Luke drove his daughter’s small truck with “Heaven Scent Florist and Nursery—Nothing Else in Brooklyn Smells This Good!” signage to the park entrance at 108th Street. He cut the engine and jumped out of the cab. Gabriel and Andy, his backpack stuffed with his violin case and packages of meat, followed.
Gabriel read one of the postings that had been plastered every few feet on the stone wall encircling the park. Considering the bold black letters, the devil-red background, and the overuse of exclamation points, there could be no question that someone wanted the message to be noticed and obeyed.
Gabriel called Luke and Andy over to look:
The park will be closed to all dogs at 5:00 p.m. until further notice. No parking or unattended vehicles on this block after 5:00 p.m. Violators will be towed and fined. Absolutely no exceptions! Hazardous poisoned bait in use. Any dog found in the park after 5:00 p.m. will be subject to quarantine. Entry into the park after 5:00 p.m. will be deemed unconditional consent to search by proper authorities.
By order of the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Governor of the state of New York.
In the face of the severity of the posting, Gabriel thought their plan was absurdly simple—find any strays, get them in the truck, and then drive them through the perimeter and to the shelter. They needed to do all this before the DEP closed the park and began its search-and-contain operation.
Gabriel pointed a thumb at the poster and spoke to Luke. “Looks like we only have an hour before we become the newest guests on America’s Most Wanted. Your daughter’s name is on the truck registration so you’ll need to stay with the truck in case someone comes.”
“Right,” Luke answered. “But how’re you going to get them all without me?”
Gabriel turned to Andy: “So you think ten, right?”
“I’ve only seen ten,” Andy said. “I don’t know how many there really are.”
“It’s gonna be hard enough to get the ten,” Gabriel said.
“But—” Andy started to protest.
“We’ll take as many as we can,” Gabriel agreed to avoid an argument. “But we need to get started now or else it won’t matter.”
Andy was already moving before Gabriel had finished his sentence.
“Call me on the cell when you’re on the way out,” Luke said. Gabriel nodded and jogged after the boy.
Once Gabriel caught up, he asked, “How’re we going to find them?”
“Just stay behind me.”
As they walked through the north end of the park, Gabriel noticed joggers, cyclists, walkers, Rollerbladers, people just sitting on the grass, and several dogs attached to their owners by leash, but that was all. Not even an untended pile of shit, he thought. “Any ideas?”
“They’ve gotten really good at hiding,” Andy answered innocently. “A few more feet.”
Andy brought them to a stop and pointed to a copse of trees surrounding a large rock outcropping.
Although the trees were thick in some places, Gabriel could see through them to the rock formation. There were no dogs anywhere.
“Wait here,” Andy said.
With a growing unease Gabriel watched Andy walk to the trees. Had he already failed this boy in the one way that mattered? Could it be that Andy’s historical demons had caused him to create this fantasy about a Central Park Pack? If that was the case, the challenge would be to convince Andy to rejoin reality without inviting some type of psychotic break. Gabriel knew that his own current condition left him too weak to accomplish that task.
These thoughts dissipated in an instant when the boy moved into the trees and suddenly was gone. Not just obscured by branches and leaves, but vanished. “Holy crap,” Gabriel muttered. He recalled the boy’s words about the dogs: “They’ve gotten really good at hiding.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” he said.
Gabriel sensed a tingle at the base of his neck just as a slight wind picked up. A cold breeze passed across his brow although the air was hot and the trees were still. He felt refreshed, as if he had just showered and stepped into a soft, thick robe. The smell of wet snow, incongruous in the heat, filled his nose and mouth. Time fell away. It could have been two minutes or two hours before Gabriel heard Andy’s faraway voice on the breeze. “Coming out now.”
“From where?” Gabriel whispered.
The priest got his answer when Andy led nine dogs out between tree trunks that suddenly seemed massive, verdant, and primordial.
