The Truth About Cats & Dogs (20 page)

“Maybe she needed to do it herself,” Penny said. “Sometimes, people have to do something alone, Mack. Maybe this was what she needed. Now you can help her in the future.”

“Maybe so.” He took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Anyway, she's good to all the older people in the neighborhood. On Saturday she gets up and takes the newspapers in from the walk for them.” He smiled. “She's a marvelous child with a huge heart.”

“She's a lot like her father,” Penny said, feeling a stirring in her heart that was both wonderful and frightening. She
liked
Mack Sanders. “I see similarities—”

Penny didn't get to finish. The harsh jangle of the phone made both of them jump to their feet and dash to answer it.

I'
M NOT SURE
that climbing into that cage was my brightest idea. We've been booking it for the past forty minutes—over the hills and through the woods. I could only wish to grandmother's house we'd go. Instead we're headed for the wilderness. For the last fifteen minutes, I haven't seen a light or any sign of civilization. This guy is taking me out to the boonies.

We're slowing, and at last we're coming to a stop. I enjoy a little breeze, but riding in the back of this pickup truck in a cage isn't my idea of suitable transportation. I feel like my whiskers have been whipped off. Stupid bipeds. Two other felines are shivering with fear. When I get my claws on this moron, I'll give him a double dose of pain.

The humanoid, the one with the tattoos, is taking the cages off the truck and hauling them away. My goodness! This place we've arrived at stinks. I can smell my fellow felines, not to mention canines. They must have a hundred animals here. And I can only imagine the condition some of them are in. These guys obviously aren't concerned with water, food or sanitary conditions.

Here comes the other one, and he's yelling orders and cursing. It seems Toothless Wonder is the brains of the business, and that would add up to about a teaspoon of gray matter. But he's mean. He kicked a little dog that tried to get away, and the poor little guy is still shivering and whining. I need Peter. He could help him.

Here we go. Tattoo man is picking up my cage and taking it around back. Yes, indeed, there are at least a hundred cages filled with all kinds of animals. This is a big business.

I wonder where Miranda is. She has to be here. I don't think they had time to take her to another place. I'll practice my two-yawl warble. I taught her that sound this afternoon, and she's a smart kid. I'm sure she'll recognize it. If she
can
get to me, I'm sure she will.

“Me-ow-ow-ow. Me-ow-ow-ow.”

I see her face at the window of that old shack! She's waving to me, just a slight curl of her fingers. She looks scared, but she doesn't seem to be hurt. Thank goodness. I know she'll try to sneak out here and release me. She can always use the ploy of having to go to the bathroom. Dumb and Dumber won't catch on. We're so far out in the boondocks that they realize she can't get away from them. If my opinion of these two creeps is correct, they won't believe a nine-year-old girl will give them any trouble. Bingo! Here she comes. Dumb, aka Toothless Wonder, is watching from the door to make sure she goes to the bathroom. Good work, Miranda. She's slipping behind a stack of cages and coming at me from the
back side. There's her little hand, releasing the spring on the cage.

And I'm free! I'm just going to sit here for a moment and wait for my chance.

Whew! I was getting cage fever. Too many bad memories, I suppose. At least my bullet wound is no longer too painful. But Miranda is going back in, and the door is closing. Yes! I'm outta this cage and headed to initiate stage two of my action plan.

 

“I'
LL GET THE MONEY
as soon as we feed the kittens,” Penny said. She was glad that Mack had decided to come with her—and a little surprised. The telephone call had been one last threat by Miranda's abductors, warning Mack not to call the police. The exchange was still set for ten in the morning. Now they had to wait for Peter to call and report his findings. Mack wanted to call the police, but if the kidnappers did have a mole in the police department, that phone call would seal Miranda's fate.

Penny knew the best thing to do was to keep Mack busy so that the time would pass faster. She prepared two tiny bottles and gave Mack one along with the little black-and-white kitten with the kinky tail. The kitten was half the size of Mack's hand, but she watched with amusement as Mack gently held the squirming bundle. As soon as he put the rubber nipple to the tiny pink mouth, the kitten latched on and began to suck ferociously.

