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for the Humane Society. His job was investigating animal abuse. He’d agreed that the dogfights were illegal, but said the Humane Society didn’t have the resources to address the issue.
    But if they were illegal, Sissy insisted, couldn’t they make sure the people were arrested?
    Don had at last decided that the people staging the fights might be required to pay some fines. He said again and again that it was “a big problem,” but that children could not make a difference.
    Elijah had suggested he could gather information that Don might find useful. Then he had begun riding along with Don when the agent investigated animal shelters.
    Now, Don knew about the match in Eldon.
    Elijah had to go to the match because his uncle had persuaded him to take Satchmo there. Uncle Silas planned to match one of his other dogs in Arkansas. There would be no bust at that match, but a friend of Don’s would be present, trying to learn more about the dogfighting network. They needed to tap Silas Workman for all they could get, and Elijah was their link. Don was going to arrest Elijah at the match and call his parents.
    Elijah hadn’t quite worked out what he was going to tell them.
    Don Slocum worried that Elijah’s father might reveal the truth to his brother. Still, he’d said, “I can’t tell youwhat to do, Elijah. If you want me to talk with your parents and explain everything, I’ll certainly do it.”
    “Which one is this?” Sissy looked at Satchmo with slight distaste, Elijah thought.
    “It’s Satchmo, and if you can’t pretend he’s the handsomest dog you’ve ever seen, you better get out of here.”
    “I can pull it off. Here’s my story—I’m your girlfriend, and this is all a big secret. I want to come to the dogfight because it’s exciting, different from my other life. I want to be a bad girl, and I’m crazy about my boyfriend because he’s a bad boy. He has the baddest dog in Missouri. Right?”
    Well, she’d certainly created a role for herself.
    “Whatever,” he said. He was nervous about going in, nervous about any possible harm that might come to Satchmo in a fight, afraid of what he would see. And he couldn’t risk blowing everything by arguing with Sissy Atherton in this hot, dusty parking lot.
    To his amazement, Sissy opened the black patent leather purse she carried and withdrew a pack of cigarettes.
    Elijah rolled his eyes and headed for the lakeside shack that was known as Jackson’s Dock.
     
    S ISSY SUPPOSED she’d expected snarling dogs. When the German shepherd bitches of Echo Springs Farm fought, they generally did some snarling.
    But these dogs weren’t big on that apparently.
    Everything she’d believed about the kinds of people who staged dogfights was borne out by the crowd at Jackson’s Dock. She saw one other girl her age; she was missing a front tooth. The people looked impoverished, mean or both. Some of the men appeared frankly dangerous.
    Elijah didn’t stick out, though she’d been sure he would. He always struck her as clean-cut, certainly the type of boy her father would be happy for her to date, if her mother felt differently. He did look nervous, but it seemed perfectly normal—a tall, hawk-nosed teenage boy in a place he wasn’t supposed to be, doing something he’d been forbidden to do.
    Sissy knew she would have to work at self-control. She would want to rescue any dog that was being hurt, and she knew she must not attempt to do that. A sheriff would come, and he would save the dogs and arrest the people staging the dogfight. She supposed she could expect to be arrested as well. That seemed exciting to her, and it was certainly for a good cause.
    Sissy was here because she cared about dogs.
    She was also here because if Elijah spent enough time around her, perhaps he’d begin to think of her differently and it might occur to him to ask her to the Kickoff Dance in September.
    Elijah, unfortunately, didn’t seem terribly interested in her, and why should he