“I agree, actually. Though I can’t picture him going up against Declan, not that I’ve had much interaction with either man.”
“Nah, you’ve the measure of both of them I’d say. The pet shop guy folded so fast you would’ve missed the entire thing if you’d blinked.” Gary shrugged. “Not that I could blame him. Declan can be an intense adversary if you cross him. He’s a snake. Of course, that depends on who you ask. He’s charmed most every woman in town. At least those who let their eyes do their thinking for them.”
It took me a second to catch Gary’s implication, but when I did, a huge portion of the town opened up as possible suspects. “Are you saying he’s a bit of a womanizer?”
“A bit?” Percival cackled, his brightness returning. “The man has had so many affairs he might as well run for political office!”
And that would point back to Daphne. Get back at a cheating husband. Though physically, I couldn’t see it. Declan was massive, strong, and healthy. Daphne was small, feminine, and pregnant. If he’d truly been hit in the head hard enough to put him in a coma, I couldn’t quite picture her managing such a feat. But maybe…. “Were some of these affairs with married women?”
They both nodded.
A cuckold husband would definitely have the motivation. And the strength. Even if I couldn’t figure out who it was, maybe I could find something to prove that motivation. Enough to clear Katie’s name.
That brought the other reason I was here. “While we’re at it, I need some advice. As you know, they have Katie in custody on suspicion of Declan’s attempted murder, even though she’s the one who saved his life.”
“Ridiculous. The Green family have always been a barrel of idiots.” Percival shook his head in disgust, and Gary didn’t disagree.
I didn’t know the rest of the family, and I didn’t like Susan Green, but she didn’t seem like an idiot to me. If she were, I’d be a lot less worried about her.
“Even so, she’s managed to get Katie into a mess. If we were in Kansas City, I’d know who to call, but I don’t know here. Who’s a good lawyer in town, or even down in Denver who I could trust with Katie’s case?”
For the first time, Percival looked utterly confused. “What do you need that for? I talked to Gerald myself this morning. Told me all about it. He’s in Katie’s corner.”
I spared a quick glance at Gary, who bit his bottom lip and gave a small shake of his head.
Some defensiveness had slipped into Percival’s tone. “I know he’s a little left of center, but so am I. He’s a good lawyer. He’ll do right by Katie.”
I sighed, knowing that arguing would get me nowhere. “Well, I’m glad to hear it.”
It was a marvel to me. I’d seen the good-old-boys-club effect countless times in my life. And as freethinking and liberal as Barry was, I could understand his loyalty to Gerald. I’d expected different from Percival somehow. The three men and my mother had all grown up together; I guess grown up with Duncan Diamond too, come to think of it. Despite her unwillingness to speak ill of most people, my mom was the only one who was prepared to raise doubts about Gerald Jackson’s capabilities. But somehow, even with these men I adored, the good old boys club was in effect—binding, and apparently, blinding as well.
Unclear if it showed just how much I adored Katie or if it merely proved I relished playing detective, I left my uncles’ shop and headed directly to Paws. I’d planned on avoiding it entirely, unless for some reason it came up as a last resort. I wouldn’t call my uncles’ story about Paulie a last resort at this point, but it was definitely a lead.
Unlike most of the other stores I noticed when Katie and I were Christmas shopping, as Watson and I walked into Paws, we weren’t greeted by the scent of cinnamon, clove, pumpkin, or any of the traditional scents of the holidays. While it didn’t seem unclean, it smelled exactly like what it was. And from Watson’s perked-up reaction, it appeared he approved. Even with my human nose, I could make out cedar chips, dog food, and the musky odor of rodents. I was certain, to Watson’s heightened senses, it was a smorgasbord of scents. And above it all, combined with the manic melody of piped-in “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” were the loud screeches of parakeets, the gurgling of fish tanks, and the whirl of hamster wheels.
