Till Death Do Us Bark (Happy Tails Dog Walking Mysteries Book 2)

by Stella St. Claire

  There were Styrofoam wedding cake displays, gorgeous flower arrangements, invitation designs, artfully draped fabrics, gleaming china, sparkling crystal, and more. Olivia had felt so overwhelmed in the beginning, but now she couldn't help smiling as she leisurely walked through and studied the options. Lacy's one-stop-shopping wedding service made everything so easy. Lacy only catered to the best vendors in town, so Olivia knew that she was getting the best for less.

  "Lacy?" she called out. It was odd that Lacy hadn’t emerged from the back on the sounding of the soft, melodic chime when Olivia had opened the door. Maybe she was seeing to some personal business. "It's Olivia. Your door was open. Did you forget to lock it?"

  Stopping at the cake display, she lightly traced her fingers over one particularly stunning red-and-white cake. It was a bold design, with gorgeous swirls and roses lining the edges. It had been Olivia's favorite, and Lacy had pushed it mercilessly—but there was one point that Olivia would not bend on. Janelle would make her wedding cake, and would have complete creative power. Lacy had pushed vendor after vendor on Olivia, maintaining that while Janelle was a great baker, she'd never made such a lavish cake before, but Olivia would not change her mind.

  At the silence that followed her question, she looked up and frowned. Goodwin started to whine, and Fender surprised her by flattening his ears and letting out a low growl. "Shush," she whispered. "You won't be welcome back if you don't behave."

  Moving to the back of the showroom, she entered the large office in the back. Here was where Lacy kept all of her binders holding countless decisions to be made. She had one binder for flowers, one for tablecloth materials, one for recipes—the list went on and on. Each binder was crammed with options. It was enough to make Olivia's head spin. She’d had no idea there was so much to planning a wedding—but Lacy would be with her every step of the way, guiding her to the best choices.

  Without Lacy, Olivia knew she would never have gotten this far.

  Knocking softly on the doorframe, she entered and saw Lacy sitting at her desk, facing the wall. "There you are. I was starting to think that you'd left the place unmanned. I'm sorry to barge in on you like this, but I was out walking the dogs, and it's absolutely pouring out there."

  Goodwin let out a sharp bark that pierced the silence and startled Olivia. Filled with foreboding, she moved a little closer to the quiet figure. The woman hadn't reacted at all. "Lacy?" she whispered. With a trembling hand, she reached out and touched the woman's shoulder.

  The wedding planner slumped forward, and Olivia gasped and jerked back.

  Lacy McBride was dead.

  4

  Phone cradled between ear and shoulder, Andrew opened his calendar app. Papers were strewn about his office, and things were really starting to stress him out. It was starting to feel like one thing after another was going wrong.

  He noticed motion in the doorway out of the corner of his eye and lifted an arresting pointer finger in a silent command. Stop. Don’t talk. Just a minute.

  A quick glance at the doorway revealed Brett hovering there, waiting for Andrew to look up.

  Andrew’s eyes went back to the screen. "Uh-huh," he muttered as he scrolled to the right month. "No, that's not going to work. The hospital is hosting a large conference for the children's ward, and everyone on my staff is going to be present to make sure it runs smoothly. Can you swing by on the third, instead?"

  He listened to the nasal complaints of the person on the other end before he finally sighed and nodded. "All right, I can swing that. Thanks for accommodating me."

  Hanging up, he cradled his head in his hands and sighed. "Want to be me for the next few months?"

  "Do I get to step in as the groom, too? Dude, what are you even still doing here? You should have gone home hours ago."

  Brett was Andrew's best friend in Lowell, although the two of them were vastly different. Andrew enjoyed commitment and going home to one woman every night. Brett thought the whole idea was nothing short of a nightmare.

  "Too much stuff to do. And don't worry about the wedding," Andrew grumbled. "Although, at this rate, I'm not sure I'll even get married."

  “Really?” Brett sank into one of the chairs across from Andrew's desk. "Are you having second thoughts?"

