knew Judy hadn’t taken care of business. And Judy was quite startled. Pugg could tell Judy was no match for this blond woman, so Pugg stepped in. ‘Excuse me,’ Pugg said to Judy. ‘Do you require some assistance?’ And this blond woman told Pugg to butt out and punched Pugg in the nose.”
“And did you butt out?” Kellen asked.
“Yes. Pugg was bleeding profusely. And Pugg noticed there were two large men standing in the shadows on the side of the house. Pugg thinks they were with the blond woman.”
“So you abandoned Judy?” Cate asked.
“Like a rat on a sinking ship,” Pugg said. “But Pugg called the police on his cell phone. And then Pugg came here to tell you. Your name isn’t on the list of occupants, but Pugg was prepared to buzz everyone until he found you.”
“Pugg is disturbingly tenacious,” Cate said.
“Fucking A,” Pugg said.
Julie’s head popped out of her window. “Hey y’all, what’s goin’ on down there? Are you talkin’ to that adorable, furry little guy?”
“Would you be referring to Pugg?” Pugg asked.
“I don’t know,” Julie said. “What’s a Pugg?”
“I’m a Pugg,” he said.
“I thought Pugg was a little dawg,” Julie said. “Why have you got that handkerchief to your nose?”
“Pugg was injured trying to help a lady in distress.”
“You poor thing,” Julie said. “You come on up here, and I’ll put some ice on it. Just go to the door, and I’ll buzz you in, sweetie.”
Pugg turned to Cate. “Pugg hopes you’ll understand if he gives you the kiss-off. Pugg thinks he has a chance to score with the window lady.”
Cate and Kellen followed Pugg to Julie’s apartment.
“I can’t recommend this guy,” Cate said to Julie. “He’s actually toe fungus.”
“Maybe he’s just a diamond in the rough,” Julie said. “And it must be hard bein’ a Pugg. Is that some foreign country?” Julie asked Pugg.
“Pugg is a name. Patrick Pugg. Pugg doesn’t believe in the use of ‘I.’ Pugg always refers to himself as Pugg.”
“That could get wearin’ on a person,” Julie said.
“Nonsense,” Pugg said. “Pugg is charming. Pugg is adorable.”
“Pugg better stop talkin’ like that or I’m gonna push his nuts so far up his hairy little body they’re gonna come out his nose,” Julie said.
“That would be uncomfortable,” Pugg said.
Julie had a wet towel pressed to Pugg’s face. “My Uncle Lester got kicked in the nuts one time, and it turned his hair white all over his body. He became one of them albinos,” she said. “I didn’t see him when he got kicked, but I saw him when he was white, and it was something. It was shortly after that he got a job with a chemical plant and fell in a vat of formaldehyde. Lester was one of those people, if they didn’t have bad luck they wouldn’t have any luck at all.”
“What happened to Lester?” Pugg wanted to know.
“Oddly enough he didn’t die,” Julie said. “But he was always strange after that. And the formaldehyde smell never went away. You always knew when Uncle Lester was in the room. It was like being in biology lab when they opened the jars of pickled frogs.”
“That’s a very weird story,” Pugg said.
“Not in my hometown,” Julie said. “We got a bunch of people born downwind of the nuclear power plant and there’s some tales to be told on those folks.”
“Did you get the address on the townhouse on Commonwealth?” Kellen asked Pugg.
“Pugg didn’t… oops!” Pugg clapped his hands over his privates. “Pugg means
Kellen took a step back and looked at the townhouse in front of him. Four stories if you counted the garden level. Classic brownstone. Newly restored. All windows were dark at one o’clock in the morning. The house was on Commonwealth Avenue between Gloucester and Hereford Streets. It had a red door. Kellen reached into his pocket and removed Marty’s key. He plugged it into the big brass lock on the front door, and nothing happened. He turned and looked at Cate and shrugged.
Cate was ten feet back, on the sidewalk, doing lookout for Kellen, and she was thinking he seemed disturbingly comfortable attempting the task of breaking and entering. In fact he was comfortable with a whole bunch of skills Cate ordinarily would find alarming in a man, not the least of which was lying. Kellen McBride-Koster was hands down the best liar Cate had ever met. And yet, Cate was increasingly attracted to him. He was charming and confident and smart. And he was willing to step up and be a hero if a hero was needed.
He was standing in a splash of moonlight, and Cate thought he was flat out sexy in dark jeans and a button- down black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. Her mother’s words echoed in her head,
“It’s hard to tell for sure from here, but it looks to me like the house two doors down also has a red door,” Cate softly called to Kellen.
Kellen silently moved from the stoop to Cate’s side and looked down the street. “I guess red is a popular color for doors.”
Kellen had no luck with the second door he tried, but the lock tumbled on the door to the third house. The third red door belonged to one of the smaller houses on the block. The house was in deep shadow, receiving little light from the gaslight-type streetlight at the curb, and only scattered moonlight filtered through the shade tree in the minuscule front yard.
“Okay, so we know this is the house,” Cate said. “Now what?”
“Now we hope he isn’t home,” Kellen said. And he put his finger on the doorbell and pushed. “He doesn’t know me. If he answers the door I can pretend to be drunk and lost. I suggest
Cate scooted close to the building, crouched behind an azalea, and held her breath.
Kellen rang the bell again. And again.
“Nobody home,” Kellen said. He opened the door and stepped inside, motioning Cate to follow.
Cate scrambled out of the bush and into the house. She stood in the dark foyer and listened to something beeping. “What’s that?” Cate asked.
“Alarm,” Kellen said, taking her hand. “It’s ready to go off. Don’t get scared. It’s going to be noisy.”
The alarm started to wail, and Kellen wrapped his arms around Cate and held her close. He had his mouth to her ear.
“I can feel your heart racing,” he said.
“The police are going to come in and take us to jail.”
“Probably not. They’ll try the front and back doors and find them locked. They’ll shine their flashlights in the windows and see that everything is okay and that there are no signs of forced entry. And they’ll leave. The alarm company will alert someone, most likely Marty, but it’ll be a while before he’ll arrive to check things out. If ever. We’ll be gone by then.”
“You’ve done this before.”
“Nothing I’d admit to.
Somewhere in the house a phone was ringing.
“That’s the alarm company,” Kellen said. “When no one answers they’ll send the police.” He opened the coat closet door and pushed Cate in. “Stay here and keep the door closed until I come for you. I can go through the house faster if I’m alone.”
There were two coats hanging in the closet, and Cate recognized Marty’s cologne on them. This was his house, and they’d broken into it. Okay, so they had a key, but they’d sort of stolen the key. She slipped behind the coats
