One Bark And Stormy Prom Night (Happy Tails Dog Walking Mysteries Book 3)

by Stella St. Claire

  Goodwin jumped, rustling the bushes, and Olivia hissed through her teeth for him to sit and stay. Sliding her phone out of her armband, she dialed Nick.

  Call dropped. Seriously?

  Ballard finished his business and headed back up the opposite bank. For an agonizing minute, Olivia couldn’t figure out what to do. She needed to find a spot with better reception if she wanted to call Nick, but she might lose Ballard unless she followed him.

  Bending to stay below the tops of the bushes, she crawled along until a passing runner gave her a weird look. Since it appeared that Ballard was going to stick to the path, Olivia straightened and pulled out her phone. Jogging back toward the neighborhood, she finally found a spot where she could get reception and dialed Nick’s personal number.

  It helped to be the sheriff’s dog walker, sometimes.

  “Olivia?”

  “Nick,” she whispered. “Nick, I’ve found Ballard.”

  “What? Olivia, I can barely hear you. Are you whispering?”

  Clearing her throat, she glanced around suspiciously. “Sorry. I said that I’ve found Ballard. He’s walking along the creek in the park.”

  “Damn it, Olivia! I told you to stay away from this investigation. I know that Kimberly was your friend, but you need to let me do my job!”

  “I didn’t go looking for him,” she said defensively. “I went for a run in the park and stumbled across him.”

  “You went for a run?”

  “I try something new and suddenly lose all credibility,” she muttered. “Anyway, that’s not the point. He’s here, so you need to move your butt. I’ll keep an eye on him, but reception is spotty in the park.”

  “No. He could be dangerous, Olivia. He’s an ex-NFL player, for God’s sake.”

  “I’m not going to confront him! He’s twice my size. Just hurry.” Before Nick could argue, she hung up and called Tanya. It took a small bonus to get the girl to agree to cover for the next session of walks, but it bought Olivia more time. Jogging back to the spot where she’d last seen Ballard, her heart skipped a beat when she couldn’t find him.

  “He’s, like, seven feet tall,” she muttered to herself. “How does he just disappear?”

  He was faster than he’d appeared. It took nearly a quarter of a mile for her to catch up with him, and at that point, he’d crossed the bridge to her side of the creek.

  It made tailing him all the more difficult.

  When he stopped and turned suddenly, she dove back into the brush with Goodwin and wrapped an arm around the dog’s neck in an attempt to keep him quiet. Ballard looked around with a frown before finally turning and heading back up the path. Olivia was about to sneak out of the brush when something dropped down the cleavage of her shirt. Seeing the telltale sign of a spider’s silk leading from her shirt to the tree, Olivia shrieked and rolled out of the bushes.

  Goodwin barked sharply and bounded around, full of glee, as though they were playing a game.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  With a gasp, Olivia looked up to see Ballard towering over her. “Going for a run,” she managed, and swallowed hard. The man could easily crush her with the heel of his hiking boot.

  “I know you,” he growled. “You’re Kimberly’s friend. You’re some private investigator, aren’t you?”

  “No.” She shook her head emphatically as she scrambled to her feet. “No. I am a dog walker. Happy Tails. Do you have a dog? You should get a dog. A man like yourself who enjoys nature should have a dog. We could go into town to the Humane Society and pick you out a dog. Are you a big-dog or small-dog kind of guy?”

  She knew that she was babbling, but she couldn’t stop. Glancing behind her, she prayed that Nick or one of deputies would show up. Where were the other runners who had been happily passing her half an hour ago?

  “You want to spy on me, you need to do it to my face!”

  Could Goodwin not tell that she was in trouble? Why was he more interested in rolling in the leaves than protecting her? “I am not spying on you. I really was just going for a run.”

  “Kimberly is not getting another dime from me,” he hissed. “If she wanted more, she should have waited until after the fishing expedition to divorce me. That was her loss.”

  Wait, what? “You two were having problems?”

