The man shifted from one foot to another and rearranged a counter display of catnip toys.
Esther was the next to stand near the counter. Although she didn’t lean over toward the man, she placed her neatly painted nails of each hand on the glass top. “It’s to help dogs who don’t have homes. You own a pet store. I bet you love dogs.”
Within the next few minutes, the other three girls had started a tag-team relay of Wink stories, as well as what Nadine had told them about Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies’ rescue efforts. The man stood frozen. Aneta hid a smile. She wouldn’t know what to do either if those three girls were talking that fast to her.
As the girls carried on, Aneta heard several yips. Turning her head toward the sound, she noticed the corner of a wire pen sticking from behind a pile of Puppy Pellet dog food, stacked about waist high. With nothing to add to the very capable job the girls were doing, Aneta wandered away from the counter toward the wire pen. Bags of Puppy Pellets lay haphazardly stacked six high on three sides of the pen.
“Oh!” Aneta gasped. “Little Winks!”
The pen held six basset puppies; two lay on their sides, flanks heaving as though they were too hot. Two more rose to their feet but didn’t approach Aneta. They looked tired. “Poor babies. Are you hot, too?” She glanced at an overturned water bowl. “No water, huh? I will get you some.” A bunch of Winks who needed help. The last two bassets in the pen, however, stopped tugging on a dirty towel and watched her, tails looping up like question marks. Together, with their big feet stepping squarely on their long ears, they stumbled across the pen toward Aneta.
Distracted from the water mission, she dropped to her knees, leaning against the pile of Puppy Pellets. “So cute,” she murmured. She couldn’t wait until Wink was at her home. She hoped all these puppies would find forever homes, too. Funny how there were so many bassets about Wink’s size. She stuck her fingers through the wire pen.
“Hi, puppies.”
At the same moment, the two stumblers collided with the pen and promptly sank sharp puppy teeth into her wriggling fingers.
“Ouch!” She jerked her fingers away. The action pushed her against a bag out of order in the stacking. One began to slowly slide. Aneta fell farther backward, kicking the pen with her flailing feet while she tried to balance herself.
“Whoa!” she cried.
“Ai-ai!” the puppies cried.
The dislodged bag pushed the one nearest it out of the stack. The entire wall of Puppy Pellets cascaded toward Aneta’s head. She pushed at the bags, but they were too big, too heavy, and gaining speed.
“Help!” she cried, throwing up her arms to ward off the heavy bags. They pushed her over, and faster than the breath to cry out, she lay half-buried in dog food. The yelping puppies increased their volume. Her cheek hurt from scraping the cement floor.
“Oh, ow.” She opened her eyes. “Help.” The logo of the bag scrunching her nose looked familiar. Later, Aneta thought. I will think about it later when I breathe.
Chapter 13
A Clue to the Crocs Killer!
Dazed, she heard the girls approaching. “Aneta! He’s going to put the poster back up. Aneta? Aneta!”
Esther shrieked. “Aneta! Lord, help her!”
Yes, please, Lord, Aneta thought, speaking to Him for the first time. Her cheekbone began to throb in beat with other parts of her body awkwardly twisted under too much puppy food. Puppy Pellets did not smell good. Especially when one of the bags had split open and she was nearly swimming in Pellets. Some were in her ear. Trying to push herself up while everyone pulled off bags, several Pellets crushed under her elbow.
Finally, she was free of Puppy Pellets. The girls helped her up and brushed her off. All but two of the puppies, still delighted at the entertainment, had settled down to a lower-voiced grunting and grumbling. The quiet pair raised their heads briefly, appearing too tired to care.
The pet-store man pushed past Gram and the girls to regard the mess. “I hope you’re not thinking to sue me,” he said to Aneta, who was touching her pulsating cheekbone. “You owe me for forty pounds of Puppy Pellets!”
How much does forty pounds of Puppy Pellets cost? Aneta felt her face grow hot, hot, hot. Her Christmas money was long gone. “I am sorry,” she said, backing up. Zeff’s long arm slipped around her. She leaned against him. “I heard the puppies. They did not have water. One of them bit my finger. I jerked my hand back. It hit one of the bags. I fell.”
