Three Dog Island Read online

  I looked down at the two dogs who were at attention, vigilant in their stance. “Maybe they’re afraid of men.”

  “They let me pet them,” Sam said.

  “Hmmm, maybe men who are standing. Sit down,” I said to Dan.

  He pulled out his chair and took a seat. The two dogs relaxed noticeably.

  “Must be it. They were probably mistreated by a male,” I said.

  “Explains why they look so un—” Dan said.

  “Emaciated?”

  “Yeah. Sorry. They don’t look so good.”

  “They will soon enough,” Sasha said. “We’re nursing them back to health with Jenny’s scones and peppermint tea.”

  We took the applications that Sam told us to fill out and drop off to Sadie Applebaum at the DMV two doors down.

  “Frankie said you’ve checked online several times and didn’t find any missing dog reports for any of ‘em?” Sam said.

  Sasha and I nodded, but I still had an uneasy feeling as we left the sheriff’s office. I stood there in the doorway, trying to get a grip. Or maybe it was a flash of intuition that I was after. Something was definitely not right.

  Sasha stood a few feet away, recognizing the symptoms of my confusion. When I finally exhaled and relaxed my shoulders, she asked me what was going on.

  “I have to go back to that island.”

  “You’re not serious!”

  “I wish I weren’t. Something keeps nagging at me. Will you come with me?”

  “You want me to go back to Three Dog Island with you?”

  Despite the knot in my stomach, I laughed. “You’ve renamed Aurora Island?”

  “I’ve decided that Three Dog Island is more appropriate.”

  I couldn’t argue with her there. “So, will you go with me?”

  Her horrified expression preceded her meek, “I guess.”

  “You know what. You don’t have to. I’ll take Sam with me.”

  “Better idea.” She was breathing normally again. “But what do you think it is?”

  “I don’t know. Another dog maybe?”

  “But we haven’t heard any more cries.”

  “Maybe it’s too sick or weak to cry for help.”

  “Do you really think Rocky would have come with us if there’d been another dog? He didn’t want to come without Whistler and Lenny. I doubt that even the temptation of food would have lured him if there were another dog there.”

  She was right. There was no logical explanation. But by the time we got back to my cottage, I knew I had to go back to that island. As soon as possible.

  Chapter 3

  “Sorry, Jenny, Sam had to go to Seattle today. Left me in charge. What do you need?” Deputy Dan asked.

  I was standing in the sheriff’s office at eight o’clock the following morning. I told Dan about the odd feeling I was having. He did cringe ever so slightly much the same as my ex-husband would have done, but in this case it could have been due to my description of the creepy island rather than the credibility I gave my intuition.

  “You really think there’s someone—or something else out there?” His heel was rapidly tapping the floor and I wondered how much coffee he’d already consumed. The box of fresh donuts sat half empty on the desk behind him and I figured I had my answer.

  “I’m afraid so,” I told him.

  “Well, fortunately we have a boat for just this purpose—police business and all.”

  I knew full well that the sheriff department’s boat was used for any other town function that was deemed important, such as being part of the Christmas boat parade of lights.

  “But can you leave Anamcara with Sam away?”

  He shrugged. “We won’t be long.”

  “You’re sure you don’t want to wait for Sam to get back?”

  He shoved his paperwork into his desk drawer and stood up. “Naw, I’m good. Let’s go.”

  Dan was cute, young and blond and anxious to please, especially when he was in charge. I couldn’t help wondering if he was married. Now that Frankie was dating Sheriff Sam, maybe it was time to get Dan and Sasha together. I shook my head. Sasha was too much of a free spirit for Dan. And it was becoming apparent that her sense of humor seemed to elude him.

  I rode with Dan down to the docks. No wedding ring. Stop it, Jenny. Enough meddling.

  “Are you really sure you want to do this?” I asked Dan when we arrived. The air smelled of rain longing to free itself from the clouds.

  “Any excuse to get out of the office,” Dan said. “And as I see it, it’s police business.”