  “Problems?” Ballard spat on the ground, barely missing her tennis shoes. Olivia wrinkled her nose and stepped away. “I thought the divorce was going to be friendly, you know? But she wanted to wring me for all that I had! I helped get her business off the ground, and then she wanted a huge portion of mine!”

  Was he telling her why he’d murdered Kimberly? If only all murder investigations were this easy. “That does sound unfair,” she agreed weakly. Clearly Kimberly hadn’t been all that honest about her divorce.

  “Unfair? I didn’t even go through with the affair, and I told her about it! This is the thanks that I get?”

  “Ballard Chain!” Nick barked from behind. Olivia immediately jumped out of the way and whirled around. Nick had his gun out.

  To her surprise, the huge man immediately put his hands in the air. “Whoa! What’s going on?”

  “I’ve got a few questions concerning the murder of your ex-wife.” The sheriff hurried over to them, gun still trained on Ballard.

  “Murder?” The man turned to Olivia with an accusing glare. “You told me that you were working for her!”

  Nick raised his eyebrow, and Olivia hurried to correct Ballard’s mistake. “I didn’t say that. You just assumed that because you caught me following you.”

  “You were following him, Olivia? I told you to stay away,” Nick muttered.

  “He’s faster than he looks. I was afraid that he’d get away,” she explained simply.

  Nick holstered his gun. “Mr. Chain, I need you to come with me. You can do it with or without handcuffs. That’s up to you.”

  Ballard’s eyes narrowed. “Kimberly would find a way to get murdered and blame it on me,” he said sarcastically. With a sigh, he headed back up the path with Nick, toward the public parking lot.

  Olivia was itching to follow and see what else she could glean from them, but she knew that it would only make Nick mad. Shaking out her shirt to make sure that there were no creepy crawlies hiding in there, she glared at Goodwin. “You were no good, back there. I hope you know that.”

  Her dog looked completely unimpressed as he bent down and started licking himself.

  7

  “This should be illegal,” Jackie muttered as she flicked her thumb over the mouse of the laptop. She, Olivia, and Janelle were all perched at a table at The Early Bird Cafe. Since it was Jackie’s day off, and someone else was opening the bakery, Olivia woke them up an hour after dawn and hustled them to the café’s breakfast nook. Although she was customarily horrible in the mornings, she’d barely slept, which meant she was still relatively awake.

  And maybe just a little manic.

  The Early Bird was frightfully cheerful—windowpanes covered three sides of the restaurant to let in a flood of sunlight, and a huge painting of a sunrise covered the back wall. The wooden high-top tables were decorated with daisies and birds’ nests, and the music was soft but peppy.

  They made the best pancakes here. The only problem with the cafe was that they closed at one every afternoon. They didn’t have to worry about opening longer hours to make more money because, by the time nine o’clock hit, there was usually a thirty-minute wait for a table no matter what morning of the week it might be.

  But it was still early, and the place was peaceful and quiet.

  With the exception of Jackie’s moaning.

  Olivia nudged the cup of coffee her way. “More theme research and less whining,” she ordered as she tapped her pen against her paper. “I am not decorating a prom with the theme Stairway to Heaven. That’s what every prom resorts to, and it’s boring.”

  “Frankly, I think it should be Stairway to Hell,” Janelle mutte
red darkly. Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise at her sister’s anger, and Janelle sighed. “Sorry. It’s early, and I’m a little cranky.”

  “Are you kidding? You get up at four every morning to get the bakery open. This is sleeping in by your standards!”

  “Under the Sea?” Jackie piped in.

  “No!” Olivia and Janelle responded in one voice. Olivia returned her attention to Janelle and studied her sister. There were dark circles under Janelle’s eyes, and her sister wasn’t wearing nearly as much make-up as usual.

  “You didn’t sleep much last night.” It wasn’t a question, and Janelle’s eyes narrowed at the accusation.

  “And you did?” she retorted sharply.

  Olivia huffed loudly and put a hand over her heart. “I have reasons for not sleeping. You, however, are happily married with a successful business—and the best sister in the whole world.”

