Page 29 of Wrong Turn

The Rottweiler renewed her barking, clearly trying to communicate something to Lei. The sounds were coming from the back of the bungalow. Had the robbers trapped Keiki in one of the bedrooms? Could they, even now, be roaming around inside the house?

Lei’s heart thundered and she patted her pockets, frustrated that she had left her pepper spray and her weapon stashed safely in the glove box of the car. She was unarmed.

Lei scanned around the front room, spotting a big brass poker next to the rarely used fireplace. She darted over and picked it up, swinging the metal rod to her shoulder, baseball style.

Her athletic shoes squeaked on the linoleum of the kitchen as she walked on tiptoe into the hallway on the other side.

Keiki was definitely in one of the bedrooms or the bathroom, judging by her loud barking. The bedrooms off the hall were closed, as usual, but Aunty’s room door was ajar, and the barking seemed to be coming from inside. Aunty had her own bathroom attached to the back of the room; could Keiki be trapped there?

Lei crept toward Aunty’s bedroom. The dog’s voice sounded too loud to be muffled by a door. She scanned everywhere as she crept down the hall but saw no sign of movement.

Perhaps the robbers had trapped Keiki inside, and left.

Lei’s heart pounding was almost as loud as the sound of the Rottweiler barking as she tiptoed forward, gently pushing Aunty’s bedroom door wide.

On the other side of Aunty’s bed, dressed in an antique Hawaiian pineapple quilt, Keiki faced the closed bathroom door.

That bathroom had a tricky lock that stuck when engaged; evidently, the robbers had gone inside to hide from Keiki, and now they were trapped!

The Rottweiler spun around to catch Lei’s eye, then turned back to face the door, thrusting her nose against the handle, then rearing up to plant heavy paws on the door. She barked so hard that foam and spittle flew from her fangs. Lei had seldom seen anything so terrifying.

She tried to remember the signal that Josh had shown her to call Keiki to heel.

Lei snapped her fingers and pointed to the ground beside her, making sure Keiki saw the gesture. The dog backed away from the door, still facing it, still barking, but came to stand at Lei’s side.

Just then, a gunshot cut across the sound of Keiki’s barking and a hole appeared in the door just above the handle. Five more rapid shots followed that, and then, to Lei’s horror, a hand punched through the weakened wood, reached around, then turned the handle.

Lei grabbed Keiki’s collar. She couldn’t let the dog charge and try to capture the man attempting to escape the bathroom, afraid she’d be shot for doing so.

She dragged Keiki back, out through Aunty’s doorway, slamming the bedroom door shut. Keiki, agitated, began to bark again, trotting back and forth in front of the door as Lei threw her weight behind Aunty’s fancy china hutch. She shoved the heavy piece of furniture across the bedroom door, trapping the intruder inside. Even if the robber tried to shoot his way out, he wouldn’t be able to with that heavy hutch in the way.

But Aunty had a reasonably large window over the bed. Once the man realized the door was blocked, he would try to exit that way. Maybe she and Keiki could hold him in the bedroom until the police arrived.

Lei ran to the front door, signaling for Keiki to heel; they hurried out the front door onto the porch. Sure enough, two black-clad men were clambering out of Aunty’s window.

Keiki was off her leash, and the dog didn’t hesitate, roaring away from Lei across the lawn. Keiki launched herself at the first of the robbers, who had reached the ground. Her aggressive assault knocked the man down; he gave a muffled cry as he hit the ground. Keiki dug her teeth into the back of his jacket, yanking and growling.

Lei was still holding the heavy poker on the porch as the second man, hanging halfway out the window by one leg, waved his pistol, trying to aim at Keiki without hitting his partner. A powerful rush of protectiveness for her dog propelled Lei forward; she ran at full speed and swung the poker as hard as she could, hitting the robber on the thigh.

The robber screamed, let go of the edge of the window, and fell the rest of the way to the ground. Lei jumped on his back and knelt there, pressing the poker, held in both hands, against the back of his neck. The pressure pushed the man’s face into the grass of the yard. “Drop your weapon!” she screamed.

He let go of the gun, dropping it to the grass.

“Put your hands on the back of your head!”

The robber obeyed.

Keiki was doing a fine job on her intruder, too, standing on his back and tugging at the back of his jacket, growling as he whimpered and begged for mercy.

The headlights of two police cruisers swiveled onto their street and caught the whole scene in blinding, bright lights. Lei reached over to grab Keiki’s collar. “We got them, girl.”

Chapter Twenty

Aunty wavedtheSan Rafael Gazettein front of Lei the next morning. “It sure was handy having one of the reporters at your going-away party!” She exclaimed. “Front-page news that my niece and her dog captured the robbers. What a great kickoff to your career in law enforcement!”

Lei smiled and took the paper from her aunt. She sipped from a mug of coffee, taking in the photo of herself, curls wild, holding Keiki’s collar as the dog snarled in the direction of two black-clad men being led away in handcuffs. “I can’t take any credit. Keiki did the whole thing herself.”

“Not! That second man might have shot her if you hadn’t whacked him on the leg like you did with the fire iron.” Aunty glanced over at the poker, back in its holder beside the fireplace. She gave a theatrical shiver. “They say you almost broke his leg. You were very good at swinging a bat back in school.”

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