by Kelly Ethan
Lulu stood, and taking this as her sign, the purple bunny took off like a rocket. Previous anxiety all but forgotten.
The line surged as competitors and their animals paraded around the ring.
“Showtime baby. Try to keep up.” Colin strutted, his short curly tail quivering in excitement with each step.
Xandie slipped to the right side of them, copying the nymph ahead of her. Colin was now closest to the judge. She had to admit, the pug was behaving. In fact, he looked like he was having fun. Back arched, little tail bouncing. Even his ears were perky. Good old Colin was having the time of his life. As long as Elspeth stayed out of the way, their luck might hold.
Colin continued to parade around the ring and even winked at a few old women watchers, causing giggles to break out. Reaching their original spot again, Colin sat to attention at Xandie's feet.
Wallace conferred with Pennywort then nodded. Stepping forward, the host’s voice boomed out again. “Wow, what a field. Tough decision. But these numbers please step forward. One, six, nine and finally eleven.”
“March human. We’re number eleven.” Colin trotted out to stand at the end of a now very short line.
She followed in shock. The pug had actually made the finals in the gate stage. Stopping behind Colin, she wondered what came next.
The judge stepped up next to Pennywort, “Finalist’s, please spread out. Once settled, I will ask each animal at a time to strike a pose or stack.” The judge went down the line, spending five minutes watching each animal pose and then would note something down on the paperwork before moving on.
Xandie whispered to Colin, carefully not moving her mouth too much. “What’s your pose?”
“Magnificent, sweet cheeks. That's my pose.”
The judge pulled up in front of Xandie, indicating that Colin should move into position.
Nodding to Colin, she held her breath.
Colin seamlessly flowed into an upright position. His legs straight and slightly apart, his head and ears back. Tail motionless. His eyes twinkled; his purple-spot-free fur gleaming golden brown.
Oh yeah. He had this.
Nodding, the judge stepped back and Colin slid into line again.
Consulting with Pennywort, the judge handed him the paperwork and spoke to the competitors. “It’s my pleasure as the judge for this year’s SPAFS to announce the winner of the gate section of the show. The winner is Colin, owned by Elspeth Harrow, shown by Xandie Meyers. Step forward to receive your ribbon.”
Xandie shared a shocked look with Colin and followed him to the judge, who slid a ribbon onto Colin's collar.
A screeched ‘yes’ from the crowd reached Xandie's ears. But she refused to look as she knew Elspeth would be behind the scream.
Lulu Moon sagged into a slump position as Xandie and Colin trotted past her and the bunny during their victory lap.
“One all, baby. That purple appetizer and I are level pegging in ranking now. Next stage is agility and then talent is final. But for now, it’s red meat and fat cigars to celebrate.”
Xandie led Colin out into Winifred’s sweaty hands. “No smoking for you, champ. Have to maintain your healthy coat.”
“Spoilsport,” Colin murmured as Winifred smothered him in kisses.
“I knew you could do it. Elspeth will be over the moon.” Winifred kissed Colin again.
“Man, watch that tongue, Fred. I'm not into two legged dames.”
Gagging, Winifred drew back, flustered. “I have to find Elspeth to let her know.”
“I don't think that's a problem.” Xandie pointed to the crowd of onlookers.
Elspeth, wig still intact, danced a jig. Previous injuries from first stage judging and her old woman disguise completely forgotten.
Winifred dumped Colin on Xandie. “I have to calm her down before she has a witch attack or the shifter security ejects her. She’s banned and isn’t supposed to be on the grounds.” Winifred sped off.
“Good luck on that,” Xandie snickered and then hefted Colin up onto her hip. “How about we get you back to the grooming tent and give you a brush down?”
“Bring it on. My magnificence needs upkeep.”
Rolling her eyes, Xandie entered the grooming tent. None of the other competitors had made it back yet. Dumping Colin down on a table, Xandie grabbed a brush from an Amity Puffin’s treatment room.
The police tape had disappeared, and everything appeared normal except for the fact Amelia stood whispering to Lulu.
