The Cocker Spaniel Caper: A Cozy Mystery (The Happy Paws Mysteries Book 1) by Liz Lamar

Author:Liz Lamar [Lamar, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Thirteen

June leaned closer to the window to get a better look.

“It is!” she exclaimed.

“The man from the gallery?” Tammy asked. Dawn nodded.

“Go!” Tammy said. “I’ll settle the bill.”

June, Dawn, and I raced out of the restaurant, looking like we were dining and dashing. There was a slight crowd outside the front door waiting for tables, and we didn’t see the dognapper right away.

“Where did he go?” June asked.

“There!” Dawn exclaimed, pointing down the street.

The man turned onto one of the side streets and disappeared from our sight.

“Let’s go,” I said.

The three of us ran down the street, trying to catch up with him.

“There he goes,” June blurted out, pointing to the shadowy figure turning onto one of the dark side streets.

While the man didn’t seem to know we were following him, he walked quickly.

“I can catch up with him,” Dawn said.

“Go!” June urged, figuring the twenty-year-old would be quicker than two women in their forties.

“Be careful,” I warned.

Dawn dashed ahead of us and turned down the side street. June and I were close behind.

When June and I arrived at the turn, Dawn was halfway down the block, but we couldn’t see the man. Perhaps he had realized we were following him.

Dawn ran left at the next street and disappeared from our view.

We rounded the corner and came face to face with a crowd of people on the sidewalk in front of another gallery. Dawn stood near the edge of the sidewalk looking around.

“Do you see him?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I lost him,” she said, panting.

“It can’t be that hard to find him,” June added.

The three of us slowly made our way down the street, and June looked into the gallery, hoping he was inside.

We were out of luck. He wasn’t in the gallery, and he was nowhere to be found on the nearby streets. “He’s gone,” I sighed.

Tammy joined us a few moments later. “Any luck?”

“He got away,” June replied.

“He might live around here,” I said. “Maybe his car is parked somewhere nearby.”

The four of us wandered through the streets in a half-mile radius of the restaurant, looking for a car that matched Dawn’s description. There were several black sedans with sloping trunks, but none that had a white license plate.

“We should call it a night,” I said. It was obvious the odds were slim that we would have another sighting of our dognapper the rest of the night. As I drove home, I had an overwhelming sense of disappointment. It seemed we were so close to finding the man who took Gustave, and he slipped away.

When I entered my apartment, Yogi was on the couch, lying on his back with his front paws tucked by his chest and his back legs sprawled open. He didn’t hear me come in and continued snoring for several moments while I put my purse down and went to the kitchen to make a cup of decaf. He let out a huff and jerked awake. He glanced around the room as if he didn’t know where he was for a moment.

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