Free Nick of Time by Tim Downs Page B

“opening up with people.”
    “That’s a cute little one there,” the woman said, pointing to a cocker-poodle mix with oddly drooping ears.
    “Terrific,” Alena said. “He’s all yours.”
    “He? Oh—we were looking for a female.”
    Shoot—this could take all day . She walked around behind the little boy and looked over the pack of dogs. She spotted one—a female—a sleek brown beagle-pointer blend of medium size and build. She waited until the dog’s eyes met hers and then she snapped her fingers once; the dog came to immediate attention. She beckoned with her index finger and the dog approached; then she made a kind of peace sign and wiggled both fingers, as if she were making little quotation marks in the air. The dog rose up on its hind legs and placed one paw on each of the boy’s shoulders.
    “Wow!” the boy said in amazement.
    “Well, would you look at that!” his mother said.
    “That’s amazing,” her husband replied. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    “I have,” Gunner said.
    Alena shot him a look that could burn through wood.
    “Is it a female?” the woman asked.
    “Let me check,” Alena said. When she bent down to take a look she heard Gunner let out a snort; Gunner knew Alena could spot a female from across a field just by its build and gait. “You’re in luck,” she said. “This one’s a female.”
    “We’ll take her,” the father announced triumphantly—and within minutes their SUV was rolling out the gate with a tailwagging addition to the family.
    “You oughta be ashamed,” Gunner said with a grin.
    “Manipulating those poor people like that.”
    “That’s called ‘salesmanship,’ ” Alena replied. “Sometimes you have to help people make up their minds.”
    “Uh-huh. And what happens when they get home and find out the dog doesn’t really have a psychic connection with their boy?”
    “Maybe she will,” Alena said, “if the kid knows how to treat her. Now what did Nick say? And how come he called you instead of me? I went down to Endor last night like he told me to. I waited for over an hour—”
    “Slow down,” Gunner said. “Give a man a chance. Nick called me this morning from Philadelphia; he called me because he knew he couldn’t reach you. He asked me to tell you he was sorry and to tell you that he wanted to call you last night but couldn’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because he was in jail.”
    Alena let out an exasperated gasp. “See, I knew this would happen. How did he end up in jail?”
    “Apparently some friend of his was murdered.”
    “Well, of course! Wherever Nick goes people seem to drop like flies—it’s like he’s the angel of death or something. So what happened?”
    “Nick said he went to the friend’s house to try to investigate and there was some confusion with the police. They thought Nick shouldn’t be there, so—they arrested him.”
    “ Confusion with the police ,” Alena said. “Is that how he described it? ’Cause that man has a very long history of confusion with the police —it’s the story of his life. Where is he now? Is he on his way home?”
    “Not exactly,” Gunner said. “He said to tell you that he’s headed for a little town called Pine Summit.”
    “Pine Summit—where’s that?”
    “It’s somewhere in the Poconos.”
    Now Alena did a slow and dramatic double take, complete with dropping jaw and eyes bulging in disbelief. “The Poconos. Our Poconos? The Poconos where we’re supposed to be spending our honeymoon just a few days from now? Isn’t he forgetting something—like me ?”
    “Now, Alena—”
    “I knew this would happen—I knew it the minute he told me he wanted to leave. I knew Nick would run and keep on running until he was just as far away from me as he could get.”
    “Alena, wait.”
    “You know how I knew? Because Nick is a working dog, that’s why. He’s a tracker, he’s a pointer, he’s a retriever. He’s not a house dog—it’s just not in his