  Leaning back, Andrew crumpled a piece of paper into a ball and threw it into the wastebasket. Normally he never missed, but this time, it flew wide by a good foot. "No, but I think Olivia is, and she doesn't even realize it. She's turned into a whole new person with this wedding-planning business."

  "That's nothing," his friend said with a wave of his hand. He bent down to retrieve the paper and crooked his wrist to complete the toss. The crumpled ball sailed smoothly into the metal bin. "Most women turn into monsters when planning a wedding."

  "And if that were what's happening, I might agree. But it's not. Olivia isn't nitpicking. She's letting some wedding planner do the whole thing, and it doesn't even resemble what Olivia wanted. The worst part is that Olivia doesn't seem to care. I've never seen her put so much faith in one person before."

  "It doesn't seem like Olivia is the kind of woman to enjoy wedding planning," Brett muttered.

  They were talking about the same woman who’d thrown herself into a murder mystery to avoid Andrew's proposal. Of course she wasn't the kind of woman who planned for weddings. "She wants to get married next month."

  Brett recoiled in horror. "Really? Dude, we need to head to Vegas next week if that's the case. If there's one good thing about weddings, it's the free hall pass for the bachelor's party."

  "We're not getting married next week," Andrew said firmly. "I’m not even so sure about next month. I wanted a long engagement for Olivia to get used to the idea of getting married. I half expected to have to ask her to marry me several times before I wore her down.”

  He shook his head. “She almost died a few months ago. She says yes to my proposal the first time, and then she didn't even put up a fight when I moved in. I feel like maybe she's still running off the fumes of fear from facing Yvette's killer. I don't want her to come down and realize that she's married, and her whole life has changed. I want her to adjust slowly."

  "So tell her that."

  "I've tried. Whenever I bring up the wedding, she gets all defensive. I lost my temper with her this morning, and now I hate myself. Not to mention, this job has gotten stressful over the past few weeks, and I'm not handling it well." He crumpled up another piece of paper and tossed it. He didn't even know what was on it, but he didn't care. If he could, he'd throw away everything on his desk.

  "You need a break," Brett announced. "We could leave early and grab a drink in the city before you go back to that insane little town you insist on living in. Maybe next weekend we could go on a guys' trip."

  "A guys' trip?" Andrew cocked an eyebrow. "I don't suppose that would include an insane amount of glitter, neon lights, and horrible pop music."

  Brett grinned. "I'm saving that for your bachelor's party. I'm talking about something low-key. We could do some golfing or check out a few new breweries."

  "The golf courses are flooded by now." Andrew’s cellphone lit up, and he nearly threw it across the office until he saw who was calling. "Damn it!"

  Fear settled over him as he took the call.

  Brett watched him curiously through the short conversation. "Everything okay?"

  Andrew sighed. "Olivia managed to find herself another dead body. This time, it's her wedding planner."

  Brett whistled. "Did you kill her?"

  "No, but I have a feeling that before this is all over with, Olivia is going to get herself into even more trouble."

  After ushering the two dogs to the courtyard in the back and leashing them to the bench under the shelter, Olivia composed herself and called the sheriff's office. She didn't recognize the voice of the person who took her call, but she specifically requested that Sheriff Nicholas Limperos show up. Murder didn't happen very often in their small town. In fact, Yvette's
untimely death had been the first murder to occur in over a decade. And while Lacy's death didn't scream murder, healthy people didn't drop dead, sitting in a chair, for no reason.

  Don't even think about it, she told herself sternly. Not only had her amateur investigations into Yvette's death upset Andrew, but it had also nearly gotten her killed. There had been a number of good reasons for her involvement. First, her sister was a suspect. Then she was trying to avoid Andrew—and see if she could be as good at picking up clues as her favorite fictional character. But now that she'd accepted Andrew's proposal and given up indulging in the Rose Palmer murder mysteries, she had no reason to get involved.

  Despite the warning she gave herself, she couldn't help but survey the scene while she waited for the police. The room was in impeccable shape. It was as though Lacy had finished cleaning the place for the night and then simply sat down and died. There were no obvious wounds on the body. Her normally creamy skin was a little splotchy, but for all Olivia knew, the woman had just taken her makeup off for the day.

