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Doggone Deadly (A Catskills Pet Rescue Mystery, Band 2) - Softcover

Buch 2 von 3: Catskills Pet Rescue Mysteries

Blake, Deborah

 
9780593201527: Doggone Deadly (A Catskills Pet Rescue Mystery, Band 2)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593201523 ISBN 13: 9780593201527
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

Kari Stuart is roped into helping out at a dog show—but soon finds she’s bitten off more than she can chew when her best friend is framed for murder in this new Catskills Pet Rescue Mystery.

When the woman running the big regional dog show calls out sick, dog groomer Suz Holden is asked to take over. But it’s too much for her to handle by herself— considering the president of the kennel club, Olivia Weiner, criticizes her at every turn—so she calls in her best friend, Kari Stuart, for help.
A long, stressful day goes from bad to worse when a local breeder is found dead, and the murder weapon seems to incriminate Suz.

While Kari knows her friend isn’t guilty, the police aren’t so sure, especially after a second murder points to Suz again. But trying to run a dog show and investigate a murder at the same time is like herding cats, and Kari will have to rely on the rest of the Serenity Sanctuary staff to keep things running smoothly while she—and her beloved and clever kitten, Queenie—sniff out the truth.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Deborah Blake is the author of multiple romance series, including the Baba Yaga series, as well as over a dozen nonfiction titles. When not writing, Deborah runs The Artisans' Guild, a cooperative shop she founded with a friend in 1999, and also works as a jewelry maker, tarot reader, and energy healer. She lives in a 130-year-old farmhouse in rural upstate New York with numerous cats who supervise all her activities, both magical and mundane.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

One

"Quick, hide me!" Suz said as she ran into the large white tent.

Kari Stuart looked up from where she was positioning a freestanding wall featuring pictures of animals currently up for adoption at the Serenity Sanctuary, almost dropping the display on her foot. Kari wasn't sure what amazed her more-that her best friend, who was six feet tall with spiky lavender hair, thought she could actually hide behind five-foot-six brown-haired Kari, or that there was something Suz would feel the need to hide from at all. They'd been friends since grade school, and as far as Kari knew, Suz wasn't afraid of anything.

"Is there a demon chasing you?" Kari asked, shifting one side of the hinged board so the whole thing was more stable. They were on the parklike grounds of the two-year state college in Perryville, not far from their hometown of Lakeview, for the annual Tri-County Kennel Club Show. Suz was a member of the local kennel club, one of three clubs putting on the event, and she'd been roped into taking on the coordinator role when someone else backed out at the last minute. In turn, she'd persuaded (okay, bribed) Kari into helping by giving her the chance to have a fundraising and awareness-raising booth for the shelter.

"Worse," Suz said as she ducked behind one of the two long folding tables covered with white cloths. "You haven't seen me. You don't know where I am." A pile of adoption application forms on top of the table quivered, threatening to topple over into the volunteer sign-up sheet next to them.

The setup was fairly simple, in part because it had been thrown together quickly, and in part because AKC rules said that no unregistered dogs could be allowed onto the show grounds. That meant Kari had only been able to bring photos of the dogs they currently had up for adoption, along with two metal cages-now perched atop the table not lined with application and information sheets-holding four adorable kittens each.

A third cage held a half-grown black kitten named Queenie, who was definitely not up for adoption, since she belonged to Kari. Or vice versa. It was often hard to tell. Queenie had insisted on coming along, so she was currently lounging on a cat bed, supervising Kari as she arranged the rest of the displays.

"Miss Stuart," a piercing voice said as a statuesque and well-preserved woman in her mid-sixties strode into the tent as if she owned it. "I am looking for Suzanne. Have you seen her?"

"Apparently not," Kari said, suddenly understanding why her friend was hiding behind a table. "Is there anything I can help you with, Mrs. Weiner?"

Olivia Weiner was well-known in Lakeview, and probably admired and dreaded in about equal measure. Not only was she the president of the garden club, the literary book club, and the kennel club, but her husband, Jack Weiner, had a used-car "empire" that stretched over a half a dozen counties.

