Dog Days of Murder

by Addison Moore

  His chest rises and falls with his next breath. “Well, it’s true. And believe me, I’m going to fix this mess. It will take time, but if we can get even halfway to where we once were, I’ll take it. There’s nothing worse than being frozen out in no man’s land. Which brings me to the point I was making. If you don’t tell Jasper what you were doing with me, you’re taking the same risk I was.”

  The thought sends a chill through me. In no way do I want to end up in the outs with Jasper.

  “Fine. I’ll tell him. As soon as the real killer is apprehended. Someone is setting Nessa up, but he’s too stubborn to hear it. And that’s exactly why I have you here. We’ll go up like we talked about and ask to speak with Luke about a loan for a boat.”

  “A boat. Right.” He gives a tug at his lapels. “After you, Mrs. Granger.”

  “No, no.” I swat him on the arm. “I can’t be Mrs. Granger. Jasper will come after you with a hatchet for making me pretend to be your missus. We’re just—dating or something.”

  Leo shakes his head as we head into the warm building and step onto the polished elevator.

  “Fine”—he says—“we’re just dating or something.”

  “Hey, Leo? Did you know Camila has a concealed carry permit? She has a gun with her at all times.”

  “Yup.” He nonchalantly nods at a woman walking past us.

  “Did you know she knew Shelby Harris? And that she wasn’t all that sorry she was dead? She mentioned something about Shelby connecting her to a photographer. Do you think that’s somehow connected to why she didn’t care for Shelby?”

  He stops in his tracks, his eyes staring off into some unknown horizon. “I never heard anything about this. But Camila isn’t a killer.”

  “How do you know?” I pull out my phone. “How can I find the photographer? Or even the pictures she took? I bet Chelsea Ashley might know. Or maybe I should just google Camila’s name.” I do just that and Leo scoffs.

  “You’re not going to find the photographer that way.”

  “You’re right. It’s just a bunch of links to her social media profiles and school functions through the Sheffield School Dist—” I don’t even finish my sentence before I hit pay dirt. “Oh my, wow.” A laugh bubbles from me as I follow the link at the bottom. “Ms. February Gear Head calendar, the naughty school mistress, Camila Ryder.”

  “What?” Leo leans in as I hold the phone up where he can see it for himself. There she is in full color, leaning over a desk with a pencil in her hair. She’s donned a short plaid skirt and has her white button-down blouse cinched in a knot just above her belly button.

  Leo moans and shakes his head. “I’m not touching this one. You’re on your own if you want to bring this up to her. This is recent. I bet Jasper doesn’t know about it either. Just remember, she has a gun.” A playful smile blinks on his lips. “But she didn’t kill Shelby. My guess is she’s hoping this goes unnoticed and eventually goes away. This is something she could lose her job over. I don’t know what she was thinking.” The elevator opens up and we step inside. “Let’s focus on this right now.”

  “Fine. I’ll take care of Camila later.” On my own.

  The elevator vomits us out into a spacious, bright environment with a white enameled reception desk ready to greet us. A garland of silk fall leaves lines the counter, along with a witch sitting on a pumpkin and a couple of mesh ghosts that look as if they’re about to topple over.

  A brunette with a bright blue jacket and matching framed glasses sits up at attention. There’s a gold nameplate on her chest that reads CAROL in all capital letters. And as soon as we let her know we’re here to see Luke about a loan, she rolls her eyes.

  I lean in. “Not a lot of faith in the guy, I take it?”

  She gives a quick glance over her shoulder. “It’s not that. It’s just he’s sort of a scumbag.” She mouths those last few words out. “But you’re in the right place. He’s a genius at directing people where to go. He hasn’t been in the loan biz all that long, so I guess you can say he doesn’t quite have the hang of it.” She squints over at Leo for a moment. “Come to think of it, you’re the first people who have ever asked to speak with him in person.”

  She stands and motions for us to follow along. “Usually I call ahead to see if they’re busy, but with this bozo, I think we’ll just surprise him in his natural habitat—video games.”

