Chapter 29
“What did you think?” I asked Felix, once we were in the car and on our way back to Seattle. Pepe was in the back chowing down on the plate of leftovers I had brought him.
“I think the ham is too dry,” Pepe mumbled, his mouth full.
“You can be honest,” I said.
“Okay, then the broccoli is overcooked, too,” said Pepe.
“Your sister is a bitâ” Felix hesitated.
“Bossy,” I said. “Yes, I know. But you can't really blame her. She had to become responsible way too young.”
“The Jell-O salad has a nice flavor,” said Pepe. “But I do not care for the texture.”
“She was only a sophomore in college when our parents died. Once she moved me and my sister to Seattle, she had to be a parent and a student at the same time.”
“It was hard for you, as well,” Felix observed. “Leaving behind everything you knew and coming to a strange city.” It was kind of him to notice. Cheryl has made such a big deal about her sacrifice that I had never thought too much about how it affected me. I had to leave the small town where I grew up. And transfer from a school with a total of 114 students to a big urban school with 1,600 students enrolled.
“Yes,” I said, “we all adapted in our own way. I tried to not cause any trouble while my sister Terri did the exact opposite. She went wild.”
“I'm really sorry I asked about her,” Felix said.
“I was trying to warn you not to go there by squeezing your hand.”
“Oh, and I thought you were trying to encourage me,” Felix said with a laugh. “That's the trouble with unclear signals.”
“No way is she going to encourage you, senor,” said Pepe, who had finished up the leftovers and was now giving his full attention to our conversation.
“So you have no idea what happened to her?” Felix asked.
I shook my head. “No. She dropped out of high school but she seemed to be getting by, waitressing and such, until 2001 when she just vanished.” I paused, decided to say it out loud. “We're both afraid she's dead. Else why would she never have contacted us?” My voice caught a little.
Felix reached over and put his hand on mine.
Pepe said, “Don't cry, Geri.”
“I'm not crying,” I said.
“It's OK if you want to cry,” Felix said. He was quiet, then asked. “Do you think that had anything to do with your becoming a private investigator?”
“Oh!” I was surprised by the question and had to think about it. “I guess that makes sense. I suppose if I had the right skills, I might be able to find her. Or at least find out what happened to her.”
“Do not worry, Geri,” said Pepe. “I will track her down for you. Just give me something of hers to sniff, and I can find her anywhere.”
“Where did you get your training?” Felix asked. We were coasting down the long ramp of the freeway exit on our way into Seattle.
“Well, I haven't really had any,” I said. “I just got a couple of books from the library.”
“Your agency didn't provide training?”
“She does not need training,” said Pepe. “She is working with me!”
“My boss said he would pay for classes,” I said. I was feeling down as I always did when I thought of Terri. “I should follow up on that. First thing tomorrow.” I gave a sigh, thinking of the long day ahead of me.
“After we rescue Siren Song,” said Pepe.
“Speaking of that,” I said. “What would you say if I told you I know someone who has trained her dog to dance?”
“Yes, I've seen that done,” Felix said. “They call it canine freestyling. I think it looks ridiculous.”
“No one cares what you think, buddy,” said Pepe.
“Mostly the people, not the dogs,” Felix hastened to add. “Dogs always look attractive. Even when dancing around on their hind legs.”
“That is the first smart thing you have said, mister,” said Pepe.
“What if I told you this person trains her dog by hitting her on the nose?”
“Ouch!” said Felix.
“Empathy,” said Pepe. “That is a good quality.”
“I don't approve of training methods that use punishment,” Felix said. “You treat the dog with disrespect, you either get an animal that has its spirit broken or you create a nasty case of aggression.”
“This
vato
is starting to make sense,” Pepe said.
“So how do you train a dog?” I asked.
“I only use positive reinforcement. When the dog does what I want, I reward it. With food, at first.”
“I am beginning to like this guy more and more,” Pepe observed.
“Then?”
“Then with praise.”
“And does that work on people?”
“You bet it does,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. He had just pulled up in front of my courtyard. “Let me walk you to your door.”
“I will protect her from malfeasants,” said Pepe. “No need for you to do so,
hombre!
” He clawed at the screen and barked fiercely.
“Your little guy seemed to do better on the way home,” Felix observed, as we got out of the car and released Pepe from the back. He sprang out and scrambled onto the parkway where he immediately lifted his leg.
“How come you're not peeing on his shoes?” I asked Pepe.
“Do you want me to?” he asked.
“No, no, it's fine,” I said.
“You talk to your dog a lot,” Felix observed. “It's almost like you are having a conversation with him.”
“It seems that way to me most of the time,” I said, tucking my arm into his.
“I will check to be sure the coast is clear,” said Pepe, running ahead of us.
“You know, you really should have him on a leash,” said Felix. “For his own sake. He might run into the street and get hit by a car.”
“Pepe has a lot of street sense,” I said.
“I could work with you on training him,” Felix offered.