Olivia, with her professionally cut and dyed blond hair, piercing hazel eyes, and perfect figure, maintained with rigorous dieting and the religious use of a personal trainer, appeared in all of his ads along with her purebred dogs. She was wearing a floral skirt and jacket suit that had designer written all over it, a sharp contrast to Kari's jeans and tee shirt. No doubt Olivia achieved many good things with all the committees she worked on, but Kari had always found her a little intimidating.

"For goodness' sake," Olivia said, looking around the tent with disapproval radiating from her rigid posture. "I can't imagine why the show committee agreed to allow this. As you may know, I voted against it." She frowned at the donation jar on the end of one table and at the pictures of three grinning pit bulls, an elderly beagle with lopsided ears, and some sort of poodle-schnauzer-wandering-hound mix. "Why, most of those dogs aren't even purebred. Plus that jar is just undignified."

"And what on earth are those things?" She pointed at the cages as if offended by the existence of their non-canine occupants. An orange ball of fur opened its tiny mouth and let out a yawn, clearly unimpressed with this loud human.

Kari choked back a laugh and said with a straight face, "Those are kittens. They're kind of like dogs, only smaller. Most people find them quite adorable."

Olivia snorted. "At an AKC dog show? It hardly seems suitable." She turned around and, behind her back, Queenie hissed. Kari made a shushing motion. The kitten ignored her, as usual.

The older woman shook her head and sighed. "Well, it's done now. What isn't done, unfortunately, are half the tasks your friend Suzanne was supposed to have taken care of before we open the gates in thirty minutes." Olivia waved a clipboard through the air, as if to prove her point. "The show judges will be arriving any minute now, and there are no water bottles in their tent. What kind of an impression is that going to make, I ask you? We have been hosting this show for over thirty years, and we are renowned for our hospitality."

"I'm sure Suz is doing her best, Mrs. Weiner," Kari said. "After all, she just got handed all this extra responsibility two days ago."

"Well, I don't have time to look for her," Olivia said, straightening her jacket. "I am being interviewed by the local paper, then recording a video for one of my husband's commercials, and I need to walk around and make sure everything looks just right. If you see her, tell her that all the remaining items on this checklist need to be completed immediately." She shoved the clipboard in Kari's direction. "And remind her that I will be at her tent to get Snowball's final grooming in exactly one hour." She took one last look at her expensive watch and stalked out.

As soon as she was gone, Suz straightened up from behind the tablecloth, rubbing grass stains off the knees of her jeans and tugging down the bottom of her red Lakeview Kennel Club tee shirt. "Sorry," she said with a wry smile. "But I was afraid that if I had to talk to Olivia one more time this morning, I was going to end up killing the woman. She has been driving me around the bend."

A chuckle from the entrance to the tent made them both jump guiltily. A tiny silver-haired woman with faded blue eyes and wearing a fuchsia track suit poked her head inside. "I don't blame you," she said. "I'm from the Saratoga Kennel Club group, and we had a few problems with her last year."

"Miriam Rosebaum, right?" Suz said, coming around the table to shake hands with the spry octogenarian. She towered over the elderly woman. "I'm Suz Holden, and this is my friend Kari Stuart."

Miriam came farther into the tent and gazed around. "Oh! Kari Stuart. You're the woman who won the lottery and bought that run-down shelter."

"I am," Kari said. "Guilty as charged."

Earlier that year, she'd stopped at the convenience store on her way home from her job as a waitress at the local diner to pick up cat litter and bought a lottery ticket on a whim. That ticket had turned out to be worth about three million dollars after taxes. Because she'd made so many bad decisions earlier in her life, Kari had been cautiously pondering the best way to spend her unexpected windfall.

Then she'd found a small black stray kitten and discovered that none of the shelters in the area had any room for the little waif. In fact, they were all completely full, except a bankrupt animal sanctuary that was on the verge of shutting down. Kari had bought it from its beleaguered and overwhelmed former owner, only to get caught up in the murder of the then-dog warden, who had his own plans for the property. By the time it was all resolved, Kari had a rebuilt and reopened sanctuary . . . and a black kitten named Queenie, who seemed to have an uncanny nose for clues and a habit of sticking that nose where it didn't belong. Thankfully,...

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Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2021
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593201523
ISBN 13 
9780593201527
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
288
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

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