you guys win another ribbon.
I texted back, Tell the Prez I said hi. Then, P.S. Maybe you’ll get to see the First Dog!
By this time Cisco had licked his bowl clean and lapped up half a bowl of water, so I snapped on his expandable leash, tucked the room key and a couple of pick-up bags in my pocket, and took him out for his evening walk. Just as in the Old West a cowboy always took care of his horse first, in the dog world we make sure our dogs are well fed and comfortable before we take care of ourselves. It’s only right.
We went through the hallway door, which led to the parking lot and the big open field beyond, and I noticed a couple of other dog walkers had the same idea. I saw Aggie with Gunny at the edge of the field and waved. She waved back, and we started toward them at a leisurely pace, Cisco in an ecstasy of sniffing the tracks of other dogs. When we reached the edge of the parking lot, I gave him a few extra feet on his expandable leash, and he hurried ahead of me.
I heard a car door slam behind me and glanced around to make certain no other dogs were heading toward us. Marcie was leaning against her blue minivan with one arm wrapped around her chest and the other hand covering her mouth, head bowed, clearly upset. I actually turned to start toward her, and then the driver’s side door opened and a man came around the van. I thought it was Neil until I saw the tender way he took Marcie in his arms to comfort her, and then I realized he was a much bigger man than Neil and quite a bit blonder. He said something in a low tone, and in a moment she nodded and smiled up at him. He kissed her.
“Well, well,” I murmured to myself. But that wasn’t the most surprising thing I saw. When they went around to the back of the van and opened it, two dogs got out—Bryte and Flame. And I distinctly remembered Neil saying he was taking Bryte home.
The man slung the strap of a day bag over his shoulder and they started toward the dog walk area on the other side of the building. It was at that moment that Cisco reached the end of his leash and looked back at me inquiringly. I called him to my side because I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding about who was walking whom, then gave him the full twenty feet of expandable leash in which to explore, and we made our way across the field.
I spent a few minutes chatting with Aggie, and just as we were heading back to the hotel, Cisco saw Brinkley and his mom—whose name I finally discovered was Sarah—coming across the field. Of course there was no way I could take Cisco inside then, so we spent another ten or fifteen minutes letting the three goldens sniff and play-bow and romp with each other as much as their leashes would allow. We made arrangements to meet for dinner in half an hour and started back toward our rooms. The other two women went west and I went east, so I was probably the only one who noticed Marcie and her boyfriend walking the dogs across the field a few hundred feet away. I waved to her, and I know she saw me, but her boyfriend caught her arm quickly and they deliberately turned and went the other way. Odd, but I supposed they wanted privacy. Besides, just then I got another text from Miles and was reminded that I had enough to deal with in my own personal life without borrowing other peoples’ problems.
~*~
EIGHT
Eighteen hours, forty minutes before the shooting
Twice a week, Buck and Wyn met for dinner at a steak house on the highway midway between their two homes. The food was good, and it was usually so late by the time they got there that the family hour was over and the place was relatively quiet. The restaurant was open until midnight, so they could relax in a booth over dessert and coffee for an hour or two and unwind from the day.
Tonight, however, Buck was having a difficult time leaving the day behind. And Wyn, who’d always had one of the keenest detective minds he’d ever known, was just as intrigued as he was over