The Comfy Canine Murder Case

by Adele M Cooper

  Jackson frowned. “It’s…too clean?”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Something caught Jack’s eye; there was a logo of some sort on the victim’s purple shirt. “What’s this logo?”

  It was splattered with blood, but both Jack and Jackson leaned in with their flashlights. Jack’s eyes shot open wide.

  “Comfy Canine Training School,” he read. He groaned. “Oh no.”

  “What?” Jackson asked, startled.

  “I know where I heard the name,” Jack said with a sigh. “I bought Paige a dog, and she took him to a training school in Newport. Jonathan Cook was one of the trainers there.”

  Jackson was silent for a moment, processing this. Then he gave Jack a weak grin.

  “So much for Paige not having any connection to this one,” he tried to joke.

  Jack closed his eyes. He was glad to have found out a little more about his victim, which would hopefully make his job a bit easier.

  But he wasn’t looking forward to having to tell Paige to keep out of a case that involved someone that she knew.

  “Come on, the coroner will be here soon,” Jack said, standing. He shot a stern glare at the officer. “My point about Paige still stands, though. She can’t be involved. She’s not allowed to be.”

  “Good luck with that,” Jackson said with a reluctant laugh. “She’s as stubborn as they come.”

  “I know,” Jack sighed. “Believe me, I know.”

  Chapter 4: Connections

  4: Connections

  Paige felt tension tightly coiling in her gut as she pulled up at her parents’ house. Part of her wanted to follow Jack discreetly, but she wasn’t stupid. Jack was right; she had no business involving herself in this, and it would be stupid and selfish to push herself into a case she was unrelated to just because she was bored. Jack had almost lost his job last time; she wouldn’t risk that happening again.

  The door opened as she pulled up, and Jennifer came out onto the porch, wringing her hands.

  “Are you alright, Paige?” she asked as Paige approached, Barkley firmly in her arms.

  “We’re fine,” Paige assured her. “I think Jack just didn’t want me on my own; there was a murder out at the winery, apparently, and he had to go see to it.”

  “A murder!” Jennifer said, ushering her inside. “Again?”

  Paige wondered why she was so surprised. While Portland hadn’t been a cesspool of crime, there were definitely more than two murders in an eight-month span. Then she remembered that this was Otter Rock and that Cynthia Johnson’s murder was the first one that had happened in years.

  “Yeah, another one,” she said, heading to the living room, where her father was watching a show of some sort.

  “What’s another one?” Patrick asked.

  “Jack was just called to investigate a murder at the winery,” Paige repeated.

  Her father’s eyebrows shot up. “Two murders in one year… The whole town is going to go crazy over this.”

  “I’d be more worried about the backlash against Jack,” Jennifer said with a frown.

  “Why would there be backlash?” Paige asked, confused.

  “He’s the sheriff,” Jennifer said. “I don’t agree, but certain members of the community will begin muttering about how he’s supposed to be keeping everyone safe.”

  “But you can’t predict a murder!” Paige protested. “Not without prior notice!”

  “Most people don’t care for logic, Paige,” Patrick said grimly. “Jack’s best option, right now, is to solve this murder as quickly as possible. It won’t be good for him if it gets drawn out. We’re a friendly little community…but that’s when gossip travels the fastest and gets mixed up the easiest.”

  Paige was outraged. It hadn’t even occurred to her that Jack might get blamed for a murder happening in his jurisdiction again. It wouldn’t even be official blame either; it would just be the locals muttering that he couldn’t do his job properly.

  “That’s not fair,” she said, crossing her arms.

  “I know,” Jennifer assured her. “Now, have you had dinner yet?”

  “We got interrupted just as we made a lasagna,” Paige said. She put Barkley down. “Don’t give him anything; he ate.”

  Barkley wagged his tail and darted to Jennifer, looking up at her with large eyes. She laughed and leaned down to pat him.

