The others viewed the large dog with surprise at first.
"Man, I don't care how many times you see that, it's still surprising," Micky commented, gazing down at the dog.
"What do we do now?" Davy asked.
"Leave," Mike replied. "Micky, you stay here with Nicole. No need for her to come."
"Should I stay, too, Mike?" Davy asked. Mike shook his head, no.
"We need you to find the place, remember?" he reminded him, and Davy nodded, remembering.
"Mike, I wanna go," Nicole protested. Mike shook his head firmly, decision made.
"No need to. You'd only be worried."
"Micky'll take care of you, right Micky?" Davy said, and Micky nodded.
"'Course I will. No need to worry, Pete, I'll take care of her," he replied with a grin, patting the large animal that was Peter on the head.
"But I wanna go," Nicole protested. "Tommy needs me."
"You can see 'em when we get back, ok? That's that," Mike ordered, and Nicole pouted.
Peter rubbed a furry head up against her leg, and Nicole sighed. "You want me to stay, too, don't you?" she asked, not really expecting a response. She knelt down and hugged him around his neck.
"Get him back for me Peter," she whispered in his ear, too low for the others to hear. Then she stood up.
"Good luck, I guess," Micky said, as the other three headed out the door.
Eventually, however, the trio reached Gopher Lane. Davy ordered Mike to park the car at a certain spot on the street and shut off the car.
"That's the place, right there," he said, pointing to a broken-down two story house. It was gray, with peeling paint and shutters that were falling off the hinges.
"Ech," was Mike's comment on the place. "Somebody needs to spend money on renovations."
'That's the place?' Peter's thoughts asked Davy, who nodded.
"Well, I guess this is your cue, Pete," Mike said. He got out of the car and opened the back door, and Peter hopped out. He stood a moment and looked up at the house.
'How do I get in?' he wondered.
"I don't know, Petah," Davy replied.
"What don't you know?" Mike asked, who hadn't heard Peter's question.
"How 'e's gonna get in the place," Davy replied. "'E can't exactly knock on the door and invite 'imself in, can 'e?"
"Maybe there's a loose board or somethin'," Mike speculated. "Only one way t'find out."
Peter sighed, knowing Mike was right. He walked across the street and into the yard, which thankfully wasn't fenced in. Mike and Davy got back into the car to begin their stakeout.
Peter roamed around to the back door first. He poked at the door with his nose, hoping that perhaps it would be open slightly, but no such luck. He checked the basement windows and saw, thankfully, that one of them was without glass.
'This is gonna hurt,' he thought to himself.
'Try it anyway,' Davy's mental voice interrupted. 'For Thomas.' Peter sighed, took a deep breath, and jumped through the window.
With a thump he landed on a box. He lay still for a moment, hoping the noise of his landing wouldn't awaken the inhabitants. But he heard nothing, and got up, hearing a few bones crack in the process.
Out of curiosity, he looked at the box he'd landed on, wondering what had been in there. It was slightly opened, and he could see something poking out a bit. After squinting through darkness, he realized what it was. A box of records.
Sniffing around with his now keener sense of smell, he managed to locate the steps to the upstairs. He walked up them, and was stopped at the top by a door.
'Great,' he thought to himself. 'A door.'
He pushed slightly on it with his nose, hoping to open it. Thankfully it hadn't been locked or shut very tightly, and the door swung open with a creak.
He paused again in the doorway, listening for noise, but once again heard nothing, and sighed in relief.
Peter raised his head and sniffed the air, hoping to catch the boy's scent. 'Should've given me something to smell,' he thought belatedly.
There were three distinctive scents there that he could recognize. One was a man he had seen recently. He figured it was Bob, because that was who had Thomas.
The other was a woman. Her scent was familiar, but not recognizable. She smelled of champagne and perfume and other... womanly things.
The third scent then must be Thomas', by process of elimination. It was the scent of a young boy, mixed with blood and...some really nasty food. Peter wrinkled his nose at the smell and then began to follow it, taking care to make as little noise as possible.
The door from the basement entered into a hallway which lead into a kitchen. Peter doubted that Thomas would be in the kitchen, but his scent was in that direction, so he went that way.
He was right, he realized upon entering. Thomas wasn't in the kitchen. But there was another doorway leading out of the kitchen.
On the other side of the doorway, the scent of Thomas was stronger. On the other side of the room was a shut door. Through the door, he could hear the squeaks of bedsprings. He cocked his head slightly, listening to the squeaky old mattress.
'Well, at least it's a familiar sound,' he thought to himself, and he could hear Davy's laughter in response.
Peter followed the scent of Thomas to the center of the room, taking care to be as quiet as possible. To come so close and then be found would be a horrible mistake.
He looked around wondering where in the room Thomas could be. He didn't seem to be anywhere. The only furniture in the room was a couch and a table. But his nose was telling him Thomas was there.
'Where is he?' he thought exasperatedly.
'Look up,' Davy answered. 'On the table.'
'The table?'
'Trust me, okay, Petah?'
Peter looked up at the table. There was something big up there, all right, he realized. But what?
Jumping up on to two legs, he put his front paws on the edge of the table and looked at what that thing was. His face collided with something cold and metal.
He looked at the thing and discovered what it was. A cage. And inside the cage, dirty, cold, and a little bloody, was a boy. Thomas.
'Oh my,' he thought, surprised. This wasn't what he'd expected at all.
He licked at Thomas' face through the bars, catching the taste of cold metal, but hoping to awaken him. It worked. The boy's eyes fluttered slightly, and brown eyes opened.
The eyes focused through the darkness, registering what they saw. Then the opened, wide and surprised.
'Dad?' Peter heard in his head, and was surprised for a moment. He'd almost forgotten Thomas could do that.
For an answer, he jumped down from the table and sat down, looking up at the boy in the cage. Thomas sat up and looked at the dog in surprise.
"Go get the keys," he whispered to the dog. "C'mon. Get the keys. " Peter just sat there. He didn't know where the keys were. Thomas must have realized this, because the next thing he told the furry quadruped was where the keys were.
"In the kitchen. Go get 'em. Please," he pleaded, whispering.
In a split second, Peter was up and heading in to the kitchen. Thomas waited anxiously for his return. As Peter re-entered the kitchen, carrying the keys in his mouth, the squeaking mattress in the next room suddenly stopped.
Peter stopped in mid step, freezing in place. He looked at Thomas for help. "Don't worry," Thomas whispered. "They won't hear. Just bring 'em here."
Peter trotted across the room, carrying the keys. When he reached the cage, he sat and looked up at the cage, awaiting his next order.
"Good job," Thomas encouraged. "Now gimme 'em. C'mon. Jump up here and Gimme 'em." Peter jumped up on to the table again, resting his front paws on the cage. Thomas smiled at him, and rewarded him with a scratch behind the ears. Then he took the keys from his mouth.
Peter jumped down from the table again, and sat and watched. Thomas carefully took the keys and placed them in the lock. Slowly and painstakingly, so as not to make too much noise, he turned the key in the lock. He was rewarded with a small click to indicate the door was unlocked.
Very slowly, Thomas pushed the door open, and hopped down onto the ground. He paused to see if he'd alerted his captors, but he heard no response. He smiled, and threw his arms around Peter, hugging the dog.
"Thanks," he whispered. "You know how to get outta here?" Peter didn't respond, he just got up and walked toward the kitchen where he'd come in. He paused in the doorway to be sure Thomas was following him. He was, and so he continued.
The two went through the kitchen and into the hallway. At the end of that was a door, which they promptly exited.
