Without Missing a Bark

by Stella St. Claire

  "It's not," Sylvia said. She shook her head and chuckled. "I used to work for a major newspaper. It was horribly depressing. At least, here, I get to focus on human-interest stories and uplifting articles."

  "Wow.” Olivia tried to sound impressed. “Major newspaper, huh? Why did you make the switch?” As if the thought had suddenly struck her, she added, “Lowell has a newspaper."

  "Just fate, really. The editorial position here opened up right when I was looking for a job. Yes, I live in the city, but I like Lexingburg. Of course,” she said, shaking her head with a chuckle, “dealing with Mayor Henderson is a full-time job in itself, but other than that, it's all pet-psychic expos and this town's weird obsession with prom."

  Olivia snorted. "Yeah. Things can get Mayberry-weird around here. So, what happened? You just get tired of the city?"

  "Something like that," Sylvia evaded expertly. "I'm happy here, as it turns out. Losing Madeline is going to hurt us, though.” She eyed Olivia speculatively. “I don't suppose you're a snarky romance advice columnist at heart, are you?"

  "Me?” Olivia said, recoiling in surprise. “Lord, no. I'm terrible at advice. Awful at giving it out. Worse at taking it. Don't even get me started about romance.” She heard Sylvia laugh again as she winced and shook her head, and Goodwin, sensing her discomfort, nudged her leg while Fender began to wind his leash around her ankles. Sudden inspiration struck. Untangling Fender’s leash, she said, “You know what you should do? Hire Lady Celeste."

  Sylvia's face went a little blank as she cocked her head. After a second of silence, her eyes widened. "Do you really think that she'd do it? That would be amazing!"

  Olivia, leashes at last untangled, stroked the hovering dogs’ heads as she answered, "You never know unless you ask."

  "Olivia, if you weren't juggling two jobs, I'd hire you to work here. It's a fabulous idea." Sitting back, Sylvia looked a little dazed as she shook her head. "We could expand beyond relationships. Do you think that she's legit?"

  "Maybe," Olivia admitted. "She's gotten a few things right—but then, I bet I could get a few things right, too.” She changed the subject suddenly. “Why do you think Madeline did it? Charlene said that the woman never showed any interest in the puppies, and she hadn't quit her job, yet."

  "No, she didn’t quit," Sylvia grumbled. "But she'd pulled her last favor with me. If she didn't tone down her column, I was going to have to fire her."

  "Yeah,” Olivia said slowly, “but she was syndicated. Another newspaper would have just picked her up, right?"

  Sylvia suddenly narrowed her eyes. "You're not here to thank me for the article, are you? You're investigating Madeline's death."

  "Guilty as charged," Olivia admitted. "Hard to pull one over on a newspaper editor."

  "True. All right." Sylvia leaned forward. "I'll make you a deal. I'll tell you everything that you need to know, and when you close this case, you give me that interview I want."

  Either Sylvia was innocent, or she didn't think Olivia was good enough to catch her. It would be hard to print a newspaper from jail. "Deal," Olivia agreed.

  "Madeline's last few months had been worse than usual. Most of the newspapers syndicating her column had dropped her. We were the only one printing her, there at the end, and I told her that if she didn't actually start giving advice and quit humiliating the readers, I was going to drop her, too."

  "She didn't take it well?"

  "Madeline was a stubborn woman," Sylvia muttered as she shook her head. "I'm also pretty sure that she was the one writing the letters that were supposed to be from her readers, there toward the end. We screened them, and they all sounded the same. I guess this town got tired of letting Dear Ruby rake them over the coals."

  Goodwin thrust his nose into Olivia's hand, and Olivia resumed scratching his head. "Do you think you could give me those letters? At least the ones from the past few months?"

  "Why not?" Sylvia reached down to the floor and pulled out a box from under her desk. "Most of the letters are from angry readers, but some are still asking for advice. You think her killer might be in there?"

  "I won't know until I read them." Standing, Olivia grabbed the box and hesitated. She wanted to push Sylvia into admitting the truth, but she didn't really know what to do with it. If she tipped her hand—and Sylvia was the killer—then she could find herself in serious trouble.

