Julie Taylor
The landlady's dog
CHAPTER ONE
The big German shepherd panted as if grinning up at the tall, curvaceous girl with the long, ash-blonde hair, and whimpered in excitement when she reached down and petted his great head. She smiled, revealing a perfect set of even white teeth, oohed a pet phrase at him, then directed her attention to the attractive brunette standing in the apartment doorway.
'Has he been a good dog today, Peggy?' Carol Dorsett questioned the older girt with the dark brown eyes who wore her hair in a brief and flattering bouffant, giving her a kind of mysterious thirtyish look.
'Sultan's always a good dog, aren't you, baby,' the shapely wife of the building manager complimented, adding her own caressing hand to the powerful animal's muscular flanks. 'How did it go today, Carol? Any luck?'
'Nothing,' the young green-eyed divorcee sighed. 'I must've filled out a dozen applications, and just about walked my legs off. God, I never realized it was going to be so difficult finding a job or I wouldn't have left San Francisco. At least, I know my way around there… but this Hollywood… brother!'
'Mustn't get discouraged, honey. Something will turn up,' Peggy White assured her.
'I hope it's soon,' Carol said, trying not to show her acute dejection. 'Six straight days of listening to 'sorry's' doesn't do much for a girl's morale. Anyway, thanks again for looking after Sultan for me, Peg. D-Do you suppose that Monday…?'
'Of course, hon. Just drop him off with me when you leave,' the other replied through her attractive smile.
The ash-blonde beauty nodded her appreciation, wondering in what little way she could manage to repay the super's wife. Money was so tight for her… 'Well, come on, darling,' she addressed Sultan. 'Carol's got to bathe some of the ache out of her tired bones. Thanks again, Peg.'
'Anytime, honey,' Peggy White replied, slowly closing her door as Carol and her grinning, tail-wagging dog moved along to the next one where the weary divorcee paused to fumble in her purse for the key.
Inside, Carol immediately kicked off her low-heeled shoes. Leaning back against the wall, she took turns massaging the toes and instep of first one aching foot, and then the other, while Sultan watched with interest. 'Oh, baby, you don't know how heavenly that feels,' she breathed down at her loving and constant companion. 'If only you could, I know you'd do it for me, wouldn't you, darling?'
The big, sleek-coated animal whined his answer up to her, his rounded brown eyes glowing with affection. The pleasing sound of her voice relayed her feelings to him. She was his whole world and he could not understand why she left him with the other female person. She was nice enough to him, but never could she take the place of his warm-eyed mistress.
The shapely divorcee smiled fondly down at her faithful companion, suddenly realizing, as she had a million times over the past lonely year, how empty her life would be without him. Even living with her parents from the moment Jonny had left her, up until their divorce became final some ten days before, she had spent more time with Sultan then she had with her own mother and father. But her folks had seemed to understand, or at least thought they did, tying her emotions toward the animal to her lost singer-husband and the heartbreak of her broken marriage. They had been wrong, but Carol had seen no reason to enlighten them. Her feeling for her ex-husband had been long dead, ever since the second year of their marriage when she had found out he was running around while she slaved in a department store and he chased career dreams. By the end of the third year, what little feeling remained inside her for him was breathing its last. She had refused to be the sole support between them and had quit her job. A week later, Jonny Gains landed his first worthwhile contract in a cheap Las Vegas nightclub and began paying the bills… plus flaunting in her face his open escapades with other women. Now that she could objectively think back on it, Carol felt certain that he'd brought home the little German shepherd puppy 'to keep her company' as more of an insult than anything. Hadn't his favorite term for her been 'bitch'?
Well, it was all over and done with now, and the likes of Jonny Gains, up and coming performer, could never know the joy, love, and companionship that little puppy had grown up to bring her. Of the few possessions they had jointly owned when after four years she had decided to bury the corpse of their marriage, Carol had asked for only one, Sultan, and had gotten him… plus a meager alimony which was always late, when it came at all. If only she were skilled at something to get a good job, but she wasn't, not even simple office work… and that she could thank Jonny for, too. Against her parents' wishes, after high school she had foregone college to run off with her bright lights-dazzled lover to the gambling city where they'd nearly starved before she had found waitress work in a casino, then lost the job because she was underage.
Eighteen years old she'd been, and living like a wife in a grubby trailer for six months before she'd landed the clerking position in the department store! God, what had she ever been thinking of? Three years of that before she had finally shanghaied him into one of the local wedding chapels, childishly believing that a piece of legal paper was going to change everything for them. She hadn't even had a decent ring. Seven years of her life wasted… twenty- five and divorced… thank God there'd been no babies…!
Sultan's whimpers brought Carol back to the present. He'd gotten his nearly chewed-up rubber ball and brought it for her to play with him. Smiling warmly, she took it and tossed it into the air for him to catch and fetch.
'Oh you doll… one more time and that's all for now,' Carol said, repeating the act, then walking to flick on the noisy and inadequate air conditioner. Like everything else in the borderline-shabby, one-bedroom apartment… in fact, the whole building, yes, the neighborhood, too… it had pretty near outlived its usefulness. It rattled and groaned back at her, as if promising nothing but an exhausted attempt. Carol sighed and began unbuttoning her blouse. Survival in the close, Southern California summer heat meant wearing next to nothing whenever possible, she had learned in one short week of local residence.
Of course, she hadn't been forced to leave her parents' humble home in San Francisco. They had begged her to stay, find work there and make a new life among the old friends and schoolmates she'd grown up with. The darlings, bless them… what they hadn't realized was that there were no old friends nor schoolmates whom she wanted any part of, and vice versa, she'd quickly came to know. Carol Dorsett was the famous Jonny Gains' ex-wife, the piece he had shed once success struck, the wild girl who had run away with him without benefit of marriage and everything she deserved. No, there was no life for her there in her old neighborhood… but she was twenty-five and there had to be one someplace for her!
She might have gone a thousand miles or two even, had she had the money. Los Angeles seemed as likely as any city under the limited circumstances, and she wasn't yet sorry that she'd chosen it, though her job-hunting discouragement and the immediate stifling surroundings of her seedy three rooms and bath weren't helping to reinforce her decision…
The sound of the apartment buzzer startled Carol. Sultan's ears stood erect, a little growl sounding in his throat as his mistress quickly rebuttoned her blouse and approached the door. Peggy White's husband Ed, the apartment manager stood filling the doorway with his big, broad-shouldered frame when she opened the door inward.
'Hi,' he grunted, his puffy red face caught in an alcohol smile. 'Wondered how your air conditioner was working. It gave me some trouble for awhile before you moved in.'
Carol felt the tightness catching at her throat at just the sight of him. There was something about the almost leering expression in his lead-gray eyes, and the twisted smiles he had shown her the short time she'd lived in the building that gave her a clammy feeling. From the beginning, she had tried to avoid contact with him, wondering in
