Raiders of the Lost Bark

by Sparkle Abbey

  They sounded like me and my brother Mitch. Oh. My. Gosh. That was it. I sucked in a deep breath. I’d read everything wrong—their relationship and Red’s notebook. His note didn’t mean to meet on Sunday, it was to meet Sun, his sister.

  The question was, which one killed Addison and possibly, Hudson? I needed to get out of there. I had no idea if one of them had a weapon, and I sure as heck didn’t want to stick around and find out.

  “I got your note, Cookie.” Betty waltzed inside, with freshly applied plum eyebrows, her purse hanging on the crook of her arm.

  Hell’s bells, she had the worst timing.

  “Betty, meet me back at the RV.” My strained smile wasn’t fooling anyone.

  Betty continued to walk toward me. “Why do you look constipated? Are you confused again? First you want me to meet you here, now you want me to meet you back at the RV. Make up your mind.”

  Sunday pulled a gun out of her tote. “I’ve had enough of all of you.” She waved her gun at Betty. “Stand next to your friend.”

  “What’s going on?” Betty screeched.

  My stomach tightened in fear. “You don’t want to shoot us. This place is crawling with cops.” And an FBI agent. I silently called for Grey, counting on him to still be in tune with me.

  Betty scooted up against my arm, clutching her handbag. “I tossed the note,” she whispered.

  My stomach dropped. So much for Grey showing up. It was up to me to get us out of here.

  Red dropped the box. “Sun, this is a bad idea. What are you doing?”

  She glared at him. “Exactly what you think. I’m cleaning up your mess again.”

  “I don’t like them either, but we can’t keep offing people,” he argued.

  Betty pointed at Sunday. “You killed Addison? I thought he did it? You weren’t even here.”

  The siblings stared at each other. I wondered if there was a way to get them to turn on each other to give Betty and me time to escape.

  “Yes, she was,” I said.

  They both turned toward me, with their backs to the door. Now that I had their attention, I had to keep it until someone walked by.

  “She picked up Addison’s SUV from the towing storage facility and brought it here that afternoon. There was plenty of activity that first day; it was easy to slip around camp unnoticed. She disguised herself wearing that ball cap, and snuck inside the spa tent from the backside.”

  Sunday arched a blond eyebrow. “Impressive. How did you figure that out?”

  “I was with Hudson when your suitcase exploded. I noticed the ball cap immediately. It didn’t seem like your style. I saw the opening in the tent a couple of days ago. A guest mentioned he saw a young kid hanging out the backside of the spa. With your build, short hair, and hat, you could easily be mistaken for a boy. It was a genius plan. I don’t know that I would have put it all together if Red wasn’t wearing the cap.”

  Sure, I sounded brilliant now. Too bad I hadn’t put all this together hours ago. Betty and I would be on our way back home if I had.

  “Why was Addison meeting you at the spa? Why not at her tent? Or the kitchen?”

  “She was never meant to be there. I was meeting him.” Sunday sneered at her brother. “A total screw-up.”

  I nodded in agreement, even though I was completely confused. “I know what that’s like. I’ve got a brother too. Mama’s favorite.”

  Red charged up to her and wagged his finger in her face. “How was I supposed to know she followed me? What about you? I may have killed Addison, but you killed Hudson. You screwed that up.”

  “I’m holding a gun, you moron. Do you want me to shoot you?” She turned the handgun on her brother.

  “Please do. Put us all out of our misery,” Betty said wryly.

  Red lunged toward Betty, crazy-eyed. I stepped between them without thinking. “Back off. She can’t hurt you.”

  “Watch your mouth, grandma,” Red commanded.

  I had to admit, I was all kinds of confused as to what had really happened with Addison, but I couldn’t concentrate on that now. Time was running out. Sunday was getting antsy, and Red had lost control. I felt Betty shove something in my back.

  “Pepper spray,” she whispered.

  I gave a subtle nod, hoping she caught it. That was only good up to ten feet. Red was close enough, but Sunday wasn’t. We needed to get the one with the gun first.

  I continued to shield Betty with my body. “Look, no harm no foul. Sounds like you two have some things to work out between you.” I inched toward the exit, pulling Betty with me. “If he’s anything like my brother, this isn’t the last time you’ll be bailing him out of trouble. Look at him, he’s not even grateful for all you do for him.”

  I reached behind my back and grabbed the can of pepper spray. I prayed to the good Lord, Betty was handing it to me in a way I could just aim and spray without shooting myself in the face.

  Sunday stepped closer to Red. “She’s right. I’m not doing your dirty work anymore.” She slapped the gun in his hand. “You kill them.”

  What? That did not go the way I’d laid it out in my head. I told myself to breathe. This was not the time to panic.

  “Good job, Cookie. At least we had half a chance with her.”

  One side of Red’s mouth lifted in a sardonic grin. He turned toward us.

