Page 116 of Don't Cross Mo Ellery

As I turn and close in on my corner, I start to hear yelling, but... it’s not coming from the dog park.

It’s coming from the parking garage construction site.

And this is where things start to get a little weird.

Tondis there. He’s the one yelling. He’s also wearing a hard hat and sort of jousting with an orange traffic cone.

The person he’s yelling at isMerle, who’s on his crutches and appears to be very confused.

I run past them to look inside the dog park gate. No one is in there.

Meanwhile, behind Tond and Merle, Tond’s neon-yellow Ford Fiesta has clearly plowed through and toppled the fence around the construction site. The car is currently banged up and smoking in the middle of everything, looking really out of place among the piles of cement bags and assorted equipment.

What the hell is going on?

Where’s Benny?

And Leslie?

And the dogs?

I slow to a stop and Hannah pulls up next to me, panting. Sheswipes her forehead with her cap sleeve and then points at the altercation in front of us.

“Hey, isn’t that the alderman?” she whispers, eyes wide. “Who’s the construction site avenger with the hard hat?”

Merle looks over and sees us, his eyes pleading. My heart races, and I reflexively shove Hannah behind me. “Call 911,” he says. “Hurry!”

“She’s on my side, you fiend!” Tond declares, holding the cone upside down above his head, where it stays rigid for a second and then flops over.

“Tond, what the hell?” I shout. “Stop attacking him! Have either of you seen Benny?”

“Who’s Benny again?” Tond asks.

“We already had this conversation, Tond!”

“Well, I was probably drunk on cooking sherry!”

He’s not wrong. But I don’t have time to deal with... whatever this is, and I need to find Benny before it’s too late. Merle, meanwhile, has opted to make a slow hobbling break for it.

“Nice try!” Tond lunges and jabs at him with the traffic cone, knocking him off-balance. Merle crumples to the sidewalk and cries out in pain. His crutches clatter to the side, and Tond grabs one, planting it at Merle’s solar plexus like the flag on the moon.

“Benny is the dog walker, you dumbass!” Merle moans. “God, I wish your brother was here.”

“Oh no, you’re not gonna murder old Tond too!” Tond says, laughing maniacally. “Not today, not ever!” He turns to me and grins. “Got him! I got him before he got me!”

“Murder? I can’t evenstand!” Merle yells. He turns his head toward us. “Girls, help! Help me! Stop this lunatic!”

“First of all,” Hannah says, pulling out her phone, “we are women.”

“Hold on,” Merle says, his voice shifting in surprise, as he registersHannah. “You havegotto be kidding me. Why is Hannah Hawks here?”

Hannah waves uncomfortably from behind my shoulder.

And that’s when Merlereallyloses it.“You stay away from my wife!”

“Can everyone shut up for a second?” I say, looking up and down the block frantically.“Benny! Benny!”

“I, er, haven’t done anything to your wife,” Hannah says, confusion splashed across her face.