“I don't think Pepe would like that,” I said. We had caught up with him. He was sitting outside my front door and glaring at Felix.
“Really, it's just an excuse. I want to see you again,” said Felix, taking both of my hands in his. He gazed down at me with those dark eyes, and I felt a little dizzy. The yellow light from the street lamp and the overcast sky behind it made it look like we were in some noir film. He leaned in to kiss me. His lips were just brushing mine when Pepe barked.
“Geri! Watch out!” he said. “Danger!”
He was right. The kiss was dangerous. Some kisses are primarily physical, all lips and mouth and tongue. This one started out that way but then shifted into the other type of a kissâmagical, where the kiss is a portal to another world, where it is only the two of you merging and dissolving and melting together.
Felix let go of my hands and drew me closer to him, wrapping his arms around me. We could have been on a beach on a tropical island, or floating in the warm ocean waters, lapped by waves, with a velvety sky spangled with stars overhead. We could have been the only two people in the world.
Except for Pepe. He was barking furiously. “Geri! Stop this at once! Attention! I need your attention!”
I tried to block out the sound of Pepe's voice. I just wanted to fall into the sweetness of the kiss. But I couldn't ignore his increasingly frantic cries.
“Danger! Danger!” said Pepe.
“What is it?” I pulled away from Felix and looked down at Pepe, who was clawing at the front door.
“I smell an intruder!” he said. “Someone has been in our house while we were gone.”
Chapter 30
“How do you know that?” I asked Pepe.
“I can smell it!” he said, sniffing all around the door.
I bent down to look at the doorknob. There were scuff marks around the door jamb and the plate, as if someone had pried it open.
“What's going on?” Felix asked.
“It looks like someone might have broken into my condo.”
“Do you think they're still inside?” he asked.
“What do you think, Pepe?” I asked.
Pepe looked up. “They have gone,” he said. “The scent is old. Perhaps an hour ago.”
“Pepe seems to think they're gone,” I said.
“I can go in and check it out for you,” Felix offered. “I have training in martial arts.”
“As do I!” said Pepe. “Let me in! I will defend my territory!” He scratched at the door.
I opened the door with my key and both of them charged in, almost getting tangled up in the hallway. Pepe ran from room to room, sniffing. Felix flung open all the doors, including the door to the shower and all of the closets. He even checked under the bed. I followed behind, looking to see if anything had been disturbed. The only thing that seemed to be disturbed was Albert. He was standing in the middle of my pink chenille bedspread. His fur was all bristled upâhe looked twice his normal sizeâand his tail swished back and forth.
“If only you could talk,” I said to him. “You could describe the intruder.”
I picked him up and carried him around with me, hoping to soothe him.
“It doesn't look like anything's missing,” I said. My home is small. You enter directly into the living room, which has two doorsâone leads into a narrow kitchen and the back porch and the other opens into my tiny bedroom and its adjoining bathroom. It didn't take long to inspect everything, even the broom closet and the cupboards under the sink.
“Perhaps someone tried to break in and didn't succeed,” Felix suggested.
That made the hairs rise up on the back of my neck. But it wasn't as bad as what Pepe said next. “No, there was someone here. The intruder went into the bedroom, and into your bathroom, then looked through your closet and finally came in here.”
Pepe sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor and gazed at the refrigerator.
“Hungry again, Pepe?” I asked. “You just ate.”
“No, I am not hungry, Geri,” Pepe said. “Well, actually I am hungry. But that is not why you must look in the refrigerator.”
“OK,” I said. “I give up. Why must I look in the refrigerator?”
“Because the intruder put something there.”
I set Albert down on the sofa and went into the kitchen to look in the refrigerator. I didn't see anything unusual. A carton of eggs. A loaf of bread. A box of Chardonnay. Could it be poisoned now? A half-empty can of dog food for Pepe. Maybe the miscreant tampered with that.
“It all looks the same to me,” I said.
“The smell is coming from higher up!” said Pepe.
I opened the freezer, which is always a mistake at my house. I have an old pink refrigerator (one of the reasons I bought this particular condo) and it needs to be defrosted by hand every month or so. It's a task I tend to put off. A bag of frozen peas tumbled out. It hit Pepe on the head, then fell to the floor where it split open and the frozen peas came rolling out.
“Ow!” said Pepe, dancing around, and slipping and sliding on the peas. “Ow!”
I scooped him up and kissed the top of his head and each one of his little paws. That seemed to calm him down. Meanwhile Albert came running in and started hunting down the rolling peas. Felix stood in the doorway, an amused smile on his face.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Pepe thought there was something in the freezer,” I said, looking back at the freezer compartment. “And it looks like he was right.” I saw the glitter of gold, back behind the bag of frozen french fries and an old carton of strawberry ice cream.
I pulled it out. It was a gold case, with the initials
DPT
engraved on the cover in fancy calligraphy.
“What is this?” I asked. “I've never seen it before!”
“The intruder put it there,” Pepe said.
I set Pepe down on the floor. He looked at the catâAlbert was still batting peas back and forth.