  “You wish,” Janelle snorted.

  “Casino night?” Jackie interjected.

  “Is it safe to promote gambling to a bunch of high schoolers?” Olivia shook her head. “Better not risk it. We don’t want the future of Lexingburg to be in the hands of a bunch of degenerate gamblers.”

  Janelle rolled her eyes, but the waitress returned before she could say anything snarky, refilled their coffee, and put down a basket of piping-hot biscuits. The women each grabbed one eagerly.

  As Olivia warmed the small package of butter in her hands, she focused on Janelle once again. “So why weren’t you sleeping?”

  “Patrick and I may have gotten into a small argument,” Janelle admitted softly.

  It was enough to pull Jackie away from the computer, and they both stared incredulously at Janelle. Olivia wasn’t naive enough to believe that her sister and brother-in-law had a perfect marriage, but for Janelle to lose sleep over something was not some “small argument.”

  “Argument over what?” Jackie asked casually, and then she shared a worried look with Olivia.

  Janelle blew out her breath and cut open her biscuit. “When we got married, we both agreed that we’d wait to have kids, and we have—but it looks like he’s done waiting.”

  “Kids!” Olivia said it a little too loudly and immediately ducked her head as startled breakfasters at the other tables started staring. “But Janelle, that’s great! I would be the best aunt!”

  “I have no doubt that you’d spoil them silly and encourage them to get in loads of trouble, but the truth is that I’m not sure I’m ready. The bakery is doing really well, but we’ve still got some financial worries in front of us, not to mention that all of my time is basically spent at the bakery. We’ve skipped date night the past three weeks because I was too tired. How am I supposed to work long hours while I’m pregnant or with a newborn? An infant? A toddler?”

  Olivia had completely forgotten the butter in her hands and grimaced as it squished in her hand. She opened the package and practically poured the contents onto the biscuit. “First of all, I think that we can tackle the apartments upstairs on our own. I spent a good amount of time last night looking up YouTube videos, and it’s totally doable. That should save us a good deal of money. Second, I would definitely help out, and I’m sure Mom would love to, as well. I’m sure hearing that you’re going to have a baby will help her get over my failed engagement. But most importantly, I know how you’re going to feel if you keep putting work first. You’ve always wanted a family, and it’s going to be a difficult balance, no matter when you decide to have one.”

  “I know,” Janelle said softly. “That’s kind of what kept me up. I just don’t know what to do!”

  “It’s not like you’re going to get pregnant tomorrow,” Jackie pointed out sensibly. “Tell Patrick that you want to discuss some things first, and make sure you’re on the same page about raising a child. Figure out your options when it comes to babysitters and taking kids to work. Get a check-up with the doctor. Just because you agree to have kids doesn’t mean that you have to start right away.” She brightened suddenly. “What if we did a nursery theme and scare the kids away from early pregnancy?”

  “Okay,” Olivia said slowly as she took hold of the computer and slowly slid it away from Jackie. “We’ll just mull that one over while you have some more coffee.”

  Janelle bit into her biscuit and moaned. “Almost as good as mine.” Wiping the crumbs from her lap, she smiled at Jackie. “And thanks. You’re right. I just sort of had a panic attack about the whole thing.”

  Privately, Olivia entertained thoughts of bouncing a cute little niece or nephew on her knee. She’d never been one to adore kids, but having one in the family might not be so bad.

  “I heard that you got involved in the case,” Jackie said suddenly as she lifted her coffee cup. Olivia glanced sharply at her, but Jackie didn’t give anything away.

  “How did you hear that? I know Nick isn’t one to tell people.”

  “I’m psychic. So it’s true. What happened?”

  Shaking her head, Olivia took a bite of her biscuit and let the fluffy, buttery goodness warm her belly. “Uh-uh. There’s no way that I’m telling you anything until you tell me how you found out.”

  Glancing at the computer, she scrolled through a few more prom ideas. Haunted House? Who came up with these ideas?

  “Brett told me.”

