Big Three-Thriller Bundle Box Collection (100 page)

C
HAPTER 45

T
he only light on at Doc White Cloud’s clinic was in the reception area. Truong sat at Patsy’s desk with the phone in his right hand and right index finger holding down the button. He put a stack of a dozen files back into the
F
section in the file drawer, then pulled out a dozen and a half more from the
G
s. He opened the first file then punched the listed telephone number.

“Hello, Mrs. Gabriel…? This Truong, at Dr. White Cloud clinic. . . . Yes, very bad about doctor. . . .  Me like you watch Channel Two News with dog, uh, Tip, tonight ten o’clock. Me interviewed. Me have special treat, uh, kind of experiment for Tip. Me make Tip do trick from television. . . . Me can’t say now. You and Tip watch, then you see. Thank you. Bye.”

*-*-*

Tony Parker had waited, mid-way, on the steps and let Yankee leap at him. He sidestepped at the last second and pushed him away and down the steps, then ran to the master bedroom and shut the door. Julie hurried out to greet him.

“Oh, Tony!” She hugged him.

“The kids?” he asked.

He saw Julie look to the closet. Clothes lay on the floor. She ran to the closet and found Nick up on the shelf and helped him down. Tony stood guard by the door.

“Audrey isn’t here. I don’t know where she is!” she cried. “He had her. The son-of-a-bitch took her and hid her somewhere!”

“Damn!” Tony exclaimed. “Call 911.”

“I tried, but I couldn’t get through.”

“Well, try again, this time don’t stop trying until you do. And whatever you do, don’t open this door, no matter what happens, until I tell you or the police get here.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find Audrey.”

Parker opened the bedroom door and looked out, just in time to see Yankee run by and down the steps, dragging what looked like a doll in his mouth.

He ran out the door, closing it quickly behind, then flew down the steps behind the dog. Yankee turned sharply at the bottom and faced him.

The Saint Bernard growled, wild eyed. Dilated eyes. Not Yankee’s.

Audrey hung from his mouth by the back of her neck. His huge mouth covered the child’s throat. Her eyes were closed. She was silent, but he could see no blood. Any movement form Parker could cause Yankee to sever poor little Audrey’s head with not much more than a twitch from the dog’s powerful jaws.

Parker had only one plan. If he raised his fist as if he were going to strike the dog, maybe he would drop the baby to defend himself. What would happen after that, he didn’t know. Of course, instead of dropping her, he could just go ahead and chomp.

He had to take the chance. He had to get her from him, now.

“Bad dog, Yankee,” he said, raising his fist “Bad dog!”

It worked. The dog dropped the baby and went for Parker’s fist. Parker came around with the other hand and punched him square on top of the head, dazing the dog. He jumped on Yankee’s back and got him in a strangle hold from behind with his forearm. He’d used this hold many times before in Marine basic training when the recruits learned to choke each other out. In a few seconds, Yankee would be unconscious. A few more, there would be brain damage. A few more and Yankee would die.

“Julie, come out here and get Audrey!” Parker yelled out.

She came running down the steps.

Parker kept Yankee in the death grip. The dog’s eyes closed halfway and became blank.

“Damn it, Yankee. Why’d it have to happen to you?” he said softly into the dog’s ear. Yankee continued to struggle for a few more seconds, then quit and lay limp.

“Is she alive?” Parker asked, looking up at Julie as she inspected Audrey.

She shook her gently. “Come on, baby, wake up. Come on, Audrey.”

She paused and looked at the limp little body in her hands. Julie began crying. “Oh, Tony, I don’t know. I think she’s dead!”

Parker dropped the dog, got up and held onto the baby with Julie. Nick ran down and grabbed onto both of them.

“Come on, Audrey, open those pretty little eyes,” he said in a soft, yet frantic, tone. Then, in anguish he cried out, “Oh, God, please don’t take her from us. Please don’t take her, too!”

Audrey’s limp body twitched. It twitched again. Her little face wrinkled up into a frown. She began crying, beautiful crying.

Julie chuckled, a sort of nervous, relieved laugh, and they stood together, hugging and laughing and even crying a little.

*-*-*

They were too busy rejoicing to notice Yankee’s body also twitching just a few feet away. His eyelids rolled open.

*-*-*

Something brushed against Parker’s leg.

“Are you going to be a good dog now?” Nick asked. “No more playing monsters.”

Lightning bolts shot through Parker’s body. He turned quickly. Yankee stood behind.

