place.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“You twit! Not until I found his copy of the key laying on the floor this morning!”
Ambyr remembered Mr. Drago’s worried countenance as his hands dipped into his pocket for a key that wasn’t there. She shook her head. “I don’t believe it. I know my musher, and he’d never do something like that. Why would he? If he wanted to steal the mail, he could’ve done it countless times before.”
Gill scowled. “Yeah, well, thanks for that tidbit. I’ll be sure to stow it away safely somewhere, now you should go. You’re being a nuisance right now.”
Ambyr stubbornly sat down in front of him. “Looks like you’re stuck with me and Haywire. Because let me get one thing straight here – I don’t like you. I never did. Even from the time I first laid eyes on you.”
Gill smirked. “That makes two of us.”
Ambyr continued without regard. “Get used to it, because I don’t trust you one bit. For all I know, you could’ve broken in here and planted the evidence yourself (Ambyr knew that was highly unlikely, but she still needed something to say against him.). So we’ll be sticking around a while and keeping a close eye on you.”
With an impatient sigh, Gill pushed passed her. “Fine, whatever. Just not too close, I hope.” He smirked again, and Ambyr shuddered.
It was then, Haywire cam bounding up to them. “Whew, what a rush! I think I practically licked that guy’s nose off before he finally let me in, and I think – HOLY TALITO, WHAT THE HECK IS HE DOING HERE?!” He looked from Gill’s glowering eyes to Ambyr’s.
“Un-oh,” Haywire said. “I smell trouble.” He sniffed the air. “And tuna.”
Gill narrowed his eyes, aware that the two know he works down at the docks. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Eh?” Haywire sniffed again. “I smell...fish.” Haywire poked his nose up in the air, and inhaled. He followed the scent closer to Gill, but to both of their surprise, Haywire passed him, and continued on the empty mail racks.
Gill sniffed. “I don’t smell anything.”
To this, Ambyr smirked, “Maybe that’s just you.”
The two followed Haywire over to the bare slots in the wall where the mail normally poked out from.
“What are you looking for,” Gill said. “There’s nothing here.”
Haywire, who was noticeably taller than Gill, only continued to stare up at the shelves. He cocked his head at something almost too high up for Gill to notice. “Looks like not all the mail was stolen.” Once again, Haywire got up on his hind legs, and grabbed the envelope in his mouth. His eyes began to water as he brought it down, then spat it onto the floor. “Ugh! Nasty!” He stuck his tongue out to rub it against something to wipe off the taste, then looked over at Ambyr.
“You do, and you die,” she said.
Haywire withdrew his tongue. “So much for contaminating the evidence.”
Gill flipped open the top. Inside was a slip of folded paper with unrecognizable handwriting on it:
Sunrise comes, sunset goes,
A pattern eternal that knows;
Wherein do the rays of light roam?
Merry will be the date,
In dawning, the sun comes up late;
Lest it somehow finds its way home.
Listen, as sunrise holds the key to light.
“This is great,” Gill retorted. “Even I wouldn’t want to steal this garbage.”
“Ah, what a sweet love poem,” Haywire commented. “Too bad the last line doesn’t rhyme with anything. Hey, Ambyr, what rhymes with ‘light’?”
“This doesn’t look at all like a love poem,” Ambyr muttered.
“Light – fright, flight, might, fight, night...”
“Give it a rest,” Gill snapped.
“Oh, I like that word! Let’s see...Listen, as sunrise holds the key to light / When Ambyr’s sweet voice comes sailing through the night...”
Ambyr and Gill both looked at Haywire.
“What? It’s a talent,” he said, grinning.
“No,” Gill replied. “It’s a curse.”
“Is there an address on the backside of the envelope?”
Gill rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure. Like the burglar would rob a post office, then be stupid enough to leave behind a crumby poem with his address on it. Great thinking, Ambyr!” Nonetheless, he turned it over. “No, there’s nothing. It’s blank.”
“But what does the poem mean?” Haywire asked.
“The first logical question you’ve asked all day,” Ambyr said with a smile. “I, honestly, don’t know. But I heard poems are what humans sometimes use to reveal hidden meanings and messages.”
“Ooooh! You mean like a secret code?”
