Dogman

The decrepit livery shack baked in the sun. On its sagging porch stood a man and two rangy blue tick hounds that Will Hood recognized from their presence in the caravan at mile marker seven. Bruno and Sorrel lay alert and panting in the cinder clearing that fronted the old building as the man, menacing them with a short length of two-by-four, examined the mangled foreleg of one hound.

'What're you doin' here?' Will asked the man.

'Huh? Oh, it's you, star of the dog world-- huh, you phony? I'm Jack Dougherty, Cape May Point huntin' lodge. Your fleabags jumped me. Your fuckin' bitch broke my dog's leg-- '

'I don't know you. I asked you what you're doin' here, mister.' Will studied the man quickly. He wore faded overalls over a tan cotton twill shirt. A wide leather belt circled his waist, and a canteen and Swiss army knife hung from it. He had red hair curling under a hunting cap. His eyes were wet with anger.

'Don't you have control of your animals? That bitch should be gassed,' the man sneered.

'I never taught her that. You must've threatened her,' said

Will Hood. 'Now, you better tell me-- '

The TV crew and Morgan Talley tumbled noisily out of the woods. When Jack Dougherty caught sight of the camera, he shouted, 'That bag you're lookin' for, it's here in the shack, ain't it? I know it's here. I got here first, you're my witnesses! Take my picture, take my picture. Put me on TV. I claim the reward, an' you're all my witnesses!'

'Who's he?' Morgan Talley asked Will.

'Says his name's Dougherty. I never saw him before, and I don't know how he got here.'

'I shortcut you, that's how,' Jack Dougherty yelled. 'You may have fooled the others, but you didn't fool me. I come in off-road, through the woods. I know this place-- I knew it was here all the time. I been here before. When I seen you cut out from mile marker seven, I knew where you were headin'. Know why? Because it's the only building in five miles any direction from here, that's why-- '

Jack Dougherty's fevered gesturing excited Sorrel. She stood, then slowly stepped toward the shack. The blue tick hounds bristled, alive with threat.

'You let her come up here and I bash her fuckin' head in, you bastard,' Dougherty hollered, brandishing his two-by-four.

'You try it, and I air-condition your dining room,' Will said quietly, raising his shotgun.

'Put that down!' Morgan Talley commanded sharply. 'You're as much a nut case as he is, for God's sake.' He pulled his wallet and flashed his badge to the man on the porch. 'Calm down, Mr. Dougherty. I'm Lieutenant Talley, County Major Crimes Unit. Mr. Hood here, he's on special assignment under Cape May County jurisdiction. Official business.