“Yeah, I know. I wasn't thinking.” I smiled to try to chase away her worries, and caressed her face. “Still it was exhilarating to open up and run flat out. I hadn't done such in years.”
Joann tiptoed to reach my lips in a gentle kiss. When she settled back on her pads mischief filled her grays eyes. She tiled her head slightly, reached up and took my flat cap to settle it on her hair. “This is nice. What do you think?”
“Not your size or color…” I reached for the flat cap but she shied away, wiggling a finger negative at me.
“You owe me, Braxton.” She smiled. “So I'll take this as a down payment.”
“Joann, come on, I'm not in the mood.” I half lied, for if truth be told, I've got a thing about having my hats messed with.
I tried for the cap. She giggled and turned her back on me. “Joann…” I complained, reaching around her, pulling her body up to mine to get at the cap.
“Basher…” She laughed, and deftly spun out of my grip.
I rolled my eyes; a smirk grew over my lips, as her humor was infectious. She backed up so she could waive the cap outside of my paw range. As her back was to the building, I stepped closer until she came in contact with the brick wall. I had her trapped. Joann shifted the cap behind her.
“I demand payment for the cap.” She cocked her head and her nose twitched.
I placed my paws to either side of her, leaning on the wall. “And what would that be…hmmm?”
Joann's look of mischief changed to concern. Her ears perked up as her eyes focused on something other than me. Her obvious attention elsewhere caused my instincts to activate. I sniffed the air, which let me know several animal species were nearby. Of course, that in itself was of no use. I swiveled my ears before my mind caught up to my thoughts to turn around. My hearing picked up the unmistakable sound of a CO2 carriage being activated…no, make that two. I finished my turn to see a German shepherd college campus officer lowering my lost white flat cap from his nose. He took a whiff of the air and pointed at me with a confirming nod. Beside him with pistols already out and aimed were the two police Dobermans I'd outrun.
Joann caught their intent and screamed, “No!”
The Dobermans' eyes hardened and snarls marked their muzzles after getting confirmation my scent was on the cap. They sighted along their barrels.
It's normal procedure for both officers to have pistols ready. But only one was supposed to fire while the other waited as backup. However, since I'd humiliated the pair in losing them in a chase, I knew for a certainty by their body language that both were going to pull the trigger.
I'd an instant of time to decide whether to avoid the tranquilizer darts or not. However, Joann would certainly be hit, possibly by both darts. One dart wouldn't harm her, but two I was certain would kill her. This fact flooded my brain as my basic training in fluid contents of the darts over body mass ratio flashed before my eyes. Of course it didn't help matters much when it was followed by the knowledge the police carry a more potent dose of tranquilizer darts than those of us without badges.
In that second I knew I couldn't chance the darts would miss her. With little choice I threw my arms wide to make my chest a better target while keeping Joann shielded behind me.
As I predicted, they both fired. The sound of expelled air found my ears as two darts hit my chest. Joann cried out. The world spun. My eyes rolled back and I lost all equilibrium before darkness filled my mind.
****
Chapter 7:
Time to Rethink My Life; Then Again?
I woke in a bed. My senses slowly churned on sounds and smells. Antiseptic, bleach, clean linen, metal, wood, paint, movement of pads on flooring, distinct odors of various animals. Lastly, my left paw held in two familiar paws. I deduced correctly I was in a hospital room. Joann was to my left. I could sense she'd been crying.
“Joann…” I whispered, my tongue and mouth dry.
“Braxton? Oh, Braxton…” Joann jumped from her chair and place a gentle paw on my face as she squeezed my paw with the other. “You're awake. Praise the maker.”
Her face came into focus as my eyes opened. She nuzzled my muzzle. Tears of happiness fell down her cheeks.
I tried to reach for her soft wet cheek with my right paw but found my wrist cuffed to the hospital bed railing.
Joann saw the move and before I could comment, she told me, “They said you attacked that arctic fox you were chasing. I told them that was bunk, but they won't listen to me.”
“Typical…” I murmured. “How long have I been out?”