  “Oh, aren’t you a beauty? This is Barkley?” she asked, and Paige nodded. “He’s gorgeous. I won’t feed him,” she added, but Paige had a feeling that Barkley was going to end up with some sort of snack anyway. “Sit down, Paige; there’s leftover chicken.”

  “Thanks,” Paige said gratefully.

  She sat down, and Barkley darted in to curl up at her feet. She was still tired, herself, but now her mind was flying a mile a minute.

  She pushed the thoughts away. This case wasn’t hers. She needed to remember that.

  She didn’t hear from Jack again that night, and she ended up staying in her old bedroom at her parents’ place because Jennifer didn’t like the idea of her traveling alone at night with a murderer on the loose. Paige had rolled her eyes but acquiesced.

  She stumbled downstairs in the morning, yawning, to find her mother making up three bowls of cereal. She wanted to tell her mother that she didn’t really eat breakfast, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t go down too well. So, instead, she thanked her mother and sat down with her cereal as the morning news came on.

  Unsurprisingly, the first report was about last night’s murder. Paige wanted to pay attention to it, but she forced her mind away. She had resolved to stay out of it. This was Jack’s case, and she was a divorce lawyer, not a police officer.

  This resolve stayed strong right up until a picture of a familiar man flashed onto the screen.

  Paige choked on her cereal, straightening.

  “Jonathan!” she exclaimed.

  “Who?” Jennifer asked.

  “The victim, the one who was murdered… He was one of the trainers at the training school I took Barkley to on the weekend!” Paige exclaimed.

  Jennifer blinked and then frowned. “How awful.”

  “What was he doing in Otter Rock, though?” Paige asked. She stared at the television as it showed a picture of the winery. “He lives in Newport.”

  “Maybe he was visiting someone,” Jennifer said. There was an oddly hard edge to her voice. “Or maybe someone called out to him. Either way, it doesn’t matter to us, does it?”

  Startled, Paige looked at her mother. Jennifer looked back; her expression stony. Paige grimaced; Jennifer hadn’t been happy with her involvement in the last case with Jack.

  “I know, I’ll keep my nose out,” she promised. “But I’m going to stop into the station, anyway; I can help identify the victim, after all.”

  Jennifer narrowed her eyes at her and then nodded. “Do you want us to take care of Barkley?”

  “If you would,” Paige said, relieved. “I should go into the office and do some work; Barkley distracted me yesterday.”

  Jennifer laughed, the hard expression disappearing. “He is a bit of a handful. Well, finish your breakfast, and then you can head to work.”

  Paige froze in the motion of getting up, and looked down at her half-finished cereal. She was tempted just to leave it.

  Then she sighed and sat down. There were some things that just weren’t worth arguing over.

  Paige made a stop home to pick up the files, which she never looked at yesterday, and then drove into town. She headed straight for the station and parked beside the patrol car.

  When she entered, Jackson was sitting at the front desk. He looked at her with a startled expression, and then grinned.

  “Sheriff Lewis owes me twenty bucks,” he said gleefully.

  “Why?” Paige asked, surprised.

  “I told him you would come straight here in the morning,” the officer crowed. “He reckoned you’d at least wait until after work.”

  Paige rolled her eyes. “I’m
glad to see the two of you have so much work to do that you can waste your time betting on me.”

  The officer just grinned at her and swung around in his chair.

  “Sheriff!” he called. “Paige is here!”

  She heard a sigh from the inner office. “Damn it, there goes twenty bucks. Come in, Paige!”

  Paige scowled and stalked to his office. “Why are the two of you betting on me?”

  “Jackson thought you wouldn’t be able to resist the case; I assumed you had a little more restraint than that,” Jack said from his desk, meeting her scowl. “The answer is ‘no’, Paige. You can’t be involved in this case.”

  Paige faltered and then huffed. “For your information, that wasn’t why I was here, thank you!”

  Jack eyed her suspiciously. “Then why are you here the morning after we find a body?”

  “Because I know who your body is,” Paige said, her voice frosty. “He’s Jonathan Cook; he’s one of the two trainers at the dog school I went to.”

