Bobby D. Lux - Dog Duty (24 page)

He sa
t there with a grin on his face and wagged his stump of a tail. It was the first time I got a good look at his face in the light. I saw the spots in the fur by his nose and at the corner of his eyes. His eyes weren’t cold and empty of feeling, they were old like mine. Their life of intimidation took a toll on them and they just wanted to blink. Clay sat slightly off to one side and his head hunched forward. The skin on his chest was loose and his jowls hung low and were bloated. His arms and legs were still bigger than mine, but I could tell they weren’t as big as they once were. His whiskers weren’t steel rods that shined in the moonlight; they were no different than my aging set. 

Clay wasn’t a monster. He was once a puppy
who fought with the other pups to nurse from mommy. He was once an anonymous member of a litter who stumbled over feet too big for his little body. There was a time when his fur was soft, too short, and puffed out over thin bones instead of laying flat on well-maintained muscles. I saw that dog plain as day, and it allowed me to see exactly who Clay was: another dog, just like me. I smiled at Clay and he didn’t know what to say. If I had to, I could kill him.

“Clay!” The Perp said
, over the swarm of people, as he neared the service entrance with Nipper, Ernie, and Saucy in tow. “Come!”

“Sorry
, Fritz,” Clay said. “A good soldier follows his orders, but please feel free to try to catch us. In fact, I’d love it if you did. It’d be my pleasure for you to see what he does with that beauty queen. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to do it to you and your little cadets there too.”

He
sprung to his paws and rumbled his way through the people who were all too quick to get out of the way of a barking Rottweiler. Instead of heading towards The Perp, Clay raced towards the arena floor. I hoped Clay didn’t think that I wouldn’t chase him through an ongoing dog show. He turned left and went through the tunnel and into the middle of the show. He knocked over a cotton candy vendor who was taking a break. I vaulted the vendor and gained ground on Clay while running on the artificial turf.

“
I got to be honest with you,” a voice from the other side of the turf said, “we’ve never had a K-9 officer quite like Nitro. He’s smart, he’s very fast and obedient, and was the top dog in his class. We’re pleased as punch to have him on the force. He’s the best dog I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Nitro turned away from
the camera as Clay sprinted by them towards the other exit off the floor. Nitro’s partner kept talking to the camera. I couldn’t help myself.

“How’s it going, Nitro?” I said
, as I stopped and stood next to him.

“Tell me this isn’t happening,” Nitro said.

“Sorry,” I said. “It is.”

“I am on camera right now at this moment.”

“Technically,” I said. “
We’re
on camera at this moment.”

“What are you doing here?”
Nitro said.

“R
emember that night in the alley with The Perp and the Rottweiler and the night you took credit for my scent? That night? That dog that just ran through the show here? That’s him. And, oh yeah, The Perp from that night, yeah, he’s here too. While you’re busy doing your whole press thing here, I’m gonna go get them both. Just thought you’d like to know that. See ya around.” Clay disappeared off the floor, but I knew where he was headed. “Nitro, one last thing and then I’ll leave you alone. They like it when you bark at the end of the interview. Just once though. It makes them think that you’re talking to them and that you really like them. Gotta run.”

And I did. I lost sight of Clay, but his scent was still in the air. I slowed down and followed it out of the sports arena. I circled the perimeter and caught up with Nipper and Ernie at the north side of the arena
as they chased a fading trail of burnt rubber towards the exit.

“Wait,” I
said.

“We’re losing ‘em, Fritz,” Nipper said.

“They took Scarlet,” Saucy said.

“I know,” I said.
“I know. Just hold on. We’re not going to chase down a car, so everyone just catch their breath and calm down.”

“Clay got in the car too,” Ernie
said, panting. “They threw Scarlet in the trunk.”

“We have to go rescue Scarlet,” Saucy said.
“We’re not going to do it standing here. You let them get away.”

“No he didn’t,” Ernie said. “How many times have you ever outrun a car, Saucy?”

“Never,” Saucy said. “But if there was going to be a first time, that was it, and he tells us to stop? No wonder you guys can’t stand him.”

Concerned humans and arena security guards
came out of the arena with serious looks on their faces that poorly complimented a complete and total lack of any idea of what they were supposed to be doing or looking for. The fattest one of the bunch ordered the others to look for a guy carrying a dog.

“At a dog show?” a less fat one said
. “That could be anyone.”