Julie screamed. Parker handed the baby over to her, shielding them with his body.

Yankee cocked his ears and head. He stood with a curious look, pupils back to normal, wagging his tail, “
Uh-uh-uh-uh-errr
,” he said in his old way of chimpanzee talk.

“Thank God!” Parker said, “I think he’s snapped out of it.”

Nick began to pet him, but Parker knew he had to be sure the danger was over.

“Sorry, boy, but you’re getting locked up.”

He took him out the door and led him to the cage in back of the truck.

Parker came back in the house with head spinning, feeling confused and nauseous. He felt the symptoms again.

“What just happened here, Tony? What’s going on?” Julie asked, still holding the baby, who’d finally settled down, and stroking Nick’s hair.

He put his arms around all of them and said in a soft voice, “I don’t know. It just doesn’t add up.”

He looked at each member of his family, thinking how fortunate he was to still have them.

C
HAPTER 46

P
arker phoned 911 and cancelled the emergency call. He and Julie inspected Audrey carefully before deciding not to take her to the emergency room. She seemed to be fine, except for a few red marks on her neck. Her soft, tender baby skin hadn’t even been broken. What they all needed now was sleep. Tomorrow, they could have her checked out.

After Julie and Tony bandaged each other’s injuries, Julie took the kids upstairs, and Parker sat down in his recliner and started to play the
what if
game again, his time running out. Now, there was a given: Yankee was set off by a dog whistle, blown by Truong on TV.

What if Truong had caused all of the recent dog attacks? What if he could do the same thing he’d done on TV over the phone? That would explain the speakerphone in Spencer’s office and the phone being off the hook at Mrs. Nightingale’s. It could explain the others. Maybe he’d done it from outside the houses.

If that were the case, it would explain why Truong didn’t want to take the dogs’ heads to the lab to be tested for rabies.

But still, the biggest piece of the puzzle was why. What could be his motive? Robbery, maybe? There was the possibility that half a million dollars had been taken from MacGreggor’s, along with a diamond-studded letter opener. That one was easy to get away with. No one knew of the money for sure, and only Mrs. Crane knew of the letter opener. There was no obvious reason for the other attacks. The only thing they had in common, with the exception of Pastor Santini, was that they all had dogs and had taken them to Dr. White Cloud’s.

Once again, why? It all pointed to Parker. Truong was out to get him. But he hardly knew this Truong character, let alone ever gave the man a reason to destroy Parker’s world. But why make Parker suffer? Why not just kill Parker and get it over with?

Another big question was how. With a simple dog whistle?

Everything seemed such a mess. It was hard to concentrate. Parker’s head throbbed, and his body ached. It must be the rabies. He didn’t have much time. He had to fight it until he could put an end to this madness. He had to tell someone about Truong, but who would believe him? How could he prove it? He couldn’t think clearly.

Parker grimaced, frustrated.

It was all too much. Overwhelming. He wanted to be with the ones he loved. He wanted to run away with them, away from this mess. But he could not run from the rabies.

He lifted from his seat, stiff, sore joints complaining, and went upstairs and found the family in Nick’s bed. With the master bedroom’s waterbed torn open, he understood why. He squeezed in and lay with them on the little twin bed until he was sure they all slept. It was a tight fit, but the need to be with them and feel their hearts beat superseded any need for comfort.

He heard Julie’s breath slow, then calm to a peaceful sleeping rhythm and suddenly realized the danger he put them in.
Rabies is a very contagious disease
, he thought.

He rolled out of bed and stared back at his soundly sleeping family. He must leave. He could no longer endanger his family with the rabies or this madman Truong.

Parker walked outside and sat on the tailgate of the truck, looking in the cage at a very sad Yankee. He had to clear his head, but every minute that passed made it harder for him to think rationally.

*-*-*

Ten blocks away, Sarah Hill fixed herself a rum and Coke after a hot shower and sat down in her bathrobe to read a romance paperback. Sheik lay next to her on the sofa, and she fondled his neck and back between sips.

She looked at the open book but didn’t read the words, thinking of how the next few weeks were going to be so much of a change. She was about to leave everything she loved: the town, the friends, the job. She even loved her little apartment although the dishwasher didn’t work and the manager was an asshole.

Then, there was Tony Parker.

Hill smiled, thinking of him.

