The Bark of the Town

by Stella St. Claire

  Larissa looked at Willow confused. She shrugged back in reply. She had never seen this man before in her life. What did he want with her? And how did he know she was here?

  “I was told this Willow person was good with dogs. Unless that lady was lying to me and she’s not here.” The man began muttering to himself. “She might have been lying to me. Women are liars. Was this all a joke to her? Send me around to somewhere I’ll look funny? Well, I could show her.”

  Larissa’s hand moved to her belly protectively, and Willow sensed that other people were becoming uncomfortable with this imposing man who was clearly not there to take a class.

  “I’m Willow,” she said, rising from her seat.

  She had to admit that she was a little frightened to talk to this stranger. She didn’t like what he had been muttering and she thought he might be armed. However, she didn’t want to put anyone else in danger when he was clearly looking for her.

  “You’re really here,” he said with a crooked grin. “How about that? Good thing. I want your advice. You know dogs, right? I want help with this dog. And something else.”

  He turned his back on her and headed out the door, expecting her to follow. Willow looked back at the others in the studio. Larissa mouthed “be careful,” and Willow could see that Miranda was moving towards the windows where she could keep an eye on the man on the street.

  “You coming?” he asked before letting the door close after him.

  Willow didn’t mind this non-chivalrous gesture because it gave her an extra moment to position her car keys as a weapon in her hand. If she needed to, she could stab the stranger with the keys and make a run for it.

  She looked at the dog, wondering if this was all a trap. It was a young puppy that looked just old enough to have finished being weaned. He looked somewhat familiar, but it wasn’t a purebred breed she could name. He was tan in color with rough fur and floppy ears. He had some sores on his skin, but they did appear to have been washed.

  The man kept walking down the street and Willow hurried to catch up. She really had no idea what was going on. Was he trying to lead her into danger?

  “Look, “Willow said, stopping. “You know my name, but I don’t know yours. I don’t know who you are or what you want. And I’m not going any further until you tell me.”

  She could tell this annoyed him because of the way he shook his head. The movements were somewhat erratic, but he appeared to be trying to calm himself down. The puppy licked his chin and it seemed to do the trick. He took a breath and visibly calmed as he pet the dog’s ears.

  He then answered at least part of her question. “The name is Hudson Wright. You can call me Hudson. I don’t want you calling me Mr. Wright. And that’s not a joke. You understand? I don’t want you to call me that.”

  “Okay, Hudson.”

  Willow was pleased by this development. Hudson Wright was the guy her dad believed was Daniel Blakemore’s man on the outside. She didn’t think that she would ever be able to track him down, (though she wouldn’t have admitted that to Wednesday or her dad) and now Hudson had found her. This was the perfect opportunity to try to find some answers.

  “You need help with your dog?” Willow asked.

  “Nah. The dog was just a cover to find you,” he said with a laugh. “Otherwise, why would somebody tell me where to find you? But you love dogs, right? You’re like the dog lady in town?”

  Willow gripped her keys tightly and stood on the balls of her feet ready to run. Even though this was a scary announcement to hear from a man with mob ties, Willow waited. She needed to hear if he knew anything about the murders that could clear Wednesday’s name. She also couldn’t let him injure the puppy. Maybe it was her weakness, and he had learned it and exploited it, but she wouldn’t let him harm the dog.

  “I guess you’ve heard some things about me,” Willow said evenly. “I’ve heard some things about you too.”

  “From Daniel? It’s because of him that I’m here. I have a message for you from him.”

  Hudson began digging in his pockets and Willow held her breath. Was he about to draw a gun on her? Her keys would be no match against that. Why didn’t she just stay in the studio and finish her smoothie?

  However, despite how ominously he reached inside his jacket, all Hudson removed was a piece of paper. Hudson read it again and nodded to himself.

  “Before we begin, I just need to make sure that you are Willow Wells, right? There’s no other people in this stupid town with the same dumb name as you?”

