Chapter 6 Cut to the Chase

Friday morning Amanda appeared in the Q-bureau looking tired and worried as well as being an hour late.

"What's up?" question a concerned Lee "You've never been this late without calling."

"Marty is really sick," she cried. "He threw up several times after you left last night and this morning he was having diarrhea all over the laundry room. I waited until Jackie came and got him before leaving for work. He said he'd run some test and maybe do an x-ray. He's not sure what's wrong. Jamie is just in tears."

"Maybe you'd better go home."

"There's nothing for me to do there. Jamie went with Jackie and I dropped Mother and Philip at the food pantry to do some volunteer work this morning. Besides, Jackie knows I'm at work. He said he'd call when he learn something."

Amanda found it had to concentrate. Every time the phone rang she answered it on the first ring. She refused to leave her desk for lunch fearing that she would miss Jackie's call. At 11:30 her Mother called, having finished at the food pantry, but there was still no word. Finally, around two that afternoon the call came.

"It's the strangest thing I've ever seen," Jackie informed her. "There seems to be a small vial, kind of like those used to draw blood, in his abdomen. I don't think he swallowed it. It appears to have been implanted. It didn't show up on x-ray. I had to do an ultrasound to find it. That's why it took us so long. I had to call around to find an ultrasound machine. Anyway he's going to need surgery to remove the vial. He's doing better now, but who knows when he'll start having problem's again."

A look of enlightenment crossed Amanda's face. "Where are you now? Okay, just stay there. I'm coming to pick up Jamie and the dog. Please stay there!"

"What's going on?" questioned Lee having heard only Amanda's side of the conversation.

"I think we found the missing vial of bacteria!"

"What??"

"Jackie found a vial in Marty's abdomen. It's what making him sick. Lee, it could be the bacteria. I'm going to pick up Jamie and the dog. Please update Mr. Melrose and meet me at home," she said grabbing her purse and heading to the door.

"Marty is really scared, Mom," sobbed Jamie from the back seat of the car holding a trembling Marty in his arms.

"I think he's just afraid of the thunderstorm," soothed Amanda as a streak of lightening lit the darkened afternoon sky.

"Where are we going?"

"Home."

"But Marty needs surgery!"

"Sweetheart, Marty will be okay. I just need to check out a few things before he has the surgery."

"But, why?"

"You'll just have to trust me," replied Amanda and then under her breath, "where have I heard that before?"

Amanda gave a sigh of relief when she spotted Lee's car parked in front of her house. As she pulled into the drive, her Mother, Philip and Lee greeted her. It was beginning to sprinkle, the thunder growing louder. Jamie was attempting to get out of the car when a frightened Marty leapt past him and raced down the drive. He turned left speeding down the street, his leash trailing. A gray van parked across the street roared to life following the running dog.

"Those guys looked familiar," Lee said, trying to place where he had seen them before.

"Those are the people who came to clean the window," exclaimed Philip.

"I think your right, Philip," Dotty agreed.

"Really," added Jamie "they were the guys in the park who tried to catch Marty."

"What!" exclaimed Lee and Amanda at the same time.

"There were some guys in the park the first day we had Marty. They tried to catch him, but Marty was too quick and then a rotwieler came and they ran off."

"Why didn't you tell someone?" Amanda asked.

"I guess I just forgot. It didn't happen again, so I thought it wasn't important."

Lee took off running toward his car and jumped in. With squealing tires, he turned the car around pursuing the gray van. "Mother I'm going to call the police. You get the boys into the car and back it out of the drive."

Amanda placed a call to the agency, only to learn that Mr. Melrose and Francine were already on their way. She then returned to the car.

"The car won't start, Amanda," agonized Dotty.

"Come on," shouted Jamie heading down the drive. "I bet he going to the park."

As the storm intensified, Marty entered the neighborhood park. Roy and Jake ditched their van, running through the field after him. Lee soon followed. Jake and Roy managed to corner Marty in a baseball dugout. Jake reached out and grabbed the leash when the frightened dog attempted to flee past him. Marty spun and tugged, but this time the collar wouldn't come off.

"Ahh ha, I got you," exclaimed Jake only to be decked by Lee's hard left hook.

Roy backed away with his hands up when saw the gun in Lee's hand. Lee retrieved Marty's leash from the stunned Jake. Looking around the park, Lee saw Billy and Francine coming towards him.

"We were almost to Amanda's house when we saw you car leaving," Billy explained seeing the puzzled look on Lee's face. "Is this the animal?"

"Yes."

"We'll take these two. You take the dog to headquarters," Billy instructed Lee as Francine handcuffed Jake and Roy together.

"Guess we're caught," whined Jake as they were being placed in the agency car.

