbed it and Rascal. The man helped raise the other end of the net by the pole so Jiff could hang on to Rascal in the scoop and keep him from falling out of the net back into the water.
Jiff reached down for me, pulling me up by one arm and I twisted so I could land sitting on the pier.
Once we were out of the water, everyone, except for me, all stepped back so we didn’t get sprayed when Rascal shook several times. The woman had gone to get us a towel so both of us could dry off.
“I’ll try to get this back to you tomorrow,” I told her.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s an old towel. It’s the least we can do for the little guy and you. He’s had quite an adventure,” she said. “If you need anything else, we’ll be up a while.”
Jiff and her husband helped Daniel to his feet. Then, they went back to their sailboat and their cocktails.
“Whatever made you yell Police!” Daniel asked Jiff.
“Because I’ve never seen anyone on TV run away from someone yelling Lawyer!” he said. “I have a badge that says I’m an officer of the court. From a distance it might pass for a badge.”
“That was fast thinking. Daniel, so was that sweep on that big guy when you got a chance,” I said.
“What do you think this was all about? Dognapping?” Daniel asked as he started to hobble back to the catamaran with Jiff’s help.
“Do you want to go to an emergency room? Maybe something’s broken,” I said.
“Nah, nothing feels broken. I’m only bruised, and that’s mostly my ego,” Daniel said.
“Do you think we need to report this to the police?” I asked.
“Did anyone get the license plate? And even if you did, that van is probably stolen,” Daniel said as he limped along. “That big guy I knocked down had a tat on his forearm. I’m not sure what it was, but it was ugly, black and didn’t have a good shape or design to it.”
“A prison tat?” Jiff asked. “Do you know what those look like when they do it themselves?”
“I don’t know, but it looks like it could have been self-inflicted. It didn’t look like a professional job,” Daniel moaned as tried to step up and onto the boarding plank.
“Don’t you think we should go to our condo? If those two come back, they will be looking for Daniel because they saw you with the dog,” I said. “This way, we can get you back here early and both you and Rascal will be safe with us tonight. If you change your mind about needing an emergency room, we can take you.”
“No Emergency Room. Nothing’s broken. I’m bruised but nothing’s broken. Even if a rib is broken, there’s nothing they can do that I can’t do,” he said and when he tried to smile at me, he winced.
“Okay, tough guy,” I said. “Tell me what to do and I’ll go lock up for you while Jiff helps you get in the car.”
“Oh, God, I think I love this woman,” Daniel said from the back seat as Jiff helped him in and I pushed Rascal in next to him.
Daniel gave me the keys to lock up the controls and the salon and said to leave all the lights on so if anyone did board, someone would see them. On my way back to his boat, I stopped by the couple’s boat who helped us and asked if they would call the harbormaster and report what happened.
I told them where to find me and gave them our cell numbers. The husband said he had a lock and chain to put it through the gate leading onto the pier. That would slow them down if they came back. I told them Daniel wanted me to leave all the lights on in case anyone boarded so they might be able to see them and call the police.
The couple said they would keep an eye on things until Daniel got back. I got back to the car, Jiff drove all of us, Daniel, Rascal, and me back to our condo.
Jiff took Daniel up to the condo to get him settled in a guest room while I walked Rascal. He was dry by now. I was still damp. Daniel had made a leash out of sail ties, webbing strips used to tie the mainsail to the boom. I had to smile at the invention. Sailors were practical and innovative when it came to making one thing work as something else.
A couple was walking a little black dog that looked like he had some Schnauzer in his family tree. The woman stopped me and said, “Be careful with your dog. Two men stopped here earlier asking if this was our dog or did we find him. They said they lost a Schnauzer. Isn’t that what your dog is?”
“Yes, he’s a Schnauzer. What did they look like? Do you know what kind of car they were in?” I asked.
“There were two rough looking guys, about thirty, forty maybe. They were in a white van. They didn’t get out of the car. Two white guys. One had long, dark hair to his collar pushed behind his ears. He had on a dark blue T-shirt, I think. It was a dark looking shirt, not a hoodie. The other one wore a camouflage baseball cap. I really didn’t get a good look at the one in the cap since he was on the far side of the van and it was getting dark,” the woman said. The husband nodded at everything she told me.
“That’s a little scary,” I said. If she only knew those two just beat up our friend. “Do you remember what time it was?”
“I want to say it was about eight o’clock since that’s the time we usually take Buttons for his evening walk. I d
idn’t get the plates because they pulled up behind us and asked about Buttons here. He started growling, and we knew these two were bad news. We walked off and headed back around the building so they couldn’t follow us. I guess they drove off,” the man answered. “I didn’t see their van parked anywhere.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I said. “I’ll be careful.”
I didn’t let Rascal dilly dally on his walk. We made our way back to the condo and as soon as I saw Daniel and Jiff all three of us said, at the same time, “You won’t believe what I found out.”
“You first,” I said.
“Daniel called Mike. Remember the beach patrol guy from this morning?” Jiff said.
I nodded.
“Those mutts who attacked me were in a stolen vehicle,” Daniel said. “Mike said the police identified the dead woman from a call that came in. Her sister reported her and the dog missing when they didn’t come back from a morning walk. She had a photo with her and sure enough, it was her sister.”
Jiff couldn’t wait to add, “They also got some skin and blood from under the woman’s fingernails. They might be able to ID whoever attacked her if they are in the system. I told Mike about the two who jumped Daniel with one having a prison-looking tat so maybe they’ll get a hit. They’re running it through the national database but that takes time,” Jiff said. “What did you find out on your walk?”
“This man and his wife stopped me and said two guys in a white van came through the parking lot earlier, around eight p.m., and asked if they found the little dog they were walking. It’s about Rascal’s size but he was a mix and black,” I said. “That means those two in the white van the couple saw here, are the same two who attacked Daniel. They also might be who killed that girl. It all seems too connected.”
“I wonder how they made the connection from looking here to me in Pensacola,” Daniel said. “Seems odd.”
We all agreed. It was getting late and we all felt worn out, so we said good night.
Dog Gone And Dead Page 3