A Ghostly Affair: A cozy mystery series (Death by Chocolate Book 3) (5 page)

“Isn’t that the neighbor’s dog?” the man said hesitantly.

There was silence broken by the giggling of the little girl. “He’s licking me. Look Mommy!”

“Get away from him,” the mother said sharply.

“I’m sure that’s our neighbors’ dog, what’s her name, Wend-“

But Wendy had already broken through the small hedge. Toto’s excited yips were matched by Wendy going “there you are, there’s my baby.”

“How did he get here?” the man was asking.

“And why is he so dirty?”

“It’s a long story,” Wendy said. “And I don’t have time to tell you tonight. I need to get Toto home and washed.”

She appeared through the hedge a couple of minutes later. Toto was clearly ecstatic at their re-union as was Wendy. Happy tears ran down her face.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know what I’d have done if anything had happened to him.” Her hair had a piece of the hedge in it and she’d broken a heel in her haste to find Toto while happy tears  had her eyes puffed up with mascara mixing with tears creating black lines down her face. But in some strange way she looked better than when Maxine had seen her dressed to the nines, not a hair out of place at any one of the charity and social functions she attended on a regular basis.

Maxine shook her head. Who knew?

Toto was back in need of a wash, but otherwise none the worse for wear.

“Heather says more dogs in the area have gone missing,” Heath said, frowning.

“How come no one’s said anything?” Maxine countered skeptically while taking a sip of her coffee.

“Maybe they’re getting the same kind of ransom from other pet owners,” Wendy said sharply, re-entering the room. Toto was wrapped up in fluffy white towels and it didn’t look like Wendy planned to let him go anytime soon.

“But didn’t you go around the neighborhood and ask?”

“Three times,” Wendy said with feeling. “There was nothing.”

“Heather says she knows of four pets in the last couple of weeks,” Heath said with certainty.

“I wonder how big she considers the neighborhood,” Maxine said speculatively. “How far did you go?”

Wendy named off half a dozen adjoining streets. To be fair Maxine couldn’t see Toto making it any further on his own either.

She shook her head. “I’m going to have to talk to Heather. They might be pet owners you’ve never talked to.” She couldn’t help noting Wendy hadn’t seemed to be on close terms with her neighbors who were right next door. They had barely recognized Toto and not just because he was such a mess.

“Whatever you do,” Wendy said. “I don’t want you telling the police. I’ll give you the money I owe you tomorrow and then as far as I’m concerned this never happened.” She shivered slightly, hugging Toto closer. “Mummy’s not going to take any chance with your life, there, there…”

Maxine and Heath made their goodbyes and left. Maxine had been afraid Heath would say or do something Wendy would never forgive. She’d seen the glint in his eyes once or twice and been afraid of what irreverent remark he might make.

“How are we doing with the house,” she asked as they walked back to the car.

“I figured I’d go back and spend a couple of hours on the haunted mansion. Heather offered to stay and help along with Marcus so we should have it ready for tomorrow morning.”

She frowned. “I’ll stay too. It’s an important cake.” It would be the centerpiece for the Halloween festivities the Art Gallery was putting on. They were having a showing of haunted houses painted by famous painters.

In addition they’d created a fund raiser where everyone from children to master bakers participated in building Haunted Houses out of gingerbread, cake and other edible items. People paid $1.00 a ticket to vote for the winning ones.

The professional ones were being judged by a panel of judges of which she was one. They were heavily sponsored by various firms and government organizations. The money raised went to supporting a variety of art related charities such as Art Therapy. And everyone had a good time.

The responsibility weighed heavily on Maxine’s shoulders. She’d never been asked to judge such a high visibility event before. And she would be judging other professionals in the food industry. While everyone she’d talked to had assured her she was more than up for the task and no one would be offended no matter what the outcome, she still felt nervous.

Making sure the display house
Au Chocolate
put up at the opening of the room was a knockout was vitally important to her. As she paused before the partially done haunted house she had to admit she was impressed.

Sugar cookie dough had been shaped into walls to come up with the basic house shape. Ice-cream cones had been used for the turrets. A base of grey fondant had been put on. Different shades of purple would pick up the windows and wainscoting, the delicate fret work on the doors and windows. Spun sugar windows with spider webs done from spun sugar colored silver stood ready to cover some.