  “Even if it’s based on a feeling I have?”

  “Sam says your feelings aren’t just feelings. They’ve come out right every time.”

  “Not quite every time. Most of the time. Well some of the time. But this isn’t even on Anamcara Island.”

  “We cover more than just Anamcara.”

  I had forgotten that.

  Halfway to Aurora Island, aka Three Dog Island, the sky was no longer threatening. It had followed through on its promise. Rain was pouring down, not unlike the infrequent but heavy rains of Southern California.

  Of course I assumed this was some kind of omen, and not the good kind. Dan found rain gear and life jackets for both of us. It was a wild ride to the island but we made it intact. I helped him tie up the boat as securely as possible. The last thing we needed was to be stranded on this desolate island.

  “Is this where you found the dogs?” Dan asked, flashing a light toward what appeared to be a fenced compound of sorts.

  “Maybe they dug their way out of there,” I told him. “And then got stuck. The only place to go was in the water—until we came along with a boat.”

  Dan flashed his light at the ground on the south side of the fence. “There’s no way they could have dug out of there. This sucker is tied into concrete. They must have washed up on this side of it. No one probably even knew they were here.”

  “No wonder they were starving.” Despite my warm clothes, I shivered.

  “This place is giving me the creeps,” Dan admitted.

  “My sentiments exactly.”

  “I think we’d better get out of here, Jenny.”

  As much as I wanted to leave, something was stopping me. I made my way up the side of the hill and headed to the south side of the compound. “There’s something here, I just know it.”

  “You know we can’t mess with this compound, Jenny. We’re on private property.”

  “I know. We won’t go far.”

  Dan hesitated but followed, shining his light on the ground that was darkened by the heavy rain. We walked for a couple minutes before I stopped. “Here,” I said. “I feel something. Someone. In trouble.”

  “But don’t you think they’d make themselves known if they needed help?”

  He had a point.

  “Come on, Jenny, let’s get out of here.”

  “Just give me another minute.”

  “Just one minute. I’ll keep a look out from here.” Was it my imagination or was he more scared than I was? I didn’t ask. He had found shelter under a tree. It was clear that he did not want to find whatever it was that was tugging at my sixth chakra.

  “Here, give me the light,” I said. “I’ll only be a minute.”

  It was more like thirty seconds, but I found what I was looking for. A tent, well hidden in the brush and brambles that only someone would find if they knew it was there. Or if their intuition was working overtime.

  “Oh my God!”

  “What is it, Jenny?” Dan yelled.

  A young boy of no more than seventeen looked at me from behind the tent. He shook his head fiercely and mouthed the words, “Please, don’t say anything!”

  “Uh, nothing,” I yelled back. “Just shadows. I think you’re right. This place is creepy. Let’s get out of here.”

  The boy’s face and shoulders relaxed noticeably. Why he would not want to be rescued from this dreary island, I did not know. But something tol
d me to trust him.

  “Thank you,” he mouthed to me.

  “Are you ok?”

  He shrugged. I knew that shrug. It was the one my son Matthew gave me when he didn’t want to admit in words that he was anything but okay.

  “Then come with us.”

  He looked in the direction of Dan. “I can’t. Not with him.”

  “He’s a deputy.”

  “Right.”

  Before I could get any more answers, I heard Dan’s boots sloshing toward us. “I’m coming,” I yelled to him. “Let’s get out of this place!”

  While my motherly instinct told me to trust this boy, it also told me not to leave him there. Neither choice felt right so I deferred to a child about whom I knew nothing except that he was scared of the law which most likely meant that he was running from it.

  For all I knew he had escaped from the criminal justice system or maybe he was schizophrenic and was doing what a crazy voice in his head was telling him to do or he was simply rebelling against his parents and had run away to make them suffer because they wouldn’t buy him the car he wanted. One of the bonuses of doing detective work was that it didn’t fail to enhance ones imagination.

  The rain had softened by the time we reached Anamcara. After stopping at home to let Rocky out to do his business, I headed straight to Sasha’s and told her the whole story.

