Nowhere to Turn (8 page)

I

felt so sorry for Orion that I got up extra early the next morning to take him for a short walk before school. The minute classes were over that afternoon, I ran to get my backpack so I could take him for a longer walk. He was a big dog and needed plenty of exercise. Morgan was waiting for me at my locker.

“Um, excuse me, but weren't we planning to work on our project?” she said. “Or have you decided to delegate all of the work to me?”

“I have to walk Orion,” I said as I slung my back-pack over my shoulder. “Come over to my dad's place after supper. We'll work on it then. I promise.”

Elliot answered the door at Mr. Schuster's house.

“Robyn, hi,” he said. “I have someone here, so I can't chat. The physical therapist just left. Why don't you take the dog upstairs before you walk him, while Dad is still awake?”

He went into the living room. As I hung up my coat, I couldn't help but overhear part of his conversation.

“I had those coins insured so that if anything were to happen to them, my father would be compensated,” Elliot was saying. “Now something has happened. They've been stolen. I filed a claim on my father's behalf. I don't understand what the delay is.”

I went to the basement to get Orion. He barked when he heard me on the stairs, but he stopped when I got to the bottom and jumped up so that his front paws were on the barrier. He wagged his tail when he saw me reach for his leash. I clipped it onto his collar and slid the barrier aside so that he could pass.

“Perhaps, Mr. Schuster, I should speak with your father,” another man was saying when Orion and I emerged from the basement.

“My father isn't able to communicate verbally at this point,” Elliot said. “We're not even sure how much he really understands. While he's ill, I'm in charge of his affairs, and I demand to know why this is taking so long.”

“Your father's coin collection is extremely valuable, as I'm sure you know,” the other man said. “Before we settle the claim, we have an obligation to make sure that the coins are unrecoverable or that they weren't misplaced. If I could just ask you a few more questions . . .”

I guided Orion to the stairs.

“Misplaced?” Elliot said. “The side door to the house was pried open with a crowbar. The coins are gone. The police made an arrest.”

Orion and I climbed the stairs.

“I've read the police report, Mr. Schuster,” the man from the insurance company said. His voice was soft, almost soothing. “But you arranged for that policy only recently—”

As soon as we got to the top of the stairs, Orion bolted into Mr. Schuster's room, dragging me with him. We almost knocked over the walker that was standing just inside the door and startled Isobel, who was sitting beside Mr. Schuster, and her mother, who was straightening the sheets on the bed. They both stared fearfully at Orion. I shortened the leash to keep him close to me. Only Mr. Schuster smiled. I glanced at Isobel.

“Remember what I showed you?” I said.

She hesitated and then nodded. She got up and crept toward Orion, one hand extended, watching him warily in case she had to snap her hand away from his enormous teeth.

“Isobel, be careful,” Claudia Schuster said, her voice shrill with anxiety.

“Don't worry,” I said, trying to reassure her so that the fear in her voice wouldn't set Orion off. “If you relax, Isobel, he'll relax.”

Isobel drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She let Orion sniff her hand. Slowly, cautiously, she ran a hand over the top of his head and scratched behind the big dog's ear. His tail began to flick merrily back and forth. Isobel looked at me and smiled.

“See?” I said. “He looks like a big, mean old dog, but he's really a pussycat.”

I led Orion—okay, so he led me—to the chair where Mr. Schuster was sitting so that he could pat him. Orion roowfed softly.

“He misses you, Mr. Schuster,” I said.

“I told Grandpa that Daddy hired you to walk him,” Isobel said. “He's happy about that, aren't you, Grandpa?”

Mr. Schuster nodded.

“The physical therapist said Grandpa's making great progress. Didn't he, Mom?”

Claudia Schuster nodded as she hastily finished making the bed. She seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the room.

I heard footsteps on the stairs. Mr. Schuster turned toward the door. His lopsided smile disappeared when he saw Elliot.

“Well?” Claudia said.

Elliot sighed. He turned to Mr. Schuster. “I just spoke to the insurance adjuster, Dad. He says it's going to take time before they settle the claim and pay you for the loss of your coin collection.”

“Time?” Claudia said. “How much time?”

“He didn't say. But you know how insurance companies are. Sometimes I think they'll do anything to weasel out of paying up.”

“Do you think they're trying to weasel out of this claim?” Claudia said.

“Apparently the problem is that they were just recently insured. Too recently, according to the insurance adjuster. And the fact that you employed that boy, knowing what you did about him—” He shook his head in exasperation. “It seems that they're not fully satisfied with the facts of the case. He kept asking me if I was sure there wasn't any way the coins might have gone astray.”

“Gone astray?” Claudia said.

“He didn't come right out and say it, but I don't think he's convinced that the coins were stolen.”

“I don't understand,” Claudia said. “The police arrested that boy. They're sure he did it. They even found some of the coins—”

“The way he was talking, I got the impression that the insurance company suspects us of having staged the robbery so that we could collect the insurance money,” Elliot said.

“Why would we do that?” Isobel said. “Everyone knows how much Grandpa loves his coin collection. He loves it almost as much as he loves Orion.”

Elliot stepped tentatively into the room. Orion sprang to his feet and barked. There was nothing aggressive about his stance, but Elliot immediately retreated.

“I'm sorry, Dad,” he said. “I thought that insuring your collection would protect you if anything happened. It appears that I might have been mistaken. The insurance adjuster says he'll keep me posted.”

Claudia edged around Orion and followed her husband down the stairs. I stayed a little longer so that Mr. Schuster could visit with Orion. I watched as he scratched Orion affectionately and the dog licked his hand. I hated to take Orion away, but he needed his walk.

