Page 104 of Whistle

“Dougie?”

“The dog. Big one. A Lab. Five shots. Dougie was moving fast. First two missed him.”

“You go stay with the son. I’ll talk to Mrs. Wilford.”

He found her in the kitchen, but not before seeing Dougie, motionless on his side on the gray broadloom next to the coffee table in the living room.

Mrs. Wilford, a dark-haired woman in her mid-thirties, dressed in black slacks and a black silk blouse, a strand of pearls at her neck, sat at the table, staring into space. Harry took a seat, introduced himself.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened.”

“Dougie went crazy. He’s the kindest, gentlest dog in the whole world. Never bit a soul. We could always trust him with Tyler. I don’t... I can’t understand how he could... he turned into a wild animal, snarling and baring his teeth and oh God Trevor loved him so much and I don’t know what I’m going to tell him.”

“Trevor?”

“My husband. He’s in Boston on business. He won’t believe me when I tell him. Tyler was upstairs—he’s home today, he woke up with a funny tummy, but he got over it once I said he didn’t have to go to school, you know how kids are—and he was playing, andDougie was down here, and he started growling and barking and coming after me. Look.”

She pushed back her chair and extended her right leg. Her pants were torn below the knee, and there was blood on her calf.

“You need to get that tended to,” Harry said.

“He was chasing me around the living room and into the kitchen, and I jumped up onto a chair and he leapt up, and that’s when he bit my leg.”

“Tell me about the gun.”

“Trevor bought it for me. Protection for when he was away. I keep it up there.” She nodded toward the kitchen cabinetry. “Above the microwave.”

“So you managed to get to the gun, and then?”

“I started firing. I was scared Tyler would come downstairs, or Dougie would go up there, after him. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Her eyes welled up with tears. “I missed a couple of times. He jumped right at me, baring his teeth. I though he was going to kill me. When Tyler heard the shots he came running down and I screamed at him to stay in his room. How could something like this happen? I just don’t understand.”

Harry gave her arm a squeeze. “I’m going to go up and check on Tyler and see if Officer Bloodworth can do something about getting Dougie out of the house.”

The woman nodded.

As Harry left the kitchen, he heard a sound from upstairs. A sound that should have been innocuous enough, but gave him a chill when he heard it.

Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuff

Harry climbed the stairs and poked his head into the room where the sound was coming from. Stick was sitting on the floor with theboy, Tyler, watching a toy train go around an oval of track. Stick got to his feet and said, “Tyler here was showing me his awesome new train set.”

Harry pulled Stick aside and said to him quietly, “Get Dougie out of the house.”

Stick nodded and slipped out of the room. Harry took a knee and smiled at Tyler.

“Hey, Tyler. You mind if we slow that train down for a second? I want to talk to you.”

Tyler eased back on the transformer throttle. The train came to a stop and went silent.

“I’m real sorry about what happened to your dog.”

The boy’s lower lip extended and he said, “Mom said he must have got rabies or something.”

“You never saw him act like that before?”

Tyler’s head went back and forth.

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