“Who’s going in with me?” he finally asked.
“I will,” Katie said.
“A building this size, I’ll need two officers.”
“I’ll go, too,” Sully offered.
“Might as well keep the Irish together,” Battaglia said. “I’ll hold the door.”
Gomez nodded his approval and moved up to the open door. He swung it completely open and propped it with his foot.
“Attention in the building!” he shouted in a deep, booming voice. “River City Police Department.”
Cert barked raucously, lunging toward the open doorway.
“Sadni!” Gomez told him.
Cert reluctantly sat back on his haunches, but continued to bark.
Gomez turned back to the open door. “This building is going to be searched by a police dog! If he finds you, he will bite you!”
As if to reinforce the last point, Cert’s bark dissolved into a vicious growl.
“We shouldn’t warn ‘em,” Battaglia said. “Just send the dog in and let it be a big surprise. Giving them a chance to give up after doing a burglary is a bunch of crap.”
“It’s the law,” Gomez said, but he was smiling. “Besides, they never give up.”
“I wonder why,” Battaglia said.
“Same reason they consent to a search of their person when they’re holding a gun or dope. Because they don’t think we’ll find it.”
Battaglia had to agree. “Thank God criminals aren’t smart.”
“The smart ones are the ones you’ve never heard of,” Sully said.
Gomez repeated his warning, his deep voice carrying in the still of the warehouse. Cert punctuated the warning with his eager yelps and barks.
There was no answer from inside.
Gomez glanced over at Katie. “What’s the word?”
She shook her head. “It’s a false alarm.”
A smile spread over Gomez’s face. He turned to his dog and released the leash. “Fuss ‘em up, boy! Go get him! Get the bad guy!”
Cert needed no encouragement. The Shepherd bolted into the dark of the warehouse, whining with anticipation. Gomez listened carefully for him. The sounds of his whines and the clacking of his toenails on the concrete floor echoed back to the open doorway.
“Come on, Diablo,” Gomez whispered. “Find him.”
A rash of excited barking broke out and Gomez’s eyes lit up. “He’s found something.” He strained his ears, listening. The barking remained at the same intensity for about thirty seconds.
“I don’t hear any screams,” Battaglia said.
“He must be at a door,” Gomez said and yelled into the open doorway. “Revere!”
The barking broke off immediately and the officers could hear the huffing of the police dog as he returned to the door. He bowled into Gomez, clearly agitated.
“What’s his problem?” Sully asked.
“He’s mad because I called him off.” Gomez slipped the leash back on Cert’s collar and drew his pistol. “There’s somebody in there.”
All three officers drew their weapons.
“Check interior doors as we go,” Gomez told Katie and Sully. Then without waiting for a response, he plunged into the warehouse.
Katie followed, even managing to beat Sully through the doorway. She used her flashlight, careful not to backlight Gomez. The K-9 officer was moving swiftly down a hallway and into an open bay. She heard Sully check a door on her left and kept moving.
Once they reached the open bay at the end of the hallway, they shined their lights all around. A small office was built into the corner and the door was closed. Another door led into the next bay.
“Check the bay door,” Gomez said.
Katie walked quickly over and tried the knob. It was locked. She shook her head at Gomez.
“Where is he, boy?” Gomez asked.
Cert pulled against his leash and tried to physically drag the muscular handler toward the small office built in the corner of the room. Once they reached the door, the dog barked excitedly and scratched at the door.
Gomez directed Katie and Sully into position, then ordered Cert to sit. The black Sheperd reluctantly obeyed, letting a whining growl escape his throat.
“Light up the door,” Gomez said and both Katie and Sully shined their flashlights on the flimsy interior door to the office. Gomez checked the knob and it was also locked. He gave it a firm rap. “Attention in the office. This is the River City Police Department. Make yourself known, or I will send in the police dog!”
Cert yipped in agreement.
“If he finds you, he will bite you!” Gomez yelled.
Cert yipped and growled in delight.
“Last chance!” Gomez said.
There was no reply.
Gomez waited a full fifteen seconds, then punted the door right below the doorknob. The door flew inward and Gomez released Cert from his leash. The dog sailed through the open door like a missile.
Almost immediately, the sounds of human shrieks and deep, canine growls filled the air.
“Ah! Jesus! Get him off me!”
Cert’s guttural growl signified his opposition to that idea.
Gomez charged into the room, his flashlight and his gun ahead of him. Katie followed. As soon as she entered, she used her light to illuminate the black dog, who was astride a thin male. The male on the ground tried to pull his right forearm from the dog’s jaws.
“Make him stop! Oh, please! Oh, God!”
Cert gave a low growl and shook his head from side to side. The man screeched.
“Revere!” Gomez commanded.
Cert gave the man another half-shake for good measure and let go, returning to Gomez’s side. The man rolled away, holding his forearm and crying loudly.
“Cuff him!” Gomez ordered.
Katie and Sully sprung forward and took control of the man. Blood streamed from his forearms.
“Glove up,” Sully told Katie. He put his knee on the man’s back and his palm pressed the man’s head into the pavement. The man kept crying out and flopping his arms, but he remained pinned. “I’ll hold him ‘till you can cuff him.”
Katie removed a pair of surgeon’s gloves from her back pocket and pulled them on, snapping each one over her wrists. Then she removed her secondary pair of handcuffs. If she was going to get blood on her equipment, she didn’t want it to be her primary set of cuffs.
The man cried out in pain when she drew his wrists together and cuffed them. His crying faded to a whimper when they stood him up and walked him out of the warehouse and to her car. While Katie searched his pockets, Gomez and Sully returned to the warehouse to double search, just in case the man had accomplices.
She found an intricate set of lock picks in one of his back pockets and a thin canvas bag in the other. He was definitely not a low rent burglar.
“What’s your name?” she asked as she checked his waistband.
“Fucking Alpo,” he said, his voice full of whiny indignation, “and I’m suing all of your asses.”
She ran her hand down his leg and checked his pant cuffs. “Why didn’t you just give up?”
“Because I didn’t think you’d let the fucking dog bite me.”
Katie just shook her head.
Sully and Gomez returned from the secondary search. Gomez threw a tennis ball for Cert and told him what a good boy he was. Katie popped her trunk and found some gauze pads and tape in the first aid kit. She made a quick bandage on the suspect’s arm for the trip to the hospital emergency room.
Gomez put Cert back in the K-9 car and walked up to Katie just as she was putting her prisoner in the back of the car.
“You going to Sacred Heart?”
Katie nodded.
“I’ll just follow you up then and get his info. Can you call for a corporal to meet us up there? I need some photos of the bite marks.”
“Sure.”
“That fucking dog is crazy!” the man yelled from the backseat of Katie’s patrol car.
“No, he’s not,” Gomez told him. He winked at Katie. “But he is a devil.”