Staring at the cracker crumbs flying from her mouth, I jabbed her with my elbow. “I wasn’t gonna give ‘em to the dogs. They were for me.”

  Megan pointed to my right eye, which tends to squint when I'm stretching the truth. She swallowed, pulling one of those long, cylindrical crackers out of the basket and bopping me on the nose with it. “Yes, you were.”

  I batted the cracker out of her hand, and it flew straight into Maureen’s face. Instead of dropping the heavily laden tray that not only held plates of food but also had the dubious secondary task of serving as a resting place for her sadly sagging boobs, Maureen glared at me and snarled, “How come th’ dogs ‘r better behaved than you two, huh? Tell me that. Look at ‘em.” She indicated the two dogs with a lift of her shoulder since her hands were already occupied.

  Captain, who had previously been lying next to Casey taking a nap, had heard the cracker hit the ground and was now sitting on the edge of the bench staring down at the unclaimed food.

  Peanut had jumped onto my lap, and her sharp front claws were digging into my thighs with the intensity of an Olympic diver leaning forward milliseconds before leaving the board to execute a perfect twisting dive with two and a half somersaults and a twist. Her round eyes were locked onto the cracker with the same laser-like focus as that diver just before he hits the water.

  Megan tapped the table. “Peanut, Captain. Out.”

  Both dogs turned to look at her. Captain, sensing the morsel was a lost cause, flopped onto the bench and resumed his slumber. Peanut obediently stepped back until her bum was between Megan and me. She lowered her head onto my legs with her muzzle hanging over the edge of my lap. She stared at the cracker with such deep longing that I leaned over to make sure that’s all that was down there.

  Megan tapped her lightly on the head. “Peanut. Out.”

  With a sigh, Peanut scootched off my lap and once more lay on the bench between us.

  Putting on her teaching persona, which is one hundred percent different from her goofy best friend one, Megan said, “When the two dogs are at work, you can’t let their training slide. Peanut knew I’d called her off the cracker. She should have done like Captain did and completely forgotten about it. Instead, she,” she held up two fingers on each hand imitating quotation marks, “kind of obeyed. She lay down but continued to focus on the item I’d just told her to disregard.”

  While Megan was talking, Maureen set Casey’s hamburger on the table in front of her. She did the same for Megan’s double burger and fries, but when she came to my bowl of soup, which I always ordered on Mondays because that was the day Ernie made his special slow cooker chicken potato soup, she sloshed it down in front of me with a bang.

  “Yuck. You just stuck your thumb in my soup. That’s gross, Maureen!” Nose wrinkled in disgust, I glared up at our Babushka Baba Yaga waitress.

  She harumphed and turned to walk away.

  “Hey! I’m not gonna eat this. I have no idea where that thumb’s been the last couple of hours.”

  The way she held up her thumb and examined it had me kinda worried. Where had that thumb been that she needed to check to see what was on it? I decided to take the friendly route, hoping I’d get a new bowl without having to beg. Then I thought about her taking mine back to the kitchen, pretending to change it out, and then bringing me back the exact same bowl of thumb spiced soup. “That’s okay. It happens.” I held my bowl out to her. “Maybe could I just have an egg and a couple pieces of toast instead?”

  Her wide-spaced eyes narrowed. “Ya pay fer the soup all the same.”

  I waved a hand, not in the mood to argue. “Fine.”

  Megan reached into a paper bag she had sitting next to her and pulled out two pieces of paper. “Anyway, as I was saying—”

  I motioned to the bag. “What’s with the lunch sack?”

  She shrugged, “I don’t have a briefcase to carry stuff, and I needed to bring some things for you guys. I’d packed my lunch this morning, and when I knew I was coming here to eat, I tossed the lunch and put the other stuff in the sack.”

  That was so typical Megan that neither Casey nor I blinked. However, a briefcase might make a nice Christmas gift for her, and I filed the thought away for future reference.