“She's so strong,” he said, a smile splitting his face.

Penny couldn't help but think how handsome he was when he smiled.

“These kittens will be fine,” she said. “If we find Gumbo soon enough, she'll still nurse them. But we'll keep them where we can handle them and teach them to be domesticated. That will help us tame Gumbo.” She gave him an encouraging look. “For Miranda.”

Penny nursed the yellow kitten, and then they both took black ones. The last one, a gray tabby, went to Mack.

“You did a good job,” she said, putting the kittens back in a small incubator.

“I want Miranda to help feed them. She'll get a kick out of it.” He looked up with naked pain in his eyes. “I just didn't want her to be hurt.”

“I know,” Penny said. “When she gets back, though, she can help.” Penny put her hand on his cheek. He was such a gentle man at heart. “She's fine, Mack.”

He bent toward her, slowly. She knew what was coming, and she kept her face turned up to accept his kiss. She'd known that it would be powerful and affecting, and she was right. She felt as if she were melting into his arms, and he held her with strength and tenderness.

When she put a hand on his chest, he broke the kiss. “I'm sorry,” he said. “My timing is all wrong.”

“No, it's not,” she said. “I've never been more ready for a kiss in my life.” She smiled. “I just don't want you to regret anything.”

He nodded in understanding. “I'd never forgive myself if something happened to Miranda while I was falling in love with you.”

Penny heard the words and felt an unexpected rush of joy. She wanted to kiss him, to feel his arms surround her with all of the emotions she'd denied herself for so long. But now wasn't the time, and they both knew it. They had to keep focused on Miranda.

“I have lots of copy paper here,” Penny said, stepping around him and pointing to a case of paper on the floor by the desk. “And here's the money. I didn't have time to stop by the bank and make a deposit, so that's good.” She pulled the money drawer open and gathered up the twenties. “We should put twenties on top. That looks more realistic.”

“I know this is a risk,” Mack said. “But this is less risky than going to the bank. Do you think I could rig some type of explosive device in the money? Something that would disable one of them so I could go after the other?”

“That's an idea,” Penny said thoughtfully. “Do you know how to do that?”

“In the military I had some training.”

His eyes had grown flinty, and Penny knew that as sweet and caring as Mack could be, he was also a force to be reckoned with.

“I'll take this home and rig it up.” He lifted the box and was almost out the door with it when the cell phone in his pocket shrilled. He pulled the phone out and answered. In a moment his face lit with joy.

He turned to Penny. “It's Miranda. She's okay. She's being held in some shack out in the woods.” He spoke swiftly into the phone, telling Miranda that he loved her and that he was going to find her and save her.

“Tell me where you are,” he urged. He listened for a moment. “Familiar is there with you? How?” He listened again. “Okay, honey, put the phone back where you got it. Try to stay calm and don't get excited. I have your asthma medicine and I'm bringing it to you. I love you.” He slowly lowered the receiver.

“Familiar is with her?” Penny asked, relief in her tone.

“He is. He got himself caught in a trap. Miranda let him out, and he's with her. In fact, the cat got the cell phone out of one man's jacket pocket and gave it to Miranda so she could call. The good news is that the men aren't watching her closely. She's been pretending to be dumb, and so they've begun to believe she's too slow to try anything. The problem is that she doesn't know where she is.”

“Not to worry,” Penny said. “Did she describe anything?”

“A few things.” Light touched Mack's eyes. “We can figure it out.”

“Yes, I think we can. I grew up around here. I know a lot of the landmarks. What did she say?”

“She said on the drive she remembered hearing airplanes really loud. And they went over a long bridge with water on one side.”

“That's old Shell Road!” Penny couldn't contain her excitement. “That's not that far from here. What else?”

“She said there were some round tin buildings—”

“Silos! I know where that is.”

“And then they turned left on a bumpy dirt road.”

“We can find them, Mack. I know we can.”

He lowered the heavy case of paper to the floor. “Can you really find her?”

Penny nodded. “I have a pretty good idea where they are. It's isolated there. Back in the fifties, it was a haven for moonshiners.”

