The Mission Inn-Possible Cozy Mysteries Box Set: Books 1-6 by Rosie A. Point

Author:Rosie A. Point [Point, Rosie A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-26T22:00:00+00:00

27

The Gossip Animal Clinic was a brick building with a sign out front bearing a red cross and two cartoon dogs, caught mid-bark and leap. The door bore a cheerful “OPEN” sign, again with more cartoon animals for decoration, but the parking area was relatively quiet.

Gamma parked her Mini Cooper in an empty space right in front of the door and checked her reflection in the mirror. She touched her earrings—gold and ruby monstrosities—carefully. “Try not to disturb them,” she said. “These are state-of-the-art. Recording and data storage devices behind the jewels.”

“Is that why they look like a throwback to the eighties?”

“You and your cheeky mouth. I happen to like this design.”

“I stand by my original observation,” I said.

Gamma didn’t grace me with a rebuttal. She got out of the car, and I followed her. We entered the vet’s reception area, and the chirps of a screeching bird greeted us. A lady sat in the corner, holding a cage in her lap, the cockatiel occasionally letting out a high-pitched tweet that was ear-rending.

Another guy held a dog in his lap, a poodle who shivered or twitched each time the bird made a noise. The lady in the far corner had a cat in a carrier on the seat next to her and winced in time to the cockatiel’s complaints, shooting glares at the woman who carried him.

The influx of sounds and smells—doggy shampoo and medicine—threatened to overwhelm the senses. Shoot, would the recording devices even pick anything up in this ruckus?

Gamma wasn’t deterred. She made for the front desk and stopped in front of it, resting her arms on the pink-specked high counter. “Good morning,” she said.

Nicole, blonde and beautiful, looked up and spotted us. Her vapid smile disappeared the minute she laid eyes on me, and her lips turned down at the corners. “Hello,” she said. “Hello, um, are you here for… an appointment?”

“Sure,” I said, “I came to get my paws checked. Blisters.”

“She’s joking,” Gamma replied. “Actually, I came to check on my appointment time with Dr. Spitz? He mentioned coming by on the 20th at two pm when he came for sweet tea at the inn the other day. Did he ask you to note that down?”

“Let me check,” Nicole said, her gaze flickering nervously from Gamma to me and then to her computer screen. She typed on her keyboard. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I have that down. The 20th at two pm at the Gossip Inn. I mean, the kitten center. Right?”

“Perfect.” Gamma tapped her neatly clipped fingernails on the countertop, all while that incessant cockatiel made a mockery of sound itself. “Nicole, how have you been?”

“I’m sorry,” she wailed.

The cockatiel, sensing distress, went nuts with the chirping. Tweet-tweet-tweet! On repeat.

Heaven help my poor ears.

“You’re sorry?” Gamma asked.

“Yes, I’m so sorry,” she said, directing that at me. “Brian told me that you two are dating last night. I had no idea. I would never have given him my number if I’d known. Gosh, I feel like such an idiot.

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