“Eight days.” To my astonished eyes, she added, “You've been in a comma. The doctor told me had you not had a strong metabolism, you would not have survived both darts.” She clasped my paw with both of hers, tightly. “It appears you're made of stronger stuff than most animals.” She leaned over and kissed my lips before whispering in my ear, “I owe you my life, love.” She pulled back and I looked in her eyes. “I know how fast you are, can be when you wish. You could have dived out of the way. But because I was behind you, you stood fast and took the darts.”
I tried to downplay her words. “Not necessarily. I didn't think I could avoid both darts. And as the fault was mine that they were after me, I didn't think you—”
Joann lightly slapped my muzzle to stop my lie. “Shut up, you, and take the praise you deserve.”
The curtain shielding us from the activities beyond pushed aside to admit a spotted owl nurse. “Ah, Mr. Snow, you're awake.” She walked in and took up my cuffed wrist then turned her own wrist to look at her watch to count my pulse.
I moved my tongue to try to wet my mouth. “What's the verdict?”
She raised her brown eyes briefly to my question while her beak counted on, before she looked back down at the watch. “Heart rate appears normal.” She let go of my wrist, pulled out a small flashlight and after motioning Joann back, she looked in my left, then right eye and watched for a reaction from the pupils. “Response normal.” She glanced at Joann before telling me, “By my guess, you're as healthy as a horse. But that's in my opinion only. I'll inform the doctor you're awake.” She turned and closed the curtain before she walked off.
“Here.” Joann offered me a glass of ice water.
“Thanks.” I used my elbows to push up a little so Joann could tilt the glass and I could wet my mouth and throat.
Joann looked down, over to the curtain, then back on me and gave a half-hearted smile.
“Something on your mind?” I inquired.
She looked guilty. An ear drooped. She pressed her lips together and took up my paw within hers, squeezing tightly. “I want you to quit this job.” She glanced up, huffed and drew in a breath, her ears laid back. “The whole thing. I never want to go through this again.” Joann looked in my eyes expectantly.
I rolled her wish around in my mind. We've already touched base on this. But I'm not ready. I want to know who that arctic fox is. Why was she in Mr. Sullivan's room uninvited? I'm also curious who she is to Lieutenant Fergus Barkly. How she's involved. Lastly, why Mr. Oscar Sullivan, a respected archeologist, would steal an ancient book from the Cat-A-Mite Museum and risk his reputation and possible jail time. I looked into her big gray eyes and saw the instant she knew my answer.
Joann let go of my paw. She looked hurt. Her ears laid back even further. “But why? Is getting yourself killed over this more important than us, than me?”
Before I could answer, the curtain was shoved aside, admitting the doctor. Joann looked up at the sand cat, folded her arms and walked away.
I wanted to call her back. Reach out and pull her to me. But the doctor forestalled this by speaking first.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Snow. I'm pleased you decided to return to the living.” He flipped through some papers on a clipboard. “According to your chart, I don't doubt you'll be up and out of here in a day or two.” The sand cat noted the cuffs and revised his statement. “Well, up and ready for the police to escort you over to their b
uilding, anyway.” He set the chart down on a table and looked at my mouth, tongue, throat, eyes, and lastly pulled the blanket back to lay his ear on my chest to listen to my heart.
The sand cat stood when a bulldog police officer showed up at the curtain. “Beg pardon, Doctor, but is he ready for transfer?”
The sand cat rechecked my cart, used a pencil to write in something, gave me a glance, and then nodded. “Yes, Mr. Snow's good to travel.”
****
It was nine a.m. the next morning when I walked out of the police station, alone and frustrated. Joann had left the hospital when the police bulldog had arrived to take me into custody. Once hauled inside the station, I was booked, photographed and held in a cell with four other animals of questionable disposition while they sought Ms. Zoe Pierpont. But as she hadn't hung around that day she accused me of attacking her, or showed up while I was in the hospital to file a grievance, all they could do was hold me for unlawfully evading police detainment. Wishing to pin something on me, they grilled me for three hours to get a confession to a crime, any crime, but I denied them satisfaction by keeping my muzzle shut.
