Ah. Mr. Cabrera.
“I must go. Fire me if you must. I know you want to anyway.”
“Um, excuse me,” Meredith said. “Will he bite?”
I shrugged.
She moved toward the step, and BeBe lurched forward, but didn’t go up the steps. However, she bumped into the pot of pansies, knocking it over. The terra cotta split in two, spilling soil all down the steps.
Meredith jumped back, banging against the front door.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“This isn’t funny,” she said. “I’ll sue!”
“Over what?” I asked. “Technically, you’re trespassing.”
She opened her mouth, closed it again.
My cell rang, but I pushed the silent button. “I understand, Mrs. Krauss. Just come back when you can. We will manage.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Why are you being so nice?”
“Why’d you make me soup?”
She nodded and started walking away.
“Wait!”
She turned.
“What about BeBe?”
She said something in German, and BeBe trotted over to me, sat at my feet. Brickhouse bent down, looked in BeBe’s eyes and said something I didn’t understand to her.
“She’ll be fine.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Meredith dart down the steps, dash down the driveway.
“Tell Mr. Cabrera I said hi.”
218
Heather Webber
Mrs. Krauss patted BeBe’s head and walked away.
I looked down at BeBe, held out my hand. She slobbered it. I smiled. Some things just didn’t change. “You made a mess,” I said to her.
She licked me some more.
I picked up the two pieces of terra cotta, set them aside. I scooped as much soil and plant as I could and carried it down the steps. I set the remnants in the grass and made a mental note to have Deanna find a place for it.
I turned to walk away when something sticking out of the soil caught my eye.
Bending down, I tried to make out what it was. Some sort of plastic. I carefully dug through the soil, trying to do as little damage to the roots of the plant as possible.
It took some doing, but I finally pulled it loose. A sealed plastic sandwich bag.
It held pictures.
A car door slammed, and BeBe went nuts. I slipped the pictures into my back pocket, turned and saw why.
Tam was standing on the sidewalk, one hand on her big belly, the other shading her eyes against the unforgiving summer sun.
“Tam!”
BeBe took off.
“Gesundheit!” I yelled, chasing after her, trying to catch her before she toppled poor Tam.
“Weiner schnitzel! Sauerkraut!”
Where was Brickhouse when I really needed her?
“Run, Tam! Run! Farfegnugen!”
When BeBe got within three feet of her, Tam held up a palm and said, “Stop.”
BeBe stopped.
I huffed and puffed. “How’d you do that?”
“I have a way with animals.”
219