“Everyone j
ust take a deep breath,” I said, as I closed my eyes, and drew in a deep inhale like I was trying to sandblast my lungs. The others didn’t follow my lead. Ernie was nervous because Saucy was anxious. Nipper looked around and expected us to get caught at any moment. “Trust me. Do it. What do you smell? You smell that, don’t you, Saucy? That musky stench of dead fish and salt. Come on, how about you, Ernie? You smelling that?”

“I smell pigeons,” Ernie said
, after a quick sniff. “Filthy scavengers. They always get the good stuff from the dumpsters.”

“I smell gasoline,” Nipper said. “A
nd rust.”

“T
his is what is putting you in such a good mood?” Saucy said.

“Sure does,” I said. “Because you know what that all smells like, don’t you?”

“The docks!” Ernie said. “That’s where they’re going with Scarlet.”

“We
can see them from here,” Nipper said.

“So
, what are we waiting for?” Saucy said.

“
My thoughts exactly, young lady,” I said.

We followed the scent, but we didn’t need to. The cranes and cargo holds from the Grand City Docks could be seen poking out over the Grand City Arena. From afar
, it looked like the arena was a massive baby spider, with the circular dome in the center, and the tentacles of the docks sticking out of the top. 

I know what you’re saying right about now. “Look, Fritz, you expect us to believe that you three went to the dog show and that Clay, Scamper,
and
The Perp from the beginning of the story were all there? Not only that, Nitro managed to make an appearance? Come on, how gullible do you think we are? And then to make matters worse, the docks were only a quick jog away?”

I’m telling you, they were there
, and I dare you to procure a copy of any Grand City map you can find; the evidence will be right there in front of you. Go ahead and accuse me of stretching things to make it all fit together, but the truth is the truth, as much as we all wish it wasn’t sometimes. 

Parking lot 3f at the dockyard was nearly empty. The security booth was locked and unmanned. The guard arm was up in the
come on through we’re not charging for parking today
position. A few tow trucks hugged the fence. A couple of dented limos with “For Rent” decals and several coats of dirt stretched out sporadically. The only car I was interested in was the fifteen year old sports car closest to the pier entrance. The one that smelled of burnt gas and had a fresh pair of skid marks coming from the rear tires.

“I have Scarlet’s scent,” Saucy said,
as we stood next to the vehicle. “They can’t be far from here.”

She was right. I picked up Clay’s scent along with The Perp’s. I looked down the dock and couldn’t see anything besides makeshift offices and stacks of cargo crates large enough to hold a dozen Intimidators.

“Disgusting,” Nipper said, as he looked down at the caked pigeon droppings that stained the cement.

“We should split up,” I said.

“I thought that wasn’t a good idea,” Nipper said, very quickly.

“They could be anywhere around here,” Ernie said.

“We’ll cover more ground if we go in teams of two,” I said. “Nipper, you and I will start that way towards the pier. Ernie and Saucy, why don’t you two take a look around the warehouses. See if you can get inside and look around.”

“Easy,” Ernie said. “There’s not a door made that me and Saucy can’t find a way around.”

“I can go with them,” Nipper said, with a jitter in his voice.

“Wh
y?” Saucy said, “The teams aren’t fair with a girl on one side?”

“This isn’t a game,” I said. “The dogs and person we’re after are serio
us. They’re not playing around. If they’ve taken Scarlet for the reason I think they have, none of them will think twice about permanently stopping another dog who gets in their way. Those are the stakes, so if anyone here wants to go back, this is your chance. No one, especially not me, is going to think anything different of you. Ernie?”

“I’m in, Fritz,
” Ernie said.

“Saucy?”
I said. She looked like my speech ruffled her. That’s what I wanted. They needed to know what they were about to get themselves into.

“I got your back,”
Ernie said, as he brushed up against her. “I would never let anyone, person or dog, hurt you.”

“Okay,” Saucy
said, “Me too. I’m in.”

“Nipper?”
I said.

“You want me to go with you, Fritz?”

“That’s my plan.”

“I’m ready,” Nipper said.

“Alright then,” I said, feeling more like a coach than a cop. “I want you two to lay low, stay hidden, quiet, and keep your ears and noses open. If you see Clay or The Perp, don’t engage them. If you find them, double back to get me and Nipper.”

“What if we find Scamper?”
Ernie said.

“If he’s by himself?” I said
. “Then do what you have to do. Come on, It’s getting dark.”

