Three Dog Island Read online

  “I’m sure. It was two people. I could tell by the footsteps. They didn’t knock. One of them tried the doorknob which must have set Rocky off.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, as if that would help him remember. “I was in the living room. Rocky was in the kitchen.” He smiled sheepishly. “He was cleaning up some cookie crumbs I’d spilled. I heard footsteps on the porch stairs, really freaked me out. I crouched down behind the couch, not that they could see me, but just in case . . . Then I heard the doorknob turning. Rocky must have heard that too because that’s when he started barking. Then there were footsteps running down the porch stairs.”

  “And so you went after them?” I stared at him incredulously. “Instead of calling Sasha or me or —?”

  “I wasn’t going after them. I was just trying to see who they were.”

  I leaned back against the couch pillow. This was not good—any way you looked at it. I wasn’t convinced that they were spying on Josh, but even if they weren’t, they were up to something which may simply have been breaking into my cottage. I could not believe that I might have to install an alarm on my little island.

  “They probably had nothing to do with you.”

  “Maybe.”

  “It could have been someone who knew I was going out of town for a couple days. Actually, on this island that could be anyone who saw me get on the state ferry.”

  “Are you just trying to make me feel better?”

  I was trying to make both of us feel better. “Well, think about it. How would anyone possibly know where you are?”

  “You didn’t give your name or anything to my mother?”

  “No, and even if I had, I’m sure she wouldn’t say anything to Al or Mark. Not again.”

  He nodded. “Okay, so you think maybe someone was trying to break into the cottage.”

  “It makes sense. They thought no one was home, including Rocky. When they heard him bark they realized that even if I were gone, someone was looking after the cottage and my dog.”

  His sigh told me he felt better. The truth was, so did I.

  “What about Ned?” Josh asked. “Maybe he slipped up and told someone about me?”

  I shook my head. “Judging from my last conversation with him, he’s been diligent about keeping our secret.”

  Josh nodded, comforted by my words. “My mother didn’t tell you anything about what kind of trouble they’re in? No hints or anything?”

  “She’s very scared, Josh. She thinks it would put you in more danger somehow.” I didn’t understand her logic, but when fear is involved not a lot makes sense.

  “They’ve really brainwashed her, haven’t they?”

  I assumed it was a rhetorical question. “I trust Charlie’s hunch is right that they’re skimming off the top, but we need more. We need something concrete.” We needed to know why they had suddenly turned on Josh. “You don’t remember seeing or hearing anything that would give us some insight? Anything at all?”

  He shook his head. “What are you thinking, Jenny?”

  He knew me well enough to recognize the wheels turning at high speed. “I think we need to figure out what you don’t remember hearing.”

  “How do we do that?”

  I considered that for a moment. “It’s probably best not to even think about it. These things have a way of surfacing when you least expect them to. So, for now, just relax and don’t think about any of this.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “If your thoughts start to stray towards this subject, guide them in a different direction. It helps to have a vision already in place, like a good memory, playing sax with your grandfather.” I smiled. “Or a date with a special girl.”

  His blush told me that there was a special girl, or at least there had been.

  “Maybe tomorrow we can talk about it again and see if anything has come to the surface.”

  “Okay.” His sigh was heavy. He didn’t say it but as much as he appreciated having a warm and hopefully safe place to live, he needed more. He needed a life, a normal teenage life that included worrying about finishing homework and scoring goals or home runs and how to talk to girls. Not how to stay alive.

  When I stood up to leave, Josh set the dishes on the tray and carried it into the kitchen.

  While he was washing dishes, Sasha grabbed my hand and said, “I think you did the right thing, Jenny, taking Josh in. He’s a really good kid.”

  “Yeah, he is. Thanks for helping out, Sasha.”

  “No problem. By the way, tell your friend MacGregor thanks. He was ready to jump on a ferry when I couldn’t find Josh.”

  “He’s like that. But you could have called me, you know.”

