Dog Gone by Shannon Esposito

Author:Shannon Esposito [Esposito, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: shannon esposito
Published: 2018-11-29T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I felt bad. We’d left a frail Talia sitting on the sofa staring at the unopened envelope after we’d woken her from her first sleep in days. We didn’t tell her about our new theory yet. I wasn’t sure how much more her nerves could take. We’d run it by Salma when we saw her first. But right now, we were pulling around Sunny Spillman’s circle drive. We parked right behind a bright yellow Corvette.

“He’s still here,” I said, climbing out of the Jeep.

Sunny opened the door herself, a confused look on her pale face. Cornflower blue eyes searched us suspiciously. In the crook of her arm rested a Maltese with a diamond collar and a pacifier in its mouth.

I stifled a giggle. Just when you thought you’d seen everything on Moon Key.

“May I help you?” She was soft-spoken and seemed to hold herself in check with good southern manners.

Devon did a double take on the dog and then composed himself. “Hi Ms. Spillman. My name’s Devon and this is Elle. We’re helping Talia Hill try and track down her missing dog and were wondering if we could have a chat with your ... male friend. We think there’s a chance he could help us. Is he available?”

She was nodding amicably, but there was something stiff about her smile. “Of course, anything we can do to help. I’m a huge dog lover and can’t imagine what Miss Hill is going through. You can join me in my afternoon tea. I never miss tea time.”

We followed her into the great room. “I’ll go grab Valentino and have my butler bring us some tea. Make yourselves comfortable.”

Her furniture looked like it came from an old haunted house. Victorian era, maybe, with all the ornate dark wood scroll work and hard, mustard yellow embroidered cushions. I wasn’t sure it was possible to get comfortable in here. Instead I opted to check out the view through the floor to ceiling windows.

Unlike the other mansions I’d visited here on Moon Key, Sunny’s was situated caddy-corner on the lot. So part of the Gulf was visible, but the main attraction was the huge banyan tree towering over a gorgeous beige bricked area beyond the pool. It was large enough for eight patio tables, with marshmallow-soft cushioned furniture beneath bamboo umbrellas, and some kind of guest or boathouse, surrounded by lush green scrub. A tropical paradise. She must have a lot of friends to need that many patio tables. Turning back to the grand room, I thought briefly about asking her if we could move our chat out there but, hopefully, we wouldn’t be here that long.

I was pretty sure she was blushing as she walked back into the room followed by the younger man in an obvious state of post-shower dampness. The butler was close behind carrying a silver tea set on a tray.

“Valentino, this is Devon and Elle. They’re trying to help Talia Hill find her stolen dog.” I glanced at Devon to see

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