by Meg Muldoon
The dogs dressed in their fine Western costumes weren’t such a surprise – after all, I had enough Band-Aids on my fingers to show for it.
The thing that took me by complete surprise was the get-up the man holding their leashes was wearing.
It started with a pair of aged and well-worn cowboy boots. Followed by dusty gray jeans, a long brown leather duster jacket, a crisp white shirt, a six-pointed metal star, a bolo tie, a fake mustache, and finally, the thing that topped it all off: an old-style cowboy hat. One that looked like it had been worn through some hard weather out on the range.
I hardly recognized Daniel under there. And for a moment, I wondered if I was hallucinating. If all those hours spent staring at a needle and thread had left me with a few screws loose.
But when he smiled from underneath that oversized mustache – I knew it really was him.
“I can’t believe you did all of this…” I mumbled.
“Well, when I heard that these two bandits were gonna be out on the streets in my jurisdiction, I knew I had to do something. I’ve got citizens to protect and a reputation to uphold, miss.”
“Oh, I see,” I said, taking a step toward him and straightening his bolo tie.
“I just can’t be having these little doggies going around raising hell,” Daniel said in a thick Western twang.
I grinned.
“You know what I say?” I said.
“What?”
I pushed his hat back a little to get a better look at his eyes.
“I say you look better than all the silver in Arizona, Daniel Brightman,” I said, kissing him on the cheek.
I chuckled as the fake mustache bristled against my lips. When I pulled away, he was laughing, too.
“How are the sales going, darlin?” he asked after a moment, nodding to the stack of pies sitting on the table beside me.
“Fast,” I said. “We already sold out of all the Canine Crumble Cups. And the pie’s running low, too.”
Behind him in the center of the plaza, a pack of dogs dressed up in pin-stripe fabric and clown wigs passed followed by a woman in a balloon animal costume.
I felt a foolish smile cross my lips at that.
The place was getting really crowded. Dogs in costumes of all sorts were milling around along with their owners, who were talking in nervous anticipation. The joyous atmosphere in the plaza was enough to make me forget all about my encounter with Connor Redfield earlier.
Well, almost enough.
I stole a quick glance at the Pooch Vitamin Brew tent. After Connor had spoken for a few minutes to the woman who had helped me pick up the fallen pies, a long, long line of customers had formed at the tent. But it seemed as though they’d gotten low on inventory. Connor was no longer there as far as I could make out.
“So any progress on Aubrey’s situation?” I asked, lowering my voice.
“No. Nothing concrete. We were keeping a close eye on Aubrey’s house last night, and on Connor’s house, too. We wanted to dissuade him from paying her another visit, if that’s what he had planned.”
“Yeah, so I heard,” I said.
“You heard?”
I let out a staggered sigh.
“Connor and I had an incident earlier.”
Worry flashed across Daniel’s eyes. He pulled off the fake mustache.
“What do you mean?”
I didn’t want to make a big deal about it – but at the same time, this being a small town, I knew Daniel would find out about the argument sooner or later.
I recounted it all to him, down to the details of the pies on the cobblestone.
And the more I described, the more anger I could see building up in his eyes.
“It’s not a big deal,” I said. “I handled it fine, and I—”
“I know you did,” he said in a low voice. “But it is a big deal, Cin. Him harassing you like that is a pretty damn big deal to me.”
Daniel’s eyes drifted over to the Pooch Vitamin Brew tent just as a woman’s voice came over the plaza’s speaker system and asked all Pooch Parade participants to make their way to the Meadow Plaza fountain. The parade was a few minutes from starting.
“Look, Cin. If you see him again today, call me and just avoid him. I’ll set everything right as soon as the parade’s over. Don’t you worry about that.”
I gave him a weak smile and squeezed his hand.
“And what about Aubrey?”
I looked past his shoulder, zeroing in on the float that was set to lead the procession.
Aubrey stood at the helm. She was dressed in a classic Snoopy costume while her own dog, which was fittingly a beagle, was dressed up in the hallmark yellow and brown squiggles of a Charlie Brown shirt.
The costume pairing was humorous – and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t overcome with a sudden and inexplicable feeling of dread.
“Well, Aubrey insisted on being in the parade, even though I suggested it might be a good idea to skip it,” Daniel said, letting out a sigh. “But we’ve got almost every sheriff’s deputy and police officer in the county here, making sure nobody gets hurt today. We’re watching Aubrey most of all.”
The sound of the marching band’s trumpets began sounding.
The parade was about to start.
I knelt down, straightening out Huckleberry and Chadwick’s costumes.
In the end, they looked like the perfect gentlemen outlaws that I had hoped they would.
Daniel’s eyes drifted over to the Pooch Vitamin Brew tent again. He remained motionless as the trumpets got louder.
“You better get going, Sheriff,” I said, standing up. “Now, don’t you be too hard on these doggie outlaws, here. You know they can’t help being the rascals that they are.”
Daniel gave me a forced smile. Then he pecked me on the cheek.
“Just remember what I said – if you see Connor, call me and get as far away from him as possible, okay?”
