4 Woof at the Door Page 23

  “What are you talking about?” Janine asked. “What’s going on, anyway? I just came out here because you called me and said Damian was hurt and needed help. What’s the matter with—”

  Somebody rushed up behind her and conked Janine on the head with what looked like a baseball bat. Janine crumpled to the floor.

  I gasped, horrified, then found myself gazing at Chesh Bellingham, who stood over Janine, bat in hand, breathing deeply as she watched over her.

  I cursed in silence, but hoped for the best. “Chesh, thank goodness you’re here. That woman was trying to kill us. She knocked out Damian and locked him in the cage. Help me find her keys, so I can go call the police.”

  Chesh laughed. “Now, why would I want to do that, Allida? I’ve finally got both you and Damian exactly where I want you.”

  “You trapped us? Not Janine?”

  &lquo;Fraid so. See, the police would have gotten ‘round to figuring it all out sooner or later, if I just killed my husband. That’s the oldest crime in the book, right? I needed more victims”

  “You killed Larry and Beverly just to throw the police off the trail?”

  She shrugged. “Larry could identify me as the one who bribed him to get Atla and the key to this place, so that was a no-brainer. And it was high time I got even with Beverly for breaking my tailbone. You gave me the idea for the perfect person to frame—Janine. It’ll look like you came in and found what she did to Damian, struggled with her, and you both bit the big one.” She chuckled. “That’s something of a pun, isn’t it? Sorry it has to end this way, Allida. I’ll give Doobie your regards.”

  “You’ll never get away with this. No one—”

  “I’m going to step outside the door till this is over. Course, if you do make it out somehow”—she reached behind her back and pulled out a long, dark object that had been strapped in place by her belt—“I’ve got a stun-gun. You won’t get far.”

  She pressed the buttons and opened all the animal cages.

  I jumped over Janine and raced toward the doorway as it slammed shut and the lock was thrown. Just as I reached the panel of switches, the overhead light went out. She’d thrown the circuit breaker.

  Chapter 21

  Atla dashed out of her cage and into the open space. My first thought was to distract Atla by throwing some meat for her, then duck into her cage and close the gate. Yet Janine was still unconscious and unable to defend herself.

  I needed to feed Atla in the open space and all of the other animals in their individual cages. Since Atla was already nearly upon the plastic industrial-sized barrel full of meat, I tossed her the first piece I could grab, which were rock hard because Damian fed them their food frozen.

  Reserving a club-like piece of meat-on-bone to use as a weapon, I worked at a feverish pitch, hurling food over the animals and into the backs of their cages. The bucket probably weighed as much as I did, but my adrenalin was pumping, and I could now lift it by the handle.

  Damian, meanwhile, was rubbing his tethering in a sawlike motion against the bars. In the cage with him, Kaia was more agitated than ever at the sight of me feeding his companions. There was no feeding-slot on his cage, however.

  A bear came out of his cage toward me. He was enormous. I felt like Jack of the beanstalk to his Giant. Bears are omnivores. They prefer nuts and berries to meat. I didn’t know what to feed him.

  “Where’s the bear’s food?” I cried to Damian. I dropped some meat by the bear’s feet, unwilling to risk trying to pitch it past him.

  Damian grunted and gestured with his chin in the direction of his house. The bear got down on all fours to sniff at the meat, and I kept going, hoping for the best.

  When I was only two-thirds around the circle, Janine started screaming. I’d had a concussion once. Screaming upon awakening was common.

  With no time to gamble on the animals’ reactions, I dropped my make-shift club and flung the rest of the bucket contents in the general direction of the remaining third of the cages.

  “It’s all right,” I cried to Janine as I ran to her. I grabbed her under the arms and dragged her as best I could toward Atla’s empty cage, next to Damian. Janine tried to fight me off. I managed to pull her to her feet and get her stumbling with me in the direction of Atla’s cage.

  Atla started to head toward us. “Atla, stay,” I demanded. I began to manually crank the pulley-driven gate mechanism. Atla followed us as far as the threshold to her cage.

  “Stay,” I said again. Fortunately, she held her ground just outside the gate as it shut.

  Though Damian’s legs were bound, he managed to hop toward the bars that separated Atla’s and Kaia’s cages. Beside me, Janine lay sprawled on the floor where I’d unceremoniously dropped her. Kaia was howling, but did not impede Damian’s progress.

  Through a series of head jerks and noises, he indicated he needed me to reach into his pocket. I had little space to work with between the bars and it was slow going, but I eventually managed to pull out a Swiss Army knife. I flipped open a blade as he turned himself, and I soon managed to cut through the rope on his wrists.

