Chapter 1 - THE KICK
Buddy had never bitten anyone.
He had never chased a child.
Never lunged at a stranger.
Never even barked at Margaret Wilson unless she banged her handbag against Emily’s fence.
That afternoon, Buddy stood beside Emily on the sidewalk, leash loose, tail moving slowly.
Margaret came down the path from her neighboring house.
Beige cardigan.
Leather handbag.
The expression of someone already irritated by the existence of other people.
Buddy took one curious step toward her.
Margaret stopped.
Then kicked him.
Hard.
Buddy yelped.
His body rolled off the sidewalk and onto the grass.
He tried to stand.
One back leg buckled.
Emily dropped everything.
“BUDDY!”
She ran.
Fell to her knees.
Scooped him carefully into her arms.
Buddy trembled against her chest.
Emily looked up through tears.
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!”
Margaret rolled her eyes.
“Oh, PLEASE. It’s JUST A DOG.”
Emily stared.
Margaret stepped closer.
“Stop acting like I killed your CHILD.”
Then she gave Buddy a disgusted look.
“Control your mutt next time.”
Emily’s trembling stopped.
She remembered the camera above her garage.
Pointed toward the sidewalk.
She pulled out her phone.
Opened the app.
There it was.
Margaret approaching.
Buddy standing still.
The kick.
Clear.
Emily saved the clip.
Then exported it.
Then uploaded it to cloud storage.
Margaret turned.
Saw the phone.
Her smug smile faded slightly.
“What are you doing?”
Emily raised her eyes.
Calm now.
Cold.
She did not answer.
May you like
Because on the same camera timeline, twelve minutes before the kick, Margaret had been standing beside Emily’s mailbox talking to a man from Sentinel Neighborhood Security.
And Emily suddenly remembered the invoice sitting on her desk.
