Chapter 31
We all piled into the Thunderbird, Amber with Party Girl in the front seat, me with Pepe curled up in my arms in the back, and drove up the hill to Café Argento in no time flat. I filled Amber in about my sister and the gangsters along the way.
Café Argento is on the ground floor of a brand-new condominium complex. A wine store occupied the other retail space and both flanked a small fountain in a courtyard that led to the main entrance of the building.
It is hard to find parking in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, even more difficult because it's near Seattle Central Community College, so students attending classes take up most of the parking not being used by people patronizing the many nearby restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. As Jimmy G circled the block for the second time, I finally convinced him to let me and Pepe out and we dashed across Twelfth Street and into Café Argento.
But Teri was nowhere in sight. A guy with glasses was sitting working on a laptop at one of the narrow tables against the wall. Two women had their heads bent over some papers in front of them on one of the square tables near the windows. They looked up in surprise when I skidded to a stop in the middle of the restaurant.
“Where is she?” I asked out loud.
“Hey!” That was Pepe coming up behind me. “You could have been hurt running into traffic that way. Did you not hear me tell you to
heel
?”
The owner, Faizel, a handsome guy with dark hair and dark eyes, waved me over to the counter. “Can I help you?” he asked.
“I'm looking for my sister,” I said.
He raised his eyebrows.
“Teri!” I added.
“You two look alike,” he whispered. “Follow me!”
He came out from behind the counter and used a key to open the door to a storage room that was lined with silver shelves full of restaurant items: bags of coffee beans, stacks of napkins. And in the middle, sitting hunched up on a stepstool, was my sister Teri. She was wearing black sweatpants, a pink t-shirt, a black hoodie, and a pair of grey sneakers.
“Geri!” she jumped up and flew into my arms.
I held her tight. “I've been so scared,” Teri told me, her head buried into the crook of my neck. I could feel her trembling.
Faizel left us and went back into the shop as Jimmy G and Amber entered. I saw Terri shrink back. “It's OK,” I said. “They're with me.”
I waved them over to the storage closet and introduced everyone. Teri still seemed reluctant to come out of the closet. Amber was lingering by the door.
Suddenly, Party Girl started growling.
“Did you try to woo her again?” I asked Pepe.
I was interrupted by Amber shouting out, “Oh my God! It's him!”
“Who?”
“Him!” She was pointing out the window. “Isn't that the gangster you were telling me about?”
I looked to see where she was pointing and saw an older man with a pork pie hat across the street from the café. He seemed agitated. He was pacing up and down, and seemed to be muttering to himself.
“Hey, that's Phil!” said Jimmy G.
“You mean Phil Pugnetti?” I asked. “The guy Teri is supposed to be testifying against?”
“Oh my God, he's going to kill me!” Teri said.
“Quick!” I said to Jimmy G. “Go distract him!”
“Sure!” Jimmy G headed out the door.
“I'm coming with you!” said Amber. That was brave of her. Party Girl followed. Meanwhile, I waved Faizel over. “Is there a back way out of here?”
“Yes, follow me,” he said. He grabbed his keys and led us around the corner and into the foyer to the building, through a hallway lined with elevators that would take tenants to their condos above. We went out a back door marked E
XIT
, which took us into a narrow walkway behind the building.
It was hard to decide which way to go. One way would lead us out to Twelfth Street, the other to Olive Street. Since Pugnetti had been on the corner, I didn't know which was better, but I took a chance and pointed us toward Olive.
Turned out I guessed wrong.
We had no sooner opened the gate which clanged shut behind us, than Pugnetti, who was arguing with Jimmy G on the corner, turned and spotted us.
“Hey, you! Stop!” he shouted, whirling around and heading straight for us.
Teri took off running down the street toward the park with me and Pepe following close behind. As we sprinted across Eleventh Avenue, I glanced back and saw Pugnetti following us, waving something in his right hand.
A gun!
“Go right, Teri!” I shouted. That would take her by the playground. I didn't think Pugnetti would dare to shoot around the little kids scrambling all over the play structure and swinging on the swing set. But what did I know about gangsters?
Teri swerved to the right and into the park, heading toward the playground. Pugnetti stopped to catch his breath at the curb. He was an older man and heavyset. I doubt he did a lot of running.
Jimmy G and Amber caught up with him.
“Go get that broad!” Pugnetti yelled at Jimmy G waving his gun toward Teri. “A couple thousand for you, if you do.”
“Sure,” said Jimmy G.
I scrambled to catch up with Teri. Would Jimmy G really sell out my sister for money?
Teri was galloping past the playground, her long hair flying. The moms and kids watched us go by, their eyes big, their mouths open.
Teri was approaching the water feature built into the park and designed to cover one of the city's many reservoirs. On one end was an old stone building and a long reflecting pool. At the far end, the pool flowed from a strange cone-shaped fountain. Benches were set on either side so people could look out at the water and on one side, long lawns swooped down to the sidewalk. Those lawns were usually dotted with dogs playing with their owners and that was true, especially today with its unexpected sunshine.
