Trained to Protect Read online

  But what did surprise her was that this group of anticipated people was followed by another person with a dog on a leash.

  Officer Doug Murran and his German shepherd, Hooper.

  What was he doing there? And why did Elissa’s heart both soar and sink at the idea of his watching her initial therapy dog demonstration?

  * * *

  There she was—the reason Doug had brought his dog to the Chance K-9 Ranch early this morning, even though he had determined yesterday not to come here at all.

  And his presence was definitely not for the reason he’d even considered coming.

  No, he was here on official police business.

  A sign had been attached to the front gate near the road that had worried the Belotts enough to call the police and request that he or Maisie be sent to the ranch that morning. Maisie had already left for their previously assigned case, so it had fallen on him.

  He’d just finished talking to Amber Belott and her mother, Sonya, as well as chief dog trainer—and Amber’s fiancé—Evan Colluro inside the house. Now he followed as they strode out to greet Elissa.

  He couldn’t help liking the big grin on her face or the way she stepped forward and hugged Amber. Her hostess and potential boss introduced her to her mother and to Evan as well as to their dogs.

  He saw her eyes shift slightly in his direction more than once. He didn’t think her smile was for him, which was fine. He kept his expression blank.

  But he was looking forward to seeing her reaction to the reason he had been called out to the K-9 Ranch.

  Still, the decision had been made to proceed with the demonstration that had brought Elissa to the ranch and to ignore, at least temporarily, the reason he was there.

  He’d been asked by Amber to not only observe but to also help in the demonstration. He would pretend to be someone recuperating from an injury who was under a lot of psychological stress and needed soothing, perhaps by a therapy dog. Amber had said that Evan and her employee, ranch hand Orrin Daker, who was sometimes used as an agitator in K-9 training situations, would also participate.

  That didn’t mean Doug shouldn’t at least be polite and greet her. “Hi, Elissa,” he said after the other introductions had ended. “And hi, Peace.” He’d heard her introduce her dog to the others, too, but he didn’t bend to pet her. Not when he was soon going to act like he needed some canine TLC from this therapy dog.

  Besides, he now had even more reason not to allow his initial attraction to this lovely woman turn into anything. She was potentially involved in the case he’d just been assigned to handle.

  But he felt a surge of warmth inside when she returned, “Good morning, Doug. And Hooper, too.”

  Interestingly, her dog Peace got up close and personal with Hooper, her tail wagging furiously as she sniffed his shepherd’s face. Hooper seemed fine with it, sniffing and wagging back a bit. Good thing he wasn’t officially on duty at the moment.

  “Okay, we’ll get started,” Amber said. “I’d planned to have some neighbors’ kids come over, but...well, things have changed. We’ll just do a demonstration with adults. Come this way.” She led them all back into the house.

  With Hooper, Doug stayed back and held the door open for Elissa and her dog. “So you need the warmth of a therapy dog today?” she asked with a smile as she went past him, but he also saw puzzlement in her deep brown eyes. Yesterday she’d been somewhat dressed up. Today her outfit consisted of a blue plaid shirt over jeans—a look that seemed comfortable for her but might also help put stressed people at ease. Or at least that was what Doug assumed.

  Soon Amber got the three men lined up in the living room, leaving her mother holding the leashes of Hooper, Evan’s dog Bear, and Amber’s Labrador retriever Lola at the far end of the room. Fortunately they were all well trained. Doug wasn’t sure how Sonya, a somewhat fragile-looking senior, would do with aggressive or even eager dogs.

  “Okay,” Amber said to Elissa. “Assume these three guys were in the military and suffer from PTSD.” She looked toward Evan, who smiled at her. Doug knew that the statement was accurate as far as Amber’s guy was concerned. “They need a bit of TLC and soothing from a really good therapy dog. Show me how you and Peace would handle it.”

  As far as Doug could tell—without knowing more about how therapy dogs worked—they handled it well, including him. First, Elissa knelt and tied a blue scarf that said “Therapy Dog” around Peace’s neck. Then, on direction from Elissa, Peace went up to each guy individually, sat before him on the floor to be petted, walked carefully around him while sidling against his legs, and acted wholly engaged and pleased, even wagging her tail, as each of the men knelt and hugged her—or, in Evan’s case, pretended to ignore her until the last moment.

  There was more to it, too. Doug was impressed, especially as Elissa explained with each movement, each command, just how that was intended to help calm a nervous, scared or psychologically impaired person. But mostly she left it to her dog to interact with the supposed needy human.

  And who wouldn’t be soothed by a loving, caring dog? Especially one trained, and handled, by someone as apparently loving and caring as Elissa?

  Heck, he thought as he once again sat on the wood floor and pretended to mope as Peace came over and nuzzled him. He had to remind himself yet again that he knew far better than to even think of getting involved with someone entwined in a case.

  And now it appeared that Elissa was exactly that.

  Even Orrin, who must be used to being given all sorts of strange things to do here as a ranch hand, seemed to enjoy Peace’s attention. He was a young, strong guy wearing a red Chance T-shirt. Even as he pretended to be sad and sick, he wound up petting and hugging Peace as the dog lavished attention on him.