  He yanked off the red bandana gag in his mouth and said, “Give me the knife. I might need it.” He started to untie the ropes on his legs. “We can’t leave the animals like this. They’ve never been out together, except within their own species. Sooner or later, they’ll start fighting.”

  Indeed, some of the big cats were venturing outside of their cages, looking to poach some more meat from their neighbors. There was a general clamor of warning growls and snarls.

  Janine, meanwhile, had sat up and some semblance of cognizance had returned to her features. “Where am I?” she said, her words slurred. “Why are we in a cage?”

  “Chesh Bellingham trapped us,” I answered. I returned my attention to Damian. “She threw the circuit breaker.” I glanced in the direction of the tunnel, which led to the exterior circle of pens. “Does that mean the electric fencing above the pens is off as well?”

  He shook his head. “Separate circuit. We can’t climb over it with the power on.” He yanked on the padlock. “I have to get out of here,” Damian muttered. “I can’t leave the animals like this.”

  Janine started crying and whined, “Damian, help me. My head hurts.”

  The padlock Chesh had fastened was a combination-style, which she’d fed through an old-style bicycle chain. Damian quickly cut through its plastic sheathing, then began sawing on one of the links. In the meantime, I noticed that Atla and one of the female tigers were in the initial stages of squaring off. Atla was poised to claim the mostly empty bucket and the entire open space as her own.

  “That’s going to take forever,” I said. “Do the electric wires outside extend between the pens? Can you climb into Atla’s pen with us?”

  Damian promptly pocketed his knife and scrambled through Kaia’s tunnel to the outer pen. Ignoring Janine’s whimpering beside me, I knelt to watch through the small tunnel in Atla’s cage as best I could. The only view was directly ahead and not of the fence separating the pens.

  I gasped as I spotted Chesh on far side of the pen, brandishing some sort of stocky rifle. Before I could react, she fired.

  An instant later, there was a thud as Damian dropped to the ground. Then he rose and staggered through the tunnel toward me.

  Reflexively, I grabbed his shirt and helped pull him inside.

  “Shit!” he said. “She’s got my tranquilizer dart gun. Hit me in the thigh.” He dropped something he’d been gripping, which rolled across the floor.

  There was another report from outside, and a dart wedged itself in the bottom of the thick meshed gate to the cage. Chesh had shot a second dart at us through the tunnel.

  “You think you can outsmart me, hey?” Chesh screamed. “I’ll shoot a dozen darts into each of you and kill you myself!”

  At the noise, a cougar and a black leopard emerged from their cages. They both dashed past us, both Atla and the tiger letting out warning protests
.

  Damian slumped over. I shut the mini-gate to the tunnel, a solid guillotine-like sheet of metal.

  “Damian! No!” Janine started sobbing and rushed beside him, pulling him down into her lap.

  He let out a small grunt, then lost consciousness.

  Damn it all! We’d be sitting ducks if we stayed in this cage until Chesh came in after us. What the hell could we do? “She’s not going to just barrel in here, knowing all the animals are loose,” I muttered, thinking out loud. Then again, she had the cattle prod to fend off the animals.

  At least four big cats and Atla were set to do battle. My only hope to stop Chesh from shooting us with darts, was to enter the cats’ arena. Shit! How had I gotten myself into this mess!

  Beside me, Janine sputtered and cried, rocking herself with Damian’s head and shoulders in her lap. “Janine,” I said coarsely. “We have to save ourselves. I’m going to have to go out there again. Surprise Chesh as she’s coming through the door.”

  “You’ll never manage,” Janine answered, catching on to what was happening. Her words were still slurred. “The animals. The dart gun.”

  “Then help me! We’ll get on either sides of the entrance!”

  “I can’t go out there like this!” she whined. “I’m bleeding. I’m seeing double. I can’t do it.”

  “You have to! She’s going to come in here and shoot us! We either stop her now, or we’re dead!”

  “I can’t.” She burst into tears.

  I didn’t have time for this. I reached through and flipped the latch into the open position, then started cranking the door back up.

  “Janine,” I said through a tight jaw, “pull yourself together. Grab a meat bucket. You hear her rattling the lock, you get ready. When she comes through the door, drop the meat bucket over her head.”

  I cranked open the gate just far enough to crawl through. Atla was half whining, half howling. The bear, too, was in the center of the open space, playing with the meat bucket like an overgrown toddler. Mercifully, this seemed too much for the leopard and cougar. They’d returned to their respective cages to defend their meals.