  Thanking Sylvia, she grabbed the box and lugged it back to her apartment. Wishing that she had driven her car, somehow she managed to get both the dogs and the box back.

  She dropped the box heavily on the table, unleashed the dogs, hung up their leashes, and made sure they had fresh water to drink. To the tune of canine tongues lapping, she opened the lid and peered inside.

  The box was completely filled with letters. It would take days to get through them all.

  Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled it out.

  It looked like Andrew hadn't been able to leave the case alone. He had found the man in charge of the I Hate Ruby club, and that man lived right here in Lexingburg.

  16

  Olivia tucked her feet up under her as she sat in the ugly orange chair in Shelfie. Jackie was finishing her last tasks before closing the bookstore at the end of the day, and Olivia wasn't about to leave her alone. What she didn't want to do was alarm Jackie by telling her how concerned she was, so she distracted her friend instead with idle chatter. "I could do it at the dog park, you know. For symmetry? I always see this glint in his eye when we walk to the park. I don't want our first failed engagement to be the only thing he thinks about when we take the dogs there. I'm at the park several times a week, you know? Replace bad memories with good memories?"

  Jackie looked up from the shelf she was stocking and grimaced. "I don't know. That seems a little lazy. It’s almost like you're stealing his idea."

  "I was going to propose at the place where he first told me that he loved me, but apparently all he remembers from there is the food poisoning he got that night. And I'm still not convinced that it was food poisoning. I was perfectly fine."

  "So it's true!" a new voice gasped. Olivia turned her head to see Delilah standing by the bookstore’s counter, a look of horror on her face. "You really are going to propose to Andrew."

  "Seriously?" Olivia glared at Jackie. "Does the whole town know?"

  The redhead shrugged. "Don't look at me. I didn't tell anyone."

  The boutique owner put her hands on her hips to emphasize her disapproval. "Olivia, that is not normal. The men are supposed to chase you and not the other way around," Delilah said primly. "It's just not right."

  Olivia raised an eyebrow. "So you didn't ask me to set you up with Derek? You waited for him to chase you?"

  Delilah immediately colored. "It's not the same, and you know it!"

  "Delilah, what are you even doing here?" Jackie asked as she rolled her eyes behind the pretty blonde's back. "You've never been in here before."

  "It's not for me." Delilah dug a piece of paper out of her pocket and thrust it at Jackie. "Derek is a reader, and I'm trying to convince him to move in with me. Subtly, of course. I would never outright just ask him! I thought that maybe, if I spread some books around, he would feel more comfortable spending a few consecutive nights in a row at my place."

  "That is subtle," Olivia chuckled, and then she added, cocking an eye at Jackie, "I have it on good authority that open communication is key to a good relationship."

  Delilah shook her head. "Please. Whoever told you that is a crackpot. Relationships are built on deception and white lies.” Turning to Jackie, she said, “Do you have these books in stock?"

  Jackie glanced over the paper and tilted her head to one side. "Are you sure that this is the right list?"

  "I cracked his password for his Amazon wishlist. Why? Are they not good books? He usually reads on his e-reader, but I thought some printed books might be good."

  "Sure," Jackie said slowly. "Give me a minute, and I'll round them up.
"

  Alone with Delilah, Olivia stood and studied the other woman. "You know, you don't usually give me advice on relationships. I set you up with Derek. Before that, you wanted to date Andrew, remember?"

  "Just because it took me some time to find the right man doesn't mean that I'm wrong,” Delilah said haughtily. “Men are sensitive creatures. They like to think that they're in control of the big decisions of their life. Even if we push and prod them toward the right direction, we still need them to think that it was their idea." Walking to the register, Delilah set her designer purse down and leaned against the counter. "If you ask Andrew to marry you, he'll resent you for it forever after. Even if you do get married, he'll be forced to tell people that you were the one who initiated it."

  "Technically, he asked first," Olivia pointed out. She felt compelled to defend her boyfriend’s honor. "And Andrew isn't like that."

  Delilah studied her glittery gold nails. "Are you sure?"

