“Why?” For as long as she’d know the two of them, she’d never actually heard Henderson come out and admit that he had a crush on her.
“She is the town psychic, and I think it would be good to have someone there with some foresight. You know how kids are these days. They get into all kinds of trouble, and I’d like to stop their shenanigans before they even get started.”
Unable to help herself, Olivia threw back her head and laughed. The whole situation was simply absurd. Henderson frowned at her until she got herself under control. “I apologize, Mayor,” she giggled. “I don’t know what got into me.”
“It’s okay, dear. I’m sure not having Andrew around is making you a little unbalanced,” he said kindly.
Unbalanced? Olivia had to struggle not to burst out laughing again. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. “I’m sure Lady Celeste might appreciate the invitation if it came directly from you. After all, you are simply trying to keep the town safe.”
“I’m very busy,” Henderson said, puffing out his chest. “And planning the prom is your job. Besides, you two are very close. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to help you out.”
Right. Very close. It wasn’t that long ago that Lady Celeste had pointed a finger at Olivia and declared her a cursed bride. Olivia was just about to point that out when the mayor pulled out his pocket watch.
Really?
“Look at the time. I must be going. It was nice having this lovely little chat with you. I trust that you’ll follow through on your end, yes? Enjoy the rest of your evening.” He snapped the watch closed and hurried down the street.
Olivia shook her head. It was nice to know that, despite the fact that her world had come unglued, the ridiculous goings-on of Lexingburg would always remain the same.
It only took her a few more minutes to get to The Perfect Shot. There were several small photographers in Lexingburg. Olivia wasn’t sure why, considering the small population, but they all did well to stay in business. To her surprise, there was a familiar busty blonde already at the front desk.
“I’m going to need a couple of headshots, and of course a photo with a few dogs. I’ve brought some pictures of my brand so we can talk about color coordination,” Deedee said loudly as she spread photos across the desk. “This is going to be huge, and I deserve it. Do you know how many puppies we can save with this kind of exposure? How many dogs we can rescue from the pound?”
“Sounds good,” the man at the desk said in a bored tone. “I’ll make sure Tyler gets your information.”
“I’m not done,” Deedee snapped. “Do you do banners? I’m going to need posters and banners announcing the endorsement.”
Endorsement? Olivia’s head shot up as she stared at the back of the woman’s head. She’d originally written Deedee off as a harmless but passionate lover of dogs who couldn’t possibly have killed Kimberly, but an endorsement sounded an awful lot like a celebrity endorsement.
Like Kimberly’s celebrity endorsement.
Just how deep was the competition? Maybe Jackie and Janelle were right. What if Deedee’s public temper tantrum was all for show, and she’d murdered Kimberly for that endorsement?
“Have a good day,” the man said dully.
Deedee whirled around and nearly walked into Olivia.
“Watch it,” she snapped before stopping suddenly. “I know you. You’re that dog walker.”
“I’m the owner of Happy Tails,” Olivia said slowly.
“Yeah, I saw you at Rich Eats and asked around. You were endorsing Kimberly’s dog food.”
Apparently, it wasn’t taking Deedee very long to round up Kimberly’s supporters and tempt them to her side. “That’s right.”
“I’m sure you’ve heard of Kimberly’s untimely demise,” Deedee said airily without a hint of sorrow in her voice. “You’ll need to switch to Espouse Eats.”
“I—what?” Olivia blinked. Just how crazy was this woman? “Just because Kimberly’s dead doesn’t mean her brand is gone. I don’t know who will start running things, but I didn’t just sell the food because Kimberly was my friend. I sold it because I believed in the formula.”
“Then you’re the worst dog walker ever,” Deedee snapped. “You obviously don’t know anything about dogs or what they should eat. If you don’t switch, I’m going to tell your customers the truth. I’m going to tell them that you’re pushing dog food that’s killing dogs.”
With that threat, Deedee whirled around and stormed out, high heels tapping angrily.
