I will post as I go along. So keep reading ;) The shadows loomed and a desolate little dog wailed mournfully and shut up again.
Everything seemed dark and depressing; every living being was waiting for something to happen.
A few raindrops scattered the already soggy leaves on the ground. Then suddenly it happened all at once.
The first streak of lightning light up the sky, the first roll of thunder shook up the earth. The rain didn´t want to be left out and the clouds opened themselves up. The evening had only just begun.
The figure of a man darted across the empty space between the two thatched up and left barns that didn´t seems to belong into the dark scenery.
Nobody except the dog saw how he slipped under the hole in the fence that gave him access into the barn. Only the dog saw how this figure was joined by another, even more silent figure. It was nobody but the dog that noticed that the first man never came out again.
Only a dog…only a dog that heard the sound of a rifle ring out.
The next day, the weather was still annoyingly unobliging to females who liked short skirts. 4 police cars stood parked outside the lonely barn. At least 10 cops were milling around, busily scratching around in notebooks and trying to look very important. They were all clearly waiting for somebody to arrive.
“I say, chaps, I don´t think we should let these important guys do all the work. It doesn´t really make us look very good, all screeching up at the same time and then chickening out to let these tough ones take over!” An ambitious young ´un was obviously trying to get himself a good reputation.
Unfortunately, a few of the others were of the same opinion. “C´mon, searge, we could just take a look at the body!” Or “It won´t do any harm just to have a look around!”
Eventually, a fat sort of man stuck tight into his uniform relented.
“Okay, boys, have a look then. But don´t mess up any fingerprints…and don´t trample the ground….and don´t touch that body!”
So when CI5 did eventually arrive, roaring in at an impressive 60 miles an hour, this was what had happened. The fingerprints on the ragged fence where the murderer and victim had accessed were all messed up. Around the scene of crime the ground was all trampled. The body of the young man that had been killed so suddenly last night, had been rolled over. Everything that could have been of any help was destroyed or gone forever. Most important, the little and seemingly unimportant paw prints of our furry friend had vanished.
Not that anybody ever took any notice. Paw prints, what did they matter?! Maybe more than those ambitious cops had ever imagined…
Cowley was
furious…And so were the “tough guys”, two names that we of course have all heard of...
... “Oh, come on Ray, do we even know we were needed?”
Bodie was trying, unsuccessfully, to calm is partner down.
They had both just arrived from the place of crime, any searching proving pointless, everything beeing messed up. “Well, Cowley seems to think we were needed!”
Doyle shot back at Bodie´s comment.
Cowley himself, who was in the other room could here every word of the argument. He shook his head and thought of little school boys squabbling.
Bodie, in the other room, rolled his eyes dramatically. “Cowley thought we were needed. Yeah, so he did. But now everything we could have used as evidence is gone.” Doyle started saying something but he carried on relentlessly.
“It´s no use getting so upset about it, Ray, what´s done is done.” For a moment there was silence.
“It´s just…it´s just that I´ve got this feeling, Bodie, the same like by Ann Seaford…Oh, I don´t know.”
They glanced at each other and without even saying anything they knew where the other one wanted to go. “Okay, let´s go to the pub to calm me down…” Doyle shrugged and grabbed for his coat.
Resisting was as good as pointless. Bodie chuckled, putting on his brown leather jacket. Soon they were cruising down the motorway at top speed. Bodie didn´t waste another thought on the matter, but Doyle was strangely quiet all the way.
Cowley in his office was still puzzling about the incidence in the barn. What was wrong about one man shooting another, choosing the worst weather possible in a desolate barn in the middle of nowhere? Just about everything, he thought grimly, and opened his first file.
It looked like the case had to be closed. Nothing could be found out, the dead young man was seemingly unimportant, and CI5 couldn´t have anything else to do with it. Cowley and Doyle felt very uneasy about it and Bodie…well, he was just checking up with the new female typist…um, sorry, he was just working on, well work, wasn´t he?
Months later the decisive incident happened to make the case start rolling again. And again, it was just a dog…
*** Bodie was the one who found it.
He came home after having a little squabble with his girlfriend. Should he bring her some flowers? No, he didn' think so.
Getting out of the car, he noticed there was a huge white piece of card board stuck to his door. “We were here. Look inside and you might find a surprise.” it said in huge capital letters.
Swearing, he fished out his gun and got ready for anything. He booted down his door and pointed his gun at all the corners.
And there, tied to the table cruelly with chains and a muzzle to keep it quiet, a dog was imprisoned.
“What the…” Bodie was clueless. After checking the rest of the house for someone who might still be there, he thought about freeing the dog, decided against it and tried to contact Cowley.
“3-7 to Base put me through to Alpha1” “Putting through, 3-7!”
Cowley´s voice crackled through the R/T: “Alpha 1 here, what is it Bodie?” “Well, I, er, have just had an interesting visit.” “Don´t speak in riddles, man, and what´s happening? I´m up to my ears in trouble here.” “I´ve got a nice Welcome Home sign on my door and a dog chained to my kitchen table. I…” Cowley didn´t let him finish the sentence. “A dog, you say? What in the name of…I´m coming over. Over and out.” “Right.”
