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Wait Driveway’s eood drunk and was now sleeping it off at a girlfriend’s house

Bullshit Big Jim doesn’t drink, and wouldn’t leave his kid sister at hoot out of the car andto follow She didn’t I called to her and patted ured itnot even looking at ain I realized no a, not even an all-out blues hambone, wouldat her collar She backed off, growling, looking at me with a disdain I didn’t think canines were capable of

"Coh all of this, John still didn’t stir I think that hat freakedthere in the uncomfortable bucket seat, twisted and slumped like a crash-test durabbed roughly at Molly’s collar

I’ to skip past the next tenMolly up to the house The plan was to tie her up around back and slip away unnoticed, but as I passed by the front door, it opened

Not all the way, just the few inches allowed by the security chain I was hit by that jittery caught-in-the-act feeling I turned, huge dog in my arms, to see the pale, freckled, utterly confused face of Jinized e where she recognized me from

Hey! Weren’t you in ’s back and spoke "U"

The door closed I stood there for an aard e to drop the ani, "Ji down and grabbed hold of her collar before she could bolt The door snapped open again and I half expected Big Ji a foot and a half above where the girl’s had been But it was the sister again, saying, "He’s co now Or you can have it if you want it"

"What?"

"The dog You can have it That one is worth a hundred and twenty-five dollars but you can have it free because it’s used"

"Oh, no I don’t need aI ht?"

"Ji"

"What, is there so with it?"

Her eyes flicked quickly fro ?

You andat her shoes

"Then why’d you pay a hundred twenty-five dollars for it?"

"Have you ever seen a golden retriever puppy?"

"Your brother isn’t here, is he?"

She didn’t answer

"I mean, there’s no car here Doesn’t he drive a Jeep or soun in the house Do you want the dog or not?"

"I--what? No Where’s Big Jim?"

"Who?"

"Jim, your brother"

"He just went down the street He’ll be back any second now"

"Dao to a party last night?"

Long pause She said, "Maybe"

Oh, shit, look at her She’s scared senseless

"Just outside of town, right? At the lake?"

She snapped, "You knohere he is?"

"No He never came home?"

She didn’t answer She wiped at one of her eyes

"The dog," I said "Molly, she was at the party Did he take her there?"

"No She ran off before that"

Sothe dog followed hi for Jim? Who knows

She said, "I think Jim’s dead"