Watchers

jaws.
    Only as Travis took the phone book did he realize that he had expected the dog to understand his request. The animal’s extraordinary intelligence and abilities were now things that Travis took for granted.
    With a jolt, he also realized that the dog would not have brought the directory to him in the living room if it had not understood the purpose of such a book.
    “By God, fur face, you have been well named, haven’t you?”
     
     
6
    Although Nora usually ate dinner no earlier than seven, she was hungry. The morning walk and the glass of brandy had given her an appetite that even thoughts of Streck could not spoil. She didn’t feel like cooking, so she prepared a platter of fresh fruit and some cheese, plus a croissant heated in the oven.
    Nora usually ate dinner in her room, in bed with a magazine or book, because she was happiest there. Now, as she prepared a platter to take upstairs, the telephone rang.
    Streck.
    It must be him. Who else? She received few calls.
    She froze, listening to the phone. Even after it stopped, she leaned against the kitchen counter, feeling weak, waiting for the ringing to start again.
     
     
7
    When Nora Devon did not answer her telephone, Travis was ready to go back to the evening news on TV, but Einstein was still agitated. The retriever leaped up against the counter, pawed at the directory, pulled it to the floor again, took it in his jaws, and hurried out of the kitchen.
    Curious about the dog’s next move, Travis followed and found him waiting at the front door with the phone book still in his mouth.
    “What now?”
    Einstein put one paw on the door.
    “You want to go out?”
    The dog whined, but the sound was muffled by the directory in his mouth. “What’re you going to do with the phone book out there? Bury it like a bone? What’s up?”
    Although he received answers to none of his questions, Travis opened the door and let the retriever out into the golden, late-afternoon sunshine. Einstein dashed straight to the pickup parked in the driveway. He stood at the passenger door, looking back with what might have been impatience.
    Travis walked to the truck and looked down at the retriever. He sighed. “I suspect you want to go somewhere, and I suspect you don’t have in mind the offices of the telephone company.”
    Dropping the directory, Einstein jumped up, put his forepaws against the door of the truck and stood there, looking over his shoulder at Travis. He barked.
    “You want me to look up Miss Devon’s address in the phone book and go there. Is that it?”
    One woof.
    “Sorry,” Travis said. “I know you liked her, but I’m not in the market for a woman. Besides, she’s not my type. I already told you that. And I’m not her type, either. Fact is, I have a hunch that nobody’s her type.
    The dog barked.
    ‘‘NO
    The dog dropped to the ground, rushed at Travis, and took hold of one leg of his jeans again.
    “No,” he said, reaching down and grabbing Einstein by the collar. “There’s no point chewing up my wardrobe, because I’m not going.”
    Einstein let go, twisted out of his grasp, and sprinted to the long bed of brightly blooming impatiens, where he started to dig furiously, tossing mangled flowers onto the lawn behind him.
    “What’re you doing now, for God’s sake?”
    The dog kept digging industriously, working his way through the bed, back and forth, apparently bent on totally destroying it.
    “Hey, stop that!” Travis hurried toward the retriever.
    Einstein fled to the other end of the front yard and commenced digging a hole in the grass.
    Travis went after him.
    Einstein escaped once more to another corner of the lawn, where he began ripping out more grass, then to the birdbath, which he tried to undermine, then back to what was left of the impatiens.
    Unable to catch the retriever, Travis finally halted, gasped for breath, and shouted, “Enough!”
    Einstein stopped digging in the flowers and raised his head, snaky trailers of coral-red impatiens dangling from his mouth.
    “We’ll go,” Travis said.
    Einstein dropped the flowers and came out of the ruins, onto the lawn— warily.
    “No tricks,” Travis promised. “If it means that much to you, then we’ll go see the woman. But God knows what I’m going to say to her.”
     
     
8
    With her dinner platter in one hand and a bottle of Evian in the other, Nora went along the downstairs hallway, comforted by the sight of lights blazing in every room. On the upstairs