  "Yes," Olivia said, but then she hesitated. "I'm pretty sure."

  Jackie returned with a stack of books and gave Delilah a withering look. "Olivia, don't let her get to you. Andrew is not going to resent you for it."

  "I thought that you were against me proposing to Andrew." Olivia frowned as she checked out the book titles and stepped closer. "Wait. Are those all romance books?"

  "They sure are." Jackie smiled at Delilah. "Your boyfriend is a closet romance reader."

  Delilah wasn't the least bit put off. She just smiled and replied coyly, "It must be why he's so good at the romance part."

  "Good point," Jackie laughed as she rang Delilah up and bagged the books. "Hey, Delilah, let me ask you question. Did you ever write to Dear Ruby?"

  "That crass woman? Of course not. I have more dignity than that." Delilah pulled out her credit card and wrinkled her nose. "I should have known that she was Madeline Stone. What a horrible woman."

  "You knew Madeline?"

  "Of course,” Delilah said with a delicate snort. “She was a regular at my store, and her visit was always the darkest day of the month. She would whine and complain nonstop. Plus, she was always so rude to me." After paying, the boutique owner grabbed her bag and gave Jackie a pointed look. "I trust you can be discrete about this purchase?"

  "Provided that you can be discrete about Olivia proposing to Andrew."

  "Of course.” Delilah waved an airy hand. “Not that it matters. The whole town knows. I'd be surprised if Andrew hadn't found out. Have a good evening, ladies." Spinning on her heel, she marched out.

  Olivia's heart sank. She said numbly, "What if he does know?"

  "He doesn't know," Jackie assured her. "That's one of the benefits of dating your best friend's best friend. I get all the juicy details. If Andrew knew, Brent would know, and if Brent knows, then I know."

  "I guess that makes sense." Looking at the clock, Olivia pulled out a few of the letters from the box. "Want to dig into some Dear Ruby snark with me?"

  "I'm in my store, Olivia," Jackie said quietly. "You don't have to stay here with me. Once I close down, I'm going straight to the bakery and then to Brent's place."

  "What are you talking about? I'm not here because of you." Olivia was a terrible liar, and she knew it. She averted her eyes, but she couldn't fool Jackie. Oh, well, so much for pretense. She decided to ask outright, "Did you get another phone call last night?"

  "Actually, no. I did talk to Nick. He said that the number you gave him was a bust. I'm hoping that since last night was quiet, tonight will be, too. We will have worried about nothing."

  As much as Olivia wanted to believe that Jackie was right, she still had an uneasy feeling about the whole situation. "Look, Andrew is working late. Janelle is having her date night with Patrick. I don't have anything better to do except go through these letters, and I might as well go through them with you."

  "Fine. Be my babysitter," Jackie said and chuckled. "But you're going to have to walk with me. I've got to change the new-release shelf. You don't still think that Sylvia did it?"

  "I do like Sylvia," Olivia admitted. "But I keep thinking that she's hiding something. She knows I’m investigating, though."

  Jackie widened her eyes. "That sounds dangerous, Olivia. Did you tell Nick?"

  "No. He'd probably take me off the case if he knew that a suspect was aware that I was investigating," Olivia admitted. "But by this time, half the town knows that I do some sleuthing, and from the sounds of things, half the people in town are suspects."

  "Really? Half the town?" Jackie started pulling the books down and piling them on the floor.

  Olivia settled down next to the pile and pulled out a letter.

  "Dear Ruby," she read out loud. "I want you to know that the ‘sound’ advice you gave my sister led her to accuse her boyfriend of cheating on her. In reality, he was just hiding an engagement ring. Of course, he broke it off immediately, and now she's pregnant and unwed. I hope you choke on your own advice one day."

  "Whoa." Jackie looked down at Olivia, eyes wide. "That's pretty rough."

  "That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's an entire box of these. Sylvia thinks that Madeline was writing her own letters, pretending to be readers asking for advice. I think she just started getting hate mail rather than requests, and she had to do something to keep her job."

  "Can you identify any of the writers?"

