I pulled back, but couldn’t get him to slow down, and it worried me that he was so frantic. Then he let out a bark and pulled hard enough that the leash jerked right out of my grasp. “Coco, stop!”
He bolted to a house a short distance away, running right up to the door and scratching on it with his front paws. What the heck? Did he know this place? My heart sank. Was this his owner’s house? Had someone stolen him and he wasn’t really ours, and now we’d have to give him back?
I kept running after him, finally making my way onto the property. Before I could reach the porch, someone pulled the door open, and Coco barreled past him and ran inside the house. “Coco? What are you doing here? What’s going on?” He glanced my way and his gaze narrowed. “Did you bring him here?”
His unfriendly tone put me on the defense. “No. We were just out on a walk.”
Confused, he hurried inside to find the dog, leaving the door wide open. I followed behind, wanting to make sure Coco didn’t get into trouble. I passed through the living room, finding it cluttered with stacked boxes, and the furniture in disarray.
I continued toward a back bedroom, finding Coco sniffing the boxes in the stripped-down room. He circled the room several times, like he was looking for something. Then he sat down on his haunches in the middle of the floor and howled. He kept it up, and it got more and more mournful, like he was in pain, or crying, and it broke my heart.
The man stood just inside the room and watched Coco with dismay. Soon, tears began to run unchecked down his cheeks. He couldn’t believe Coco was back. He thought he’d done the right thing by leaving him at the shelter, but it hadn’t worked. Now what was he going to do? The man’s grief echoed Coco’s, and tears filled my eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, wiping them from my cheeks. “I adopted Coco from the shelter yesterday. We were out on a walk, and somehow we ended up here.”
Lost in his grief, the man didn’t answer, so I hurried to Coco and began to speak while I ran my hands over his head and around his neck. “It’s okay buddy, I know you’re sad, but I’m here. We’ll figure it out, okay? You and me. We’ll do it together. All right?”
He stopped howling and snuffled my face, licking my cheek. “That’s right. It’s going to be all right. I promise.” He let out a small yip, and I heard help. “Yes. Of course. I’ll help you.” With that, he lay down on the carpet and rested his head on his paws. His mournful gaze locked on the man who stood in the doorway.
The man’s brows rose, and he turned my way. “That was… you calmed him down. I couldn’t… I tried so hard… but there wasn’t anything I could do for him. But you… you helped him.”
I smiled and held out my hand. “I’m Shelby Nichols.”
“Oh. I’m Austin… Austin Haywood.”
I nodded. “So was Coco your dog?”
“No… no he’s not. He’s my dad’s… he… was… my dad’s dog.” Austin swallowed and shook his head. “A little over a week ago, my dad was… killed. He was murdered. Right here in this house.”
“Oh no. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah. It was… a huge shock. I guess someone hit him in the head pretty hard from behind. More than once. The blows killed him. From what the police told me, it wasn’t a break-in, so they think he was killed by someone he knew. The funeral was yesterday, and now I’m just trying to sort things out.”
He glanced at Coco. “That poor dog… you must think I’m heartless to take him to the shelter, but… he was… it was just too hard, you know?”
“Sure, I get it.”
Austin was thinking it was too much. His own grief was so raw, and Coco just wouldn’t stop whining. He couldn’t take it anymore, so he’d put him in the shelter. Underneath that, I picked up his disappointment that the dog hadn’t saved his dad. That sort of shocked me. From what I knew of Coco, he would have died trying to save his master.
“So Coco was here? When it happened?”
“Yeah.” He wiped his eyes. “I guess my dad put Coco in the back room and closed the door. He must have been trying to keep the dog safe or something.” He couldn’t get over the fact that his dad was more concerned for his dog’s life than his own.
Now I understood why having Coco around was so difficult for Austin. He held the dog partly responsible for his father’s death. But there had to be more to it.
“Have the police made any progress in finding the killer?”
He sucked in a breath, then shook his head. “Not that they’ve told me.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry we barged in on you like this, but now that I know why Coco dragged me here, I’d like to help. I’m a special consultant for the police, and I have my own consulting agency. Would you mind if I looked into the case? At no charge to you, of course. I think Coco… well… let’s just say, I kind of promised him that I’d help.”
We both glanced at the dog, and he sat up with his ears forward and barked. Yup. He came to my side and nuzzled my hand until I patted him on the head. He sat down and looked at Austin with a steady gaze of expectance.
Austin caved and shrugged. “Sure. Between you and the dog, how can I say no?”
I nodded. “I’ll do everything I can to find out what happened here, but, right
