Motor Mouth - Janet Evanovich [41]
“How about the pool?”
“The pool?”
“Yeah, I think that’s Beans down by the pool.”
Hooker came to the window and looked out. “That’s my dog!” He ran to his newly acquired duffel bag and started rummaging around in it.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for my gun,” he said. “I’m getting my dog back.”
“You can’t go down there with a gun! We have to be sneaky about this. It looks to me as if they’re passing by the pool area to get to the little dog park. I’ll go down to the lobby and follow them back to their room. Then we just wait for the guy to leave, and we go in and rescue Beans.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“You can’t go with me. Everybody knows you. You’ll spook the Beans-napper. Just sit tight and keep the ice on your eye.”
I ran down the hall, punched the elevator button, and seconds later I was in the lobby, hiding out behind a potted palm. I called Hooker on my cell phone.
“Do you see them?” I asked Hooker.
“No. They walked past the pool and disappeared. Wait a minute, here they are. They’re walking back the same way they left. They’re about to come into the hotel.”
I heard Beans panting before I saw him. He wasn’t a hot-weather dog. He was walking beside a guy wearing khaki cargo shorts and a collared knit shirt. In his late thirties. Soft in the middle. They stopped in front of the elevator and the guy pushed the button. When the doors opened, I hurried over and slipped into the elevator with them. Two more people followed.
Beans’s ears instantly went up, his eyes got bright, and he started jumping around doing his happy dance. The guy was trying to control Beans, but Beans was having none of it. He pushed against me, snuffling my leg, leaving a wake of dog slobber from my knee to my crotch.
“He’s usually so well behaved,” the guy said. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“Dogs like me,” I said. “Must be something about the way I smell. Eau de pot roast.”
The elevator stopped at the sixth floor and the guy got out, but Beans wouldn’t leave my side. Beans had his four feet planted and his toenails dug into the elevator floor. The guy pulled at the leash, and Beans sat down. Hard to move Beans when he’s got his mind made up not to move. The two remaining people were nervously crowded into a corner.
“Maybe I should adopt him,” I said. “Want me to take him off your hands?”
“Lady, I lose this dog and my life isn’t worth dirt.”
I stepped out of the elevator, and Beans got up and moved to my side. “This isn’t my floor, but I’ll walk you to your room,” I told the dognapper. “Your dog seems to have attached himself to me.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like he knows you.”
“Yeah, it’s weird. I have this happen all the time.”
We walked down the hall to the dognapper’s room, he inserted his key card, then he opened the door.
I pointed to the sign dangling from the doorknob. “I see you have a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door.”
“Yeah, I keep it there so the maid doesn’t come in. I can’t take a chance on someone accidentally letting the dog out.” He stepped inside and tugged on the leash. “Come on, big guy. Be a good dog.”
Beans pressed himself against me, and I fondled his head. “I don’t think he wants to go into the room.”
“He’s got to. I got things to do, and I can’t take him with me.”
“I could take him for a walk for you.”
“Thanks for the offer, but he was just out for a walk, and he did everything, if you know what I mean.” He searched through his pockets and came up with a dog biscuit. “I save these for emergencies,” he said. “I don’t give him too many because I don’t want him to get fat.” He threw the dog biscuit into the room, Beans bounded in after it, and the door was slammed shut.
I stood outside, waiting and listening, and a moment later I heard Beans give a woof. There was the sound of a body getting knocked to the floor, and there was some swearing.
I got back into the elevator, returned to the lobby, and called Hooker. “I have a plan. Meet me in the lobby. And try not to be conspicuous.