  “That’s me,” she said, determined not to be bothered by his rudeness. There were other things about him to be warier of.

  He scoffed. “Women can have the most ridiculous names. It’s because they’re all ridiculous too.”

  She gritted her teeth. “Well, Hudson, what do you want to tell me?”

  “Gotta keep walking as we talk,” he said as he continued down the pavement.

  “Why?”

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “We can stay on the main road. You can be within sight of people. Have some witnesses around if it makes you feel better. But I don’t want anyone listening in. And there were too many women in that yoga place.”

  He kept walking and Willow took a moment to decide what to do. She definitely wanted to talk to him, but this man felt a lot more dangerous than Daniel did. In fact, Hudson looked a lot more like the typical inmate than male model Daniel Blakemore did.

  She watched him and saw that his head twitch continued every so often when he saw something that annoyed him – and there was apparently a lot that annoyed him. However, he was also cradling the puppy in the crook of his elbow very gently. He petted the little pup’s head in a way that seemed to relax the dog who was slowly drifting off to sleep in his arms.

  Well, he couldn’t be all bad if he could be so sweet to the puppy, right? And based on the way Hudson stared protectively at the sleepy animal, Willow suspected that he wasn’t just “a cover story.”

  She hurried to catch up with him.

  “Since it’s just the two of us, I’m going to be blunt,” Hudson said. “I don’t like women.”

  “Okay,” Willow said, not really sure how to respond to that.

  “I just don’t. I never have. I seen a psychiatrist before. He said it was mommy issues. How stupid is that? I said doc, how could that be? I never knew my mom. The dumb broad ran off when I was three. But that don’t matter. Life is easier without women anyway. But I tell you this because I want you to know that I came to talk to you, despite your gender, because Daniel asked me to.”

  “And you’re his right-hand man?”

  “You might say that. You seem to know about the Blakemores. And you know something about me. So I’m just going to tell you what’s up. That’s what Daniel wanted anyway. And I generally do what he says. That’s how it works. And he’s sent me on a two-part mission right now.”

  “And what’s that?” Willow asked.

  “Why are you interrupting me? Women are always interrupting. Making their little comments.”

  Willow kept the comments she was just thinking about Hudson to herself.

  “I’m sorry,” he said after he realized his outburst had woken up the dog. “I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t need to say anything. I just need to tell you that I didn’t kill anyone. Daniel said you were trying to figure out what happened to his girlfriends.”

  Willow nodded.

  “I can’t stand even one woman on my own. But Blake always had them fawning over him. He enjoyed it. And he loved them. He really did. And he didn’t order me to kill them. Or anyone. I wouldn’t have minded if he did,” Hudson admitted as they continued down the street. “But he didn’t.”

  “So, what were your orders?”

  This time Hudson didn’t make a fuss about her asking a question. “All I was supposed to do was move the money from the robbery to Patricia’s apartment for safekeeping. Daniel was afraid that someone might have found his original hiding place. And he
didn’t want the money found. He was sure that it would be the final piece of evidence that kept him locked up. So I was supposed to hide it at Patricia’s and preferably without her knowing about it.”

  “I hadn’t heard that the police found a lot of cash at her apartment.”

  “Because I never left it here,” Hudson snapped. “I mean, I was going to. I was going to follow orders. But when I got to her place, I found out she was home. I could hear two women inside being catty with one another. She didn’t even bother to close her front door properly. It was as if she didn’t care who heard them. Women.”

  “Did you see who was inside?” Willow asked, wondering if it could have been Patricia and her killer.

  “Nah. I only went to the landing before turning around. I was supposed to be sneaky. And besides, two women is just too many to deal with.”

  “So, what did you do then?”

  “Well, I found another place to hide the money. A place with no estrogen,” he said, patting the puppy’s head.

  “You know,” Willow said. “it would do a lot to prove your innocence if you turn that money in.”