  We hit the end of the hall and she swings the door open wide. “Got a client!” she honks out and he freezes.

  There he is with his blond hair rumpled, socks sitting on top of his desk, a game controller in his hand, and his laptop opened, blaring music as if it were a heavy metal concert.

  “Geez.” He quickly steps into his shoes and slams the laptop shut just as Carol entombs us inside the room with him. “Hey.” He motions for us to take a seat. “What can I do for you?” He extends a hand to each of us and we’re quick to shake it.

  There’s something boyish about Luke in general with his wavy, sun-kissed hair, his round, clean-shaven face.

  Leo presses out a wide grin. “My girlfriend is finally letting me get a boat.”

  “Finally?” I lean back, not amused with the unfavorable light he’s chosen to paint me in.

  Leo shoots me a look. “Don’t start getting on my back again.” He shakes his head over at Luke. “Women, right?”

  Luke barks out a laugh. “I feel ya. In fact, I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

  I tap my knee to Leo’s. Why did you have to go in that direction?

  What? His lips twitch with a sly smile. You said you didn’t want to be the missus. Besides, most girlfriends are not big proponents of being replaced with a large water vessel.

  I avert my eyes at that one.

  Luke examines us both. “A boat is a beautiful thing. In fact, it’s the next toy on my list.”

  Leo nods. “So your wife won’t mind.”

  “You know what they say—what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” He pulls out a couple of forms from the filing cabinet.

  Hey—I’m back to tapping Leo’s knee with mine—he doesn’t have a wife. He had a girlfriend.

  Leo shrugs. I don’t think he’s too interested in getting into the details of his grisly love life. I get it. The guy is grieving. He’s probably not thinking straight.

  “Here you go.” Luke sets a stack of applications in front of Leo. All right, time to get the message across. We’re done here. He offers an affable grin our way.

  There’s an all-around frat boy vibe about him. I don’t like to say it, but he sort of has a face people love to hate. The perpetual bad boy. And it makes me wonder exactly how bad he can be.

  Leo lifts a brow my way. This is your moment, kid. Do or die.

  I bite down over my lower lip when Leo calls me kid. He can’t be more than a few years older than me. It seems silly and adorable all at the same time.

  “You know”—I tip my head over at Luke—“there’s something very familiar about you.”

  Luke’s suit jacket splits as his chest expands with pride. “I get that all the time. Everyone I meet wonders if they went to high school with me. I must have that kind of face.” He slaps his cheek playfully.

  “No, that’s not it.” I pause just long enough to look as if I’m trying to place him. “Oh, I remember. You were at that women’s conference at the Country Cottage Inn—the one featuring Ginger King on how to land a rich man.”

  Luke tips his head back a notch, his face quickly bleaching out. “Right. I wasn’t there trying to pick up on any pointers, though.”

  The three of us share a warm laugh.

  Luke sniffs hard. “I was actually there with my girlfriend.” His affect dims quickly. “She was—um”—he slaps the back of his neck—“Shelby was the one that was killed that night.”

  My hand clutches at my chest. “I’m so very sorry.” I lean. “You know, I was a follower of hers—on her social media sites. I’ve seen almost all of her pictures. I don’
t remember seeing you.”

  His chest pumps with the idea of a laugh. “No, you won’t find any. I didn’t want to be a part of her overexposed world.”

  “Don’t blame you. And I’m sorry for your loss as well.” Leo nods as he offers his sympathy. “What happened? I mean, that was a terrible thing. Was it a robbery gone wrong? Was she assaulted?”

  “No.” His brows dip down in the middle as he grows visibly upset. “It wasn’t anything like that. I don’t know what happened. I was trying to get her alone, and no matter how hard I tried, she kept evading me. Eventually, I followed her out of the ballroom and she bolted out of sight.”

  I glance to Leo. He told Jasper he saw Nessa arguing with Shelby in the courtyard.

  Leo shakes his head. Maybe that’s as far as he wants to take the conversation with us. Give him something to think about.

  “I can’t imagine what you must be going through,” I say, studying his face as if I were trying to determine whether a word coming out of his mouth were the truth. “It must be agonizing for you.”

