Downward Dog, page 10
part #1 of Dog Yoga Mystery Series
“Walked out the front door of the cabin they left me tied up in.” Larissa paused, screwing up her nose. “Or rather, he did. I’m sure there was only one man involved.”
“Only one.” Hine had her phone out, dialling the station. “Did you recognise your attacker? Was Dame Cholmondeley kept in the same room?”
“Dame Cholmondeley?” Larissa’s lip curled as she stared at Hine. “What’s she got to do with this?”
PC Perry answered the phone just as Hine was about to answer. “I’ve saved you the trouble of finding the latest kidnap victim,” she said. “I’m sitting next to her at the hospital right now.”
As he spat out a load of questions, she handed the phone over to Larissa. Only then did it occur to her that instead of getting her off the hook with police suspicions, this would probably just make them worse.
“Tell them a man snatched you,” she whispered to Larissa, who happily complied. After a few moments, she hung up the phone and handed it back. “They’re coming down here to interview me. I hope the doctor gets to see me before that.”
Although she appeared cheerful, Hine noted the tremor running through Larissa’s body. She reached over and gave the woman’s hand a squeeze. “If you want to talk about it with me, I’ll listen. If you’d prefer to sit here in silence, we’ll do that instead.”
“I’d prefer to have the doctor give me something for this.” Larissa held up her wrist, rope burns eating deep into the flesh, so the wound was bright pink flecked with red.
“That’s awful! Did you have to wriggle out of some ropes?”
“Wriggle, twist, and bite.” Larissa bared her teeth. “Do they look okay? Everything in there feels swollen.”
“You bit through a rope?” Hine’s mouth fell open. “You’re my new hero!”
“I just loosened the knot. Whoever tied me up didn’t grow up on sailboats, it was a half-hearted effort at best. If he’d done it properly, I’d be there until next week.”
“Where was the cabin?”
“Not far from where I walked in front of you and nearly got us both killed.” Larissa shrugged. “I might’ve walked in circles for a while, but it shouldn’t be too hard to locate.”
Hine hesitated. Given the woman’s previous response, she guessed it would be a no, but she still had to ask. “And you never saw Dame Cholmondeley while you were being held?”
“No. Why? What’s happened to her?”
“She was kidnapped in broad daylight from out front of my yoga studio, yesterday. Some older men in a white van pulled up, grabbed her, shoved her in the back, and took off.”
Larissa put a hand up to her face. “Even when I get kidnapped, I’m still being upstaged by that ridiculous woman. I had no idea.”
“Could she have been kept in another room?”
“There wasn’t another room. It was a small cabin, all-in-one. No bathroom but there was an outhouse that stunk to high heaven.”
She wrapped her arms around her upper body as she shivered. Hine touched Larissa’s shoulder and gave a gasp of surprise. “You’re freezing. Nurse!” She walked over to the desk and slapped her palm on the top. “We need to have this woman seen now. She’s in shock.”
“We’ll get to her in a moment. There are other people more—”
“Please.” Hine dropped her voice low, not wanting to get the nurse’s back up by shouting or demanding further. “She was abducted earlier today and just escaped. Her injuries might not look serious but she’s in a really bad way.” She tapped the side of her head.
“Oh goodness. Why didn’t you say when you came in?” The nurse picked up the phone and called through to the ER. A second later, a doctor came out beside an orderly pushing a wheelchair.
“I can walk,” Larissa objected, shaking so badly when she stood up that she collapsed into the chair.
They disappeared behind the swinging door and the nurse hooked up one eyebrow. “Were you also abducted?”
“No. I just fell off some crates, yesterday. I’m fine.” Hine backed away from the counter, the threat of a moon boot enough to remind her why she hadn’t visited the day before. “I’ll be on my way.”
As she drove out of the hospital exit, a police car pulled up in front. Good. Larissa would have someone looking out for her. Now, Hine just needed to find the cabin and check it out for herself.
Hopefully, there’d be a clue to where Dame Cholmondeley was being held in there.
Penelope finished a circuit of the garage and slumped down onto the floor. It was useless. There wasn’t a crack or nook or loose piece of board anywhere she could find.
“I’ll die here. This is my least favourite thing.”
The stranger inside the house must have been listening because something catapulted into the other side of the door. Penelope barely raised an ear at the sudden thump. He’d done it often enough she knew no rescue would follow.
If only she’d followed the dame’s advice and cut back on her rations, she might have been able to slip through the tiny slotted window near the roof.
An industrious dog would be able to find a way out of this trap, regardless. If she had the outspoken courage of Sparkles, she’d probably be at Hine’s door right now.
During the daylight hours, she’d convinced herself someone would turn up and set her free at any moment. After passing a night listening to the man ranting and raving about something over the phone, it had been a joy to glimpse the sun.
Now, darkness had settled again, marking the second night she’d spent alone in the horrible concrete box that reeked of petrol.