“Aunt Amelia? What are you doing here?”
Stiffening at her niece’s voice, she passed something to Lulu before turning around. “Xandie, I hear congratulations are in order?”
“Thanks, but you didn't answer my question?”
Amelia faltered for a moment. “I had to come and make sure you're okay. That's all.”
Elspeth was right; her daughter didn’t take after her. Because that lie had been pitiful. “The real reason?”
Lulu stormed past Amelia and slapped a medicine packet back into the vet’s hands. “She's a meddler. That's why. Can't leave the show alone.”
“You push her too much; she’ll collapse on you. Trust me. You'll regret it.”
“All I regret is speaking to you again.” Lulu slammed past Xandie and out of the treatment room.
“You need to stay out of this, Aunt Amelia. If the police got wind of this, you’d be back in jail for harassment.”
Amelia ran a hand over her shoulder-length, gray-streaked auburn hair. “I know, but I can't stand seeing animals being mistreated. She puts too much pressure on her Angora.”
Xandie steered Amelia out of Lulu’s way and into the cool sun of lunchtime in Maine. “Go home. I'll update you when I have something. Now get.”
Nodding, Amelia left grudgingly, heading toward the food tent.
Sighing, Xandie stomped back inside.
“I swear if she doesn't back off, I’ll report her to the cops.” Lulu stood in front of Xandie, whatever Amelia had given her clasped tightly in her fisted hand.
“Amelia means well, she wants the animals to be happy.”
Grunting, Lulu stashed whatever she’d been holding into a box next to her caged Angora rabbit. “She's nosy. My rabbit is fine. I just want her to leave me alone.”
“Your rabbit did well out there.” Xandie offered a peacemaker.
“Made it to the final until your dog stole the show.” Lulu eyed a now snoring Colin. “Would you be willing to breed him?”
“To a rabbit?” Xandie tried not to look horrified, but it was a fight. These show people were freaky.
Lulu jerked back. “To another dog, you idiot. Seriously, how you got this far is beyond me.”
Thank God for small mercies. “I'm not the owner. It’s up to my grandmother. And the reason I got this far is because Lorelei isn’t here competing, I guess.” Open up the interrogation bait...
Sniffing, Lulu rearranged her grooming brushes. “LaRue not being here is a bonus for all of us.”
“You didn't like her, did you?”
Lulu let loose a grating laugh. “No. She had an affair with my husband. He left me. Only to be dumped for that mouthy host, Alex Pennywort. Karma I call it.”
“You’re happy to see her dead?”
She stopped and considered Xandie for a moment as other competitors filed into the tent. “I wouldn't say that, but I'm glad she's not competing. And if you're thinking I'm the killer, don't. There's plenty of other people here with motive as well.”
“Like whom exactly?” Keep on spilling details, Moon.
“That judge, Velma Mystic, for one. They’ve known each other for a long time and Velma knows something more, I'm sure of it. And Lorelei was attempting to leach onto the other judge, Noble Myrddin. Trust me, she was barking up the wrong tree there. But I didn’t kill her.” Lulu banged down a grooming brush. “I hated her, but I didn't want her dead. I wanted to slaughter her in the competition, not in real life.”
Xandie backed away
as Lulu’s voice rose. “Okay then. Thanks for that information.” Spinning around, she marched back to a waiting Winifred.
“What was all that about? She sounded angry,” Winifred asked Xandie, concerned.
“Missed opportunities for revenge, I think. But at least I have a few more suspects to add to my list.”
Winifred nodded determinedly. “That's good work. We don't need to compete until tomorrow now. There are only novelty events for the rest of the day. We have some breathing space.”
“You mean investigating space, don't you?” Xandie had a feel for the competition now and for the whackos, a.k.a. suspects, competing in it.
But the next step was tracking down the host, Alex Pennywort. From what he’d said he might have some juicy information for her. “Aunt Win? Any clue where the host went? I thought I’d ask him some questions.”
“Probably in his tent? The judges had to share, but Mr. Pennywort has his own. It’s on the other side of the judge’s tent.”
