Olivia shook her head. "You really are asking for it." She joined Jackie at the table while the boys headed upstairs. "So, a romantic evening with Brent. I figured with all the time you'd been spending with him, every night would be romantic."
The redhead suddenly found the bakery floor keenly interesting. "What? I'm not spending all that much time there."
"Jackie, what is going on with you? It's one thing to deny that a relationship is getting more serious, but you can't deny that you've spent every night for the past two weeks here. Is there a reason that you don't want to admit to it?"
Jackie ducked a little and then looked up shyly. "I was actually going to ask if you'd stop by the house with me tonight after dinner so I can pack a few more things."
Her friend was the most independent person Olivia knew. Something was going on, and Jackie didn't want to tell her. "What are you hiding from me?"
"Nick asked me not to tell you because he's the one investigating," Jackie admitted. "But two weeks ago, I thought I saw someone outside my house. I called the station, and Deputy Jameson came out. I thought maybe I was just imagining it, but then Hattie and Thomas said they’d seen something, too."
"First of all, I'm glad that Hattie and Thomas are together. Secondly, what? How could you not tell me?” Olivia took a deep breath and forced herself to speak calmly. “First someone vandalizes your bookstore, and then someone puts a snake in the store. I know that Nick doesn't want me to investigate, but Jackie, if someone is stalking and harassing you, it should be my concern!” She was losing the battle for calm. “You're my best friend! Don't you trust me?"
Jackie pressed her lips into a thin line. "Of course, I trust you. It's not that I don't think you could solve the case. It's because you've nearly died several times solving cases, and I don't want to be the reason that someone finally succeeds. I'm staying with Brent now, and I'm close to you and Andrew, and I feel safe. I trust that Nick is going to get to the bottom of it."
Olivia stood. "Is that why you've been pushing me into this dognapping case? You want to keep me busy so I don't realize that someone is trying to stalk you?"
"No. That's not it at all!"
Before Olivia could argue further, Janelle and Patrick came back from the kitchen. Janelle had a smile on her face and looked content. As much as Olivia wanted to press Jackie for more information, she was too angry, and she didn't want to upset Janelle.
The other men returned, and they all headed to dinner. If anyone noticed the tension between Olivia and Jackie, no one said anything. Her friend kept casting furtive looks her way, but Olivia ignored them. She didn't know what upset her more. The fact that Jackie had withheld such important information from her or that her friend had manipulated her to keep her away from the truth.
When they returned to the brownstone after dinner, Jackie grabbed Olivia’s arm to keep her from heading into the apartment. "I know that you're mad," she whispered. "But I don't want to go to bed until you understand why I did it."
Andrew and Brent exchanged a strange look, but they didn't say anything as they went into their respective apartments. Crossing her arms, Olivia faced Janelle. "I know why you did it, Jackie, but that doesn't make it okay."
"If I had told you, you would have started investigating immediately. Right?"
"Of course. Stalking is much more dangerous than vandalism. Before, it was just pranks, but now it's something much more dangerous. I want to start investigating right now!"
"And Nick was afraid of that. He was afraid that because it was me, you'd get more reckless and do something dangerous. I'm safe here, surrounded by the people who love me. I would rather let Nick figure out what's going on, even if it takes longer, than to let you investigate and do something that gets you hurt."
Jackie was looking at her in earnest, and Olivia reached out and squeezed her friend’s hand. "I understand, but I'm still upset that you thought it was better to misdirect me than to tell me the truth."
"I swear, I didn't push you to the dognapping because of my circumstances."
Nodding her head, Olivia leaned over and hugged her friend. "You have to tell me everything that happens with the case. Even if I don't investigate, I still want to be kept in the loop. And you aren't allowed to go anywhere alone—or ever be alone. Do you understand me?"
"Don't worry. I won't. It's been kind of nice to spend all my time with Brent. He feels all manly and protective, and I get to see how we are, long-term."
"And?"
Jackie dropped her voice. "And I think he's the one."
