Best In Show (Mina's Adventures Book 6)

by Maria Grazia Swan

  “Oh, I’ll be there with him. I have this nagging suspicion that’s eating me inside.”

  “Nagging suspicion? About who?”

  “No, no, not that way. I’m going to ask Roger to check Princess for a microchip.”

  “Oh. I doubt he can do it here. Don’t they need some kind of machine to read the microchip once it’s injected?”

  “Scanner. Darn, I should have asked him to bring it with him. Too late now. Well, we’ll see. Let me get the food in the house; it’s smelling up the car. We can have a drink and an appetizer, and then you can come over and the four of us can eat after Roger is gone.”

  “You don’t think he’ll want to stay and join us?”

  “Nah. Linda is spending the night at his house. Need I say more?”

  They both laughed. Millie headed back to the cottage. Mina started to stack the boxes with the food, sort of hoping Margo would come out to help. It didn’t happen, and the only one waiting for her on the other side of the door was Houdini. Of course.

  Mina could hear laughter and loud talking the minute she came in the side door. She went directly to the kitchen, but it was empty. Where were they? She found written instructions with the boxes on how to warm up the food if it got cold. Good. The cats’ dishes were empty. Mina figured she might as well take care of that before going to find the two giggling women.

  What were they doing? Their voices seemed to come from her office. Her office? Margo never ever liked to go there. What was going on? It had been a long time, but this felt like girls night out, except they were at home. Her home. She liked the sound of it. Whatever they were doing must have been highly entertaining, since, no one had bothered to say hello to her. Okay, except for Millie and Houdini. Did they not know she was home?

  Mina slipped off her shoes, left them on the kitchen floor, and tiptoed toward her office. Houdini followed her, hopping around like a rabbit. Did he think this was a game? What she saw once she reached her open office door left her nearly speechless, and she sure wasn’t in a laughing mood. “What the hell?”

  Margo and Kalinda turned to look at her, their faces bright red from too much laughing. Or was that from something they’d drunk? Or something they’d done, together, with the mattress that was now on her office floor?

  “Wait, wait. It’s not what you think,” Margo said, laughing at how it all looked.

  “We wanted to help.” Kalinda muffled a giggle. “You missed the best part, when Margo literally chucked the mattress from the upstairs landing and barely missed me. I tell you, after all the wheelchair maneuvering I’ve done today, I may even enter a wheelchair race. Margo offered to be my trainer.”

  “Yeah, and you know what? You can totally tell you haven’t vacuumed the floors in like forever, come and look, I’m not making this up.” Margo pointed to where she’d recently finished vacuuming the spot that used to be under Mina’s desk which was now pushed against a wall.

  Mina was too stunned to argue. Then Margo pulled her by the hand and Kalinda followed in her chair. There was a clear path, now that it was pointed out to her, the width of the single mattress that ran inches from the first step to upstairs, through the living room, and disappeared where they had dragged it past the kitchen and down the hall to her office. It was a path partly of compressed carpet fibers, but also a path through a small layer of dust.

  Mina looked at Margo in disbelief. “You did all this by yourself?”

  “Only the part upstairs, then Kalinda grabbed the corners, and I pushed the wheelchair, and, well, we hit a few corners, but a little touch up paint will take care of that. Hey, she can’t go upstairs, and that room was always meant to be a bedroom. Plus, it’s not like you spend much time in your office anyhow.”

  I don’t?

  “Cheer up. It’s temporary, and look at all the time and hard work we saved you with vacuuming. Didn’t we Kalinda?” Margo burped.

  They laughed louder. Kalinda kept nodding and laughing. “We did it! Let’s have a drink before we make the bed. Oh, Mina, Detective Dan called. He says he’s stopping by to say hello.”

  “He called here?”

  “Where else? I happened to be next to the phone, so I picked it up. He was so happy to hear my voice. Then he said that since I was at your house, he would stop by and give you the message in person.”

  “The message?”

  “Uh-huh, yep. That’s what he said.”