Xandie waved a hand in thanks and wondered off in the direction Winifred had described. As a host of the pet show, Pennywort had close contact with all the competitors and their fans. Maybe he’d noticed something that might help her narrow a suspect down. Xandie paused at the tent where a high-pitched humming emanated out. Did the show host have a giggling, girly competitor inside? She cleared her throat.
The tent flap opened and Alex Pennywort stood in the opening, gargling a mouthful of water.
“If you have company, I can come back another time?”
Swallowing, Alex motioned Xandie inside. “Just myself. I’m practicing vocal exercises. Helps loosen my vocal cords and make sure they don’t get strained. Important in my line of work.” He pointed to a seat next to his makeup table. “Please, sit, Ms. Meyers.”
The feminine humming had actually been Pennywort himself? Not the picture of sartorial elegance the man normally presented. “You wanted to speak to me?”
Alex Pennywort cleared his throat and nodded. He paced in front of Xandie. “I normally try and stay out of the competitors’ shenanigans. Relations can get quite strained, especially amongst the front runners.”
He was talking about La Rue. “Lorelei and Lulu Moon, you mean?”
“They hated each other. Especially after LaRue stole Moon’s husband, and then threw him away. Poor Lulu was quite obsessed with grinding that woman into the ground.”
She wasn’t the only one. Lorelei had a multitude of enemies and victims. “Figuratively or literally?”
Alex look flustered and ran a finger around the collar of his shirt. “I’m sure Lulu would never consciously hurt Ms. LaRue. She was very angry.”
Trying another tactic, Xandie smiled. “Of course, anyone would be. Did you notice anyone else who had a grudge against her?”
“Well… I’m not sure.” He coughed and looked around the room wildly. When no distraction appeared, he collapsed into a chair next to Xandie and dropped his head into his hands with a moan.
Jackpot. Xandie fixed a stern expression on her face. “Mr. Pennywort, it would be better if you come clean with me before Police Chief Braun hunts you down.”
“I’m weak.” Pennywort wailed. “She played on my vanity.”
“Another hair growth potion?” Like George Moon?
He shook his head. “I’m part troll.” Alex peered anxiously into the mirror propped up on his makeup table. “My skin has a horrible swamp green tinge to it normally. I’m the host of all international SPAFS competitions. I have to look my best.”
Blackmail again. Predictable. “Let me guess. She provided you with a potion for your skin. If you paid up.”
He turned away from the mirror and shook his head. “I would have paid anything, but she didn’t want cash. She wanted top billing.”
“Top billing is?”
“She had to be the first in every stage. The leader of the competition like the star she was.” Alex looked shamefaced. “Her words not mine. I knew I shouldn’t do it, but it seemed like such a little thing.”
Blackmail was never little. “Did she put pressure on you to influence the judges?”
Pennywort lifted his chin. “I refused. She didn’t like it, but agreed to an introduction to one of the judges.”
Xandie bet she knew exactly which judge. “Noble Myrddin?”
“Yes, him. I could have told her she was barking up the wrong tree, but she was so focused she wouldn’t listen.”
Xandie leaned over and patted the man on his boney shoulder. “Thanks for letting me know Mr. Pennywort. I have one last question for you.”
He braced himself.
“Did you kill Lorelei LaRue?”
“Never. Her potion worked wonders. I would never have jeopardized that. Thankfully, I have a few more potions left. An alchemist friend of mine has offered to reverse engineer it. I’ll be fine.”
Not worried about a dead blackmailer at all. Compassion thy name was not Pennywort. “Thanks for answering my questions.” Xandie stood and shook the host’s hand.
“I feel much better now. Please keep the troll issue between us.” He tapped the side of his nose.
Internally shuddering, Xandie slipped out of his tent into the weak sunlight.
“Ms. Meyers?” he called after her.
If this was another skincare related confession, she was going to get Elspeth to hex his moisturizer.
“I wanted to wish you luck with the show.” With a curt nod, he dropped the tent flap and disappeared back inside.
Why did she get the feeling her and Colin would need a truck full of karma goody points to survive the murderous competition?
