Paws off the Boss - Casey Griffin (best books under 200 pages .TXT) 📗

Piper froze at the sight of the senseless destruction in the reception area, at the red graffitied threat dripping down the walls. It hardly seemed real, like this wasn’t the place she spent most of her free time. They must have stumbled into the wrong building. Because who would want to do something like this to a rescue center? Her fists clenched as the name came to her. Laura.

Piper’s ears tuned into the manic barking coming from the rear of the building. The noise brought her crashing back to her senses. “The dogs.”

The three women rushed toward the sound. Skirting around the desk, they picked their way through the debris on the floor. Piper’s heart jumped into her throat, sharp and constrictive, as though she’d swallowed a hummingbird.

“Be careful,” Zoe told them. “Try not to touch anything until the cops get here.”

Tripping over the upturned printer, Piper stumbled and fell against the door. The moment it swung open, she let out the breath she was holding. The dogs were all still safe in their kennels, maybe a little more hyper than usual, but at least they were okay.

Nothing seemed out of place. The doors were still secure, every guest accounted for. Upon seeing the volunteers, they barked and hopped around in their kennels, excited for playtime. Colin scooted around Piper’s feet, unconcerned about the disaster in the reception room, and went to make his rounds.

“Thank God,” Addison said behind her. “If they’d done anything to hurt them—”

Piper held up a hand. “I don’t want to think about it. I’ll go call the cops. Can you two stay with the dogs?”

“Sure thing,” Zoe said. “They’ll probably get a little agitated once they show up and start moving around the place.”

Piper felt more than a little agitated herself at the moment.

While they waited for the police to arrive, the three of them tried to soothe the dogs. Piper took a few of them out to cuddle; however, it was more for her nerves than theirs. The women did what they could for their morning breakfast and grooming routines, but they thought it would be better if the guests stayed in their kennels while they dealt with the cops. Playtime and baths would have to wait.

When a squad car finally arrived, Piper met it outside. She was disappointed to see Officer Tucker climbing out of the cruiser. But while he came off as heartfelt as he had over the brick incident, he didn’t downplay this event. After one peek inside, he cued his radio to call for the identification unit.

Piper, Zoe, and Addison were separated and questioned. When the identification unit showed up, photos were snapped, measurements taken, evidence bagged. After they determined the point of entry had been the broken window in the front door, the three volunteers were free to play in the courtyard with a few of the more hyperactive dogs that needed to stretch their legs.

At lunchtime, they were still far behind in their usual Saturday duties. Addison sat cross-legged on the grass, styling the fur of Smarties, a terrier mix, into a pompadour. Meanwhile, Zoe and Piper attempted to shampoo two dogs at once. The wire-haired doxie took it like a champ, but his collie friend ran from the stream of water as Piper followed him around the bath stall with a hose.

When the last of the suds ran down the drain and water dripped in streams from the collie, he slipped past Piper’s legs and escaped into the yard. Zoe lunged at the sopping pup with a towel. But she wasn’t fast enough.

Just then, the back door opened, and Officer Tucker stepped out. As though perfectly orchestrated, the collie oscillated like an old washing machine, flinging water everywhere. Zoe threw the towel up to shield herself, but the officer got the full force.

Officer Tucker swiped an arm across his face, soaking up the water with his sleeve. By the sneer curling his lip, Piper doubted he was a dog person. A satisfied snicker crept up her throat. In an attempt to hide it, she turned to shut off the hose.

“All right,” he said, giving the collie a wide berth. “I think that will be all for now. Thank you for your cooperation, ladies. You’re free to go back into the reception area.”

“Wait a minute,” Piper said. “That’s it? What happens now?”

“We’ll check into that protester you mentioned and talk to some of your neighbors. See if anyone saw anything last night.”

“That’s if they weren’t the ones who committed the crime to begin with,” Piper muttered.

He pretended not to hear the comment. “Then we’ll file the report. We’ll be in touch if we learn anything.”

“What good is filing a report going to do?” Piper demanded. “You filed one last week and now this happened. What’s going to prevent this kind of thing from happening again? The message said ‘one week.’ What’s next? A drive-by shooting?”

“It may be a scare tactic, but we’ll be keeping a closer eye on the place. All we can do for now is take the evidence back to the lab and process it over the next few days. Hopefully it will tell us more.”

Addison gave up on her pompadour and stood up, brushing off her tights. “Why can’t you do your, you know, CSI thing and track him down, throw him in jail?”

“Yeah, did you find any fingerprints?” Piper asked.

“This isn’t Hollywood,” the officer said. “This is reality. Between visitors and volunteers, I assume you have people coming and going all the time. There are probably hundreds of fingerprints in this building. And if the perp wore gloves, prints won’t help us.”

Piper clenched her teeth, wishing they’d replaced the window sooner—not that it would have slowed the vandal down much. But at least it would have been something.

“Unless you have more for us to go on,” Officer Tucker continued, “camera footage, the time that it occurred …” He shrugged. “For now, you’ll have to be patient. These things take time.”

Piper crossed her arms. “What do we do in the meantime?” She knew most of her attitude was thanks to frustration over the situation, but his careless attitude wasn’t helping.

Colin could sense Piper’s anxiety, her anger rolling off her in waves to crash against Officer Tucker. The doxie sat by her heels, a low grumble reverberating in his chest. She reminded herself to train him on those attack commands.

Officer Tucker removed his cap to scratch his head. “You should consider a security system or hiring a security guard company to monitor the place.” It sounded more like a reprimand than a suggestion.

“A security guard?” Piper rolled her eyes. She felt so much safer knowing he was protecting the city.

Colin gave him a firm woof. Good thing Officer Tucker couldn’t understand what Piper was sure was an expletive.

Zoe, who had been leaning against the tall fence, listening to the exchange, stepped in. “Thank you, Officer. We appreciate the suggestion.” However, her disappointed tone didn’t exactly relay the gratitude, and her icy stare could have cowed a grizzly bear protecting her cubs. “Let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help.”

Sidestepping the collie, he went back inside and headed for his squad car. Barrel chest jutting out, Colin plodded after him, escorting him from the premises.

Piper watched the man go, half-considering releasing horny Toby on him. “I guess we’re on our own.”

“Looks like it,” Zoe said.

Piper took a deep breath, her shoulders automatically kicking back, her chin rising. “It’s fine. We’ll be fine.” It had become something of a mantra of hers lately. As though simply saying it out loud made it true. “Just fine, fine, fine,” she muttered in case it hadn’t worked the first time.

“Have you gotten ahold of Marilyn yet?” Addison asked.

“No. Her cell phone keeps going to voice mail. I can’t remember what time the ship left port. She might already be gone.”

“You could always call the cruise ship itself.”

“I hear that’s expensive. Besides, no one was hurt. I’ll leave her a message that she can listen to at the next port. I’ll probably downplay most of this because I know how she worries. It will ruin her vacation. Even if she were here, I’m not sure there’s anything more she’d be able to do.”

Piper dreaded the conversation once Marilyn returned her call. The manager had handed over the keys, and within a few hours, the place looked like a rock band’s hotel room. Piper knew it wasn’t her fault, not really, but she didn’t like the timing.

The three of them took a break from bath duties and headed up front. Now that it was time