  Megan handed each of us one of the papers. “Here’s a list of commands you need to memorize. All the dogs are trained to the same commands. Go over them tonight, and tomorrow we can meet somewhere and practice.” Her eyes got squinty, something that happens whenever she’s trying to remember a point. “Wait.” Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she pulled up her calendar and scrolled through it. “Can you guys come to the Academy around ten tomorrow?”

  Casey and I usually have a full caseload, but Kate had stopped assigning us cases the prior week in anticipation of the fed’s project getting underway. There were still open cases we needed to follow up on, but nothing critical or time sensitive.

  We looked at each other and shrugged before saying in unison, “Sure.”

  “Good.” Now that she had our full attention, Megan launched into the ground rules we’d have to follow while working with the dogs.

  By the time my egg and toast arrived, I knew I wasn’t cut out to be a dog handler. Don’t get me wrong. I like them as pets but listening to Megan drone on and on made me realize there were altogether too many rules for me to actually enjoy having a four-legged partner. Not to mention the extra paperwork we’d have to fill out every time the dog helped us on a case.

  “Are you listening to me?” Megan’s irritated tone brought me out of my reverie.

  “Of course, I’m listening.”

  “Then what did I just say?”

  I blurted out the last thing I heard, “Crawford wants to see our reports on a regular basis, and we’re supposed to give them to Kate at the end of every day.”

  Megan and Casey exchanged looks that told me I’d missed something.

  “What?” I knew I sounded defensive and tried to look wise and assured as I asked the question.

  Taking a bite of her burger, Megan spoke with her mouth full. “That—”

  I held up a hand. “Don’t.”

  She knew perfectly well it bugged me when she spoke with food in her mouth, and I knew perfectly well she was doing it to piss me off because I’d tuned out her long list of instructions. Washing the burger down with a swig of coffee, Megan swallowed and began again. “That was about three rules ago. C’mon. I know you didn’t want to be in this program, but since you’re in it, you might as well do it right, if nothing else, so you keep Peanut safe and out of trouble.”

  I swiveled to face her. “Yeah, that’s something I was wondering about. Was it your idea to put me in the program? Did you tell Crawford to select me?”

  She shook her head. “Oh hell no. In fact, I tried to talk her out of it. I told her you were the world’s worst dog handler, and I didn’t think you were a good fit for the program.”

  Even though she’d called me that on previous occasions, the words still stung. There are a lot of people who are better pet owners than I am, but my dogs are loved and get two square meals a day plus a good long walk almost every evening. Sounding pouty, I growled, “I’m not the world’s worst dog handler. I’m just not on a level with you and Casey.” There was one other point that bothered me. “And why would she choose me even after you told her not to? And another thing. Kate looked surprised when you walked into the room. Didn’t she know who was training the dogs?”

  Swallowing another bite, she slid a French fry through a puddle of ketchup and pointed it at me. “No, and that’s the weird thing. They treated our silence like it was a matter of national security or something. Nobody but Crawford, Mumford, the dogs’ owners, and the other two trainers knew about the project. Well, and maybe your chief and the heads of the other departments. I’m not sure, but I wasn’t privy to any of the administrative stuff.”

  Up to that point, Casey had remained silent, but now she set her coffee cup at the edge of the table as a sign to Maureen it needed refilled. “Why all the secrecy? You mean Kate didn’t find out about the project until last week when she told me and Alex we were each getting a dog for a couple months?”

  Megan shrugged. “I guess not. And I don’t know why it’s such a big secret. It’s not like they haven’t done this project with other departments around the country. And from what I hear, it’s worked out really good for those detectives. I think this is the last trial before they decide whether or not to go ahead with the actual program.”

  “And how, no, why did you keep it under your hat for a whole year?”

  “Because they made me sign all these papers swearing me to silence and I really, really wanted to be a part of this project. They said if I said anything to anybody, I’d be out.” She pulled her arms into her chest and wiggled as though her tail was wagging her butt. “It’s kind of like I’m really working for Kate! How cool is that?”