***
Half an hour later, Cowley, Bodie and Doyle were standing in Bodie's flat. They had searched everything. All they got was the smear of a glove print.
The forensics had been and gone. And now they were lumbered with the dog.
Doyle spoke first.
“I told you so.” Bodie barely concealed a laugh.
“What, Ray?”
“The dog was important.”
As if called by name, the dog tied to the table with a piece of string barked excitedly. They had removed all the cruel chains and the muzzle.
“Sir, I´m not sure I really want a dog in my flat.”
Bodie pointedly ignored Doyle´s remark. Cowley raised his eyebrows.
“Well, it looks like you have a new pet, if you want it or not!” “Sir, I don´t much like dogs.” “I know you don´t.”
Bodie gave him an agonized look, and Doyle tried to turn a burst of laughter into a cough. “Yeah, yeah, very funny. It´d better have a name before we put it in the kennels.” Bodie wasn´t having any of it.
“No, Bodie. I think you should keep the dog. I think it has some link. If we give it to the kennels we might never see it again. We need the dog here.”
He couldn´t object to Cowley´s veto. “Okay, so I have a dog. Fine.” “Only until we´ve solved this case. There must be a link between the murder in the barn and this dog. Now come on Doyle, I need you to…”
With that, Doyle winked at Bodie and Cowley and he walked out of the flat.
The cassette that they had found attached to the dog´s collar didn´t help either. It just showed the murder being committed. They watched it over and over again, but nothing could be found. The whole case seemed very strange.
A week later, there was a break-in at an old woman´s shop. The thief just vandalized everything, threw all the stock is a onto the floor and set light to a few pieces of furniture, but didn´t burn it all down.
The same glove smear was detected again.
It made even less sense when another sign appeared at Doyle´s home. “Look carefully, you might find something interesting.” The letters were written in blood. Animal blood. Probably dog blood.
The cassette they found on the bed only showed the crime being committed again. Bodie and Doyle insisted on investigating and Cowley was very grave about it.
Someone knew where their homes were and could get in.
That someone could just be waiting for them when they came home.
Yet in the next three trivial little cases that someone always managed to avoid meeting any of them.
The cassette and the message were always waiting for them when they came off duty.
“It has to be a double agent, or someone who knows one.” Cowley fumed, and buried himself in his files.
All the CI5 agents were alerted, double locks fastened to doors, guns carried at all times. This didn´t stop the murderer.
He just dropped the cassette through the slit in the door. Or stuck it underneath the door.
“This is driving me mad!” Bodie burst out one day. This wasn´t like him, so Doyle looked up, surprised. “What´s driving you mad, you nutter? This case is driving us all mad!” “Well, the case, too, but the dog.”
Doyle collapsed into laughter. Wiping his eyes he tried to control himself. “Men being murdered, old woman´s shop vandalized, all CI5 agents in danger and Bodie goes insane. Because of a dog.”
“Very funny, sunshine. When that dog starts howling it won´t ever stop. All night long. I think I´ll donate it to you.”
“Oh no you don´t. What did you call it, by the way?”
Doyle was still shaking his head over Bodie's comment about the dog.
“I thought about a few names. I´ve christened it George, though.”
They both looked at each other and each saw the twinkle in each other´s eyes.
“George as in…” “You’re as sharp as a razor, Ray. Of course George as in Cowley…”
They ambled off, joking and laughing.
Cowley in his office shook his head and thought about little schoolboys making fun of their teacher."
***
"Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bodie hit all the targets spot on in the middle.
He allowed himself a cocky smile. Doyle, seeing this and not to be outdone, followed suit. B
ang! Bang! Bang!
“Haha!” Doyle capered about, all the targets being blown away by his powerful hits.
“C´mon Lads, you’re´re late for your extra training session at the armoury!”
A familiar voice belonging to their boss reminded them of the dreaded session to go through in only a few minute’s time.
“Stop your messing about with tin cans and get in your car!”
When the Cow’´s back was turned Bodie and Doyle exchanged eye rolling.
“Anybody would think we´re in the army!” Doyle whispered. “Naw, it´s even worse there” Bodie spoke from experience.
Cowley´s repeated nagging let them exchange eye rolling again and slouching off to the car in an insolent manner the minute his back was turned again.
“Try to think of it as a widening of your knowledge and fitness of body and mind!” drawled Bodie in a cheesy American accent.
“Yeah, yeah!” snorted Doyle, flinging himself into the seat.
“Come on, mate, otherwise we´ll really be late.” They were just about to hit the accelerator when Murphy came panting up and banging on the window.
The lads glanced at each other and Bodie wound down the window.
“What´s it now, Murph?”
He shouted above the noise of the engine. “Shut that engine off, for a sec!”
After the engine was turned off, Murph explained a little breathlessly.
"I forgot the gun you were supposed to be practising with today, Bodie. The High-Tec one, you know!"
