Home Is Where the Bark Is (2010) by Shepherd Kandy

Author:Shepherd, Kandy [Kandy, Shepherd,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-14T19:07:53.890000+00:00

Twelve

If it weren’t so damn serious, Nick would have laughed out loud at the expression on Serena’s face.

“You think I’m crazy,” he said.

She continued to creep cautiously backward from him. “Of course not. I knew all along Mack should be behind bars. I just . . .”

Now Nick did laugh. “You’re clueless about the collar, aren’t you?”

He had stopped suspecting her, but her reaction proved to him beyond a doubt that she was in no way involved.

“Mack’s collar?” She stopped, bewildered. “You mean the new one I gave him today? How does that make Mack a crook?”

“Not the red one. The black studded one we took off of him. The one with the surveillance camera.”

“The what?”

He filled her in on the details. What kind of camera it was. How it worked. Where he’d found it. “It’s a sophisticated device but generic. Readily available on the Internet or in a spy shop. You don’t need a license to buy one.”

Serena’s eyes were wide with horror. “And you thought I put that hideous collar on Mack? With a camera in it? Believe me, it was already fastened around his neck when Mack’s owner left him at Paws-A-While.”

“His old owner, you mean,” he reminded her. “I’m Mack’s owner now.”

“Of course you are,” she said. “But a camera. How could I have missed it? I’ve groomed Mack, taken the collar off to flea shampoo him.”

“It’s very advanced technology. The lens is disguised in one of the metallic studs. So tiny I nearly missed it.”

She shook her head slowly from side to side. “I can’t believe this.” She looked up at him. “Does this mean someone has been watching me, recording me, the whole time I’ve had Mack?”

“Yes. The camera was active. Adam has disabled it. Somewhere, someone might be getting worried. Might make a move into the open to see what happened to it.”

Serena cursed, the first time he had heard her do so. “That bastard abandoned his dog. I thought that was as low as he could go. Now I find he’s stolen from me and my clients.”

“Maybe. He’s a suspect, that’s for sure. But the range of that camera, sophisticated as it seems, might be limited. We won’t know how limited until we track down a receiver for it or Adam can get a fix on it with another receiver. Can it actually record credit card details? We don’t know that. It’s a good bet the fraudster—whether it’s this guy or someone else—has had other access to your credit and banking details, too.”

Serena looked like she’d been hit by a stun grenade. “He seemed like a nice enough guy. Although obviously he wasn’t nice to abandon Mack.You know, I thought he might have died or been in an accident and that’s why he didn’t come back for Mack.”

“That’s a possibility. We won’t know until we investigate. Serena, this could be important. Tell me everything you remember about Mack’s old owner.”

“His name is Eric Kessler. A guy in his thirties. Lived in Larkspur. Worked in an IT job in the Financial District.

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.