“Where are you?” he demanded.
“Sitting outside, with Mallory.”
“Have you called the police?”
There was a pause. “No, I didn’t think of that.” Now she sounded both exasperated and frightened.
Colin found Sibyl’s frequent absentmindedness both amusing and annoying. Especially now, with the exception that now he didn’t find it amusing.
“Call them,” he ordered as he exited his office and walked right passed Mandy without looking at her.
“Colin, I think,” she hesitated and then her voice dropped to a whisper, “oh my goddess, I think they’ve done something to Mallory.”
He was surprised at his strong reaction to the thought that something happened to her dog. It felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach.
“Why?” he asked cautiously, jogging down the stairs.
“He’s lying here, not moving, not awake. He’s breathing and I feel a heartbeat but he won’t wake up no matter what I do.”
“Sibyl, call the police,” Colin ordered. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
When her heard her shaky, “Okay,” he flipped the phone shut and lengthened his strides.
It took twenty-five minutes, on a good day when the traffic gods were smiling, to get to Sibyl’s house.
That day, the traffic gods were unhappy and Colin still made it there in fifteen.
There were three police cars outside her house as he pulled up.
After he’d exited his car, he saw Sibyl talking to five officers, all men, all hovering around her like she was a female rock god and they were her male groupies. This was not surprising considering she looked like a rock star with her hair a shower of golden tangles. She was wearing a long, full, chocolate brown skirt with a heavy, silver-looped belt hanging low on her hips. She accompanied this with her red cowboy boots and a bright red, long-sleeved t-shirt with a collar so wide it dipped off one shoulder. At the sight of Sibyl and her law-enforcing entourage, Colin kept hold of his temper by a thread but he managed this only because Sibyl noticed him and immediately ran to him.
When she reached him, she threw herself at him so forcefully it rocked him back on a foot.
This was the third time she’d touched him affectionately of her own volition (at that precise moment, he began counting).
She wrapped her arms around him, tucked her head under his chin and cried into his lapel. “Colin! Someone shot Mallory with a tranquilliser dart!” she imparted this extraordinary fact on Colin with a voice that was part furious, part incredulous and part scared.
Colin’s arms went around her and he automatically stroked her back and he did this while all the police were stared at them like they were a piece of performance art.
Colin lost patience and barked, “Don’t you have something to do?”
The police all jerked into motion but Sibyl seemed not to notice his angry outburst. She leaned back against his arm and peered up at him, a heartbreaking look in her very confused hazel eyes.
“Who would do something like that?”
He looked down at her pale, beautiful face and shook his head in answer because, of course, he had no idea who would do something like that and he understood now that Sibyl definitely wouldn’t know.
At that moment, he finally noticed Mallory lying on his side close to the entry of the house, his big dog body completely still.
Colin had never seen the dog when he at least didn’t thump his tail and he felt something slice through his gut at the sight.
He carefully pulled out of her embrace and, linking his fingers in hers, he guided her over to Mallory. Once there, he crouched down and felt the dog’s chest, noting a strong heartbeat and steady breathing. Other than that, the dog was motionless and, from far away, could even appear dead. Colin couldn’t imagine the shock that Sibyl had when she arrived home.
“Christ,” he muttered as he absently stroked the dog’s head, fury beginning to burn slowly in him.
“They called a vet to have a look at him. He hasn’t moved a muscle in ages. I’m kinda used to Mallory being relatively motionless but this is terrifying,” she told him, her voice still shaky.
Colin made no comment as he watched a police officer come toward them as the other four stayed where they were, pretending to be busy but still staring at Sibyl.
“And who might you be, sir?” the officer asked when he arrived.
“I’m her boyfriend.”
He felt ridiculous saying it but not after he heard Sibyl’s swift intake of breath, noted her quick, round-eyed glance and, most especially, when he caught the look of deep disappointment that passed across the policeman’s face.
“Oh, right.” He made an effort at recovery while Colin straightened, put his arm possessively around Sibyl and pulled her against his side, a gesture which made his role in her life perfectly understood. “There appears to have been a break-in,” the policeman continued.
“I already know that,” Colin informed him.
“And the dog has been shot by a tranquilliser dart.”
“I already know that too,” Colin said, his tone making it crystal clear his patience was quickly ebbing and that was not a good thing. “Can you tell me something I don’t know?”
The policeman shifted uncomfortably under Colin’s irate glare, belatedly, but correctly, assessing that Colin was not someone to be trifled with.
“We just made it to the scene a few minutes ago. We’ve ascertained there’s no threat. We have an officer checking the house now to see if there was anything obviously stolen, forced entry, that kind of thing.”
“Wouldn’t that go faster if all five of the officers standing out here checked the house?” Colin suggested sarcastically, inclining his head to their audience.
“Um… right,” the officer agreed and, after a glance at Sibyl and a brief hesitation, he trotted off to his colleagues who disbursed, some going to their cars, others going into the house.
Colin watched the sudden action and muttered with distracted irritation to Sibyl, “You’re too damned beautiful for your own good.”
When he finally swung his gaze to her, she was staring at him with eyes no longer hazel, but a warm, liquid sherry and her mouth was parted slightly in surprise. Then, as if wishing to hide her response to his comment, she turned in his arm and pressed herself against him, burying her face in his chest.
That was when he felt she was shaking.
“I can’t believe someone shot my dog,” she whispered.
His fury built and spread as his free hand went to her hair and stroked the heavy mass. There was nothing to say, he couldn’t believe it either.
They stood that way for some time. The longer they did so, Colin found the fury flowed out of him and he became rather contented. Sibyl, however, continued to tremble until his hand at her hair stroked the tremors away. Minutes ticked by then another officer exited the house and approached them.
“Seems like it’s just vandals,” he informed them upon his arrival. “We’ll have to ask Miss Godwin to walk through the house but the stereo’s still there, there’s some jewellery sitting on the chest of drawers, untouched. There have been some pillows destroyed, feathers everywhere. Some crockery broken. No real damage.”
“Has this happened before?” Colin asked.
“What, sir?” This officer, more intelligent, was the one who had been checking the house when Colin arrived as Colin hadn’t seen him before.
“This kind of thing at another house in the area, tranquilliser darts, vandalism?” Colin prompted.
“No, nothing,” the officer shook his head, “I’ll need to take Miss Godwin through to see if she can determine if anything’s missing.”