Read Online Double Dog Dare by Linda O. Johnston - Free Book Online

interrogation after an apparent murder there, I’d imagine you were at least nearby, right?” Her presence in Glendale supported this presumption.
    She sighed so deeply that the wattle beneath her chin wiggled. “Yes, I was. After you and I talked last night, I couldn’t sleep. So much was going on that involved those awful people. I’d asked Jeff to look into what had happened, how they’d caused Flisa’s death instead of cloning her, and Jeff vanished. You, at least, were still around—although I’d held my breath after sending you there—but they seemed to be pulling the wool over your eyes.”
    Suddenly feeling defensive, I opened my mouth to protest. Okay, I hadn’t learned anything useful, except that the cloning company appeared to disclaim even more than I might if I was their lawyer . . . maybe. So what had I derived from my visit? A whole lot of additional questions.
    “I wasn’t there long enough to form an informed opinion, ” I began, but Lois held up her hand.
    “Well, there’s definitely something wrong with the place. Jeff knew it, too, which is why we can’t find him.”
    “So you think—what? That Earl Knox did something to make Jeff disappear, and now Earl’s dead, too?” I nearly bit my tongue at the faux pas I’d just committed in saying that terrible word “too.”
    “What do you know that I don’t, Kendra?” Lois frowned fiercely. “Have you got something about Jeff?”
    “No,” I asserted. “I misspoke. And even though there’s an apparent connection in our viewpoints, that doesn’t mean the authorities will agree. So far, there’s nothing to connect Jeff to The Clone Arranger except your request that he look into the place, and you’ve made it clear you don’t want anyone to know about that. Only now . . .”
    “Now I did tell the policeman who interrogated me,” she said with a sigh. “He got such a gleam in his eye that I was sure he thought I’d delivered a confession, complete with motive.”
    “What, because you asked a friend to look into the place, and the friend seems to have floated off in a California Aqueduct canal, you decided to kill one of the employees? ”
    She buried her face in her deeply wrinkled hands. “Oh, Kendra, if you put it like that, they’re sure to arrest me. And I haven’t even told them yet that I think Earl somehow killed my poor Flisa.”
    “How?” I inquired, trying not to either shake my head or form an anti-Lois opinion. I knew what it was like to have a whole lot of evidence against me in a murder investigation. Two investigations. And I’d been innocent.
    Hopefully, Lois was, too.
    “Why would you think Earl Knox had anything to do with your pup’s death?” I repeated. “I mean, even assuming her death had something to do with her visit there, why not blame one of the other people at The Clone Arranger? Besides Earl, I met only the owner, Mason Payne. Why not him, or someone else?”
    “Honestly? I don’t know. But Mason seems to personally handle the people he thinks can give the most publicity—and investment funds—to the organization. His sister, Debby, is a quiet soul, but jumps in to take care of the animals there for cloning, so I guess it could have been her. And Earl? Well, he struck me as a loose cannon, though I can’t tell you why. He sold their services, took charge of cloning procedures, and generally managed nearly everything. That’s why I assumed he was there when the DNA sample was taken from Flisa. I can’t swear she was mishandled, but they told me soon afterward that the sample wasn’t effective and they’d try again, but weren’t optimistic. But before I could get her there, she . . . she . . .” Lois suddenly started to sob.
    I filled in the final word. “She died,” I suggested softly, and Lois nodded while stuffing a napkin in front of her soggy face. “How old was she?”
    “Eleven. And she had some physical problems, so I knew she wouldn’t be with me much longer. That’s