Before Watson made it to the counter, Flotsam and Jetsam came bounding from the back like overgrown Christmas chipmunks who’d overdosed on coffee beans. One of them wore a Santa hat with a jingling bell in place of the snowball, and the other had on an elf hat complete with pointed ears. Whichever one was wearing the Santa hat stumbled over a dog toy in the aisle, caught himself, and arrived at Watson a few seconds after the other. Watson stiffened but allowed the two shameless dogs to paw at him playfully and pull on his ears.
Unlike many of the corgis I’d met, Watson didn’t have an overly playful nature, nor did he appreciate it in other dogs. Typically, if another dog tried to play with him, Watson would growl, back against my legs, and make it very clear if I didn’t get him out of the situation soon, he’d hold me personally responsible for the rest of our existence. However, for whatever reason, if the dog was another corgi, even if he didn’t play along, he managed to grin and bear it. Well, not so much grin. Watson had arrived in my life a little over a year ago, and I wasn’t certain if whatever life he’d had before had turned him into a little bit of a sourpuss and grump, or if it had been his nature to begin with.
“Fred! Watson!” Paulie Mertz followed the path of his corgis and emerged from the back corner of the store, which was lined with fish tanks. At the sight of him, my mouth fell open, but I managed to catch my reaction quickly enough, or at least I thought so. The small thin man wore a clearly fake Santa beard and elf ears that matched the ones on his corgi. “I’ve been waiting for you to drop by. Every time I knock on your bookshop, no one ever answers. Even when I’ve seen your little cute orange car in front of it. I’ve been trying to schedule our corgi playdate.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Paulie. Chances are I was either working on things upstairs or getting inventory arranged down in the basement.” A complete and utter lie. Thanks to the large picture windows that looked out from either side of the front door, I had noticed Paulie headed my way, and I’m not too proud to admit that I hid—every time.
And at that moment, I quit blaming myself for the crabwalk in front of his window and searched desperately for a topic completely unrelated to corgi playdates, then realized they were plentiful.
“That’s quite a beard you have on there. I didn’t realize you got into the spirit of Christmas quite so emphatically.” Ridiculous thing to say, considering I’d managed to talk to the man for a grand total of ten minutes. Like I knew anything about him.
He offered a yellow-toothed smile. “I can take it or leave it, truthfully. Christmas is little more than commercialism and gross consumption.” He offered a self-sacrificing shrug. “I do it for the boys. Flotsam and Jetsam have quite the holiday spirit, as you can see.”
Right then, one of them nipped at Watson’s nub of a tail. My little grump sat down promptly, utterly failing to tuck what little tail he had away. He glared up at me.
“Yes, they seem to be very much in the… frantic frenzy of it all.”
Paulie nodded, seemingly completely unaware of Watson’s and my discomfort. “Watson doesn’t look like he’s in the spirit of things at all. I have a reindeer costume in the back, even have antlers. I can get it so he doesn’t feel left out.”
“No, don’t, but thank you.” I tried to keep my voice pleasant. “He’d murder us both.”
Paulie furrowed his brow as he inspected Watson. “Yes, I can see that.” He bent down to scratch Watson’s ears, and though Watson attempted to pull away, with Flotsam and Jetsam trapping him on either side, he was forced to endure Paulie’s affection. “You have Ursula’s disposition, don’t you?” He started to laugh and then broke it off abruptly. “No, you’re not evil. More like King Triton. He wouldn’t let Ariel have any fun.”
I didn’t even try to stop myself from looking around the shop to see if he had any of Noah and Jonah’s garland hanging about. Somehow I’d forgotten the man’s obsession with The Little Mermaid, despite his corgis being named after the sea witch’s eels.
It was time to pull the trigger, before Watson lost his patience or I began to seriously consider plausible substitutions for the garland. “Sorry to drop in and run, Paulie, but I actually have tons to do today. If I’m to open the store by New Year’s, I shouldn’t be allowed out of the shop until I get the books shelved.”
Paulie perked up, a cheerful expression over his poorly bearded face. “The boys and I would love to help. We’re very good workers. We’d get the job done in half the time.” His tone changed somewhat. “And with the extra time, we could always grab dinner after.”
Luckily, this time I could rely on the truth to set me free. “To be honest, I’m a complete control freak. I want to make sure every book is exactly so-so. I’m afraid by the end of trying to help me, you’d think I was the worst person in the world.”
