1 PAWsible Suspects by Chloe Kendrick Read Free Book Online

add to that?”
    My mind was racing from the attack still, and I let my mouth take control. “Just that it’s becoming very clear that this isn’t a case of Ruby just going off and leaving her dogs. The person here tonight came for the dogs. He said so. I’m guessing that means that he’s the same one who went to Ruby’s house. There’s either an incredible number of criminal men in this case, or one man is doing all of this. I lean towards the one man theory.”
    She gave me a wan smile. Perhaps that was the best she could do at 3am. My mind was still racing, but she hadn’t taken a baseball bat to someone who broke into the house in the middle of the night. Whoever it was hadn’t counted on my particular set of issues.
    “What will you do?” I asked, hoping for action, but not knowing specifically what that would be.
    “We’ll talk to the family again. We’ll talk to the vet. We’ll try to see if we can establish a motive for wanting the dogs. And of course, we’ll continue to look for Ruby Jenkins.” She looked at the two officers and shrugged. I wasn’t pleased by their shared amusement over a civilian wanting justice to be served.
    I gave her my best smile. “Well, I’ll be sure to let you know when I find out something else. If enough things happen to me, maybe you’ll actually solve the case.” I didn’t bother to see them out. I just left the room, which was becoming a habit with me.
    Soon enough I heard the door shut, and the cars drive off. I was pissed at me for losing my temper. I was pissed at me for freaking out. The intruder had wanted the dogs, not me, but my first thoughts had just been of me and my past. I wanted to be able to move beyond that. I had two dogs who were very much in trouble and needed my help. I was emotionally stuck in the past and couldn’t allow myself to move on from what happened twenty years ago.
    Going back to sleep wasn’t an option, so I spent the hours just staring at the walls and occasionally petting one of the dogs, whichever one woke up and wanted a cuddle. There are worse ways to spend a sleepless night. It gave me plenty of time to think about what my next steps were in this case.
    To find out who was behind this, I had to know why the dogs were so valuable. This was going to be a case where motive drove the actions. Could they be pedigree animals? I wondered, but it didn’t seem particularly likely. Ruby had spayed and neutered them early, so there was no chance of extending the bloodline through them. Perhaps a test could tell that they weren’t of a superior bloodline, but Ruby had purchased them, thinking that they were. It made more sense, except that at worst the dogs could be refunded for the money she paid to the breeder.
    If they hadn’t been valuable from birth, I wondered what else could have made them worth breaking into someone’s house for. In order to find that out, I planned to talk to the son of Ruby’s friend who had watched the dogs when she had to go out. I wanted to know where she had gone and why she couldn’t leave the dogs by themselves. I tried not to make a habit of leaving Bruno and The Countess at the house for too long, but there were times when I needed to leave the house.
    I couldn’t discount the idea that the intruder was concerned that I would talk to the animals and learn their secret. If the person was gullible enough – or guilty enough, then they might want to keep the dogs away from me. However, I had no idea what crimes the dogs might have seen. Obviously, they’d been there when Ruby disappeared. Could it be that they recognized the person who had taken her? I was more convinced now that she hadn’t left of her own volition. She’d been taken. And if the culprit was concerned about the dogs mentioning who had come to the house, then it had to be a person who had been there before.
    Other than that, the dogs rarely left the house. So the chances of Perry and Della seeing something in the neighborhood