Never had she seen dogs trained so well. She lowered her butt to the floor. “You two doing okay?” Their tails picked up speed, but they didn’t approach. She should have thought to ask for command words.
“Come.” That seemed to be the magic word, as both bounded into her arms, Sally giving a joyful bark. She’d played with them for a few minutes, tossing their balls up in the air for them to catch, when her phone buzzed.
The caller ID displayed Cody’s name.
CHAPTER SIX
After he and Ryan arrived in Fort Dodge and had checked into their adjoining rooms, Cody decided to use the ten minutes before meeting Ryan to call Riley. He pressed her number, flopping onto the bed as he listened to the ring tones.
“Hi, Cody.”
Expecting to leave a message because she would be with a patient, he was surprised when she answered.
“You there?” she said.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.” Her voice, even with those few words, soothed him better than the finest scotch. With the phone pressed to his ear, he stuffed the second pillow behind his back.
“Guess what I’m doing right now?”
Things he’d like her to do popped into his head, and he willed them away. If she could read his dirty mind, she’d hang up. “I’m not good at guessing.” He rolled his eyes. Somewhere along the way, between graduating from college and now, he’d forgotten how to have a conversation with a woman.
A bark he recognized as Sally’s happy one sounded. “You’re playing with my dogs.” She would never know it, but she’d just stolen a piece of his heart.
“I am. Hold on a sec. Okay, you’re on speaker. Say something.”
That she would think of doing that made him want to kiss her. Not that he needed a reason. “Pretty Girl. Sally. You guys behaving for Riley?” Two excited barks answered him.
She laughed. “They’re going crazy trying to sniff you out of the phone.”
It was the first time he’d heard her laugh, and he liked thinking of her as happy. There was a knock on his door. “I have to go. Thanks for spending time with them.”
“We’re having a ball, so don’t worry. Um, I wanted to ask, would you mind if I take them to the dog park?”
Something in her voice set off alarm bells, but he couldn’t think of a reason to refuse. “They’d love that. They know all the commands, sit, come, heel.”
More laughter poured through the phone. “You should have seen them just now. They sat, then came to the phone, then seemed confused about how they were supposed to heel.”
“Down,” he said. “Did they lie down?”
“They did.”
It was the first time he’d given them commands via a phone, and he chuckled. Ryan knocked again. “I’ll try to call you tomorrow.”
“Okay. It was nice talking to you.”
“Same here.”
“Cody?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful, okay?”
“Always am.” Her voice had been so soft when she’d said that, and as he hung up, he rubbed his chest, over his heart. The damn thing had gone all fluttery on him. Other than his teammates, and his parents from afar, when was the last time someone had worried about him?
“Coming,” he yelled at another series of knocks. He stuck his room key into his wallet, and went to the door.
“There was a robbery at a convenience store three nights ago in Sac City. The description fits this kid,” the Fort Dodge police chief said, handing the couple’s photo back to Ryan after making a copy. “Got the APB about it this morning.” He flipped through some papers on his desk.
And wasn’t that just great? Cody exchanged a glance with Ryan. The game had just changed.
“Was the girl with him?” Ryan asked.
Finding what he was looking for, the chief scanned the sheet. “No, just the kid. He had a gun. Clerk said it looked like an old one.” He eyed the copy he’d made of the photo. “I’ll be sending this out to the other police departments around here, along with the boy’s name.”
Ryan stuck the photo back into his file folder. “That’s fine. Any description of their car?”
Reading the APB again, the chief shook his head. “Not a good one. Dark. Midsized. That’s it.”
Cody turned to a map on the wall. “Where’s Sac City from here?” He scanned the area around Fort Dodge. Kincaid had arranged this meeting with the chief. Otherwise, the cop wouldn’t be so willing to share information with two men who’d walked in off the street.
“On the way out to Storm Lake. Take 20 out of Fort Dodge.”
Cody found Sac City, a small dot on the map. More interesting was Storm Lake, which was larger and had a big lake. A tourist destination that would appeal to a couple of kids and one they might think they could get lost in. It probably never occurred to the brainless twits that it was December. Although there was no snow yet, it was damned cold in Iowa. Had they even thought to bring winter clothes on their little adventure?