“Of course,” Mrs. McCabe said, pointing out the way to the kitchen. Then she ushered Evie to the best seat in the house, an overstuffed floral recliner. “Tell us all about Hannah Pemberton,” she said, pouring tea out of a china pot. “Is she really together with that handsome Nick?”
Evie slipped the camera under her arm so that she could take the tea cup. “I can assure you it’s true… because Nick is my brother. There’s never been a sweeter couple, really.”
Kinney left them chatting and gave the wound on her arm a thorough wash with dish soap at the kitchen sink. She dried it with a handful of tissues and examined it. It wasn’t that bad. If Whiskey had really wanted to bite someone, it would have been much worse than four small punctures.
When she bent over to pick up a stray tissue she noticed four red canisters lined up against the wall beside a big bag of potting soil. Pulling out her phone she took a photo, and then stuffed the blood-tinged tissues into her uniform pocket.
Back in the living room, she said, “Mrs. McCabe, would you mind if I came back tomorrow after a shower and change of clothes? Really, I can’t even stand the smell myself, so I’m sure the Pooch Patrol feels the same.”
“Dear, sit down right here.” She gestured to a kitchen chair covered by a green garbage bag. “Have some tea.”
“Please don’t go so soon,” Addie said. “I’m still hoping to hear about Evie’s handsome Jon. I always dreamed about marrying a veterinarian.”
“Actually, I’ve been called away,” Kinney said. “I’ll be back tomorrow, and if Evie’s free, I’m sure she’ll come with me.”
“Absolutely,” Evie said. “I enjoy following Mayor Bradshaw’s puppets around.”
“Oh, Evie,” Mrs. McCabe said. “That came out all wrong, earlier. I can see Officer Butterfield is just doing her job. It’s not easy keeping the peace in Dog Town, is it?”
“It certain isn’t,” Kinney said. “Just gets more complicated by the day.”
Mrs. McCabe took the cup and saucer from Evie. “I’d love to come out to the farm one day.”
Evie looked at Kinney and then smiled. “Let’s talk about it tomorrow, ladies. I hope there’s some of those cookies left.”
Chapter 4
“Dog bites are serious business,” Mim Gardiner said, her dark hair gleaming under the overhead lights as she examined Kinney’s arm with a magnifying glass the next day. “You really should get this checked out.”
Kinney pulled her stool closer to Mim’s kitchen island. “I am getting it checked out… by a nurse with a magnifying glass and half a dozen disinfectants. I highly doubt it could be cleaner than it is.”
Mim angled Kinney’s forearm to the right and left, and then sighed. “Fangs can drive bacteria right into the wound. Did you at least clean it quickly?”
“She did,” Evie said. She was perched on the island itself, kicking her heels. Her red curls were smooth and loose today, and she was wearing pink high-heeled sandals that showed off a pedicure that sparkled like opals. “She skulked off to the kitchen leaving me with the Pooch Patrol.”
“Pooch Patrol?” The voice came from the stool next to Kinney’s. Arianna Torrance, a successful breeder of high-end goldendoodle hybrids, and Mim’s best friend, had come by to spend a rare day off. Like many of the women in their circles, Mim and Ari worked constantly, partly to earn flexibility to be available at the drop of a hat to help a friend or dog in need. Kinney frequently picked up extra shifts, too, both for the cash and because she hoped to get some of the more interesting cases. So far, only the cash had been forthcoming.
“It’s like a neighborhood watch group made up of older women,” Kinney said. “From what I can tell, they’re mainly ratting out people who aren’t onside with old-school values. They keep the Tattletail Hotline busy. Now I’ve figured out why so many of our calls are over here in Riverdale. They walk their dogs and snoop.”
“Poor Whiskey,” Evie said. “For all their bleating about the mayor’s policies, that dog’s going to be their next victim.”
“Do they know about the bite?” Mim asked.
Kinney shook her head. “I hid the evidence, and the Barbers won’t mention it.”
“Dan might,” Evie said. “He seemed eager to be rid of Whiskey.”
