Read Online Fire Works in the Hamptons : A Willow Tate Novel (9781101547649) by Celia Jerome - Free Book Online

bed.”
    I didn’t know about Buddy, but I felt better listening to his calm, soothing voice. What a nice man. I sighed in relief that he’d answered the phone and fixed my dog.
    He looked over at me. “Don’t worry. Mostly likely he won’t remember anything about tonight.”
    â€œI hope he remembers enough not to chomp on any more lightning bugs.”
    Dr. Spenser kept stroking the dog. “You know, I see a lot of insect stings in dogs and cats. They’re always putting their noses where they don’t belong. The bites I’m seeing now are different, though, more like burns. I worried about the first cases I got last week from Paumanok Harbor, because it looked as if someone was holding a cigarette to a dog. I was ready to call the police, the Animal Control officer, and the ASPCA, but then someone brought in another dog. And another, from a different neighborhood, on different days. The owners were people I knew, people like you who really love their animals.”
    Buddy was my mother’s dog, but I didn’t need to tell him that. I needed to give him the current theory I was trying to promote. “It’s a new strain of beetle, I hear, that carries some kind of acid. People are talking about Plum Island where they do those animal experiments.”
    â€œThis isn’t hoof-and-mouth disease.”
    â€œNo, but it’s never been seen before.”
    â€œA lot of things in Paumanok Harbor have never been seen before. Like your mother’s uncanny communion with canines. And how the guy at the drugstore always knows when I’ve got a hot—That is, he knows more about my personal life than I do.”
    â€œWalter believes in safe sex.”
    â€œSo do I. That’s why I run spay and neuter clinics every month. It’s not the same. And one of your neighbors brings her imaginary dog every year for his physical.”
    â€œThat’s very kind of you to play along.”
    â€œWho’s playing? I swear I can hear the dog’s heart beating. That’s just the tip of the Paumanok Harbor iceberg.”
    â€œBut you like it here?”
    â€œI love it. You never know who or what’ll walk in the door next.” He gave me a smile, to emphasize his point.
    â€œUm, well, the air is purer here and the people are, uh, creative thinkers.”
    He laughed. He wasn’t buying my explanations, but he wasn’t calling me a liar, like a bunch of the lie-detector Harborites would have. And he had a nice laugh. “I don’t think Paumanok Harbor’s weirdness comes from the air or the locals’ imaginations.”
    â€œMaybe it’s in the genes,” I said, laughing too so he wouldn’t realize I was finally telling the truth.
    â€œYou know, I was one of the vets at the big horse show you guys put on.”
    â€œYou did a great job, between the horses and dogs and sheep. Did you get to see any of the show?”
    He nodded. “Some really amazing stuff. But the end got kind of hazy somehow.”
    Which told me what kind of man he was, besides nice. He was normal, ordinary, one of Them. One of Us would have seen and remembered a herd of iridescent white mares dancing and disappearing as the show concluded, despite the mayor’s hocus-pocus.
    â€œAs long as you got to see Ty Farraday and Paloma Blanca, his Lipizzaner mare.”
    He looked at Buddy, but he spoke to me: “I saw them single you out of the whole audience.”
    â€œWe, ah, became good friends during the preparations.”
    â€œLucky man.”
    Hmm. “He’s gone now.”
    â€œStupid man.”
    Hmm, hmm. There was absolutely nothing wrong with a nice, normal man. Except I’d sworn off all men. I changed the subject quickly. “Thanks. I believe some experts are coming soon to get rid of the infestation.”
    He politely accepted the change. “That’s good. So far I’ve seen nothing serious, but a plague