  It was now or never.

  I raised my arm and shouted, “Betty, drop.” I felt her hit the floor behind me, at the same time I pressed the top of the can, sending a stream of liquid into Red’s face.

  He immediately fell to his knees, dropping the gun. “My eyes. Agh,” he screamed, writhing in pain.

  Betty scrambled for the gun. I prepared for round two if needed.

  “What have you done?” Sunday yelled. “Redmond! Are you okay?” She raced to her brother’s side. She didn’t seem to notice his snotty mucus and tears dripping on her jeans.

  Betty stood up, pointing the gun at the siblings. “Freeze, suckers.”

  “Police. Drop the gun.” Detectives Finn and Lark stood at the tent entrance, firearms drawn and pointed at Betty.

  Betty slowly lowered the gun, then set it on the hardwood floor. “Where’ve you been? They were going to kill us.”

  I held out the pepper spray. “He’ll need some water.”

  Lark kept his gun trained on Sunday. Finn covered a sniveling Redmond as she took deliberate steps in our direction. As soon as she reached the gun Betty had laid on the floor, she kicked it to the side for Lark to pick up.

  Finn pulled out her handcuffs. Her eyes shifted in my direction, catching my attention. “I can’t wait for you to get out of my district. Laguna Beach homicide can have you.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  THE NEXT MORNING, we were safely tucked away in our beds in Laguna Beach. By we, I meant Missy and I. Grey had to leave town to tie up some loose ends on Asher’s case. But not before he told me he was proud of my quick thinking, and made me promise to keep out of trouble. Just thinking about the pride in his eyes made me smile.

  Back to Addison. It turned out she had taken the cufflinks as a bargaining tool. Asher had been following her, waiting for the perfect opportunity to retrieve them. When he’d found out she’d be the chef for the ARL function, he’d purchased an event ticket and got his cufflinks back.

  Betty was relieved to learn the ashes in the urn weren’t human. They were from Asher’s first dog, Skipper. Betty was sure that meant Asher was redeemable. I was sure that still made him creepy.

  As for what really went down with Sunday and Red, it was hard to tell who was telling the whole truth and who was blaming the other for a bad plan gone awry. If I was a betting kind of girl, I’d place my money on Red. He was the one who’d suffered the most from the pepper spray. Spilling his guts was the n
atural conclusion.

  He claimed Addison had stolen his plating ideas and was going to publish them in her cookbook. The USB, which Detective Finn had kept as evidence (the evil siblings were never going to find it), was the only proof he had those were his original ideas. The plan had been for Red to search Addison’s tent, steal the flash drive, and secretly deliver it to Sunday. Later that day, when Addison couldn’t produce the photos or the recipes, Sunday was going to call the whole project off, firing Addison. Then she’d give the pampered pet cookbook idea to her brother and find a new publisher.

  The problem was, Addison had followed Red, crashing the party. They argued. Red lost his temper. He pinned her to the table and smothered her. Sunday claimed she tried to stop him. I wasn’t buying it.

  Sunday was the one who thought sticking a fork in Addison’s neck would throw the cops off. She obviously didn’t represent crime writers. Forensics would easily prove that was done after the fact. What was she thinking?

  Poor Hudson had walked in on Sunday and Red when he’d delivered her suitcase. Not exactly sure what he’d walked in on, Sunday had convinced him to meet her on the trail so she could explain. She admitted to ambushing him, pushing him off the cliff to his death.

  I was glad the whole ordeal was over and we were back to our normal lives. Although we never did find my brooch. I still didn’t know how I was going to break the news to Caro.

  After taking Missy on her morning walk, I ate a piece of peanut butter on toast and left for a quick run starting at 10th Street Beach. Don’t get the wrong impression. I hated exercise, but I hated being out of shape more.

  It was a dreary morning, with a canopy of ragged clouds and heavy fog encasing our seaside town. This type of weather made sunbathing impossible, but running comfortable.

  I focused on the rhythmic tattoo of my running shoes slapping the wet sand, emptying my head of all the unanswered questions of where Grey and I stood. By the time I finished the last of my thirty minute run, I felt energized and happy, even though I had no idea if I had a future with Grey.

  I was halfway into my fifteen-minute cool down when my cell rang. I thought for sure it would be my mama wanting to rehash the whole letter ordeal, for the twentieth time. But it was a local number I didn’t recognize.

  “Hello,” I answered, trying to catch my breath.

  “Is this Melinda Langston?” the man asked on the other end.

  “Yes.” I wiped the sweat from my forehead.

  “I believe I have something of interest to you. You’ve recently lost a brooch?”

  My heart about burst through my chest, and it had nothing to do with my run. “Yes. Do you know where it is?”

  “Can you describe it to me?” the man asked.

  I listed through the details like I had a hundred times before. Antique gold fruit basket, filled with rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. “Is that the brooch you found?” I held my breath.