Excited, Olivia clapped her hands until Jackie shushed her. There had been a time when Brent was a notorious womanizer, and Olivia had heard plenty of tales through Andrew. It wasn't until Brent met Jackie that he’d settled down, although Olivia had been dubious of the match, Now, she was thrilled at the idea of her best friend being with Andrew's best friend.
"We can go engagement-ring shopping together." Olivia nudged Jackie, and her friend rolled her eyes.
"Case first and then engagement, remember? Now, I've got to go to bed. I've got a shipment of books coming in the morning. Want to help me put them away?"
"No, I've got two suspects in the dognapping to check out. I'm going to try and talk to Scott and Madeline. They both approached Julie and Sharon about buying their puppies."
"Good luck." Jackie hugged her one last time before heading into Brent's borrowed apartment.
Andrew was in the shower when Olivia opened the door to the apartment, so she gave Goodwin and Fender a good brushing and then filled their food and water dishes. She couldn't help but stare into the shadows outside the kitchen window as she listened to the sound of the dogs’ enthusiastic munching. Tomorrow, she was going to have some strong words for Nick about keeping Jackie's secret. She wasn't about to let anything happen to her best friend.
7
“Detective Sweets!” Rose hurried after the aggravating man, folder tucked under her arm. “Wait. I need to ask you something.”
The egotistical jerk turned around and eyed her coolly. “So help me God, if you ask me a question about the case, I am going to explode. You are a secretary. You failed at sleuthing.”
“Please,” Rose rolled her eyes. “I’ve solved more cases in the past five years of my private-eye days than you have in your entire career.”
His face reddened with anger, and she pulled out the two photos. “Do you see something wrong with these pictures?”
“How did you get these?” he snarled as he snatched them out of her hand. “I made it clear that you were not to go near my files.”
“Someone is dead, Sweets. Stow your damn pride and look at the photos!”
Glaring at her, he flattened them against the wall and stared at them. “I’ve looked at these pictures a million times, Rose. Nothing stands out.”
“Lizzy was OCD about her closet. Her pumps are arranged by heel height. Her tennis shoes are ordered by color—but her sandals are a mess.”
“Really?” He gave her a withering look. “You’re upset that her sandals are a mess.”
“It’s not just her sandals. The whole left side of the closet is a mess. Like someone pulled everything out and then just hastily threw it back in. We need to get back to the crime scene. There’s something there.”
“I suppose you want your boyfriend to tag alone,” he grumbled.
“Christopher is not my boyfriend! And no. He’s not coming.” She still felt guilty about the fight they’d had last night, and she wasn’t ready to face him yet.
“Fine. I’ll give you ten minutes. Grab your coat.”
The next morning, Olivia conveniently walked Goodwin up and down Scott's street for several minutes until she spotted the dog breeder heading out of the house to his car. He was a good-looking man in his forties, and when he wasn't working with his dogs, he was employed in the city as a financial advisor.
"Mr. Truant, good morning." Plastering a big smile on her face, Olivia forced herself to be ple
asant as she approached the man. "How are you doing today?"
"Ms. Rickard." Scott frowned when he saw her. "I can't possible think of why you'd be speaking to me—since you've done everything you could to stop the sale of my dogs."
She needed to tread carefully. "I am not here about your German Shepherds. I'm helping Charlene whittle down the list of prospective homes for the remaining puppies. I heard that you were interested—so I'm just here to look around and make sure that you are a suitable candidate."
He snorted. "You want me to believe that you're considering me for a puppy? You certainly do not have my permission to look around."
Olivia hadn't expected Scott to easily open his home up to her, but she'd hoped that his desire for a puppy would outweigh his hatred of her. Unless, of course, he'd already gotten two puppies through unsavory means.
"Mr. Truant, I'm only making notes and passing them along to Charlene. She's making the final decisions. I'm just taking into account the stability of the fence in your back yard, the cleanliness of your home, and the number of dogs you already have. It'll only take me a couple of minutes."