I nodded.
“Okay.”
“I’ll make this right after the parade.”
Daniel made a clicking sound, grabbing the dogs’ attention. He started making motions to leave.
“Wait.”
I reached for the fake mustache in his hand, then gently fixed it in place above his upper lip.
“Now you’re ready,” I said.
He gave me a sweet smile.
A moment later, the three of them were walking over to the center of the plaza, taking their place.
Chapter 19
We shut the pie stand down for half an hour while the parade was in progress, which gave me a chance to get some pictures of my two little outlaws and their sheriff handler.
Main Street was wall-to-wall with tourists and spectators who had come out for the biggest dog event in Central Oregon. But luckily, I had anticipated that.
As the parade slowly began getting underway, moving through Meadow Plaza, Tobias and I took a shortcut behind Main Street. We went in the alley entrance that housed Kara’s Ornate Ornaments and quickly ascended the steps up to the second floor, which was a vacant space that had once been an apartment. We stepped outside onto a small balcony that looked down on Main Street.
The building was much like one of those old structures that showed up in cowboy movies, where people lingered on second floor balconies overlooking the main thoroughfare. It was the perfect vantage point to watch the event, and I was sure that had Kara been in town, she would have been enjoying the parade up here with us.
The streets were about as packed as I’d ever seen them –and with it being a dog parade, there were tons of kids in the audience. My eyes zeroed in on a girl wearing a blue shirt sporting a giant heart around a paw print. She seemed to be on her own, though she couldn’t have been older than ten. The girl craned her neck, looking eagerly down the street like Christmas itself was coming from that direction. I could see her shifting her weight between her feet with nervous anticipation.
A bright smile flooded my face at t
hat sweet moment.
The sound of the marching band began to grow louder and I could hear the squeaking of the Humane Society float as it slowly rolled down the street. Aubrey sat at the very front like the captain of the ship, the calm smile on her face revealing next to nothing about the difficulties of the past few days. She waved and nodded kindly to the crowd, the occasional glance behind her perhaps the only thing that may have given away her true state of mind.
At the back of her float sat a row of people dressed in suits and ties, and as it came into view, I realized they were the members of the Humane Society board of directors. I recognized Luke Hosmer – Aubrey’s boyfriend. He looked happy and carefree, tossing dog biscuits and candy into the crowd. Next to him was a well-dressed woman named Carrie Campbell – who I knew because she’d been in Daniel’s class at Christmas River High. Carrie was a pediatrician and had been on the Society’s board for nearly a decade. Despite her profession, Carrie had a reputation as being a little cold and distant. Town gossips said even her husband, a local broker, could never quite break through that ice princess exterior.
But there was even a big smile on Carrie’s face as the float rolled down the street.
I guess dogs in ridiculous costumes could melt even the coldest of hearts.
The parade moved on at a snail’s pace, but soon, I was able to make out the first row of costumed dogs trailing the float on foot.
Or on paw, I guess, was more accurate.
There was a Shih-Tzu in a Mrs. Claus costume. A bulldog dressed like a fireman. A St. Bernard dressed like The Wolfman. A mutt in an over-the-top Willy Wonka outfit followed by a pair of Chihuahuas as Oompa Loompas.
And of course, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made an appearance, too.
I grabbed my phone, holding it out and zooming in on the outlaws and the sheriff.
“Ain’t that something,” Tobias said, leaning on the railing and shaking his head. “Haven’t seen a trio that impressive since Crosby, Stills, and Nash.”
I let out a laugh, pleased that Tobias was so genuinely impressed.
It seemed like all those pricked fingers and Band-Aids were worth it in the end.
I snapped away like a tourist at the Eiffel Tower as Daniel and the pooches came into view. The lighting conditions were perfect, and I was already envisioning the wall where I’d put the framed photos in our house.
Having gotten plenty of good shots, I took my attention off Daniel and the dogs, and I looked back at the parade float, which was now directly under the balcony. Aubrey was still standing at the helm, waving enthusiastically at the crowd in her Snoopy costume. She was red in the face – I imagined it wasn’t easy wearing a big costume like that, even if the temperatures were pretty mild today. But she was smiling through it.
She’d put in so much time and effort to make this event work – and though I didn’t know exactly how much money the Pooch Parade would raise for the Society, I surmised that it would be a rousing success. And not just in monetary terms, either. Aubrey had created a real sense of community with this event – involving just about everybody in town in one form or another. And that wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish in this day and age—
My heart jumped in my throat as the sound of an explosion echoed down the street.
Chapter 20
The explosive noise was quickly followed by a few shouts below.
I scanned the crowd, looking for the source. When I didn’t find it, I looked over at Tobias with wide eyes.
But he didn’t seem at all concerned. He pointed down to the truck that was hauling the float and gave me a small smile.
“Nothing to worry about, Cin,” he said. “See?”
I followed his gaze down to the truck’s cab. Carla Abernathy, a middle-aged school bus driver, had one hand on the wheel and was waving at the crowds with the other. I could just make out the sound of her voice rising up over the racket.