“That dog is one of the brightest I’ve seen, and he has a huge heart,” Kinney said, pulling her arm away from Mim and getting up to pace. “I need to do something to fix this.”
“What did you have in mind?” Ari’s blue eyes widened with concern. She twisted her long blonde hair into a bun and wove two chopsticks from Chinese takeout through it. “Can I help?”
She was part of the extended group of friends associated with the Rescue Mafia, but not quite part of the inner sanctum. Cori Hogan and Bridget Linsmore kept membership locked down pretty tight. Many hands made light work; many lips could allow secrets to slip.
And there were so many secrets. Even Kinney, a professional keeper of secrets, had trouble keeping track.
“First, I’ve got research to do,” Kinney said. “I have my suspicions about what’s been going on—beyond the obvious. Whiskey was a sensitive dog even before getting dumped on Dan Barber. I remember he looked at his owner, Jacinda, as if she were the only person on the planet. You don’t see that kind of devotion all the time.”
“True,” Ari said. “I breed my hybrids to be happy-go-lucky and love everyone. But sometimes I miss the single-minded devotion a shepherd brings.”
Evie plucked orange hairs off her black skirt. “It’s like you guys are speaking another language. Cat lover here.”
“I’ve never known the love of a good shepherd either,” Mim said, grinning as she left the kitchen. George, the doodle hybrid Ari had bred for her, didn’t move from the back door, where he was watching squirrels.
“I’ve got a little situation to chat about, too,” Evie said, as Mim came back with a basket of bandages of all shapes and sizes. “Stolen puppies.”
“Evie!” Kinney resisted as Mim tried to grab her arm. “That’s classified.”
“Yeah, I classified it last night when you weren’t interested. Now you’re interested so I’m tabling it.” She slapped the marble counter beside her. “Ari is going to want to know.”
“About stolen puppies?” Ari said. “Damn straight.”
Evie hopped down and turned. “When Mayor Bradshaw visited my place after we busted the exotic pet ring, he told me some puppies had gone missing and were presumed stolen. He said Leann Cosgrove lost a beagle and Ruth Banks a Maltese. At that point, about a dozen breeders had lost a single dog.”
“What? Why didn’t Leann and Ruth mention this to me?” Ari said. “I’ve seen them a couple of times since then to discuss City Hall’s regulations for breeders.”
“Good question,” Evie said. “Even if they got their puppies back they’d have mentioned it, right?”
“I certainly hope so. If it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone.” Ari pulled the chopsticks out of her hair and it fell like spun gold. Flynn Strathmore, Dog Town’s most notable cartoonist, often drew Ari as an angel and once you’d seen that, it was hard to see her any other way. “There’s something funny going on.”
“I told you so, Kinney,” Evie said. “There’s a mystery stirring and you don’t want to rock the boat.”
“I said I don’t want to lose my job.” Kinney watched as Mim covered the dog bite with a flesh-colored bandage. “I was unemployed for months last year and it terrified me.”
“I understand,” Evie said. “Technically I’m unemployed right now. But I got fired so many times from political jobs that I made sure to save while I could. That gives me some freedom now to—”
“To be a thorn in the mayor’s side?” Kinney interrupted, grinning.
Evie turned her intense green stare on Kinney. “To do something right after all the wrong things I had to do in my career.”
Kinney met her eyes and nodded. “Okay.”
“Luckil
y, I don’t have a job to lose, per se,” Ari said. “At this point my dogs pretty much sell themselves.” She got off the stool and put her hands on her hips. “Come to think of it… why hasn’t one of my dogs been stolen?”
“George got stolen,” Mim said. “Was that scary enough?”
“That was different,” Ari said. “What I mean is, why did the puppy thief overlook mine? I have a waiting list a year long and charge way more than Leann Cosgrove and Ruth Banks.”
“The mayor said only purebreds went missing,” Evie told her. “It sounds like the thief is elitist.”
Ari pulled lipstick out of her purse and applied it without a mirror. “I don’t know whether to be relieved or insulted. I’ve had purebred snobs diss my dogs for a decade and finally crossbreeding is working in my favor.”