  He shakes his head. You don’t know the half of it, lady.

  “Were you the one who found her body?” I can feel my own body growing hot, because I’m not entirely sure Luke doesn’t realize that I’m the one that found the body.

  “No. I don’t know who did. The entire thing was a nightmare from the moment I heard the gunshot.”

  “You heard the gunshot?”

  “It was powerful. I wasn’t sure what direction it came from, so initially I went the other way. But it only took a few minutes for me to find her. There was already a crowd around her at that point.”

  “So, you were never in the courtyard?” It comes out incredulous, partly because I can’t wrap my head around this. He’s either lying to Jasper or me.

  Leo takes a breath. My guess is you. He owes you nothing.

  “Nope.” Luke leans back in his seat. I’m not admitting anything. It’s bad enough I told the cops what I did. Nessa—arrested for murder one. I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse at this point. For all I know, she didn’t say anything about Sarah to anyone. From now on, I know nothing about nothing. I can’t lose this job. I can’t rock the boat any more than I have. One more unsteady step and I’ll be overboard and eaten by sharks.

  Leo lands a hand on the table and pats it. “I just hope the last memory you had together was a good one.” He hitches his head my way. “All this one and I do is bicker. With our luck, we’d have a major blowout right before something tragic like that happened.”

  Luke flinches as if Leo had struck him. “You guessed it. And it wasn’t pretty. But I’m keeping my mouth shut about it. Her dad runs this place. The last thing he needs to know is that she was at her wits’ end with me.” That it was over. Sarah contacted her in the middle of that stupid seminar and Shelby flipped her lid—of course, nosey Nessa heard us arguing about her. Shelby was about to blow my cover sky-high. Honestly, if she weren’t dead, I would be. It couldn’t have been pretty. I guess in that sense, one of us had to go.

  Leo and I exchange a brief glance.

  My phone buzzes in my hand and it’s a text from Jasper. Stopped by the inn to say hello. Emmie mentioned you went to Seaview with some guy. Granger is missing. Please tell me he hasn’t hijacked you this afternoon.

  Every last part of me freezes in horror.

  Just a second. I text back and slip the phone into my purse because I don’t have it in me to lie to Jasper.

  Leo leans his elbow onto Luke’s desk. “You knew your girlfriend pretty well. Did she have any enemies? Anybody at all who would want to hurt her? If there wasn’t a robbery and she wasn’t assaulted, it must have been personal.”

  Luke glances out the window. “Oh, it was personal. I know that for a fact. I wasn’t the only one in a heated argument with her that night. In fact, I saw the woman who was speaking that night have it out with her. A couple of others, too.”

  “Ginger King?” I ask, surprised to hear her name mentioned in an unfavorable light—not that there’s much favorable about her.

  “Yup. That’s the one. The rich hubby chaser. Shelby said they used to be close—real close. In fact, Ginger was using Shelby’s new dog at her seminars to make herself more likable. Trust me. There’s not a dog on the planet who can achieve that feat.”

  I’d have to agree with him there.

  A part of me is afraid he’ll ask to have Peanut. Not that I’d ever comply. I don’t have a good feeling about this guy in general. Besides, he’s a big fake, sitting in here all day playing video games, collecting a paycheck for essentially dating the boss’ daughter. And I suppose that’s all about to crash to an end for him.

  Leo shakes his head. “What would Ginger and your girlfriend have to argue about?”

  “The dog?” I offer and immediately regret it.

  Leo thumps my knee with his. Never give the suspect a way out.

  Luke looks to the ceiling. I should just go with it and say the dog. “Not the dog.” He grimaces as if he were in pain. “There was something going on between the two of them. Shelby never wanted to talk about it, but whatever it was, it steamed her. She said something a few days before she died that the truth was about to come out and Ginger wouldn’t like it.” He pinches his eyes shut a moment. “I’m sorry. It’s all upsetting me. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” I need to think about my next move. The only truth I care about is the truth she had on me. Had that gotten out, it would be my funeral next week. Not hers.

