Read Online Give the Dog a Bone by Leslie O'Kane - Free Book Online

clubhouse,” Ken said. “I think they been laying pipes down for some new homes.”
    “When did she first start collecting these?” the officer asked, indicating the bones with a slight motion of his head.
    Ken shrugged. “A week . . . or two or three ago, I guess. And I just . . . never looked at them. It was Allie here who said they might be human.”
    The officer asked Ken to show him where his phone was and asked me to remain outside. I sat down on the step and waited. Several minutes elapsed, and I suspected that the officer was questioning Ken. A second patrol car pulled up, and the first officer emerged from Ken’s trailer to speak with him.
    By now both Ruby, her square jaw set in a frown, and Yolanda, peering out from her thick lenses, were standing by the side of the road. “What’s going on?” Ruby called.
    “Nothing to worry about, ma’am,” the first officer called back.
    After some discussion, the newly arrived officer asked Ken to show him where this “heavy equipment” was located, and the two of them headed out, Maggie once again barking vociferously from inside the trailer. Meanwhile, the first officer asked me to sit in his patrol car with him “for some privacy,” and to tell him what I knew about Ken Culberson.
    I recounted my initial meeting with Ken as best I could, my conversation with Terry Thames, and how Maggie had run off and then returned with the suspicious bone. I deliberately, however, left out my conversation with Ruby regarding her suspicions about Ken.
    Ken was wide-eyed and sweating profusely by the time he and the officer returned to his property. Having seen them coming down the street, the first policeman and I got out of the car. Ken brushed right past us and said, “I gotta go tell Maggie I’m back.”
    “We’ll come with you,” said the officer who’d accompanied him to the construction site. While Ken led the way into his home, the officer said quietly to the other, “Something’s not right. There’s another bone there, but it hasn’t got a speck of dirt on it. It’s just lying out in plain sight, no footprints or marks anywhere near. Looks like someone tossed it there.”
    Ken had already closed himself in the back room with Maggie. The first officer called, “You all right in there, Mr. Culberson?” His hand was resting on the holster of his gun as he asked.
    Ken, Maggie in tow, emerged. “I’m fine, but I gotta ask you to witness some paperwork for me.”
    “ ’Scuse me?”
    “Made some changes to my will, and I need someone to witness me signing ’em, just in case I’m . . . tied up for a while.”
    Changes to his will?
    The policemen looked at each other. “I . . . guess so,” one replied.
    Maggie, meanwhile, had resumed barking at the two officers. Over the noise, I asked, “Ken, you’re not feeling . . . in fear for your life for any reason, are you?”
    “Naw, I been needin’ to take care a this for a while now, ’n’ don’t get many visitors for official witnesses.” He looked at Maggie, once again his eyes reminding me for all the world of a sad Saint Bernard’s. “Allie, can you try ’n’ do something to help calm her down?”
    “Sure thing.” I clapped my hands and called, “Maggie, come.” Not wanting to face Ruby and Yolanda outside, I took Maggie into the kitchen and worked with the clicker. Remarkably, really, she instantly became so engaged in the game of getting treats for tricks that she ignored her owner and the two officers in the other room. But my thoughts were only partially occupied with the dog; I was more concerned with Ken. I suspected that he was scared he was not only about to be arrested, but that he would be incarcerated for a long time. Surely, though, he had nothing to do with the bones in his yard, and the police would let him go.
    Maggie began barking again when the doorbell rang. I tightly gripped her leash, and we joined the others in the living room. Ken opened the front door, where another