Tahoe Payback (An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller Book 15) by Borg Todd

Author:Borg, Todd [Borg, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Thriller Press
Published: 2017-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-TWO

I left Aubrey Blackwood and went back across the street. Spot was sprawled on the back seat, probably asleep. He didn’t even notice my comings and goings.

The large front door had an alarm keypad and near that a doorbell button. I pressed it and waited.

After a minute came a voice. “Be there in a minute. But let your poor hound out of the car. He’s welcome to join us if he doesn’t mind a very particular, prima donna cat.”

So I woke Spot up and let him out of the Jeep. He trotted around, nose to ground, investigating. I looked around for the video cameras that revealed Spot’s and my presence, but I saw none.

It’s an interesting dichotomy. If you have an ordinary abode, you make the cameras and the alarm components obvious, the better to ward off intruders. If you have a rich abode, you can hide the sensors because everyone knows they are there anyway. Most burglaries and other home invasions take place where regular folks live. Predators usually pass up the rich because they believe their chances of being caught are high.

The door opened. For some reason, I expected a secretary or a manservant to the mad scientist.

I got the mad scientist.

He was five-nine or five-ten and skinny as a telephone pole. He had a white walrus moustache and an untamed shock of equally white, Albert Einstein hair that lofted above his head. He looked to be in his late sixties.

Calvarenna’s glasses had thick, black frames that had slid down and rested on the bulging knob of his nose. His left hand held a cane. In the crook of his right arm, held like a football, was a white, long-haired cat. It looked like the Persian cat that belonged to the Blofeld character in the James Bond movies.

“Mr. Calvarenna?” I said. “I’m Owen McKenna.” Spot came trotting up. “And this is Spot.”

“My, what a sweetheart,” Calvarenna said. He leaned his cane against the wall so he could pet Spot.

Spot was wary of the tiny cat in the man’s other arm. The cat’s expression didn’t change as Spot approached. The cat yawned. Shut his eyes.

Spot reached forward slowly, sniffing, his movement tentative and informed by past memories. He knew that even if a cat was smaller than a decent lunch, never underestimate what it can do to your nose.

The cat ignored him, indicating that he’d had enough dog experience to know that it was the small dog breeds that were dangerous to felines.

“A beautiful fellow,” Calvarenna said, one hand on my dog, the other holding his cat. “I’ve read a bit about dog olfaction,” Calvarenna said. “Ten thousand times more sensitive than what we humans have. Our specialty is vision. As we evolved and developed sophisticated tools like bows and arrows, the information available in visual stimuli allowed us to hunt, which suited our relatively fast evolutionary development and led to our dominance of this tiny planet. Wolves, and their dog derivatives, didn’t have tools that benefited from great vision.

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