Denton was speaking in a measured monotone, as if he wanted something and was being careful not to rile Gabe in the asking. He pointed toward his Land Rover, where Reggie was standing in the backseat looking out the side window. Then he raised his hands in a gesture of being at his wit’s end, as if he didn’t know what he would do if Gabe didn’t do whatever he was asking.
Gabe gave him a scornful look, dumb rube showing contempt for the helplessness of the city slicker, and unfolded his arms.
“This is the last time! I’m not doing it again!”
He came down the steps, walking with the swaggering strut peculiar to men of small minds and large egos, and Denton permitted himself a quick smile of victory. He had manipulated Gabe, and it didn’t look as if it were the first time.
Denton opened the car door and Reggie backed away, whining and uncertain. Denton reached in and grabbed Reggie’s leash and jerked him out, while Gabe turned and walked toward the small shed in front of me. I heard the door open, and I imagined sharp hoes and scythes and all kinds of toxic and poisonous farm supplies that would be harmful to a dog. Reggie must have had the same idea, because he struggled and fought, but Denton had him on a choke chain that finally brought him across the driveway to the shed.
Denton said, “Get in there, dammit!”
A moment later the door slammed shut, and I heard a wooden latch drop into place.
At least Reggie was alive. Still muzzled, he was stuck in a good dog’s dilemma. Denton had been a guest in Reggie’s home, which put him in the category of humans to whom he was supposed to show submission. But Reggie was a smart dog, and I had the feeling that Denton had pushed him beyond his limit.
Leo Brossi’s voice carried well enough for me to hear him ask Gabe a question that made my heart clatter.
“How long will it take you to load the darts?”
Gabe said something that was lost, and the three men went inside the house.
As soon as the front door closed behind them, I hunkered over and began moving through the tall grass toward the shed. All the windows on this side of the house had opaque window shades pulled halfway down. To see me, a person would have to raise a shade or stoop to look under it. They could also see me if they were sitting in a chair where they would be at the level of the lower part of the window, but I didn’t want to think about that.
I also didn’t want to think about how Gabe was loading a dart gun with a deadly poison that would paralyze Reggie within seconds. He would die a horrible death, fully conscious and unable to move.
Getting as close to the edge of the screening cordgrass as I could, I told myself Go! and ran like hell around the shed to the door. As I’d expected, it had a simple wooden latch high above my head. I stood on tiptoe and stretched my arm as high as it would go. As I did, I spoke low to Reggie.
“Hey, Reggie, it’s me. I’m getting you out. Don’t jump when I open the door, okay?”
Inside the shed, Reggie must have recognized my scent because he began to whine eagerly and scratch at the door. My fingertips touched the latch and I jumped to push the wooden bar up from its crude resting place. It went up and then flopped back down. I grunted and jumped at it again, this time sending it farther up before it slid back into its slot. I heaved myself upward and knocked the bar to the very top, where it hung poised at the very edge. Good. It hadn’t settled back. Another good jump and I could knock it the rest of the way out.
I stretched my arm up and gathered myself to jump. A large hand suddenly closed on mine, and an arm hard as steel wrapped around my ribs and jerked me backward. A man’s triumphant laugh drowned out the sound of my own terror.
Denton Ferrelli said, “Hello, dog-sitter. We’ve been waiting for you.”
The truth hit me all in one gulp. I had been tricked. Denton had known all along that I was following him. The talk about killing Reggie had been a ruse to get me to follow him to this remote place. Nobody would know to look for me here, and nobody would hear me scream. They would kill me here and dump my body in the woods and nobody would ever find it. Animals would eat my flesh and scatter my bones while search parties combed Siesta Key.
I wasn’t so different from Gabe after all. Like Gabe, I had thought I was being smart and brave when I was really just being stupid and arrogant.
Denton Ferrelli swung me around while I kicked and flailed and screamed, all my noise and struggle as useless as the squeaks and air-peddling of a mouse about to be dropped in a snake’s mouth. My gun was in my shorts pocket, but the armlock Denton had on me made it impossible to reach. While I hung from his forearm, he carried me toward Leo and Gabe, who stood at the bottom of the porch steps. Leo’s malicious grin gave his sharp-boned face the look of a demented skeleton. A demented skeleton with a piece of tape stretched over the ridge of its nose.
Gabe was stern and self-righteous as a televangelist. He had put on a straw cowboy hat with the sides curled up like a rodeo rider, and he held a twenty-caliber dart gun pointed down at his side. The hilt of another gun stuck out from a thick leather holster draped around his hips, and a square metal container that I assumed held loaded darts was stuck in his waistband. I felt a little spurt of appreciation for his professionalism. He had backup ready, the same as a law-enforcement officer would.
Behind us, Reggie was scratching and jumping at the shed’s door.
I said, “Just so you know, my Bronco has a tracking device on it. If I’m not home soon, people will come looking for me.”
Denton laughed again. “You’re such a transparent liar. You’re a cute little dog-sitter too. Too bad you couldn’t mind your own fucking business.”
Panting and twisting, I said, “You’re cute too, Denton. I love the little ironic twists you give to murder. The kitten with broken legs for Conrad was a real stroke of genius.”
He chuckled, and his voice went high as if he were speaking lines on a stage. “Hey, Conrad, come see what I’ve found. It’s beautiful, man, some kind of rare bird I never saw before. Come look, it’s back here in the woods.”
In his normal voice, he said, “Stupid freak believed every word. Thought I wanted to share the joy I felt with my little brother. Gabe was in the trees waiting. He shot him while he leaned over looking at the damned cat.”
Gabe said, “Are you gonna keep holding her?”
Denton’s grip loosened a bit, and his voice came out sharp. “Don’t be a fool! Of course I’m not.”
“Then let her go so I can hit her running.”
My mind was whirling. Denton didn’t want to hold me while Gabe shot me with that dart gun because the dart might accidentally go into him instead of me. When he let me go, there would be a split second while he jumped out of the way. In that moment, I might be able to scoop my gun out of my pocket and shoot Gabe before he shot me. But I wasn’t ready yet. I couldn’t face that instant yet.
“Having your mother’s horse stomp her to death was clever too. Was your mother the first one, or were you already killing people before her?”
His arm tightened, squeezing my ribs so hard I could barely breathe. “Them and their goddamn animals. Always love for some four-legged beast. Not for me. Never any love for old Denton, not after sweet animal-sucking Conrad was born. Conrad’s little narrow head didn’t tear her up coming out. He didn’t have an ugly purple bruise on his face that never went away. Oh, he was easy to love. They should be grateful to me, I got them all together with their fucking animals. And now the dog-sitter will be joining them.”