Rachel Alexander 05 - The Wrong Dog

most obvious thing. But not this time.
    When I got to the redbrick building on the northeast corner of Horatio and Washington, Blanche pulled to go in. But the building was locked up for the night. All the windows were dark, and if there was a cleaning staff that worked at night, after everyone else had gone home, they’d either not yet come or had already left. I let Blanche pull me up the steps so that I could check the names next to the bells. I went over all of them, even though Sophie had said the veterinary office was on the first floor. She hadn’t given me the name of a veterinarian. Perhaps she was never told a name.
    This building seemed an unlikely place for a veterinary practice. But I’d check again when the building was open and see who was on the first floor, and if there was no Horatio Street Veterinary Practice there, see if anyone remembered it being there two years earlier.
    I felt Blanche’s tail banging against my leg. When I looked down at her, to see what was up, she began to pull hard in the opposite direction, away from the building and toward Bianca.
    “What a surprise. What brings you here?”
    “She was restless so I decided to take her for a long walk.” Mel gestured behind him with one of those long wiggly arms of his.
    “You took her for a walk along the river?”
    He nodded. “But when I started thinking, this was where it all began. So I thought I’d come and take a look.” He nodded again.
    “You wanted to take a look at this building?”
    “I never get to this part of the Village. My clients are all around Washington Square Park. So I thought I’d swing by, you know what I mean?”
    “Yeah, I do. I had the same feeling.”
    “It’s locked, huh?”
    “Looks to be.”
    “You coming back tomorrow?”
    “Maybe.”
    “Not definitely? Don’t you have to talk to the vet who cloned Bianca? Isn’t that what Sophie wanted you to do?“
    “I don’t think I’m going to find a veterinary office in this building.”
    “But didn’t Sophie say that this was the place?”
    “She did.”
    “That’s odd.”
    “The whole thing’s odd, wouldn’t you say?”
    He nodded. “But—”
    “I doubt there ever was a vet’s office here.”
    “How come?”
    “They’d never have clients go through the lobby of an office building with their animals. It doesn’t make sense.“
    “I guess not.”
    “You always enter directly from the street.”
    He nodded.
    “Anyway, there’s something more urgent I need to do.” He opened his mouth and lifted his arms, but that was all that happened.
    “How long can we take care of these two, Mel? I need to find out if any arrangements were made for them and, if not, find them someplace permanent. And soon.”
    Bianca was licking Blanche’s mouth, her tail wagging frantically.
    “It must be very hard for them to be apart.”
    He looked at the dogs and smiled. “That’s why I took Bianca out. Like I said, she was restless.”
    “Which way are you headed?” I asked him, realizing I didn’t know where he lived.
    He lifted a loose arm and pointed north. I stood there for a couple of minutes after he left, and then thought of someplace that would be open, even at this hour. So I followed in the same direction Mel had walked with Bianca, heading for Florent on the slim chance that someone who worked there would know if there was a veterinary practice a short block away.
    When I got to the comer, I looked around for Mel, but he seemed to have disappeared.

Chapter 8
    He Waved His Hand Back and Forth

    “How you been?” Dr. Chen asked as he began to insert the slender needles in my arm.
    “Pretty good,” I told him. “Considering.”
    “Considering what? Broken arm? Arm almost one hunderd percent now. You come twice more, that’s it. Arm good as new.”
    I shook my head.
    “Ah. You start work again?” He shook his head. “No good. Arm still needs rest. Body needs rest to repair arm. Only two more weeks. You no can wait?”
    “I need to work so that I can pay for acupuncture,” I lied, not wanting to hear the rest of his lecture.
    “Insurance pays for acupuncture. What you think, I was born yesterday?”
    I shook my head. “No, but—”
    “You no plan unpaid vacation. Unpaid vacation happens. You have no choice.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I go with the flow. But I have to pay the insurance premiums, Dr. Chen, not to mention rent.”
    “You wait two more weeks.”
    “I can’t. I’ve already taken a job. This woman called me and