Greyson (The K9 Files) - Dale Mayer Page 0,26

in place. When he looked at the dog, Kona was lying down, whining. He reached out a hand for her to sniff, then gently scratched the top of her head and down around her ears. “That’s a good girl,” he said. “That’s a very good girl.”

Her tail started to wag like crazy.

He looked up at the glass doors to see Jessica standing there, her hand over her mouth. He motioned at her to come outside.

She opened the door slowly. “Is it safe?”

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t know who your intruder is,” he said, “but Kona was trying to save you and the baby.”

She looked at him and at the dog and said, “Seriously?”

“Yes. I think that’s why she’s been hanging around here,” he said. “If you think about it, she’s been guarding you, just watching. This is quite likely the man who hit your car that day.”

He pulled out his cell phone, and, turning on the flashlight, Greyson rolled over the stranger and pulled the balaclava off his face. She gasped. “Oh, my God, it’s him.”

“I think Kona knew that this guy has been hanging around your place,” he said. “She’s a hero, and she worked hard to save you tonight.”

Before he could react or could warn her that it might not be safe, she bent down into a crouch, threw her arms around Kona, and buried her face into the dog’s rough.

Greyson could hear her whispers.

“Thank you so much, Kona. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Kona’s tail went crazy, and she rolled over, still in Jessica’s arms.

Laughing, he said, “Kona, you don’t look all that fierce now.” He reached over and scratched her gently on the neck and chest. He gave her a good belly rub too. “I think those crazy hard days are over now, girl.”

“Absolutely they are,” Jessica said. “I don’t have any dog food though, but I’m sure I’ve got something in the house.”

“What you need to do,” he said, “is go call the cops.”

“What about Kona?” she asked. “We don’t want the dog to be picked up.”

“Do you have any rope?” he asked. “I’ll make a lead and put it on her.”

“I might have something in the garage,” she said.

“First the cops,” he said firmly. “Then go to the garage and see if we’ve got something I can use to restrain her.”

“Do you think she’s still dangerous?”

“No, but, if she’s the model of a well-behaved dog on a rope,” he said, “the police won’t have any argument with me keeping her.”

Chapter 6

Jessica didn’t even know what to say. She stared out in the darkness around the house and then back down at the intruder. “I guess he’s not saying anything, is he?” she whispered. She didn’t even know why the hell she was whispering, but it just seemed like anything above a whisper would disturb the peace. And that made no sense. She gave a half maniacal shout of laughter. “Dear God,” she said, “here I’m worried about being quiet, when I need to have the cops come and haul this asshole away.”

“You go do that,” Greyson said quietly.

As she watched, he pulled out the guy’s wallet.

She frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Once the cops get here, they won’t tell us anything,” he said. “I want to know who this guy is.” He flipped the wallet open to the driver’s license, pulled it out, as well as several credit cards, and took photos.

“Why the credit cards?” She hated that tone of suspicion in her voice, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why he needed photos of them.

“Because look. They’re all in different names,” he said quietly.

At that, she gasped and bent closer. Sure enough they were. “Did he steal them?”

“Possibly,” he said, “or he’s using fake IDs.” He flipped through the wallet and found some cash, as in several hundred dollars, which was way more money than she’d seen in a long time. Making sure nothing was of interest, he shoved the wallet back in the guy’s pocket, then Greyson proceeded to check the rest of him over. In a front pocket, he found the guy’s cell phone.

With that, she watched an almost feral smile come across his face. She crouched beside him. “You’ll need a passcode.”

He nodded. “It would be needed in most cases.” But he double tapped the screen, and, sure enough, up came the icons.

She gasped again. “Seriously?”

He nodded, looked at her, and said, “Did you call the cops?”

She hesitated, not wanting to leave him alone with the phone