“Her name is Emily.”
“Can I pet the doggy?” the little girl asked shyly.
“Yes, sure. Then we’ve got to go back to work,” Jakob said kindly.
I perked up my ears at the word “work.”
“Okay, I’ll . . . go with you,” the large policeman said. “Johnson, you guys remain here with the girl. Watch that he doesn’t circle back around.”
“If he were close, Ellie would tell us,” Jakob said. I looked at him. Were we ready to go to work?
“Find!” Jakob said.
The brush was thick in places, the soil underneath sandy and loose. I could easily track the man, though—he was headed steadily downhill. I found an iron rod coated with his scent and ran back to Jakob. “Show!” Jakob commanded.
When we returned to the tool, we had to wait more than a minute for the bigger policeman to catch us. “I fell . . . couple times,” he gasped. I could sense his embarrassment.
“Ellie says he was carrying this crowbar. Looks like he dropped his weapon,” Jakob observed.
“Okay, now what?” the policeman wheezed.
“Find!” Jakob commanded.
The man’s scent was painted on bushes and hanging in the air, and it wasn’t long before I could hear him ahead, scuffling along. I closed in on him in a place where the breeze was moist from a tiny stream and the trees lifted their limbs high overhead, providing shade. He saw me and ducked behind one of these trees, just like Wally might do. I ran back to Jakob.
“Show me!” Jakob said.
I stayed close to Jakob as we entered the woods. I knew the man was hiding, I could smell his fear and his hate and his fetid odor. I led Jakob straight to the tree, and when the man stepped out from behind it I heard Jakob shout, “Police! Freeze!”
The man raised his hand and a shot rang out. Just a gun. I’d been assured guns were okay, except that I sensed a flash of pain from Jakob and he fell to the ground, his warm blood spraying the air. Jakob’s gun clattered away.
I got it, then, connecting separate pieces of information in a flash: Grandpa’s guns, and the way Ethan’s cans leaped off the fence. Todd’s firecrackers, and the snap of pain when he threw one too close to me. The man by the tree was using his gun to hurt Jakob.
He was still standing there, his gun pointed at us. His fear and fury had turned to elation.
What came over me then was exactly the same primal impulse that had seized me when I attacked Todd on the night of the fire. I didn’t growl; I just lowered my head and charged. Two loud shots rang out, and then I had the man’s wrist in my mouth, his gun falling to the dust. He screamed at me and I held on, shaking my head violently, feeling my teeth tear into his arm. His foot smacked into my ribs.
“Let go!” he shouted.
“Police! Freeze!” the big policeman yelled, coming forward.
“Get the dog off me!”
“Ellie, it’s okay. Down, Ellie, Down!” the policeman commanded. I let go of the man’s arm and he fell to his knees. I smelled his blood. His eyes met mine and I growled. I could feel his pain but also his cunning, his sense that he was going to get away with something.
“Ellie, come,” the policeman said.
“Dog ripped off my arm!” the man shouted. He waved at something behind and to the left of the policeman. “I’m over here!” he yelled.
When the policeman quickly turned to see who the man was shouting at, the man lunged forward, scooping up his gun. I barked. He fired and then the policeman fired, several shots punching deep pain into the man. The man lay down in the dirt. I felt the life go out of him in a whoosh, the black, angry sickness unclenching its hold on him and letting him slide away peacefully.
“Cannot believe I fell for that one,” the policeman muttered. He still pointed his gun at the now dead man, cautiously advancing and kicking the other man’s gun away.
“Ellie, you okay?” Jakob asked faintly.
“She’s okay, Jakob. Where you hit?”
“Gut.”
I anxiously lay down by Jakob’s side, nuzzling his unresponsive hand. I could feel the pain working its way through his body, and the blood smell was alarming for how much of it there was.
“Officer down, suspect down. We’re . . .” The man looked up at the sky. “We’re under some trees down the canyon. Need medivac for the officer. Suspect is 10-91.”
“Confirm suspect 10-91.”
The policeman walked over and gave the man a kick. “Oh, he’s dead all right.”
“Who is the officer?”
“Eight-Kilo-Six. We need help down here
I didn’t know what to do. Jakob seemed unafraid, but I was so filled with fear I was panting and trembling. I
