Carolyn McSparren - Listen to the Child

“Upstairs doing homework.”

Vince stretched out his thick legs in front of him and leaned his head on the back of the sofa. “Doc, as long as you’re here, how about some advice.”

Mac nodded.

“See, you’re keeping Adam here going fine, but he’s seven years old now and close to retiring as a police dog. The canine unit likes younger dogs.” Vince reached down and scratched behind the dog’s ears. “He’ll be going home with me for good when he does. See, right now we either get dogs from Germany—that’s where Adam came from—or from a guy in Ohio who breeds German shepherds specifically for police departments.”

“I know that.”

“He assesses the pups and does basic training for the first two years, then if he thinks a dog’s a good candidate, he recommends we buy it. So far he’s been a hundred percent on the nose. We’re paying upward of ten thousand bucks a pup, then we have to complete the training and train the handlers ourselves.”

“Ten thousand dollars?” Mac said. “Isn’t that a bit steep even for a good shepherd?”

“Not for these guys,” Vince said. “The imported Belgian Malinois cost even more. Thing is, I think with the right female, I could breed some pretty good pups from old Adam here.”

“Possibly.”

“I got my eye on a great big old girl from outside Leipzig in what used to be East Germany—that’s where Adam came from. I’ve got permission to breed her to him if I can get her over here. I could undercut the guy from Ohio and still make one heck of a profit, even if I only sold one pup a litter to a police department and the rest for pets.”

“So what do you want from me?”

“Think Kit here could manage a kennel?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I want to set up a kennel on some land I’ve got over in Hardeman County. If I can persuade Kit, we could go in together on the female and split the profits. I could keep working while she looked after the kennel.”

“It would certainly be worth investigating,” Mac said, trying to keep the dismay out of his voice. He wanted to keep Kit in his sight, not fifty miles away. “Since Kit will be working at Creature Comfort now, she should certainly be getting some excellent training.” He spoke to her. “Do you have any experience running a kennel?”

“Of course not. The whole idea is crazy, Vince. Where would Em go to school? What about Jimmy’s visitation rights? This house?” She turned to Mac. “Who said for sure I’ll be working for Creature Comfort? Did I miss something?”

“We talked it over at the staff meeting. Nancy put in a good word for you and they agreed to hire you part-time. It’s all settled. I thought we might discuss salary tonight.” He glanced at Vince. He liked Vince but he wished he’d take the hint and leave.

“Hey, it’s okay if you don’t want to go in with me. Maybe it’s too soon,” Vince said. “I’m still going to try to buy that female, though. I can raise a litter of puppies in my backyard, see how it goes. I’m glad you’re going to be getting out of the house more, Kit. When are you going to come down to the gym and start working out with the boys in blue again?”

“Don’t forget I’m not in blue any longer.”

“That doesn’t matter. You’ll always be one of us. You know that. Well, old Adam and me have to get home.”

Vince stood and Adam came to attention beside him, eyes on his face. Vince gave him a hand signal, and he fell in beside his master.

Kit walked into the front hall with Vince.

Vince hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. “Bye, sweet thing. Come on down and see us, y’ hear?”

Mac felt a jolt of adrenaline when Vince hugged Kit. Were they really just friends? He didn’t want there to be anything between them—between Kit and anybody.

As Kit stood in the door and waved goodbye to Vince and Adam, the telephone on the hall table rang. He could see the red light blinking, but Kit was facing away from it.

Instantly Kevlar jumped up and bumped her hand. She turned, saw the light and picked up the telephone. “Just a minute, whoever you are. This is the wrong phone. Hang on.” She said to Mac, “The phone I use is upstairs in my bedroom. Excuse me.”

He started to tell her goodbye, but she turned and took the steps two at a time before he could. Incredible legs. Great rear end too. He’d never much liked muscles in a woman, but the thought of those legs locked around him started a chain reaction that he’d prefer Kit not see when she came downstairs. He went back to the living room to wait for her.

It was a comfortable room with bookshelves packed with current fiction on either side of the fireplace. A few pieces of furniture that his mother would probably approve of, but mostly an accumulation selected with taste but without much money. He had picked up a picture of a much younger Emma, when he heard Kit coming downstairs.

“Sorry. Jimmy wanted to change his night to have Emma sleep over. One of these days I am going to kill him.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Jimmy Lockhart, Emma’s father, my ex-husband. He rides a patrol car. He makes me so mad. He thinks having Emma sleep over is something he does when one of his bimbos cancels.” She sank into the recliner. “God, I’m sorry. You don’t need to hear my problems.”

“At Creature Comfort we all interact like family.” He felt his face flaming. Of all the stuffy, stupid things to say! “Now, I really must go. Thanks for the beer.”

“When do you want me to show up at Creature Comfort?”

“Would next Monday be too soon?”

“Not at all. We can talk about how much I can pay toward my bill out of my salary.”

“Don’t worry about your bill.”

She put her hand on his arm to turn him to face her. “Can’t lip-read your back, Doctor.”

“Sorry. I said, don’t worry about your bill.” God, he loved the way she watched him, the way her lips parted and almost spoke the words as he did.

If he didn’t look out, he was going to grab her and kiss her.

And probably wind up flat on his back with a karate chop to the throat.

“Uh, see you Monday.”

He practically fled from the house. As he jumped into his car, he saw the curtains behind one of the upstairs windows flutter. Emma. He started the car and burned rubber getting away.

WHEN KIT OPENED the door to the Creature Comfort conference room early the following Monday morning, Nancy looked up from the comics section of the morning paper. “I wasn’t sure you’d show up.”

“Neither was I,” Kit replied, taking her outstretched hand. “I nearly lost my nerve. I’m not sure I can do this job without a good set of ears.”

The early-morning mist still hadn’t lifted from the Creature Comfort parking lot, although the weather was supposed to clear later in the day. About time. Everybody was sick of the unending late-February rain. Even the jonquils beside the roads looked dispirited.

Kit had dropped Emma at school, then had driven straight to Creature Comfort. Until the accident, she’d loved being surrounded by people. Now she realized that for eight months she’d seen almost no one except her doctors, the audio-clinic staff and her immediate family—if she could still consider Jimmy Lockhart family. She felt shy and out of place. These people knew one another well, worked together all the time. Could she possibly fit in? Would she see conversations around her that she couldn’t interpret? The speech pathology people had warned her against becoming paranoid. It was easy to imagine others were gossiping about her.

Nancy bent to ruffle Kevlar’s ears, then tilted her face up so that Kit could read her lips. “Around here you may find it a plus not being able to hear. All the barking and yapping gets to you after a while. Come on, I’ll show you around and introduce you to the staff that’s here. Later I can fill you in on them over lunch. Did you bring your lunch?”