  “Yeah, but you were all the way down in Portland. A lot of help you would have been.”

  “You just wanted an excuse to call MacGregor.”

  “Nice voice.”

  Ahhh. She was right about that.

  “Soothing.”

  That’s exactly what it was.

  “Anything else you want to tell me?”

  “’Fraid not. What about you? Any more on the art theft?”

  “As a matter of fact, I have a new theory.”

  “Already?”

  “Un huh, but it can wait until tomorrow. I’m sure you’re anxious to get home and make sure everything is okay at the cottage.”

  “True. Stop by in the morning?”

  “Will do. Now are you sure there’s nothing else you want to share with me?” I’d forgotten she had an artist’s eye. She could see more than the average person.

  Still I shook my head. “Nothing.” At least not yet. For just a wee while, I wanted to savor the memories of the night I had spent with MacGregor. I wanted to keep it all to myself.

  There was a knock on the cottage door bright and early the next morning. Certain it was Sasha, I swung open the door. When I realized I was wrong, I stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind me. Thank goodness for Rocky’s barking which gave me an excuse not to invite Deputy Dan inside.

  “Can I come in, Jenny?”

  “Rocky’s not in a very friendly mood,” I said.

  Dan looked around me. Fortunately the blind on the front door was closed. Josh was in the shower but if Dan stayed more than a couple minutes, who knows what he might see or hear.

  “Well, it’s kinda cold out here and I need to talk to you. Can’t you tie him up or something?”

  “Hold on,” I said, turning around and going back inside. “Wait here.”

  I glanced around the living room. None of Josh’s clothes were in sight. Grabbing Rocky’s leash off the hanger, I put it on him and hurried through the kitchen and down the hall. Just as I reached the bathroom, Josh opened the door. Even though Dan couldn’t hear me, I whispered. “The deputy is here. He wants to come in.”

  Josh’s face paled. “What should I do?”

  “Hide in your room and don’t make a sound.”

  “What if he needs to use the bathroom or something?”

  “Good thinking.”

  Josh grabbed all signs of his existence, including laundry and toothbrush, and took them into his room. I hurried back to the kitchen, grateful that Rocky’s bark, although intermittent, had not ceased completely.

  I opened the front door, Rocky still on his leash. He was barking more vehemently now. “Sorry, I thought I’d calmed him down.”

  “You’d better watch him, Jenny. He looks like he could take a bite out of someone.”

  Yeah, right, with that sweet face. Deputy Dan was definitely not a dog person. I didn’t tell him otherwise. I just pulled Rocky away from the door and motioned for Dan to come inside. Once he was sitting down, Rocky stopped barking and lay down with his head resting on his paws. But his eyes remained focused on the intruder. The first thing Dan spotted was the two tea cups that were still sitting on the coffee table.

  “You have company?” he asked, looking past me toward the kitchen.

  “Uh, Sasha was her
e this morning.” I almost kicked myself. What if she showed up while Dan was here? “She went home to get something, will be back soon. What did you need to talk to me about?”

  “Oh, just wanted to see if you’ve had anyone hanging around your place.”

  “Hanging around?” Had someone seen Josh?

  “Some of the folks on this end of the island thought maybe someone was trying to break into their place. Have you heard anyone outside or anything?”

  How did I answer that? If I told him someone had been around the night before last, he’d wonder how I knew, seeing as how I wasn’t even home. “I’ll check with Sasha,” I said. “She was looking after Rocky. I was gone for a couple days.”

  “Good idea. Maybe she saw someone at her place too.”

  “Maybe. I’ll have her call you if she did.”

  I had to get him out of here before Sasha arrived. She and I did communicate well, but how was I going to convey to her all the lies I had just made up? “Uh, is that it, Dan?”

  “Yeah, pretty much. Just wanted to see if you knew anything. And to warn you—living out here by yourself and all.”

