Fiction: Chapter 1: Josephine Street Private Investigators, Inc
From Reneé Blanchard here is Chapter 1 of “Josephine Street Private Investigators, INC” (2019)
Chapter 1: The Chase
“YAP. YAP. YAP. YAP. Keeping Digging Georgia! YAP. YAP. YAP.”
“I’m trying! Is anyone coming? Stop yelling so loud! ”
“No one is coming. I can’t help it! YAP. YAP. YAP. This is just how I bark!”
“Ok Beau come here!” Georgia was standing on the other side of the fence with her face down to the ground.
Georgia grabbed Beau’s nape and dragged him quickly under the fence and threw him into the air. He tumbled down the embankment but managed to find his footing as Georgia ran full steam ahead making sure Beau was on his feet.
“Let’s gooooooooOOOOOOO,” she howled. Beau knew she was serious when her commands went on and on in that weird up and down voice she made sometimes.
Beau caught up and they ran quickly down the sidewalk following the hot scent of their good friend Lainey. A stranger had grabbed Lainey from the yard just moments ago and Georgia and Beau were hot on their trail. There is no way these friends would ever let something bad happen to any of them. They could still hear footsteps.
Beau was known for his ability to follow a scent without distraction. He was on the job. Georgia followed close behind. Beau knew his giant life-long friend would always protect him.
Even at night, February in South Florida made sure the air was still slightly warm. The moon above them was so big and full. They moved forward without interruption for what seemed like forever. They were running and Beau’s tiny legs couldn’t hold on for as long as Georgia’s long legs and big paws could.
“We have to stop. I can’t go anymore. Let’s rest over there.” Beau started moving into the direction of a gas station. A young boy was rinsing off mats in the back with the door propped open. Beau gave Georgia a small sneeze and they separated.
Beau ran up to the young boy. As the boy bent down and fawned over the cute little dog, Georgia snuck into the gas station and pulled a bag of bread and some beef jerky off a shelf and snuck back out the shop with ease.
“What a fluffy old man you are! What kind of dog are you? Are you a little shitzu? You look like my grandmother’s dog but black and grey instead of white.” Beau let the boy pet him a little more keeping an eye under his long hair on the door. Once he saw Georgia leave safely with some yummy dinner, Beau gave the tall boy with curly hair a quick lick on the cheek and ran off in Georgia’s direction. “Bye puppy! Be careful wherever you’re going!” Beau could still hear the boy shaking the mat when they turned onto the sidewalk.
The two friends ran quickly into the neighborhood behind the shopping center. They found their way next to a honeysuckle bush. The winter had been warm and there were already blooms. Beau held his nose up into the sweet warm air and with three quick deep sniffs remembered the yard where until recently he had roamed his whole life. He missed Lainey but he was also starting to miss the girl that smelled like apple pie.
Georgia dropped the bread and bag of jerky and lay down in a lump. They were so tired. Beau ripped open the bread and nudged a piece next to Georgia and taking one more slice before lying down himself.
They ate in silence next to the sweet smelling blooms and the sound of slow water from the Intercostal somewhere behind the big house. They watched the moon shining brightly above in between bites.
“Mommy! Doggies!!!!”
“Oh my god! Brandon get away that one is so big! He’s going to bite you!” Mommy grabbed her son and pulled him behind her. Georgia jumped to her feet to see a family staring at them. The sun was shining already. They must have fallen asleep for hours. She nudged Beau awake, grabbing his nape with her teeth to get him up and then starting to run before he knew what was happening.
“Oh my god! Call the police Henry! There is a vicious pitbull attacking a smaller dog outside! He’s going to kill him!”
“YAP. YAP. What are you doing Georgia! YAP. YAP. YAP.” Beau snapped at Georgia’s ankles. Georgia swerved out the way of her cranky friend.
“Run Beau! Run!” she barked loud and quick.
Georgia and Beau were back down on the main road before Henry even made it out the door. Their legs were sore, but they had to keep going. Lainey needed them.
Several blocks up they decided they needed to get off the main road. Too many cars and people pointing at them. Georgia was often mistaken for a pitbull, which she did not care about, but people’s reactions to her made her feel bad. One of her good friends at the park was a pitbull and she was very lovely! But people always thought she was going to bite them. She was just excited to meet new friends and liked to meet them eye to eye. No matter how big she smiled people always thought something bad was going to happen. She liked having Beau around because everyone liked small dogs. And even though he was always starting problems with other dogs that she had to solve, people were more likely to be nice to her with him around.
They turned down a small street to regroup.
“Beau, can you smell her? Is she nearby?” Georgia said, looking back just to make sure they weren’t being followed.
Beau walked around with his nose in the air and his tail pointing in the opposite direction. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff.
“I think I still smell her. Let’s keep walking in that direction.”
“I think I can hear water this way. Let’s just take a dip in the ocean real fast.” Georgia started walking towards Deerfield Beach.
It’s a beach the girl that smelled like apple pie had taken them often. They knew right where they were. Georgia just wanted a quick swim to feel a little better.