“Well, Olivia,” the dog walker muttered to herself. “I guess you’re about to get involved after all.” She could try and hide behind her failed relationship with Andrew, but nobody threatened her business. Nobody.
If Deedee had killed Kimberly, she was going down, and Olivia was going to be the one to see to it.
9
“She didn’t threaten you,” Nick said calmly. “She threatened your reputation, and while that is unfair, it’s not enough for me to accuse her of murder.”
Olivia sat across from the sheriff’s desk and tried to rein in her temper. She’d tried to talk to Nick last night after she’d left the photographers’, but he was already out of the office, and she didn’t want to track him down at home. It wasn’t as though Deedee was trying to flee the area. But now she wished she’d just called him at home and told him what had happened because this morning had been—and promised to continue to be—a disaster. Her coffee machine at home was broken, Fender was having some rather smelly digestion problems, and someone had chewed a hole in her blue tennis shoes. She had a fairly strong feeling that someone was Snowball.
“I’m not here because she threatened my reputation,” Olivia argued. “I’m here because I thought you should know that she has a motive for murder!”
“I know that Kimberly was your friend and that you want to help out. I also know that you had some success with the last two cases that you worked, but I honestly don’t think that this case is going to take very long to wrap up.”
Olivia tried not to grit her teeth. Yes, Nick was telling her to keep her nose out of the case, but he was obviously placating her. Regardless whether it was because Kimberly had been her friend or because he thought she might be a little unpredictable now that she was single, Nick wasn’t taking her seriously. “So you have proof that Ballard killed her? He didn’t even seem to know that Kimberly was dead!”
“Neither did Deedee, according to you.” His voice was mild as he leaned back, and the chair creaked in protest at that extra ten pounds that Nick could never seem to lose.
“Does he have an alibi?”
“Does Deedee?”
“Nick!” Olivia gripped the arms of her chair and blew out her breath slowly. “I think that there’s something going on here, and I would appreciate it if you kept me in the loop—or at least promised to look at it.”
He studied her for a quiet moment before sighing. “Ballard’s alibi is that he was fishing at the time of the murder, but there are no witnesses to back him up. Employees of his said that it wasn’t uncommon for him to take off without notice and go camping or fishing, but I think it’s too convenient. It smells fishy to me, no pun intended. He was writing some seriously large alimony checks to Kimberly, and he’d requested the judge to lower the amount once Kimberly started making more money. The judge denied him. He has motive and no solid alibi.”
“Fine. It does sound a little iffy, but you have to admit that Deedee is off her rocker. Kimberly would never in a million years do anything to support puppy mills or harm dogs. Deedee’s accusations get more outrageous by the minute—and now she has a celebrity endorsement! She could have killed Kimberly to get that endorsement.”
Nick nodded his head as he mulled it over. “Is it the same celebrity?”
“I don’t know,” Olivia admitted, and bit her lower lip. “But you could find out, right?”
Leaning forward, the sheriff shuffled some papers around and glanced over them. Finally,
he shook his head. “I’ll try to look into it, but there are a few avenues that I was going to check out in regard to Ballard over the next couple of days.”
Olivia bit her tongue. Nick was her friend, and she didn’t want to say anything bad about him, but he could very well be making a mistake. Why was he so hung up on Ballard? It was like he couldn’t see that someone else could be the killer.
She didn’t care about Ballard. It wasn’t that she wanted to protect him, and he might very well have killed Kimberly, but there had been something in his eyes that day in the park. Not remorse or sadness upon hearing about his ex’s demise—but raw anger.
Maybe he was angry that Kimberly was dead. Maybe he was angry that someone had beaten him to it.
“I understand.” She did. Lexingburg’s sheriff’s station was small, and they were always strapped for resources during a case.
“Olivia.” Nick cleared his throat. “You will be careful, right?”
Careful? She flashed him a smile. “I’m a dog walker,” she said innocently. “Nothing dangerous about that.”