  I held up Rocky’s leash. “I’ve got a dog now.”

  There was no reason for him to stay seated on my couch, but he did not look as though he were going anywhere any time soon. I resisted offering him a cup of tea or coffee which made me feel immensely impolite.

  “Uh, if there’s nothing else, I have some things I need to take care of.” I caught myself just before I told him I had to leave—the danger of telling lies. “Before Sasha gets back.”

  “Oh, sure,” he said. “Do you think I could use your bathroom?”

  “Of course. No problem.”

  He started into the kitchen, the one room I had not checked carefully.

  “Wait!” I said, motioning for him to come back. “I’m having some trouble with the plumbing in the downstairs bathroom.” That and the fact that it was liable to be steamed up from Josh’s shower. “You’d better use the one upstairs.”

  He nodded and headed up the stairs. By the time he’d left the cottage, I knew what an ulcer felt like. I tapped on Josh’s door after I heard the car drive off. “It’s safe to come out.”

  He still hadn’t regained the color in his complexion. I suspected mine looked the same. “It’s okay,” I assured him. “Actually good news. Relatively speaking anyway. Some other people in the area thought someone was trying to break in to their place.”

  The color was returning to his cheeks. “Whew. I was really—”

  “Scared?”

  “Kinda. I guess. Yeah.”

  “I think we’d better be more careful from now on. Let’s go on the assumption that someone might drop in unannounced anytime and keep all your things in your room. I think one of your school books is on the kitchen table. And your sax is in the living room.” Fortunately Dan hadn’t noticed or hadn’t realized there was anything to notice.

  “Oh man, that was close. Was that why you told him to go upstairs?”

  “I just had a bad feeling is all, but it’s over. We’re okay.”

  “But I can always say I’m your nephew, remember? Or do you think that’s not a good idea?”

  “I had second thoughts about that. The fewer people who know a teenage boy is staying at my place, the better. Word spreads around this island like wildfire.” Aside from the fact that his picture might very well be posted as a runaway.

  “You mean they’d talk about someone’s nephew coming for a visit? Like it’s a big deal?”

  “Oh yeah, you don’t know the island gossip column. The subject of island visitors is at the top of their favorites list.”

  A tap on the door startled us both. What was I thinking? How had I not recognized that Dan’s knock was nothing like Sasha’s artistic knock? I really was off my game. My mind flashed to MacGregor. At least I had a good excuse.

  I opened the door for Sasha and quickly told her all the lies I’d gotten her into. She needed to be prepared in case Dan stopped by to see her and asked about her dog sitting and coming to the cottage twice in the same morning.

  Per Sasha’s request, Josh put some coffee on, and the three of us sat at the kitchen table. He liked these meetings. He liked being included. Besides, Investigative Science was his favorite class. I would not be surprised if he became one of Charlie’s protégés.

  “So, tell me your new theory,” I said to Sasha.

  “I think it was Army.”

  “Army? What about Alice?”

  “No, she may be anal and all but she’d have a really guilty conscience and I haven’t seen any signs of guilt.”

  “So, why Army?”

  “Something is eating away at him, Jenny. If anyone has a look of guilt, it’s Army.”

  “Maybe he’s cheating on Navy,” Josh volunteered. Apparently I’d told him enough that he had deduced that possibility.

  “I don’t think so. He’s crazy about her,” I said.

  “If anything, it would be the other way around,” Sasha offered.

  “Maybe he ate something he’s not supposed to,” Josh said. “Didn’t you say Navy has him on a diet?”

  “True, but I think maybe it’s time we looked at this differently.”

  “What do you mean?” Sasha asked.

  I glanced at Josh. He was as interested in solving this case as he was his own. I also got the feeling he was looking forward to the day when he could meet all the characters who made up this little island of ours. So was I.

  “What I mean is, we’ve been going on the assumption that it was an accident. Maybe it’s time to reconsider that.”

