Chapter 23
Ali watched as the girl and the two dogs romped in the meadow.
Even this time of year there was lots of green, and the expanse out to the towering evergreens—even, she thought, a few redwoods—was dotted here and there with some maple trees she knew would have been brilliantly red just a few months ago in fall, and various shrubs she was willing to bet would explode with colorful flowers come spring.
And she thought the tree they were next to was a magnolia.
She’d bet it would smell wonderful when it was in bloom, and knowing what she knew of Hayley, that that was probably the reason it was so close to the patio they were standing on.
Colby was beside her, also watching intently, while Hayley was on her other side, enjoying the show along with them.
“What a beautiful space,” she said to Hayley as Grace’s laughter rang out.
“It is.” She smiled. “We love it so much we got married out here. Which seemed to have started a Foxworth trend.”
Ali laughed. Hayley had told her about the string of marriages both done and upcoming, all of which she credited to Cutter.
She watched Grace do a cartwheel that was nothing less than…graceful.
“She’s well named, in several ways,” she said to Colby.
“Grace is her middle name,” Colby said. “I wanted it to be her first, but Liz insisted she be named after her father, Brian. So legally, she’s Brianna.
” He couldn’t help smiling then. “But when she got old enough to understand, which for her was about age two, she refused to answer to it. Would only answer to Grace. Even Liz finally gave in, since legally she’s still Brianna. ”
“So you’ve already beaten her once.”
Colby blinked. “I…never thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess so.”
“We’ll beat her this time, too,” Ali said, very conscious of using “we.”
And Colby’s gaze seemed to heat slightly as she said it, enough that she was glad when Quinn stepped out and came over to them. He’d been inside looking for something, although he hadn’t said what.
He stopped beside Colby. “Call in your girl for a minute, will you?”
Ali noticed he didn’t even hesitate, but called out to Grace to come over.
The girl did, still looking wonderfully happy as she told the two dogs to keep on playing, she’d be right back.
Ali saw Hayley notice what her husband was carrying, and give a very slight smile, as if she understood.
All Ali could see was that it was a small tubelike thing in silver metal.
Quinn asked Grace to go inside with him. Ali liked the way she looked at her father first, not taking another step until he nodded. Then he moved to follow her. He glanced back at Ali, questioningly, and she in turn looked at Hayley.
“Go ahead,” Hayley said. “I’ll stay out here for…demonstration purposes.”
Now she was really puzzled. But she followed the trio inside, curious.
Quinn ushered them to one side, away from the glass back door. So they couldn’t see? Or couldn’t be seen?
“Hear how quiet it is inside here?” he asked Grace. “How you can’t even hear Ziggy barking?” The child nodded, looking as puzzled as Ali felt. Then Quinn handed her the little silver tube. “Here. Take this end, and blow through it, three times quick and short.”
And suddenly Ali knew. She waited as the child did as instructed. And as she now expected, Ali heard nothing. It was as quiet as before in the well-built headquarters building.
“It didn’t do anything,” Grace said, looking at the thing in her hand. “Did I do it wrong? I did just like you said—”
A sound came from the back door, and Ali felt a rush of cooler air from outside and knew it was open. A split second later Cutter was racing into the room, coming directly to Grace and inspecting her urgently.
“A dog whistle,” Colby murmured.
“Yes,” Quinn said.
“But Daddy, it didn’t whistle,” Grace said, looking at him for an explanation while she petted Cutter, who was calmer now that he could see for himself she was all right.
“Not so we could hear it, no. But Cutter could.”
“How?”
“Dogs can hear much better than we can. And they can hear sounds we can’t hear at all. Like really high-pitched sounds.”
“And that,” Quinn said, “is what that whistle is designed to do. Put out a sound so high we can’t hear it, but dogs can.”
Grace was smiling now. “That’s cool! Like a secret signal or something.”
Ali saw Colby give Quinn a startled glance, as if he’d realized what this was really all about.
Quinn nodded in affirmation. “You hang on to that. Keep it with you, all the time while Cutter’s staying with Ali. And if anything bad happens, or you get scared, you blow it. Cutter knows what it means, and he’ll do what he just did. Come running.”
Grace’s eyes widened. “He’ll come to help me? And…she won’t know I called him, because she can’t hear it either?”
“Exactly,” Quinn said with a smile. “And nothing will stop him. Like now, he ran right past Hayley, because he knows keeping you safe is his job.”
“But if I’m in the house and can’t get out,” Grace began.
“He’ll raise such a fuss it’ll interrupt anything going on. And believe me, unlike that whistle, everybody within a mile will hear that boy bark if he wants them to.”
“Which means I’ll hear him and call for help,” Ali said.
Quinn smiled and nodded. “You use that phone we gave you, and whoever’s closest will head that way.
” He shifted his gaze to Colby. “You’re the one who has to be careful.
You don’t want to give her any excuses, so unless there’s physical danger to our girl here, you hang on until one of us gets there. ”
Ali saw Colby’s jaw tighten. Clearly he did not like that idea of staying back when his girl was hurting or scared.
“Trust us.” Hayley said it softly as she came up beside them.
“If she’s in trouble or danger, we’ll come in like a tidal wave, unstoppable,” Liam said, the first words he’d spoken in a while.
“And let the chips fall where they may,” Quinn said. “We’ll deal. But you need to stay free and clear so our girl here will have a place to land.”
Grace was starting to look a little concerned. Ali wasn’t sure how much of what they were saying she fully understood, but even knowing her less than two weeks she wouldn’t underestimate the child’s quick mind.
And neither would Hayley, who quickly diverted the discussion. “Here’s something else, Grace.”
She held out another small metal cylinder, but this one was shorter and bigger around, about the size of a flashlight battery. It had what looked like a screw-on lid, and a clip device on the other end. She opened it, and Ali saw there was a strip of paper rolled up inside it.
“It’s blank,” Hayley explained, “ready for you or us to write on.”
She closed it back up, and clipped it onto Cutter’s collar, next to the blue name tag in the shape of the boat from which Ali guessed his name had come.
“For messages!” Grace yelped.
“Yes.” Hayley smiled at her. “Like we talked about before. It’s easier for him than trying to hide it in his mouth—and drier.” Grace laughed as Hayley went on. “It’s a little old-fashioned, but kind of cool, huh?”
Grace nodded. Then she looked up at Ali, who saw the expression she’d come to know meant the girl’s mind was racing. “So you can send one to me, but what if I need to… Wait! I can use the whistle, then Cutter will come, and I can put in my message!”
“Come see us in about ten years, Grace,” Quinn said with a grin. “We’ll hire you.”
“Hire?”
“That means you’d get to work with them, doing for others what they’re doing for us,” Colby said, his voice level now, apparently resigned to his rather removed role in this. Oddly, she found herself liking him even more for hating being sidelined.
“Wow! That would be the best!”
She was so excited now that Ali was glad they would have the walk home for her to calm down a little. Unlike a normal mother, she didn’t think Liz would be pleased to see her daughter so happy.