  “Yes, it is.”

  I exhaled in a rush. I spun around, excited, sand scattering from under my running shoes. “Thank God! You don’t know how much this means to me. I can meet you anywhere. Or if you’d like, you can stop by my boutique.”

  “That would work out wonderfully.”

  I checked the time. It was just after nine. “Say, in an hour?” I rattled off the address to Bow Wow.

  “I’ll see you there.” He hung up.

  I tucked the phone back inside my waistband pocket, a humongous smile plastered on my sweaty face. I raced home, and showered. I slipped on a pair of skinny jeans and my favorite cream-colored scoop-neck embroidered top. I hurriedly finished the rest of my morning routine, including a stop-off at the Koffee Klatch.

  I arrived at the boutique just before ten. The shop didn’t officially open until eleven, but I unlocked the doors anyway. I stashed my purse in the back office and booted up the computer.

  I laughed, thinking about how Betty would be equally excited to know my family heirloom was back in my possession. She’d decide we’d have to celebrate. Knowing her, that would include flaunting the pin in front of Caro.

  I practically floated to the register at the front of the shop. I turned it on and made sure there was enough cash to make change. Once the brooch was in my hand, I’d call Grey and fill him in. I was lost in thought about what I would say when the doorbell chimed. I smiled brightly, eager to meet my Good Samaritan.

  My smile faded into confusion. It was Mr. Swanson. He leisurely walked into my shop as if he’d decided to stop by to browse at the last minute.

  “Mr. Swanson?”

  “Hello. It’s good to see you again.” He ran his hand through his thinning gray hair as he surveyed the boutique. “This is quite the setup you have here.”

  “Thank you. I’m sorry, I’m just a little confused. You have my brooch?”

  “I do.” He nodded. “I didn’t realize it was yours until Betty had asked if I’d seen it. At the time, I thought you had something to do with that poor chef’s death, so I wasn’t in a big hurry to reward your bad behavior. But then the police cleared you, and well, Patty insisted we give it back to you.”

  I moved from behind the counter. “Well, thank you for returning it to me.”

  “Hold your horses there, Missy.”

  The doorbell chimed. I turned to greet my guest, but the words died on my lips. There stood my cousin. Tall, beautiful, perfectly composed—and completely unexpected. She looked comfortable in her jeans and white, short-sleeved jersey tee. She glided toward me, never taking her brilliant green eyes off my face.

  “Caro,” I greeted. “You look lovely as always. Forgive me for being so direct, but what are you doing here?”

  “I called her.” Mr. Swanson wheezed out a laugh at my confusion. “Betty told me all about your feud and how much this ugly piece of jewelry was worth.” He held up Grandma Tillie’s brooch in his strong wrinkled hand like a prize waiting to be claimed. “Ladies.” He eyed us both, making sure he had our attention. “The pin will go to the highest bidder.”

  Caro and I gasped.

  A sly smile pushed back Mr. Swanson’s timeworn wrinkles. “Let the bidding begin.”

  The End

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  Recipes

  Toss Across Sweet Potato Chips

  These are easy-peasy homemade treats your dog will love. They’re so quick and simple, even Mel likes to make them for Missy.

  You’ll need:

  3 large sweet potatoes

  Baking sheet

  Cooling rack

  Preheat oven to 250° F

  Scrub those sweet potatoes. No need to peel.

  Cut the potatoes into 1/3″ slices, no smaller than 1/4″. Keep in mind, the thinner the slice, the shorter the cooking time.

  Place sliced potatoes on a baking sheet in a single layer.

  Bake for about 3 hours. Turn over after 1-1/2 hours.

  Cool completely on a wire rack. Depending on thickness, this could take 30 minutes to 1 hour. As the treats cool, they will harden.

  For desired chewiness: Baking 3 hours creates a soft, chewy dog treat. If your pooch prefers crunchy treats, bake for an additional 20-30 minutes.

  Storing: Remember, these are preservative-free and should be refrigerated for no longer than 1 week. You can freeze them for up to 1 month.

  Lamb Kebobs Pampered Pet Style

  There’s no better way to pamper your pooch than with some “pawsitively” delicious lamb kebobs. You can whip these up in less than 30 minutes. Make sure the kebobs have cooled sufficiently before you serve to your pup.

  You’ll need:

  2 lbs. minced lamb

  2 cans (14 ounces) of green lentils, rinsed and drained

  2 medium cucumbers

  3 large handfuls of fresh spinach

  Food processor

  Cupcake tray

  Cupcake liners

  1/3 cup

  Cooling rack

  Directions:

  Preheat oven to 350° F

  Combine lentils, cucumber, and spinach into a food processor. Blend until a rough paste forms.

  Pour into a large bowl and add the lamb; mix well.

  Scoop 1/3 cup of mixture and roll into a ball.