Paws For Death

by Susan Union

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Randi yanked off her boots, flung her jacket on the sand and ran after her mother, already in up to her shoulders and crying Jojo’s name. Too weak to walk, my ass. Randi pushed against the swells, fighting back her fear. A wave curled up her chest and slapped her in the face, forcing saltwater into her mouth and up her nose. She gagged. Couldn’t breathe. No time to recover before the next swell rolled over her head. She kicked her legs and flailed her arms, but the water closed on top of her at the same time the bottom fell away beneath her feet. Mouth open, it filled with a rush of the sea. She clawed wildly with her arms.

  Something circled her waist, and as fast as she’d gone under, she reversed course, rushing to the surface at breakneck speed. Her head burst from the surf into a roar of wind and salt spray. She swallowed most of the water and coughed the rest up.

  “What the hell!” Luke’s voice was loud and hot in her ear.

  He held her tight as the waves swirled around her waist. He pulled her backward, toward the shore. As soon as her feet touched the sandy bottom, he freed her arms. She pushed a curtain of wet hair from her eyes and turned to face him. “I can’t let her drown!”

  “By herself, you mean?” Luke hooked an arm around her again and hauled her to shore. Her jeans weighed her down and hung from her waist like a wet, heavy tarp, the kind they used to throw over dead horses before the rendering truck came. Luke put a hard knuckle into the middle of her back and pushed her forward. She threw a wounded look over her shoulder, but he was already going back for her mother.

  Randi slogged her way toward Copeland, still curled in the fetal position. She stumbled over a mound of sand and fell to her knees, shivering in the dark, ten feet away from a man with a broken ankle and unknown intentions. The cold deepened, sinking down to her core. Shane whined and licked her cheek.

  Seconds later the sand shook as Luke thudded up the beach, her mother slung over his shoulder.

  “Hey,” Copeland’s voice was barely audible over the pounding surf, “come here.”

  Randi eyed him with suspicion, but it was too dark to read his face. “Just a minute.” She got up, turned and stripped off her shirt, replacing it with her jacket as fast as she could before she froze to death. It felt strange only wearing a bra and jacket without her shirt, but the quickest way to die of hypothermia was in wet clothes. Too bad there was no alternative to wearing soggy jeans. She wasn’t about to take them off.

  She approached Copeland with caution, Shane glued to her side, her fingers on the switchblade in her pocket.

  Copeland’s skin paled beneath the glare of Randi’s flashlight, making the red claw marks on his cheeks and forehead stick out. He rocked back and forth, wincing. His breath came out in short, forced gasps.

  Hard to muster pity for him. “You drowned my mother’s dog, the thing she loved most in this world. She nearly died going back in the water for her.”

  Copeland struggled to sit. His dreadlocks clacked as they spilled over his shoulder. “Can’t move. Ankle’s swelling.” No more happy-go-lucky Jamaican lilt. “Get me to a doctor soon, or I’m screwed.”

  She knelt beside him, feet freezing. “You’ll live. It’s not bleeding. Shock is your biggest worry. I’m going to wrap your ankle.” Not only would it keep the sand out, it might also stop him from obsessing over his wound. She wrung the water from her shirt and tied it around his ankle, keeping it stable the best she could. Copeland bit his lip but didn’t complain.

  “Can’t keep up with Zoom with a mangled ankle.”

  “That’s what you’re worried about right now?”

  He winced. “Got any pain pills?”

  “No, and if I did, they’d be wet, thanks to you.” She rocked back on her heels. “Your turn. You broke into my house and kidnapped her dog?”

  “It was unlocked.”

  “Why take such drastic measures to have a one-on-one with my mother?”

  Copeland ignored her.

  “If you don’t tell me, I’ll leave you here. I’ll tell Luke you changed your mind and decided you’d prefer to spend the night on the beach with your busted ankle.”

  “Okay. Christ.” He grimaced. “It really hurts.”

  “Keep talking and I’ll do my best to get you out of here.”

  “Your mother wouldn’t take my calls.” He sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Refused to see or talk to me. I thought if I took her dog as a threat she’d come to her senses…I didn’t plan on drowning it.”