Cousin Zeff cleared his throat. “Good thing it was you, Aneta, and not one of those tiny little pups.” He inspected the two remaining walls of Puppy Pellets. He nudged one with his toe. That side began to slide. With a quick move, Zeff stopped them from tipping over the wire pen. “Anything could have tipped them over to squash the puppies.”
The pet-store man shook his head. “You dog people.”
Aneta found that curious. Wasn’t he a dog person if he owned a pet store?
Zeff reached for his wallet, gazing at the two quiet puppies, the overturned water dish, and the dirty towel. “I’ll pay for the food,” he said. “No problem. Then I’ll come back later to day and expect to find this pen clean and the water fresh.” He pointed to the quiet puppies. The lawyer tone Aneta knew well entered his voice. “They look sick. What kind of place are you running here?”
The lawyer tone ran in each of The Fam’s voices. Except hers. Each of The Fam were involved somehow in making things right. Gram’s husband and Aneta’s grandfather, “Grand,” was overseas right now, helping a refugee agency deal with some legal thing. Zeff attended college to become another Jasper lawyer. Laura volunteered as a victim’s advocate. Uncle Luke was a retired policeman. He now stepped toward the front of the group.
“There’s not a problem, is there?” he asked mildly. With his short gray hair, Hawaiian shirt, and his big chest that made it hard for his arms to lay flat against his body, he looked like a private detective in a movie. No matter what he wore, everyone listened to Uncle Luke.
Now the pet-store man’s tone changed from mad to fake nice. “Not a problem. It’s just been busy here this morning. These pups just arrived, and then you folks came and I wasn’t able to come back and check on them. Our puppies are well taken care of.”
After making sure Aneta wasn’t bleeding anywhere and suggesting a stop at the The Sweet Stuff for an ice bag for the cheekbone and a caramel sundae for her tears, Gram ushered the group toward the front.
The girls petted the puppies one last time. Esther ran to get fresh water. Near the front door, Gram favored the pet-store owner with a big smile. “Thank you so much for putting the poster back up.” She eyed the poster on the counter. “You will be putting the poster back up? Today?”
“Okay, okay,” he said, throwing up his hands. “I’ll put the poster back up.”
“And keep it up and in a highly visible place until the day of the Oakton Founders’ Days Dog Waddle?”
His eyebrows slanted over his narrowed eyes while his shoulders slumped. Aneta marveled at how her grandmother had known the man had no intention of keeping his promise. Gram was amazing.
He sighed. “Yeah.”
“Great,” Gram continued in a voice that sounded as sweet as a warm baked peanut-butter cookie. “I walk, run, or scooter past here at least once a day. I’ll be happy to see the poster each time I pass your store.” The emphasis on each time I pass your store was unmistakable.
Once they were all by the curb and the scooters, Vee wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like that place. It smelled so bad. I know dogs do their business in there, but shouldn’t he clean it up right away?”
Gram, Uncle Luke, and the cousins were tossing glances back and forth. Aneta watched them. What do they know that we do not? Aneta thought of the puppies and the Puppy Pellets that had trapped her. Gingerly, she touched her cheek. Then her hand flew to her mouth. The bags. Puppy Pellets.
“A clue!” she whispered, staring at Sunny, who was watching her with a question in her blu
e eyes. Vee and Esther gathered around her. Gram and the cousins stood behind. “The Puppy Pellets! It is a clue to the Crocs Killer!”
Esther wrinkled her brow. “There wasn’t any dog food by the lake that day.”
“No.” Aneta laced her fingers into a tepee and pressed them to the neckline of her turquoise shirt. “The Crocs Killer wore hat with Puppy Pellets sign on it! I see them on the wall near the Puppy Pellet display.” Again her English was botched, but she didn’t care.
Cousin Zeff shook his head. “She could have gotten it anywhere.”
Vee whipped out her notebook and clicked her pen. “No, I saw that same hat display. It had a sign on it that said, ‘Exclusive commemorative hat for our favorite Frequent Buyer customers.’ Something like the twenty years Puppy Pellets had been in business or something.”
“Something about frequent-buyer customers got the hat,” volunteered Uncle Luke, squinting up into the sky as though his memory were up there. “Now I remember, too.”
“I say we go back and ask the man if he knows anyone who wears that kind of hat,” said Esther, placing her hands on her hips.
