Free Tiger's Eye by Barbra Annino Page B

kids…what?
    Or was she perhaps a show dog? An agility performance dog? I wasn’t aware of any competitive dog shows in the area, but I made a note to look into that possibility.
    On the next page, I found:
    Fun
Car
Lady
    There was a lady she had known. Her owner? A vet? Trainer? Groomer?
    The third page said only:
    Bad
Man
Sad
    The final page was a jumble of words branching out around one:
    Thor
    It wasn’t his name so much that disturbed me as the words around it: Good, Boy, Nice, Like, Play, Friend, Brave.
    Uh-oh.
    I shut the notebook and leaned my head back. I didn’t realize Fiona’s ability was stilted. I thought I would be reading this dog’s whole life story, not just random thoughts. But maybe Fiona knew the whole story and she just scribbled these notes down. I walked around to the side of the cottage where I could see the back garden.
    They were still in formation. Waiting for a phantom groom.
    Through the open window, Thor yawned loudly as he jumped off the couch. He nudged the door open with his snout, lumbered onto the porch, and stretched deeply.
    I sat back on the settee and he greeted me by sniffing the back of my neck like it was a turkey leg. Truth be told, it was a bit refreshing in this heat.
    I twisted to face him and said, “Please do not encourage Keesha. She seems to have a crush on you.”
    The reasonable side of me was well aware that responsible pet owners spayed and neutered their animals, but Thor, as my familiar, was different. And since he’d come to me with all his parts fully functional, I thought it best not to alter the original design.
    Besides, what if all his magic was stored in the luggage compartment?
    We were nose to nose and he gave me his most meaningful look and sneezed in my face, covering me with dirt and sand.
    I popped up. “Agh! That’s disgusting.”
    I dashed inside to rinse off the mucus and put the notebook on my desk. When I came back outside, Thor’s tail was thumping against the porch boards and Leo was walking up the driveway. He was wearing the same faded jeans he had on earlier, accompanied by a white polo shirt with an Amethyst PD logo in the corner. Standard cop shades hid his eyes.
    “Hey, Chief,” I said.
    As soon as my voice hit the wind, I heard the high-pitched yap of my nemesis.
    “Geez, you brought Cujo?”
    Thor’s ears perked up at the noise and he sidled over to me, leaned against my hip. He cocked his head, trying to decipher where the sound was coming from.
    Leo said, “He’s in the car with the air-conditioner running, so don’t worry. Thought it best not to take a chance with your bodyguard on duty.”
    “Not to mention it could get confusing with them sharing a name. I mean, how would we tell them apart?”
    “I changed his name, smart-ass.”
    “To what? Odin? Zeus? Hercules?”
    “Scrappy.”
    I made a face.
    “What? It was your suggestion. Besides, he is scrappy.”
    I held up my hands. “Hey, it’s none of my business. I can’t believe you didn’t find his family, though. Someone must be wondering where he is. He looked well taken care of.”
    “Gus has been working on it, but so far no luck.”
    “So what brings you by?”
    Leo held up a plastic bag with a tooth-marked cell phone sealed inside.
    I asked, “Do you know who he is—I mean was?”
    “Not yet, but I do know he hasn’t been down there that long. I also know who he was looking for.”
    I perched forward. “Who?” If I could get an answer, perhaps I could return the watch to whoever it was meant for and put his soul to rest.
    “You.”
    I could feel the blood drain from my face as my body went cold. Friday’s phone call replayed in my mind.
    “Stacy Justice?”
    “Speaking.”
    “Stacy Justice the second, right?”
    “Yes.”
    “I just thought you should know that I have the tapes.”
    “What tapes?” I asked.
    The man on the phone swore softly. “You haven’t gone through his files yet, have you?”
    “Whose files? What you are talking