Opening his car door, Scott threw his briefcase in and glared at her. "Read my lips," he snarled. "I don't want you anywhere near me or my application for the Shar-Peis. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for work."
Olivia opened her mouth to argue, but he was already in the driver's seat and slamming the door. She had to pull Goodwin out of the way as Scott raced out of the driveway.
She itched to peer in at the windows of the house and see if she saw any puppies, but she knew what would happen if someone called Nick on her. Not to mention, Andrew would not be in a great mood if she got arrested, and she wanted him to be in a good mood.
"Come on, Goodwin. Let's go check out the mysterious Madeline Stone." When Madeline had offered to buy the puppy from Julie, she’d left her phone number and address. She lived in a small apartment a few miles from Scott’s house.
It was a nice day, and Olivia might have walked, but she was relieving Natalie from doggie daycare at noon, so she didn't have time for a leisurely walk. Heading back to the brownstone, she dropped Goodwin off back at the office and drove to Madeline’s address.
The apartments were a little run-down. The door was a faded blue, and the light outside the door was covered in spiderwebs. Clearly, this Madeline didn't care much about outward appearances.
"Ms. Stone?" Olivia knocked on the door.
The door swung open slightly, and Olivia frowned and raised her voice. "Ms. Madeline Stone? It's Olivia Rickard. I'm helping Charlene vet candidates for the Shar-Pei puppies. I just have a few questions for you."
Falling silent, Olivia suddenly heard the familiar sound of puppies crying. Gasping, she pushed the door further ajar and hurried inside.
All the lights were off. Pulling out her phone, she immediately dialed Nick's number as she flicked on lights, following the sound of the crying puppies.
"Sheriff Limperos," she heard Nick’s grunt in her ear.
"Nick, it's Olivia. I think I've found the puppies." Reaching the door on the far side of the living room, she turned a corner, still following the puppy sounds, and found herself stopped by a baby gate blocking the doorway to the kitchen. She reached to flip on the kitchen light and gasped. "And the body of the person who probably kidnapped them."
"Body?" Nick's voice was tense. "Please tell me that body is still alive."
"Afraid not." Olivia swallowed hard, feeling dizzy. A woman was splayed out on the kitchen floor. "Please hurry."
By the time Nick had arrived, Olivia had located the puppies, huddled in the pantry and crying in distress. She wasn't sure how long they'd been left alone, but their water dish was empty, and it looked like they hadn't been taken out for a while. She immediately filled their water bowl and found a torn bag of puppy food.
Hearing cars pull up in front of the building, she left the puppies happily crunching away and headed to the front door, going out to the curb to meet the arrivals as they emerged from two sheriffs’ cars.
"Olivia." Nick had brought Deputy Derek Jameson and two other deputies with him. He didn't look pleased.
"You and dead bodies are like magnets," Derek muttered as he snapped on some gloves. "Andrew should consider not letting you out of the house."
"If I hadn’t been let out of the house, you and Delilah would not be together," Olivia pointed out. There had been a time when Derek had hoped that he and Olivia would end up together. At that time, Delilah’d had her eyes set on Andrew. Rivalry had grown between the women until Delilah had proved to be a good ally in helping Olivia win Andrew back. Since then, Olivia had helped Delilah and Derek find each other, and now they were a disgustingly happy couple.
"True." Derek grinned. "But hey, you found the missing puppies. Good job."
"Thank you." Olivia glanced uneasily at the apartment building. Of course, she wanted to head back inside and take another look around the crime scene, but her job had been to find the puppies, and that's what she had done. Now she could focus on her proposal to Andrew.
She had turned to head back to her Jeep when Nick whistled from the door to the rental. "Olivia! Where are you going? I still need a statement from you. Come on in."
"Oh." Olivia didn't move. "I could give you the statement out here."
"After all this time. You want to be squeamish now?" Nick frowned. "Come on. I need to know where you walked and what you touched."
