Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Noah bobs his head up and down. “Yes.”
“Come here, Flash.”
Flash comes out from behind me and stops next to my leg.
“That’s called to heel,” I tell Noah. “If you want him to stay at your side, you need to tell him in a firm voice, “Heel.”
“Heel,” Noah says in a serious but subdued tone.
Flash lifts his butt and sits down again.
The sound of Tatiana’s laugh is carefree and beautiful. “He’s such a clever dog. He just repeated that command like a pro.”
“If you want him to heel at your side, you have to pat your thigh like this.”
I show Noah how.
At the second try, Flash moves to Noah’s right side and sits down next to him.
“Oh, wow.” Noah looks at me. “Did you see that?” He bends down and pets Flash. “You’re the cleverest dog in the world.”
Tatiana shoots me a smile.
“Shall we see how good Flash is at fetching a ball?”
“Can he play with my soccer ball?”
“Not unless you want it deflated. His teeth will damage it, and the ball is too big for his jaw. Let’s try a tennis ball for now. If everything goes well, we can buy a ball that’s adapted to a dog of his size.”
Noah sprints to the container on the deck in which we keep his inflatable pool toys and returns with a tennis ball.
For a while, Tatiana and I watch as Noah and Flash get acquainted.
She leans against me, snuggling with her shoulder against my arm. “I think it’s going really well.” Her voice is a little sad. “Poor Flash.”
What she’s really saying is that she feels sorry for both the dog and its dead owner.
Noah, out of breath after so much running, flops down on the lawn. Flash immediately sits down next to him.
Noah puts an arm around the dog. “Are you thirsty? I’ll get you water, Flash.”
It’s an endearing scene.
She glances up at me. “What do you think?”
I pull her closer with a hand on her hip. “They’re a good match.”
After Flash’s adoption, I spend time with Noah teaching him how to handle the dog and general facts about the behavior and needs of canine pets. At first, I’m always present when Noah is with Flash, but as time goes by and the integration evolves smoothly for both Noah and the dog, I allow him to spend short periods with Flash on his own while I remain in the background. When I’m sure that Noah’s got a handle on the new situation and that Flash is happy, I return my full attention to work related matters.
A few uneventful days go by during which I don’t get any closer to finding Tatiana’s kidnappers.
The emblem on the back of the lighter pistol leads me to a guy who makes pistols on order. He tells me the lighter was for one of his clients, a woman who wanted to give her husband something different for his birthday. When I tell him who I am, he’s quick to share her telephone number with me. It doesn’t take long to find her address, which is listed on her cell phone contract.
I take Ulysses with me as Reino is keeping an eye on the house. He promised Noah they could play ball with Flash.
The woman who opens the door of a fancy apartment in an affluent neighborhood has platinum blond hair and glacial blue eyes. I judge her to be in her early sixties. She wears a maxi dress with a flowery jacket. Strings of colorful beads are wound around her neck. The diamond on her ring finger is worth at least two luxury yachts.
She leans on the door frame, looking me up and down as she drags on a cigarette before saying with a slight Russian accent, “I know your face.”
I raise a brow. “Do you?”
“From the tabloids. You’re the bachelor who only dates blondes.”
I lift my left hand where the gold band on my finger catches the light, a ring I bought and forced my wife to put on my finger. “Married now.”
She utters a hoarse laugh. “She’s a lucky girl.” Sliding her gaze to the gun in the holster that shows beneath my jacket, she adds, “Or maybe not.”
The fact that she’s not concerned about the weapon or about opening her door for an armed man says she’s used to being around firearms and she’s not afraid of me.
She should be.
“I was hoping you could help me,” I say.
She takes another drag from her cigarette and blows the smoke sideways. “Is that so?”
“You bought a lighter pistol for your husband, Gavril Dmitriev.”
She narrows her heavy-lined eyes. “Oh, you mean the scumbag who promised to be faithful until the day he dies?”
Touché. “The weapon was involved in an incident. I’d like to speak to him.”
Scoffing, she tips her ash on the polished floor of the landing. “You’ll just waste your breath on that bastard. I can tell you right now where that zippo gun is. He gave it to a whore at the strip club where he fucks away his money.”