Read 1 PAWsible Suspects for Free Online Page B

Battleship, I knew approximately where he was and started swinging to all sides of the first hit. I connected again and then a third time. While I was preparing to hit him again, the intruder’s flashlight swung and hit me on the side of the head.
    You really do see little yellow stars when you get hit hard enough. I staggered back but kept the bat poised for another hit. I had thought that I had done some damage to the man, but if he could still hit like that, either I wasn’t hitting hard enough or he had superpowers of some sort.
    “Give me the Scotties, and no one gets hurt,” said a voice I didn’t recognize. It was definitely male and had the accent of a true Toledo resident.
    “Too late,” I said as I swung again. This time, I must have hit a bone because the flashlight skidded down the hall, and the house grew dark. My eyes had gotten used to the level of light from the flashlight, and now I couldn’t see a thing.
    I heard more cursing, and so I figured that I’d done some damage. I was proud of myself. I had kept my head so far and hadn’t panicked or let the person do any real harm to me. I thought that my sister would be proud of me, wherever she was.
    The man started shuffling down the hall. From the sound of the footsteps, he was trying to get away from me. I had the upper hand if he didn’t want to be here anymore. At least, he would think twice before trying to break into my house again.
    I moved into a sparring position as I went into the hall. I kept the bat in my hands, which looked odd from a martial arts perspective, but given that I didn’t know if the intruder was armed, it was best to be prepared. I continued down the hall, though apparently at a slower pace than the intruder had. By the time I made it to the front door, he had vanished. The dogs had all decided to get into the fun of it, and I had three dogs barking at the broken window as I tried to call Detective Green. She’d said anytime, though I doubted she had really expected a 1am call the very evening that she gave me the card.
    She answered in a monotone voice on the third ring. I explained my situation, and the voice went into professional mode. She said that a car would be right out, and she’d be there within 25 minutes.
    True to her word, the car was there in minutes. Two uniformed officers walked around the perimeter of the house, took a few notes, and came inside to escape the cold. I had brewed a pot of coffee and played hostess to them.
    The older one spoke. “Definitely a break-in. We can track the footprints from the sidewalk to the window. Having a foot of snow on the ground makes it easy to follow the footprints. The panes are broken near the latch, so the window could be raised. Was anything taken?”
    I shook my head. Even though I hadn’t done an inventory of what little I owned, I knew that he hadn’t come for my meager possessions. He had wanted the dogs and hadn’t worried about being explicit in that demand. I couldn’t imagine what was so urgent about the dogs that someone would break into the house for them. I decided to look into their pedigree. Maybe they were champion show dogs, hiding undercover, the way I did. It was possible. Ruby had said that she had a fortune invested in those dogs. I wondered if that was really true.
    The two officers didn’t have much to say after that. I gave them a short run down of what had happened while they took notes and filled out forms. I’d almost given up hope that Sheila would be coming out that night when there was a knock at the door. I perked up as I saw her in the doorway.
    “So what have you been up to?” she eyed the two officers who looked pretty comfortable at this point. “What’s the story?”
    The older one spoke again, and only checking his notes once, gave her an accurate recount of what they’d seen and what I’d said. I had to admit that I was impressed. He’d succinctly summarized what I’d said.
    She nodded. “Anything else you want to