Raining Cats & Dogs by Laurien Berenson

Author:Laurien Berenson [Berenson, Laurien]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2005-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

15

An hour later, as Faith and I were leaving Winston Pumpernill, Minnie and Coach caught up to us on the front steps.

“I saw what you were doing in there,” she said.

I stopped and turned to face her. Faith, who’d bounded a couple of steps ahead of me, hit the end of the leash, spun a quick circle on her hindquarter, and came trotting back. She hates it when I do something she hasn’t anticipated.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. The other members of the obedience group filed around us and continued on to their cars. There was something in Minnie’s tone that I hadn’t liked at all. “I was doing the same thing you were.”

“You were asking questions.”

The administrators of the facility had a right to an opinion about my behavior. And perhaps Steve and Paul, too, since I was there under their aegis. But what I did or didn’t do was none of Minnie’s business.

Keeping my voice purposely mild, I stared her down, “So?”

“So I guess that means you really are a detective, like Steve said at class.”

“Not a detective,” I corrected, “more like an interested bystander. Someone who would really like to see Mary Livingston’s murderer found and brought to justice.”

“Geez, are you for real? I thought we were just fooling around the other night. You mean you actually investigate things?”

“Sometimes.”

“And you, like, solve crimes?”

“Occasionally.”

“And you’re going to solve this one?”

With each question, Minnie’s tone had grown more incredulous. Now she was staring at me like I had suddenly grown a pair of spiked horns. Being the object of that much scrutiny was somewhat unnerving.

“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “We’ll see.”

I glanced down at Faith. Having been caught flatfooted a minute earlier, she was at my side, nose tipped upward, watching to see what I was going to do next. What a good dog.

I cued her with my hand and hopped down the last step. The Volvo was parked at the near end of the row. All that stood between me and the opportunity to escape was one very annoyed-looking woman. And a large Standard Schnauzer.

“But you’re working on it,” Minnie persisted, not allowing herself to be left behind.

“Yes, I suppose I am. Does that bother you?”

“Should it?”

I stopped again, exasperated. My key was out and in my hand. I’d already beeped the locks.

“I have no idea,” I said. “Is there something you’d like to talk about?”

“Oh, like what? Like you think I should confess to you?”

“That depends.” This conversation was growing stranger by the moment. “Do you have something you want to confess?”

I had a cell phone. And although I didn’t happen to know the number of the Greenwich police station, I could press nine-one-one. If Minnie wanted to confess to Mary Livingston’s murder, she could do so directly. I wouldn’t even have to be involved.

Except that Minnie didn’t answer my question.

So much for the possibility of an easy solution, I thought.

I opened the car door and loaded Faith into the backseat. The Volvo had been sitting in the sun, and the interior was warm.

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