As she left the office, she made a point of smiling at Carol, the deputy at the front desk. It was a small relief to not see Derek. Derek Jameson, an old high-school acquaintance, had been out of town for a couple of days for some training. Although they’d known each other in high school, it wasn’t until Olivia was with Andrew that it seemed the handsome ex-football player noticed and wanted her. It was almost a relief that he hadn’t been around much since Andrew was gone. Derek was nice and all, but she hated to hurt his feelings.
She had just enough time to run home and grab her dogs before opening the office. Hopefully, by now, Fender would have set himself right, and Janelle would have some coffee on. As she slid behind the wheel of her Jeep, the phone rang.
The familiar ringtone made her heart skip a beat, and she knocked her purse off the seat onto the floorboards as she scrambled for the phone. “Andrew,” she said breathlessly when she finally answered.
Then her mind went blank.
What was she supposed to say? Why was he calling her?
“Olivia,” he said quietly. “I hope I didn’t wake you. I figured you’d be up by now. I was on my way to work, and I thought I’d update you, although I don’t have much to report.”
“Report?” Her brain started working again, and she was immediately disappointed. “Right. You were looking into Ballard. Actually, I was just leaving the sheriff’s station. Apparently, Ballard is still Nick’s prime suspect. I guess he tried to get a judge to change the terms of the monthly alimony checks and was turned down. Nick says that his alibi was fishy—which should make you cringe since the alibi was that Ballard was fishing.”
Andrew didn’t laugh. “So I guess it’s almost over.”
Was it Olivia’s heart playing tricks on her, or did he sound a little disappointed? “Actually, I went to Nick because I think there is a new suspect. Deedee Espouse of Espouse Eats was Kimberly’s main competition. I also think she might be a little insane. She was spouting lies that Kimberly was giving food to puppy mills, and yesterday she threatened to tell people that the food I was selling was killing dogs.”
“What? She threatened you?”
A hard edge had suddenly come into his voice, and for a moment, she felt that small seed of comfort, knowing that he still cared. She swallowed hard, hoping her voice would come out brisk and matter-of-fact. “Well, as Nick pointed out, she actually threatened my reputation. She wants me to start selling Espouse Eats.”
“No one in this town would ever think that you are willingly selling food that kills dogs, and if she has no proof to back it up, they’ll all just think that she’s crazy.”
Turning the speakerphone on, she laid the phone in her lap as she started the car. “There’s more. I saw her at the photographers’ where I was doing some errands for the prom committee. Deedee was there for a photo shoot to announce her new celebrity endorsement.”
“The same one?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Nick isn’t making it a priority, and I think there’s something there.” She held her breath, waiting for Andrew to tell her to stop prying, but he didn’t.
That small seed of hope died. Maybe he didn’t care about her after all.
“Okay, well—I have to go. Thanks for looking into it for me.” She paused, not really sure what to say next. I love you was on the tip of her tongue, but that was inappropriate. Even have a good day seemed too intimate.
“I might be able to get off early tonight,” he said suddenly. “Maybe I could help you get some information from the photographers. I’m sure they’ll know who the celebrity is.”
“Really? How are you going to do that?”
“We could meet with them and pretend that we want to hire them to do a photo shoot. Maybe we can get them to give us the information. I could meet you there around four, if you want.”
Work with Andrew to solve a case? Their relationship was getting stranger by the minute. “Four sounds great,” she managed at last. Before another silence could stretch between them, she quickly hung up.
It was a great idea, and it would give her a chance to gauge how he felt about their breakup, but it also seemed a little too dangerous. Not that asking questions was a danger but rather that being near Andrew might just be a little too tempting.
By the time she’d picked up her dogs and gotten to the office, she was a wreck. Olivia let the dogs loose in the back and stalked into the back of the bakery, making a beeline to the coffee machine. So intent was she on the fragrant, inky liquid, steam rising as she began to pour it into a cup, she barely registered Janelle’s wide-eyed regard.