“Just the truck backfiring, folks! My apologies!”
The tension in my jaw loosened.
I smiled sheepishly at Tobias.
“Loud one there, wasn’t it?” he said.
I nodded.
I guess I was more on edge than I thought.
We continued watching the parade. I took a few more pictures of Hucks and Chadwick as they marched, glad to see them so at home and comfortable in their costumes. Daniel looked up once, noticing me on the balcony. When he did, he stopped walking for a moment, smiled, and tipped his hat in my direction.
The grin on my face after that could have been seen from outer space.
But the lighthearted moment didn’t last long.
Because a moment later, there was a shout from the crowd below.
“Hey! You don’t have to push me! Who do you think you are!?”
I looked just beyond the float to where the voice had come from. I focused in on a man in a familiar red and white baseball cap on the opposite side of the street. He was moving fast through the crowd.
Too fast.
His attention was locked on the woman in the Snoopy costume standing at the head of the float.
My stomach dropped as Connor Redfield’s voice echoed in my head.
“Do you really think I’d be dumb enough to go after Aubrey? With everyone watching me the way they are?”
“Oh, no…” I whispered, my breath catching in my throat.
The man in the Redfield Brewing cap cut through the front row of the crowd and headed directly for the float.
He jumped out into the middle of the street.
And that’s when I saw him reach into the pocket of his jeans for something.
“Aubrey! Watch out!”
Chapter 21
Aubrey looked up at me, her eyes brimming with pure terror.
She hadn’t seen him yet and didn’t seem to know where to look.
“That man!” I shouted while pointing wildly. “He’s—”
But I was too late.
The man in the baseball cap – Connor Redfield’s henchman – was already there. He pulled something from his pocket, reached up toward Aubrey, and—
“Drop it!”
A split second later, the Redfield Brewing gift shop salesman was face down on the concrete, letting out a yelp as the sheriff of Pohly County and about half the police force of Christmas River descended on him.
Chapter 22
I left Tobias and flew down the staircase. I bolted through the ornament shop, coming through the front door and out onto the street. I pushed my way through the crowd of shocked and confused spectators, who were standing on their tip-toes, angling to get a better view of what was going on.
In the disorder, some of the dogs in the parade had started barking, and a few of them were running around the float, dragging their leashes behind. I dodged a golden retriever in a tutu and a Doberman in a Sherlock Holmes hat to get to Daniel.
And to the man who had just tried to attack Aubrey in full view of everyone.
Daniel helped the man with the red beard to his feet and led him by his cuffed hands.
“I wasn’t gonna do anything!” he shouted, looking back at Aubrey with feral eyes.
“Sure as hell looked like you were about to do something,” Daniel said.
The float had come to a stop in the commotion, and Aubrey had fallen to her knees at the edge, clutching her beagle sidekick in her arms. She looked scared out of her wits and about as pale as a snowman.
I worried she might be on the verge of another panic attack.
Luke Hosmer, who had leapt to her side as soon as Daniel and the other officers had apprehended Redfield’s henchman, held her and stroked her hair.
“You okay, babe? You okay?”
She didn’t answer.
She was gazing at the assailant, watching as Daniel moved him along toward a less-crowded alleyway.
I was about to go up to her and see if she needed my help with anything.
But then she shot up suddenly.
“Wait! Wait,
Sheriff?!”
Aubrey handed the beagle off to Luke and jumped down from the float, running after Daniel.
“He’s telling the truth, Sheriff,” she said breathlessly. “He wasn’t going to hurt me.”
Chapter 23
Bill McClure – the Redfield Brewing gift shop salesman – stood in the alleyway next to Kara’s store, rubbing his freed wrists. He gazed down at the ground nervously as Daniel silently read a piece of paper.
A letter, to be more exact. One that looked like it had been folded and refolded many, many times.
Aubrey stood off to one side, her eyes glued to Bill who couldn’t quite bring himself to meet her stare. Her boyfriend Luke was by her side, holding onto the leash of the Charlie Brown beagle with one arm and draping the other over Aubrey’s shoulder. There was a deeply troubled expression on his face.
“So you’re the one behind all of this, Bill?” Daniel asked when he got to the end of the letter. “The phone calls, the stalking, the note on her car?”
“It wasn’t stalking,” Bill McClure mumbled in a low voice that was hard to hear over the sound of the parade still crawling along in the distance. “But yes, sir… I did all that.”
“And Connor Redfield didn’t put you up to any of it?” Daniel added. “You sure you’re not covering for him?”
“He had no idea I was doing anything,” he said. “I use his car for beer deliveries sometimes, and I was driving it the evening I was trying to get Aubrey’s attention. That’s all.”
“But why, Billy?” Aubrey interjected, pulling out from under Luke’s arm and stepping forward. “Why would you scare me like that? You know I get panic attacks. You could have… you could have killed me.”
Bill winced when she said that, as if he’d just stepped on a nail. He ran a hand over his red beard.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he blurted out. “Honest. I just had something really important to tell you, and I couldn’t… I couldn’t seem to ever find the words.”