  “Jenny, you should have told Dan!”

  “I know, but I couldn’t. I don’t know why. But I’ve got to go back and get him. Will you come with me?”

  “In what boat?

  Oh, yeah, minor detail. “We could see if Frankie can borrow her client’s boat again. But then we’d have to tell her and I don’t want to ask her to keep something from Sam,” I said, thinking out loud. “Their relationship is just starting to blossom.”

  “Blossom?” Sasha teased, interrupting my monologue. “Wait a minute.”

  “What?”

  “Come on!” Surprisingly, she grabbed a jacket before running out the door. A result of my saga in the rain? Whistler looked up from his cozy spot near the woodstove, obviously content to stay put.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, once we were seat-belted into my car.

  “To the ferry.”

  “But how will that help us? Ned’s ferry only goes to Gael Island, not to Aurora Island.”

  “It will if you ask him,” Sasha said, grinning at me. “Ned would do anything for Winnie’s niece.”

  I had my doubts but it was worth a shot. Ned had, after all, broken his minimum-of-four-cars rule when I had first moved here a few months back and he’d taken only my car from Gael Island to Anamcara.

  “Good timing,” Sasha said. “He’s just arriving back with a boat-load of cars. He can afford to leave his post for a little while. Come on, no one’s in line. Drive further down so we can talk to him.”

  Sasha jumped out of the car. I couldn’t hear what she was telling Ned, but she kept gesturing in my direction. Judging from her overdramatic gestures and her hand constantly patting her heart, I suspected she was embellishing whatever story she had created on the spur of the moment.

  When she finished, Ned nodded quickly and motioned for me to drive onto the boat. I stayed in the middle to keep it balanced as he’d had me do once before.

  “What did you tell him?” I whispered to Sasha as she shoved her wild windblown curls out of her eyes and climbed back in the car.

  “Oh, just that you lost something precious on the island when we rescued the dogs.”

  “And what would that be?” Certainly not my wedding ring. Not only did I no longer wear it, but it was no longer something I considered precious.

  “A broach your Aunt Winnie gave you when you were six years old.”

  “Sasha!”

  “It worked, didn’t it?”

  I groaned and climbed out of the car to thank Ned for this detour. Fortunately it was only about ten minutes to the island in the ferry. I showed Ned where to pull up the boat. He couldn’t get close enough for us to get onto the dock so we had to use one of his rowboats that he kept on the ferry for emergencies. Sasha and I rowed over to the dock. I climbed out while Sasha kept it in place. It took more muscle than I knew I had to pull the boat in and tie her up. Back to lifting weights for me.

  Fortunately it had stopped raining so we could find our way back up the hill where I’d been earlier that day. Sasha was having the same creepy feelings that Dan had suffered earlier.

  “Wait here,” I told her when we got close to where I’d found the tent.

  I stepped cautiously toward the tent. The boy was no where in sight. My stomach did a flip flop as maternal worry kicked in.

  Uncharacteristically, I threw invasion of privacy to the wind and unzipped the canvas door without a moment’s hesitation. But I had an excuse. There was no where to knock.

  The boy looked at me, terror in his eyes. He sighed when he recognized me. “Are you alone?” He motioned for me to come inside.

  I shook my head.

  His shoulders stiffened. The look in his eyes was one of desperation. “You can’t tell anyone I’m here. Please.”

  “What are you doing here? It’s desolate . . . creepy. To say the least.”

  “I know but if they find me— I can live with creepy. At least I’m alive.”

  “Who? If who finds you?”

  “I don’t know. “

  “Are you running from the law?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then why were you afraid of the deputy?”

  “Long story. Please go. I can’t risk anyone else knowing I’m here.”

  “You need to come with me,” I said.

  For an instant I thought I detected relief in his eyes, but then the tough mask disguising a teenager’s vulnerability slipped back into place. “I can’t go. No one can know where I am.”

  “They won’t. You can stay with me. At least until we figure out where you can go that’s safe. This island is not safe.”