  Mina narrowed her eyes and surveyed her houseguests. “How much have you two had to drink?” She heard a car driving up her driveway. “Got to go. Roger is here. You two, no more drinking until I get back and feed you. You hear me?” She headed toward the door.

  “We can feed ourselves.” Margo said. “We are not invalids. Oops, sorry, sorry Kalinda, I didn’t mean it.”

  “Oh don’t be silly. I’m not an invalid—I’m stiletto shoes challenged.”

  They were both laughing hysterically when Mina closed the front door behind her. She caught up to Roger as he walked toward the cottage.

  “Is Margo back?” he asked, indicating Margo’s car, the one Mina had squeezed past as she came out the front door.

  “Yes, no, I mean, she’s visiting. I doubt she’ll ever come back for good. Now that Gino has a job in Long Beach, she’ll probably move in with him permanently. They’re perfect for each other.”

  Why did she say that? She was the one who’d told Roger that he and she wouldn’t work out because they had nothing in common. Two seconds with the man, and she was bringing up bad emotions for him!

  Millie was waiting by the cottage door. She escorted them inside the cottage. Seeing her so calm and collected, so—professional—made Mina grateful that Margo had found Gino. Margo just wasn’t cut out to be a committed pet-sitter. Millie was.

  Roger put on his gloves. “So this is the cat? What’s wrong with her?”

  “Nothing that we can say for sure. You know, it’s just a feeling. By the way, is there any way you can tell if she has been microchipped?”

  “I’ll need the scanner for that. Don’t have it with me. What’s her name?”

  “Princess.”

  “Well, hello, Princess, how are you?” The cat hunched her back and stepped back. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” He turned to Mina. “Was she a show cat in her younger years? She has that look. I can tell even if she is acting skittish right now.”

  Princess was standing on a low table in the cat room. The table was covered in soft quilted material that cats liked. The vet moved around cautiously, without any sudden moves, speaking in a calm tone until Princess cowered in a corner and let him touch her. Zeus circled the floor under the table, clearly unhappy his new friend was upset.

  “Do you know how old she is?” Roger asked.

  “According to the owner, three years old. I don’t know, I’m not too familiar with Persians, but I would guess maybe a little older?”

  Roger nodded. He seemed intent feeling the cat’s rib cage, quickly moving his hands over her belly. He frowned. Not good. Mina was familiar with his working routine enough to know that something was bothering him. He slid his hands up Princess’s back then checked inside her ears. She didn’t seem to mind, now. He inspected her neck, her chest, her front paws, back up her chest, circled her neck, and patted between her shoulders. She let out a loud meow and slipped from his relaxed hands. Roger straightened himself up, removed his gloves and shook his head.

  “What is it?” Mina asked. She could tell that Millie was also tense, blinking her eyes behind her thick lenses.

  “I may be wrong—it’s hard to tell—we really need to do a serious examination and this is not the right place to do that. No offense.”

  “None taken.” Millie spoke in a hushed tone brimming with worries. “Can you share your concern? Should we bring her to your clinic tonight?”

  Mina was so grateful for Millie’s questions. As for herself, she felt too choked up to try to sound coherent. Poor, poor Princess. What was happening to her? W
as she dying? Could that be why her owner had dumped her there? So he could blame the B&B for her death? Stop it, Mina.

  “No, no. Nothing that drastic. She may be pregnant, but I’m more concerned about what feels like maybe old stitches that could be slightly infected?”

  “Are you serious? Where?”

  “Where you normally inject the microchip. Or in this case, where her microchip may have been surgically removed.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mina walked back to her house via the garage, so she didn’t know that Dan De Fiore was at the house until she actually entered the living room.

  “Hi, Mina.” Dan greeted her in a rather unusual, distant way, and his eyes seemed questioning her very presence.

  What was going on? Then it donned on her, he must have seen Roger’s Corvette and was perhaps wondering where Mina was, and where Roger was, and... better clear the air. “Millie will take the cat to the vet’s office in the morning. Roger the Vet thinks she has an infection from a previous surgery.”

  “The fancy cat that the man brought in for boarding?” Margo asked.

