They gave Morgan a confused look.
Dog trotted off down the aisle.
The skinny guy started around the counter.
Then Dog reappeared with a bag of chips with the edge carefully pinched between his front teeth.
Pretty sure I had to scrape my jaw off the floor like everyone else in the store.
Morgan rapped on the counter. “Thank you for the drink and the chips. And Tony there has short-changed the last three people and slipped a twenty from the register while you were busy staring at me.”
The woman looked at her coworker, and the guy went red-faced then pale. Morgan walked out with his drink, Dog, and the chips Dog carried.
I followed them.
We got in the van, and Morgan took the bag of chips from Dog and opened them.
Dog stared over my shoulder. The strings of saliva dangling from his lips turned into a steady drip, soaking my shirt.
I was dying to know. “Morgan…”
“Would you like a chip? They’re really good. Not like what I get from the Frugal Mart. Their kettle chips are more crunchy. You wouldn’t think there’d be a difference. But there definitely is. Even with less crunch, they’re still good.” He held up the bag. I took a couple of chips and Dog snagged them from my hand.
“Morgan, how…”
Dog snuffled in my ear. Why he thought I had chips there, I’ll never know.
“That’s rude, Dog.”
Dog sat back in his seat, looking sheepish.
“Morgan….”
“Here, have another. But use your other hand you have dog spit on that one.”
“Morgan, how did you…”
He rattled the bag at me.
“No, thanks. But I’d like to know how you got Dog to…”
“Read?”
Was I actually trying to ask that? “Yeah.”
Morgan smirked. “Don’t be silly, dogs can’t read, Grant. And Dog can’t read.”
Not normally, no. But this was Morgan and Morgan’s dog. “Then how did you—”
“Tell him where to go get the chips?” Morgan munched on potato chips. A guy in a sports car pulled up behind us and honked.
“Yeah.” I started the van and left the pumps.
“I forgot them.”
I merged into traffic. “What?”
“You wanted to know how he knew to go get the chips. He knew because he saw me get them and forget them.” Morgan shrugged like it was no big deal.
“But he remembered where you left them.”
“Dogs have fifty times the number of sensory receptors in their nose than we do. Dog knew where to find them like he knows where to go to get the ball when I throw it and it gets lost in the grass. He followed my scent.”
“So you knew where the chips were?”
“Are you really going to ask me that? Of course I knew.”
Yeah, I guess it was kinda dumb. “And how did Dog know you wanted him to go get them” When they played fetch, he normally used a verbal cue or at least pointed.
“I told him to.”
“I was standing right there, you didn’t say anything to him.”
“Of course I did. You just weren’t watching or listening.”
I knew what I saw. “Tell him to lay down.”
Morgan tossed thoughts and snapped his fingers.
Dog laid down in the seat.
I found the on-ramp to the highway.
“It only takes a little training—first verbal cues, then visual. Pretty soon, a dog can practically read your mind. Anyone can do it. It just takes time.”
“I don’t care what you say, what you did back there was pretty impressive.”
Morgan shrugged again. “I don’t know why you’d think that. I mean, look how good you turned out after some training.”
“What do you mean, after training?”
The bag of chips rattled.
“Morgan?”
Morgan examined his chip before popping it into his mouth.
“Morgan.”
Morgan crunched chips.
“You did not train me.”
He ate another chip.
“You didn’t.” I refused to believe it.
Chapter Four
We arrived at the dock sometime around six. The transport truck sat in the lot with the Starry Night on the bed. Bill stood propped against a fender in the shade of the cab smoking a cigarette, and Joey appeared to be asleep in the cab.
“Why is the boat still here?” Morgan tossed thoughts. “It’s supposed to be in the water, Grant. Why isn’t it in the water?”
“I don’t know.” I put my hand on Morgan’s thigh and squeezed a little. “Wait here, and I’ll find out what’s going on.”
I left the van running with the AC on full blast. One foot out of the vehicle and the humid heat Saran-wrapped my clothes to my skin.
I walked over.
Bill dropped the cigarette. Sparks broke off the cherry, then disappeared beneath the heel of his shoe.
“Is there a problem?”
“Yeah, dock manager wouldn’t let us put it in the water?”
“Why not?”
“Guy said because it’s not a commercially manufactured vessel, it has to be inspected. Something about liability or some shit.”
“Morgan had the boat registered back home. That registration should be honored here.”
“Hey, not my dock. Not my rules. But if he says we can’t put it in the water, there’s nothing we can do.”
“Terrific.” There were a few other cars in the lot. A handful of people on the dock and boats tethered there. The office sat off to the far edge shaded by palm trees.
“He’s gone for the day.” Bill waved a hand at the office. “I mean, if you’re thinking of going over there and talking with the guy.”
I was. “When will he be back?”
“Don’t know. But if you ask me, he seemed more interested in hopping in the convertible with his female friend than worrying about overseeing this boat dropped.”
There were no emergency numbers posted on the window or door of the small shed. Surely they had some way to contact the property owner if the manager wasn’t around.
“Can you wait here while I try to find someone who can give you permission to put the boat in the water?”
Bill shrugged. “Yeah, but I charge by the hour for the truck.”
“Sure.”
“Cash only.”
“That’s fine. Just give me…just give me a few, okay?”
Guy nodded and lit up another cigarette. I walked back to the van.
Morgan rocked in his seat. “What did he say?”
“The dock manager said the Starry Night has to be inspected for insurance purposes because you built it.”
“If it’s inspected and licensed in the state it came from, the licensing is supposed to be honored. That’s why I had it done in Durstrand. I read the rules, Grant. I read them and followed them. Why would the property manager say it needs to be inspected here when it’s not true?” Morgan’s arm jerked and he ground his jaw.
“Maybe the insurance company has another set of requirements. I don’t know. But I figured we’d ask around to see who we need to do the inspection. Even if it has to be redone, we’ll redo it.”