“So far,” Evie said. “Until we know the full story I’d keep those pups on lockdown.”
Mim ran her fingers around the bandage to seal it and said, “Kinney, make sure you take this off when you’re at home so it can breathe. Dog bites are vulnerable to infection. But visible dog bites are vulnerable to gossip.”
“Understood,” Kinney said. “And thank you.”
“We need to talk to Cori about this situation,” Ari said.
“I don’t want her to know I got bitten,” Kinney said. “She’ll tell me I should have seen it coming.”
“The dog wasn’t even visible,” Evie said. “How could you see it coming?”
“A dog cop should anticipate that where there’s a dog problem, there might be a problem dog.”
“I didn’t mean that anyway,” Ari said. “I meant we should call a Mafia 911 about the missing puppies. Why haven’t you told her already, Evie?”
“I’d checked in with the mayor and he said it was nothing. Then it kind of slipped my mind with all the fuss about Runaway Farm.” She tapped her red curls. “Head injury, remember? But it still kept nagging at me, so I decided to do some digging before letting Cori get worked up. Who knows, there might be a logical explanation for all of it.”
Ari took out another tube of lipstick and applied a second coat. “You worked in the mayor’s office during breeder-gate. Do you really think there’s anything logical about this?”
Evie shook her head. “That’s why I enlisted the best investigator I know.”
“Aw, thanks,” Kinney said, rolling down her sleeve. “You’ve just earned yourself another ride-along.”
“You said a ride-along, not a crawl-along,” Evie grumbled from the long grass in the field behind the McCabe and Barber houses. “I have allergies, Kinney. I can’t roll in pollen without breaking out in hives.”
“Just give it a few more minutes,” Kinney said, wiping perspiration from her brow. She didn’t know whether it was from the lovely spring day or nerves. “Whiskey’s got to come out soon.”
“The least you could have done is warn me to dress properly. Ants are biting my toes.”
“I did say there might be rough terrain. Besides, I’m not really on duty.”
“This is how you spend your free time?”
“I like to stay busy,” Kinney said. “There’s always something interesting happening around town.”
Evie adjusted the camera. “I’m going to film this whether you like it or not. My spidey sense tells me something is going very wrong around here.”
“My spidey sense agrees.”
Evie shuffled over about six inches and adjusted her camera again. “I only joined you last night to talk about the missing puppies, by the way. Who said anything about becoming your unpaid backup?”
“Who said anything about unpaid? In exchange for your excellent company I’ll provide you with many hours of free expert sleuthing.”
“Well, that’s different, then.” Evie sniffled and blinked her rapidly reddening eyes. “But you indicated I was in the way last night.”
“On the contrary, you were a big help with Mrs. McCabe and the starstruck Pooch Patrol. If I’m going back in today, I want you as my wing-woman.”
“Well, I always sensed I was wasted in public relations, but who knew my real calling was undercover police work? I busted the exotic pet ring and now this.”
“First rule of undercover, Evie? Silence.”
Evie stared through her viewfinder. “Luckily, Whiskey is joining us now.”
The plastic dog door lifted and a long black nose appeared underneath. The big dog paused for what seemed like ages before emerging. Then he skulked across the dog run with his belly close to the ground. Just as he was maneuvering into position to lift his leg, there was a sharp sound like a firecracker.
Evie and Kinney both flinched and gasped.
The sound came again. The dog was frozen with his leg partially raised. With the third “shot” he fled back into the house without doing his business.
“Was that an air gun?” Evie said, finally looking away from the camera. “The poor dog was terrified. He couldn’t pee… and I almost did.”
“I’m not sure,” Kinney said. “It was coming from the direction of the McCabe house. The timing can’t be a coincidence.”
“Air guns aren’t legal in city limits,” Evie said. “The only time loud noises are permitted are for fireworks on the Fourth of July. Even then, it’s controversial.”
Kinney sighed. “If I didn’t know Mrs. McCabe is a founding member of the Pooch Patrol, I’d say she’s deliberately terrorizing that dog.”
Evie’s eyes watered instantly, and not from allergies. “She can’t be. That would be cruel.”