  Hudson laughed at her. “No, it wouldn’t. That don’t prove that I didn’t kill her. I know how police think. I still could have killed her and then moved the money. Though, truly, that’s not what happened.”

  It seemed Hudson was a smarter criminal than Daniel was. He was right, of course, but Willow had hoped that she could have persuaded him differently. Hudson still having the money didn’t prove that he had left Patricia’s in a rush that night.

  “If I turn that money in, I’d be sent to jail. They’d say I was an accomplice in the robbery. And I can’t go to jail right now,” he said, stroking the dog’s fur. “I still have things I need to do on the outside.”

  “You have a second mission from Daniel.”

  Hudson nodded. “I have to keep an eye on Cassandra. Make sure she’s safe. Daniel thinks there’s a pattern to these women’s deaths. He thinks they are being targeted because of him.”

  “Wait,” Willow said. “He thinks someone is after these women because he cared about them?”

  “Right,” Hudson said. “He figures someone had a vendetta against him. Someone from his connections.”

  “But,” Willow said, “this robbery was Daniel’s first real crime. How could someone have a vendetta against him?”

  Hudson looked unconvinced as well. “I don’t know. It’s what Daniel thinks. And he’s the one paying me. So I’m going to be on the lookout for someone with a grudge. Anyway, I guess that’s all I came to tell you. That was Daniel’s message.”

  “Thanks for telling me,” Willow said cordially. She was about to leave when she sensed that Hudson had something else to say.

  “You really do know dogs, don’t you?” he asked.

  “That’s right.” She was sure that he didn’t want a list of her qualifications. He just wanted a yes or no.

  “Well, I found this little guy the other day and I’ve been taking care of him.”

  “You did a good job cleaning those sores,” Willow told him.

  He accepted her compliment with a nod and then got down to his real question. “He’s been real whiny at night. Crying from the other room. What am I supposed to do?”

  “He’s probably lonely,” Willow said. “Try giving him one of your shirts to sleep with. He should find that soothing.”

  “I’ll do one better,” Hudson said, turning his attention to the dog. “He can sleep on my bed!”

  13

  “Is Griffin in?” a woman with a miniature schnauzer asked the next afternoon.

  “He’s right here,” Willow said, trying not to sound disappointed and waving for Griffin to join her by the entrance of her dog gym. He jogged over to meet them.

  “Mrs. Masterson,” he said, happily patting the dog. “And Pippin. How are you both doing? Did he eat better last night?”

  “Oh yes,” the woman said. “After working up an appetite playing fetch with you yesterday, he finally ate his full bowl of food again. I’ve never seen him look so healthy, and it’s all because of his time here at the gym with you.”

  Willow watched this exchange and tried not to be jealous. She had only been gone one day and yet it seemed like she was being replaced. Her first three customers of the day had all asked for Griffin.

  She pasted a smile on her face as she listened to Pippin’s loss of appetite going away. When Griffin went to play a few rounds of fetch with the dog and Mrs. Masterson watched their game with rapt attention, Willow began wandering around the gym, making sure that nothing else had changed. She told herself not to be petty. Of course, people liked working with her or they wouldn’t be bringing their dogs to the gym. And she had found Griffin pretty charming herself. If she had the option, she’d probably request the handsome man over the tiny, stressed-out woman who ran the place too.

  She was calming down and thinking kind thoughts about Griffin when he ran up to her.

  “Sorry about that,” he said. “I can see how working here can really keep you on your toes. There’s always someone who wants to talk to you, isn’t there? Or a dog that wants you to rub his belly?”

  Willow nodded. “That’s right. It can keep you really busy.”

  “But don’t worry,” Griffin said, touching her arm affectionately. “It didn’t keep me so busy that I wasn’t able to do the other things around here that needed to be done. I still cleaned out the stock room. And, yes, nurse. Nothing was over five pounds. I balanced the petty cash, and I renegotiated your cable contract.”

