Case of the Pilfered Pooches Read online

  “Of your dogs,” the girl clarified. “I think they are the cutest, most adorable corgis I’ve ever seen!”

  My face reddened. For half a moment, I thought she was asking whether or not she could take my picture, like she was a devoted fan of my books. Well, nothing like a brutal reality check to bring one back to one’s senses.

  “Why do you think the man was a dog walker?” Vance wanted to know. “Many people have three dogs or more. Couldn’t they have all been his?”

  The woman shook her head, “These dogs acted like they didn’t like each other. Each one wanted to go in a different direction.”

  “Like this was the first time they had ever spent time together,” I breathed. I looked over at Vance. “What do you think?”

  Vance thanked the woman and sent her on her way. He pointed at a section of the park nearly twenty feet away that, for the time being, was devoid of people. Once we were there, Vance consulted his notebook.

  “Do you know how many different stories I’ve heard about this dognapper?” he began. “It’s like everyone saw something different.”

  “Did you find any tire tracks?” I hopefully asked.

  Vance nodded, “I did, yes. Three.”

  “Three sets of tire tracks? Well, hopefully one of them is the right one.”

  “No, you don’t understand. I found a nice long section of dirt, with a very clear impression of tracks. There were three of them, all running parallel with one another.”

  “How big?” I wanted to know.

  Vance held up two fingers, indicating no more than an inch and a half thick.

  “Just like the last one,” I observed.

  “First one track,” Vance recalled, “Then two, and now three. I wonder what the chances of the next one having four is.”

  “Hopefully there won’t be a next one,” I remarked.

  “A good point.”

  “With regards to all the different versions of our suspected dognapper, do you think the truth is somewhere in there?” I hopefully asked. “Then it’d just be a matter of narrowing down the suspects.”

  Vance shrugged, “I have no idea if any of these stories will pan out. I think the two most likely candidates are the guy with the duffel bag in the oversized truck and this male dog walker. He clearly didn’t have control over his dogs, so it makes me wonder if it might be our sympathetic dog lover.”

  “Doing what?” I asked. “Giving the incarcerated dogs a chance to stretch their legs?”

  “It might be just as simple as that, so yeah. That could be it.”

  “Well, if that’s the case, how do we go about identifying these two guys?”

  Vance gave the surrounding environment a sweeping gesture with his arm.

  “I say we do this the old-fashioned way. I’ll canvas the area and look for anyone who might have video surveillance of the park.”

  The look I gave Vance must have had skepticism written all over it.

  “What? It’s possible.”

  “No, it’s not,” I argued. “It’s not like there are a lot of possibilities around here. “Where do you think you’ll find cameras? I see one building over there, on the west side of the park, and there’s that brown one back there, on the south side. However, that’s it, as far as I can tell.”

  Vance had a smug look on his face, which instantly made me defensive. What did he know that I didn’t? I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled.

  “What? You think you know something that I don’t? I… Sherlock, what are you doing? What are you growling at?”

  Interested, Vance joined me as we looked at the large, distant building on the western perimeter of the park.

  “What’s wrong? Why is he growling?”

  I shrugged, “No clue. Sherlock, knock it off. There’s nothing that way, okay? Calm down. Watson, no. Don’t you start, too. Now, what were you saying?”

  “I was saying, one – or both – of those two places will have exterior cameras.”

  “Bull.”

  “Care to put your money where your mouth is?”

  My lips thinned, “All right. What’s the wager?”

  “If either of those two buildings have exterior video surveillance, then you’ll have to… you’ll have to… hmm.”

  “This ought to be good,” I said to the dogs. Both corgis were watching the interplay between the two of us, like they were watching a tennis match.

  Vance suddenly snapped his fingers, “I’ve got it. If I win, you’ll put my daughters in your next book.”

  “Dude, I write romance novels,” I reminded my friend. “It’d be kinda awkward to throw a couple of underage girls in there, dontcha think?”