Ambyr frowned. “Not really. But my guess is that something in the poem stands for something else.”
“This is pointless,” Gill sighed.
Ambyr ignored him, and pointed down at the scrawled words. “Like for example, ‘rays of light’ could be the mail, since the poem seems to be asking where it is.”
“And sunrise holds the key to light...what does sunrise stand for?”
“I’m not sure. But sunrise usually means the beginning of something...like a new day.”
“This isn’t making any sense,” Gill retorted. “If you think you’re so smart, what does ‘Merry be the date / In dawning, the sun comes up late / Lest it somehow finds its way home’ mean?”
“I never said I knew for sure,” Ambyr shot back. “It’s just a theory.” Before Gill could do something to it, Ambyr swiped up the letter, and tucked it beneath her collar.
“Hey, what’re you doing,” Gill demanded. “We have to show that to the humans!”
“No, we can’t,” Ambyr said darkly.
“And why not?”
Ambyr gave a yip of frustration. “Suddenly, Haywire doesn’t seem so dumb anymore (“Gee, thanks,” Haywire muttered.)! Think about it, you moron! This letter was left here on purpose. The burglar isn’t just going to accidentally insert this letter in plain sight where everybody can find it, but obviously, he did. What do you make of that?”
Gill narrowed his eyes at her, but said nothing.
“It means,” Ambyr continued, “that the robber left clues to where he hid the mail for someone to discover.”
“Right. And why would he do that?”
Ambyr turned from Gill and the hustle of humans busy on their way, as if oblivious to the dogs. “Clearly, there’s someone in this room that has their hand in this.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a detective dog,” Haywire clapped. “But my mom always said I had a lack in reasoning.”
“No, surprise.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Ambyr said. “Let’s go to the hospital. Maybe Blitz can help us solve this thing.”
“Blitz is in the hospital?” Gill asked, surprised. “What for?”
Ambyr shot Gill her meanest glare. “He fell through an ice hole. Not that you care.”
Gill angrily lowered his gaze.
Blitz was bored out of his skull, and he sighed lazily as he shifted uncomfortably in his bed. Sometimes, his legs twitched uncontrollably, and he still had yet to gain control of their movement, but at least he still had feeling in them. This morning, however, he had a killer itch on his leg he’d been dying all day to scratch. A few nurses occasionally checked up on him, but hastily jotted something down on their clipboards, then quickly strode away. Not to mention, if a sudden heart attack didn’t kill him first, the food here would.
This was how Blitz had been passing the time by for the past couple of days. Spending his time trying to keep himself occupied by reminding himself how much he hated his situation only made him edgier by the minute. He had to take a couple minutes to calm himself down every now and then. Luckily, the three dogs came in at a good time, or he would’ve done flips at the sight of Gill walking to his bedside.
“Don’t tell me,” he said. “You’ve come to apologize.”
Gill made a disgusted face at him. “You conceited mutt! Of course not. This was all your girlfriend’s idea.
Haywire’s eyes widened.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Blitz growled. He then turned to Ambyr. “What exactly is he doing here?”
“We decided to let him tag along,” Ambyr scoffed. But then, she turned sincerely to him. “Listen, Blitz. Mr. Drago’s been accused of stealing the mail, but so far, we haven’t gotten any closer to finding out what really happened. All we found was this letter. Do you know what it means?”
She pulled it out from under her collar, and Blitz scanned over it. “’A pattern eternal that knows’?”
“The sun rises every morning, and sets every evening. I’m guessing that’s the pattern it’s talking about.”
“The pattern knows,” Blitz said thoughtfully. He then continued reading. “’Listen, as sunrise holds the key to light.’ And I suppose ‘light’ is...”
Ambyr nodded. “The mail. And I’m guessing ‘sunrise’ means the beginning of something.”
“The beginning,” Blitz said, as if in a daze. He then substituted the words, and translated the last line: “Listen, as the beginning holds the key to the mail.”
“Key to the mail,” Haywire chimed. “Mr. Drago didn’t have it with him this morning, and we all know he carries it around like it’s his baby. Which means...”
“Someone must’ve stolen it, and framed Mr. Drago,” Gill finished.
Ambyr gave an approving grunt. “I
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completely off guard. Good job!