  As though she’d heard us talking about her, my phone rang with Kate’s siren ring. I quickly chewed the bite of egg I’d just put in my mouth, swallowed hard and said, “Hey, Boss.”

  “Are you with Casey?”

  “Yeah, and Megan. She’s going over some of the rules and commands and stuff. What’s up?”

  “I need the two of you to go to Banner E.R. We’ve got an eight-year-old girl who’s overdosed on something. We don’t know what kind of drug she used yet, but this is the third elementary schooler who’s OD’d this month. One’s too many, two is enough to get our attention, but three and the chief wants our unit to get involved. Find out what you can at the hospital, and then you two head to the school and start asking questions.”

  I guess our reprieve from getting new cases was over. Kate had only let up on us so we could clear our old caseload. I’d managed to whittle down the number of open cases to seven, which was the lowest amount I’ve had since I joined Special Crimes. Each detective in our unit usually carries anywhere from fifteen to twenty open cases at a time. Since Kate assigns us a couple of new ones every day, if we don’t continuously work our current caseload and bring cases to a logical conclusion, i.e., an arrest or a finding of no criminal activity, then our load grows.

  Stroking Peanut’s soft back while I thought about the case, I asked, “What did the other two OD on?”

  “Devil’s Breath.”

  “Devil’s Breath?” The three of us exchanged quizzical looks, and since it was obvious none of us had ever heard of it, I asked, “What the hell’s Devil’s Breath?”

  “I’ve only had a short discussion about it with Jack Dougherty. Why don’t you talk to the doctors about it, and we can compare notes?”

  Jack had only recently been assigned as the supervisor of the narcotics unit. His brother, Pete, had also tried for the job, and rumor had it that the two had fallen out over Jack’s selection.

  “Okay, Boss. We’re on our way.” We shoved what remained of our lunch into our mouths and walked to the register to pay our bills. Maureen hadn’t been kidding when she said I had to pay for the soup as well as the eggs and toast. I handed her my debit card and thought about stiffing her on the tip. Then I remembered how hard she works to keep the café open and gave her a hefty twenty-five percent tip. I mean, hefty is relative, but it was more than my usual twenty percent.

  She must have been expecting me to stiff her because she squinted at the total and then shifted sideways and took a step back. “What’s this?”

  I blinked stupidly at her, not sure what she meant. “What do you mean, what’s this?”

  “You say I deliberately stick my thumb in yer soup, and now you’re tryin’ t’ butter me up. Well, I don’ want none of it.” The receipt made a tearing sound as she ripped it in two and threw it into the trash. The register dinged as she zeroed out my bill and then rang up my order a second time.

  When she held it out to me, I stared down at the new bill, snatched it out of her hand, and proceeded to sign it. “For your information,” I slashed down on the paper as I wrote out the “x” in my name. “I wasn’t going to tip you at all since you stuck your thumb in the soup and then charged me for it anyway. But then I thought about how hard you work and decided you deserved a good tip.” I added the same amount of tip to this receipt and slammed the pen down on the counter. “There. Keep it or not.”

  Casey and Megan were already out in the parking lot when I stormed out of the door. Megan grabbed Casey’s arm and stage-whispered, “She’s pissed about something, and you’re probably better off just meeting her at the hospital. Lay low, ya know?”

  Nodding her agreement, Casey opened her car door and motioned for Captain to jump inside. Since he only came up to the floorboard, he jumped onto that first and then wriggled beneath the steering wheel and made himself comfortable on the center console.

  Peanut trotted along beside me and sat when I reached for my door handle. I opened it, expecting her to jump in the same way Tessa and Jynx did whenever we were going for a ride.

  Peanut just stared at me, waiting.

  I motioned to the seat. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

  When nothing happened, I bent down and scooped her into my arms, intending to toss her onto the front seat.

  “Alex, wait.” Apparently deciding to risk my ire for a teaching moment, Megan came hurrying over. “She was doing what’s she’s been trained to do. You need to tell her to get in. Put her down again.”