  “Yes, Princess. And the vet, Roger,” she watched De Fiore relax and smile at her, “agrees with me that she’s older than three. Anyway, I think I’ll make a plate of food for Millie and bring it over. I doubt she’ll want to leave the cat alone. Speaking of food, I smell—who was the genius who put the food in the oven? I can smell the calamari.”

  “I did,” said Margo.

  Margo seemed more together than a short while earlier. Perhaps she’d eaten something instead of just drinking? “Hey, De Fiore, care to join? Don’t worry, I didn’t cook it. I picked it up down at the Pier on my way home.”

  “Thank you, I think I will.” He sat next to Kalinda then bent down to scratch Aria behind her ears. The cat had once belonged to a woman he loved. “Need to catch up with Kalinda; haven’t seen her since—you moved to Maui, right?” Kalinda nodded and sipped from her stem glass a pale golden liquid that looked like wine.

  Was there any wine left? “I’m not setting the table in the dining room. We’ll pretend we’re at a picnic. Trays and low tables, but we’ll use real plates. Okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the chorus shouted back.

  “Let me go check.” Mina walked toward the kitchen then stopped. “De Fiore you had something to tell me?”

  “No hurry, it can wait. Go do what you have to do.”

  Mina was grateful that with the indirect lighting of the table lamps it was hard to see the dust-free path left by the dragged mattress. She didn’t care about Kalinda and Margo’s opinion of her housekeeping skills, but De Fiore was another story. Men viewed the subject differently, she thought, and she liked her big brother-figure Dan to think well of her.

  Margo followed Mina into the kitchen. “I set the timer according to the paper that came with it,” she said. “I guess the cook at the restaurant knows you well. A kid could follow his instructions,” she joked, but got no laugh out of Mina. “Are you mad because of the mattress? Look, Kalinda can’t go up the stairs, and I was trying to help. Besides, we were both oh so ready to get away from that miserable place.”

  Mina spoke, as usual, from instinct, “You mean the house in Hermosa Beach? Or are you tired of Gino?” She started to wash the lettuce and radicchio that she’d bought.

  Margo pretended to study the large paper bag the veggies had come in, with the store’s trademark getting special attention. “When did you became so domesticated?”

  “Give me that; I recycle,” Mina stated. “You didn’t answer me about Gino.”

  Her former roommate sighed. “Ah, Gino. How do I explain? He’s great. I love him, but I don’t understand him lately. Supposedly, the house we’re living in belongs to the corporation he works for, and it’s for him, us, to use until the living quarters above the bar, grill, whatever it’s called, are done. Then we move in there, and that’s the place we’ll call home.”

  “Oh, I get it. You don’t like Long Beach?”

  “I don’t care. It’s not that. It’s Gino…what is it that he really does for a living?”

  The question sounded so familiar to Mina it felt sort of funny. “Did you ask him?”

  “Yes, yes!”

  Mina laughed. “Got it, calm down. I got it. Let me guess, he tells you it’s better if you don’t know all the details—for your own good.”

  “Exactly. Oh, my God, he told you?”

  “No, but I’ve been asking Diego the same question for a lot longer than you’ve been asking Gino. I’ve learned the lingo well.” She looked her best friend in the eye. “Thing is, they’re probably right, so it’s up to you. You can accept him as he is, and have a life together, or move on and find yourself a man who works from nine to five, is always home for dinner, watches TV in the evening, and...”

  “Stop it, stop it!” Margo clearly got the point and didn’t like where it was going.

  “Hey, what’s going in there? Are you two fighting?” De Fiore called out.

  “Yes, we’re fighting over the bottle opener,” Mina joked and was glad to see Margo smile. The oven timer rang. “Let’s eat.”

  The whole scene was quite awesome. Diego would have fit right in. Mina sat on the stairs’ first step, her favorite place, Houdini stretched out on the step above her. Aria stayed close to De Fiore, who seemed to inch closer and closer to Kalinda. Margo, who had delivered a plate of food to Millie, was now nibbling at her own dinner.

  “I’ll be happy to set it up,” De Fiore said softly to Kalinda.

