Murder, She Barked

Kim looked like she might be sick. “Brewster was fuming when he found out it had been reported stolen by my dad. But then it was stolen from him, and that person hit Sven and killed him. It must have been Tiny!”

“I thought Brewster and Tiny were friends. Why would Tiny steal from Brewster?”

“I wouldn’t know.” She rubbed her wrist. “Now Brewster has my gold watch and is pressuring me for more. I should have left it at home.”

“If you’ll pardon my saying so, your parents are loaded. Why didn’t you just go to them?”

“Oh no! You don’t know my parents. They gave me some of their money to invest—and it’s gone, gone, gone. Everything is gone. I’m so deep in the hole I can’t see daylight anymore. I don’t know how I’ll ever crawl out.”

“And now you have the issue of stealing a car to deal with, too.”

“I didn’t steal it. I borrowed it. And I never dreamed something like this would happen. Imagine that stupid car turning up in a hit-and-run. Seriously, what are the odds of that? I’m cursed.”

Ben strolled in, shaved and dressed. “What’s going on?”

I eyed Kim.

“He knows. I confessed the whole thing to him last night.”

Ben’s mouth fell open. “Kim, you didn’t! What part of ‘don’t breathe a word about this to anyone’ wasn’t clear to you?”

“She already knew. Quit yelling at me. I’m miserable enough as it is.”

I’d never seen Ben so confused. My mission was accomplished, though. I took my latte and a muffin, along with Trixie’s remaining cookie. After all, we hadn’t had breakfast. But it dawned on me that it might be a good time to add more bad news. “I’m really sorry about your car, Ben. I’ll pay to replace the carpeting.”

“What?!”

I could hear the two of them squabbling as Trixie and I left.

Trixie couldn’t take her eyes off the remaining peanut butter cookie. She ran in front of me and danced on her hind legs, nearly tripping me up.

Once we were back in the golf cart, I fed her a piece and drank some of my latte. Trixie alternately yelped like a nut and nudged my hand until all the food, hers and mine, had been consumed.

I wasn’t sure that I understood anything more about Sven’s murder. My mind raced as I tried to sort out the facts. But I did know that I had to find a way to let Trixie run off some energy. I had a feeling that she’d been fairly good in the beginning because everything was new to her, and she wasn’t sure of herself. Now all that good behavior had built up, and she was ready to run.

I drove back to the inn, pondering the new information. So Brewster had been in possession of the car. That explained why Mortie’s keys had turned up. But it didn’t explain why Tiny had them.

There weren’t too many possibilities. Tiny stole the car from Brewster. Or Brewster gave or lent Tiny the keys to the car. Or, as Tiny claimed, Brewster mailed the keys to him as a threat. If Tiny was telling the truth about that, it meant that Brewster or someone else had dumped the car. Otherwise, how would that person have the keys to send to Tiny?

None of it made sense. Unless . . . unless they were in cahoots and had turned against each other?

I parked, and we hopped out of the golf cart and returned to the reception area, where Zelda worked at the desk.

“How do people let their dogs run and get exercise around here?” I asked, removing the leash from Trixie’s collar. “The little play areas in the green?”

“You can also book one of the private runs.”

“What are those?”

“They’re trails that are entirely fenced in. Quite discreetly, of course. You can’t see the fence unless you wander off the trail.” She typed on her computer keyboard. “They’re all booked for today, though.”

“She did pretty well on the back side of the inn the other day. Maybe I’ll try that again.”

With a cat-that-caught-the-canary grin, Zelda leaned toward me and whispered, “Look what I found.” She held up a cell phone. “I think it’s the one Philip lost. It was over near the play area where I take Dolce. I’m charging it to see if it’s his.”

I shot her a scolding look. “And to see who’s calling him?” Shades of Kim! “Don’t you dare send people messages from him!”

She straightened up. “I would never do that. Maybe. It’s an interesting idea, though, now that you mention it.”

I was sorry I’d put the notion in her head. “I’ll be out back, letting Trixie run.”

Trixie bounded out the door and zoomed to the tree where she had seen a squirrel before. She raced in a zigzag, her nose to the ground, while I walked down to the dock. She barked twice gratuitously at another dog, who walked by on a leash. She lifted her head and gazed around. Had she lost me?

“Trixie!”

She flew to me, her feet barely touching the ground. She stopped abruptly, put her nose down again and followed a scent down to the lake.

Wagging her tail with pure joy, she trotted over to me on the dock and sniffed the water. I dipped my hand in it but withdrew it quickly. The lake that had been refreshing had turned far too cold for comfort.