  He held his good arm’s hand up for a high five and Willow hit it, but it was more out of habit than anything else. She didn’t feel like celebrating. Those three tasks had been on her to-do list for at least a month. How was Griffin able to complete them all in one day?

  Part of her was jealous that he was able to do things so efficiently and become beloved so quickly. Another part of her was afraid that he was taking over. Could she consider it a hostile takeover if he did it so cheerfully?

  She took a deep breath while she and Griffin surveyed the dogs running around the gym during free play. She needed to relax. She was clearly overreacting. Griffin had offered to help, and she had accepted so she could focus on Wednesday. That’s all there was to it.

  There was no way that this could be part of a plan to take her gym away from her like Benjamin had. That was crazy. Griffin wouldn’t have fallen off a ladder intentionally to hurt himself, and he wouldn’t have framed Wednesday for murder.

  However, at the moment, that motive made as much sense as any other one did. Could Daniel be putting on an act about how much he cared about these women and really was just trying to destroy the robbery case against him? Could Hudson Wright have committed the murder because Daniel told him to? Or could Hudson have killed the victims simply because he hated women? They were both violent deaths with objects that were close at hand. Of course, it also could have been Larissa who did it. It would have been an act of revenge for her torment during her high school days and for the rumors about her miscarriage recently.

  “Is everything all right?” Griffin asked, noticing the distant look in her eyes.

  “Just thinking about the case,” Willow said, telling him a half truth. There was no need to address her feelings that he was too good on the job and that he needed to have an ulterior motive for it. She recognized that those were feelings of paranoia. Besides, this was a temporary situation. There was no need to confuse a Chihuahua-sized worry with a Great Dane one.

  “Any breakthroughs?”

  “Maybe,” Willow said, forcing herself to acknowledge that Griffin’s help was a good thing. Then, she realized that he was talking about the case. “I mean, I have a few good potential motives. Even though Hudson Wright denies carrying out any hits, I still think it’s possible he did. He definitely wouldn’t have any qualms about doing it. I don’t know. I feel like I need to do some more investigating to figure things out fully.
And I’m not quite sure what my next move should be. I thought I might do some work here to see if it would help me think. And I could check in to see how things are going.”

  “Things are going great,” Griffin assured her. “The staff is really pitching in too. And I think we’re running things perfectly for you.”

  “Perfect,” Willow repeated, trying not to sound grumpy.

  “But I am glad that you came in to do a little work.”

  “You are?” Willow asked, wondering if there was some problem that Griffin couldn’t solve. Maybe there was something special that only she could do. Maybe a certain dog needed her particular skills to help him blossom.

  “Let’s go to your office,” Griffin said, escorting her towards the gym’s exit so they could head to her house. Before they left, Griffin called out, “Shelly, you’re in charge.”

  Shelly gave him a thumbs up and Griffin continued leading Willow back to her house. There was a desk and computer in the back room of the dog gym, but the main office area was inside Willow’s house. It was there that she kept her important paperwork and information on the dogs that wasn’t included on her color training chart on the dog gym wall. What could be in her office that Griffin needed help with in the one day she was gone?

  “All right,” Griffin said when they reached the room. “I want you to know that I’ve got the gym on lockdown so no one will disturb you.”

  “Pardon?” Willow asked, not sure where this was leading.

  “I saw on your calendar that your in-person meeting for the dog food ad was coming up this week. I figured you probably needed some time to prepare for it because investigating was taking up so much of your time. I wanted to make it so you wouldn’t have any distractions, so you could focus completely on your presentation for a little while. I even got Tele a new bone so he wouldn’t distract you either.”

  Willow knew his idea was sweet. However, she wasn’t sure she was in the mood to focus on her presentation for the dog food ad at the moment. Her mind was all over the place. She was wondering what Detective McMillen was up to in order to force a case against her sister. She was trying to figure out who the killer was and if there was a chance he (or she!) would strike again.