  “Are you trying to set up a date for Kalinda? Don’t you know she’s the Matchmaker to the Stars?” Margo blurted out.

  Kalinda laughed her loud laugh. “You tell him Margo! No. He’s actually trying to convince me to take a look at a vehicle one of his sergeants had modified after he was involved in an accident. It’s designed to be driven with only the use of the hands.”

  “Wow, that’s interesting,” Mina said. “Something like that would give you mobility and a certain degree of independence.”

  Kalinda nodded, no longer laughing. “That’s not the only thing. This man has a service dog, and his place has been redesigned to fit his needs so that he doesn’t need full-time help. Well, Dan, I think I’ll take you up on it. Maybe Margo can drive me over to your office? Your place? Where?”

  “I’ll pick you up,” De Fiore said. “Let me see when it’s convenient for Stan, and we can get the whole tour and details on how to go about it. He works full time, has a desk job at the precinct. He’s a great source of inspiration for everyone who has had to readjust to life after a major loss. I tell you what, if you don’t have other plans I’ll take you to dinner after, so you get to see what life is like in the less secluded part of Orange County.”

  “Are you asking her on a date?”

  Mina winced, but Margo never had been known for her subtle remarks. And curiously enough, both De Fiore and Kalinda blushed and avoided each other’s eyes. Ah. Well played, Margo, well played.

  When Mina began to collect the used dishes and silverware, both Margo and De Fiore offered to help, but Mina turned them down. She needed to move around to get her mind working on figuring out what could possibly be going on with Princess and Mr. Van der Voss. Plus, Kalinda’s presence had brought up mixed feelings in her mind about love-struck Eva who had ruined her life forever because of an unworthy man. And then there were the thoughts about Kalinda’s soaring career cut short by a man who had been willing to kill in order to free the woman he loved from an enslaving government. Only one of Mina’s many adventures over the past years... So many lives lost or destroyed in the name of love. She was so deep in her depressing thoughts that she didn’t notice De Fiore come into the kitchen.

  “Can we talk?” Dan leaned against the doorframe and by the look on his face she knew this was the Detective in him talking.

  “I’m listening.” She dried her hands, turned her back on the sink full of dishes, and waited, totally clueless as to w
hat he had come all the way to her home to say.

  “We arrested the man who rear-ended the car you and Diego were in.”

  She sighed in relief. “Whoa. You had me worried, you looked so—inspector-like, I was concerned you'd come to deliver bad news.”

  He cracked a smile. “The bad news I call in. But back to this man. Apparently he was also the one who strapped you into the driver’s seat and...”

  “Again, whoa! He confessed to all that? Do I know him?”

  “Sort of about the confession, and no, you don’t know him. But that’s a good point because usually we would have asked you to come in and identify him.”

  “Identify him? How? I didn't see him. I was hit so hard by the airbag I blacked out.”

  De Fiore nodded but he avoided looking at her. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. No need to be concerned. He’s already been identified as the culprit.”

  “By whom? Diego? Diego is in town?”

  “No.” The denial came swift and firm. Too swift and too firm. Who was the detective covering for?

  “No what? Where did you find this man? Is he in jail here in Orange County or up in L.A. County where the accident happened?”

  “Neither. We got a call from a gas station not too far from the airport. John Wayne Airport,” he added. “I happened to be close by, and the call was for a disturbance, a serious disturbance is how the caller put it, so I headed that way. Luckily for the perp, someone had also called the paramedics, or he would have died right there on the pavement where I found him writhing in agony.”

  “What was wrong with him? Did he have a stroke? A heart attack?”

  “No, nothing like that.”

  Mina sensed a mood change as he spoke. Was he finding the whole writhing in agony scene—entertaining?

  “He was choking on something he’d—swallowed.” Now the detective didn’t even try to conceal the amused glint in his eyes. “As fate would have it,” he continued in a drone-like tone, “he was brought to the same hospital where the surviving kidnapper was, and just like that, we had our case solved. The kidnapper identified the choking man as the mastermind of the whole thing and as the man who shot his brother and him, leaving him for dead.”