The dogs looked about as dissimilar as nine dogs could be in size, hair color, hair length, age, and breed. There were recognizable pieces of Lab, golden, beagle, pit bull, Saint Bernard, Scottie, Westie, shepherd, husky, border collie, and maybe a half dozen other breeds. They had at least one thing in common, though. Excited by Andy’s proximity, they jumped, ran, and played with each other and the boy as if they were puppies, even though their physical characteristics suggested they were all older.
“These can’t be strays,” Gabriel said when he finally found his words. “They’re too healthy, too well behaved. They belong to someone.”
“Not to,” Andy said. “With. They belong with me.” His tone left no room for debate.
“What is this place exactly?” Gabriel asked.
Andy smiled at the question. “Just a safe place in a big city park.”
Gabriel was about to press further, but concluded that this was one of those times when greater inspection would not bring enlightenment. “Is this everyone?”
“There’s one more I need to find. She’s not here.”
“Let’s get these in the truck and we can come back for her.” Andy hesitated at the suggestion. “We can’t risk leaving these nine, can we?” Gabriel pressed.
Andy reluctantly nodded his agreement.
Gabriel looped slipknot leashes on the dogs, not because he needed to, but because the farther the dogs moved from the particular spot in the park where Andy had found them, the more attention they would attract. Even with the leashes and even though they still had a good thirty minutes before the deadline, something about the connection between the boy and the dogs invited stares. The fact that a tall man wearing a priest collar walked among them didn’t help mute their conspicuousness. Gabriel mentally ran through a list of explanations in case someone stopped them. None sounded plausible and he couldn’t even be sure he would be able to articulate them if pushed.
But no one even stepped into their path. When Gabriel glanced at Andy, he began to understand why. The boy was so confident in his task, so certain that this was where he needed to be, even the priest felt sheltered in his presence.
They made it to the truck without incident. But by the time they got the dogs settled in, they had only fifteen minutes before the Guard arrived and the efforts to cleanse the park of all canine life commenced in earnest.
“I’ve got to go back,” Andy declared.
“We’re cutting this too close,” Gabriel said.
“You can go,” Andy answered. “I need to find her.”
“But you’ll never get her out of the park, and if you do, the Guard won’t let you get to the shelter at this point. I don’t think you understand how serious this has become.”
“I’m going,” Andy said with finality.
“I’ll go back with you,” Gabriel offered. “We’ve got a better shot with two people.” That wasn’t Gabriel’s true reason for his offer; the priest had a bad feeling about leaving the boy alone in the park that he could not attribute solely to the Guards’ activities.
“You can’t,” Luke said. “You need to stay in the back and keep the dogs quiet while I drive. It’s the only way or we’ll never make it past the perimeter.” Luke turned to Andy. “I’ll come back for you. I’ll find out which side the surveillance is thinnest and wait for you there. Call me when you’re ready.”
“I don’t like this at all,” Gabriel warned. “If the boy gets caught…”
“I won’t,” Andy said as he removed his backpack. He took out several ziplock bags stuffed with cuts of raw meat and handed them to Gabriel. “Take it. It’ll keep them busy during the ride.”
Gabriel climbed into the back of the truck just as a van from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection pulled up to the curb one block south of them. Two men in blue vinyl hazmat suits jumped out and opened the rear doors. Rows of orange canisters marked with a black skull and crossbones and labeled “HAZARD” and “POISON” stared out. A flatbed truck pulled up carrying blue-and-white police sawhorse barricades. Two cable news vans followed.
If Gabriel had retained any lingering doubts that this was for real—that there would be loss of life—those doubts abandoned him here.
“If you’re gonna go in,” Gabriel told Andy, “you better do it now.”
Andy gave them a thumbs-up. “Thanks for trusting me,” he said. “Means a lot.”
“I always trust you, son,” Gabriel said. “I just don’t understand you. Now go.”
Andy left them at a jog in the direction of the Lake.