  “But if it wasn’t an accident, why would someone take the model instead of the stone sculpture?” Sasha asked.

  “The answer that keeps coming to me is that they didn’t want anyone to know, but that makes no sense since people would notice. Maybe it wasn’t as noticeable as it would be if someone took the stone sculpture, but we still noticed.” At least Jasper had. “Other than that, I have no answer which is why it was so easy to assume it was an accident. Josh and I pretty much exhausted all logical explanations of why someone would do that. Sam too, which is why he doesn’t even think there was a theft. And now Jasper is beginning to doubt himself.”

  “Maybe we need to start thinking illogically,” Josh said.

  “Precisely. “

  “How do we do that?” Sasha asked.

  They were both looking at me as though I had the answer, as though I knew more about this than they did. I took a sip of the hot coffee Josh had poured. “We have to trust our intuition more for one thing.”

  “And for another thing?” Sasha asked.

  “We have to look at things differently. Kind of like Jasper’s sculptures. You know how if you look at just part of one of his sculptures, it’s very different from the whole work?”

  “Or if you look at some of them from one angle, you see one thing, and if you look at it from a different angle, it becomes something else?” Josh, who had studied Jasper’s art online, volunteered.

  “You have it exactly right, Josh,” Sasha said. “He designed some of his pieces to give different impressions from different angles.”

  That was it, I realized. The transformation of his subjects occurred, not just by putting pieces together, but also by looking at his sculptures from different angles.

  Josh went into the living room and came back with my laptop. In five minutes, he was on Jasper’s website, showing me some examples.

  “It’s fascinating.” I scrolled down the page and stopped when I reached a familiar piece of artwork. “I think I remember this one. I must have seen it.”

  There were three figures. When you looked at them from one angle they were embracing, but from a different angle they were fighting. Two men and a woman. It kind of reminded me of a mystery I had solved recently.

  “I never saw that one,” Sasha said, peering over my shoulder at the computer screen. “What’s the date?”
<
br />   “It doesn’t say. It just says it was one of his early works. I must have seen it when I was a girl, visiting my aunt.” It surprised me that I even remembered it. It also surprised me that although we were viewing it on a flat computer screen, it had the power and energy of a sculpted piece of art standing in front of us. The power of love, I thought. It transforms energy.

  “It’s called ‘Power of Love,’” Josh said and I felt chills running up and down my body.

  “What’s wrong, Jenny?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” I shook my head. I had a good memory—at least most of the time—but how the hell had I known the name of that piece of artwork from over thirty years ago?

  Chapter 17

  I awoke to the scent of freshly ground coffee at ten thirty. Sasha was right. Josh was an angel. I’d bought him juice and lemonade but he always joined me with a cup of tea at least twice a day. I think he was actually beginning to like it. But he also knew my favorite drink first thing in the morning was a strong cup of freshly-ground coffee, especially after a restless night.

  When I finally got my body to leave the warmth of my lovely down comforter and I took a quick shower and made my way downstairs, Josh was hard at work on a history paper he was writing—something to do with the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther. My memory of European history was lacking so he was on his own for that.

  “Then I think it’s Napoleon.” He pulled out his class roster. “Yeah, Napoleon. He was kind of cool, wasn’t he?”

  I cringed, wishing I remembered more. “Well, he certainly met his Waterloo.”

  “Hunh?” Josh stood up and stretched. The sweats I’d ordered from a catalog fit him perfectly. I hadn’t lost my mother’s touch. He had protested, of course, but how long would the two outfits in his duffle bag last? Despite the protests, his face lit up when I’d opened the package with two pairs of sweat pants and sweat shirts, three T-shirts, two pairs of jeans, and a couple packages of socks and underwear. He was embarrassed but appreciative.

  “He was defeated in battle at Waterloo. You’ve heard the expression, ‘he’s met his Waterloo,’ haven’t you?” I didn’t bother asking if he’d heard the ABBA song.