Chapter 11 - THE FIRE
The police took the note.
They found no fingerprints.
“Could be a prank,” Officer Daniels said.
Ben stared at him.
“Funny prank.”
“We’ll increase patrols.”
“That means drive past twice instead of once?”
“Mr. Carter.”
“Sorry.”
He wasn’t sorry.
That night, Ben refused to leave Ruby and the puppies alone.
Lisa brought coffee.
Mercer brought an old folding chair.
Harold brought a baseball bat.
Ben looked at it.
“You planning to play shortstop?”
Harold sat down.
“I don’t like threats.”
At midnight, nothing happened.
At one, nothing.
At two, Mercer fell asleep.
At two-fifteen, Harold started snoring.
Ben smiled.
Then Ruby stood.
Her ears went forward.
“What is it?”
She growled.
Ben heard footsteps.
Fast.
Someone appeared at the far end of the alley.
Black hoodie.
Black pants.
Face covered.
The person threw something.
A bottle smashed against the restaurant wall.
Flames exploded.
“Fire!”
Ben jumped up.
The flames raced across the wooden crates beside the back entrance.
Ruby barked wildly.
The puppies screamed.
“Water!” Ben shouted.
Mercer woke.
Harold grabbed an extinguisher.
The masked figure ran.
Ben started after him.
Then Ruby barked again.
The shelter.
Fire had caught one side.
Ben turned back.
“No!”
He grabbed the puppies.
One.
Two.
Three.
Smoke filled the alley.
“Ben!” Lisa screamed from the back door.
“Take them!”
He handed her the puppies.
“Where’s Ruby?”
The mother dog was inside the burning shelter.
“Ruby!”
Ben tried to reach her.
Heat pushed him back.
“Ben!” Mercer grabbed his shirt.
“Let me go!”
“You can’t go in there!”
“She’s inside!”
“She’s a dog!”
Ben turned so fast Mercer stepped back.
“She’s family.”
Ben wrapped a wet towel around his arms and charged forward.
Smoke burned his eyes.
“Ruby!”
A bark came from under the collapsed roof panel.
Ben pulled at the wood.
Too heavy.
“Help me!”
Mercer ran forward.
Harold joined him.
Together they lifted.
Ruby crawled out.
Her fur was singed.
But she wasn’t alone.
She was dragging something.
Ben stared.
A puppy.
The fourth puppy.
They had only counted three.
“God.”
Ruby had gone back for her baby.
Ben grabbed both of them.
The fire department arrived minutes later.
They extinguished the flames before they reached the kitchen.
Police searched the surrounding streets.
At three-thirty, an officer approached Ben.
“We got him.”
Ben stood.
“Who?”
The officer turned.
A young man sat in the back of a squad car.
Ben recognized him.
Tyler Kane.
Twenty-eight.
Former dishwasher at Carter’s Kitchen.
Ben had fired him two months earlier for stealing cash.
Tyler glared through the window.
“You ruined my life!” he screamed.
Ben stared.
Tyler slammed his hands against the glass.
“You made everybody think I was trash!”
Ben walked toward the car.
“You tried to burn puppies alive.”
Tyler laughed.
“You care more about those dogs than you ever cared about people!”
Ben stopped.
For a second, the words hit harder than he expected.
Then someone behind him said quietly:
“He’s wrong.”
Ben turned.
Mercer stood there.
May you like
And in his hand was the property sale contract.
He tore it in half.