Freed at last, I stood outside the building eyeing the cool wet weather. Do I go home and talk matters out with Joann, or do I head to the office and see if I have any paying jobs waiting? This last thought was more financial, as I found in my pocket the bill for my hospital stay. Four thousand, nine hundred and eighty four bank notes for my eight-day stay. I rubbed my muzzle. I haven't the notes, nor can I continue the search for Mr. Oscar Sullivan or satisfy my curiosity concerning Ms. Pierpont until I can pay this off. I glanced at a police officer as he walked past. Heaven knows, they won't pay the bill. According to the law, police can use what force deemed necessary to apprehend criminals. As I was stupid enough to outrun them in a fair match up, in their eyes that was admission I'm guilty of something, so the bill is mine to pay.
I rolled up the collar of my shirt against the cool wet wind. I checked my shoulder holster, and for a second panicked that my pistol wasn't there. Oh, right. I sighed in irritation. The criminal charge gave them cause to pull my pistol permit, confiscate the weapon and pull my P.I. license. If I wish to continue working as a private detective, I have to retake a three-month course in law enforcement and pass a test. After which I have to re-file for a P.I. license then buy a new pistol. That's another seven hundred and fifty bank notes total. Then there's the mandated pistol course on how to use one, plus a course on the use of tranquilizer darts, plus the firing range fees, plus...hmm, oh hell, I forget what else at the moment. I squared my gray flat cap, put my paws in my pants pockets and started to walk, ignoring the drizzling rain. I could be out as much as seven thousand bank notes. I felt as dreary as the weather. I'd have to work my tail off simple to break even.
It was a long lonely walk to my office. Near dripping wet, I looked at my door and read my name and profession. I came to a decision. A private detective is a young animal's game. I've the bruises to prove it plus my stupidity in running from the police to top it off. I glanced down the hall where a chute led to the furnace. I opened my door and looked around at fifteen years of casework I'd collected. A sad smirk ran across my lips. I can see Lieutenant Barkly's bright smile in learning I've quit the business. I ran my paw over a file cabinet, shook my head and began the work of dumping my files down the furnace chute.
The whole project took four hours. Not that I'm counting. I'd have gotten done sooner had I not looked over a case file or two before letting them go. Lastly, I emptied my desk into a carry case. At the exit door, I glanced once more on what had amounted to my second home and headed to the elevator, more depressed then I've ever been as the thought crossed my mind, So what do I do now?
At the front security desk, Espen looked up as I approached. “Good evening, Mr. Snow. Anything I can do for you?”
“I'm closing up shop, Espen,” I said matter-of-factly, and gave the startled black bear my keys. “Please have all my letters forwarded to my home address and inform management to send my last renter's bill there.”
“Gee, Mr. Snow, I'm sorry to see you go.” He took my keys and dropped them in a drawer. “The place won't be the same with you gone.”
“Thanks for the sentiment. Good luck in college.” I shook his paw in passing and stopped outside the front doors. The light rain had yet to let up. Perfect, I thought as it matched my mood. I pulled my pipe out and selected a can of leaves at random, filled the bowl and lit up. I took a couple of puffs while a rickshaw pulled up and stopped. Ms. Catharine Nelson stepped out, dressed in a green, foul weather overcoat.
“Oh, thank the maker. Mr. Snow, I've been looking all over for you the past two days.” She hurried up to me. “I've found something in my uncle's room that I thought might help you find him.”
“Good evening, Ms. Nelson.” I nodded to her, using her title, as I felt it best to apply distance between us.
“Here.” She tried to give me an old tour guide.
I removed my pipe and waved her off. “I'm sorry to disappoint you. Due to circumstances, I've had retire.”
Ms. Nelson blinked and kept shoving the book at me. “Yes, I know it's late. But if you'll take this with you, I'm sure in the morning, after looking it over, you'll discover something that will help you in finding my uncle.”
“No, no, you misunderstand me. What I mean is that I've packed in my business. As of today, I'm simply another law-abiding private citizen.”
Ms. Nelson looked surprised and stuttered, “Wh-a-t? No!” She grabbed my pipe arm and pleaded. “Please, Mr. Snow, you can't. Not now, not with this new discovery. You have to find my uncle!”