  Luke walks us to the door, and Leo and I head for the safety of the elevator.

  “Well, Detective Baker?” He presses out a short-lived grin. “What’s the verdict?”

  “He has a secret, so he could be guilty. He could have done it. I’ll make notes once I get home and cross-check everything I’ve learned so far.” I pull out my phone. “But first, I gotta deal with a little guilt myself.” I flash Jasper’s text at Leo and he cringes.

  “Squash that bug, Bizzy. Before your relationship ends up getting squashed instead.”

  Leo and I drive back to Cider Cove in silence.

  And the both of us feel as if we’re about to see the heel of Jasper’s shoe.

  Chapter 14

  “Protection?” Jasper is unfairly handsome while conducting his interrogation of me. Okay, fine. He’s not exactly patting me down—not that I would object to the endeavor.

  “Yes. Protection,” I say, cinching my arms around him.

  Fish huffs and it sounds like a sneeze. You don’t need protection, Bizzy, she yowls it out so Sherlock and Peanut can hear. You’re a strong girl. You can take care of yourself.

  Peanut whimpers as he walks in a small circle before burying his face in his tail. My poor Shelby needed protection. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.

  Sherlock takes a seat next to Peanut. All Bizzy needs is Jasper. It comes out just shy of a howl.

  Fish hops over and yowls again. You mean, all Jasper needs is Bizzy.

  As soon as I got back, I asked Jasper to meet me at my cottage and he met me at the door before I could get the key into the lock. And now we’re standing smack in the middle of it with our arms wrapped around one another while I try to dance my way out of a Leo Granger pothole I inadvertently fell in.

  His lips purse to the side, and something about the action makes my insides bisect with heat.

  It’s not fair that Jasper Wilder has the power to bring me to my knees with just a simple facial gesture.

  “Bizzy.” Jasper closes his eyes as a sigh depresses from him. “You know I can’t with a clear conscience encourage you to go after a suspect.”

  “Believe me, I don’t need your encouragement.” I feel terrible just saying it. “How about you build a fire and I’ll get us some hot cider? Meet you on the sofa in a minute.”

  And we do just that. Jasper has the fire crackling with life as we settle in close with a cup of steaming cider in each of our hands. Georgie gave me half a d
ozen of her flannel, toilet paper pumpkins and I lined them in a row across the coffee table.

  I happened to have a plateful of Emmie’s pumpkin spice mini muffins in the kitchen, and so I hand-feed one to Jasper and he does the same for me. I bite down gently on his finger and hold him hostage for a moment.

  A crooked smile glides up the side of his face.

  “So, what did you glean?” Jasper watches me as he takes a careful sip from his mug. What I really wanted to ask was why Leo? What’s going on with him? Between the two of them? I blame Leo for whatever it is.

  Here we go. “First, I want to talk about Leo.” Leo was right. I need to squash this bug before it squashes all the good things I’m fighting to have with Jasper. “I thought since I was headed out to Luke’s office, I needed a good cover. We told him we were shopping for a boat. We needed a loan.”

  We. His lids lower a notch, and I can feel his rage against Leo percolating.

  “And I’m sorry. I probably should have brought Georgie with me, or Macy or Emmie. But Macy and Emmie were swamped, and all Leo does is hang around the inn. He said the department stationed him here.”

  Jasper gives a slow blink. “And that would be because I requested it.” Of all the deputies to send. Come to think of it, I bet Leo volunteered. He shakes his head as if just coming to this conclusion. “I’ll be honest. I’m glad he was with you.”

  “What?” My heart gives an unnatural thump, half-afraid he’s going to dump me and head straight to Camila’s room.

  “Yes.” He sets down his cider and I do the same. “Leo may have been in plain clothes, but he was armed. I’d hate to think if you went out with Georgie and things went south. But”—he lands his lips to mine—“the last thing I want is you teaming up with Leo and the two of you running around interrogating suspects together.”

  “It won’t happen again.” I’m quick to shake my head.

  “I know it won’t.” Jasper’s tone is serious to the bone. “I’ll have him removed from the force if he pulls that stunt again.”