His face fell. “Ah, well, I understand.”
There was such sincere loneliness in his tone that I couldn’t help but feel bad. Nor could I bring myself to change my mind, whether or not that made me a horribly selfish person.
“Actually I just wanted to pop in—” I couldn’t simply lead in with prying him for information. Not after hurting his feelings. “—and get another bag of that dog food you sold me last month. Watson just loved it.”
I was pretty certain Watson understood a lot of what I said. But the fact that he didn’t throw back his head and howl in laughter proved some things escaped him. The very thought that he would lower himself to eat dry dog food, no matter that it was a hundred dollars a bag, was nearly sacrilege. I’d been tossing some of the dry food out each morning for the chipmunks and squirrels in the trees beside my cabin.
Paulie perked up. “Wonderful! Let me get that for you.” Then he was gone. Unfortunately, his two eels… er… corgis stayed behind, not giving Watson a respite.
A few seconds passed before there was a loud groan and a loud bang, followed by more parakeets screeching.
“Fred?” Paulie’s embarrassed voice drifted from some unseen aisle. “Would you mind giving me a hand?”
I’d forgotten I’d had to help him the first time as well. Sure enough, when I rounded the corner to the dog food aisle, I found him struggling to pull the medium-size bag upright once more.
“Sorry, Paulie, I should’ve remembered. Here. Let me give you a hand.” Sidestepping Flotsam and Jetsam, who were bookending Watson as he stayed at my feet, I bent down, and in a smooth motion tossed the bag of dog food onto my shoulder.
“I’ll, yes. That… works too.”
From the embarrassment that once again cut through Paulie’s voice, I knew I’d messed up again. The least I could’ve done was to take one end of the bag and pretend I needed his help.
We crossed back to the counter, and indeed, I could’ve used his help as the three shifting corgis at my feet nearly caused me to stumble twenty times. And from the occasional soft gurgle from Watson’s throat, I knew, whether Flotsam and Jetsam were corgis or not, our time was limited. I pulled out my credit card and decided to make it fast, after all. I wasn’t sure if direct would work on Paulie Mertz like it did with my uncles or not, but it would have to do. “So while I’m here, I’m sure you’ve heard about what went on with Katie and me last night.”
His brown eyes widened, and he nodded, a feverish glint growing in them. “With that Declan Diamond character. Yes, I heard.”
There was no denying the glee in his tone, proving what Percival and Gary had said was true, not that I had ever doubted them. But combined with his expression, I finally put my finger on part of the reason Paulie Mertz gave me the willies. What my uncles had said was true, corgi people tended to stick together. Despite our differences, there was some almost unnamable quality that linked us. Something positive. Whatever that thing was, something about Paulie Mertz left me feeling uncomfortable. I almost felt guilty for it, but I’d learned to trust my instincts, even if I couldn’t put my finger on why.
I took a heartbeat to make sure my tone stayed neutral. “Yes. That. And it seems like the whole town has also heard Katie was arrested for trying to kill him. And I can assure you, that isn’t the case.”
This time the glint in his eye was a little less malicious, possibly even holding a level of admiration, though I couldn’t tell. “I heard you were the one who found out what happened to Opal. Does that mean you’re looking into this for Katie?”
One of the eels accidentally nipped my ankles going for Watson’s paw, and I jumped with a little yelp.
Paulie didn’t attempt to call them back. Without asking, I snagged three of the large dog bones from the glass jar on the counter, tossed two of them to different sides of the room, and handed one to Watson. Sure enough, Flotsam and Jetsam went running. I refocused on Paulie. “I wouldn’t say I’m looking into it. That’s not my job, obviously; that’s up to the police. I simply own a bookshop.” Maybe it was my new perspective associating him with a rat, but the last thing I needed was him going around town saying I thought I was better than the police. “I just happened to hear a rumor about you and Declan, actually.”
And with that, all awkwardness seemed to fade away, leaving him cold and hard. “I don’t think I like what you’re implying, Fred.”