I turned at the corner and looked back. Jimmy G was fumbling in his jacket and pulled out a gun as well. Was he actually going to carry out Pugnetti's bidding? I knew my boss wasn't trustworthy after the way he double-crossed me during our last case, but I didn't think he would be willing to kill someone.
Teri was far out in front, heading alongside the long, narrow reflecting pool with Pepe at her side. I stopped, thinking I could maybe distract Jimmy G, talk some sense into him. Amber was limping behind him, having lost one of her high heels. And Pugnetti brought up the rear, moving slowly. As he reached the start of the reflecting pool where water flowed through a grate and underground, he stopped and tried to steady his gun with his other hand, taking a bead on Teri.
I stepped into the path of the bullet. Not a smart thing to do. Jimmy G lifted his gun, spun around and aimed at Pugnetti. He missedâI saw the bullet ricochet off the buildingâbut he startled Pugnetti enough so Pugnetti's bullet went astray, actually hitting Jimmy G's fedora and knocking it off his head. Jimmy G was so shaken up he dropped his pistol into the reflecting pool.
Amber screamed.
As Jimmy G bent to retrieve his gun, Pugnetti fired again, missing again. The ducks who had been floating in the pool took off with a big whir of wings. Amber, who was right behind Pugnetti, took off her other shoe and flung it at him. Pugnetti spun around and fired at her.
“Hit the ground” shouted Jimmy G and she did. But I couldn't tell if she had been hit or had taken cover. As Jimmy G went flying toward Amber, Pugnetti resumed his hunt of Teri who was almost at the fountain at the far end. She was screaming, “Help! Help!”
That's when I became aware of all the other screaming that was going on. I'd been so intent on getting away from Pugnetti, that I hadn't noticed all the screeching people who'd heard the shots. The soccer players in the sports field were looking our way. The moms were huddling with their kids in the playground area. People playing Frisbee with their dogs on the lawns were running for the sidewalk. And dogs, all the dogs, were barking furiously.
Pepe, who had been trailing Teri, turned around and yelled. “Calling all
perros
! Come to the rescue of the humans! Attack this evil dog-hater!”
And suddenly all the dogs in the park were running toward Phil Pugnetti. Big dogs, little dogs, fuzzy dogs, smooth-haired dogs, dogs trailing leashes, and dogs running free. I heard their owners calling their names.
“Dixie, come back!” said a woman chasing after a small black poodle.
“Sweet Pea, no!” One of three women who were sitting on a bench together with their dogs jumped up as her fuzzy little dog jumped off her lap.
“Orchid, come!” said her companion, whose dog, a small Chihuahua, hit the ground running.
“Andy! Get back here!” shouted the third woman, whose black cocker spaniel jerked his leash free from her hold.
“Buster, stop it!” said a long-haired woman who was being towed towards the melee by her big brown curly-haired dog who was straining at the end of his leash.
Just as Teri darted behind the fountain and Pugnetti raised his hand again to shoot at her, the dogs got to him. Pepe and Party Girl were leading the pack. The dogs jumped on him from behind, and his gun went flying. He fell to his knees and one of the bigger dogs pushed him over. All of them were barking.
Pugnetti curled up in a ball on the gravel walkway, his arms over his face. “Get them off of me!” he screamed. The dogs were swarming him like angry bees.
“Help! Help!” screamed Pugnetti. “I'm afraid of dogs.”
The dogs milled around him, barking and snarling and snapping.
“They're going to kill me!” moaned Pugnetti.
“That would be justice!” said Teri, coming out from behind the fountain. She grabbed Pugnetti's gun and aimed it at him.
Jimmy G and Amber came loping up. Jimmy G was carrying his pistol, which he must have retrieved from the pool.
“You're OK?” I asked Amber.
“Yes,” said Amber. “Amber just dove for cover, like Jimmy G suggested.”
“Your job is done.
Gracias
brave comrades!” said Pepe to the other dogs. They began to disperse, returning to their owners gathered in a circle around us.
The police arrived on bicycles, guns drawn, and quickly took Pugnetti into custody as soon as the other park-goers verified our story that he had been firing a gun. Jimmy G had slipped his pistol into his shoulder harness and, luckily, no one mentioned that he had been shooting as well, or he would have been in jail too.
As we waited to be interviewed, I picked up Pepe and kissed him. “You are my hero,” I said.
“And you are Amber's hero,” said Amber, throwing her arms around Jimmy G and giving him a big kiss right on the lips.
“And both of you are my heroes,” said Teri, throwing her arms around me and Pepe. She patted him on the head. “He promised he would rescue me that first day he sneaked into Serenity.”
“You can hear him talking?” I asked Teri.
“Well, sure,” she said. “Didn't you hear him just now? He was telling all the other dogs to jump Pugnetti.”
“So you don't think I'm crazy?” I asked her.
“If you are, then I am too!” she said with a laugh. “Maybe we should check ourselves into Forest Glen. I never had a chance to try out the float tank.”