Chapter 31 #3
Just then the front door opened downstairs, and Annabel immediately held the gun to Doreen’s throat and said, “Don’t you say anything. Not … a … fucking … word.”
“I don’t have to say anything,” Doreen told her, with a sigh. “You’re still misunderstanding everything.”
Then suddenly Mack was there. “Well, look at this,” he said, his tone harsh. “I leave you alone for five minutes.”
“I know,” Doreen muttered, eyeing him carefully. “I’m really not responsible for this one though.”
He laughed. “How do you figure?”
“She came here all on her own.”
Annabel immediately turned the gun on Mack. “I will shoot you,” she cried out.
“She probably will too,” Doreen added, looking at her. “She thinks she should kill people who stand in her way. Except she doesn’t know how to operate a gun.”
“I can see that,” Mack replied in that lazy drawl of his.
As he walked up the stairs toward them, Annabel held up her gun and yelled, “Don’t come any closer. I’m serious.”
“I know you’re serious,” he said, “but so am I.” He looked at Goliath, staring down at him from the second-floor landing.
“Oh, look at that? Goliath, you’re just so ready.”
Annabel didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s okay,” Doreen told her. “Mugs is also ready to redeem himself.”
“Mugs let her in?” Mack asked Doreen, slowly taking another step up the stairs.
Doreen nodded. “Annabel apparently made good friends with him when we rescued her the other day.”
At that mention, Mugs walked closer to Annabel, sniffed all around her, and in his classic move that generally made almost everybody laugh, he assumed the position and peed all over her leg.
She stared down at it and cried out, “What are you doing? Go away!” She jumped back. “Eew, that’s gross.”
Mack jumped up to the landing and snatched the gun from her hand, then looked down at Mugs and said, “Well, it was a pretty unorthodox attempt, but I’ll take it as an apology.”
Mugs woofed at him several times, but Annabel bolted for the stairs. Goliath, in the same move he frequently made with Mugs, raced ahead of her, then abruptly stopped right in front of her near the top of the stairs. And she tripped, pitched forward, falling all the way down the stairs.
“Uh-oh,” Mack muttered, as he raced down after her.
Doreen chose to go down a whole lot slower. As she joined them there, she looked over at Mack. “Is she okay?”
“She will be,” he said, “but those animals.” He turned to look at Goliath, who was lying there at the top of the stairs, his tail twitching.
Doreen nodded. “Goliath and Mugs play that game a lot,” she murmured.
“I know,” Mack stated. “I’ve seen it. Goliath did that on purpose.”
“Oh, it absolutely was deliberate,” Doreen declared, with a bright smile. “As you well know, anything to keep me safe.”
He sighed, looked over at her, and shook his head. “I get that. However, how did you manage to keep her from noticing what you were doing with your phone?”
She pulled it from her pocket and showed him the red light, still recording. “I don’t think she was thinking about anybody else being devious.”
“No, of course not,” he agreed, “but I’ve got to tell you. You are starting to become the very definition of the word.”
“If you want to crack this case and other related cases,” she added, “let’s not only ID the fence and the head loan shark here in town but find him, meaning Cisco himself.”
He eyed her in surprise and muttered, “That would be helpful.”
“I don’t think he’s very happy with this lady for taking out Birdie.”
He frowned, then looked over at Annabel, who was still unconscious. “This will get interesting.”
“It will, indeed, though it may upset a bunch of people.”
“That’s fine,” he said, with an air of nonchalance. “We’re trying to clean up the town, and that’s bound to ruffle a few feathers.”
“I know,” she muttered. “I’m just saying.”
“Now or in the morning?”
“Probably now,” she replied, as she looked outside and then winced. “What is it, four in the morning?”
“Not quite, but almost.”
“Yeah, so soon would be good,” she said quietly.
“Fine,” he agreed, “but we have to get an ambulance, and I’ll need to get the team here.”
“Good enough.”
It took another forty-five minutes before they were ready to leave.
She was now dressed, had the animals with her, and looked over at Mack. “Can we go now?”
At that, Chester came over and asked, “Where are you going?”
She explained, “To go pick up the boss of the local loan sharks and the head of the B&E fencing gang, so pretty much the crime lord in this area.”
He stared at her and repeated, “Crime lord? What are you talking about?”
She groaned. “I don’t know what you call these people,” she muttered, “but whoever takes all the stolen goods to sell them off and lends the proceeds to people at terrible interest rates.”
“Right,” Chester said. “That would be crime boss, loan shark, fence, yeah, you kind of covered them all.”
“Exactly,” she replied, with a beaming smile. “I just want to go get him now, before he, you know …”
“Before he what?” Chester asked, looking puzzled.
She shrugged. “Before he goes out for his early morning walk.”