All Bark and No White Knight

by Stella St. Claire

He openly glared at her as he slammed the top of the pizza box closed and moved it to the shelf behind him. It wasn’t like she hadn’t already seen it. “Had some stupid shake that Mary made me drink this morning,” he grumbled. “How is a grown man supposed to think when his breakfast comes with a straw? Are you here to walk Tucker? I don’t remember setting up an appointment.”

  “I’m not, actually. I have some information for you.”

  He immediately gave her a withering look. “Olivia . . .”

  As the light hit his face, she noticed some red sauce still on his chin. He glared at her, and she pointed to the spot on her chin to let him know that he had something there. Instead of catching her meaning, his scowl just deepened. “I don’t want you—”

  Clearing her throat, she pointed again. He looked at her, incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe she was interrupting him.

  Widening her eyes for emphasis, she scratched at the spot, and he exploded. “What is wrong with you?”

  “I’m sorry!” Putting her hands up in a placating gesture, she shook her head. “It’s just—You just have a little bit of sauce on your chin.”

  Impatiently, he wiped at the spot. “As I was saying . . .”

  He had missed the spot.

  She cleared her throat again with a significant nod, and his eyes bulged as he rubbed at his entire face with his hands and then spluttered indignantly, “Are you really not paying attention to me?”

  “I’m not investigating! That’s why I’m bringing this to you! So you can investigate it!” She quickly filled him in on what she’d learned from Trish about Paul, the flowers, and Larry’s possible involvement.

  Nick looked suitably impressed. “We haven’t been able to get Trish to even talk to us.”

  “I have a way with people.”

  “Now how about you explain how you came by all of this without investigating.”

  “I would love to, but I need to go talk to Delilah. Good luck with the case. And just so we’re on the same page, this exonerates Andrew, right?”

  The sheriff just shook his head. “Goodbye, Olivia.”

  Lexingburg was finally waking up as Olivia walked back to Main Street. The brunch stragglers were dragging themselves to the various diners and breakfast places around town, and Olivia, reminded of her own canceled brunch date, pulled out her phone and checked her messages.

  Nothing.

  Apparently, Andrew had taken her seriously.

  Anxiety knotted in her stomach, but she tried to ignore it as she stopped at Delilah’s Silks. The boutique wasn’t open yet, but she could see Delilah inside, unfolding some boxes. Olivia knocked on the door and waved.

  “Olivia.” Delilah frowned as she opened the door. Her make-up was impeccably applied, and not a strand of her blonde hair was out of place. Olivia was envious. How did the woman look fantastic all the time? “Is something wrong?”

  “No, not wrong. I just wanted to give you heads-up. Jackie experienced some vandalism last week, and I filed a report with Deputy Jameson. He should be following up today, and I imagine he’ll speak to all the neighboring businesses to see if they heard or saw anything, or if maybe they were victims as well.” Olivia tried to sound nonchalant about it, but she gave Delilah a knowing look.

  Apparently, it wasn’t knowing enough.

  “Vandalism! What kind of vandalism? Should I be worried?”

  “What?” Olivia shook her head. “No. I’m fairly certain that Jackie’s issue is an isolated incident.”

  Delilah rolled her eyes. “Do you get some sort of thrill out of scaring me to death?”

  “No, but I’m warning you that Derek might be by later.” Olivia tried not to sigh. Obviously, being friends with Delilah was going to take some work.

  “Really?” Delilah brightened before a look of horror crossed her face. “Why would you do this to me? Look at me! I’m a mess! You should have given me at least a twenty-four-hour notice. Is he coming now? Do I have time to go home and change?”

  Olivia was dumbstruck. “You look fine. Actually, you look better than fine. You look fabulous! You’re wearing a dress. You don’t even open the shop today!”

  “I can’t expect someone like you to understand the difference between a casual cotton dress meant for everyday wear and something nice!” The dress shop owner deliberately ran her eyes up and down Olivia’s black stretchy pants and t-shirt that read Gold Medalist in Cookie Eating. She added dryly, “Do you even own a dress?”