  There were no signs of a struggle. The china dishes along the wall were perched so precariously on the shelf that any sort of violent movement would have had them tumbling down in a crash. Four crystal champagne glasses, four pink-and-white patterned dessert plates, and one dessert fork.

  Narrowing her eyes, she stared at the mismatched set. It was out of place, and if there was anything that she learned from Rose Palmer, it was that anything out of place was a clue. Still, no matter how many times she tried to create a scenario that accounted for murder and the missing forks, she came up with nothing. If Lucy had been stabbed, there would be blood. Besides, can someone even die from stab wound created by a dessert fork? It seemed highly unlikely. The most plausible explanation was that Lacy had been switching them out for another set when she was interrupted. They were only there to give an idea of the dishes that Lacy had to offer, so it wasn't unusual for Lacy to move them around and display something new.

  "Oh, for God's sake," she muttered to herself, and she turned on her heel and marched out through the display room to wait outside the front door. Standing under the awning, she crossed her arms and stood there as the rain continued to pour down. It was cold and dreary, but she would make herself crazy if she stayed inside. The best thing she could do was to wait for the professionals to handle it.

  Over time, Lacy had become someone that Olivia would consider a friend. She was sharp, funny, and kind. Olivia knew part of it was just about pleasing her as a customer, but Lacy often confided in her when another client became a bridezilla, and it made Olivia feel like she was more than just another job.

  The wedding planner could be a little overbearing. If Olivia waivered in a decision, Lacy would make it for her, and sometimes that bothered the bride-to-be, but this was Lacy's job. The professional knew best, and it was usually easier for Olivia to let Lacy take command than to try to wade the uncharted waters herself.

  The siren from the squad car jolted Olivia out of her reverie, and she inwardly groaned when she saw that Nick wasn't alone. Deputy Derek Jameson climbed out of the driver’s side of the car with a wide grin on his handsome face. Derek had gone to high school with Olivia and was one of the most popular guys in town. He'd had the girls swooning when he was the handsome high school jock and King of the Homecoming court. He, of course, hadn't even seemed to know that Olivia existed until Andrew had moved to town and caused a stir when he claimed Olivia for his own.

  After that, Derek finally seemed to see her, and he rarely wasted an opportunity to remind her that since they’d gone to school together, he was more suited for her than Andrew was. Normally it was just friendly banter, and since she'd become engaged, Derek had finally seemed to back off.

  "Olivia," Nick growled. He was out of uniform and looking a little grumpy at having his day off interrupted. "You called to say that Lacy McBride is dead?"

  Olivia cleared her throat. Even so, her voice was a little husky. "Yeah. I went inside and found her sitting in her chair."

  "And you of all people happened to find her? Olivia, this isn't going to become a habit, is it?"

  Olivia arched an eyebrow. "Exactly what are you implying?"

  "I'm starting to wonder if dead bodies follow you wherever you go."

  "Nick! That's a horrible thing to say!" Upset, she shoved her hands in her pockets and looked away. The rain continued to beat on the fabric of the awning above them.

  The sheriff must have realized that he'd upset her—he sighed. "I'm sorry, Olivia. You're right. I'm sorry that you had to find her. I know that she was your wedding planner."

  "I was starting to think of her as a friend, too," she whispered.

  Patting her awkwardly on her shoulder, Nick looked at the sign on the door and frowned. "It says that she's supposed to be closed by this time on a Monday. Did you have an appointment?"

  "No, I was out walking Fender and Goodwin when it started to rain. I’d stopped under the awning when I noticed that her lights were on."

  She didn’t miss the look the sheriff gave her. Goodwin was making a habit of walking through a crime scene. “They’re tied up out back. In the courtyard.”

  "All right, let's go inside and have a look," Nick said grimly. Opening the door, he paused when Olivia didn't move to follow him in. "Are you coming?"

  After hesitating for a moment, she shook her head. "No. I think this time, I'm going to stay out of it."