The dame had once shown her a lot of movies featuring a collie dog who spent her days saving mischievous boys and girls from certain death. It had been confusing—the collie on screen had been barking about treats and needing more affection while the humans had entirely different lines—but Penelope got the general idea.
Her mistress had something terrible befall her and rather than leaping into action and saving the day, Penelope had managed to get herself trapped as well. “Lassie falls down the well on top of Timmy,” didn’t sound nearly as catchy as a title. There’d be no one making movies about her when she was gone.
Although she wanted to howl, Penelope forced herself to concentrate instead. She was thirsty, hungry, and scared. No one was miraculously going to stop her being those things, she needed to fix this herself.
Last night, the police had come out en masse. Penelope saw the lights from multiple cop cars flashing through the window and heard the stomp of many boots. She’d barked and howled and not once had a single officer poked their heads into the garage to see how she was doing.
Not once.
The walls were sealed shut and the window was a no go. The only way Penelope could get out was through the connecting door to the house or the main door out to the driveway.
She understood how the inside door worked. Turn the handle, push, and open.
Except the stranger had pushed in the centre button on the other side of the door handle. Unless he turned it, the door would stay locked.
The main garage door leading out to the drive was her only option. If the car had been inside, Penelope could have leapt on its roof and inspected the complicated set of pulleys and steel ropes more closely to understand how they worked.
Without it, she had to squint and tilt her head, trying to follow the pattern and understand where to pull to get the door to lift. When she threw her weight hard against it, the large door wouldn’t budge an inch.
If she had water, her thoughts would come easier. Why had she eaten all that dog food dry, instead of drinking herself full to the brim from the water bowl? Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she closed her eyes to picture the bowl better.
Mm. Clean spring water.
Penelope woke with a start, hearing the man inside the house shouting at someone again on the phone. If that was how he treated his friends, she didn’t want to stay around and become his enemy.
Perhaps turning on the light would help matters. She could trace the door system better if she could see more clearly.
The light switch was halfway up the wall, next to a large green button. Penelope leapt as high as she could, trying not to be scared of hurting herself as she flung her body at the wall.
With her paw stretched as far as it could go, she was still only halfway to the switch. Penelope trotted over to the bench along the wall and dragged out some empty flowerpots from underneath it. They were far too dainty for her to stand on a single one, but if she lay them out, side by side, they should support her to reach farther.
The moonlight in the window had risen, glowed, and disappeared again before Penelope built herself a stack high enough to try again. With her eyes fixed on the target, she swallowed hard and jumped.
Smack.
Her paw hit the wall, missing the switch by a few centimetres. Instead, it smacked into the green button before she fell down, toppling hours of hard work with an awkward landing.
The noise of the door winding up was loud. For a second, Penelope didn’t understand what had happened.
Then she saw the patch of driveway through the rising door and gave a yelp of triumph. The button operated the door. Of course!
She scampered over, running up and down the breadth of the opening gap, yipping with impatience. Did it always rise this slowly?
The connecting door to the garage slammed open.
Penelope turned with wide eyes and stared at the man in the doorway. His hair was wild, his eyes were reddened from lack of sleep, and his face was twisted with fury.
“What do you think you’re doing? I told you to be quiet!”
He slammed his hand against the green button, causing the door to hitch to a stop. Penelope wriggled her front paws underneath, unable to wait any longer. Her fat belly rubbed against the concrete, scraping on a large piece of gravel caught right by the door.
Another thump on the wall and the door made its loud squeal as it reversed direction.
Penelope felt it crush against her lower back, trapping the rear of her body inside.
Chapter Seventeen
Despite driving straight back to the point Hine had encountered Larissa, she didn’t beat the police. Not even close.
As she got out of her car, cell phone set to the torch app, she could see the forest was crisscrossed with strong beams. One man called out to another and received a shouted response. These weren’t hunters, at least not of deer or rabbits.
With a sigh, Hine continued with her plan. She still wanted to see the cabin and verify for herself there was no sign of the dame. If that meant sneaking around in the woods, avoiding cops for a few minutes, so be it.
Unfortunately, it seemed her police-avoiding skills had suffered damage along with her ankle.
“Hine!” a voice called out of the darkness. The male speaker then shone a light in her face so she couldn’t see anything but brilliant white.
It didn’t matter. After the past few days, she’d recognise that voice anywhere.
Constable Perry. While she uttered a groan, her heart fluttered a little at the thought of bumping into his physique on a dark night.
It reminded her of a camping trip her school had arranged when she was much younger. They’d gone for a nighttime walk, girls and boys deliberately jostling each other in the dark.
He lowered the torch and walked over to her. “What are you doing out here?”
“I found Larissa out here,” she said, deciding honesty was temporarily the best policy. “She said Dame Cholmondeley wasn’t with her while they held her captive, but I thought it would be good to check.”
“Yes, but why are you out here?” He folded his arms in a probable attempt at sternness but the bobbling light resulting from the action hindered the effort. “This is a matter for the police.”