  “I do,” Olivia snapped. “I bought it from you, and I’m paying dearly for it. Look, you wanted an in to talk to Derek, and I just provided it. Go easy on the guy. He’s not used to high-maintenance women.”

  She turned to leave the shop, but Delilah’s groan stopped her. “Wait, wait. I’m sorry. You’re right. Can you at least give me some tips on subjects that he might enjoy talking about? All I know is that he used to play football.”

  Olivia grimaced. “Frankly, that’s all I know, too, but that’s a good start. Even if you don’t know anything about football, you can ask him to teach you more about the game.”

  Delilah blinked. “But I don’t want to know more about the game.”

  “Sacrifices, Delilah. Sacrifices. Anyway, I’m going to try to take Fender and Goodwin to the park before it gets crazy busy. Good luck!”

  She chuckled to herself as she left the shop. Privately, she did hope that Delilah and Derek would work out, but it was going to be equally fun to watch Delilah struggle.

  As she turned the corner to head through the back gate, she noticed that it was standing open. Normally, Janelle and Andrew were good about making sure the gate was always shut for when she let the pups out, but Janelle had been a space cadet lately, and who knew what Andrew was thinking. Shaking her head, she opened the gate wide enough to step through and shut it firmly behind her.

  Climbing the steps to the entrance to the second floor, she thought about texting Andrew and letting him know that she was back, but she wanted to get some paperwork done first.

  She didn’t hear any movements upstairs. Maybe Andrew wasn’t even there.

  With a shrug, she grabbed the keys to her office, but when she went to unlock it, she noticed that the door was already open.

  “What?” she murmured. Was she really so out of it that she’d forgotten to close and lock the door? Pushing it open, she stepped inside and froze.

  Someone had broken in. All her desk drawers had been pulled out and dumped, the desk itself was knocked over, and all the doors to the storage cabinets were standing wide open. Everything was in the middle of the floor. Even the dog food bags had been slashed and turned upside down.

  Trembling, she stared at the mess. The intruder had pinned a note to the wall just inside the door.

  Quit sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong or else.

  Fear clung to her as she pulled out her phone and called Nick.

  13

  Godiva licked her all over and barked happily as if she’d been on a grand adventure.

  Apparently, she had. They’d almost made it to another state.

  “We can’t thank you enough,” Christopher said as he buried his head in Jackson’s fur. “We’ve been worried sick for a month.”

  “I was just lucky,” the teenager said shyly. “Right place at the right time. I’m glad that I found them.”

  They looked a little on the skinny side, but otherwise, they seemed happy. As soon as the call had come though, Christopher had flown them in his helicopter to get there faster.

  His helicopter.

  Christopher gladly paid the reward, and Wynona tried not to think about how long it would take her to pay him back. Instead, she just kissed Godiva’s nose. “We’ll get them back to the office so I can check them over,” she said, her voice hoarse.

  “Are you okay?” he asked softly.

  She wasn’t about to tell him that she wasn’t okay. She had her dog back, and that was the best feeling in the world, but now it was time to face r
eality. There was no other reason for Christopher to keep on seeing her.

  “I’m great.”

  “This is your idea of not investigating?” Nick growled as he surveyed the scene.

  Now that Olivia was surrounded by the sheriff and a few deputies, she let her anger take over. Someone had invaded her space. Sometimes she worked on Sundays.

  What if she’d been here? What if the dogs had been here? The thought of someone hurting the dogs filled her with rage.

  “This is not okay,” she growled.

  “No, it’s not. Olivia, you play at detective, but there are serious consequences. What if the person who did this isn’t Jackie’s vandal? What if the person responsible is Hannah’s killer?”

  “Then you at least know that it’s not Andrew because he knows better than to pull something like this,” Olivia snapped. “If someone wanted me to stop investigating, this is really not the way to do it. If anything, it just makes me want to investigate more.”