  “I can stay with you?” He stared at me in disbelief. “Why would you do that? You don’t even know me.”

  “I know enough.” Right, Jenny. You know nothing. I backed out of the tent and motioned for him to follow. “Come on before I change my mind.”

  He grabbed his few possessions—a worn notebook, pencil, pen, a couple books, a portable radio—and stuffed them into his already-full oversized duffle bag. Then he wrote a quick note and set it on the floor of the tent. He had trusted someone, someone who had helped him hide on this island. Just as he stepped out of the tent, he stopped. “Wait a minute. You said someone else is with you.”

  “Don’t worry, they won’t say anything. No cops. Just friends of mine.”

  He decided to trust me. That decision was followed by a dramatic lightening bolt and a roar of thunder. No more rain yet but it wouldn’t be long. I quickly introduced him to Sasha, realizing I didn’t even know his name.

  “Josh,” he said.

  “Josh what?”

  “Um, Josh M-martin.” Not his real name, I was sure. But at least this way I would know that he trusted me when some day he chose to tell me his real name.

  The three of us trudged down the hill to small dinghy. This time Sasha and I climbed in and held the boat in place while Josh untied the rope and jumped in after us. How we were going to explain this to Ned was a whole other matter.

  “What do you have here?” Ned asked after he’d helped us climb back onto the ferry and pull up the rowboat.

  “This is Josh,” I told him.

  The two men shook hands. I motioned for Josh to climb into the backseat of my Volvo. It was a good thing I’d brought it along so I could hide him when we got to Anamcara.

  “So, what was my excuse for bringing my car along?” I asked Sasha.

  She grinned. “I told Ned you didn’t want to leave it sitting there all by itself.”

  “Are you sure you aren’t a PI on the side?”

  She laughed and went to join Josh in t
he car while I joined Ned at the wheel of the ferry.

  “Uh, Ned, do you think you could do me another favor?” I asked.

  He grinned, revealing a gap in his upper row of teeth. “For you, Jenny? Of course.” Then he chuckled and shook his head. “That’s a mighty interesting broach you found.”

  “Sorry about that. Sasha can get creative when she needs to. Do you think you could keep it a secret about our finding Josh on the island?”

  “Course, but who is he, Jenny?”

  “A young boy who’s in some kind of trouble.”

  “Where’s he gonna stay?”

  “With me.”

  Ned gave me the same look that Charlie gives me when he’s questioning my judgment. Kind of reminded me of the night I told him I was going to marry Joe Campbell.

  “It’s okay, Ned. He’s just an innocent kid.”

  Ned was still staring at me with one raised eyebrow.

  “Don’t worry, I can look after myself. Besides, my dad and a friend are coming up to stay in a couple days.”

  “Ok, Jenny, but you need somein’, you know you can call me.”

  He jolted upright when I gave him a quick hug. Apparently he wasn’t used to those.

  Sasha stepped out of the car before I could get in. “Jenny?”

  “Yes?”

  She had that familiar look of concern in her eyes. “Josh said he’s staying with you. Jenny, this isn’t a stray dog, you know.”

  “I know but you don’t have to worry. I have a stray dog to look after me now.” Hopefully he would. Hopefully I wouldn’t need him to.

  Chapter 4

  Rocky greeted us with a wagging tail and a whine that said, “Where have you been? But I forgive you since you’re here now.” Funny, I hadn’t known him that long yet I could read his thoughts. At first I thought it was because it was the longest I’d left him. It took me only a moment to realize that he wasn’t just happy to see me. “You two know each other.” I watched as Josh squatted down to pet my dog.

  “Yeah.” A man of few words.

  “From the island I take it.”

  “Yeah.”

  I sighed and unpeeled my jacket and hung it in the closet. Maybe a cup of tea and a scone would loosen his tongue. Something told me he wouldn’t be turning down food anytime soon. I left the two of them to reunite and went to the kitchen to put on the kettle. I took a couple scones from the refrigerator and set them on the baking pan I had in the oven.