Fatal Festival Days by Jamie M. Blair

Author:Jamie M. Blair
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: CVR01052018;dog days;deadly dog days;jamie blair;jamie m blair;jamie m. blair;mystery;mystery fiction;mystery novel;mysteries with dogs;dog mystery;dog mysteries;animal mystery;mysteries with animals
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2018-10-17T16:47:45+00:00

When I needed to get my mind off of things, there was nothing better than taking a few monsters for a walk.

Gus took the lead, with Colby and Jack trailing behind, jumping around one another and tangling their leashes. Isobel only let Monica put a leash on her, so I left her home curled up with Liam napping beside the fridge.

I decided to walk across the bridge and toward Johnna’s house, which was opposite of my normal dog-walking route, thinking I’d search for Metamora Mike. My dogs always had a thing for Mike, sniffing him out and barking like mad when they caught sight of him.

The snow still covered the ground, but there was much less than a few days earlier. The slush had turned to ice and then softened again to a milkshake consistency that soaked through my canvas boots.

Gus stopped at the horse stalls and snuffled around the ground, digging his nose into the hay for a good sniff, while the twins attempted to dart across the street to the train depot where Jim Stein was standing outside smoking a cigar.

“Afternoon, Cam,” he called. “Got your hands full there.”

Struggling to keep two dogs restrained by holding their leashes in my right hand, and Gus’s leash in the crook of my left elbow under the sling. I had to agree. “They rarely want to go the same direction.”

“Searching for Mike?” he asked, blowing smoke into the air.

“I thought we’d give it a try while we were out anyway. Where do you think he’s gone?”

Jim shook his head. “I fear the worst has happened.”

A pang struck me in the chest. “But he’s survived so many winters.”

“Nothing like this has come through here in a long time.”

I peered down the bank at the frozen canal. There was no denying that this winter had been worse than any others I’d experienced in town.

“He’s only a duck, after all,” Jim said. “But if he is around and you want to find him, you should play your clarinet. He seemed to like that.”

The humiliating memory of Jim’s wife, Fiona, teaching me to play in the train depot, and me making nothing but horrid goose honks on the clarinet, came flooding back to me. Mike had come waddling in the open depot door honking right back at me.

“I think he thought it was some kind of mating call,” Jim said. “It could work to get him to come around if he’s out here somewhere.” He winked. “Give it some thought.”

I told him I would and we headed off. It wasn’t a bad idea, but the last time I played was in the fall, for my bees, and Fiona heard me playing across the canal. She wasn’t exactly complimentary about my progress. But if worse came to worst, I’d do it to find Mike.

We approached Johnna’s house on our right just as Roy was coming out of her door with a paper grocery bag. I saw a rolled up, crinkled potato chip bag sticking out of the top.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.