  I set her on the pavement and pushed her backside down, so she was in the semblance of a sitting position, and then glanced up to see Megan rolling her eyes. “What now?” My patience had run out while dealing with Maureen, and I felt more like biting Megan’s head off than listening to her tell me what I was doing wrong with a dog I didn’t ask for and didn’t need.

  With exaggerated patience, Megan pointed down at Peanut. “If you want her to sit, tell her to sit. Don’t just push down on her backside. Don’t you remember me telling you that it could hurt their back the first time you did that to Jynx?” She looked into my eyes and knew I didn’t want to hear any of her lectures. Plowing on, she said, “Now, point at the seat, and all you have to say is, get in.”

  Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, I stared down at Peanut, who stared up at me with a lopsided grin. I pointed to the seat and, with resignation in my voice, repeated what Megan had just said. “Get in.”

  Peanut, who wasn’t much taller than Captain, vaulted onto the seat like the little athlete she was. Both dogs were short and compact, but where Captain’s legs were sturdy little fireplugs, Peanut’s were spring-loaded pistons. Like Captain, Peanut climbed up onto the center console and sat.

  Megan whispered, “Tell her to get in back.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s where they’re trained to ride in a car. Can you just pretend we aren’t best friends when I’m teaching you stuff about Peanut and just do what I say without asking why?”

  “Fine.” I got in the driver’s seat and hitched my thumb over my shoulder. “Get in back, will ya?”

  Peanut leaned toward me and ran her tongue up the side of my cheek.

  I wiped off the doggy spit and smiled at her. “Am I being too grumpy?” After scratching her under her chin, I hiked my thumb over my shoulder again and repeated, “Get in back.”

  She must have decided I really meant it this time because she obediently turned and hopped onto the back seat.

  Megan shut my door and then knocked on the window, making rolling motions with her hands.

  I rolled down the window. “Couldn’t you have just said what you needed to say before you shut the damn door?”

  She leaned her crossed arms on the bottom lip of the window. “You know you can’t leave her in the car, right?” When I nodded, she continued, “And make sure you keep her on the leash. And when she’s working, people aren’t supposed to pet her.”

  “Megan, all this was in the briefing sheet we got last week.”

  “Yeah, but you never read stuff the department gives you, and this is super important stuff.”

  “I read it this time. I got this.”

  Not looking completely convinced, she backed up and allowed me to roll up the window and drive away.

  “Most of it,” I mumbled into the steering wheel.

  Chapter 4

  When I reached the hospital, I pulled into the space next to Casey, watched her open the rear door, lean in, and take hold of Captain’s leash. She stepped back, and only then did she allow him to exit the vehicle. I thought I remembered something about that in the instructions and mumbled, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I glanced over my shoulder and was pleasantly surprised to see Peanut waiting patiently in the back seat.

  I got out of the car and stepped to the rear door as though I would have done that even if I hadn’t just seen Casey do it. The effect was spoiled when I pulled on the handle and realized too late that the door was still locked. “Shit.” Blushing slightly, I shot a quick glance at Casey and knew she knew exactly what I’d done.

  I opened my front door again and jabbed the lock switch irritably. The back lock clicked open, and I slammed the front door a bit harder than necessary.

  “Easy, Alex. Don’t forget Peanut picks up on your feelings. She’s gonna think you’re angry at her, and that’s not a good way to get to know her.”

  Looking into the rear window, I saw the slightly worried look in Peanut’s eyes and reined in my temper. Once I had the door open, I slid in next to her and ran my hand between her perky little ears. “Sorry about that. It’s not you. You’re being a good girl. You know that?”

  Apparently, all was forgiven because she moved over and kissed my cheek again with a quick swipe of her tongue.

  I took hold of her leash, slid out and stepped back like Casey had done. “Let’s go.” When she didn’t come, I looked at Casey for help. I guess I needed to study that material a teensy bit more than I had.

  “The command is a simple, ‘Peanut, come.’”

  I sent her a grateful grin and then repeated, “Peanut, come.”