  Then it was Doug’s turn. “Okay, dog,” he said gruffly. “What if I don’t want your attention?”

  “That’s exactly why you need her attention,” Elissa said softly. “She wants you to hug her.”

  Which Doug found himself doing with the furry, snuggling golden.

  The demonstration went on a while longer. Eventually, Elissa also gave Amber and Lola a brief lesson on how the Lab could also be trained to be a therapy dog.

  Amber seemed to have gotten everything accomplished that she wanted to. “Okay,” she said when her lesson was finished. “Good job, Elissa and Peace. Let’s go into the kitchen, shall we?”

  She unobtrusively motioned for Doug and the others to stay there, in the living room, while she led Elissa and Peace through the door. In a couple of minutes she returned and requested that Orrin get back to work. The ranch hand left.

  “She’s good,” Amber said once he was gone. “Real good. Her explanations to people as well as working well with her dog... I want to hire her no matter what.”

  “I don’t like the idea.” Evan drew himself to her side. “No matter how good she is.”

  “Me neither,” said Sonya, staring at her daughter.

  “But that sign really didn’t say anything.” Amber directed her gaze toward Doug. “Did it? Is it really a threat? I know what real threats are like.”

  Doug was well aware that Amber had received text messages not long ago containing some really nasty threats. Fortunately, that situation was now resolved. “We don’t know enough yet,” he said. “I’m just beginning our investigation.”

  “Well, we’ll all be aware and be careful. But I don’t intend for some stupid, unclear sign to make me change my mind regarding something I feel strongly about. She’ll only be here part-time anyway.” And with that, Amber pulled away, turned and left the living room.

  “Then you’ll really have to help us,” Sonya said pleadingly to Doug.

  “I’ll do all I can,” he promised. But he was definitely concerned—about the Belotts and others who lived at the ranch, their dogs and now also about Elissa.

  He migh
t not be able to act at all on his initial attraction to her. But neither did he want her, or her dog, to be harmed.

  “For now, I’ll join you while you talk with Elissa, and just listen in. We’ve already secured the sign and locked it in the back of my car.”

  They’d wrapped it in plastic carefully so as not to obscure any fingerprints or other evidence.

  The sign had been hooked onto the gate down by the road that morning when Amber and Evan had first gone outside to walk their dogs. They didn’t always walk that way but Evan had noticed something a bit off at the upper driveway.

  The sign read Be Careful Who You Hire. It was a small cardboard sign, hung on the gate by the road with string and not too obvious. The dogs hadn’t alerted on it, either.

  But it wasn’t something Doug, or the Chance Police Department, would ignore.

  Chapter 3

  Like the rest of the house that she’d seen, the kitchen seemed utilitarian yet attractive to Elissa. A tiled floor and counters, too, lent themselves to being scrubbed clean despite the abundance of dogs undoubtedly brought in here. The metal sink and refrigerator were large, and the stove, with the microwave attached to the wall over it, was more moderate in size.

  Sitting on a stiff chair at the round kitchen table with Peace lying on the floor near her, Elissa made herself look over the paperwork Amber had left for her to review. It described the Chance K-9 Ranch, its history and goals, as well as the contract she would be expected to sign if she was hired.

  Interesting stuff, but she couldn’t help wondering how the conversation in the living room was going.

  She assumed they were all analyzing her therapy dog demonstration as well as the brief training lesson she’d provided. That was expected since they were considering hiring her.

  Or at least Amber, her mother and their lead trainer were.

  But what was Doug Murran doing there? A K-9 officer didn’t necessarily know anything about therapy dogs. Nor had Elissa thought he or his sister would attend today, but there he was.

  She hadn’t anticipated seeing him again anytime soon, if at all. Of course, if she was hired and spent more time in Chance, there was always that possibility.

  A thought struck her. He was a cop. He knew dogs. Maybe she could ask him...

  “Hi, Elissa.” Amber strode into the room with Lola at her feet. They were followed by Sonya. Both women sat at the table, facing her, and Elissa felt her heart speed up. Would they make her an offer—or would they thank her and usher her out the door?

  It was the former and she was thrilled! “We understand you have a nursing job in San Luis Obispo,” Amber began, “and that works out fine with us as long as you don’t mind the commute. We’d like to hire you part-time, for about eight hours a week, at least to start. That means you could spend four hours a day here for the two days you’re not at your hospital each week. If you’re okay with that, we’ll work out the schedule, how we’ll bring in students and other details.”

  “That’s great,” Elissa said. “I’ll give you the general training parameters so you can decide which students might work best, and their dogs, too. We can start working with younger dogs and maybe take them to therapy venues for practice, but they have to be at least a year old before we can actually get them qualified.”

  “Great. We’ll need your input on that.” Amber made notes in a folder she was holding. “I’ve already posted info on social media about plans for an upcoming class and received some nibbles from potential students, so we’ll be able to start quickly.”