  It? Cold-hearted bastard. “Why was it so important that you see her?”

  “The picture.”

  “What picture?”

  “In my bathroom. Of Gina and me. I didn’t intend for her to get an eyeful. I’m not a bad guy.”

  All this over a picture? “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s not about the picture, it’s about the letter that was underneath it. I need to know if your mother read it.”

  “You keep letters in the bathroom?”

  “It’s where I do my reading. I was going about my business when your mother rang my doorbell, so I shoved it under the frame.” He hissed; chewed on his lip. “I assumed it was someone trying to sell me something. How was I to know it’d be your mother and she’d come in, we’d get to talking and one thing would lead to another…”

  “Never mind that.” She waved her hand. Definitely something she didn’t want to hear about. “What was in the letter?”

  “Gina and I were getting married.”

  “So you say.”

  “The letter was a request to change the beneficiary on her trust from Andrew to me.”

  “A request?”

  He rocked back and forth. “Damn, this really hurts.”

  She waited.

  “Finalized.”

  “Oh.” She paused, absorbing the implications. “Gina got it to her lawyer before she died?”

  Copeland nodded. “She went ahead and filed the papers. Because of our agility schedule, we weren’t sure when we could have the wedding ceremony. The letter in the bathroom was a copy.”

  What if Dainsworth was right and all Gina’s money had been sunk into the puppy mills? Did Copeland know that? “Wonder what a jury would think?” She shivered uncontrollably. Her body was going into survival mode, and it was making her either brave or stupid. Either way, she was having difficulty figuring out the puzzle.

  “I didn’t kill her.”

  “Did you break into Mel’s trailer?”

  “What? No. What for?”

  “A letter. From Gina. She told Mel not to open it unless something happened to her. Well, it did and the letter’s gone.”

  “Can’t help ya.”

  “Steve, I know about the GHB. A guy with your accent put in an order for the drugs the cops found in Gina’s system.” There was no proof the stuff that came from Dusty’s supplier was the same found in Gina’s body, but she rolled with it anyway. If it was true—even with hypothermia setting in—Randi could still outrun Copeland and his busted ankle if it came to that. “You wanted Gina’s money, but you didn’t want her. You convinced her you loved her so she’d accept your marriage proposal and make you a beneficiary, then you poisoned her, and you did it so she’d die in front of everyone in her moment of glory with Zoom.”

  Copeland’s face twisted. Impossible to tell if it was from pain or because she’d uncovered the truth.

  “Why? Were you trying to prove some kind of sick, competitive point? That you were better than her, no matter what?”

  “People fake Jamaican accents all the time. Don’t you watch TV?”

  “You were framed? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “I said, I didn’t kill her.”

  “Then why are you so desperate to get to my mother?”

  “She’s going to meet with the cops tomorrow.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Everybody knows.”

  “Okay—so what? Framing her for murder is an extremely vindictive thin
g to do. Especially to a woman you’ve been intimate with, and you train her dog for God’s sake. What were you thinking?”

  “Your mother knows I stood to benefit from Gina’s death. I needed to convince her not to bring it up with the police, I was even going to warn her that someone had given them her name as a suspect.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “It’s true, but I couldn’t get an audience with her. I tried. She turned me down repeatedly. I needed bait. I didn’t mean for the dog to jump into the water, but it flipped out. I tried to hold on, but she clawed my face. My foot got stuck between some rocks on the bottom and I fell. My ankle snapped. The dog leapt from my arms and went under. End of story.”

  Every muscle in Randi’s body trembled, making it hard to think. Where was Luke? Seemed like he’d been gone for hours. “So you did kill Gina.”

  “No.”

  “Then why would you be worried about evidence if you’re innocent?”

  “It’s pretty damning. I’d rather not run the risk.”

  “Copeland says you took rose quartz from him, then you used it to break Andrew and Valerie’s window.”

  “I didn’t take it. I don’t know who did, but if I had to bet it would be Mel. She’s a Wiccan, you know.”