  “Their names, you idiot. You’ll name two characters in your next book after Tiffany and Victoria.”

  “And if I win?” I prompted.

  “Then… let’s see. What could I… oh, I know. You’ve been pestering me to see that damn Hobbit movie for some time now. I’ll watch that with you.”

  I’ve been pushing Vance to see one of the Hobbit movies, or one of the Lord of the Rings movies for quite some time. Those six movies happens to take up 6 slots in my Top 10 Favorite Movies of All Time list, and I was determined Vance would see at least one of them. The question was, which one? A devious idea just formed.

  “Alright, pal. You’ll watch the Hobbit movies with me if you lose, agreed?”

  “Wait, you threw an ‘s’ in there. I only said one movie, not two.”

  “There are six total,” I clarified, which earned me a groan from Vance. “You’ll either watch the complete Hobbit trilogy or the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy. My choice.”

  “Fine. You win.”

  “Extended editions.”

  “You’re insane, but that’s okay. I still agree.”

  “What do you know that I don’t?” I demanded. “That’s over 10 hours worth of movies and you didn’t bat an eye. Have I already lost?”

  Vance nodded, “Yup. That building there, to the west, is the Community Center. That’s where Tori teaches her dance classes. In fact, you’ve been there, I’m sure.”

  “Of course I have. I watched you dress up as Peter Pan last year, remember? Who do you think recorded that video?”

  “That was you??” Vance sputtered as he turned to me. “Are you the one who posted that clip on YouTube?”

  I grinned, “Maybe.”

  “Zack, that damn thing went viral. I had people all over the planet leaving comments on that.”

  “How did you even know you were on YouTube?” I asked.

  “Because Victoria found it and played it for me. I damn near snotted my beer all over the dinner table, and we had the Nelsons over for dinner.”

  I fought to keep my voice from quavering.

  “The police captain?”

  “Yes.”

  “And, uh, what did Captain Nelson think about it?” I asked, as I nonchalantly wiped the corners of my eyes with the back of my hand.

  “He thought it was funnier than hell, you jerk.”

  “At least he has a sense of humor,” I pointed out. I turned to indicate the smaller building that was on the park’s south side. “And that? What building is that?”

  “That? The brownstone? That’s the town hall. It’s where the mayor’s office is. You’d better believe they’re going to have cameras there. In fact, there’s probably half a dozen all pointed outside.”

  “You don’t know that for sure,” I protested. “Besides, there’s no way you’d be able to use anything from them. They’re much too far away.”

  “If the quality is good enough, then the boys at the lab might be able to enlarge the video while keeping the image viable.”

  “If you can’t use the image, then you can’t say that you won,” I grumped.

  “We never agreed to that. The bet was whether or not there was video surveillance equipment at either of those two buildings.”

  “Which you already knew there were,” I pointed out. “I was set u
p. You owe me at least this.”

  Vance was silent as he pondered.

  “Very well. If there’s nothing I can use, then I’ll put on my pointed ears and watch those movies with you.”

  Satisfied, I nodded. Vance moved off, intent on preventing himself from watching 10+ hours of Middle Earth goodness. As for me, I continued to watch the people shuffling aimlessly about in the park. Should we organize a search party like we had done for the other park? Speaking of the other park, I wondered if anyone had found anything yet.

  While waiting for confirmation Vance was going to attend my next Middle Earth marathon, the dogs and I wandered around the perimeter of the park. Sherlock and Watson, unfortunately, didn’t bark once. Well, that’s not true. They did fire off several warning woofs as a plethora of people walked by with all kinds of various dogs.

  Various dogs…

  I looked down at the corgis and frowned. Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t remember one instance of a duplicate breed being stolen. Every single one of them was different, from the chocolate Labrador that Mr. McGee lost, to Snoopy the beagle, belonging to Captain Nelson’s granddaughter, and finally, Anubis, the German Shepherd, belonging to Vance and his family. Not one of them was a ‘repeat’.