  Janine, still sobbing, lowered the gate behind me. “I’m sorry,” she cried. “I can’t help you.”

  I walked past both of the animals in a slow gait, not looking at either of them to portray a confrontation. If they attacked, it would only shorten my life by a few minutes.

  I grabbed my hideous club of meat and flattened myself against the wall alongside the door. I heard a key in the lock.

  I raised my club, the flesh of my unbandaged hand sticking to its icy surface. A moment later, the lights went back on, the door was kicked open, and Chesh charged into the room, the rifle in one hand, the cattle prod in her other.

  I’d been surprised by how fast she’d entered. I swung at her head with the full force of my fury. She saw me coming enough that she dodge a little. My blow landed on her shoulder.

  She cried out in pain and dropped the rifle.

  I scrambled after it and swept it up, just as I felt an unbelievably horrible pain in one leg. The Taser felt at once as though my leg had been crushed and stabbed.

  I managed to keep my grip on the dart gun and whirled toward her.

  She dropped the prod and got both hands on the rifle before I’d gotten a strong grip myself.

  She screamed as Leo trotted close to us. He wanted to claim my “club” before any of the others did. I kicked it his direction, still wrestling with the gun, but she pulled it free. All I could do was hold onto the rifle barrel and prevent her from aiming it.

  “Let go!” she hollered. She spun around with so much force I couldn’t hold on any longer. It felt as though my fingers were broken from the force, and I fell.

  She aimed at me. I scrambled to me feet.

  “Look out!” Janine cried.

  Chesh automatically flinched and turned to look back. I tackled her, launching my shoulder straight at the back of her knees. She got a shot off as she was falling, the rifle once again dropping from her grasp.

  I fought for all I was worth. The bear ran back into his cage as Janine and I flailed away at each other on the hard-packed dirt floor.

  She clawed at my injured hand. The pain was excruciating, but I elbowed her in the breast. There were some metallic clicks behind us. I prayed that the sound was of a gate being cranked open.

  Chesh managed to roll on top of me. She got both hands around my neck. I pushed up desperately, but couldn’t get leverage. I grabbed her wrists and tried to pull her hands off of me, but she had her full weight on them. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t last much longer.

  From the corner of my vision I saw a flurry of motion. A gunshot echoed. Janine’s grip loosened.

  Chesh collapsed on top of me. Gasping for air, I slithered out from under her. My neck hurt horribly. I tried to speak, but couldn’t. Janine sat down on the ground, dropping the rifle from her hands in the process.

  I pulled the dart out Chesh’s back and dropped it, then staggered toward the still open door. I flipped the switch on the circuit breaker on the outside wall, then went back in and lowered all the gates. As I did so, I realized that the door to the open space had been wide open this whole time. To the best of my knowledge, all of the animals had stayed inside, as Damian had once told me they would.

  Only Leo and Atla remained outside of their cages. Leo was contentedly gnawing away on my former club. Atla was pacing in the open space, near the opening to where Damian still lay.

  Janine looked like a character from a horror film. Blood was matting her hair. Her face was totally white. Her eyes looked like black holes. She stood stock still, gripping the tranquilizer gun, staring down at Chesh.

  Supporting my throbbing throat with one palm, I said in a cracked voice, “Janine. We’ve got to go get help.”

  To my surprise, she shook her head. “Can’t leave Damian.” She reached into the pocket of her shorts and tossed me a set of keys. “There’s a cellphone in my van. You can get coverage about ten miles toward the city.” She picked up the cattle prod from where it lay, a short distance from her feet. “I’ll keep watch.”

  I shut the door behind me and got out to my car as quickly as I could, hurting with every step. I drove as fast as I could, while keeping an eye on my phone until a bar appeared. I pulled over, called nine-one-one, and told the dispatcher to send an ambulance and police to Damian Hesk’s ranch.

  She kept asking more and more questions. My throat was killing me with hen I spoke. Finally I pretended we’d just gotten cut off and hung up in the middle of one of my answers.

  I dialed Russell Greene’s home number, my heart pounding at the sound of his hello.

  With my hand supporting my throbbing throat, I said, “Russell, I love you.”

  There was a pause.

  “Allida? Is that you?”

  My throat hurt too much to laugh, but I smiled. “Is this Russell Greene?”

  “Yes.”

  “In that case, yes, it’s me.”

  “Ah,” he said with a smile in his voice. “In that case, I’m the luckiest man alive.”

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

 

 

 
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