  Jack sighed and gestured her to a seat. He looked tired, which explained some of his short temper this morning. Paige felt a little guilty for snapping back at him, despite the wrongful conclusion he had drawn.

  “Sorry,” Jack sighed, rubbing his temple. “We already identified him as being a dog trainer, so you didn’t need to come down. He was wearing his uniform.”

  “Oh,” Paige said, feeling foolish.

  Jack quirked a half smile at her. “Thanks for trying to help, though.”

  “Are you alright?” Paige asked, looking at him closely. “You don’t look like you slept much.”

  “I didn’t,” Jack sighed. “We were with the coroner for a long time, and then we had to search the crime scene. Then I had to come back here and write up the report. I got to bed in the early hours of the morning, and I woke up early to begin the investigation.”

  “Do you want me to get you some coffee?” Paige offered.

  “I’ve had two already,” Jack groaned.

  Paige almost offered to help him with his work, but she stopped herself. Jack had made it very clear, both last night and now this morning, that she wasn’t supposed to be involved in any of this.

  “Sorry,” she said instead. “Look, if you get time, come around tonight and we’ll finish that lasagna off, okay? You can even cuddle with Barkley; he’s pretty awesome at helping you sleep.”

  Jack snorted. “He’s got you wrapped around his paw if you’re letting him sleep on your bed.”

  “I don’t let him,” Paige said with a scowl. “He refuses to use his own bed, and I can’t just leave him on the hard floor.”

  Jack laughed out loud this time. Paige smiled, pleased with herself. He still looked tired, but his humor had smoothed out some of the tension in his face.

  Then she remembered what her parents said about the community’s response to the second murder while Jack was the sheriff, and her smile faded.

  “No one has said anything to you, right?” she asked.

  Jack grimaced. The fact that he didn’t have to ask her what she meant was telling.

  “Not as such,” he said slowly. He sighed. “But I can see the whispers. It’s fine, it’ll go away soon. There were whispers when I first became sheriff, too. Eventually, the next thing to gossip about will come along, and they’ll forget all about me.”

  “But that isn’t fair,” Paige protested.

  “We’re a small town, Paige; gossip is what we live for, no matter if it’s true or not,” Jack pointed out. “I’m not going to lose my job over a few whispers. And I don’t care about them.” He grinned. “There were a few whispers about you when you first returned, as well.”

  “What, really?” Paige asked, startled.

  “You should have heard some of the theories,” Jack said, laughing. “My favorite one was that you had tried to become a superstar and ran back home when you failed.”

  “What?” Paige exclaimed.

  “Gossips, Paige,” Jack reminded her. “It doesn’t make sense. Just leave them alone, and the flames will die before you know it. Once the case has been solved, all those theories will disappear.”

  “Right,” Paige said, shaking her head. “Alright, I won’t say anything.”

  “Thanks,” Jack said. He yawned. “I should really get back to work if I want to make it for dinner tonight.”

  “Don’t push yourself,” Paige said to him. “Just message me if you can’t make it.”

  “I will, thanks,” Jack said with a small, warm smile.

  Paige smiled back at him and left, nodding to the still-gleeful Jackson. As she drove back to her own office, however, she couldn’t get the image of Jack’s tired expression out of her head. Her stomach clenched.

  She hoped that this case got solved quickly, because she had a feeling that he wasn’t as unaffected by all this as he claimed.

  Chapter 5: New Clients

  5: New Clients

  Paige sighed as she drove out to her parents’ house. It was Tuesday, and it had already been several days since Jonathan Cook’s murder. She hadn’t heard much from Jack in that time, and she didn’t know if she was even allowed to ask him how the case was going, since he was so insistent that she stay away from it.

  To think, she had been in such high spirits on Saturday. At the training school, she realized that it had been the first time in ages that she had gone somewhere that wasn’t home or work, and she had been pleased with the variety of new people whom she had met.

