Read Online Murder Had a Little Lamb by Cynthia Baxter - Free Book Online Page B

diplomatically as I could how a count who was a music prodigy ended up teaching in a private girls’ school on Long Island. But before I had a chance, he changed the subject by saying, “I’ll be sure to bring Chach to school with me tomorrow. While I’m tied up with school business, he can stay in his carrying case.” Chuckling, he added, “I’m not saying he’ll like it, just that he’ll do it.”
    “Then I’ll see you both tomorrow,” I said.
    I hadn’t bothered to check my schedule. Even if I didn’t have a slot available right after my class, I knew that having the chance to talk to Reverend Evans again was worth shifting a few appointments around.
    After all, the chaplain’s job was helping things at the school run smoothly. That undoubtedly entailed finding out as much as he could about the intrigues lurking beneath the surface—which meant that he and I already had a lot in common, too.
    •   •   •
    As I drove away from the Worth School, I was buoyed by the good start my investigation was off to. I was also encouraged by my teaching debut.
    But it was time for me to shift gears, to throw myself into the role in which I felt most comfortable. Fortunately, my first call of the day was going to be ahappy one, since instead of treating an ailing pet I was paying a kitten a well-visit call.
    Smokey’s owners, Deborah and Jeff West, were first-time cat owners who lived nearby in Brompton Hills. This morning, only Deb was at home. In fact, as I pulled up in front of her house, a charming white saltbox that I suspected had been built in the eighteen hundreds or even earlier, she came out of the house with the dark gray kitten in her arms.
    “Hey, Dr. Popper,” she greeted me. Just like the last time I’d stopped by, she was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, and her dark blond hair was clipped back loosely so the wavy strands hung around her face. She wasn’t much older than I was, yet unlike me, was new to the world of animal ownership.
    “Hi, gorgeous,” I greeted Smokey as Deb stepped up into my van. “Wow, she got really big!”
    “We’ve already had her for two months,” Deb said proudly. “She’s really grown. She’s frisky, too.”
    Since Sunny wasn’t spending her mornings with me while I was teaching at Worth, I asked Deb to hold Smokey as I took her temperature. Next I weighed her, commenting, “Last time she was three point six pounds, and now she’s at four point six—up a whole pound. How did she do after the last vaccine?”
    “Fine.”
    “That’s great. How’s her health in general? Any vomiting? Coughing or sneezing? Diarrhea?”
    Smokey appeared to be in great shape. In fact, she reminded me of Cat back in her spunky days of kitten-hood. Not only was their coloring nearly identical, so was the wise look in their eyes.
    “This might sound like a strange question,” Deb said, “but do people bathe cats?”
    “It depends on who you ask,” I replied. “I don’t, since most cats need to be sedated in order to be bathed. But they pretty much groom themselves, so unless they run into a mud puddle or get skunked, they should be fine.”
    I answered a few more of Deb’s questions, then said, “I’m going to give Smokey her second and final upper respiratory vaccine. I’ll give it between her shoulder blades. It may be tender in that area. The next shot is rabies, in about two weeks. Then I’ll start the leukemia vaccines, a series of two.”
    Her owner watched anxiously as I injected Smokey with a one ml solution of FVR vaccine, the common term for the Feline Rhinotracheitis-Calici-Panleukopenia Vaccine. I noticed that Deb flinched, but Smokey hardly did at all.
    Still, this was the kind of visit I most enjoyed. Smokey was healthy and starting out her life with people who treasured her. As for the Wests, I knew they were going to have years of happiness with the new addition to their family. And the fact that I could play even a minor role in that amazingly