  “That doesn’t make her a thief, or a window-breaker.”

  “She hates Andrew and Valerie.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t even know if she and Dainsworth have even met.”

  “Are you kidding? How the hell do you think she keeps all those dogs in order?”

  “That’s Dainsworth’s doing?”

  “Somehow, yes.”

  Anyone with only basic knowledge…tell you your beloved companion hopes and prays...you’ll realize what you want in life and have the guts to put aside your fears and go for it. If she wasn’t so damn cold, maybe she’d give Dainsworth’s remarks some thought.

  Shane tugged at the leash again. He stared toward the road like he wanted to go after Luke and her mother. Randi tried to reel him back in, but she was trembling so bad the leash kept slipping from her grasp. “If you didn’t want my mother talking to the cops, why frame her in the first place?”

  Shane’s hackles went up.

  “I didn’t want to.”

  “Then why did you?”

  “Had to.”

  “Why?”

  A low growl vibrated Shane’s chest. Someone was out there.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Shane went nuts. Andrew Thorton stood before them. His face filled with rage. He looked at Copeland and his broken ankle, then, in one swift move brought something hard down on Randi’s shoulder. She scrambled to get away from him as her feet lifted off the sand and Shane’s leash was jerked from her hands. Andrew swung her around and, carrying her in a forward-facing bear hug, started running for the water. His forearms pinched her ribs and his fists jammed into her belly, forcing grunts from her with every step as his chin slammed the top of her skull.

  Shane leapt at Andrew with each jolting stride. Did Andrew think setting him free would make him run the other way? Randi kicked like crazy, but none of her blows connected with Andrew’s shins. He reached into his pocket, pulled something out and brought it down as hard as he could on Shane’s head.

  Shane’s barks were cut short by a yelp of pain. Then silence.

  “Shane!”

  She kicked and bucked, twisted, and fought with everything she had. If that bastard hurt her dog…Finally, one of her heels connected with Andrew’s shin. He stopped short, shifting his arm so his elbow was crooked around her neck. She sunk her teeth in. Andrew yelped and pitched her face first onto the beach.

  Her breath came in short, shallow gasps and her hair hung over her face. The sharp tang of sandstone cut the air, and the echo of the surf reverberated off the towering walls.

  Gasping and spitting sand, she stretched her fingers, searching for Luke’s switchblade in her pocket. A boot swung into her arm. She cried in pain and pulled it close for protection. Her chest heaved. “What…do…you…want…from…me?” If she could just get her hand on Luke’s knife!

  “Shut up.”

  God only knew what he planned to do to her before he tossed what was left of her in the ocean for fish food.

  She groped for the switchblade; found it, fumbled for the release button. The freed blade zinged through the nylon like it was butter.

  Gripping the knife, she swung her fist. The blade dug into the sand. Andrew flung himself at her, landing his bulk squarely on her kneecap, shoving it the way it wasn’t made to move until it slid out of place. There was no pain at first, then agony ripped its way up her thigh and down her calf. Frantic, she swung the knife again. Over and over. What the hell? How could she miss every damn time? Redoubling her efforts, she swung harder. The razor-sharp steel glanced off her leg like a hot, searing flame.

  Andrew’s arms snaked beneath her armpits and lifted her off the ground. Last chance. She changed the angle and swung fierce and wide. The knife finally connected. He dropped her. She crabbed along the sand, pulling her injured leg behind. Somehow, she managed to clamber to her feet and hobble toward the spot on the beach where she’d last seen Shane, heart slamming her ribs. Andrew wouldn’t be down for long.

  Her knee felt like a burning arrow had been shot right through it. She weaved her way along for fifty feet or so before slowing to get a better sense of her location. She didn’t know where Copeland was anymore. Or Shane. Totally disorientated.