  I found the nearest bench and sat down. I needed to think about this. Thankfully, both corgis cooperated by plopping down in the soft grass next to me to watch the people walk by.

  What about the Medford cases? Were there any repeats in there? I had to wrack my brain to come up with a partial list of breeds that had been reported missing. There had been a boxer, a chow-chow, and that Portuguese breed I didn’t have a prayer in remembering. None of them were repeats, either.

  Excited, I stood. What did you want to bet that, if we were to compare the list of missing dogs from Medford and the missing dogs from PV, that none of them would be the same? And further, hadn’t the breeds been grouped together by the AKC into six or seven categories? Was that important?

  I pulled out my phone and searched for the answer. Yep, there it was. There were seven groups of dogs that were recognized by the AKC: terrier, sporting, non-sporting, working, hound, toy, and herding. And there, thanks to the power of the Internet, was a list of breeds and which group they belonged to.

  After spending a few minutes running through the various breeds I could remember, I knew I had to find Vance. He needed to hear about this. I was certain this was the big break we were looking for. I thought of the captain’s granddaughter – I forgot her name – and how badly she needed her dog back, and my resolve strengthened.

  We were going to return Snoopy to you, kiddo. Safe and sound. That’s a promise. Hmm, I could remember the dog’s name, but not the kid’s? I wonder what that said about me.

  I saw Vance slowly walking back to me with a smug look of assurance on his face. Dammit. Guess I’m creating two new female characters in my next book. Oh, well. His daughters will be thrilled to be included in a novel. I just had to be certain I kept those characters ‘clean’. Anyone who reads romance novels will know what I mean by that.

  “Told you, pal,” Vance began, as he grinned at me. “Both buildings have security systems. Both have exterior cameras.”

  “Were any of them pointed this way?”

  “Two from the Town Hall and one from the Community Center,” Vance confirmed. “All three are high-def cameras with built-in infrared sensors. I’ve seen our boys pull up a license plate number from over a hundred yards away with worse cameras. Know what this means? I’m saved. There’ll be no little people with furry toes in my future, thank you very much. Hey, you’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “I’ve got something to tell you. Something that I think will help us out. Are we done here? Can we go get some lunch? I’ll run what I have by you then.”

  Vance nodded, “Sure. Let me finish up here and we can go.”

  Thirty minutes later, we were sitting on the pet-friendly terrace at Casa de Joe’s. As soon as the waitress left with our orders, Vance looked at me and raised an eyebrow. He pulled out his notebook and clicked his pen open. He was ready to write.

  “I think that whomever is stealing these dogs is deliberately choosing each breed.”

  A look of disgust appeared on Vance’s face as he clicked his pen again, retracting the ink tip.

  “What?” I demanded. “It’s a promising theory! Don’t you think so?”

  “That’s your big news? Zack, we already know this. In fact, we put two and two together after the second dognapping here in PV.”

  I released the breath I didn’t know I had been holding and felt my feeling of euphoria rapidly evaporate.

  “That took the wind out of your sails, didn’t it?” Vance observed. “I’m sorry, buddy. It’s a good theory. However, it didn’t pan out.”

  “What did you guys learn?” I slowly asked. Damn! I really thought I was on to something.

  The waitress came by to refill our drinks. She caught sight of the corgis, stooped to give each a pat on their heads, and quickly retreated inside the restaurant.

  Vance flipped backwards through his notebook. After a few minutes, he paused on a page and began to read through his notes. A minute or so later, he tapped his finger on the page.

  “How many of those things do you go through?” I suddenly asked, before he could start talking. I was pointing at the notebook.

  “What? These notebooks? Typically two or three.”

  “A month?”

  “A week.”

  “Oh. Wow.”

  “You wanted to know about all the different breeds? Here’s what we have.”

  “Just a moment,” I said, as I pulled out my phone. Thankfully, the AKC page was still loaded on my screen. I looked at Vance’s tiny notebook and pointed a finger. “Got any more of those handy? I’m thinking I should be taking some notes here.”