“Is everything okay?” Janelle asked carefully. “You’ve got a strange look on your face.”
“Everything is just peachy.” Olivia tried to keep her hands from shaking as she poured. “Deedee Espouse threatened to tell everyone that I knowingly poisoned their dogs by selling them Rich Eats if I don’t change to her dog-food brand, Nick won’t consider her a possible suspect with a motive, my coffee maker doesn’t work, and my ex-fiancé wants to investigate with me this afternoon.”
“Andrew?” Janelle was suddenly at her side in a flash. “You’ve been talking to him?”
“Not about us. Just about the case. I ran into him yesterday, and I guess we’re still trying to figure it out. He volunteered to help—which is very unlike him. You know how he feels about my investigating. I don’t know what to think about that.” She took that first sip of coffee and willed it to wash away all her anxiety.
It didn’t.
“Maybe he just wants to be near you.”
“If he wanted to be near me, he could have asked me to join him for dinner. Coffee. Drinks. We haven’t spoken a word about this separation. Is it a break? Is it permanent? It felt like a break, but now he wants to break the lease and find a new place . . .”
Janelle’s ears perked up. “New place? We need renters.”
“Oh, no.” Adamantly shaking her head, Olivia shuddered at the thought. “There is no way that we are going to let Andrew live above my office.”
“Right. No, of course. That makes sense. That’s a terrible idea. Forget I even asked. What about his friend? Brett? I bet he would love to live up there and be close to Jackie.”
Since Olivia still wasn’t sure how she felt about that relationship, she let it go. Instead, she focused on something that she could control. “I’m going to do a bit of online shopping for the prom decorations and see if I can’t put some things on hold and pick them up later this week. Elspeth loved the theme, and the announcements have already gone out.”
A sudden look of horror crossed Janelle’s face. “We don’t have to chaperone the thing, do we?”
“Would it be so bad? Might be romantic for you and Patrick to get in the mood,” the younger sister teased. Janelle immediately colored, and Olivia laughed all the way upstairs. Feeling much better, she answered a few emails, returned a few
phone calls, and didn’t even mind the trip down the stairs and up again to get her two dogs back inside. Within an hour, she had a total of five dogs running around the daycare.
Curiosity got the better of her, and she poked around the Espouse Eats website. Not only was there no mention of a celebrity endorsement, but there were also no upcoming new announcements. When Kimberly had landed her deal, she’d had two blog posts hinting at some big news—although she’d never gotten a chance to announce it. With Deedee, there was nothing.
It was almost as if the deal had just landed in her lap.
Pushing the investigation out of her mind, Olivia tried to focus on the other two projects that she was dealing with. After refreshing the water bowls in the playroom, Olivia hunted around the party websites in Lowell and saved the things she thought might work best for the prom. She watched a couple more videos about drywall and painting, and she tried not to think about what the evening had in store for her as she went on her afternoon round of dog walking.
Part of her thought the day would never end, and part of her thought that four o’clock came too soon. As she handed the reins to Tanya, Olivia checked her reflection in the mirror and berated herself for not wearing one of her nicer outfits. Still, there was nothing she could do about it now as she jogged two streets over to the photographers’.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said breathlessly, trying not to stare at how good Andrew looked. The gentle breeze had ruffled his dark hair, and he was sporting a little scruff around the chin. She normally liked him clean-cut, but the rugged look was working for him.
Of course, if she were being honest with herself, she’d have to admit that he could have a beard down to his toes, and she would love him for it. She’d had no idea how starving she was for his presence until she was standing near him.
He gave her an easy grin. “I think I’d be more surprised if you were on time for something. How was your day?”
A wave of pain swept through her. Such an innocent question, but there was hardly an easy answer. Her day was fine because she’d trudged through it, and her day was horrible because she’d been too anxious about this.
One Bark And Stormy Prom Night (Happy Tails Dog Walking Mysteries Book 3) Page 7