  Surprise showed on the older man's face, but he didn't say anything about her previous attempts at investigating. Instead, he just nodded his head. "Did you touch anything while you were in there?"

  "One of the cakes that I was admiring, and I touched Lacy before I realized that she was dead."

  "And did you see anything out of the ordinary?"

  "A couple of dessert forks are missing, but she changes them out, so it might not mean anything."

  Nick nodded. "Do you want Derek to drive you home?"

  Olivia almost said no, but it was still raining, and Olivia didn't particularly want to be alone. Slowly, she nodded her head. "I'll go get the dogs."

  "Wait," Nick said as he grabbed her arm. "I'd prefer you not go back inside before we have a look around. Derek will get them."

  The deputy nodded at the implicit command and opened the shop door, setting off the melodic chimes. “We’ll be right back.”

  Olivia nodded again, feeling as if she were moving through molasses.

  As though he sensed that she didn't want to be alone, Nick stayed with her. "How are the wedding plans going?"

  "I don't know. If you had asked me yesterday, I would have said great, but Andrew isn't happy with what I have planned—and now, Lacy is dead."

  "Don't get upset, Olivia. I know it's hard losing a friend, but you can't let it get in the way of your wedding. There are other planners who can help you, and Andrew is acting as most men do in the middle of wedding plans."

  "Really? So it's normal that he's picking a fight about this?"

  "I find it hard to believe that Andrew would pick a fight about anything," Nick muttered, and then he added in a more conversational tone, "But most men find the planning frustrating. It's a lot of money, and sometimes the bride gets a little too involved. I think Mary stopped speaking to me halfway through because I had the audacity to tell her that the flowers she picked made me sneeze." Nick smiled fondly at the thought of his wife. The two had celebrated their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary this past year and were still very much in love.

  "Thanks, Nick."

  Derek appeared, face grim as he hauled the two dogs by their leashes, and he kept to the center of the showroom as if afraid they’d knock down the delicate displays by passing too close. Fender wasn’t so much of a problem as Goodwin, lunging with all the strength of a massive dog’s muscles for the front door, where he could see Olivia waiting.

  Grim as the situation was, Nick chuckled as he pulled the door open for the deputy. Goodwin gathered himself for a quick ju
mp and a lick that barely missed Olivia’s chin before Derek hauled the dogs into the pouring rain.

  "Olivia?" Derek called when he’d finally wrangled the dogs into the squad car. "Are you ready?"

  Olivia said a quick goodbye to Nick, and her gaze lingered through the glass of the door. Her heart ached for Lacy, but there was nothing Olivia could do for her. Nick was getting up there in years, and before Yvette’s death, it had been a long time since he'd investigated a murder. At least he wasn't shy about asking for help. With the resources of the state police, he'd have the killer in custody in no time.

  Pulling up the hood on her sweatshirt, she hurried to the car. By the time she got in, she was completely soaked. Goodwin and Fender were shaking their bodies, drenching the backseat. Derek wrinkled his nose at the smell of wet dog.

  "This is supposed to be the last day of the rain for a while, thank God," he muttered as he turned the key, starting the car. "Otherwise we'll have to get squad boats just to get around town."

  Olivia, staring out the window, barely heard him. Despite her not wanting to get involved, her mind still actively tried to come up with plausible scenarios. She didn't know much about the woman. Perhaps Lacy’d had a heart condition that Olivia didn't know about—or maybe some sort of brain tumor. What other explanation could there be?

  Poison.

  "Olivia? Are you okay?"

  Blinking, she turned her head and tried to smile. "Sorry. I was just thinking about poor Lacy."

  "She was your wedding planner?"

  "Yes. She was supposed to be the best in town. Did you know her?"

  "Not really. I think she's from Lowell, but the small-town vibe works better for her. I heard the other wedding planners weren't thrilled when she moved in, but I guess that's just competition for you."

  Or maybe one of them killed her.

  Disgusted that she couldn't turn her brain off, she switched to another topic of conversation. "I heard that you went on a date with Sarah Callahan."