Give the Dog a Bone (20 page)
Throwing my shoulder into the door, I caught her wrist with the loaded gun. It was now wedged between the door and the jamb. I heard her gasp so as to suppress a scream that would alert the men outside. I shouted, “Help! She’s got a gun!”
“Stay back or I’ll shoot you!” Rachel countered. She pulled the trigger. Though the blast was frightening, she could not aim at me from this angle. The bullet whizzed past me into the room.
The thumping and banging noises told me that the men had barged into the trailer toward us, even though they must have believed they were rushing toward a loaded gun. I pressed with all my might on the door. An instant later Rachel cried out again in pain as one of the men cried, “Drop the gun!”
She let out another cry and then, finally, let the gun drop from her hand. I kicked it across the room. It slid harmlessly under the bed.
I opened the door. Rachel again cried out in pain, and Chad, keeping her arm pinned against her back, slammed her against the wall. “My arm’s broken!” she cried.
“Don’t move!” he said.
I pushed past them and into the living room, where T-Rex was barking and snarling at the second man, who was gingerly trying to pull the duct tape from Yolanda’s mouth.
“Let me do that,” I said. “Could you call the police?”
Though it was grisly work, slowly pulling the tape off her tender, wounded skin amid Yolanda’s streaming tears, I finally succeeded. Then, with T-Rex licking her face, I cut the tape that had secured her arms to the back of the chair.
Still sobbing, she held her face in her hands and said, “Sorry ’bout the tears. But it’s like I tol’ you. The crap’s finally done hittin’ the fan.”
The police sirens in the distance were drawing closer. I cut the tape off Yolanda’s ankles, and said, “Yes, it is.”
She pulled me into a long hug, which T-Rex kept trying to join. Chuckling through her tears, she petted him and said, “Man alive, this dog could use some better manners. Wish I could afford to hire you, Allie.”
“You can. You’re about to come into a whole lot of money very soon. If you’d consider taking in a wealthy but rambunctious golden retriever, that is.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked me, her eyebrows raised. “All Rachel’s nonsense about Maggie’s fortune can’t really be . . .” She let her voice fade, then stared into my eyes. “You lost your mind?”
“Quite the contrary,” I said with a smile. “I’m finally seeing things clearly. Maggie living with you and T-Rex is exactly what Ken would have wanted.”
“That’d be okay by me,” she said slowly, scanning the room as if considering the upgrade in living quarters she’d be capable of making. She stared directly into my eyes. “If you’re sure about it, that is.”
“I’m positive.”
I shuddered as I listened to the crunch of gravel as the police cars pulled to a stop just outside. A person’s hold on life was so very tenuous. It was all I could do not to cry with joy knowing that I would live to see another day after all.
I watched Chad’s partner from Animal Control open the door. He’d helped save my life, and I didn’t even know his name. I made a silent vow: I was going to contact every friend and family member I had and tell them how much they meant to me. Starting with Russell Greene.
By Leslie O’Kane
DEATH AND FAXES
JUST THE FAX, MA’AM
THE COLD HARD FAX*
THE FAX OF LIFE*
THE SCHOOL BOARD MURDERS*
WHEN THE FAX LADY SINGS*
PLAY DEAD*
RUFF WAY TO GO*
GIVE THE DOG A BONE*
*
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
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A Fawcett Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 2002 by Leslie O’Kane
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Fawcett is a registered trademark and the Fawcett colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
O’Kane, Leslie.
Give the dog a bone / by Leslie O’Kane
p. cm.
1. Women detectives—Colorado—Boulder—Fiction. 2. Boulder (Colo.)
Fiction. 3. Dog trainers—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3565.K335 G58 2002
813’.54—dc21
2001052678
eISBN: 978-0-307-41532-5
v3.0
