Death Smells a Rose: A Penelope Standing Mystery by Tess Baytree

Author:Tess Baytree [Baytree, Tess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Speculative Turtle Press

Chapter 16

By the time their volunteer shift was over, Penelope had designed a lost dog flier on her phone. It helped that she already had the template she used when clients called.

Jake looked it over as they walked back to the car. "Reward. Missing Chihuahua. Diogy…" He paused and laughed. "Is that supposed to be like D-O-G?"

"Yes." Penelope was holding the hem of her shirt and flapping it as they walked, hoping the beer would dry before they got into the car so it didn't soak into the seats. "I've met at least three people who named their dog some variation on that."

"Really? Okay. Tan with three white feet. Pink sparkle collar." He scrolled. "Where did you get that picture?"

"From my phone. That dog belongs to one of Seth's neighbors. I doubt anyone around here would recognize him. The dog, not Seth. Plenty of people would recognize Seth." Her son had grown up here and still came back on a regular basis to visit.

"Got it. Missed by his family. Reward. No questions asked." Jake stopped walking. "Hang on. That's my phone number. We aren't putting up fliers all over town with my phone number on them."

"I can't very well use my number," Penelope said. "One quick search will bring up the dog walking business, and then to the marriage announcement, and then all the times you were listed in the paper as acting police chief." Given the way information lingered online, she doubted it would be obvious to a casual searcher that Jake had retired. The whole thing would look like a poorly disguised attempt to hide police involvement. She took a small step in the direction of the car.

He settled more firmly in place. "So you want to give them my phone number directly?"

"Yes. But since nothing links your phone number back to you, it will be fine."

"Except then my phone number will be out on telephone poles and who knows where else and I'll be getting random calls forever." He handed her phone back to her and took out his own. After a few moments of tapping, he looked up. "Use this one instead." He read out a number. Penelope added it to the flier, then called it.

Jake's phone rang.

Penelope disconnected the call. "How did you do that?"

"I signed up for a free number and set it up to forward to my phone. I'll get rid of it as soon as we're done with this. That way I won't be getting calls about a Chihuahua someone might have seen for the rest of my life."

"Clever." Penelope saved the flier and sent it off to the copy center. "If their website isn't lying, we should be able to pick up the copies in twenty minutes. Then you can go move mulch around for a while, and I'll put up fliers. I promised Esther I'd go look at gardens with her this afternoon, anyhow. I can put fliers up along the way."

"You sure you don't want me to put up fliers instead?"

Penelope glanced at him with a bright smile.

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