“Small amusements for small minds,” said Pepe. He strolled out of the room with a swagger. I think he was still feeling sorry for himself. It is not very dignified to be hit on the head by a bag of frozen peas.
“What is it?” asked Felix, coming close, but being very careful to avoid the peas. Albert had swatted most of them beneath the cupboards.
“I don't know.” I flicked open the clasp at the front and saw that it was filled with business cards. The one on top read
R
EBECCA
T
YLER
P
RODUCER
D
ANCING WITH
D
OGS
“Oh my God!” I dropped it like a hot potato. Business cards went flying everywhere, scattering into the corners along with the peas.
“What is it?” Felix asked.
“I believe it belongs to David Tyler,” I said. He looked puzzled, so I went on. “The man who was murdered the other day.”
“Oh!” Various expressions crossed Felix's face. First confusion, then doubt, and finally concern.
“What was it doing in your freezer?” he asked.
“Don't you see?” I asked. “The intruder must have hid it there.”
“But why?”
“A warning or an attempt to blackmail you, Geri,” said Pepe who was standing on the threshold. He had recovered some of his jauntiness.
I bent to pick up the cards. I did not recognize most of the names, but here and there was a name I did know: Sherman Foot, lawyer, and Stewart Gerrard, CEO of Gerrard Enterprises. Then I froze. There was my card staring up at me. Only it wasn't my old card, it was one of the new cards I had made to please Pepe: S
ULLIVAN AND
S
ULLIVAN
, P
RIVATE
I
NVESTIGATORS
.
I went into the dining room. The box of cards was on the table. It didn't look like it had been opened. But when I handed it to Pepe to sniff, he nodded. “The intruder touched this box, Geri! It is the same horrid smell as I smelled in the bushes and on the glove!”
“I just made these cards today,” I told Felix, “at a copy shop in the U District, right before you picked me up. There's no way David Tyler could have had one of these cards in his card case.”
“What are you going to do?” Felix asked.
“Do you think I should call the police?”
“
No policÃa
,” said Pepe.
“What would you tell them?” asked Felix. “That you believe someone sneaked into your house to hide a card case that belongs to a murder victim?”
“I just don't understand why someone would do that,” I said.
“To frame you for the murder, Geri,” said Pepe.
“If that's true,” I said, “then the police may be coming to search my house.” I took the case out of Felix's hands and snapped it shut. “What should I do with it?” I looked around. “Put it back in the freezer?”
“No, that is where the police will look for it!” Pepe said. He seemed to have a good grasp of how a deviant mind would work. Perhaps it was from watching all those true-crime TV shows.
“The police have no reasonable cause to search your house,” said Felix. It sounded like he watched those shows, too.
“So you think I'm safe for tonight?” I asked. And then I realized how absurd that sounded. Someone had broken into my house while I was gone. Someone who had been in David Tyler's house. Undoubtedly the person who had murdered him.
And suddenly I was shaking and crying. The enormity of all that had happened hit me. The fright of finding Mr. Tyler's body and my suspicions of his wife. The stress of the horrible Easter dinner. Even the weirdness of having a talking dog.
Felix took me in his arms. “It's OK,” he said. “It's OK. You're safe now.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder and let my tears fall. I felt a funny tickling feeling on my ankle and looked down to see that Pepe was licking my ankle, the only part of me he could reach.
“I'm just so scared,” I said. “What if the person is still outside? Watching me?”
“Do you want me to stay?” Felix asked.
What could I say?
“No, we do not,” said Pepe. “I can take care of her.”
“That would be great,” I said.
“Make him sleep on the couch,” Pepe said.
“I can sleep on the couch,” Felix said.
“Of course,” I said. Although I had been imagining how nice it would be to be wrapped up in his arms.
“But first, come and sit down,” Felix said. He led me over to the sofa and we settled down. Felix turned on the radio. He found a Spanish music station, with lots of slow ballads and sexy rumbas. Pepe jumped up and settled in my lap. Albert sat on the arm of the sofa, watching us out of his golden eyes.
We talked a little, trying to figure out what to do next. Felix thought I should turn the card case over to the police in the morning. Pepe thought I should sneak it back into the Tyler residence the next day. I think it was Albert who suggested I should simply give it back to Rebecca. I'm not really sure about that because by then my brain was pretty foggy. I also imagined that we wandered through a dark labyrinth, searching for a golden treasure, only to find Siren Song at the center, all alone, waltzing in a blue tulle skirt.
When I woke up the next morning, I was in my own bed, with Pepe curled up beside me and Albert snoring at the end of the bed. I got up thinkingâhoping, reallyâthat the whole day had been a dream. Except for the part where Felix kissed me. Then I smelled the scent of freshly brewed coffee. I wandered out into my kitchen to find Felix, barefoot, who looked like a dream even though his clothes and dark hair were slightly rumpled from a night spent on my sofa.
“I'm fixing breakfast,” he said. “Where's the bacon?”
“A man after my own heart,” Pepe murmured.