“I’ll see you soon, Ernie,
” Nipper said. “Good luck.”

Nipper and I went towards the piers and Ernie and Saucy vanished into a sea of cargo holds. I kept a few paces ahead of Nipper.

“You want to know what my first memory of anything is?” Nipper said, not giving me a chance to answer. “I remember living somewhere that was hot and dry all day and it stayed hot late into the evening. They kept a whole bunch of us in the kitchen, fenced in with each other. I don’t remember how many of us there were, but enough to feel cramped and enough to where the only place for me to sleep was under the lip that came out from the cabinet in the corner next to the little dark thing they stick onto the floor to trap the baby roaches. At first, I was there with my two brothers and three sisters. I woke up one morning and my sisters were gone. A day later, a brother was gone. Pretty soon, I was the only one left from my family.

“And it’s not that they were just disappearing or something. Sure, that’s what I thought the first day when
I woke up and the place was empty except for the food bowl and the flies trying to pick at your ears. Then a new batch of fresh German Shepherds, who could barely open their eyes yet, was dropped off. Every day, people were there standing on the other side of that thin wooden gate. They looked very serious and pointed at us. The new ones would all run to the gate and jump up, pushing each other and biting at each others’ tails. Someone would point at one of us, the people would shake hands, disappear, and a few minutes later, the pointed at puppy was scooped up, placed in a crate, and never heard from again.

“After a few times of this
, I stopped going up to the gate when some random human showed up. That’s when I’d go eat; when no one was watching me. You learn not to talk to anyone and to not waste time making friends, because there’s a better than average chance that before your next meal, that friend, your new acquaintance, was getting scooped up.  

“
Eventually, I was the biggest one left. Not that I was big or anything, but you get what I’m saying. I thought that’d give me an advantage and that it was finally my time to get called up to the big leagues. I was getting tired of living on a kitchen floor. I got to be able to understand them better when the men would discuss and analyze us, and there it was, blurted out of thin air like the flush of a toilet.

“‘What’s with the big one?’ a prospective buyer
said.

“‘
He’s not a pure breed,’ the puppy purveyor said.

“‘Good luck with him.
No wonder no one’s taken him.’

“I don’t remember how much longer after that, but one day I look up an
d a lady who smelled nice was reaching over the top of the gate to scratch my ears. I knew she wasn’t going to pick me, so I bit her. She thought it was funny and scratched my face, so I bit her again. She still thought it was funny and kept scratching, so I licked where I’d bitten her. She said she wanted to call me Nipper and put her fingers near my mouth so I could bit them again while she laughed at me.

“‘I want the big one,’ Mrs. Hart
said. ‘The big one is my favorite.’

“
At last, Fritz, I was the best. It was my turn. I was floating as they opened the gate for me. They opened it for me; first time that had ever happened. The others all got picked up, but I was walking out on my own paws. I went with them as Officer Hart signed the papers.

“‘Glad to see him go,’ the man said. ‘I was afraid I was going to have to give him away for free pretty soon.’

“Officer Hart joked about coming back in a week for a cheaper price on me. I think that if Mrs. Hart hadn’t smacked him in the back that he may have considered it. Officer Hart said that he knew he was getting a good deal, the police discount. And that’s my first memory, realizing that I’m everyone’s last pick. Even then, I was a joke. My name is one big joke. Every time I hear it, that’s what I think.”

“I didn’
t have a choice either,” I said, as the film from the restless ocean mist slapped into the pier. The residue splashed up on my paws and made my claws itch. “I wasn’t picked out of your kitchen, but from the moment I was born this has been all I’ve ever known. This is it. Right now. Tracking down people who don’t deserve their freedom anymore. I chase and I hunt and no one gets away. All I know is that right now, Nipper, you and me, we’re alive and we’re hunting. We’re alive right now in this moment and that’s what I’m hanging on to.”

“You could have taken Ernie instead
of me. I understand. I would have taken Ernie if I was you. We’re gonna find him. We’re going to face Clay, aren’t we?”

“Yes we are, Nipper. This is going to end today. It’ll be okay. Trust me. I want to explain something to you. There’s a reason why you don’t cross paths with retired police dogs. Once that job’s gone, that’s it. There are no golden years. There is no sunset to walk into. No time to relax. It ends. I don’t know why, but I know that everything goes black and one day you don’t wake up. It was happening to me. You want to know why I didn’t do anything at the track when I had the chance? Because I didn’t want it to be over. I wa
s afraid that when we were done that, sure, you and Ernie would go back to the backyard and have a great life, but for me, that would have been the end. That’s what happens to police dogs. We are the job and when that job is gone so are we.”

