Parole (Hypernaturals 7)

Dogs and Fences

I am on the last of the four houses assigned to me as a bloodhound. The first three had been easy. No alarms or cameras or dogs to deal with. No Tommy scent either.

This house, on the other hand, is going to be a problem.

I have Jessica and Denise as my guardians. Morgan has Carol and Anne. Helen and Rachel drove the chase cars. One near each team, rented minivans, black, fake ID's.

I called Morgan after every house I processed and she is having no more luck than I, and we are about ready to call it a night. Morning technically.

My last house to examine is near Mount Bonnell. It is huge. It is lit like a damn spaceport. The fences are at least sixteen feet tall, have very pointy ends that look recently sharpened. I can see cameras in the trees, and Dobermans roaming around in the grounds. Jessica and Denise studied our target, identical poses. Their hands on their hips. Mouths pursed. Not in any way confidence-inspiring.

To the left of the plants that we are hiding in is the main gate. The drive up to the house is probably a tenth of a mile.

I know that, by being married to Helen and Jessica, I have far more money (or at least access to it) than whoever owns this place. The Claremont winery in France that Helen gifted me with is orders of magnitude more grounds (grapes gotta grow someplace), a much bigger house, and has a much longer driveway from the front gate, through the trees and grounds, to get to the front of the 'house'. Yet I sat there in front of this place cursing the rich. They are making it really hard for me to catch a killer.

"You getting any scents?" Denise asked

"Dogs." I grouched. "Big, mean dogs."

"Yes Adrian: I can see those, dumbass." Denise told me with non-cutting sarcasm. Not at all the way Helen would have said it.

I looked at the sky. "Light soon. We have to get this done. Any ideas, kiddie troopers?"

I have no idea what 'kiddie troopers' are. Something my parents used to say.

Jessica pulled out her phone and looked at a fairly recent satellite photo she had stored on it of the grounds now doggedly before us. "This fence goes around the entire perimeter and there are no structures near the fence to hop over onto. A couple of trees, but nothing big enough to jump over into, and stay above the dogs. Crap. How many Dobermans? Two?"

"All I have seen." Denise said.

"I only scent two." I agreed.

"Then I think what we need to do it this. Denise and I will go around to the fence on the back side of the house and distract the dogs. Then you go over right here where the trees are the thickest, and then angle up to the front of the house. There are a fuck-ton of cameras. You need to be hoodie-up, and avoid getting into the line of sight as much as you can. The cameras are wide-angle more than likely wide-angle, to cover the grounds. You can see their tiny heat signatures so you know where they are... or you will. You are going to have to weave your way in to avoid their coverage. You only need to get close enough to scent Tommy. If he has been here, you'll know it."

"I hate Doberman's." Denise commented in a sort of general way. "No one keeps a nice Poodle any more."

"I like Poodles." Jessica agreed.

Jessica saw me change the set of my body. I waited for the dog discussion to complete. Jessica said "We'll talk about that later. Right now, let's go climb the back fence and make some noise."

"Seems like we could figure this shit out a better way." Denise said as they worked their way around the fence line to the back of the property.

I heard the dogs take off, not barking, to the back of the house. Well trained guard dogs do NOT bark. They corner, and then they bark to let you know they have something. Barking along the way would alert their quarry.