The Bark of the Town

by Stella St. Claire

  “Really?” the other two asked, showing their surprise.

  “Not well,” Cassandra said, trying not to laugh. “But he’s a friend of a friend. And we’ve met. He just moved to town, and Daniel was showing him around before… well, you all know before what.”

  “Daniel Blakemore,” Larissa said. “That’s a name from the past. You know, I can’t see him being friends with a man like Hudson. Though maybe I’m just getting a bad first impression of him because of how gruff he was when he came in here demanding to see Willow.”

  “He was demanding to see you?” Cassandra asked. “What about?”

  “Just some questions about the puppy he recently adopted. He heard I was the dog expert in town and so he tracked me down.” Willow tried to sound casual. Honestly, she thought this made more sense than her story about the reason why she was in prenatal yoga.

  “Oh,” Cassandra said. She stared at Willow as if she didn’t believe her for a moment and then added, “I just can’t imagine Hudson with a puppy.”

  “He seems to be good with it,” Willow reported, thinking back to the way he looked at the animal. “Probably better with the dog than he is with people.”

  They laughed again. Then, Larissa said, “Well, I better get going. Charles and I have a reservation for dinner tonight.”

  “Tell Cynthia I say hi,” Cassandra said.

  “Will do!” Larissa hurried out the door while Willow and Cassandra took their time following her out. They exchanged a look with one another.

  “I told you,” Cassandra said. “They’re a functioning unit.”

  “I still don’t get it,” Willow agreed. “But I’m glad she finally found happiness.”

  But a question lingered:: Was this happiness only achieved by the death of her two bullies? And was Larissa the one to make them disappear?

  18

  Willow sat at her desk, tapping her pencil and feeling fidgety. Telescope placed a paw on her leg. She looked down at him and sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just too on edge. I’m not in a good mood right now.”

  He leaned against her to indicate that he could help put her in a better mood. She realized he was probably right and picked him up and placed him on her lap. Rubbing his fur was a calming motion, and she always did enjoy bonding with her best friend even if it was the nerve-wracking day that she had to meet with the executives.

  She might get some tan dog hair on her new athleisure outfit she was wearing to her meeting, but they couldn’t expect a dog trainer not to have fur on her clothes most of the time. They were a dog food company after all, they had to understand this.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Do you think I’m ready for this meeting?”

  Telescope wagged his tail.

  “Well, I know I look fantastic,” she teased. She looked down at what she had gathered for the meeting including her list of tricks that Lady Valkyrie did that could seem impressive on camera, some pictures of the Irish setter, and some ideas for commercials including the ones Griffin had suggested to her. Once she thought about it some more, she had to agree that they were good ideas.

  She was nervous about the meeting, but she was also distracted. She hoped that she would be able to focus on dog food and Lady Valkyrie when her thoughts were on the case. Part of her was still also worried about how comfortable Griffin had seemed taking over her duties at the gym, but she tried to push these jealous and distrusting feelings away.

  She knew that she should leave the office and head to the dog gym to wait for the executives, but she was stalling. The only thing that she could psych herself up about the meeting was that maybe after seeing her gym in action, the dog food company might want to feature it as well. That would definitely be good publicity.

  “What do you think, pup?” she asked.

  Telescope jumped off her lap and strode over to the door, obviously telling her it was time to go to the gym building. It was true that they weren’t set to arrive for almost an hour, but you could never tell when people would arrive early to a meeting.

  “What if we spend just a few minutes discussing the case?”

  Telescope sat down on the floor and looked up at her. Obviously, he was agreeing. However, then Willow sighed.

  “I guess I don’t really have anything new to add to it. That’s the problem! I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall.”

  The problem was that she didn’t have any concrete evidence that could point to another suspect. Finding Wednesday at the scene of both crimes, and the blood on her fingers, seemed like a much stronger case than any conjecture that Willow could come up with.

  Maybe Daniel Blakemore was right and someone was after the women he dated. Maybe the only reason Cassandra was safe right now was because Hudson Wright was keeping an eye on her and offering protection. However, there just wasn’t any proof that Daniel’s mob ties were cause for these murders.

  Larissa had motive to kill both Patricia and Becca, but unfortunately, there seemed to be a plethora of women who they had also made miserable. Becca had kept up a steady stream of rumors about people in town, apparently some true and some untrue. Patricia had kept files on others and had extorted some. If it wasn’t Larissa, it could just as likely be any woman in town. Cassandra had even mentioned several people that they used to hurt. There was no solid evidence to point to anyone in particular.

  If only McMillen was using all the resources he had available! He had the full files and not just a list of who Patricia spied on. He also should be able to determine whether Larissa had a solid alibi or not. Pretending to be a baby-nut wasn’t getting Willow all the answers that she wanted. Had Larissa really had dinner plans that night? Or was she starting to suspect what Willow was really up to?

  Telescope barked.

  “You’re right,” she agreed. “Let’s head over.”