Her distress was so plain, she ignored that she'd dislodged my pipe from my paw. Unable to take a stab at a grab, I watched it hit the brick sidewalk and break off the bowl. Well, I thought to myself, laying back my ears as she continued to try to change my mind. That settles it. I bought that pipe with my paycheck from my first successfully closed case. I shifted my eyes from my pipe as she let go, opened her coat and sent a paw into her bra. She withdrew a bundle of notes.
“Here, Mr. Snow, please. Take this. It's all I have at present, but I'll get more.”
“Ms. Nelson, I'm sorry, but no. No amount of notes will change my mind.” I took her offered notes and placed them in an inside pocket of her coat, reclosed her coat and led her back to her waiting rickshaw. “In the past short days I've almost lost my life and may have lost my fiancée.”
She cried, “But you promised!”
“No, Ms. Nelson, I said I'd do some looking, and I have.” I pulled out of my case the folder I'd received from Lieutenant Barkly and my own notes I'd written up before leaving the office and gave them to her. “This is everything I know.” I forced her up into the rickshaw and turned to the driver. “Please take Ms. Nelson home.”
She grabbed my paw with both of hers, tears pouring from her eyes. “Please, Mr. Snow. I'm desperate. I'll do anything. I'll—I'll sleep with you if it'll change your mind. Every night, if you wish, while you're on the case! I want to find my uncle!”
I'd had that kind of offer before when a client couldn't pay my fees, but that kind of payment doesn't pay the bills. I shook my head no, and slapped the rump of the driver. “Get going.” The Clydesdale gave me a sour look, but started off. Ms. Nelson grabbed the side of the rickshaw and leaned out to watch me as she was pulled away.
In truth, I felt like a heel. I've made my decision. I swallowed a lump of regret.
Tanner pulled up, having watched from across the street. “Late night, Mr. Snow?”
“That and then some.” I eyed the distance, still seeing the drizzle.
“You need a lift, perhaps to Millie's Moonlight Café?”
I looked at the bag in my paw. I need to turn in the darts. You just don't throw this stuff away. But I didn't wish to walk into a police station at this time. “Tell you what.” I tossed the bag into his rickshaw. “You take that to the police station for me, and I'll give you my
prepaid fare card, as I'll not be needing it any longer.”
“What's this?” Tanner questioned and looked at the fare card I gave over, seeing about twenty notes still on it. “What gives, Mr. Snow?”
“I'm retiring, Tanner. I'm going to marry Joann and settle down to a normal life.”
Tanner's eyebrow rose. “Seriously?”
“Afraid so.”
“Well, I hate to lose such a good customer, but I'm right pleased for you. If you have a fair-size wedding, I'd be honored if you'd consider inviting me.”
“I'll keep that in mind.” I shook his paw. “I wish you well.”
“You don't wish me to take you to Millie's?”
Tanner turned his palm up and felt the light raindrops, as a queue to remind me it was wet out. The gesture was a salesman ploy to elicit customers. I knew Tanner hadn't meant it that way. He was genuinely concerned I'd take ill before making it back to my den. Being an arctic wolf brought up on the glacier, weather like this was only an irritant, diluting odors making tracking prey difficult. But as I wasn't party to that kind of life anymore, the dilution of scents was a blessing.
“No, thanks anyway. I'd like to walk tonight.”
Tanner's dark eyes showed concern, but as I'd refused help, he could do no more. “As you say then. Good luck, if I don't see you again.”
“Thanks,” I called out as he picked up the poles and started off.
****
I was soaked to the skin by the time my key hit the lock. I should have taken Tanner up on his offer, but at the time I needed the walk. It was 03:00. Joann should be home, unless she worked a few extra hours of overtime like she did now and again. I closed the door and allowed my eyes to adjust to the darkness. She wasn't in bed. “Mmm…It would've been nice to crawl into a warm bed.” I shrugged and took a hot shower and milked it until my skin was red in reaction to the heat. As tired as I was, I still took the time to groom myself before lying down. There's nothing worse than waking up with matted fur or biting fleas. A glance at the clock said it was 04:40. Mmm, she normally doesn't work more than two extra hours. A deep yawn took over my face. I lay down on the mattress and in seconds was out for the night.
Braxton Snow P.I. (The Snow Adventures Book 1) Page 11