Thread and Buried by Janet Bolin Read Free Book Online Page B

anyone.”
Especially Detective Gartener.
    He probably thought I was crossing my fingers. He stepped closer. “I’ve reported her to the state police as possibly missing, Willow. You could be in a lot of trouble.”
    “She’s sick,” Haylee said.
    Gartener moved a smidge away from me.
    “Chief Smallwood, I mean,” Haylee corrected herself.
    “She doesn’t want anyone to see her,” I added desperately, still trying not to break my promise.
    Gartener stood straighter than ever and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m afraid I’m going to
have
to see her. Or arrest you.”
    Finally, when I was considering going to jail to prevent myself from betraying Vicki Smallwood’s secret, she hollered from downstairs, “I’m fine, Toby. Leave them alone.”
    Gartener rushed toward the doorway to my apartment. I didn’t try to stop him. Not that I could have.
    Vicki yelled, “Don’t come down here, Toby!” A door slammed.
    Gartener thumped down the stairs. Jumping over every other one? Was I going to end up looking after a sick police chief
and
a detective with broken arms and legs?
    Haylee and I pounded down after him.
    At the bottom, Gartener stood with his face mere inches from my closed guest room door. His feet had to be a dog’s width away from the door, however. Sally had positioned herself where she would enter the guest room before he could. “Vicki, let me in.” Gartener’s order had a hard edge that would be hard to ignore. He rattled the doorknob.
    Vicki had locked the door.
    Sally whimpered and sniffed the crack between the door and the jamb. Tally stood nearby, his tail down and his toffee brown eyes worried.
    Vicki shouted, “No! Stay out. I’m fine. I mean I’m
not
fine, I’m sick, but Haylee and Willow didn’t kidnap me. They’ve been keeping me alive.”
    It was an overstatement, but at least it took the fight out of Gartener’s posture. “Your cruiser’s parked out on the street where anyone can get to it.”
    “Move it for me?” she asked him. “Put it in my garage?”
    “And it’s got rotting food in it,” he added in genial tones. “Crawling with maggots.”
    Sally wagged her tail. She probably liked the satisfied sound of his voice. And maybe what he was saying, too. I wasn’t sure that I did.
    Vicki retorted, “It’s too soon for maggots.” Apparently, she was feeling better. “Get every last bit of that food tested. Something made me sick. And bring me a clean uniform. They’re hanging in the closet in my bedroom.”
    “Give me your keys.”
    Her answer was far from gracious. “Go away! Willow can bring them to you.”
    I nodded my agreement at Gartener and, to make everything perfectly clear, pointed at the stairs.
    He marched up toward my shop. His radio crackled. He said very distinctly, “Call off that SWAT team.”
    Haylee and I traded horrified glances. Had he really believed we would have kidnapped our police chief, or anyone else?
    The guest room door opened a crack. Vicki whispered, “Is he gone?”
    “Yes,” I said.
    Tail wagging madly, Sally wedged her snout between the door and the frame.
    Vicki thrust a jangling set of keys at me. “Can you please give these to him, Willow?”
    “Okay, but are you sure you don’t want to talk to him yourself?”
    “Positive. I look horrible!” Gently, she pushed Sally aside and closed the door.
    With Haylee right behind me, I trotted upstairs and handed the keys to Gartener.
    “Thanks, Willow. The next time you kidnap a police officer—”
    “I did no such thing!”
    He raised an eyebrow, but I finally recognized a spark of humor in the depths of those dark eyes. “Try not to
appear
to do it ever again. But I’m sure that Chief Smallwood appreciates your loyalty.”
    “Maggots,” I scolded. “How could you say such a thing to someone whose stomach is upset?”
    He tossed Vicki’s keys in the air and caught them. “How was I supposed to know what’s wrong with her? She deserves it, don’t you think,