Three feet below the humans’ conversation, Rex was ignoring the dachshund’s taunts, busying himself with sniffing the air instead when a scent made his eyes pop open. It was there again, the blended scent of the two men from the café. They were in the café yesterday afternoon, then at least one of them was outside the café when he and his human went back in the evening, and now he could smell them both here. It was faint, coming on the breeze. He got to his feet and turned into the wind. The air wasn’t moving much, just a faint whisper of it drifting along, and it carried all manner of different scents.
‘Hey, wolf,’ Hans was trying to get through Rex’s thick skin and beginning to get upset that the dog could continue to ignore him.
Rex glanced down. ‘Can you smell that?’
‘Smell what?’ Was this a trick where the stupid lump of a German Shepherd was going to lure him into smelling a fart? ‘I can smell everything. You’ll have to be more specific.’
Rex turned his face back into the wind, but he kept his eyes open as he searched for the source. ‘There were two men in the café yesterday,’ Rex explained. ‘They are here again now.’
‘Yeah. What about it? They were in my human’s house as well. They left their stink all over it.’
Rex whipped his head around so fast the dachshund took a step back in surprise. ‘They were in your house and you didn’t think to mention it? You live with two humans, right? You know something bad happened to one of them and the other one is being blamed for it.’
Hans could do nothing but stare at the larger dog in mute shock. ‘What do you mean something happened to him? How do you know that?’
‘Because I listen to the humans.’ Rex found this with a lot of dogs. They had one favourite human they would generally pay some attention to but for the most part, humans babbled a lot of gibberish and it wasn’t worth listening to. Dogs learned at an early age that they should just stop paying attention. That was what Hans had done. ‘Your human, the female one?’
‘The bitch?’
‘Yes, humans don’t like that word. I have no idea why, but they don’t, so we’ll call her the female human.’
‘Okay.’
‘Well, my human is trying to work out what happened to your other human, and if he doesn’t, you might not get to see your female human again. Do you get it now?’
Hans sniffed the air. ‘And you think the two humans from the café might have something to do with it?’
‘If they were in your house, I do.’
Hans thought about that. ‘But people come to the house all the time. My humans are always inviting other humans in. It’s one of the best things about living with humans; there is always someone new to make a fuss of you.’
Rex would have rolled his eyes if he knew how to. The dachshund was right about the humans, of course, just not in this case. ‘You don’t think it’s at all suspicious that they are here now somewhere?’
Hans didn’t have an answer, but he didn’t like being talked down to or made to feel like he was inadequate. He had enough self-doubt because his size and shape placed him on the low end of the scale when it came to speed, strength, fighting ability, and a dozen other attributes he wanted to be better at. Overall, it gave him a complex which he fought hard against and would happily turn to aggression as a first port of call when challenged.
Rex saw that the dachshund was getting angry again and chose to ignore him. ‘We’re being followed,’ he told Albert, barking the news loudly enough to get his human’s attention.
His conversation interrupted; Albert looked down at Rex. ‘What is it, boy? Do you need to find a spot to go? I should move on,’ he told Victor.
A Cunning Plan
‘Who is that old guy with the dog?’ The question was muttered by Eugene, who was already upset because he’d snagged his jacket on an overhanging bramble and now had a small tear in its right shoulder.
Francis wanted to know as well. They looked into Victor Harris last night, taking time to do some research the way they should have before they set off. The point is, they knew his father had died two years ago, so whoever the old man was, he wasn’t a relative. He was in the way though. The earl might have given them a day’s grace to get the job done, but he would blow his top if they didn’t report that they had his chef in their van the next time they called.
Francis chose to be stoical. ‘Look, we always knew grabbing him in daylight on his way to work was a long shot.’
‘He’s not on his way to work though. The café is in the other direction. He’s just out walking his dog. We don’t even need to follow him. We can go back to his house with the van and wait for him to walk by. You casually step out in front of him and ask him the time. I’ll open the side door and hit him with the stun gun, then we both dump him into the van and scarper. How does that sound?’
Francis ran the images through his head and had to admit his partner’s plan had many merits. ‘It’s certainly worth a shot,’ he conceded.
‘That’s why I’m the brains of this outfit,’ Eugene boasted.
‘You’re certainly not the muscle,’ muttered Francis just loud enough for Eugene to hear.
‘What? What was that? Are you suggesting that you are stronger than me?’ Eugene was outraged by the