  “For Pete’s sake,” Nick muttered. “All right, when was the last time you were in the office?”

  Olivia was keeping a sharp eye on the deputies as they looked through her things. Not that she had anything to hide, but she knew the department well enough to know that some of them had butter fingers. “Last night. I locked up around nine.”

  “Can you hear noises from here in your apartment?”

  “You’ll have to ask Andrew that. I’m usually here when the dogs are here, so I don’t know.” Her eyes widened when one of the deputies reached for the ceramic dog treat jar. “Careful!”

  “Olivia, pay attention,” Nick sighed. “They’re fine. Is anything missing?”

  “No. I don’t leave my computer here overnight, so there’s really nothing worth stealing. Sometimes I have medication for daycare pups, but that goes back home with the dogs when they leave.”

  “And who are your suspects in the vandalism case?” Nick looked almost resigned as he asked.

  “No suspects,” Olivia admitted. “Jackie thought it was Trish, but she was working. Nothing else has happened, so I didn’t really have anything else to go on.”

  “All right. No more investigating that case, and no more gathering information on the Maclin murder, do you understand?”

  Olivia opened her mouth to protest, but Andrew suddenly burst into the office with a wild look in his eye.

  Olivia didn’t even hesitate. She ran straight to him and let him wrap her in his arms.

  “Are you okay?” he asked tightly as he buried his face in her hair.

  “I’m fine. I wasn’t even here when it happened.”

  “I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the police cars. I thought, if something had happened to you . . .” he let his voice trail off without finishing.

  Pushing away from Andrew, Olivia raised her face and studied him. “Andrew, are you seeing other people?” she asked quietly. “I think that I’ll be okay if you are. Just as long as I know that you want to see me. I thought that we were back together, but if you need more time, just let me know.”

  “Olivia, I’m not dating Larry.”

  “But there was Hannah and then Jenny, and you brought them roses.” A strange look crossed his face, and she realized what she’d admitted. “I only followed you once. The rest were accidents. I mean, you couldn’t even take them into Lowell where you wouldn’t be seen?”

  His expression softened. “This whole time, you’ve thought that I was dating other people?”

  Hope blossomed inside her, and she nodded.

  He chuckled gently and leaned down to kiss her on the top of her head. “Trust me, I couldn’t handle dating anyone else. You’re more than enough for me.”

  Olivia couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “Then what have you been doing?”

  He immediately averted his eyes. “We can talk about it later. What happened here?”

  “Andrew.” She swallowed hard as he moved away from her to speak to Nick. It was obvious that he was still hiding something from her. She knew that she should be happy that he wasn’t seeing other women, but he was still meeting them with red roses.

  And Hannah was still dead.

  Finally, the deputies left. Andrew started straightening things up as Nick pocketed his notebook and approached Olivia. “We don’t have a lot to go on, but we’ll canvas the neighborhood and see if they saw anything. We’ve lifted some fingerprints, so I’ll need yours to eliminate them and a list of other people who have been in here recently.”

  “Andrew,” Olivia said as she nodded her head.

  “We have his prints.”

  Oh, right. Because he was a murder suspect. Olivia blew out her breath and named a few clients who had been in recently. “I think that’s it, but I’ll call you if anyone else comes to mind.”

  “Maybe also consider an alarm system? You’re the only business on the street not equipped.”

  “The bakery has an alarm system, and the gate locks,” Olivia pointed out. “I didn’t think that I needed one.”

  Nick turned his head and looked pointedly at the mess, and she sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Good. I’ll let you know if we come up with anything. Olivia, do yourself a favor. Keep your head down and your eyes open, okay? No more investigating, in any case, until we get this cleared.”

  Nodding her head, Olivia forced a smile. She wasn’t going to tell Nick, but if anything, this only made her want to find the killer. She hadn’t been in it before, but now that someone had invaded her sacred space?

  She was more than committed.