Eight
“I want my money. She owed me. Now you owe me.”
Xandie frowned as she heard the gruff words. She’d had a date for lunch with aunt Winifred in the catering tent when her aunt realized she'd left her glasses behind in the grooming tent. Offering to grab them, Xandie had hotfooted it back and was now on the return journey. But the words she’d heard were more tantalizing than a sit-down lunch catered by Lila's mortal enemy.
“I told you. It's nothing to do with me. Lorelei was the gambler, not me. Her debt died with her.”
Xandie ears perked up at the sound of Amity Puffin’s pleading voice.
“You and her were thick as thieves. Even went to the track with her. Pay the debt off or...”
“Or what?” Amity's voice wobbled.
“Or everyone finds out what you did for nasty Lorelei LaRue. Pay me my money or the truth comes out.”
Xandie peered carefully around the back of the food tent to get a better look at Amity's debt collector. An older man with a dirty beard stood a full head shorter than Amity. That said, menace oozed out of every pore of him.
Amity shrank back as the man flicked her shoulder and snickered to himself.
What a douche. Xandie purposefully shuffled her feet.
The man cursed and dropped out of sight around the corner.
Amity sagged against a tent brace before wiping her face and taking a deep breath. “Who's there?” she called out.
“Xandie Meyers.” Xandie moved into view.
“Oh, Xandie. Hello. I wanted to say congratulations on Colin’s win.”
The words came out stilted, but the emotion on her face was real. Amity was genuinely congratulating her and Colin. “Thanks. It was all Colin. He’s a born poser.”
Amity forced a smile and nodded. “He likes being the center of attention.”
“Are you okay? That guy looked nasty.”
Amity brushed Xandie's concern away. “Oh. It's fine. He's a connection of Lorelei’s.”
“You mean her bookie?”
Amity reared back from Xandie. “No. Nothing like that. He's...”
“Her bookie and debt collector and now he wants the money from you.”
“Yes.” Breaking down, Amity grabbed Xandie's arm and sobbed. “He wants me to pay the debt off because Lorelei and I were friends. But I have no savings. The sh
ow only pays me a pittance for my services.”
“Were you friends though? It's sort of looked like she was ordering you around more than anything.”
Letting go of Xandie’s arm, Amity dropped onto a raised pile of decorative garden rocks off a flagstone path. “Lorelei isn't...” Amity corrected herself. “Wasn't a bad person. She was dirt poor as a kid and determined to never be in that spot again. But she was a gambler and loved the racing corns. She was up and down financially all the time.”
“And Lorelei owed her bookie when she died?”
Amity nodded dejectedly. “A lot. Now he wants me to pay it.”
“Why did you stay? She wasn't exactly the nicest person on the show circuit.”
“Originally, she...uh.” Amity stopped and then in a rush words blurted the rest out. “She blackmailed me into working as her assistant at first. She caught me doping some of my client’s animals so they’d have an edge against their competitors.” Amity hung her head before staring Xandie in the face. “But Lorelei was a force of nature. Sure, she took what she wanted, but she worked hard. No one but me knows just how hard. After a while I happily worked for her, with her. We were friends.” Amity teared up again.
LaRue had blackmailed Amity to work for her. Who else was on Lorelei’s hit list?
“How many other people did Lorelei blackmail?”
Amity winced. “A few. She had a diary she kept all her appointments and meetings in. And the dirt that she had on people. She made up a little codename for people.”
Bingo. That might have been the reason she died. Find that diary and find the killer. “Do you know where it is? The diary, I mean?”
“No clue. But she carried it everywhere she went. I know it wasn't in her possessions when the police went through them.”
Xandie nibbled on the edge of her lip. She had to find that diary, but Winifred would want her glasses. Xandie needed to wrap this up, get back to her aunt, and go search for the diary. “Do you know the other blackmail victims?”
“George, I think. She had something he wanted and that judge, Myrddin. She had something juicy on him, but I don't know if she'd approached him yet. I do know there was someone she called her big score, but Lorelei never mentioned a name.”