'That's very interesting. I had no idea.' Mike patted the dog's head. He appeared to have all the time in the world. 'And they can search for a lot of other things, right?'
'Of course. Lots of things.'
'A cadaver?' April approached the trainer and the dog in the car with extreme caution. 'Hey, Peachy.' She wasn't exactly afraid of it, but wanted to stay out of slobbering range.
'Sure.'
'Or something else that's out of place on a scene?' April's eyes were on the dog, who was yelping and carrying on. People were starting to drift over for a look. Pretty soon the Central Park Precinct officers would be on their case. It had been stupid to neglect them. But it was clear she wasn't in harmony, wasn't doing anything right.
John frowned at his barking pride and joy. 'Quiet,' he commanded.
The noise stopped. Peachy tensed, shivering all over, at attention.
'Why don't you let her out,' April suggested. 'She's a tracking dog. Let her do her thing.'
'She's acting crazy, like a puppy.' John opened the car door. 'Maybe she has business to do.'
'Yeah, and maybe she knows something that we don't.' April looked over at Mike. Their eyes locked, and he gave her a smile. Her stomach did a little flip. The dog wouldn't let them pursue the subject further.
As soon as the car door was open a crack, the Doberman threw herself against it and leaped out like an Olympic athlete. April was shocked. Peachy seemed bigger than the last time she'd seen her. She jumped on John, almost knocking the six-footer over. With her two front legs on his shoulders, she was as tall as he was.
'Off,' he commanded.
Instantly, the two front legs went down. At the same time the dog raised her muzzle to take in huge snoutfuls of the air above her head. Then she grabbed the leash out of John's hand and pushed it at his arm, shoving him hard.
'The kid wants to work. Let's go,' April said, pleased that at least the dog supported her.
Suddenly John's mood changed. 'Whatever you say. I'm good to go.' His jaw tightened as he clipped on Peachy's leash. 'Down,' he commanded. Peachy dropped to her stomach. He went to the car and returned in a few seconds with a bottle of Evian and a bowl. He filled the bowl with the water. 'Okay,' he told the dog.
On command the dog got up and slurped at the contents of the bowl. 'They work better when they're hydrated,' he explained. When the bowl was empty, John gave Peachy a large dog biscuit. Peachy crunched it down in one bite. Then she stood at attention, looking at him expectantly and growling at the back of her throat.
'Good girl. What a good baby. Want to go to work? Huh? How about it? Let's go work. Yeah, baby.' The C scar by the side of John's mouth cavorted with his enthusiasm. His color was up and April could see him zoning with the dog.
Finally, he turned to April and Mike. 'I want you two to stay here; you have a radio, right?'
Mike shook his head. 'I don't want to use the radio. You have a cell?'
John nodded.
'Okay, we'll keep you in view, but if the dog takes off, use the cell to contact us. I'm calling in to let the captain know we've decided to work the area.'
'Fine. Whatever you say. Good girl. Good girl. Peachy, just one more second and we're out of here.' He was careful to keep Mike with the stronger scent away.
Mike gave John his number. John punched it into the phone memory. 'Technology,' he muttered. 'And Mike, one warning. This is not a bomb dog. This is not a drugs dog. This is a people dog.'
'Meaning?'
'She expects to find live people here in the city, in the park. She doesn't expect to find a dead person. I suspect she either smells a dead person or a dead animal. There are two schools of thought on whether they can tell the difference. In any case, that's why she's acting like this. She may smell your man, and he's dead. I'm just preparing you, okay?'
'Oh, let's not be too pessimistic,' Mike replied. 'She could also be turned on by delicious smells at the zoo.' He gave April a triumphant little smile.
April hadn't thought of that. The zoo was a mile away across the park at Fifth and Sixty-fifth Street. Penguins and polar bears and who knew what else.
John shook his head at Mike. 'Not a chance. Okay, Peachy. Go find for Daddy.' Peachy took off, nose high in the air.
Not more than five minutes later, a hundred yards from where they'd been, under a thin layer of fresh leaves, the dog located a dribble of something that looked like intestines. Mike and April saw her stop and bark happily. They ran to the spot as John was praising her, before he even moved in to see what she'd found.
Looked like insides, stank like hell. What got them interested was that there was nothing else. No body, either human or otherwise. It was a weird find. If animals had been at something, they wouldn't eat the bones and leave the tissue. Mike used his radio to call in the find. If the tissue turned out to be human, they'd have a homicide on their hands.
Thirty-nine
Allegra was on her stomach with one foot caught under the gate, a sock in her mouth, and her bleeding, broken nose flattened into the sand. Her ankle and wrists throbbed, but breathing was her real problem. The sand under her face was warm and wet. When she tried to inhale through her nose, she made a gurgling sound, like mucus in a bad cold. Each breath drew a trickle of blood down her throat because there was no way out of her mouth. She knew that iron taste. She was drowning in her own blood. She yanked at her foot. If she could have ripped it or bitten it off like an animal in a trap, she would have done it.
She was petrified. She could breathe through the sock and the bloody nose but only when she was calm. When panic overcame her, she made noises-stifled half sobs, inarticulate and incomprehensible. No words could escape to express her agony. Why-? What had she done to make this happen? The sock deep in her mouth triggered her gag reflex. All these years she'd wanted to die, and now she was dying and didn't want to. Not like this.
'Fucking bitch!'
She was kicking like hell and gagging on the sock when the boy swung the gate back crushing her ankle and shooting a rocket of pain up her leg. She could hear the thud of rocks thrown against the gate. A gate to nowhere. And she heard the soft voice of Maslow Atkins calling out. 'Stop! Wait!'
She wasn't sure what happened. What happened to her? She'd been dozing on the bench, thinking of her mother, when suddenly she'd been startled by the voices. She smelled pot smoke. Two of them, the same two kids were back. One was crying, the other laughing. They were high, manic. Allegra knew the signs. Happysadcrazymad.
The two were in the dark, but carried the kind of flashlight that made a tiny point of illumination to shine on a keyhole or a theater program. It looked like a star bouncing along the ground. All she did was follow the star through the high wet grass, up a sloping bank, and into the bushes. She hardly knew what she was doing. She never expected to find Dr. Atkins. She'd been completely astounded to hear his voice. He was pleading. She'd never heard him beg. She didn't think. She just went to get him.
And then it happened so fast she didn't know which one of them tripped her and smashed her head against the ground, which one of them pulled her shoes off and used the laces to tie her hands behind her back. She was like a doll mangled by fighting children. They'd left her, just like that. She was a dead doll. She'd never get up again.
Allegra lifted her head to breathe, crying in the dark. 'Agghhhmmmmm-'
After a while, her neck ached so badly she had to let it rest. Her head dropped and her face fell in the dirt. She tried to spit the sock out, but each time she raised her tongue her throat closed up.
'Allegra. Allegra, listen to me. Move over here. Allegra. Come on, we can help each other. Come, please.'
She heard him and struggled to obey, tried to roll over; but her foot was pinned. Her hands were tied. She bucked her hips and twisted her wrists against the laces, cutting off circulation in her hands and painfully wrenching her shoulders. What was wrong with him?
Why couldn't he just move over to her? Why was he letting her suffer this way?
'Allegra-'