  "Andrew is actually compiling copies of the published letters. I'm hoping that we can match the hate mail with the columns. Most of them are signed Anonymous—but this is a small town. Everybody knows everybody else's business. I don't think it will be hard to identify the writer. Tedious, maybe, but not hard."

  "You know what that means, right?"

  "It means that I'm going to be spending more time on this investigation and less time trying to propose to my boyfriend?" Olivia asked.

  "It means that you could be exposing a lot of secrets in this town. I might know that my neighbor divorced her husband, but after reading these letters, I might discover that the reason for the divorce is because her husband likes to wear her lingerie."

  "I didn't even think about that," Olivia muttered as she chewed her bottom lip. "I definitely don't need to know all that."

  Jackie bent down to pick up the pile of books. Straightening again, she said, "Are you kidding me? I want all the details!" She headed to the stockroom to drop the stack and pick up the fresh books waiting to be arranged on the new-releases shelf.

  Olivia leaned back and was about to tell Jackie that she'd turned into a hopeless gossip when the door opened. Tensing, Olivia jerked her head around but relaxed when she saw that it was just Brent. "I thought Andrew said you two were working late, tonight."

  "He did?" Brent gave her a sheepish shrug. "Yes. I was just really motivated to finish up early and see my girl."

  Obviously the two lovebirds had worked out their differences. "So you two weren't working together? I thought that he was trying to prepare you for the interview at the hospital."

  "That was the plan." Brent nodded his head. "That was definitely the plan, but then something came up. Work-related. Computer-related. I won't bore you with the details, but we had to put the interview-prepping thing on hold. I actually stayed late because Cora had some questions for me, but when I left, Andrew was still working."

  Olivia stared at him in puzzlement. "Is everything okay, Brent? You're talking awfully fast."

  "Yes. I have to pee. Excuse me." He flashed her an apologetic smile before he slipped past her and headed toward the back of the bookstore.

  "He's so weird," Olivia grumbled to herself before getting to her feet and following him to call a question to his receding back. "Brent, Andrew doesn't know that I'm trying to propose to him, right?"

  "No, of course not," Brent called over his shoulder. He stopped suddenly, and Olivia walked right into him. "What's the plan for that, by the way? I heard the dinner at that dive bar didn't work so well."

  "How did you know? Never mind. Jackie told y
ou." Olivia crossed her arms defensively. "It was a good plan. Only—it didn't quite go as I planned. I was just talking to Jackie about symmetry. The park. Same place that he proposed to me! What do you think?"

  Brent nodded eagerly. "Yeah. Give that a shot."

  "Really? You think that it's a good idea?"

  "Yup."

  Before Olivia could probe him further, Jackie walked around the corner from the stockroom, arms full of books. "Brent! What are you doing here? I thought you were working late."

  "Don't ask him that. He's just going to get weird again," Olivia jumped in. "And apparently he really needs to pee. Anyway, since he's here, I'm going to go."

  "Uh-huh." Jackie smirked. "Because this had nothing to do with you keeping an eye on me?"

  "Nope," Olivia denied swiftly. "I've got a box of letters to dive into. That's all."

  "Thanks," Jackie said softly. "I'm lucky to have someone like you as my friend."

  "Don't I know it." Olivia grabbed her bag from behind the counter and hefted the box. "I'll let you know if I find anything juicy."

  "You’d better!" Jackie called after her as Olivia walked to the door.

  Pausing at the door, Olivia looked over her shoulder to see Brent hugging her friend. Olivia knew that Brent wasn't going to let anything happen to Jackie while he was there, and she headed to her apartment feeling a little bit better.

  17

  Natalie was there to cover the office the next day, so Olivia made plans to meet Andrew at the park. An hour before she took the dogs out, she rehearsed what she wanted to say to him in front of the mirror. Everything sounded corny, like something out of a romance novel. The more she edited her speech, the worse it seemed to get.

  "Isn't this supposed to sound natural?" she growled to herself as she turned from the mirror. Grabbing the leashes, she hooked the dogs up. "I just tell him that I love him, and I'm ready to marry him. No hesitation. No question.” To the dogs, she added, “It doesn't have to be romantic, right?"