Go in, talk to Nick, and then get out. Don't even think of looking around. Unfortunately, Nick was busy talking to someone else when Olivia cautiously walked in. She went back to the kitchen to check on the puppies again, but she couldn't help letting her eyes wander.
The whole apartment was a mess. Stacks of papers and notes littered the entire place. In fact, the only neat and clean surface was the small desk in the living room. Even though she knew it was a bad idea, Olivia couldn't help glancing at some of the papers lying around.
They were all clipped columns, and quite a few of them were Dear Ruby letters.
"Maddie," she murmured as a lightbulb went off in her head. "Nick—I know who this woman is."
"Yeah?" Nick looked over. "You told me that she was named Madeline Stone, and she kidnaps puppies."
"Yeah, but I think she might have only stolen the puppies because she’s just lost her job." Olivia pointed to the newspaper clippings. "As the Dear Ruby columnist."
"Dear Ruby? That woman is nothing but trash," Derek sneered.
"Yeah. And I think she might have been killed because of it."
8
"I'm sorry, what?" Andrew rubbed at his temple as he listened to Nick. He’d been tempted to let the sheriff’s call go to voice mail. Hospital administration had discovered that Andrew was grooming Brent to take over his position as head of IT, and the powers that be apparently were not happy that Andrew was planning to quit. The paperwork piling up on his desk was getting more and more tedious.
But the sheriff had never been one for chit-chat, and so Andrew had thumbed the green button on his cell phone’s screen to accept the call. What if something had happened to Olivia, as unlikely as it might be, considering she was just looking for lost puppies?
There had been a burst of static on the line as the sheriff started talking, and Andrew wasn’t sure he’d heard the man correctly. Now his heart dropped as he listened to Nick clear his throat nervously and repeat, "Apparently, in retrieving the stolen puppies, Olivia stumbled across a dead body."
"You have got to be kidding me," Andrew exclaimed, feeling his whole body tense. "This was just supposed to be an easy case to distract her."
"Trust me, I didn't think that two stolen puppies in Lexingburg were going to lead to a dead body." He heard Nick sigh. "She's still here, and to her credit, she looks like she's actively trying not to snoop around."
"That's good! I don't want her snooping around. Of course, I'm also not ready for her to go back to focusing on me, either.” He paused
and added, “Who is it?" and then thought to clarify, “who’s dead, I mean?”
"Madeline Stone. I don't think that she was interested in the puppies because of their cute faces. Have you seen these things? They're just a mass of wrinkles. Anyway, I think she was going to try to sell them because she’d just lost her job. As Dear Ruby."
"Dear Ruby?" Andrew choked. "Not only did Olivia find a dead body, but she found the body of what could possibly be one of the most hated and talked-about woman in town?"
Andrew could almost see the humorless grin on the sheriff’s face as Nick drawled, "Your girlfriend is talented like that. Look, I'm not going to lie, Andrew. I don't want to turn Olivia away. Between what you're trying to do and the issues with Jackie, I'd like to keep Olivia busy, and she's a good sleuth." Nick paused. "But I don't want to encourage her to look into it without your agreement."
Before Andrew could answer, Cora bustled in with another stack of papers and a sticky note on top. Apparently, the hospital was hoping to trap him in the office forever with paperwork.
He nodded thanks and pointed to the one semi-clear spot on the far corner of his desk as he spoke into the phone. "Honestly, I don't think it matters, Nick. Olivia is involved, and she's probably going to investigate no matter what we say. Just promise me you'll help keep an eye on her. It already makes me nervous that someone is taking jabs at Jackie."
Cora wasn’t content just to lay the newest papers down on the indicated spot. She shook her head at the overwhelming mess, and as Andrew listened to the sheriff’s reply, she began efficiently sorting through the piles of paper on his desk, stacking them neatly and prioritizing as she went so that Andrew would be sure to tackle the most urgent matters first. She was good at that. "It was my number-one priority before this happened. Wait, she's coming back. I don't think that you have to worry, Andrew. The whole town is going to be keeping an eye on Olivia. I'm going to make sure of it."
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