The Last Dog on Earth Read Free

a registered .357 Colt Magnum.
    Derek Colby called me because his Rottweilers were acting strange. Now, these were dogs that I knew and trained myself, so I went out to see what was wrong. When I got there, one of the dogs was actually attacking him. I barely managed to get the shots off in time. The other dog was already dead when we went inside. We took it to a vet to be examined.
    This isn't the first time I've heard about a dog going nuts recently. Another client of mine, James Tetford, called me four days ago to ask me to train up a new Doberman for him. The one he bought from me last year was mauled to death by a neighbor's dog. Weird thing is, the neighbor's dog was some little weenie thing. Beagle? Spaniel? Something like that.
    And I also heard on my police-band radio about that Lab up on Nakootick Way that your officers had to put down. Seems to me there's some kind of new dog bug going around.
    Killing dogs is not my profession. But I stand by my constitutional right to bear arms and use them when necessary.
    Thank you.

C HAPTER
TWO
    The Wallaces' Summer Kickoff Barbecue was even worse than Logan had expected.
    Fortunately, nobody in the backyard even really noticed that he was there. The adults were all standing in little clusters by the pool, slurping beer and laughing. Devon Wallace was bullying every single kid into playing Ping-Pong with him, even the eight-year-olds. Robert sat on a folding lawn chair next to the gas grill, where Mr. Wallace was flipping burgers in an apron and a white chef 's hat. Judging from the way Robert was looking at Mr. Wallace, you'd think the guy had just discovered the cure for cancer.
    Logan wasn't surprised. It was all part of Robert's act. He had this annoying habit of pretending to be interested in whatever Mr. Wallace had to say, no matter how boring it was. Mr. Wallace could be talking about cleaning his pool or some other garbage that would make most normal people want to take a nap, but Robert would just sit there with this
look
on his face … and Logan couldn't help wondering if he'd spent hours in the mirror practicing it—the
concerned
look, the
serious
look: eyes focused, forehead wrinkled, as if to say, “Oh, yes, I completely understand why cleaning your pool is such an important subject, and I have some important opinions of my own!”
    Then speak up!
Logan always wanted to tell him.
We're all very curious!
    It was obvious why Robert tried so hard. Mr. Wallace had everything Robert wanted: a lot of money, a big house, a swimming pool, and a perfect son. So Robert probably figured that if he listened carefully enough (or at least pretended to listen), he'd discover the key to getting all those things himself. It was pretty sad, if you really thought about it.
    Well, actually it wasn't
that
sad, because it was sort of funny, in a way. The thing was, Robert would always get bored with Mr. Wallace after about five minutes and start stuffing his face with food. Then he'd get bored with
that.
Back and forth, back and forth. That was the general pattern of the Summer Kickoff Barbecue. Mostly Logan just stood off to the side and watched Robert at work: pigging out, phony-baloney, pigging out, phony-baloney….
    “I thought Outward Bound was for troublemakers,” Robert was saying. He grabbed an open bag of potato chips from the table beside him and stuffed some into his mouth.
    Mr. Wallace shook his head. “Not at all. It teaches valuable life skills. Teamwork. Survival. Self-motivation.” He laughed. “Not like Devon needs to learn that kind of thing. I'm sure he'll be running the whole program by the end of it.”
    “Going was all Devon's idea?” Robert asked.
    “Yes, it was,” Mr. Wallace said proudly. He stopped flipping burgers for a moment and glanced at Robert. “You know, you might want to think about something like Outward Bound for Logan.”
    Robert grimaced. “We
have
thought about it,” he said. “Actually, Logan's guidance counselor recommended