Gaits of Heaven

uses.”
     

CHAPTER 38
     
    That same Tuesday afternoon at about four o’clock, I got another pleading call from Ted Green. His previous pleas had been merely alarmist. This time, his ordinarily pleasant, calm voice sounded weak and thick. He said that his ankle was in a cast and that he wasn’t supposed to put weight on it. His new housekeeper hadn’t shown up. At his insistence, Barbara had returned Dolfo. He’d managed to get down the back steps to take Dolfo out, but the exuberant dog had jumped on him and knocked him to the ground. He’d had to crawl back upstairs to the house. It seemed to me that he hadn’t been thinking straight: the yard was fenced, and if he was unable to manage stairs, he should just have let Dolfo out and then in. Ted went on. He was out of dog food, the milk was sour, he’d had to cancel all his patients, and he was on so much pain medication that he belonged in bed. Barbara and George weren’t home. He didn’t know what to do. Oy vey iz mir! The cry was merited. He really needed help.
    Caprice was there when I took the call. “What’s true is that Ted has no real friends,” she said when I’d hung up. “He has people he sucks up to, people he wants to impress, that kind of thing. There were people who cared about my mother, but they were her friends, not Ted’s. They know what a poseur he is. He called you because he knew you’d feel sorry for him.”
    Mindful of Kevin’s warning, I said, “Look, I’m not crazy about the idea of going there alone, but he sounds terrible. I do feel sorry for him. But... Caprice, bad things happen in that house. I don’t have to tell you that.”
    “They probably won’t happen to you,” she said.
    “I’ll just take over milk and dog food. I’ll drop it off. I won’t stay. Or maybe Barbara and George are home by now. They’d help. I’m sure Barbara would take Dolfo.”
    “She tried to talk them out of buying him,” Caprice said. “She said there was no such thing as a golden Aussie huskapoo and that if they wanted a mixed-breed dog, they should go to a shelter.”
    “She was right. But at least there’s nothing wrong with his temperament, why, I can’t imagine. According to everything I know about dogs, it’s a miracle that he isn’t biting people. Anyway, let me try Barbara and George. If they aren’t there and if I really think that safety is an issue, I’ll get Steve to keep Dolfo at the clinic. I can’t have him here, not with our five.”
    I had no luck in reaching Barbara and George, and reluctantly decided to make a quick trip to Ted’s. I didn’t ask Caprice to accompany me. It was her idea. She insisted. “After what happened last night, Wyeth won’t be there. Really, I don’t mind. I want to go with you.”
    I filled a couple of heavy-duty food-storage bags with dry dog food. In case Barbara and George were out of town and Ted insisted on keeping Dolfo with him, I also took two stuffed Kong toys from the freezer to keep Dolfo happy in his crate. On the drive to Ted’s, I stopped for milk and, on impulse, also got eggs, bread, and cheddar cheese; for all I knew, the housekeeper wasn’t the only one who’d failed to show up, and if the milk had turned, Ted might be short on other perishables, too. When we arrived, one of the three parking spots in the paved area next to Ted’s house was empty. Instead of pulling into it, I backed into a space on the street, as if to remind myself that I was just dropping off supplies and not really paying a visit. Caprice helped me to carry everything in. We left our shoes on the porch, of course. When I rang the bell, I heard Ted call out, and Dolfo barked, but no one came to the door, so Caprice used her key.
    The house reeked of urine, and I made the mistake of putting one stocking foot on a dark carpet only to feel moisture seep through. Dolfo greeted us by running madly up and down the stairs to the second floor, but at least he didn’t manage to jump on either of us. We found Ted on a couch in the family room. His hair was greasy, and his skin was pale and waxy. I was used to seeing Ted in the kinds of trendy clothes that Steve would never have bought, and he’d always looked as if his clothes were brand new or fresh from the cleaner. Now, he wore an unfashionably wrinkled lime-green shirt with a coffee-colored stain on the front. Instead of trousers, he had on baggy maroon shorts that he must have chosen because he’d been able to pull them on despite the