The Nose Knows (28 page)

He asked Mom, “Do you want to take him to his vet? We can take you in the squad car and get there real fast.”

“Thank you, Detective, but I think he’ll be fine. Poor thing was injured as a baby and it caused severe respiratory problems.”

Guess Mom knows how to pull at heartstrings too.

“He just needs to be quiet for a while with no one talking about the P-O-U-N-D.”

Why people think we can’t spell is beyond me, but her technique worked.

He ruled in our favor—no quarantine.

However, we did all have go to the police station. The humans had to give their full accounting of events, and we had to wait while they verified all of our vaccinations with Dr. Steve.

While we were there, Detective Finley ran a fingerprint check on the two culprits. We were told that Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Wainwright weren’t who they said they were. The two of them refused to talk and requested lawyers. Detective Finley said he was waiting for further confirmation before he’d release their identities.

At least he did tell us that the man was on parole and had violated it by carrying a loaded gun. The woman we knew as Mrs. Wainwright apparently had no criminal background. Nevertheless, the police were baffled as to why she’d disguised herself as an older woman. In fact, no one seemed able to find any connection whatsoever between Mom and these two humans.

But then, they had yet to uncover what I had.

Jacob met us at the police station. Apparently, he and Quincy had parked outside Mom’s office building after all. He said he saw the police arrive and had tried to get upstairs but they wouldn’t let him through. So he’d followed us downtown. When we finally headed home, he first swung by his house and picked up a few things. He then rang our doorbell.

He stood on the front porch holding his hands up as if to ward off any discussion.

“Hannah, this time I don’t care what you say— you are
not
staying alone! I don’t care if I sleep on the couch or the floor, but you are
not
going to be alone. True, it’s your house and if you don’t want us in there, then Quincy and I’ll just sleep in the car, but we
are
not
going to leave you alone tonight. Furthermore—”

“Jacob, it’s okay. It’s okay. You can stay. In fact, I
don’t want
to be alone tonight. So come on in and I’ll see what we can scrounge up for dinner.”

Good thing
that
was settled. I was in no mood to have to get tough with those two!

After some food, the events of the day overtook us.

The humans had a few snifters of brandy. It didn’t take long before both of them were fast asleep— separate rooms, of course.

My old joints were sore. It had been a hard fight for this old gal. Fearless’s breathing had been fine now for hours, so he was out of harm’s way. Mom had checked us over real good and neither Fearless nor I had any injuries. Thank goodness, Mom had anticipated my arthritis was going to flare up. She gave me a dose of aspirin and put the cold packs on my hips and lower spine. I don’t love the cold, but I must admit it helps reduce the soreness.

Fearless was physically okay, but still shook up, and was having his own difficulties settling down. He ate very little.

“I’m fine now Spunk—
breath—
just completely exhausted.—
breath
—I had a big drink of water.— Don’t fret, I’m fine.”

Quincy was a sweet dog and let Fearless snuggle up against him. Curling up next to a big, protective Labrador could make anyone feel a whole lot safer.

“Go ahead, Spunk, get yourself some rest. I’ll keep an eye on Fearless. I’ll be here if he wakes up with nightmares. Go on, get some sleep.”

He pulled my favorite blanket up over me and I snuggled down. “Thanks, Quincy. I sure could use a good rest. But will you wake me up before dawn so I can talk to all the boys before our humans get up?”

“Sure, Spunk, I’ll do it. Don’t fret about a thing. Hey, Spunk. . . ?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I just wanted you to know how proud I am of you. Today, you sure acted like a very big dog. You were terrific.”

My whiskers twitched as I drifted off to sleep. It means a whole lot when a big dog is the one who tells you that. My body might have been sore, but my spirit soared.

Q
uincy kept his promise and awakened me as the sun was coming up. As I started to get up, every bone in my body protested. Quincy saw me wince and said, “Here, Spunk, grab hold of my tail and I’ll help you up.”

I gently took his tail between my jaws. One strong Labrador tail makes getting up a whole lot easier. Once I was up and moving around, things felt a bit better. Too bad I couldn’t ride on Quincy’s back the way Fearless was doing. As I said before, Fearless ain’t afraid of no dog.

Once everyone had gone outside to attend to business and I’d had my morning drink, I called for a meeting. I told them what I’d discovered.

“Yesterday when Mr. Johnson opened that door, his scent came in with him. I knew that scent. It was the scent that I’d smelled in this house years ago. He was the man who broke into our house. It was his scent on the back door. It was his scent in Mom’s den.”

“How can you be sure, Spunk?” Bobby asked.

My look was a loving one. “When you’re older, Bobby, you’ll understand. A critter never forgets the scent of his enemy, right Fearless?”

“Right.”

The younger boys nodded. They hadn’t yet encountered a real enemy, but they believed I knew what I was talking about.

“What about the woman who—
breath—
called herself Mrs. Wainwright?” Fearless asked.

“Good question. When Mr. Johnson walked through the door, a few other scents suddenly fell into place. First, she had his scent on her clothing. When she was by herself, the amount of scent was too faint for it to trigger my memory, but once he showed up I knew it was his scent on her. There was enough of that scent on her clothing to indicate that maybe they’d recently hugged or else they live in the same house. But it was the second-layer scent that told me the real story.”

