When it came again, she whirled around. A low growl. She cocked her head toward the nearby trees, then narrowed her eyes on the creature that slowly advanced on her. A dog. She breathed a sigh of relief. Probably one of the neighbors’ pets.
Pressing a hand to her racing heart, she spoke aloud. “You frightened me, dog. Is that any way to greet a new neighbor?” As she took a step forward to befriend the animal, it bared its teeth and issued another growl, this one clearly in warning. Lauren held her hands out, palms up, and said softly, “I won’t hurt you, boy.” She lowered one hand. “Here. Sniff.”
Rather than approaching her, the dog growled again, accompanying the hostile sound with a crouch that suggested an imminent attack.
“Hey, don’t get upset—” She barely had time to manage the tremulous words when the dog was on her, knocking her to the ground, snarling viciously. Struggling to fend off the beast, she put her arms up to protect herself and kicked out. But as quickly as it had lunged, the dog retreated, galloping toward the trees and disappearing into the dense growth.
Trembling wildly, Lauren pushed herself up to a seated position. Then, not willing to take a chance that the dog might return, she stumbled to her feet and made a frantic beeline for the house.
Once inside, she leaned back against the firmly shut door, closed her eyes and dragged in a shaky breath. When the worst of the shock had subsided, anger set in. Had it not been so late at night, she would have called the Youngs, her neighbors on the side from which the dog had come. Then again, she realized, perhaps it was lucky it was too late to make a call. Furious as she was that anyone would let such a savage animal loose in even as rural an area as this, she was apt to say something she might later regret. She’d met Carol Young only once. She didn’t want to alienate the woman, or her husband, or one of their teenaged boys. Better to let herself calm down. She’d call tomorrow.
Hence, from work the next morning, she dialed the Youngs’ number and was relieved to hear Carol herself answer the phone. “Carol, this is Lauren Stevenson. We met several weeks ago when I moved in next door.”
“Sure, Lauren. It’s good to hear from you. How’s it going?”
“Really well…. I hope I’m not dragging you away from anything.”
“Don’t be silly. One of the luxuries of working at a computer terminal out of my house is that I can take a break whenever I want. The boys have gone to visit their grandparents in Maryland for a week, so I’ve got more than enough time for a phone call or two. How’s the house?”
“Pretty raw still. I’ve been so busy here at the shop that I haven’t had much of a chance to look into hiring workers to fix things up. But that’s not why I called.” Lauren chose her words carefully, striving to be as diplomatic as possible. “I had an awful scare last night. I was walking out in the yard sometime around eleven when I was attacked by a dog.”
“Attacked?Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. The dog jumped me, bared its teeth and made ugly noises, but it ran off before it did any harm.”
“My God! I didn’t think there were any wild dogs around here!”
“Then … it’s not yours?”
“God, no. Is that what you thought?”
“It came from the trees on your side…. I’m sorry, I just assumed …”
“You should have called us last night. We might have been able to help you track it down. What did it look like?”
“It was big and dark. Short-haired. Maybe a Doberman, but it was too dark out for me to see the dog’s exact coloration, and besides, I was too terrified to notice much of anything.”
“You poor girl. I’d have been terrified, too.” Carol paused, thinking. “To my knowledge, no one in the neighborhood has a dog like that, certainly not one that would attack a person. Sometimes strange animals do wander into the area, though. Maybe you should call the local police.”
Lauren was lukewarm to that idea. As a new resident, she hated to make a stir. “I—I don’t think that’s necessary. As long as I know the dog wasn’t from the immediate vicinity, I feel better. It’s probably a watchdog that escaped and got lost. And it didn’t hurt me, much as it looked like it could have.”
“Listen, we’ll keep an eye out for it, and I’ll mention it to some of the other neighbors. But if you catch sight of it again, you really should file a complaint. There’s no reason why you should be frightened to walk on your own property.”
Lauren sighed. “I’ll be on guard in the future. Thanks, Carol. You’ve been a help.”
“I wish I could do more. Let me know if something comes up, okay?”
“Okay.”
As Lauren hung up the phone, Beth straightened up from where she’d been leaning unnoticed against the door. “A dog? First a car, now a dog. Lord, the new you is attracting some pretty weird elements.”
“Go ahead,” Lauren teased, “have a good laugh at my expense.”
“I’m not laughing.” Beth rubbed her hands together in anticipation of high drama. “Maybe someone’s out to get you … someone who lived in that old farmhouse a century ago and whose ghost will never be laid to rest until the rightful owner of the place returns.”
“Beth …”
Beth held up a hand. “No, listen. Suppose, just suppose, the ghost is determined to run you out of town, so it plots all kinds of little ‘accidents’ designed to scare you to death—”
