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Authors: Linda O. Johnston
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ride. Since I didn’t want to take more time fending off any dawdling reporters with manners worse than Widget’s, I eschewed my apartment and left Lexie at Darryl’s doggy resort. He was out when we got there, probably a good thing since I still needed to hurry.
I’d cry on his shoulder later about finding Chad Chatsworth among the unwelcome ferrets.
Widget’s owner lived in a small stucco home in the northern Valley. That house, and all its identical neighbors, abutted a flat, broad boulevard with a nice-sized sidewalk. That day, I felt especially energized when the whiskered black fireball that was Widget finally sat, for the first time, on my command. Not that he stayed more than a millimoment. But Widget’s temporary obedience hyped my pet-minder’s self-confidence nonetheless.
Too bad it didn’t carry over to my lack of confidence about the pending ethics exam. I’d passed it before, years ago, as part of the California Bar Exam. That was right after I’d graduated from law school and was still used to studying—and nothing in my life interfered with my immersing myself in the study guides.
Certainly nothing like a murder in my own off-limits house.
“Okay, Widget,” I finally said to the terrier, who was tugging so hard on his taut nylon lead that he was choking himself on the training collar.
I scooped the wriggling thirty-pound pup into my arms. My annoyance with his wayward disregard for my training evanesced when he looked at me with his huge brown eyes and licked my chin.
“You’re welcome,” I said with a laugh, settling him back in the small storage room that was also his dogdom when his owner wasn’t home.
Then it was time to retrieve Lexie from Darryl’s.
I delayed leaving there when he pulled me into his office to ask questions about the latest newsworthy incident to impose itself into my life.
“Yes, another murder,” I told him, rolling my eyes and spilling my guts once again. I explained who Chad Chatsworth was and how I’d found him.
“You’re not a suspect this time, are you, Kendra?” Darryl demanded, holding the edges of his desk with bony fingers as if to brace himself.
“Only if Detective Noralles gets stumped and needs a scapegoat,” I said with a sigh. “But before me, he’s got some ferret suspects. And their owners, since they’re the ones with easier access to the house where Chad was found, plus a grudge against him. Or at least that’s what I gathered at Charlotte’s party.”
“So Charlotte LaVerne might have offed the guy she’d once chosen as her perfect lover? You really believe that?” Darryl’s thin brows rose skeptically over his wire eyeglass frames.
“To keep a million dollars and the possibility of a lot more? I’d hate to think so,” I said with a sad shake of my head, “but that’s easier to believe than the ferrets decking Chad and chewing him to death on their own.”
BUT A FEW hours later, back at my home, I decided that my acceptance of Charlotte as a viable suspect would be more unlikely than I’d thought.
Lexie and I had just arrived. I’d driven around slowly before pulling the Beamer into its spot, making sure no reporters still lurked to spoil our constitutional. I intended to take Lexie on a neighborhood walk of our own before settling down to study till Jeff arrived.
I’d peered into the garage window before heading upstairs to our apartment. No cars had been inside.
Had Charlotte and Yul fled?
Nope. I learned they hadn’t as I heard an engine and peeked out to see Yul pull onto the property. I soon felt my floor vibrate as he drove his grumbling sports car into the garage below. He was alone. No Charlotte riding shotgun.
I waited till he was inside the house before leashing Lexie and heading downstairs. I wasn’t in the mood for a single-syllable conversation about what had happened to Chad Chatsworth.
No sooner had Lexie and I gotten to the front gate than it began to open for Charlotte’s brand-new
I’d cry on his shoulder later about finding Chad Chatsworth among the unwelcome ferrets.
Widget’s owner lived in a small stucco home in the northern Valley. That house, and all its identical neighbors, abutted a flat, broad boulevard with a nice-sized sidewalk. That day, I felt especially energized when the whiskered black fireball that was Widget finally sat, for the first time, on my command. Not that he stayed more than a millimoment. But Widget’s temporary obedience hyped my pet-minder’s self-confidence nonetheless.
Too bad it didn’t carry over to my lack of confidence about the pending ethics exam. I’d passed it before, years ago, as part of the California Bar Exam. That was right after I’d graduated from law school and was still used to studying—and nothing in my life interfered with my immersing myself in the study guides.
Certainly nothing like a murder in my own off-limits house.
“Okay, Widget,” I finally said to the terrier, who was tugging so hard on his taut nylon lead that he was choking himself on the training collar.
I scooped the wriggling thirty-pound pup into my arms. My annoyance with his wayward disregard for my training evanesced when he looked at me with his huge brown eyes and licked my chin.
“You’re welcome,” I said with a laugh, settling him back in the small storage room that was also his dogdom when his owner wasn’t home.
Then it was time to retrieve Lexie from Darryl’s.
I delayed leaving there when he pulled me into his office to ask questions about the latest newsworthy incident to impose itself into my life.
“Yes, another murder,” I told him, rolling my eyes and spilling my guts once again. I explained who Chad Chatsworth was and how I’d found him.
“You’re not a suspect this time, are you, Kendra?” Darryl demanded, holding the edges of his desk with bony fingers as if to brace himself.
“Only if Detective Noralles gets stumped and needs a scapegoat,” I said with a sigh. “But before me, he’s got some ferret suspects. And their owners, since they’re the ones with easier access to the house where Chad was found, plus a grudge against him. Or at least that’s what I gathered at Charlotte’s party.”
“So Charlotte LaVerne might have offed the guy she’d once chosen as her perfect lover? You really believe that?” Darryl’s thin brows rose skeptically over his wire eyeglass frames.
“To keep a million dollars and the possibility of a lot more? I’d hate to think so,” I said with a sad shake of my head, “but that’s easier to believe than the ferrets decking Chad and chewing him to death on their own.”
BUT A FEW hours later, back at my home, I decided that my acceptance of Charlotte as a viable suspect would be more unlikely than I’d thought.
Lexie and I had just arrived. I’d driven around slowly before pulling the Beamer into its spot, making sure no reporters still lurked to spoil our constitutional. I intended to take Lexie on a neighborhood walk of our own before settling down to study till Jeff arrived.
I’d peered into the garage window before heading upstairs to our apartment. No cars had been inside.
Had Charlotte and Yul fled?
Nope. I learned they hadn’t as I heard an engine and peeked out to see Yul pull onto the property. I soon felt my floor vibrate as he drove his grumbling sports car into the garage below. He was alone. No Charlotte riding shotgun.
I waited till he was inside the house before leashing Lexie and heading downstairs. I wasn’t in the mood for a single-syllable conversation about what had happened to Chad Chatsworth.
No sooner had Lexie and I gotten to the front gate than it began to open for Charlotte’s brand-new
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