?It took that dog about twenty seconds to kill him. Ripped his throat out. Then they let the rest of the dogs tear him up.?
?Why did they do that? To give them a taste of human blood??
?No. They were testing the suit. The armor. I heard them talking outside. They just wanted to see how it would stand up to the dogs? teeth and jaws. The suit is special-made. They killed that man just to find out how good it worked.?
Caitlin tries to shut out her horror and think logically. ?Have they ever had a fight like that before? Dogs against a man??
?Once. They have a videotape of it. He had it.?
?Who? Quinn??
?No.
Him.?
?Sands??
?Mm-hm.?
?Why did you wait till now to tell me this??
?I didn't want to scare you. I know you?re brave?but I'm telling you, those dogs out there are devils. They?re war dogs. They?re like the one
he
has. He knows everything about them. Jonny?s dad raised dogs back in Ireland. When he was a boy, his daddy gave him a puppy to raise?and then he made him kill it. To teach him how the world was, he said. Sands knows dogs like no one I ever met. And the dogs he trains?you don'?t want to be close to them. You may fool them for a second or two with those cats, but what they live for is killing. I don'?t want to see you torn to pieces out there.?
?Linda, when is this fight supposed to take place??
?Soon. That'?s all I know.?
?Will it just be another victim, some drunk or something??
?No. A man?s coming in to fight them special. He?ll have a weapon. A knife, maybe two.?
?I wonder who he is.?
?I think he?s a convict, from what they were saying. One of those UFC-type fighters. Some walleyed redneck, I'm sure. But they'?re all getting ready for it.?
Caitlin takes this in, analyzing their situation in light of these new developments.
?Linda, have you ever heard of a man named Edward Po??
?No.?
?What about a girl named Jiao??
Linda hisses. ?Oh, I know who she is all right. The Queen of Sheba. She don'?t know nothing about who Sands really is. How he screws all the girls on the boat. That Jiao?she lives down there in New Orleans, away from all this. At least she did until Katrina, anyway. Now?I don'?t know. Maybe that?s one reason he wants me dead. I?'ve seen her look at me like she knows I mean something to him. Or
meant
something.?
?Have you heard Jiao has a cousin? From China??
?I did hear that. He flew in for one of the fights a while back. He brought his own dog with him.?
Caitlin is starting to see the outline of a larger picture. ?Linda, lis
ten to me. I want you to tell me everything you know about Jiao and her cousin. And Sands. Everything, no matter how trivial it may seem. Will you do that??
?I think that medicine may be working,? Linda says softly. ?My God. The pain isn?t as bad.?
?You?re going to make it, I promise. Penn and his friends are looking for us with everything in their power right now. I know they are. A friend of his actually killed one of those white dogs the other night, with nothing but a knife.?
?I don'?t believe it.?
?It?s true. He cut the dog?s head off to make sure it didn't have rabies. You have to hang on, Linda. You have to believe. They?re coming to get us.?
?If that?s true, then why risk your life to try to get past those devil dogs??
Caitlin thinks about this. ?Because you can?t wait around to be saved. This isn?t
Cinderella,
honey. It?s
Beauty and the Beast,
but there?s no prince hidden inside the beast. After the feeders come this evening, I'm breaking through the roof and getting two of those cats. And then I'm getting that collar off your neck, if I have to chew through the leather to do it. Okay??
?If you say so.?
?I do. Now?tell me about Jiao.?
CHAPTER
53
Shad speaks over his shoulder as he ushers me in. ?Why was one of our most distinguished selectmen drunk in the middle of the day??
I glance briefly around the district attorney?s office. He has a huge, antique desk pilfered from one of the historic buildings owned by the city?three-quarters the size of a billiards table. The wall behind him is covered with diplomas and plaques, while the one to my right almost bulges from the weight of framed photographs: Shadrach Johnson?s Wall of Respect. In most of the pictures, Shad stands beside the nationally famous black politicians and celebrities who visited Natchez during his 1996 mayoral campaign against Wiley Warren. Fewer than half of those figures returned to the city two years ago when Shad ran against me during the special election. Apparently, during the interim, they?d learned that Shad was primarily interested in advancing the cause of Shad Johnson, and no one else, no matter what color they might be. Many politicians share this illness, of course, but Shad has a particularly virulent strain of it.
?Did you come in to look at the pictures?? Shad asks.
I turn and look deep into his eyes. ?Caitlin Masters was kidnapped last night. She was taken by Jonathan Sands and Seamus Quinn. Paul Labry just informed me that if I do nothing against Sands for thirty-six hours, they?ll return her to me unharmed.?
Shad?s eyes go wide, then narrow slowly. ?Labry works for Sands??
?You thought you were the only one??
The district attorney jabs his forefinger at me. ?That'?s slander.?
?Sue me. Why aren'?t you advising me to call the FBI, Shad??
He looks toward his window, then back at me. ?If that?s what you wanted to do, you?d already have done it. What are you really doing here, Cage? What do you want from me??
?That'?s a long list, buddy. I want to know why you soft-pedaled the murder of Tim Jessup. Why you misappropriated evidence and withheld facts critical to the investigation from the police chief. Why you?re not pushing to find out what happened to a computer programmer named Ben Li, who was also probably murdered. But I already know the answer, don'?t I??
?I don'?t know anything about that. Any of it. Those are police matters.?