“We’ll need proof,” Kinney said. “Let me think for a second.”
She was still gathering her wits when there was a crackle behind them. They both rolled over and Evie yanked down her skirt. Standing a few yards away was a boy in a baseball cap, with a backpack almost as big as he was.
“Oh, hey Liam,” Kinney said, propping herself up on one arm. “Home from school early?”
He nodded, his dark eyes pleading. “Don’t tell my mom.”
“Of course not,” Evie said, brushing dirt, leaves and twigs off her clothes. “This can be our little secret.”
“Agreed,” Kinney said. “As long as you tell us what’s going on. Is someone picking on you at school?”
Liam shook his head. “I think someone’s picking on Whiskey. When I come home from school he’s always shaking and whining. He didn’t used to do that.”
“Ah,” Kinney said, getting to her feet. “It’s nice that you care about that dog so much.”
“I love him,” Liam said, shrugging off his backpack. “But he makes my dad yell all the time. More than usual.”
Evie took Kinney’s hand and wobbled onto her high heels. “It sounds tough at home right now, buddy.”
He adjusted his baseball cap to shield his eyes. “I hate this house.”
Kinney took a card out of her pocket and slipped it into his hand. “I want you to go inside and give Whiskey a big hug for me, okay. That’s what your Aunt Jacinda would want you to do. She loves that dog. We’re going to come visit your parents in a little while. But I want you to put this card someplace safe, and know that you can always call me if you’re upset about anything. Okay?”
He nodded and started walking through the field toward the house. After a few yards, he turned back. “You making a movie?”
“Something like that,” Evie said.
“I hope it’s fun,” he said, looking like he needed a laugh.
“It’s going to have a happy ending,” Kinney said. “That’s the only kind of movie we like.”
Chapter 5
“It’s a good thing you’re with me or I might lose my cool,” Kinney said, as they walked up Myrtle McCabe’s front stairs.
“I got your back, partner,” Evie said. “If I can handle Mayor Bradshaw, I can handle the Pooch Patrol.”
Letting her sunglasses slide down her nose, Kinney stared at her. “I could have sworn you said Mayor Bradshaw beat you at your own game with Runaway Far
m.”
Evie shrugged and grinned. “Well, I underestimated him, but I won’t make the same mistake again.”
She handed Kinney the camera so that she could twist her curls into a neat knot. Then she smoothed her clothes. Even after rolling around in a field she managed to look more polished than Kinney ever felt.
“Just do like we discussed, okay?” Kinney said. “Turn on the charm and the camera. Keep them busy while I snoop around.”
She rang the doorbell. Myrtle McCabe peeked through floral curtains and was already on the phone by the time she opened the door. “How nice to see you, girls! Do come in. I’ll put on a pot of tea right away.”
“I hope you’re ready for your close-up today,” Evie said. “I want to hear more about this Pooch Patrol and I’m ready to roll camera.”
“Just give me a chance to put on my lipstick,” Mrs. McCabe said, running her hands over her flyaway mauve hair.
“Absolutely,” Evie said, heading for the cushy recliner.
Kinney perched on the arm of the couch and watched as Gertie, Addie and Liza streamed in and gathered around Evie, signing waivers and talking over each other. After Mrs. McCabe brought in a tray of tea and cookies, Kinney slipped away to the kitchen. She washed her hands quickly and then got down on one knee.
The red cans that had been lined up beside the potting soil were gone.
Sitting back on her heels, she opened the cupboard under the sink. Inside she found only the usual cleaning supplies. She tried the next cupboard, and the rattle of the pots and lids must have masked Mrs. McCabe’s footsteps.
“Kinney, can I help you with something?”
She rose to face her host. “So sorry, Mrs. McCabe, I was just looking for— Oh, there.” She pointed to a hint of red hidden in a long curtain at the sliding glass door and walked towards it. “I just wanted to check that out.”
Mrs. McCabe moved surprisingly quickly for her age. Gardening had obviously kept her in good shape. But Kinney was faster.
Bold and Blue in Dog Town: (Dog Town 9) Page 3