Read Online 2 Any Meat In That Soup? by Jerilyn Dufresne - Free Book Online Page B

in for a kiss. I did the unforgivable move of turning my head to give him my cheek. “’Bye.” I said. “See you later.”
    Part of me wanted to stay and avail myself of George’s kisses. It had been a long, long time since I’d been in a romantic situation and George definitely seemed a lot more interested than Michael.
    Since it was still early and was my day off, I went home, changed, put the leash on Clancy, and took her for a long walk in a different direction. I didn’t bother talking about the investigation, and she didn’t ask. We just went. Part of the way we ran, although I wasn’t able to run too far. I chalked it up to having been sick yesterday.
    We walked all the way to St. Francis University and back, at least a half mile each way. Clancy led the way, probably happy to finally be getting the attention she so richly deserved.
    This walk was one of my favorites. To get to SFU, I had to leave the ritzy section of town and walk right by where I grew up. It was only a few blocks, but it was an extreme difference. The north side of Broadway was where I grew up, and the south side of Broadway is where I now lived. The only reason I lived in the mansion section was that I rented Gus and Georgianne’s carriage house. Gus had been my friend since I was a kid, and when I moved back to Quincy he immediately offered me the carriage house. He grew up like I did, in a working class section of town. Georgianne had a lot of family money. Gus said that money got in the way sometimes, but that it was easier to deal with problems when your bills were always paid.
    Clancy and I loved SFU. It was my alma mater, at least for my undergraduate degree. The old buildings towered over the campus and were magnificent reflections of the majesty of the city. Red bricks and limestone blocks. Perfect. Quincy was built on the limestone bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, and a lot of the architecture contained limestone.
    Quincy had roughly two hundred fifty full blocks of buildings on the National Historic Register. My childhood neighborhood was sandwiched in between historic blocks. Growing up, I always felt that SFU was my backyard, and I made myself at home on the tennis courts, baseball fields, and even the gym. Jen and I spent a lot of time there as kids.
    For a change I just reminisced instead of working on the mysterious deaths. Until I got information on the deaths other than Pluto’s, it was hard to do much brain work. But I could still follow the suspects, and check into their lives. So that’s what I would do, and maybe I’d let Clancy help me.

NINE
    M y first thought upon waking had to do with the autopsies. My second was Clancy’s therapy dog certification test. I decided to call George and ask about the former. And I’d check online for the date for Clancy’s test. I’d already been notified by email that she qualified.
    “Yeah.” George’s phone response showed that he was always on duty.
    “It’s me. Sam.”
    His tone changed. “Hi ya. How are you?”
    “Good. I’m calling to find out the results of the autopsies from Springfield. Did you get them?”
    “I’ll check my email.” His tone let me know that he was disappointed it wasn’t a social call. I heard him take the phone from his ear, then he put me on speaker so he could read and talk at the same time. “Yeah, here it is. Just a second.” He muttered as he read. “Okay, we have the results from two more bodies.” They were bodies now, no longer patients. “Same as with Pluto. Arsenic. Maybe something else. Further tests. Will take a few more days. That’s it, Sam.”
    “Well, at least now we know that two of them were poisoned like Pluto. That gives us three murders. We still don’t know if it was accidental or intentional, though. Guess I’ll have to check into it more.”
    “Sam…”
    “Don’t bother telling me what my job is or isn’t. I already know.” And I hung up.
    I slipped on my tracksuit, with a T-shirt underneath