  “No, sorry. They’re all in my desk back at HQ. Here, use the napkin.”

  While not ideal, it would do. I absconded with Vance’s pen and prepared to jot down notes in my makeshift notebook.

  “Ready. What’s the first one?”

  “From PV or Medford?”

  “Let’s do Medford first. What do you have?”

  “Boxer.”

  I punched in my search and then stared at the results.

  “Working group,” I reported. Then I jotted it down on the napkin. “Next?”

  “The Portuguese Podengo Pequeno.”

  “Good job pronouncing that one. Let’s see. Hound group.

  “Uh huh. How about the yellow lab?”

  I tapped away on my screen.

  “Sporting.”

  “And the Chow?” Vance continued.

  “Non-sporting.”

  “What about the Australian Shepherd?” Vance continued.

  “Herding,” I reported.

  “And last, but certainly not least, the Miniature Schnauzer.”

  “I think that one should be ‘terrier’,” I said, after a few moments of searching had passed. “Yep. There he is. Wait, that’s the last?”

  Vance consulted his notes, “Yeah. Why?”

  “Because there are seven groups, not six. Thus far, we have six of the seven represented.”

  “Which one are we missing?” Vance wanted to know.

  “The toy group.”

  “Hmph. I assume only tiny dogs are in that group? I don’t remember seeing anything that falls into that category.”

  “Let’s check the PV cases,” I eagerly suggested. My theory was starting to sound better with each passing moment. The icing on the cake was that I could see Vance was thinking along those same lines, too.

  “Okay, the first dog to be reported missing was Mr. McGee’s Chocolate Labrador,” Vance informed me.

  “Which we now know as ‘sporting’. What else?”

  “Next up is Anubis,” Vance grimly reported.

  “German Shepherd. They’re in t
he herding group.”

  “And Snoopy, the beagle?”

  “Hang on. I’m having trouble finding the… oh, there he is. The beagle is part of the hound group.”

  It was at this point that I noticed Vance started taking some serious notes.

  “Then we have the dog that was taken today,” my friend said next.

  I looked up, surprised.

  “I had forgotten about him. What type of dog was he?”

  “She,” Vance corrected. He flipped his notebook back a page and skimmed through his notes. “There she is. A chocolate-colored cocker spaniel was taken. Answers to the name of ‘Kona’.”

  “Cocker spaniel,” I repeated, as I punched the breed into my phone. “There they are. Vance, the cocker spaniels are part of the sporting group, too. We have our first repeat! Wait. I’m not sure I should be excited or bummed.”

  Right about then, I noticed my friend’s face. Vance’s eyes had lit up. He hurriedly flipped through his notes, read a page and a half, and then excitedly snapped his notebook closed.

  “On the contrary, buddy, you should be very excited.”

  “Okay. Why?”

  “Don’t you get it? What’s the one breed that managed to escape from his captors?”

  “Do you mean Chip?” I asked. “Don’t you mean, ‘her’?”

  “Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean. What group does Chip belong to?”

  “Well, she’s a Labrador,” I recalled, “so they belong to the…” I trailed off as my eyes widened.

  Vance clapped me on the back, “That’s right, pal. Labradors belong in the sporting group. You just said so yourself. That’s the same group as the cocker spaniels. You can’t possibly tell me that this is a coincidence. A member of the sporting group is taken. The dog escapes. Whoever took the dog in the first place is pissed. Now they don’t have a sporting dog anymore, so what do they do?”

  I was nodding, “They take another one. To replace Chip! But why didn’t they take any dog from the Toy group?”

  “Maybe because they’re fans of the Toy group and have strict orders to leave any dog which belongs in that group alone?”

  I glanced down at my napkin and read through the different breed names and their respective groups. Yes, sure enough, there were no representatives from the smallest AKC group there. Nor had there been any dognappings from that particular group here in PV, either.