“I'll bring him back to see you tomorrow,” I said.

“Can I walk him with you?” Isobel asked.

“If you want to.”

She looked at her grandfather. “Do you mind, Grandpa? Maybe I can get to know Orion as well as Robyn does. Then maybe I can look after him for you.”

The old man beamed crookedly at her. She bent down and kissed him on the cheek before following Orion and me downstairs.

Isobel was braver than I had expected. She even tried to help me with Orion's booties, until one of his nails got caught on the fastenings and he yelped. She jumped back, startled.

“It's okay,” I said. “I've done that myself a couple of times. He's fine.”

But she stood at a distance and waited while I secured the rest of the booties.

“Do you want to hold the leash?” I asked Isobel.

She looked warily at the big dog but finally extended her hand. I gave her the leash, and she wound it around her wrist as she had seen me do.

“The only thing you have to worry about is if he sees a—”

Roowf-roowf! Orion was off like a shot, yanking Isobel almost off her feet.

“—squirrel,” I said.

Isobel scrambled after Orion, her arm extended out straight in front of her. I raced after her, calling for Orion to stay and sit. He didn't listen. He didn't stop galloping, either, until the frightened squirrel had taken refuge up a maple tree. Orion stood at the bottom of the tree, barking excitedly as if he thought it would encourage the squirrel to come back down and play some more.

“Orion, sit,” I said again, more firmly this time.

He kept barking.

“Orion! Sit!”

The big dog plunked his rear end down into the snow, but I think that was only because the squirrel had vanished from sight. After he had calmed down, we continued our walk. When Orion couldn't find any more squirrels, he seemed content to trot along at Isobel's side. I kept pace with her. She relaxed a little.

“You're right,” she said. “He's not so bad once you get to know him.”

“Now if you could just convince the rest of your family.”

Isobel looked doubtful. “My dad may change his mind, but there's no way my mom or Connor will. Especially not Connor.”

“Because Orion bit your mom?”

“Connor was attacked by a dog—a Rottweiler—when he was nine,” Isobel said. “Came out of no-where and dragged him off his bicycle. It took three guys to get the dog off him. Connor was in the hospital for a week. You should see the scars on his leg.”

I knew how he felt. I'd been afraid of dogs too as a result of being bitten. But a nip on my bottom was nothing compared to an all-out attack.

“They put the dog down,” Isobel added. “Ever since then, Connor has insisted that he hates dogs, but really he's afraid of them, especially big ones like Orion. That's why I'm worried about what will happen to Orion if Grandpa doesn't get better. Mom still wants Dad to hand him over to an animal shelter. But Dad says he wants to wait and see how well Grandpa recovers.”

We walked for a few moments in silence, Orion trotting along happily beside us, pulling on his leash now and then so that he could sniff yellow patches in the snow.

“I wish we visited Grandpa more often,” Isobel said with a sigh. “I feel bad about seeing him only now that he's sick.”

“When was the last time you were here?”

“Maybe three years ago? Before Grandma died.”

“You haven't seen your grandfather in three years? Is that why the whole family came instead of just your father?”

She shook her head. “My mom offered to come by herself to look after Grandpa. My dad has his own business, so it's hard for him to get away. But Dad said no. He said Grandpa is his father, so he should come too.”

“What about you and Connor? Aren't you missing school?”

“Mom made arrangements with our principal. We get our assignments by e-mail, and Mom is making sure we keep up. She says she's glad we all came. I think she feels bad about what happened when Grandma died.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mom and Dad were away on a trip for my dad's business. My dad wanted to go to the funeral, but he just couldn't. Grandpa got really mad. When Grandma was alive, she and Grandpa used to phone us every Sunday. But after Grandma died, Grandpa stopped calling. He keeps in touch with Connor and me, but he and my dad hardly speak to each other.”

“You seem to have a good relationship with him,” I said.

She smiled. “He e-mails me almost every day and tells me about what he's been doing and who he meets. And he and Connor are always e-mailing each other about coin auctions and shows. Connor is as crazy about coins as Grandpa.”

“And you're not?”

She shook her head. “I don't find them as fascinating as he and Connor do. I didn't understand what the big deal was until one night when my dad said he'd heard about a coin that had sold for thousands of dollars. He said it was too bad that Grandpa didn't have any like that. You should have seen the look on his face when Connor told him that Grandpa had a couple of them—and a lot of others that were worth even more.”

“I guess the whole collection must have been pretty valuable,” I said.

“So valuable that when my dad found out that Grandpa had promised to leave the whole thing to Connor, he freaked. He said a collection like that was far too much to leave to one person and that it should go to the whole family. Connor didn't like that. He's the only one besides Grandpa who knows anything about coins. He says he loves them because of their history, not because of what they're worth. I think he was more upset than anyone else when they were stolen.”

No wonder Connor had grilled me about Nick. Mr. Schuster's coin collection was supposed to be Connor's one day.

“Did your parents suspect Nick right away?”

“I'm not sure. But when the police came, they asked if there was anyone besides the family who knew that Grandpa had a coin collection, knew where he kept it.”

“Where did he keep it? In a safe or locked up somewhere?”

She shook her head. “In the back bedroom—the one my parents are using now. The police also asked if anyone else had been in the house. That's when my dad told them about Nick. He said that he'd fired Nick but that Nick had kept coming around.”

“He did?”

“The first time he came, he and my dad got into an argument. Nick wanted to see Orion. He tried to tell Dad that he'd changed. He said there were people Dad could talk to, if he didn't believe him.”