“Uh, I don’t think that man wants to tell us anything now,” Sunny said.
Aneta wrinkled her face. “I make him mad by tipping over the Puppy Pellets.” She patted her bruised cheek.
“He wasn’t happy with us before that,” Gram said, her mouth tightening. “He just wanted us out of there. Did you notice the entire time we were by the puppies, he acted awfully nervous?”
“Yeah, and awfully annoyed for a spilled bag of cheap dog food,” Zeff said.
“You know what the hat and the Puppy Pellets promotion means.” Vee flipped the notebook shut and returned the pen to her pocket. Her eyes widened.
Esther rolled her eyes. “Don’t keep us in suspense, Vee. What does it mean other than people who wear the hats buy a lot of Puppy Pellets?”
“It means,” Vee said smugly, tapping the pen against her chin, “there’s more than Wink at the Crocs Killer’s place.”
Chapter 14
What Is Melissa Up To?
Sitting on wire chairs next to glass-topped wire tables outside The Sweet Stuff, the girls savored enormous balls of ice cream on crispy waffle cones, compliments of Uncle Luke. Esther sighed happily, licking a stray dribble before it reached her thumb. “Melissa tried to ruin it for us, but she didn’t win. Now we just have to do a great job at the Waddle tomorrow.”
“We will,” Vee said confidently, efficiently devouring her two scoops of plain vanilla ice cream.
“We got all the posters put back up and even added two stores we’d missed!” Sunny tipped her head and lapped around the edge of her cone to catch the quickly melting scoops of bubble gum and cake batter. “I think I’m going to recite our little speech in my sleep.”
“You mean this?” Aneta, over her giggles, recited in very good English: “Hi, we’d like to know why you took down the Dog Waddle poster. We’d like to help you feel more comfortable about this important fund-raiser for Oakton’s Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies.” It had been Gram’s idea to add “feel more comfortable.”
The girls applauded one-handed, other hands clutching their treats. “You were right, Mrs. Jasper, to tell us that we should ask them for their reasons. They couldn’t give us even one. I think most of them were embarrassed that they listened to Melissa. The only thing we got as a suggestion was to make sure there were dog-doo-doo cleanup bags.” Vee looked at Gram with respect and raised her double scoop in salute. “Good thing the IFA store had already donated a bazillion dog cleanup bags. People liked that we already had pooper-scoopers.”
“That volunteered to dress up and dance while they worked,” Gram added. “Very cool.”
“My youth group is very cool,” Esther said.
“I just might come to your very cool youth group sometime,” Vee said. When Esther’s eyes widened, Vee quickly continued, “Might. I said might.”
“I will come. C.P. says I will have a very great time and learn about God as a forever home,” Aneta said.
“Really.” Gram looked thoughtful. “Forever home. Hmm.”
“I am worried about the other Winks.” Aneta leaned back in her chair. “Our Waddle will be great. Mom will fall in love with Wink and his secret costume. Then she will want to adopt him. But what about the other dogs where Wink was?”
Esther shot her a quizzical look. “You said the very first day we rescued him you were adopting Wink. Your mom hasn’t said yes yet?”
Aneta peeped a glance at Gram, who was licking her mocha cone as though she wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. Aneta knew better. Part of why she knew better was that Cousin Laura had shot Gram a look and kicked her under the table.
“Um…” Aneta squirmed and took another lick. If only I had not bragged I would adopt Wink. I thought it would be so easy to ask Mom and have her say yes.
“Uh-oh.” Sunny looked past Aneta’s shoulder toward the patio door of The Sweet Stuff. “Here comes Melissa.”
Esther muttered, “I bet she’s not too happy about those posters being back up.”
“Get ready, folks,” Sunny said quietly. “Drama is in the house!”
Melissa walked directly to Gram, ignoring the girls, and offered her hand. “Hello, Mrs. Jasper.” Gram shook it.
Vee said, “Hi, Melissa. Seen all the Waddle posters for tomorrow?”
Oh, Vee. She said that so Melissa would know we know what she did, Aneta thought. She wished she could come up with something fast like the girls did. The girls were more like The Fam than Aneta. The Fam had big brains, big mouths, and big hearts, Grand always said. Aneta wished she did. But, on the other hand, it was never a good idea to make Melissa mad. Ever.