Heather was busy making witchy looking dolls out of fondant showing talents Maxine had never dreamed of. She looked as if she belonged, her face showing intense concentration as she delicately placed eyes in her witches face, gently molded a nose.

“You have a real talent for that,” Maxine said watching her.

“I used to love clay work. But you can’t make a living at it.” She carefully pressed strands of colored fondant onto the witches head for hair.

“Maybe not, but I know there’s times I could use your skill around here. By the way Heath said you know of more pets that have gone missing in your neighborhood?”

“At least four,” Heather said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t more. Eliza’s daughter was heartbroken when their labradoodle went missing. I know they papered the neighborhood but as far as I know they haven’t heard anything more. And then there’s Mr. Spratt two streets over. I’ve never done more than smile at him if we passed in the street but he’s got an Alaska Malamute that disappeared a couple of weeks ago. As far as I know it hasn’t been returned. These dogs are like family to these people. Who would do such a thing?”

“I don’t know,” Maxine said grimly. “The money was picked up by what looked like a teenage boy tonight. But I can’t see the average teenager being the brains behind such a scheme.”

“It could be someone who lives in the neighborhood though,” Heather said, finishing off a witch and then cleaning her hands carefully. “Heath said I could use your computer.”

Maxine nodded and Heather went over to it turning it on with practiced ease. “I used Google Maps to pinpoint each of the missing dogs that I’m aware of.” She brought the map up now and Maxine could see red pins for every dog missing.

Wendy’s house was in the epicenter and Maxine felt a prickle of excitement. She wasn’t sure exactly what this meant but she was pretty sure it was important. How many dogs had gone missing? And were they all being ransomed by their owners? At $5000.00 a pop she didn’t see the dog-napper stopping anytime soon.

She said as much to Patrick when he picked her up. But tired, with bags under his eyes that hinted of late nights and looking decidedly crumpled, he wasn’t in the best of moods.

“I’m not saying it’s not important. But I’m in the middle of a major case right now.”

“And this isn’t serious?”

“Look, I know Toto’s like family to Wendy and she’s your friend. But it’s not exactly the same as if someone’s life is in danger.” He held up a hand to forestall her objections before she could voice it. “Toto’s back, Wendy doesn’t want any police involvement and there haven’t been any complaints of dogs missing.”

“Well, considering the response Wendy got when she reported Toto missing I’m not surprised.”

“OK, I get it. See if you can find anymore owners willing to at least talk to the police and I’ll see what I can do. But I have to say the Captain isn’t exactly crazy about investigating crimes no one has even complained about.” His voice sounded strained. “Not if there doesn’t seem to be any immediate danger to humans.”

Their self-defense class was short that night. He did show her how to break an attackers’ hold on her neck if she couldn’t manage to get his arms down with hers. It involved bridging up then sitting down as a crunch. That broke his hold on her and then she could shift sideways with her hips and move one leg onto his hip, then the other leg on his other hip and push him away. Scissoring her hands out she could then grab his wrists and start kicking.

“In the balls, groin, face, don’t show the scumbag any mercy.”

The thought made Maxine shiver. As far as she was concerned if some rat bastard had her down on the ground attacking her she was going to go after him with a vengeance, no holds barred.

She looked at Patrick now, all hot and sweaty. “Why do you do this,” she said. “Why do you put up with me?”

He looked at her in a way that made her blood heat up. “You really have to ask that?”

“You have to admit it would be a lot easier without me in your life.”

He shuddered. “Don’t even go there.” He moved over her again and there was no doubt what he wanted.

She reached up putting her arms around him, as eager for his touch as he for hers. His lips were on hers, gentle, then hard and searching. His body met hers, all hard muscles and bone sinking into her softness and making her want more. So much more…

Chapter Eight

“Jake Jones?” That doesn’t sound very traditional to me,” Maxine said, peering over Heather’s shoulder.

