Silver Collar by Gill McKnight

Author:Gill McKnight [McKnight, Gill]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781602828155
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2012-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

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Luc found Emily easily.

The faintest scent caught her as she skirted the small town. Even if she hadn’t been looking for it, it was impossible for her to slink past it. Normally, she would avoid places like Lost Creek in daylight, but she was on a mission, and a sickly sweet chemical smell tugged at her snout and drew her in. Her brain registered the odor as the flowery detergent that clung to the clothes Emily wore. All it took was that precarious link to make her lope toward the town’s western outskirts. If she stuck to the tree line and waited her chance, she might just get lucky and see Emily. And if I see her, I’m grabbing her and making her take off this collar and give me the damned book.

Lost Creek was a desolate, rundown place, but it was an easy town to negotiate, being so close to the forest perimeter and with not much to keep its residents on the streets for any length of time. Luc vaguely remembered it from her childhood, before her family had been packed off to Canada. She shook that particular memory from her mind. It always made her heart harden, and she did not need that now.

She avoided the main street, keeping to the alleyways and abandoned backyards. There were many of them, overgrown with weeds and screaming of neglect. The few dogs that were out in the early morning heat stopped barking as soon as she drew near, and they cowered in corners until she passed. Cats too, ran for safety and hunkered down to watch. She made her way across town, yard by yard, alley by alley, street by street, dragged along by her nose.

In no time at all, she’d zoned in on laundry flapping on a clothesline behind Johnston’s General Store. With a quick glance and an even quicker sniff to make sure no one was around, Luc vaulted the fence.

The air was alive with the smell of Emily. Her dirty boots on the back stoop were delicious. The cushions of a porch chair where she had rested stank of her freshly washed, coconut-scented hair. Even a dishtowel looped over the porch railings smelled of her…and some nondescript casserole. Luc was thrilled. This was Emily’s den.

From the front of the house, she could hear a radio at high volume blaring out the morning news and weather reports. A screen door creaked and Luc slid around the porch corner, her back tacked to the siding. She heard an old man’s voice muttering and then the clip of claws on the porch boards. Luc’s ears flattened. The screen door slammed shut again, and around the corner trotted a small dog. Luc stood still, her claws ready to gut the animal if it so much as squeaked. Instead, much to her surprise, the dog wagged his tail excitedly on seeing her and came over for a friendly sniff. This was strange. He should be alarmed. Luc didn’t have time to ponder; she had to get rid of him before his master came out to join him.

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