“I treated the girls. Would you like to join us?” Uncle Luke said.
Four pairs of eyes whipped around to glare at him. Aneta choked on the last bit of the crunchy cone. You never knew what Uncle Luke might do. Ever.
Melissa smoothed her shirt over her capris. “Oh, thank you very much. I like The Sweet Stuff like the girls do.” She shifted her attention to Esther’s T-shirt, the slogan His PAIN YOUR GAIN stretching across the girl’s round stomach. Esther squirmed, and Melissa continued, “Of course, I can’t eat here much. I’d get fat.”
Esther’s eyes began to glitter with tears.
“Hey,” muttered Zeff, his heavy brows slamming together.
Cousin Laura slowly raised her head from where she’d been checking her phone. She surveyed Melissa from under equally heavy and equally unhappy brows. She pursed her lips. Any moment she was going to say something Jasper-ish.
“Melissa, why you tell people to take down Wink’s poster?” Aneta asked, feeling a heat rise inside. Why was Melissa always so mean?
“Oh, that.” Melissa flipped her hand like she was erasing what Aneta said. “I’m sure what you meant to say was ‘why did I tell people?’ Verbs are so hard if you’re not an American.”
“Oh, for pizza sake!”
Aneta had not seen Sunny’s face so red before. She looked like she might shatter into a thousand bits if she heard Melissa say another word. Before Aneta could think about it, she had kicked Sunny under the table. Sunny, startled, shifted her gaze to Aneta. Aneta gave her a “don’t” shake of the head. Sunny took a deep breath, stretching her clenched fingers.
“I’m not here to join your party,” Melissa said, turning sideways like a model on the runway, ready to strut back behind the curtains. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
Puzzled looks all around.
Vee was on her feet. “Why?”
Melissa smiled so wide, all her perfect white teeth showed. She waved the tips of her fingers on her right hand and turned away. The last words floated back. “‘Bye now.”
They watched her disappear back through the patio door.
Aneta broke the silence. “Something is bad here.”
“Sure thing,” Sunny said, leaping up and circling the table. “Sh
e’s up to something, and it’s not good for the Waddle.”
Chapter 15
Racing against Time
Half an hour later at the library, Nadine hung up the phone and swiveled her big leather chair toward them. “The council secretary is a volunteer with Paws ‘N’ Claws. She tells me the people who live on Park Street called the council offices to say they don’t want the barking dogs in the park. One lady said she was afraid of vicious dogs. Tonight’s a regular council meeting, so somebody put the vote about the Waddle on the agenda.”
Wink melted into a puddle of nonvicious basset wrinkles. He rolled his eyes toward Aneta. This meant, “Belly rub, please.” She rubbed while sighing. Another obstacle. Her costume idea for Wink was perfect. What if Wink never got to waddle and make Mom fall in love?
“That somebody is probably Melissa’s mother.” Vee clasped her arms around her skinny knees. The girls were sitting next to Wink’s empty pen. Wink dozed off.
“They can’t do that. The Waddle is tomorrow!” Sunny cried.
Nadine shrugged. “They can if animal control gets complaints from citizens that they feel the event threatens their safety.”
“What would we do with all the Waddlers?”
“It could happen. They could stop us.”
“Not necessarily. We can’t stop now!”
“It’s tomorrow, for pizza sake!”
The girls’ cries came fast and furious.
“Then you’ve got to come up with a plan.” Nadine tipped her head toward Wink. “That little guy deserves his day to waddle for Aneta’s mom.”
For long moments, no one said anything. Nadine helped a few children and one parent who came to the desk. Otherwise, the only sounds were the murmurs from library patrons in other parts of the building along with Wink’s soft whuffling snores.
Sunny’s voice, slow and thoughtful, ended the silence. “Remember Mr. Leonard’s garage and how Wink thought it was so fascinating?” She rolled back on the carpet. Wink woke up and hop-stomped over. Flinging his head onto her stomach, he lurched first one front paw and then another up on her side. His right paw trapped his right ear. His rear feet struggled to get a push off the carpet and failed. He wailed. Sunny giggled. “Ouch, Wink. Remember those puppy claws, please.” She scooped one hand under his rear end and boosted him onto her. He wobbled and tripped toward her face. More giggles. “Mr. Puppy Breath.”
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