"Ahh shut up," replied an irritated Roy.

"I'm glad you're here," said Lee when he saw Amanda approaching in the rain. "Where is everyone else?"

"Well, the boys are searching the other side of the park. Mother stayed home in case Marty came back."

"Good, where's your car. We need to get this dog to headquarters ASAP."

"We had to walk, Lee. My car won't start."

"Great, you mean I have to take this soggy dog to the agency in my vet!"

Amanda just shrugged.

"Hi!"

"Hi, yourself," Lee replied as Amanda opened the front door of her house.

"You look tired. What took you so long? It must be almost eleven" inquired Amanda. "It was six when you called to say the Marty had come through the surgery okay."

"Well, I had to take my car to get it cleaned."

"A few soggy dog prints couldn't have been that big of a deal."

"There was more than a few dog prints. Amanda, that dog vomited all the way to the agency."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said trying to hide her smile.

"The boys at the lab said that it was definitely the missing bacteria. It's funny though, with all the planning that went into this scheme, there was one thing that they didn't count on."

"What was that?"

"Well, when the vial was examined all the bacteria was dead. It seems that a dog's body temperature is too high for that kind of bacteria."

"The best laid plans."

"Did you get your car started?"

"The battery was dead. Mr. Henderson gave me a jump and I took it to the repair shop and they put in a new battery."

"What did you tell Jackie?"

"I told him that I had heard about the vial on the news."

"And he believed you?"

"No, but he said his grandmother had a saying, 'I don't do pockets.'"

"What does that mean?"

"It's his version of 'need to know.'"

"Have they found out yet who was behind all this?"

"The two goons trying to catch Marty are brothers, Roy and Jake Johnson. Jake didn't know anything except they were supposed to drop Marty off at the airport. We were able to check out the flight roster for the time they were supposed to arrive and the only flight that matches was a private jet. According to the flight plan, they were headed for Russia. Roy had a phone number. The number belonged to a guy named Vorachek. He's apparently skipped town. We're still checking on it. By the way, we were able to locate Marty's owners. They're coming to pick him up day after tomorrow."

"Oh, Jamie will be crushed."

"Maybe he'll be able to find another dog."

"Maybe."

"Would you like me to tell him?"

"That's okay, I'll tell him and I'll let him know that you're sorry. Do you want to come in for a sandwich or cup of coffee?"

"No it's getting late, I'd better get home."

"Well, you know there's a vacancy in the laundry room tonight."

Lee laughed. He gave Amanda a quick kiss before turning to leave.



TAG

A blue mini-van pulled to a stop in front of the King house. Philip and Jamie watched as Marty raced toward the van barking and dancing with joy. The doors opened and people began to emerge. First a mother then one.. two.. three very young girls and finally their father.

" Floppy!" they squealed in delight.

" Floppy," said Philip, shaking his head.

The dog continued to dance and bark, occasionally pausing to give a girl a quick lick in the face.

Philip approached the newcomers, but a sad looking Jamie stayed back. Amanda and Dotty, hearing the commotion came outside. Amanda slipped her arm around Jamie's shoulder and gave him a motherly hug.

"Hi, I'm Sara Franklin, my husband Dave and our daughters Shana, Erica and Lisa, " said the little girl's mother pointing out her family and then extending her hand to Dotty and then Amanda.

"I'm Amanda King and this is my Mother, Dotty, and sons Philip and Jamie."

"I'm so grateful that you've taken such good care of Floppy. He's been gone for almost four weeks now. We had about given up hope of ever getting him back. The girls were just heart broken when he disappeared."

Dave advanced toward his wife.

"Thanks for taking care of our dog," said Dave in greeting. "I heard that the boys who were caring for him were young teenagers, so I grabbed a couple of these before I left work yesterday. I thought the boys would enjoy them."

He handed Jamie four tickets to the upcoming Screaming Chickens concert.

"Wow! Philip look at this," Jamie shouted running to his brother his face now all smiles.

"Thank you so much, but you didn't have to do that," Amanda declared.

"No, it's really no trouble. I'm working on the promotion for the Screaming Chickens appearance and I have a lot of these to give away."

"Well, thank you Mr. Franklin. By the way, do you know what kind of dog Mar..I mean Floppy is," Amanda inquired.

"His mother was a pure bred cocker, but his father was a fence jumper. The best guess is some kind of poodle mix."

"He certainly is a sweet dog," added Dotty.

"Sara, lets get the girls and Floppy gathered up, I a few thing to finish at work."

"Again, thank you," said Sara starting to walk toward her daughters.

Watching the family drive away Dotty commented, "They certainly seem like a nice family. Just think, that poor dog was going to be sent to Russia all by himself and he doesn't even speak the language."