Рита Браун - Pawing Through The Past

"Should we dance?" He nodded toward the music.

"No. It's their night."

"Well, I'm not flying back to New York until Monday. If you change your mind about dancing, call me." He winked, picked up Harry's carton, and headed for the door. Harry turned to follow but thought she heard a sound on the stairwell.

The lights were out in the stairwell. She walked up a step and went over to turn them on to double-check.

A black-gloved hand came down over hers.

A man's tenor, a familiar voice, snarled, "Don't, you idiot!"

Before she could respond he drew back the side of his hand and hit her hard in the windpipe. She staggered back, choking, falling off the one step. She saw briefly the back of a man, dressed in black, a black ski mask over his face as he jumped over her. Nimbly, he ran down the hall.

Tears of pain rolled down her face; she couldn't get up. She was fighting hard to breathe.

Mrs. Murphy noticed first. "Something's wrong!"

The three animals tore back down the hallway, their paws barely touching the ground. They were all going so fast that when they reached Harry they spun out of control.

Harry, on her hands and knees, gasped for air. Tucker licked her face.

"I'll catch him!" Pewter took off down the hall. Once the humans saw Harry, Murphy ran after Pewter.

"Harry? Harry!" Susan came running toward Harry, the sound of footsteps receding, fading into the fifties music.

Murphy left Harry, hit Mach One, sped past Pewter, sped past the running man, ducked into the cafeteria, pushed out a skateboard from behind the door, and pushed it so it would cross the man's path.

He never saw the skateboard. He hit it running flat out, fell down, and skidded on the polished floor. He struggled up and kept running, although his arm was crooked.

"Dennis Rablan! It's Dennis Rablan!" Murphy yelled, but only Pewter understood as she came alongside Murphy.

The two cats followed Dennis, running hard, his right arm hanging uselessly by his side. He turned, hit the doors with his left side, and escaped.

The double doors swung shut, keeping the cats inside.

"Damn!" Mrs. Murphy spit, the hair on her tail puffed, her eyes huge.

As Susan reached Harry, Tucker, hearing a second set of footsteps, bounded up the stairwell. Tucker, now on the second floor, heard footsteps thump down the far stairway. The corgi ran down the hall, reaching the top of the back stairwell as the human hit the bottom, turned right and, narrowly missing the cats, opened the doors and escaped. The cats escaped with him. He was in black sweats with a ski mask covering his face.

Within seconds Tucker was at the bottom of the stairs. With her greater bulk, she pushed a door open and followed the cats.

About a hundred yards ahead of them they heard footsteps drop over the bank; they followed as the figure ran toward the houses behind the school. He disappeared, they heard a car door slam and a car took off, heading west, no lights.

"Damnit!" Tucker cursed.

"It was Dennis Rablan," Murphy panted.

"But who was the guy upstairs?" Tucker kept sniffing the ground.

"Let's follow the tracks," Pewter wisely suggested. They followed two sets of tracks to the end of the schoolyard.

Looking down at the houses below, Murphy said, "I would never have thought Dennis capable of these murders. I can't believe it but I smelled him. It was him."

"Let's go back inside," Tucker said.

"We can't open the doors." Pewter sat in the cool grass.

"I can. Come on."

Once inside, they checked down the hall. Everyone was around Harry.

"Let's go upstairs and work backwards. There may be a scent up there that will help us." Pewter started up the back stairs.

The other two followed.

Tucker, nose to the ground, moved along the hall. Pewter, pupils wide in the dark, checked each room, as did Mrs. Murphy.

"English Leather." Tucker identified the cologne. "Enough to mask the scent of an entire regiment. Odd. So heavy a scent even humans can smell it. Why advertise your presence like that?"

"What's this?" Pewter stopped in the hall, patting at a thin, twisted piece of rope with a wooden dowel on each end.

"A garotte!" Mrs. Murphy exclaimed. "He was going to strangle someone."

"Think we can get Susan or another human up here?" Tucker said.

"No, they're worried about Mom and we should be, too," Pewter replied.

"We can't just leave it here." Murphy thought a moment. "Tucker, pick it up. Drop it at their feet. When things quiet down one of the humans will notice."

Without another word, Tucker picked up the garotte, and hurried down the stairs to Harry.

Rick Shaw and Cynthia attended to her. They had just arrived at the school. Hank, Fair, and Susan knelt down with Harry.

"It's not crushed, thank God." Cynthia gently felt Harry's windpipe.

Harry still couldn't speak but she was breathing better.

Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker quietly walked down the stairs.

Tucker dropped the garotte at Rick Shaw's feet. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, bent over, and picked it up. He whistled low.

Tucker eagerly looked up at him, then turned, walking toward the stairwell.

Harry whispered-her throat felt on fire-"They chased him."

"There were two of them!" Pewter, in frustration, yowled.

Rick followed Tucker up the stairs. The dog stopped where Pewter found the twisted rope. Although it was cool on the second floor-the heat was turned down for the weekend-Rick was sweating. He knew what a close call Harry had suffered. And he also knew because Jason called in on the squad car radio that he had lost Dennis Rablan at the intersection of Route 240 and Route 250. A big semi crossed the intersection and when Jason could finally turn, Dennis was out of sight. The officer drove down Beaver Dam Road, turned back on 250 to check that out, turned west on 250, and finally doubled back on 240. No trace.

Slowly he walked down the hallway, down the back stairwell, to the doors. He pushed open the doors, accompanied by Tucker, and walked to the edge of the hills.

He knelt down; the grass was flattened. He stood up and quickly walked back to the school. He and Cynthia had locked the doors at the top of each stairwell. He walked up the stairs. The door was open, a stopper under it so it wouldn't swing back and forth. The lock had been neatly picked. He walked the length of the hall to find the other door, also propped open. It had been opened from the inside. Then he came downstairs and checked on Harry again.

Harry, sitting with her back against the wall, was pushing away a glass of water Susan wanted her to drink. She was breathing evenly now.

Rick knelt down with her. "Can you talk?"

"A little," she whispered. She told him about hearing a sound, going up a step to turn on the lights, and hearing a man's voice say, "Don't, you idiot." Then he hit hard and she fell back.