“It’s a matter for everyone in our community,” Hine said, trying for an angelic expression. “Since I knew where I’d bumped into Larissa, I thought it might be quicker for me to try.”
“Did you?”
Hine mimicked his posture, folding her own arms and raising an eyebrow. “Yes, I did. Since you lot seem to think I’m responsible for the dame’s disappearance, it stands to reason I should try to clear my name.”
“We released you without charge.” PC Perry dropped his arms down, flicking the beam of the torch back and forth across their feet. “If you want things to stay that way, it’d be better for you to stay out of this case altogether.”
“Are you saying you’ve struck me off the suspect list?”
After a long pause on his part, Hine snorted. “See. I knew it.” She pushed past him, barely able to see by her cell light after the strength of his torch.
“Wait, then.” He jogged a few steps to catch up with her, then linked his arm through hers. “If you insist on sticking your nose in, at least let me keep tabs on you.”
“Thank you, constable.” Hine dragged on his arm, slowing him down to her limping speed.
“You can call me by my first name, you know. Since it’s just the two of us out here together.”
“I can’t.” Hine offered up an elaborate sigh, before explaining, “You never actually told me what it is.”
“Christian.”
“Really?” Hine disengaged her arm and stood back, scanning him up and down. “You don’t look like a Christian.”
“Oh, and what do I look like?”
“A heathen.” Hine hooked her arm back through his, leaning against him as she pretended her limp was far worse. He easily held her upright, the bicep on his arm flexing against hers. “Definitely a heathen.”
The cabin held nothing of interest. Apart from the coiled rope on the floor next to an overturned chair, it was a standard one-room bach. The same cheap holiday home structure that many of the properties close to Pinetar beach favoured.
“Stay outside,” Christian had told her when they arrived. Hine followed his direction for a good two minutes before curiosity got the better of her and she stuck her nose indoors.
“What did I just tell you?”
“I have no idea,” Hine responded with a pretend simper. “I couldn’t hear it over your masculine physique.”
The statement seemed to leave the poor man completely flummoxed, and he waved her back outside.
If Dame Cholmondeley had been kidnapped by the same group, they must have several places dotted around the area to hide their victims. Larissa had been lucky enough to escape but the dame could be stored anywhere, her restraints tied with more attention to detail.
“We need to get a dog out here,” Hine said. “They can sniff around all the baches hidden in this forest and down near the beach. It’s a great place to store a person, especially if you expect they might make a bit of noise.”
“We’ve already put in a call to Christchurch to see if their dog teams are suitable to the task.” Christian sighed and pulled at the edge of his collar. “It’s not likely. They’re trained to follow tracks in open fields or hunt down particular scents. Smelling a person inside a house when they might have been carried straight from a car into the property, is a long shot.”
“Penelope would be able to. She knows her owner’s smell better than any trained animal.”
“She might know the smell but since she’s not trained, it’s not going to do any good. Unless her nose is better than the dogs we have in the force, then she’ll just strike the same problems.”
Hine wanted to protest but wasn’t sure enough of her position to argue. What would she say? That the loving bond between a dog and her mistress was a thousand times better than any training program?
Sure, it would sound lovely in a ballad’s lyrics but was it true?
“Why are you so interested in this, anyway? I thought you said you barely knew Dame Cholmondeley?”
She gave a shrug, trying to pin down the reason for herself. There was the stuff she’d already given him about wanting to clear her name, but that wasn’t quite it.
“I feel guilty that the ransom handoff didn’t go the way it should. Perhaps, if I’d been better trained, I could’ve got the location out of the contact instead of just thumping him with a case.”
Christian’s lips twitched. “Don’t feel guilty about that. You shouldn’t have been in that position, to begin with. There are valid reasons why we prefer these things to be left to the police.”
“If the insurer was happy to pay the money, why not let her?”
“Because criminals are unpredictable and untrustworthy? I can’t believe you’re asking that after how the entire event shook out.”
“We might’ve done better if your lot hadn’t shown up, scaring us all out of our skins. You’re the ones who sent the kidnapper back under cover.”
They glared at each other for a moment, Hine giving back as good as she got despite the way her throat twisted.
“We can debate this another day, you need to get out of here,” Christian said, shooing her towards the door again. “The sergeant’s on his way.”
“How do you know?” she asked but was talking to his receding back.
Within minutes, a loudspeaker crackled, and a voice boomed out into the darkness. “Sergeant Winchester speaking. I need to brief you on the search so far, but first, could Hine Trewlove please leave the area? This is now a crime scene and only police are allowed in the vicinity.”
With a half-dozen policemen turning to stare in her direction, Hine scowled and limped back to her car. She didn’t trust the instinct that had sent her tearing out here in the first place. If she’d stayed at the hospital, she would have been more help. Even if the nurses had forced her to stay in the waiting area.
Chapter Eighteen
Hine thought she would have a heart attack as she turned into her driveway and almost hit something for the second time that night. This time, the thing she didn’t quite hit, was Penelope. The dog sat in the middle of the drive, panting, her belly streaked with something dark.