“Then
what are we doing here?” Nipper said. “Let’s go home. It doesn’t have to end.”

“I can’t.
This is who I am. I’m going to be alive for as long as I can. This is the only way I know how to. And when this is over and we get them and we get Scarlet back, I don’t know what’ll happen, but I’m not afraid anymore. I’ll worry about the future some other time.”

“I’m sorry, Fritz. I would’ve made a lousy cop.”

“Nipper, this isn’t a training exercise in the backyard. We’re playing for keeps. I wouldn’t have brought you with me if I didn’t think you had the bankroll to play the game.”

“Aw, I love me a mixe
d metaphor,” a voice I knew to be Clay’s said, as it clung to the shadows. “How touching. How sweet. The only way to show affection is to mask it with some human talk. Me, I don’t mix my messages. I’m about to bury a few dogs at sea.”

“Where are you?” I said.

“I’m here,” Clay said, as his voice bounced off the cargo trailers, skimmed off the water, and hung in the air over us like puffs of smoke. “I’m there. I’m everywhere, Fritz. Wherever there’s a dog begging to be mauled, I’ll be there too.”

“Show yourself,
” I said.

“I don’t know
, Fritz. Looks like you have me outnumbered. Maybe I’ll just keep you distracted while my accomplice gets away with your little girlfriend.”

“Scarlet!” Nipper said. “Where is she?”

“Don’t worry about where she is,” Clay said. “It’s where she’s going that’s the real treat. I wouldn’t know from personal experience, but I have it on good word that fighting dogs love it when they get to practice on a pretty little thing like her. Relax, hero. Sometimes, the practice dogs make it through a training session alive. The only problem is that you’re not going to recognize her after the fact, unless earless, tailless, missing a paw or two, and plenty of facial scars is your thing. Eyes are probably going to be gone too, but hey, whatever floats your boat, I say.”

Suddenly, The Perp emerged from
the shadows, still holding Scarlet in a crate. He swung her like a purse and took off through the maze of cargo containers. We ignored Clay’s voice and went to pursue The Perp. Clay stepped out from behind a crate and blocked our path. The Perp whisked himself away behind a stack of containers, six-high.

“Attack!” The Perp said
, as the echo of his footsteps grew larger.

“You heard the man,” Clay said, standing perfectly still. “I feel bad for you, getting caught up with Fritz. It’s a shame because you really have no business in this world of real dogs. You’d have been better off in that yard of yours, but unfortunately, you got dragged into this by Fritz, and now you’re going to pay the same price.”

“What do I do, Fritz?” Nipper said. “He’s getting away with her. They’re going to kill her.”

“Then you better go get him,” I said.

“That’s your plan?” Clay said. “Send the reject after the guy you couldn’t get? You know what, I want to see how this plays out. Be my guest. Go ahead. I won’t stop you.  Try to catch him.”

Nipper turned to me. I don’t know what he wanted
me from me. Permission? Last minute advice? Me to say no? A better idea? Maybe none. Maybe all of that. Or something else. So, I nodded.

“Run,” I said.

“What about you?” Nipper said.

“We’ve got some unfini
shed business here to attend to,” I said. “Just me and Clay.”

Nipper stayed
well clear of Clay as he sprinted past and barked his way in the same direction of The Perp.

“That was touching,” Clay said.

“No more running away.”

“Not planning to, Fritz.”

“This won’t be like last time.”

“Wasn’t planning on that either.”

“I’m not letting you walk away.”

“Fritz, without the burden of the badge, I wouldn’t respect you if you did. Not that I respect you to begin with.”

“No backup this time,” I said. “Just you and me. Let’s do this if we’re going to do it.”

“I think your biggest problem,” Clay said
, as he sat down like he didn’t have a care in the world, “is that you’ve spent too much of your life around humans. Only humans care about things like being fair and one-on-one and rules and you can’t do this or that, but you got to remember that dogs ain’t like that. I don’t know what you thought you were going find here, but there’s just one rule I adhere to: I go home and you don’t. You’re up, boys.”

Their scent told me that
I was in trouble. As the gravity of the situation pressed down on me, Knox and Gash walked out on either side of Clay, sights and jaws aimed at me.