wasn’t exaggerating. He wanted to make sure the cops knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.
Officer Wilson had a key to the lock on the front gate. They explained to Mark and Courtney that the Sherwood family had given it to the police in case of an emergency. This definitely qualified. While Wilson unlocked the gate, Officer Matt opened the trunk of their squad car and pulled out two pieces of equipment. One was a long metal rod with a loop of cable on the end. It was a snare that animal control officers use to capture dogs. The other thing Officer Matt pulled out was a tranquilizer rifle. Mark knew that if one of these dogs got the chance, it would tear a person apart. He wasn’t so sure that a tranquilizer dart would do anything to stop it either. Still, it was better than nothing.
“Don’t bother with the snare,” Mark advised. “You aren’t going to want to catch one of these monsters.”
Officer Matt chuckled, but kept the snare.
“We’d like to come with you,” Courtney said.
The two cops shared looks. They didn’t like the idea of putting the kids in danger.
“C’mon!” Courtney cajoled. “We’ll stay behind you. And you’ve got guns and snares and stuff, right?”
Wilson shrugged. “Okay. Just stay close.”
They followed the two cops onto the property. Wilson held the snare, Matt kept the tranquilizer gun pointed at the ground, but ready.
Mark made sure to close the iron gates behind them. He also took off his ring and put it in his pocket. He didn’t want the cops to ask him why he had a ring that was shooting off light.
Officer Wilson whistled. “Here, boy! C’mon!” He whistled again.
Nothing happened.
The four walked up to the porch. Mark kept glancing behind them, making sure that one of the black dogs wasn’t sneaking up quietly.
“Uh-oh, what’s this?” Officer Matt said. He reached down and picked up the shredded remains of Mark’s backpack. Oops. Mark had totally forgotten.
“That’s mine,” he said. “I dropped it outside. They must have dragged it in here.” It was a small lie, but Mark didn’t want to admit he had been trespassing. “Look,” he added to change the subject. “That’s where they broke through the window.”
Wilson pointed out the shards of glass on the porch. “It was broken from inside,” he deduced. “They must have cut themselves up pretty good.”
“How did you know they broke through the window?” Officer Matt asked Mark. “You can’t see it from the gate.”
Oops. Mark had to think fast. “I heard the glass break and then saw them running around.”
Were the police going to buy this story? Of course they were.
Mark wasn’t the type to trespass on private property… or so they thought. Mark held up the remains of his backpack. The quigs had really chewed it up. He lost two textbooks, a library book, a chocolate bar, and all his carrots. Mark knew that chocolate wasn’t good for dogs and hoped they choked on it.
“Let’s check inside,” Officer Wilson suggested.
Wilson had a key for the front door as well. When they all stepped inside, both Mark and Courtney had the same thought: haunted house. The place was huge, with high ceilings and a curved staircase that led to the second floor.
“Here, boy!” Wilson called out again, and whistled.
Again, no response. Mark looked to Courtney and shrugged. He really wanted to look at his ring, but didn’t risk taking it out of his pocket. The policemen then led the kids on a tour of the house, checking each and every room. They first checked the ground floor, walking through the grand entryway, through the living room, the huge dining room and into the big kitchen. Besides the broken window, there was no sign of any dog.
They went down to the basement. It was a vast space with a cement floor. There were a few wooden doors that were closed. The officers opened them all. One room had nothing but empty, wooden racks. The wine cellar. Another room had a long wooden table that was scarred and stained. The workshop. Another room was nothing more than a large, cool space with wispy remnants that looked like dead weeds hanging from the ceiling. Mark had heard of places like this. Root cellar is what his grandmother used to call it. It was a cool, dry place for storing onions and potatoes and the like. It looked to be dug out of the earth, with one wall being nothing more than a vast chunk of the rock that the house had been built on top of.
It was all very interesting, but there were no dogs.
The caravan then went up to the second floor. There was one long corridor with empty bedrooms off either side. Each of the rooms was connected by an inner door, so that you could choose to travel from one end of the house to the other through the corridor, or by going from room to room. Again, no dogs.
The next stop was the third floor. This was a smaller floor than the others. There were two bedrooms on one side, and a large attic on the other with a high, pointed ceiling where you could see the rafters of the house. It was empty. No dogs and no sign that dogs had ever been there. Once they stepped into the attic, the last room of the house, the police officers relaxed.
“Whatever you saw, Mark,” Wilson said, “they’re gone now.”
“Are you sure? I mean, maybe we should check the yard.”
Wilson shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
They all went downstairs and out onto the porch. The four of them moved cautiously around the whole property. Mark had no idea it was so big. They saw some old wooden buildings that probably had something to do with the chicken farm. There were a lot of trees and an empty swimming pool and even a small golf green. At one time this was a busy place. Now it was forgotten and sad. The policemen even inspected every inch of the wall along the ground to see if an animal might have tunneled its way in or out. But there was no sign of anything like that.
“Any other ideas?” Officer Wilson asked. The cop respected Mark. If any other kid had given them this story, they probably wouldn’t have believed a word.
“No,” Mark answered. “Sorry.”
Courtney glanced to Mark with a “You sure you saw dogs?” look. Mark could only shrug.
“Don’t be sorry,” Wilson said. “You did the right thing. Whatever was in here got away somehow, that’s all.”
They walked out through the front gate and Officer Matt locked it up. Officer Wilson returned the tranquilizer gun and the srrare to the trunk of the police cruiser.
“If you see anything else, be sure to call, okay?” Wilson said.
“Okay,” Mark answered.
The two cops got back into their cruiser and sped off, leaving Mark and Courtney alone in front of the house. “I’m not lying, Courtney,” Mark said. “I didn’t think you were.”
“So then what happened to the quigs?” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his ring. The strange symbol was glowing brightly.
“I don’t know,” answered Courtney. “But we saw pretty much every inch of that place and there was nothing strange that would make that ring glow.”
“Then we missed it,” Mark announced.
The two looked at each other. Each knew what the other was thinking.
“We gotta go back in,” Mark said with finality.
“Yeah, I know. Where’s the tree we gotta climb over?” Courtney asked.
(CONTINUED)
Mark led Courtney around to the side of the property and the tree that was their ladder. Courtney gave Mark a leg up, then Mark reached down and gave Courtney a helping hand. Seconds later the two of them jumped off the wall and landed back inside the property.
“Wait,” Mark said. He looked back at the wall, scanning both left and right.
“What are you looking for?” Courtney asked.
“There!” Mark pointed to an old, wooden tool shed. “If we gotta get back over fast, head for that shed. We can climb up the side.”
He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. This time he wanted to be ready. Courtney nodded and