After a quick discussion, Bodie leapt into his car and Murphy got in with Doyle. “See you!” were the parting words as they roared in opposite directions.
Impatiently drumming his fingers against his steering wheel, Bodie got stuck behind a traffic light.
The moment it was green he was racing down the country lanes again, a short cut to Murphy´s place.
In exactly three minutes he arrived at Murphy´s flat, neatly flinging the car into a free parking spot. Charging over the road, he fumbled the keys out.
In double quick time, he had unlocked the door and was searching out the other key for the closet the High-Tec gun was hidden in.
A rustling behind him made him look up. Murphy didn´t have a girl in his flat, surely?
Then he glanced over his shoulder. “What on…”
There stood Agent Patrick K. Johnson in Murphy´s flat- attaching a familiar looking cassette to the coat hook in the hallway.
They both noticed each other at the same time.
One face looked into the other.
Bodie pieced everything together in seconds.
His senses seemed sharper than ever before. Agent Johnson must be the double agent. He must have committed the murder, he must have left the dog, George at his flat, he must have…
He must have deceived them all. Johnson knew when they were all on duty, he knew exactly when to make his move.
Bodie checked. Yes, he had black gloves on. Every time at the scene of crime it was the same glove smear, it had to be Johnson.
All this ran through his mind in a split second. They were still looking at each other, searching each other´s eyes.
Slowly, without wanting to attract the psycho's attention, Bodie felt for his gun.
His hand felt the empty space. F****, he´d left the gun in his car. Damn it.
That was all he could think. Maybe if he distracted him, maybe…he could reach the High-Tec gun hidden in that closet.
Johnson hadn´t made a move though, not yet.
Slowly Johnson pulled off his glove. “Hello Bodie.”
His voice shook and there was sweat dripping from his forehead.
“Johnson. Patrick.”
“Yeah, that´s me. Or used to be me, I s´pose.”
“What the bloody hell are you doing here?” Bodie started very carefully to feel for the catch on the closet door.
“Pretty obvious, ain´t it? As you’re going to die in a minute, why shouldn’t I tell you?” Johnson laughed, a horrible, brittle, hysterical sort of laugh.
“Why do you have to kill me, Patrick?” The man cringed at the name.
“Don´t call me Patrick. That´s what the Cow called me, that Cowley when he said I wasn´t good enough. Not good enough to guard President Persali. That´s why I want to show him that I can bring the entire CI5 to its knees.” He laughed again, loud and hard.
“Patrick. Listen to me. You don´t have to…” Bodie fumbled to open the door. “You don´t understand. He put me down. I wasn´t good enough…”
Johnson started to wring his hands. “I´ve made big money. I´ve smuggled all those pedigree dogs over. Cowley thought I couldn't do it. He thought I couldn't come out big. Well I did, I did! He'll see! And if he looses his best agent right now he'll see even better how he never should have underestimated me! The funniest bit is...it was dogs all the time! I knew you would understand my little joke."
He ran out of breath with this long sentence.
“You can still…”
The door swung open with a creak. In an instant Johnson stood pointing a gun at Bodie.
“Freeze!” He whispered. Bodie’s’ hand was nearly on the gun…nearly…nearly… At that moment, a book tilted and fell off the table.
Thud.
“I said freeze!” screamed Johnson.
His finger slipped and he had pressed the trigger.
The shot rang out.
Johnson stood there trembling, unable to grasp what he had just done.
Bodie’s blood slowly seeped into the carpet.
The murderer stood looking around him like a rabbit in the headlights. Taking one last look at his colleague, Johnson grasped the gun, took a flying leap.
Crash.
Out of the window. Unnoticed, the black glove he had taken off to fire the gun, lay on the floor.
Bodie’s hand still grasped the High-Tec gun.
His lips still moved. He felt a searing pain.
Fire! Was he burning? He tried to scream
Put out the fire! But he was paralyzed. He couldn´t move. What, he couldn´t move?
Frantically he tried to move his arms or legs and failed.
That blistering fire still burned away his insides.
In his head he saw Johnson´s face. His vision blurred. An inner voice shouted in his head: “Don´t die! You have to remember Doyle!”
Bodie didn´t want to listen to the voice. He didn´t want to think about Doyle. He was burning.
Put out the fire! he whimpered. “Get a grip on yourself!”
The inner voice commanded. He remembered how he had joked about with Doyle that morning. Doyle…Murphy…the names swam before him. Cowley…Johnson…
“Hold on!” The voice screamed.
Bodie didn´t want to. He wanted to sleep. He wanted the fire to go away.
Leave me alone!“Doyle- he will come! Doyle! Doyle!” The voice repeated. “Keep going!” Doyle! With a jolt Bodie opened his eyes.
His vision was blurred. He could see red. His blood!
I will wait for Doyle. Then I will put out the fire. Bodie told the voice.
“Hold on!” The voice encouraged. And with that, Bodie steeled himself against the raging fire in him.
***
To be continued!