  She and the dog left her house and headed to the gym. She felt like she looked in charge in her new outfit and was ready to speak to executives about her ad.

  However, the first thing she saw when she entered the gym was Griffin sitting at the front desk, chatting with Mrs. Masterson and her miniature schnauzer. He looked a little too comfortable sitting there and looking like the boss.

  “Oh, you,” Mrs. Masterson cooed. “Keep up the good work and you’ll be running this place soon.”

  Willow bristled at the remark. She looked down at Telescope who seemed unsympathetic. He barked as if to say don’t worry and then went off to run on his favorite obstacles.

  Griffin noticed her entrance but didn’t seem to recognize her annoyance.

  “Nervous about the meeting?” he asked, joining her. “Don’t be. You’ll be great. And you look great too.”

  He took her notes from her hand, probably thinking that he was being chivalrous and joking that the notebook and file weighed less than five pounds.

  She followed him into the backroom, trying to convince herself that she was overreacting. Griffin hadn’t said that he wanted to take over running the place. It was true that he hadn’t said that he didn’t want to take over, but maybe he was being polite with the customers.

  She told herself that she never wanted to give a man any kind of power over her business again. She was going to make sure that she stayed in charge of her own business. And she had been doing pretty well with it, hadn’t she? Lady Valkyrie had won the Field Club Championship under her leadership.

  “They’re going to love this,” Griffin said, looking at her notes and pictures.

  “Is everything ready here?” Willow asked.

  “Of course,” he said proudly. Willow hated that he sounded so smug. “The last of the dogs that were training for the day are heading out now. The place is all cleaned up. Shelly is going to stay late just in case the executives need anything. And I moved your championship trophy from your office to here so they would see it.”

  Willow frowned. How had she not noticed that it had been moved?

  “Okay,” Willow said. �
�This is good. It does sound like everything is ready.”

  She paced around the backroom, making sure that everything was ready for the executives’ arrival. It looked perfect. Why did it have to be perfect without her helping at all?

  Shelly popped her head into the backroom and Telescope followed her in.

  “The rest of the dogs have left,” she reported. “But I have a few messages.”

  “Go ahead,” Willow said.

  “Well, Griffin, Mrs. Masterson says she blows you kisses and Pippin sends some licks,” Shelly said, counting off her fingers to make sure she remembered everything. “Jim said bye. Katie and Little Bruce send their regards. Raj says to keep going long with the passes. Mr. Jones says he hopes he sees you tomorrow. And Mrs. Pinkerton said that she says goodnight and that Twinkles says ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff.”

  Griffin laughed as if this was the funniest joke in the world. Willow was not amused.

  “I’ll go back out front to welcome people in if they come,” Shelly said, skipping from the room.

  Griffin was still recovering from his laughter.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I guess you had to be there.”

  “Sure,” Willow said, reminding herself yet again that this was only temporary. Griffin was not taking over her business. Even if he was having inside jokes with the canines and apparently had developed a fan club in his short time here – he wasn’t trying to steal her business. He was just trying to help her. She had asked him to.

  Willow began to feel a little down. Maybe she should have asked him to take over the case for her too. At this rate, Griffin would probably already have the real killer behind bars. And the killer would be sharing inside jokes with him!

  She noticed that he was staring at her, and she made sure not to snap when she asked, “What?”

  “I guess I’m just really happy about your dog food ad,” he said. “It’s going to be wonderful for you.”

  He moved closer and gave her a kiss. Despite everything else that was going on, she still did always really love when he kissed her.

  However, when they broke apart, Griffin said, “I love you.”

  Willow froze. Griffin had finally said it. He was the first to say “I love you.” He wanted to trade “I love yous.” But why now?

  Her thoughts were torn between memories of the two of them when they were friends in high school, and their courtship where she had fought against admitting her attraction because she was afraid of complications. She thought about their time together since they had been dating, where he was willing to grill for her family, and where he helped her reach the clues she was too short to grab. She also thought about how he had done too good a job with running the dog gym.

  She was also still thinking about her upcoming meeting with the executives and there was also that pesky murder case on her mind. Was she overlooking someone that Patricia had been blackmailing? Who else had Cassandra listed when she was talking about the people who might be glad that both women were dead?

  Telescope gave a little yip to drag her back to reality.

  She realized that she still hadn’t said anything, but that Griffin was looking at her. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

  Then, Shelly ran back into the room.

  “Willow, there’s a message for you. It must have come when I was telling Griffin that joke about ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff.”

  This time Griffin didn’t laugh. Willow was still having trouble figuring out what to say and waited for Shelly to continue.

  “It was just written on a piece of paper and left up front. It says that some guy named Hudson wants to meet you immediately to give you some info about the murders. It’s kind of hard to read the address though. Can you make it out?”

  Willow felt herself panicking. She had ruined her special moment with Griffin. She was supposed to have her meeting with the executives any moment, but if she missed Hudson now she might never find him again. The only reason she had been able to talk to him before was because he came up to her.