  Half-heartedly, she had continued to try and use the training methods that Alice and Jonathan had shown her to teach Barkley how to listen to her, trying to keep her mind off what had happened. She had managed to get Barkley to sit once or twice both in the lesson and in the days after it, which was definitely progress.

  Unfortunately, Barkley was nowhere near trained enough to go to work with her, but her parents had readily agreed to take him for a few hours. Jennifer had even scolded her for not bringing Barkley around sooner.

  She pulled up outside her parents’ seaside home and put Barkley’s lead on. Barkley leaped out of the car and sniffed around excitedly, thrilled at all the new scents. Her father, Patrick, was on the porch, fiddling with something that she couldn’t see.

  “Dad,” she said, making him look up with a start. She smiled. “What are you working on?”

  “Gail down the road asked me to look at this old music box,” her father said, putting it aside. “She said it stopped working last week, so I’m going to see if I can fix it.”

  Paige’s smile widened. Her father was good at fixing things, and she was glad that other people recognized that too.

  “Is Mom inside?” she asked.

  “She’s in the living room,” Patrick said. “Is Barkley going to be alright staying with us?”

  Paige leaned down and picked him up. “Yeah, he’ll be fine.” She raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t get a chance to ask on Saturday; I hear the two of you heard about Jack adopting Barkley before I did?”

  “Jack wanted to make dog ownership easier for you, so he checked to make sure we would be available to dog-sit for you if you needed it,” Patrick said with an unrepentant shrug.

  “Yes, well, he was keeping this big secret for a long time, and I couldn’t get it out of him,” Paige said, rolling her eyes. “I had no idea he was buying me a dog.”

  “Well, he’s sweet,” Patrick said, laughing as he patted Barkley. “Go on inside and talk to your mother. She’s almost dying to see him again.

  “Sure, but I can’t stay long, I have a new client,” she said as her father stood and followed her through the front door.

  “Another client?” Patrick asked curiously.

  “Yeah, she and her husband live in Newport,” Paige explained. “So, they’re local. From what I’ve been told so far, the divorce is going to be pretty messy.”

  She grimaced. Paige hated messy divorces; it usually meant weeks to even months of time during which she went back and forth between h
er client and the partner’s lawyer, trying to come to some sort of compromise. More often than not, either one or both partners would make things difficult just for the sake of it, which would draw proceedings out even more. They were the sorts of cases where no one walked away happy with what they got.

  “Sounds like you’ll have your hands full,” Patrick said sympathetically. He looked up. “Jenny, Paige is here!”

  “I’m on my way!” Paige heard her mother call back.

  She heard footsteps, and then Jennifer burst into view. She wasn’t a tall woman, but she always carried herself with an air of confidence and grace. Paige had watched her mother, as a little girl, talk down many men and women much taller than her with an acid tongue and sharp smiles. When she wasn’t acting like a mother bear, however, she was warm and loving, sometimes even a little overbearing in her affection.

  “Paige, good to see you,” Jennifer beamed, drawing her daughter into a hug. She pulled back and looked down. “Hello, Barkley! I’m looking forward to playing with him.”

  “Wait until he tries to lick you to death,” Paige joked.

  It had happened two nights ago. Paige was sitting on the floor with Barkley, since he didn’t seem to like sitting on the couch (Paige suspected it was because he had fallen off it one too many times), when the small puppy had unexpectedly jumped on her stomach and proceeded to lick her face several times in his excitement.

  “I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Jennifer said, taking Barkley from Paige. “When do you finish work?”

  “Whenever my client leaves,” Paige said with a shrug. “Thank you for looking after Barkley.”

  “It isn’t a problem,” Jennifer said warmly.

  As much as she would like to stay and talk a little longer, Paige knew she was running out of time. So she waved farewell and got back into her car.

  Strangely enough, however, as she drove away, she felt oddly sad. She blinked at the feeling. It felt odd to be leaving Barkley behind after spending so much time of the last week with him.