Barbara Levenson - Mary Magruder Katz 03 - Outrageous October by Barbara Levenson Page B

almost completely down I stopped to stare at the disappearing figure. Sam barked loudly. His bark echoed and more birds answered in alarm.
    Sam barked again and again. He gave one gigantic pull on his leash which broke away leaving me holding a piece of leather. I fell back against the crate. “Sam, get back here,” I screamed. All I heard was rustling in the underbrush and running footsteps.
    I picked myself up and began running down the makeshift path, pulling the crate behind me and screaming for Sam. My quickly hatched plan was to get back to the house, get the car and start searching for my dog, and hope that whoever was running in the woods was scared away.
    When I reached the cluster of oak trees, Sam came limping out of the brush, tongue hanging out and looking exhausted. He fell in step with me and the crate.
    We reached the house and sat down in the front hall. “You bad boy,” I said to Sam as I checked his paws. His back left paw had a cut. In a kitchen cupboard I found a first aid kit. I cleaned the cut with alcohol and Neosporin. Sam was too exhausted to protest.
    I put him in the crate with a full bucket of water. Then I went to the nearest mirror and saw a sweaty woman with leaves and twigs in her hair. Of course, that’s when the doorbell rang.
    Dash stood on the doorstep with a package under his arm.
    “Come in please, Dash. I’m sorry I’m not quite ready to leave. I’ve just had a fright night experience,” I said as I tried to pick the twigs out of my hair.
    “You do look slightly undone,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
    “I had to go back to the Brousseau house because I forgot Sam’s crate. I decided to walk over, and when I started back, someone must have seen us and started running away, and Sam broke his leash and chased the guy, and I couldn’t find Sam and I was dragging that crate along.” I stopped to take a breath.
    “Slow down. Did you find Sam?”
    “He actually found me. He’s in his crate in the kitchen. And I have half the woods in my hair. I’m sure someone is living in that house and saw us and ran away. By the way, the Subaru was back in the barn.”
    “There are deer and coyotes in these wooded areas all the time. Once in a while someone spots a bear. Kids play in the woods, too. It could have been some kids or an animal. About the car, maybe Tom is renting the garage space to someone. Lots of summer folks rent space for their cars and golf carts over the winter.” Dash looked at me like I was an out of control client.
    “I’m pretty sure it was a man, not an animal. Too bad Sam can’t tell us who he chased. Give me two minutes to get cleaned up.”
    “Sure. No problem. I’m a little winded myself. I got a call from a distressed client this afternoon and had to ride out to her farm. I’ll tell you about it at dinner. Oh, here,” Dash held out the package he was carrying. “One of my clients makes maple syrup and this is from his spring batch. He paid my fee with a case of this syrup.”

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    CHAPTER
    TWENTY-FIVE
    I brushed my hair and washed my face and was ready to climb into Dash’s Subaru. I couldn’t help noticing that it had a lot of leaves and dirt on the floor.
    Dash saw me looking at the mess. “Sorry about my car. I have so many clients who are farm people and sometimes I have to go out to see them. This is nothing compared to what this looks like after hunting season.”
    “You hunt? You mean you shoot animals?”
    “That’s what hunting is about,” Dash laughed. Everyone hunts here. If we didn’t, the deer population and the Canadian Geese would take over. I guess hunting isn’t much of a hobby in Miami.”
    “True. People just shoot each other there.”
    Dash looked over at me with a frown and then he got my joke and laughed.
    We were headed west on the River Road. In a few minutes we entered the village of Woodstock. It looked like a picture of a New England village painted by Norman Rockwell. White clapboard houses, churches, and