clambered speedily to his feet.
‘Jess…Thank God you’re here.’ It sounded as though he really meant it.
‘What’s happened?’ Jess stared down to where Niall was working on the prone body of Barry Simmons. The big man was sprawled limply on the grass, his massive frame unmoving.
‘He’s alive,’ the policeman said quickly. ‘He’s drunk as a skunk, though, Jess-and Doc Mountmarche reckons he’s electrocuted himself.’
‘Electrocuted…’
Niall looked up then, his expression drawn and grim in the light of the lantern beside him.
‘His pulse is strong enough, Jess. There’s a nasty burn on one hand-but nothing that should kill him. It’s my guess it’s alcohol that’s keeping him knocked out.’
‘But what happened?’ Jess asked again. She stared at the hole in the wall. Here was Ethel’s Rottweiler. The big dog was staring out through the jagged cavity, snarling at all of them. If he wished he could lunge at any minute.
He could take a piece out of any one of them.
‘The neighbours say there was a huge domestic earlier tonight,’ the policeman told her, keeping one eye firmly fixed on the dog. ‘It seems Ethel locked Barry out. Barry went down to the pub, got himself tanked and came home to a locked house.’ He gestured to the hole in the wall. ‘So he thought of a brand-new way of getting into a locked house.’
‘By chainsaw?’ Jess asked incredulously.
‘By chainsaw. Chop a ruddy great hole in your wife’s bedroom wall. And while you’re doing it, chop through the electric wiring as well.’
‘Clever.’ Jess looked down at the dog. ‘Is there live wiring in the hole?’
‘We turned the electricity off to the whole place. The service people are on their way.’
Jess looked again at the dog-and then down at Niall. ‘How can I help?’ she asked him.
Niall shrugged and rose. ‘Give us a suggestion about the dog.’ He looked down at Barry with an expression of distaste on his face. ‘Barry’ll live-whether he deserves to or not after such a damned fool stunt I need to see Ethel.’
‘She’s still inside?’
‘She’s been hurt,’ Niall told her, ‘but I don’t know how badly. Sergeant Russell shone his flashlight through the window. She’s in there and she’s alive. He saw her move-but she’s on the floor and she’s not responding. We can’t get in because of the dog.’
‘I could shoot the mutt,’ Sergeant Russell said grimly. ‘Not through the hole in the wall-that would risk putting a bullet into Ethel-but if we break the window then I could get a bullet into the dog before it took a piece out of me. But…’
‘But Ethel loves her dog,’ Jess protested gently. ‘And it’s done nothing wrong. It’s been trained to protect her and that’s what it’s doing. She won’t want it dead, as well as everything else that’s happened to her.’
‘Too bad if she’s bleeding to death.’
‘Can you see if she’s bleeding?’
‘No.’ The policeman shook his head. ‘I can’t see much at all. We daren’t turn the electricity on again to give us power.’
‘The electricity can’t have killed her,’ Niall told Jess, ‘if she was moving afterwards…’
‘She looked like she was crawling back behind the bed when I saw her,’ the policeman explained. ‘I called out to her and she just sort of went limp. And then nothing…’
‘Where’s the window?’ Jess asked.
She looked closely at the dog’s snarling face through the hole, considering her options. To snare the dog with the flexi-rod through the hole in the wall was almost an impossibility. The dog just had to move back every time the rod went near-and as for clambering through the hole…
Not with those waiting teeth.
‘Round the side.’ The policeman took Jessie’s bag. ‘After you, Doc.’
‘Hurry, Jess,’ Niall said quietly. ‘Shoot if necessary. If Ethel’s had a solid shock then maybe her heart’s given out…’
Jess went.
Thirty seconds later Jess was shining a torch through the window into the darkened bedroom.
There was very little to see. There was a crumpled form on the bare floor, half hidden by the bed. The dog was still bristling and snarling through the hole in the wall but directing the odd nervous glance in the direction of the torch’s beam.
Nothing else…
‘If I went into the house through the door I’d have to kill the dog,’ the policeman said nervously. ‘And at that close range I’m not at all sure I’d kill it before it had a good go at me.’
‘No.’ Jess shook her head. ‘You’d be asking for trouble. But if we broke the top pane of the window the dog couldn’t reach.’
‘And?’
Jess bent down, fumbling in her bag. ‘Tranquilliser dart,’ she said briefly. ‘My favourite toy. I use them to tranquillise wild animals-for instance, if I need to transport a full grown kangaroo or give it antibiotics. If I can just aim it right…’ She loaded the dart and looked up at Sergeant Russell’s broad shoulders. ‘Can I stand on you?’
He grinned. ‘I knew there was a reason we had a nice slender girl vet.’ He looked behind Jess to where Niall had appeared. ‘Ready to give us a hand, Doc?’
‘I’m ready. Barry’s stable,’ Niall said briefly. ‘His breathing’s regular. I’d rather send him to the lock-up than the hospital-there’ll be a fair mess when he wakes, at a guess. I can dress his hand at the lock-up.’
‘Gee, thanks,’ the policeman grimaced. Then his frown deepened as a steady groan came from where Barry had been left. It seemed that he was emerging from his drunken stupor.
‘I’d go back and keep him under control if I were you, Sergeant,’ Niall said blandly. ‘There’s no guarantee he won’t pick up the chainsaw and keep slicing. If we hadn’t turned off the electricity he could kill the lot of us.’
Sergeant Russell swore. He looked from Niall to Jess.
‘You can cope here?’
‘We can cope,’ Niall assured him. ‘Just keep bully boy out of our way. Now, Jess, what do you want done?’
Two minutes later the problem was solved.
Niall smashed the pane from the top window, cleared the broken glass and lifted Jess high so that she could see.
It was a weird feeling-to perch on Niall Mountmarche’s shoulders. He held her effortlessly, moving not an inch as she carefully aimed her dart gun.
The dog was moving back and forth from hole to smashed window, frantic with anxiety. Jessie’s heart went out to the big animal. He might be vicious but he believed that someone was trying to hurt his mistress.
Niall could see through the lower pane. He held the torch unwaveringly on the animal’s body as it paced back and forth.
Jess could shoot the dark about eight feet. It was just a matter of waiting until the dog paused. If she could just place the dart where she wanted in the dim light…
‘Here, boy,’ she called as he paced away from them. ‘Come on…Over here…’
The dog launched himself against the window and than sank back, bewildered as he realised that he couldn’t reach Jessie’s high perch. For ten long seconds he stood, trying to figure out his next move.
Jess raised the dart to her lips, took careful aim at the dog’s broad flank and blew.
The dart sank home right on target.
It took moments to work.
The dog snarled, backed away, snarled some more-and then staggered.
It tried another half-hearted growl but its body wasn’t working to command. The dog took three uncertain steps backwards-and then crumpled to the floor.
‘Great shot.’ Niall swung her down and his hands lingered for a fraction more time than was strictly necessary. ‘Remind me to stay on your good side, Dr Harvey. Tranquilliser dart-a girl’s best friend!’ He flashed Jess a swift smile that made her heart miss a beat, then put his hand inside the broken pane, flicked the latch and lifted the