“That’s probably not what’s on his birth certificate. Or maybe it is. Who’d want to stick their kid with a name like Two Feathers or Swims With Otters?” Heather asked. She’d pulled up a string of articles and information on him. Apparently organizing covered a wide array of areas and she seemed a whiz in all of them. Except baking. Cupcakes were clearly not her thing.

“Anyway judging by what I’ve pulled up he seems to have been away back east getting his degree at McGill – pre-med and cultural anthropology, whatever that is. Then sometime in September he starts showing up in protests of the Eagle Ridge development. Bet you that made Zak and his partners happy.”

“So what took him so long? And even if he shows up at the last minute they’ve already built the development. He can’t seriously think they’re going to tear everything down and go, oops, sorry, my bad. Here’s your land back and we’re going to go develop somewhere else.”

“Who knows,” Heather said, resignation in her voice. “Maybe he’s hoping the government will buy it back for his people. One of my friends bought a place where they suddenly decided there were ancient burial cairns on the land or something. It cost them a fortune. And that’s not even including the creep factor. Imagine waking up and realizing your house was over-top of an ancient burial site.” She shivered.

Jake Jones had suddenly developed a huge interest in his native culture Maxine thought. And she couldn’t help thinking it might be a good idea to find out why. That was why she was taking a few dozen of her best chocolate chip cookies and brookies out to hand out while they protested, along with a 50 cup coffee dispenser.

She had to give it to them. They weren’t fair weather protestors. She shivered pulling her hoodie and rain poncho closer before looking at Heath. She was glad he’d volunteered to come with her. Because faced with a large group of protestors, made up of Indian and other concerned environmentalists she had to admit she was feeling a little intimidated.

“It was a getting a little boring,” Heath said when she commented, giving a slight shrug.

Jake Jones looked at her with suspicion as they made their way over ground turned muddy under the protestor’s feet, fall weather turning short, sunny days to days of fog and rain. It was lightly drizzling down now and she couldn’t help thinking the protestors looked miserable. While most had rain gear they still looked wet and cold.

Except for Jake Jones. A little fog and rain was not going to slow him down. He looked at her red smart car with disdain. She couldn’t help thinking he remembered it from the other day when she’d been out with Tanya. Quite possibly he remembered them. And then she shivered. Now who was letting her imagination get the better of them? How on earth could he remember one car driving by in what was a high traffic area?

“Hi,” she said approaching him with Heath. “I’ve seen you out here before and I thought I’d bring some coffee and treats around.”

His eyebrows went up. “You’re a supporter, then?”

“I try not to take sides,” she said.

He frowned at her. “You run around delivering coffee and cookies to random people?” Disbelieve radiated from him.

She put on her most charming smile. “I’m a local caterer. I make it a point to donate coffee and cookies or chocolates to various events and people to promote my company.”

He grinned at her sardonically. “Do these people look like they hire caterers on a regular basis?”

“These people,” she said, “look cold and hungry. Besides I’ve learned never to judge who would or wouldn’t use a caterer. I’m wrong more often than I’m right.”

He grinned. “If this is an example of your usual judgment, I can see why.”

She flushed and turned away, cursing herself. In her teen years a sideways glance had caused her to blush but she’d considered herself long past those days. Apparently not.

“Then it’s a good thing I’m a caterer, not someone whose life depends on such skills.” She took a deep breath and smiled at him sweetly. “At any rate the coffee and cookies will be enjoyed whether or not my judgment is lousy.”

Heath was already helping one of the protestors bring out a folding table from one of the CRVs parked nearby. Maxine couldn’t help noting that such a vehicle looked more like the vehicle of someone who would hire a caterer than the long gone VW vans, hippies had used to protest with in another era.

Heath set up the coffee dispenser and started filling up cups of coffee.  Milk and sugar appeared on the table along with stir sticks.

“I’ll get you a cup of coffee. And a cookie,” she added as she headed towards the table. She didn’t exactly count on it sweetening Mr. Jake Jones up but who knew? It certainly couldn’t hurt.

The others were laying down their picket signs, the smell of fresh hot coffee and cookies enticing them away from protesting. “That hits the spot,” said one.

“I’ll say,” said another. A washed out blonde of about the same age as Maxine she was rail thin and made Maxine want to hug her.