  Andrew recognized the look as she shut the door behind the departing law enforcement personnel. “Olivia,” he said in a warning tone. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “Think about what?” she asked innocently. “The fact that you seem to be carrying red roses around on your person, or the fact that someone is trying to frame you for murder?” Planting her hands on her hips, she leaned against the door, leaving him no escape.

  Clearing his throat, Andrew rubbed his chest and glanced around as if he were contemplating another way out. Maybe a window? “Olivia, I just need you to trust me, okay? I’m not seeing other women.”

  “Then explain what you were doing. Come on, Andrew. How bad can it be?”

  “It’s not bad. It’s just not something that I can discuss with you. Look, I know things have been strange between us. They don’t have to be. Now that you know that I’ve been meeting with other people, we can work around our schedules. Do date nights.”

  “Right.” Olivia nodded her head. “Sure. We’ll just plan date nights around your other date nights. Is that how it’s going to be from here on out?”

  “No. Just for a little while longer.” She felt a wrench in her gut at the anguish in his eyes, and she wanted to believe him, but she just didn’t understand why he couldn’t explain what was going on.

  So many things didn’t add up. Red roses were for romance, but there was no way that Andrew was romancing Larry. He was secretly buying gifts. He was avoiding answering her questions. He blew up when she tried to get on his computer. He was going to the gym.

  At what point did she have to concede that maybe Andrew was lying to her?

  “Fine,” she muttered and stepped out of the way. “When your other date nights end, you let me know. Otherwise, maybe try to make sure that your dates don’t end up dead.”

  His eyes widened, and she winced. That had sounded far harsher than she intended. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I know things haven’t been easy. Just give me some time, and then I can explain everything.”

  When she didn’t answer, he sighed and walked past her. Reaching out, he brushed a finger against her arm. “I know you’re mad at me, but I would appreciate it if you weren’t alone. I’m across the hall if you need me, but maybe take Jackie or Janelle—or one of the dogs—if you go anywhere, okay?”

  “Yup.”

  He hesitated, but then
he walked away.

  Shaking her head, she tried to push the pain away. Of course she would give him time. She wasn’t ready to give up on them just yet, but she simply couldn’t figure out what was more important that working on their relationship. What was he choosing over his relationship with her?

  A terrible thought crossed her mind as she closed the door and locked it. Andrew hadn’t killed Hannah, but what if whatever he was doing, whatever he was keeping secret, had gotten the woman killed?

  Uneasy at the thought, she climbed the stairs to get to her notepad. She had a murder to solve.

  14

  “Lily, what is in your mouth? No, Mr. Leonard, I was talking to one of the dogs. Could you repeat that again?” Olivia cradled the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she tried to take notes down for a new customer while at the same time she was chasing around the chubby little dachshund who had something shiny sticking out of her mouth.

  “I can provide kennel care on Sundays, but I’m not open for daycare,” she muttered as she grabbed the wiggly little body. Shoving her finger in the dog’s mouth, she pried it open and worked out a piece of foil. Where had that dog even found this? Once everything had been put back together, Olivia had vacuumed the office twice.

  “So Keester won’t have any other dogs to play with?” the man demanded.

  Who named their dog Keester? Seriously? “Well, I have Goodwin, who is great with other dogs and has boundless energy, but no, there won’t be a group of dogs here.”

  “Why not?”

  Because I need days off too! “Since most people don’t work on Sundays, there isn’t really a need to open a daycare session on Sundays. I’ll still do dog walks for people who need it, and like I said, I can provide kennel service, but it’s a flat rate, starting at one night.” Opening Lily’s mouth wider, she peered in. The rest of the little dog’s mouth looked clear. Setting the troublemaker down, Olivia tried to unroll the globby mess and see where the foil had come from.

  There was nothing printed on it. With a shrug, she tossed it in the trash. Turning, she gasped as she found one of the puppies climbing over the playpen. “No, no, no, no,” she muttered as she hurried over. Grabbing the dog just in time, she lowered him back down to the floor.