  The clouds rolled over the moonlight, making the water a black void that blended with the sand. Impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

  “Shane!” Spots began to form at the edge of her vision. If she fainted, she was finished. She blinked, desperate to clear her head. Frigid water soaked her again and within seconds, her feet lost all feeling. The clouds broke for an instant and the waves peeled back, exposing a flat, narrow rock, like a tiny landing strip, running out to the ocean from the base of the promontory. Something cried out from the strip’s farthest point. A pitiful, high-pitched sound. Too high to be Shane. She listened intently but it didn’t come again. Was she hallucinating? Maybe it hadn’t come from the water. Maybe it had come from her.

  Near the far end, where the waves lapped over the flat stretch of rock, a lump of hung-up seaweed swayed. The kelp seemed to have a life of its own. It rose and let out another pathetic cry. She wasn’t hallucinating, the blob she’d mistaken for seaweed was her mother’s dog.

  From the south end of the beach, she heard Shane’s bark. Thank God! The sound grew closer and closer. She strained to see him until he limped into sight. Andrew must’ve hit his leg, not his head. Thank God. She pointed to the water. “Get Jojo!”

  Shane’s ears went up as he spotted the half-drowned papillon. He streaked onto the flat rock. A wave rushed in, shoving Jojo forward. She skittered toward Shane, strands of kelp twisting round her body. Shane had his claws out like a cat’s, but his legs kept shooting out from under him. Twice he went down. Twice he got back up. A few feet of moss-covered rock was all that kept the two dogs from reaching each other.

  “Jojo! Come on, girl!” Hopping on one foot, Randi plunged into the ocean up to her waist to stand beside the strip of sandstone stretching into the sea like a runway. “Here, sweetie!” Her teeth chattered like those of a ghoulish skeleton and the pain in her knee was unbearable. She couldn’t take it much longer. Andrew had to be coming for her but she couldn’t leave Jojo here to die. Besides, there was nowhere to run and she’d dropped her only weapon somewhere on the beach.

  Shane and Jojo skidded and slipped their way toward each other until their noses touched. Shane picked the smaller dog up by the scruff of the neck and, pivoting in a tight circle, took careful steps back to shore. Shane hadn’t made it three feet when something frightened Jojo and she twisted out of Shane’s jaws, bounced off the rock and slid back into the sea without a sound.

  Randi gripped the moss-covered surface and pulled herself on top
of it. The bumps and dips ground against her belly. The tip of Jojo’s nose pierced the surface of the water and her little paws clawed at nothing. Shane stood on the narrow strip and peered over the edge, barking like he thought he could scare Jojo out of the ocean.

  Inches below the waves, Jojo’s long, silky hair waved back and forth. Randi lay at an awkward angle trying to keep the weight off her knee. She’d never felt such excruciating pain in her life. Blocking it out, she plunged her hand in the ocean, groping for Jojo’s crystal-studded collar. The leather brushed the tips of her fingers, but appeared to be hung up on something jagged.

  Randi’s frozen fingers somehow managed to unhook it, but before she could get a good grip, the tide tugged Jojo under, sucking her down into the black abyss. Randi held her breath, plunged her arm into the water a second time and waited for the current to bring Jojo closer. Grabbing the collar again, she tugged as hard as she could, pulling herself up to balance on one hand and one knee.

  Jojo might choke to death, but, by God, she wasn’t going to drown.

  The little dog coughed and gasped and threw up a mouthful of seawater. Randi clutched her in the crook of her arm as she wobbled to her feet, fighting to keep her footing on the slippery rock. The pain in her knee was so mind-blowing she’d forgotten all about her frozen feet.

  Headlights winked in the distance along the road. Please let it be Luke. Shane forged his way beside her, but a few feet shy of the beach, instead of leaping from the flat, slippery rock to dry sand, he stopped and growled.

  A shadowy figure ran toward them.

  From behind, a roaring noise picked up steam. Instinct told her to run, that the threat at her back was greater than the one on the beach, but there wasn’t time. A wave slammed into her like a wall of bricks, knocking her off her feet and pitching her face first onto the rock. The ocean filled her lungs and the water took her body out to sea.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  The scent of overcooked peas and sour milk, with overtones of antiseptic, hung in the air. Randi’s head hurt like hell, her left leg was stiff and sore and her knee, beneath an off-white cotton blanket, was the size of a grapefruit.