  “I have to go after him,” Willow said aloud. “I need to. For Wednesday.”

  She might hate herself when she lost out on business by blowing off her meeting with the ad people, but she’d hate herself more if her baby sister was left to rot in jail.

  19

  Three hours later, Willow sat in her car in her driveway, staring at her house. This had been the worst day of her life. She wasn’t sure she had the energy or motivation to make it inside.

  As soon as she went in, Telescope would try to cheer her up and tell her in his doggie way that it would all be okay. However, she knew that it would not all be okay, and she didn’t want to be lied to. No matter how cute the little fella was.

  Somehow, she’d missed Hudson. She hadn’t seen him near the dog gym, though she started out searching nearby since he must have delivered the note only a few minutes before. Then, she tried to decipher his handwriting to find the right address and had visited the three places in town that she thought it could have been. Then, she went by the Knight’s Errant Club and found Steve getting something else he forgot from his car and a report that no one had seen the tattooed man recently. After walking closer to the mother dog’s area and still not seeing any sign of Hudson, she had travelled around town aimlessly asking anyone she thought might know Hudson if they knew where he was. No one seemed to have seen hide nor hair of him that day. Where could he have disappeared to?

  Now she was no closer to solving the case and saving Wednesday. She had even seen Detective Denton and asked him if he had seen Hudson. The only information he had for her was that McMillen was getting close to filing charges against Wednesday. Had she blown her only chance to get the information she needed to crack the case by not being able to read Hudson’s handwriting?

  And to make matters worse, she had blown off the dog food executives for the wild goose chase. She was certain this had done irreparable harm and that she would no longer be the spokesperson. She hoped Lady Valkyrie would be able to forgive her.

  The mistake had been so bad that no one from the company had even phoned or emailed her to berate her for her absence. They must truly be done with her.

  The final nail in the coffin to make it the worst day ever was that Griffin had said he loved her and she had said nothing. How could she have frozen? She did love Griffin. She knew that. Regardless of some jealousies about work, she knew that she loved him. She had known for a while but had been scared to say anything.

  And what did she do? She hadn’t said anything in reply. It was the worst answer to “I love you” besides “thank you.” And then she had even run away afterwards! She could only imagine what Griffin would think.

  She trudged up the steps of her porch and went into her house, ready to douse her sorrows in wine and chocolate. Actually, she wasn’t sure that she had any chocolate. The day kept getting worse.

  She would just have to make sure that she didn’t focus on how the wine in her house had come from the wine party and that the other half of the shipment had been what she was bringing to Patricia’s right before she found the dead body. She didn’t want to spoil the one thing that could make her feel better that night.

  All she wanted right now was wine. Well, and a new suspect.

  She paused as she opened her front door. Somebody was inside her house in the kitchen. Her first thought was that if Hudson was in her house while she had been chasing him all over town, she was going to go crazy. Her other thought was that if it was someone else from the mob trying to shut her up because of her poking around, it would be a fitting end to the day she had.

  However, when Telescope padded up to meet her looking calm and collected (and even a little debonair in one of his bowtie collars that he put on for special occasions), she knew that she didn’t need to be concerned for her safety.

  “Is it Wednesday?” she asked the dog.

  She got the sense he was laughing at her as he ran towards the kitchen. She followed him and saw the
bottle of wine that she so desperately wanted. It was also being held by the man she had not been able to tell that she loved a few hours ago.

  Griffin was uncorking the bottle that looked like a better year than what she had. Pasta was boiling on the stove and it looked like a delicious meal (made up of components all weighing less than five pounds) was well underway.

  Willow felt unsure of the situation and Griffin gestured to one of her kitchen chairs.

  “Sit down,” he said as he began pouring the wine.

  She sat down and looked at him.

  “I love you,” she said. “I meant to say it earlier. I did. I need a redo.”

  He smiled at her. “I knew it. I know you love me. There was just a lot going on. I take full responsibility. I chose a terrible moment. But I just couldn’t contain it anymore. I think we should do a redo for both of our sakes.”

  “Okay,” Willow said, standing and moving closer to him. “I think it began a little something like this.”

  She kissed him and when they broke apart, they both said, “I love you” at the same time.

  “I was the one that said I love you first,” Griffin protested peacefully.

  “But I thought it was my redo,” Willow said.

  He kissed her again, a little longer this time. It was what she always felt when she kissed him: fireworks.

  When they separated, he said, “I love you, Willow.”

  “I love you too, Griffin.”

  They stayed close together until it looked as if the pasta would boil over and then they finished making dinner as a team. Telescope wagged his tail nearby.

  “That was a perfect do over,” Willow said happily as they began to enjoy their meal. She took a sip of wine. “I just wish I could do that with other aspects of my life.”

  “Redo high school and realize what a catch I am sooner?” he joked.

  “I would never want to redo high school again. This case is making me remember all the drama,” she said. “I was thinking more along the lines of not ruining my chances with the dog food ad.”