“Let's go.” Mack's hand was on the doorknob, and the eagerness on his face was a little unnerving. “Don't bother with the ransom money. There's a change of plan. We're going to take them by surprise, if you can find the location.”

“I'll find it,” Penny promised.

“I'm going to slip in there, get my daughter, and then make those bastards pay.”

“I do need to call Peter,” Penny said. “He swears that Familiar can handle these things. And he's done a pretty good job so far. He seems to have got himself trapped and taken to Miranda. He got her to free him, and he managed to get a phone into her hands. I'd say that if we have Familiar on our team, we're going to be able to get Miranda without anything happening to her.”

“Call him,” he said.

 

M
ACK LET THE MOTOR IDLE
as he waited for Peter at the crossroads. He was glad to have Penny and Peter
along, but now he was focused on action. In his stint in the military, he'd learned to move covertly, to slip in behind enemy lines and do what had to be done to protect his men. It was a part of his life that he wanted to leave behind. He'd done what was necessary, and now it was past. Never had he imagined that his training would be necessary in his civilian life. But the two thugs who'd taken his daughter had brought this fate down on their own heads.

“Mack, there's Peter.”

Penny's voice was filled with excitement and trepidation. He grasped her hand as he watched Peter's car turn in and park. In a moment Peter was sliding into the truck seat. Penny moved to the middle, her hip and thigh pressed against Mack's as he put the truck in Drive and floored it.

“The man with the dragon tattoo is a convicted felon,” Peter said, not wasting any time. “His name is Emmon Fells. He's a tough character.”

“How tough?” Mack asked, his heart pounding even harder.

“He did ten years for murder.” Peter hesitated.

“Tell me the rest of it,” Mack said. He felt Penny's hand creep onto his thigh, a touch of comfort and strength.

“He murdered a child. A young boy. They got into an argument over some trash on the road.”

The silence in the truck was thick and oppressive.

“How did he get out of prison?” Penny asked. “That doesn't make any sense.”

“He did his time. Before the murder charge he was up for animal cruelty, a six-month sentence, and several counts of aggravated assault.”

“Well, it's good we've ID'd him,” Penny said grimly. She grabbed Mack and Peter as the truck careened around a curve. Up ahead were the silver guardrails of Big Creek Lake. “Easy, Mack. We can't help her if we're wrecked and at the bottom of a lake.”

He nodded and slowed the truck a fraction, but he kept the speedometer at eighty.

“Anything else on the toothless guy?” Penny asked.

“No. If you go through the mug books you'd be surprised how many felons have poor teeth. But one of the cops said that Fells had been arrested a couple of times with a guy named Junior Bennett. I'm guessing that's the other man.”

Mack didn't know why he felt better, knowing the kidnappers' names, but he did. It made them real, and if they were real, they could be defeated.

“You did an amazing job, Peter,” Mack said. “We'll get Miranda and we'll save those animals.”

“I want those men behind bars. An animal-theft charge doesn't carry much time, but when they kidnapped your daughter, they bought themselves a long, long visit in a state correctional center,” Peter said, his voice raw with anger.

“I wouldn't be surprised if these guys didn't steal dogs out of backyards,” Penny said. “I've seen it done.” She thought, too, about the little Jack Russell terrier that had gotten hit that morning. Maybe the
young boy hadn't left the backyard gate open. It could have been the two animal thieves.

“We'll get them,” Mack vowed.

“Go right here,” Penny said. “And I think we should turn off the truck lights.”

Mack did as she suggested, slowing to a crawl. A three-quarter moon illuminated the road enough for them to see clearly, at least where huge oaks didn't block the light.

“Under other circumstances, this would be a lovely place,” Peter said softly. They'd all dropped to whispers.

“I'm going to block the road,” Mack said as he did a turn so that they were pointed in the proper direction for a fast getaway. “This stand of trees is perfect.” If the men tried to make a dash for it with Miranda, they would be effectively blocked.

He parked, and the three of them got out. Mack felt his body and mind shift. His training had taught him that stealth and surprise were lethal weapons. When it came to saving his daughter, he'd be as lethal as he had to be. He waved Peter and Penny back and slowly crept forward to scout out the situation.