She’d never wanted a man like she wanted Tony. She’d done everything she could to get him. Still, he’d gotten away even though she knew he wanted her as much. Maybe it was that kind of married-man morals that made her love him. It wasn’t very common in the modern world of cheating and indiscriminate sex. He’d come close to slipping, once. But she wondered if even then he would have followed through if they hadn’t been interrupted. She was sure there was something more to it than that and she hoped it wasn’t rabies. After all, he had been through one hell of a lot. A lesser man could easily have had a nervous breakdown by now.

Hill took a sip from her drink and thought of how shocked Parker had been in the truck when she started sucking on his finger. She giggled. It was so much fun to tease and fluster him. She was an old movie buff, and to her, Tony Parker was as close to Gary Cooper, reincarnated, as a man could get. At times, he was also like the father she never knew. Hers was killed in SCUBA accident when she was three.

Tony Parker symbolized security although he wasn’t rich. He had a confidence always evident in any situation, except when she teased him. That was another reason she was so attracted to him. She knew how to pull his strings when no one else could.

Hill took another sip and smiled again. A tear spilled from her eye and dripped into her drink.

The phone rang.

She laid the book down, a little irritated that her much needed peace had been disturbed.

“Yeah,” she answered.

“Hello, this Truong from Doctor White Cloud clinic.

“Who? Oh, yeah, I remember you.

“Me have something like dog, Sheik, hear.”

“You have something like dog Sheik hear?” she mocked. “Get real, what is this?”

“Please. Very important. This help Mr. Parker. Sheik there?”

“Yeah, he’s here. But I don’t think he’s accepting phone calls.”

“Please. Very important!”

“Sheesh! All right, all right!” She held the phone out. “Hey, Sheik, it’s for you.”

Sheik raised his head, ears perked. After several seconds, Hill hadn’t heard anything so she put the phone back to her ear.

“Come on, already, Sheik’s a busy dog. He can’t talk on the phone all night.”

Nothing but a dial tone.

“Wow, what a weirdo. Sorry, Sheik, prank call.”

She looked at Sheik. He looked back from the corners of his eyes. His snout wrinkled. An unfamiliar look flared in his eyes, and his pupils dilated.

He growled, low at first, then drew a breath and made the next complaint with more enthusiasm.

“Well, shit! Don’t get pissed at
me
.”

He turned his head toward her and growled again, this time topping it off with two sharp barks.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Hill put it all together fast. The call—Sheik acting like the rest.

She threw the phone at Sheik and ran for the bedroom.

Sheik caught the phone hard in his mouth and dropped it on the floor. He leaped off the sofa and raced for Hill, jumping on her back, sending her to her knees. He went for her throat. She ducked. The first try broke the skin, and Sheik ended up with a mouthful of bathrobe collar.

“
Aah
, he-elp! Somebody help me! Sheik, get off. Bad boy!”

She stood, causing the dog to roll off, and tried once more for the safety behind the bedroom door. Sheik lunged again, this time his fangs sunk deep into her thigh.

“
Ah-waa
, Sheik, you bastard!” Hill cried, falling to the floor.

She hit the dog in the eye, then on the end of the nose, with the bottom of her fist. He let go but struck again before she could crawl more than a foot. Now, he clamped onto her right calf. She yanked it from his mouth. The pain of tearing flesh, tendons, and muscles made her body quake. She screamed out in agony.

“
Owwww
, get away!”

Hill spotted the large glass candlestick holder her mother had sent her from Florida last Christmas. She grabbed it off a small table nearby as Sheik went for her other arm. She brought the holder down hard in the middle of his thick skull as he bit.

She cried out again.

The dog didn’t let go. He had set his jaws like Vise Grips on her elbow.

She drew the big glass candlestick holder back as far as she could and slammed it between his eyes.

It fractured with a pop and fragments of glass flew.

Sheik sounded with a yelp, reeling back with several thick chunks of broken glass embedded in his snout. Hill had many of the jagged, shards stuck in her hand. That didn’t matter now. She had to get away while she could.

Using her good elbow and the other hand, she crawled frantically toward the bedroom while dragging her injured leg. Clearing the door, she tried to kick it shut, but it bounced off Sheik’s side as he burst into the room.

He went for her throat again. Hill screamed as she blocked with a swing of her arm. The dog grabbed her shoulder, puncturing deep into her body. The pain was so piercing she thought she would pass out.

Hill used all of the strength she had left to push loose from his powerful grip and scamper under the bed. This time, he caught her by the foot before she could pull it under.