  “Another thing—do you have any contacts at the local hospital?” Elissa asked. “Before branching out to other facilities, I’ll want to see if Peace and I can do a little therapy work there, as well as use it as a potential teaching location once we get handlers in our classes trained enough to actually start therapy work with their dogs.”

  “Actually, I do,” Sonya said. “One of the senior nurses on staff is a good friend of mine.”

  “Excellent,” Elissa said.

  “Now let’s talk some details like salary, timing, benefits and all.” Amber smiled at Elissa, who could only grin back. She wouldn’t get rich at this, she was sure, even with the grant that Amber had said she’d obtained. But Elissa had her other job to pay for the basics. The main thing was that this was something she really wanted to do.

  Fortunately, those details as Amber described them worked well for Elissa. Today was Friday, and they determined that Elissa would actually start working there the following Monday.

  That would give her time to put more hours in at the San Luis Obispo hospital. She had already arranged to be there over the weekend, partly because she was due to work then and partly to make up for the couple of days she’d just taken off.

  She had looked over the contract and found the terms acceptable, so she and Amber both signed it.

  Soon, they were done. They had a deal. But they both had provisions for getting out. Nothing was etched in stone, and Elissa realized she would be somewhat on trial here at first.

  Which was fine with her. She’d also have to weigh whether this new part-time job would be worth it for her.

  She felt certain it would be. She had loved the idea of the Chance K-9 Ranch for a while, and now she would be part of it. And the very idea of training therapy dogs and their handlers? Wonderful!

  Amber soon stood, as did Sonya. Elissa did the same, smiling as both Peace and Lola, too, stood on the kitchen floor.

  “Lola’s a sweetheart,” she said to Amber. “I think she’d make a good therapy dog.”

  Amber’s smile broadened. “I look forward to your training her more, too.”

  Soon, they were all outside on the ranch’s front porch—which was where Evan was with his dog Bear and Doug was with Hooper. They were sitting on a couple of the beige sling chairs, talking.

  With the two German shepherds so close together, Elissa noticed even more the similarities and differences between them. Hooper was lighter in color and appeared thinner and, perhaps, younger. Bear had more black in his fur and his ears were more pointed and mobile.

  Both appeared to be alert, caring and smart dogs. Which was a good thing, especially with Hooper, who had a K-9 job to do. But she wondered about Bear’s background—and his owner, Evan’s, too. Military maybe? The ranch website hadn’t said. But Elissa noticed that Evan sometimes seemed uncomfortable looking straight into people’s faces as he spoke to them, so perhaps he had a mild case of PTSD.

  The men stood. “Everything work out?” Evan asked.

  “Yes,” Amber said. “Elissa will start working here on Monday.”

  “Great.” Evan strolled over and held out his hand for Elissa to shake, which she did.

  She then glanced at Doug. He was nodding as if in approval, although he then aimed what appeared to be a long, questioning look toward Amber.

  “It is great.” Her tone sounded stubborn and Elissa wondered what that was about.

  “Well, Peace and I will be off for now, then,” Elissa said. “We’ll look forward to coming back here on Monday.” She turned to head down the steps toward her SUV and was glad to see that Doug and Hooper appeared to be accompanying her.

  She quickly recalled the thought she’d had a while earlier. This guy was a cop. He was involved with dogs.

  Maybe he would have an idea...

  They’d reached her vehicle. She waited to open the rear door to strap Peace in, turning to Doug. Before she could ask him anything, though, he began talking.

  “Hey, I have a couple of questions for you. Would you mind meeting me in town for coffee before you leave so we can discuss them?”

  He had questions for her? Interesting. She had questions for him, too. “Sounds good,” she said.

  But she wondered how good it really would be.

  * * *

  They drove separately, so that ga
ve Doug time to consider his approach as he navigated first the winding roads then the busier ones into town.

  He didn’t particularly want to hit Elissa over the head with the contents of that warning to her new employers. In fact, he wasn’t sure he’d mention it directly at all. At least not yet.

  But he wanted to talk to her, to get an idea why she’d decided to seek a job at the ranch—and whether there was something in her life, someone in her life, who’d known about it and didn’t like the idea.

  He found a parking spot near the front of the coffee shop where he’d first met Elissa and pulled in, not needing to use the cop card to park in a spot regular citizens couldn’t. Since he saw Elissa pull into another space not far from him, he didn’t have to try to preserve one for her.

  Once he got Hooper out of the back, he walked to the front of the shop and was quickly joined by Elissa and Peace. “I figure K-9s are allowed everywhere,” she said, looking up at Doug, a somewhat quizzical expression on her lovely face, “and I hope they’ll be okay with Peace joining me, too. She’s not a service dog with an identification vest or anything, although I could put on her scarf—but even so, therapy dogs aren’t always given the same respect.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Doug told her. “I’ve seen other dogs in this place, too. The owners seem to love them and look the other way even if the law isn’t on the side of canine customers.”

  “And I assume that at least one particular lawman turns a blind eye to that kind of violation.” She stuck a solemn expression onto her face that quickly morphed into a smile, and he smiled back.