  That made Olivia straighten. “What do you mean, Brett told you? Brett doesn’t even know Nick? Unless . . .” she let her voice trail off as she made the connection.

  Nick had told Andrew and Andrew had told Brett. Was Andrew checking up on her? The idea awoke a few butterflies in her stomach, but at the same time, it made her a little angry. He’d walked away from the whole thing. He didn’t get to discover private information about her life, not anymore, and Nick certainly had no right to tell him.

  “Whoa,” Jackie said as she shook her head. “I recognize that look on your face, and before you get angry, think it through. I don’t talk about you to Brett, which means that Andrew isn’t getting any information from that direction. I’m sure he’s worried about you, given your history with murders in this town, plus he knows that Kimberly is your friend, so he’s just doing what comes naturally to him—which is caring about you.”

  Jackie and Janelle were watching her closely, and she knew that they were hoping that she’d be open about her feelings, but things were just too complicated. She still loved Andrew and desperately wanted him back, but if he wasn’t coming back, then she needed a clean break.

  On the other hand, she also wanted a second chance with him, and this might be her opportunity—but what could she do? March over to the hospital and tell him that she knew he’d been asking about her? What would that do?

  Nothing.

  “I didn’t go out looking for Ballard,” she said as she tried to push the depressing thoughts away. “I was running in the park—”

  “I’m sorry,” Jackie interrupted, blinking in pretended astonishment. “Did you just say that you were running?”

  “Yes. I’m trying new things, and I don’t really want to talk about it. Anyway, I just happened to stumble across of Ballard, and I did the sensible thing and called Nick. Unfortunately, Ballard caught me following him—but the whole encounter was just strange. I get the feeling that Ballard didn’t know Kimberly was dead.”

  Her sister’s eyes widened. “What do you mean? What did he say?”

  “I believe he said that it was just like her to find a way to die and blame it on him. He seemed more upset about money than anything else. I didn’t expect that kind of anger from what she’d said. I thought they had an amicable divorce. She always spoke about it like there were no feelings involved.”

  Janelle frowned. “Do you know why they got divorced?”

  “From what I can tell, they just sort of drifted apart. She was busy with Rich Eats, and he was busy with the sporting goods store. I guess he felt tempted to cheat, and he admitted that things almost went too far. Kimberly always made it sound like they knew they
were just no longer in love with each other. I think he’s pissed that she was about to get all this money from the celebrity endorsement, and he had no rights to it even though he’d put up the original seed money for the company.”

  Jackie leaned over the table with a mysterious twinkle in her eyes. “Do you think that he did it?”

  “Oh no, you don’t,” Olivia said as she shook her head. She scrolled through more prom ideas on the computer and tried to ignore the others’ inquisitive stares. “I told you. I’m not getting involved. I am not actively thinking about who might have killed Kimberly. What about a Happy Ever After Fairy Tale theme?”

  “You got involved when the woman who served you coffee got murdered, but you’re not going to get involved—even though Kimberly was your friend?” Jackie asked. Her voice was just a little cold, and Olivia felt pain pierce her heart.

  “I want justice,” she said softly. “I want to know who did it and why, but you two both told me to keep my nose out of Nick’s business, and you both were right. Andrew is gone because I was off chasing killers rather than focusing on the things that were important. I won’t do that again.”

  Janelle clicked her tongue against her teeth. “You don’t seriously think that’s true, do you, Olivia?”

  Ignoring her sister, she continued scrolling until she found the perfect picture. Smiling, she enlarged it and turned the computer around. “A masquerade,” she said triumphantly. “For a night, everyone can pretend that they’re someone else. Classic. Glamorous. Gorgeous colors.”

  Both women nodded their heads, but she knew they weren’t really thinking about the prom. The waitress returned with their food, and she closed the computer and happily dumped a river of syrup all over her pancakes.

  Olivia ignored the strange tension that seemed to surround the table as they were eating. She didn’t know whether the others were disappointed with her because she refused to get involved with the murder or because she refused to talk about Andrew, but she didn’t care. She had a lot on her to-do list—and no time to waste.