Beau went walking on the beach while Georgia splashed her big paws while walking into the ocean. She bent down low so the small waves washed over her. She kept her head high out of the water closing her eyes to the sun. Beau didn’t like the waves but he liked learning about all the people and dogs who had been at the beach before they arrived.
A trail of someone familiar led him to a towel under the newly rebuilt pier. Hurricane Wilma had been so long ago but the pier still seemed new to him and the beach had been redone in the years afterwards. It was nice now with pavement and rocks and pretty new trees. Lots of turf to cover!
This towel. Beau kept sniffing. He swore he knew who this belonged too, but he couldn’t quite place it. Wait. He wandered away from the towel closer to the water where he noticed something tangled up in the seaweed that he recognized. “Georgia! YAP. YAP. Georgia!” Beau held the collar in his teeth as he ran to Georgia. “YAN. YAN. YAN. Laiinney! YAN. YAN. YAN.”
Georgia stood up in the surf and shook off the salt water. She looked back at Beau running towards her. What was he holding? What was he saying?
“Beau, I can’t understand you. What is in your mouth?”
Beau dropped the collar. “Georgia! It’s Lainey’s collar. I found it near some towel under the pier.” She sniffed it. She looked up, her eyes searching the beach in front of them.
“Why would her collar be way over here? Do we even know who took her?” Georgia looked over to the pier. Beau picked up the collar again and they started walking back to where he had found it.
Georgia sniffed the towel. “The Smoking Stick man! Beau it’s that man that was staying around the corner. It has to be! I remember this towel. It was in his car that time Apple Pie was so upset about her car and we had to go home from the park with Buster and Sugar in his car.”
“Are they still here?” Beau looked around walking closer to the sidewalk.
“Doggies! ” They heard a woman with a voice like sandpaper getting closer to them. When they turned around the woman was running up to them.
She scooped them up and fell sideways into the sand. Georgia and Beau were both licking her face and keeping her in the sand. They were so excited to see someone who was excited to see them!
“Oh my god! Did you run away? Where are your people?” The woman finally was able to stand up and she looked around. Beau brought over Lainey’s collar. And Georgia grabbed the towel and dropped it at her feet.
The woman gasped and looked around with a worried face for a moment but Georgia pushed the towel closer to her feet and started walking towards the road. The sandpaper-voiced woman followed. Beau was right behind them with Lainey’s collar. She looked around as a large white car pulled up.
“YAP. YAP. YAP. What is happening? Georgia! YAP. YAP. YAP. YAP Oh no!”
“NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.” Georgia couldn’t stop barking.
As Georgia was being shoved into a white Nissan, she looked intently at an old man turned around from his chair on the sand. She saw a young man carrying surf board stopped walking and looked confused in their direction. Georgia could see two women on the patio of the condo across the street watching. One stood up and pointed but no one saved them.
“Ok they’re in! Let’s go Bradly. I don’t think anyone saw us. We’re about to make so much money! That big white Boxer is going to get us so much cash in New Orleans!”
Beau ran under Georgia who was balancing herself while the car took off. Both dogs fell against the seat when the car took off. Beau began shaking and panting heavily. Georgia was still barking and her fur made a little mohawk on her back. There was something like a fence separating the front of the SUV where the man and woman were sitting and the back where Beau and Georgia were huddled together.
“Georgia, what are we going to do?” Beau was looking at Georgia who was staring with her head low looking intently under the seat finally quiet. Was she seeing eyes under the seat?
“Georgia? Beau?” A small voice poured towards them from the darkness.
“Lainey?” Georgia whispered after the initial shock started to wear off. She lay flat against the floor and stared at the two glowing green eyes. “What is going on?”
The three dogs stared at each other. Beau and Georgia huddled together, Lainey still too scared to move.
The sun had gone away by the time they were allowed out of the car into some grass to go potty. Cars drove past so fast. Beau, Georgia, and Lainey stayed close to each other on their leashes tethered to the woman. The man stayed in the car and was talking on the phone.
Georgia looked up into the sky. The moon was still big and bright. The air still smelled like the ocean. The woman threw a couple handfuls of food in the grass in front of them. They ate as much as they could find before being shuttled back into the car.
“I can’t believe we found the other two dogs. Haaaa! They came to us, Olivia! What were they chasing . . . . that other dumb dog? Ha! We are the luckiest dog nappers in the history of the world!” The man flicked a cigarette before the window went back up and the car started moving.
“Lainey, why did the Smoking Stick man take you?” Georgia finally asked when the car had been moving for a long time.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in so long and then all of a sudden he was in this car. And that woman that took me out of the yard was laughing. He’s so crazy.”
“I never trusted him!” Beau made his opinion of the dognappers known.
Georgia and Lainey stared at Beau with their heads tilted slightly. They both remembered how Beau would sit on the man’s lap all the time when he came over to their foster house.
“I miss my mom. I miss us all hanging out in the backyard together. I miss y’alls foster mom too. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Lainey managed to mumble out. She rested her head on Georgia’s paw. Beau and Georgia rested their heads down too. Soon they were all sleeping to the sound of the tires on the highway.
