A melody of howls

Chapter 3: A choice between Life & Death

Kaitou was bored. It had been nearly six months since she found Jimmy Kudo and he was no closer to finding the Organization. Suddenly the office phone rang and she listened to the inspector telling Richard that a little girl was missing possibly kidnapped and they needed his help. He loaded the kids and dog into the cop car and off they went. They arrived and Officer Sato greeted them Kaitou growled softly seeing the state of terror the mother was in. Yet the father was stoically standing there. Kaitou and the others were escorted into the house to look for some clues.

Kaitou started sniffing around and caught jimmy's eye as she nosed the coat rack and found the girls coat. Takagi also noticed and walked over to Conan and knelt down. "Whats up Conan?" Conan smiled evily. "This is Jimmy Kudo's dog Kaitou. She is trained to track by scent." His eyes widened and he jumped to his feet and hurried over to Megure and Sato, a moment later all three officers were surrounding Conan and the dog.

"Are you sure she can track?" Sato said. "Positive. I had jimmy have her track me and she always found me." Megure thought about it. "None of our teams are available for hours, I don't see any harm in it." Sato went to the car and got something out. Its was a vest with a badge on it. They fit it to Kaitou and she wiggled slightly. Megure got a piece of the girls clothing and had the dog sniff it. The dog received the command and was clipped to a leash and started sniffing around the yard. Suddenly she took off and Conan was glad he had been standing on his skateboard. The two younger officers followed in their car. Siren wailing the dog kept to the scent.

She stopped at the crosswalk and was circling trying to catch the scent again. Then suddenly she caught it and it was strong. She rolled her head back and with a mighty bark charged down the street the police car followed at a good clip. Amuro came out of his shop to see a man walking with a little girl carrying an ice-cream cone and was about to go back inside when sirens wailed and the man picked up the girl forcing her to drop her ice cream and run.

Thundering paws met him next as a massive white dog sped by Conan being towed on his skateboard suddenly he let go of the leash and the dog accelerated to a full out run. Seeing the cop car skid to a stop in front of him he panicked and dropped the girl. The man turned and pulled a gun he pointed at the running Sato and fired. Kaitou made a choice Sato or the criminal and chose Sato's life. She took the bullet in the side, getting back to her paws she saw the man turn to go for the girl and with the adrenalin pumping, killing the pain she buried her fangs in his gun arm and pulled it away from the people and towards the ground. He tried to shake her off but she bit down harder. More sirens were heard and Kaitou held on for all she was worth.

Cops had guns trained on the guy and Santos was there suddenly to cuff the bad guy she offered his arm and turned to see other officers surrounding Sato, whose badge lay nearby. Kaitou picked it up and was suddenly reminded of her own injuries and flopped over. Her breaths through her nose attracted Santos' attention. "The Dog's been shot!" She was carted off to the best animal hospital in the district. And as they operated on her the Detective boys paced the waiting room as the cops were for Sato. "She's my partner and I failed her."

Takagi mumbled as he sat at the animal hospital with the kids. "You didn't fail Takagi. That is for sure you got her the attention she needed as fast as humanly possible. Which hospital is she at?" "Tokyo Metropolitan. Room 821 according to the inspector when she got out of surgery." The vet came out and said Kaitou would make a full recovery the bullet missed anything vital. Hours after everyone was gone and the night nurse was checking kennels she noticed one was open and its occupant was missing. The nurse noticed the open backdoor and called the Vet on call.

Kaitou walked slowly as not to reopen her injuries. It had taken hours to reach the front gates of the hospital. But in she went through the front doors a nurse was going to stop her but at seeing what she was carrying let her pass unmolested. The dog took the elevator which lucky for her stopped on the 8th floor and she got off. The two officers guarding the room saw the dog and one pulled his radio and spoke into it. "Inspector your not going to believe this..." The dog stopped at the door and one of the officers opened it still in awe. The dog walked in and upon seeing Takagi curled in a chair wagged her tail and laid next to the bed the blood stained badge she had carried all the way here gleaming slightly in the light.

The officers saluted the Inspector the next morning and once he passed into the room he saw what he had been told was true. The dog lye on the floor next to Sato's bed, her bloody badge between her fangs.. "Can I have that.." He reached down and removed the badge from the dog and watched its eyes close in slumber once again. The officers of the unit had decided to make Kaitou an honorary officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan police force. The massive white dog was considered a hero yet when Sato awoke, her first question was where was her partner. Conan was given his dog back and she was given a soft bed in Rachel's room.

Kaitou spent her recovery days watching Jimmy go to school disguised as Conan. She really missed going over the Dr. Agasa's house. The old doctor had a very large soft spot for the white dog. Although in the end she was very wary of a little girl named Vi Graythorn. She didn't know what to make of her but she would keep jimmy away from her if at all possible. Her fur stood on end thinking about it.