“What I’m—” His meaning solidified quickly. “Oh, no. I didn’t think you had anything to do with it. I mean you couldn’t even—” I started to say couldn’t even lift a medium-size bag of dog food, but caught myself, thankfully. “—hurt a fly, I’m sure. You own corgis after all.”
And like that, the warmth was back. Not warmth exactly but something akin to it. “Oh, sorry. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for someone to make that accusation. It’s hardly a secret that Declan and I don’t get along. I thought we were going to be friends. We were on the same softball league last summer when I moved to town.”
“You were in a softball league?” I hadn’t meant to say that, nor let my surprise slip out.
If he was offended, Paulie didn’t let it show. “I was. You should consider joining, especially if Declan’s not there. A lot of the shop owners do. Peg and Joe Singer from Rocky Mountain Imprints. Rion Spark, who owns a wedding dress shop, Pete Miller, the glassblower. Mark Green, who owns the magic shop. Even his sister, the cop. It’s a great way to meet people if you’re new and want to make friends. At least it’s supposed to be.”
If I didn’t already find the idea of playing softball revolting, doing so alongside Susan Green and her brother sounded like a death wish. I didn’t want to be anywhere near her when she had a bat in her hands.
Paulie had thrown so much information at me that I had to refocus to get back on track, which was also hindered by Flotsam and Jetsam being finished with their dog bones and once again pawing at Watson. “I hadn’t heard about the softball team, but I did hear that you originally wanted to open a toy shop, but Declan… had other ideas.”
He snorted. “That’s one way to say it. He threatened me if I didn’t open a different kind of shop.”
“He threatened you? Physically?”
“No.” Paulie shook his head. “Legally. Said he’d take me for everything I had. Even though there was nothing in the town ordinances saying there could only be one toy shop in town.” He leveled his gaze at me. “Though, there is now.”
“Really?” Despite myself, I leaned toward him. “You’re saying he has such pull that he got them to change some of the town statutes?”
He shrugged, as if suddenly playing coy. “Estes Park is a great little place. But they like their own. Trust me, you’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure. The town council has some very good people on it, so I’ve heard. But also has a couple who make sure the few natives left do better than the rest.”
Now that was news. None of my family had ment
ioned that. Although, they wouldn’t, would they? If it was true, they might not even be aware. Despite my mother being gone for a few decades, she was still a local. I’d had a very easy time with licensure and cutting through the red tape for opening my bookshop. Maybe that was because, even though I wasn’t native, I was close enough?
That bit of news didn’t have an impact regarding Declan’s attack; he and his family were natives. But perhaps he’d pulled the same stunt with other new business owners in town. And one of them decided to fight back?
Watson let out a loud yelp at my feet and finally gave in and growled, baring his teeth at the two obnoxious corgis. I couldn’t bring myself to scold him. In truth he’d done much better than I had. I shoved one of the corgi eels with my foot, drawing attention to me, as I signed the receipt Paulie offered me. “Well, Paulie, despite what it took you to get here, it seems like the pet shop really does suit you.”
“Yes, it does.” With the smile he gave, some of his rat-like appearance faded again. “Blessing in disguise, unanswered prayers, all of those things. I’m really happy here. At least with the shop.”
Again his loneliness was evident in his tone, leaving me uncomfortable and still a touch guilty. I threw the bag of dog food over my shoulder once more. “Thanks for your time, Paulie.” I patted the bag. “And for this. We should get going. Lots of work to do.”
I’d almost made it to the door before he called out. “What about that corgi playdate? I’m a little busy myself, but I have a bit of time Saturday afternoon. How about then?”
Proving that I’d inherited just a touch more from my mother than auburn hair, I couldn’t bring myself to deny him in his obvious loneliness. “Sure. But it will have to be quick. I simply have so much to do.”
The brilliant smile that beamed from him erased all rodent similarities from his appearance, save for his yellowed teeth. “Oh, that is wonderful. I’m so happy. Flotsam and Jetsam will just have the time of their lives!”
Traitorous Toys (Cozy Corgi Mysteries Book 2) Page 6