The Doorkeepers Read Online Free PDF Page A

shorts stood up and started to drag a snarling muzzled bull terrier across the verandah, leaving claw marks in the redwood boards.
    Josh said, “Wait up a moment. Does this guy bite?”
    â€œYes
sir”
said his owner, proudly. “Anything from a mailman’s leg to a Cadillac’s tailpipe. The cable company were digging up the street once, and he bit right through one of their shovels.”
    â€œOK, then, bring him on in. But make sure you keep his muzzle on.”
    â€œWell, sir, that’s going to be kind of difficult. I brought him in for a tongue abscess.”
    At that moment, a police car drew up in the street outside, beside the white picket fence. A dark-haired deputy climbed out of it, and walked toward the front door, around the corner of the house, where all the bougainvillea hung down. Josh heard the doorbell ring and a door slamming as Nancy went to answer it. He hesitated for a moment, curious to know what was going on, but then the bull terrier began to snap and snarl and chase its own tail and he had to take it into the kitchen.
    â€œHe slobbers something awful,” said the owner, as Josh heaved it up on to the table. “I wouldn’t mind myself but the wife keeps on about the loose covers.”
    â€œHave you noticed any change in his motions?” asked Josh.
    â€œCan’t say that I have. One leg in front of the other, same as usual.”
    â€œSit,” said Josh, but the bull terrier only growled at him. “Sit, damn it,” he repeated, and pressed both hands down on its rump.
    â€œHe don’t sit much,” the owner remarked. “Not when people tell him to, anyhow.”
    Josh lifted one finger in front of the bull terrier’s eyes. The bull terrier snarled and shook its head, so that strings of thick saliva flew in all directions. But then Josh slowly brought his finger nearer and nearer to the bull terrier’s nose, and then he touched it very lightly on the top of its head.
    â€œYou will sit,” he said, in a very quiet voice. “You will be calm and well behaved and you will not snarl.”
    The bull terrier looked up at him wide-eyed. Then it gave a pathetic, throaty whine and obediently sat down.
    â€œHow do you do that?” asked the owner, in amazement. “I could break a stick on his back and he wouldn’t do that for me.”
    â€œAlternative pet management. You use the animal’s natural stupidity against him.”
    Josh was about to unbuckle the bull terrier’s muzzle when Nancy came through to the kitchen. Her long shiny brunette hair was tied up in a blue bandanna and she was wearing one of Josh’s checkered shirts and a tight pair of white sailcloth jeans.
    â€œJosh – I’m sorry to break in, but there’s a cop here to see you.”
    â€œYes, I saw him. Jesus. You run one red light and you never hear the end of it.”
    â€œIt’s not that,” said Nancy. “He wanted to know if you had a sister called Julia.”
    â€œJulia? What did he want to know that for?” Josh turned to the owner of the bull terrier and said, “Excuse me a minute, will you? Maybe you could finish taking this guy’s muzzle off.”
    The owner stared at him as if he were mad. “Hey, come on now! You’re the animal doctor.”
    Josh went through to the living room. It was long and low-ceilinged, with Navajo rugs thrown over the furniture and naif oil paintings of animals on the whitewashed walls. Pigs, cockerels, cows, dogs and even more pigs. The deputy was standing uncomfortably by the window, in a sharply pressed khaki uniform, his hat in his hand.
    â€œMr Joshua Winward?” he asked.
    â€œThat’s right. Is anything wrong?”
    â€œI’m sorry, sir. I’m afraid we’ve received some real bad news. Do you want to sit down or something?”
    â€œNo,” said Josh. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”
Dad,
he thought.
His