Fancy-Pants leaned in closer. “Spunky, what’s a second-layer scent?”

“Well, Fancy, if you closed your eyes and each of the boys walked by you one at a time, could you tell one from the other even with your eyes shut?”

“Of course I could. They each have their own scent.”

“And, if I made them walk by all in a big bunch, could you do it then?”

Fancy said, “Well, I think so, but then it might be hard to tell Bobby from Sweetie.”

“Why would that be?”

“Cause they’re brothers and they smell a lot alike.”

“Exactly. They came from the same litter and they share an underlying scent. That scent is what I call a second-layer scent. When you were kittens, you knew your mother’s scent. The chemistry of your parents combined to give every kitten in that litter an underlying familiar scent—a family scent.

“That’s what I smelled on Mrs. Wainwright. The family scent. When she was by herself, it was too vague to set off any alarms. However, one good whiff of him in person and my memories came flooding back. I knew who he was. And I also knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were related.”

Fearless sat straight up. “What do you mean, Spunk?—Are you saying—they came from the same litter?”

I cocked my head. “I’m not one-hundred percent sure, but I do have a theory. I know having the same parents produces a similarity in scents. However, I think their scent is too similar for them to be brother and sister born years apart. So yes, Fearless, I think they were born in the same litter.”

Sweetie’s mouth was hanging open. “Wow, that’s amazing. But what did they want with Mom? Huh, Spunk? What did they want?”

“That’s the one piece of this puzzle we’re still missing, my friend.”

I didn’t tell them I had a good guess as what that missing piece was; nor did I have the slightest idea how I was going to prove it.

Even though the people we knew as Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Wainwright were now locked up, we had no way of knowing if they were the only ones involved in all of this. Since we had no idea what they’d wanted, we couldn’t assume they were acting alone.

Jacob knew Alan was still secretly meeting the tall, well-dressed man. He still hadn’t told Mom what he’d seen, but he needed to find out what part, if any, Alan played in all of this. There were still too many unknowns. Even Mom agreed that it’d be a good idea if he and Quincy stayed with us for a while. Mom was real clear that there would be no hanky-panky. This time Jacob smartly kept his mouth shut.

It was a lot easier for Jacob and Quincy to move in with us than vice versa. Moving enough litter for all the boys over to Jacob’s house would have been quite a chore. Plus Mom would still have to return twice a day to feed all the outside cats. Besides, Jacob was a man. Only luggage he needed was a brown paper bag for some clean underwear and a toothbrush! Even a large brain could figure out it was much easier for him to just stay here.

In addition to the extra protection of having Jacob and Quincy around, the neighborhood critters all volunteered to increase their watch. They divided themselves into teams of four critters each. This meant there was always at least one critter on guard in the front, in back and, on each side of the house. After several hours, the next team took over. Now the entire outside of the house was under surveillance twenty-four hours a day.

Anyone attempting to sneak into the house would trigger an alert. Once the alert sounded, it would only be seconds before every critter within a mile radius would be howling. Believe me, a neighborhood of cats and dogs yowling and howling all at once is one noise no one can ignore. We could rest assured no intruders were going to get into this house without us having a whole lot of warning. It was good to know we had so many friends helping us out.

While the boys and I handled the security, Mom went off to meet with the group. It was unanimous; they were back at the coffee shop. No one wanted to go back to that office. Mom had offered to disband the group entirely. She told them she would certainly understand if they all wanted to go their separate ways or see a different therapist. Though everyone’s nerves were frayed, each one of them, except Alan, was adamant about keeping the group together.

Mom told them that if they were going to stay together then they should meet for several days in a row to be able to work through all the emotions and to be able to support each other. Alan wanted to end the group right then. Why was he so determined to have the group disband? Had he played a part in how Mr. Johnson had gotten into the building? Good thing Jacob was keeping very close tabs on that character.

Since they were again meeting in the coffee shop, Fearless and I couldn’t attend. Jacob accompanied Mom every time she left the house and was always close by during the meetings. Good old Quincy sat in Jacob’s car directly in front of the coffee shop, ready to jump out of the open window if needed. I tried my best to wangle my way into the car with Quincy, but Mom was determined that I stay at home, safe and sound. Fearless and I felt bad about not being there. We’d not seen the group since the attack, and we really did want to thank them for all their help.

A major problem remained. We still didn’t have an explanation for why all this had happened, or if it was even over.

I
t was about one p.m. when Detective Finley came by the house. Every critter I know can identify a cop from fifty paces, and the critters patrolling the neighborhood knew to not sound the alarm. Once inside, the detective didn’t seem to mind us stumbling over each other to get close enough to hear what he was going to say.

He sat down once Mom had gotten everyone coffee. Bobby and Fearless quickly got into position behind him on the couch. Fancy and Sweetie sat at his feet. Quincy was beside Jacob. Me? Hey, I own that couch! I was being gracious letting the man sit on it, alongside me.

I lay against his leg while my head rested on his thigh. The man had a great smile. Besides, I liked lying next to him—he smelled good, all covered in his Eau de Rottweiler.

He took a deep breath and began to speak, “Dr. Richards, I’m glad Jacob is here with you. Some of the things I have to tell you aren’t going to be easy to hear.”