Motor Mouth

on Rosa’s chest and pushed himself high enough to get his two front feet dug into the top of the wall. I got my head under his rear end, and when I stood straight he went over. There was a gasp and a thud and then there was silence.
    “Is Beans okay?” I whispered.
    “Yeah, he’s fine,” Suzanne said. “He landed on Felicia. It might take her a minute to catch her breath.”
    Rosa went up next, with a lot more blind determination than grace. She straddled the wall, turned onto her stomach, we locked hands and everyone pulled me over.
    We were all plastered against the wall. A swath of grass lay between us and the house. Maybe thirty feet deep. When we ran across the grass, we’d be exposed to view.
    “There’s no way around it,” Suzanne said. “We have to make a run for it. When we get to the house, we’ll be hidden again, and we can creep along and try to find a way in.”
    We got halfway across the grass, and all the outdoor lights flashed on.
    “We tripped the motion sensors,” Suzanne said. “Don’t anyone panic.”
    “They gonna let the Dobermans out next,” Felicia said, running onto a patio. “I’m not waiting for that. I’m going in where it’s safe.”
    She whacked a patio door with her gun butt, the glass shattered, she reached inside and opened the door, and the alarm system went off.
    We all rushed into the house, Beans included. We fumbled our way through the house in the dark, guns drawn, going room by room. No reason to go slowly or quietly. The alarm was whining. The phone was ringing. No one was answering the phone. Undoubtedly the security company calling. Their next call would be to the police.
    We crept into the kitchen, Beans gave an excited
woof
, and ran forward. Hard to hear much over the alarm, but there was the sound of something heavy crashing to the floor in front of us. Rosa flipped a switch, the kitchen came up like daylight, and we all gaped at Hooker. He was tied to a kitchen chair that Beans had tipped over. Beans was on top of him, giving him slurpeys, and Hooker was looking stunned.
    I ran to Hooker and counted his fingers. Ten!
Yahoo
!
    “Are you okay?” I asked him.
    “Yeah, I just got the wind knocked out of me when Beans hit the chair.”
    “What about Gobbles?”
    “He’s in the house somewhere. I don’t know what kind of condition he’s in. He might be upstairs.”
    “I’ll go look for him,” Rosa said.
    “Where is everybody else?” I asked Hooker.
    “Gone.”
    “That’s impossible. There’s only one way in and one way out, and we were watching it.”
    “They left by boat,” Hooker said. “Miranda and his two men. And Ray. And the dog shit. I guess Miranda didn’t think he could get much more out of you or me, so he took Ray. If the chip’s in the bag, everyone will be happy. If it isn’t, I imagine Miranda will hold Ray hostage until he duplicates the technology. And if he can’t duplicate the technology, I don’t think things will look good for Ray.”
    Felicia was working on Hooker’s ropes with a steak knife.
    “How’s it going?” Suzanne asked. “Is he almost cut loose? We need to get out of here before the police arrive. I don’t want a mug shot with my hair looking like this.”
    Felicia made a last swipe with the knife, and Hooker wriggled free. He got to his feet and looked around. “Where’s Beans?”
    “He was here a minute ago,” I said.
    Hooker whistled, and Beans came into the kitchen dragging Rodriguez, who was obviously incredibly dead.
    Felicia shook her finger at Beans. “You got to stop playing with the dead people.”
    Hooker found a box of crackers in a cupboard. “Here you go, guy,” he said to Beans. “I’ll trade you a cracker for the dead man.”
    I followed the drool smears down a hall to a powder room. The door was open, and I could see another body on the floor. I flipped the light on for a better look. It was Lucca. He was on his back, his black eye no longer seeming like much of a problem.
    I know Rodriguez and Lucca weren’t such nice guys. And I know they killed a bunch of people. Still, I felt bad they were dead. Okay, maybe not Lucca. I was a little glad Lucca was dead.
    I closed the door on Lucca and returned to the kitchen where Hooker and Felicia were trying to get Rodriguez to sit at the table.
    “How’s this?” Felicia asked me. “You think this looks natural?”
    “Yeah, if you don’t count that he’s been dead for two days, and you had to break both legs to get him