Home Is Where the Bark Is (33 page)

“We don’t know that it was a lie—” Adam began.

Nick broke in. “He told us that he told you he wasn’t able to care for Mack anymore and that you were meant to pick Mack up from Paws-A-While.”

The color flooded back into Claire Kessler’s face. “The bastard, bastard, bastard . . .” Her voice broke on a suppressed sob.

“You say he told you Mack was dead,” said Adam.

“Hit by a car in front of our old house in Larkspur,” said Claire. “Oh God, he must really, really hate me. And Mack. How could he abandon our dog like that? I thought he loved him or I wouldn’t have trusted Mack with him until I got settled in a place where I could have a dog.”

“Obviously not,” said Nick, thinking with revulsion of Eric Kessler. No wonder there had been an undertone of gloating when he spoke about his ex-wife.

Claire Kessler was silent for a moment. Then a radiant smile stole across her face. “Mack’s alive? He’s really, truly alive? Ohmigod, this is like a miracle.”

Nick felt sick to his stomach. Mack belonged to this woman. She had been parted from him through no fault of her own. She would want her dog back. Where did that put him?

“Where is Mack now? Is he okay?” she asked, her voice thick with emotion.

“Serena Oakley, the proprietor of Paws-A-While, kept him on, even though your husband—uh, ex-husband—didn’t pay for more than the first week.”

“That is so kind of her. I’ll pay her back. Every cent he owed.” Then she sobered. Her eyes narrowed. “I’m still finding this hard to believe. How do I know this isn’t some other cruel trick?”

Nick pulled out his cell phone. “I’ve got a picture I just took a day ago.”

He called up a photo of a drowsy Mack reclining in his dog bed in front of the fireplace at the house in Sausalito.

Claire greedily scanned it. “It’s him . . . my darling boy. Oh, Mack.” Her voice broke. “But what am I going to do with you?” For a moment Nick thought she would kiss the screen. Then she looked back at him. “What’s that purple cast on his leg?”

“He’s had a cruciate ligament repair operation on his knee.”

“Ohmigod, poor Mack,” she said. “Well, Eric’s not one hundred percent bad if he paid for Mack’s surgery.”

“He did not,” said Adam.

“Then who—?”

“I paid,” said Nick, fighting to keep the disappointment from his voice. This woman had every right to have her dog back. “I adopted Mack.”

“You adopted Mack?”

His voice was a growl in an effort not to let her see how he was hurting at the thought of losing Mack. “Mack was a very lucky dog. Someone else might have taken him to a shelter when his payment ran out. Not Serena Oakley. Even though she lives in an apartment, she took him home with her every night while she found him a good home.”

“She found you.”

“Yes.”

“Mack . . . You’ve fallen for him, haven’t you?” Her voice quivered and Nick realized how hard it must be for her to find her dog resurrected.

“Mack? Yeah. I’ve gotten pretty fond of him.”
Fond
didn’t come anywhere near to explaining how he felt about Mack.

“And Serena Oakley? She sounds like a wonderful woman.”

“She is. Yes, she is.”

“Oh,” she said with an upward intonation to her voice.

Oh.
How did this woman imply so much with that one little word?
You’ve fallen for her, too, haven’t you?

Nick heard a sound from Adam next to him that sounded suspiciously like a stifled laugh.

Then Adam cleared his throat. “Ms. . . . Claire. When he was left at Paws-A-While, Mack was wearing a black studded collar. Eric Kessler told us that you put it on the dog.”

Nick was grateful to Adam for jumping in with the tough question.

Bright patches of color flared high on Claire Kessler’s cheeks. She looked down at the ground, unable to face him or Adam.

“Did you or did you not put that collar on Mack?” Nick asked.

She looked up to face him. “He found the camera, did he? Eric, I mean.”

Nick shot a glance to Adam, who shrugged one shoulder.

“As far as I know Kessler did not find the camera,” said Nick. “I did.”

She chewed on her lower lip. “I’m not proud of myself. But our marriage was going nowhere. I suspected he was having an affair. Maybe more than one affair. I worked late nights and weekends as a chef. Someone I knew had a nanny cam hidden in a teddy bear. So I bought a cheating-husband cam off the Internet.”

“And?”

She shook her head ruefully. “Mack is not an ideal vehicle for a spy camera. The angles it captured weren’t that great. But it recorded sound very well.” Pain contorted her features. “I found out enough to confirm my suspicions.”

“I’m sorry,” said Nick. And damn sorry her story rang so true. He cursed under his breath.
Another suspect wiped.

“That’s why I left San Francisco. I came down here to help out my cousin who owns this restaurant. She had a difficult birth with twins so I’m subbing for her until she can go back to work.”

“What information did you get from the collar after you left Mack behind?”

“Nothing.” She looked shamefaced. “A cheating husband can drive you to terrible depths. Once I was out of the marriage I was disgusted with myself for having used that camera. I didn’t want to know what he was up to any longer. The receiver broke, and I never had it fixed.”

Nick believed her. He trusted his gut instinct that told him she had nothing to do with the identity scam. From Adam’s lack of questions he deduced his partner felt the same. They were not just back to square one but to square zero.

The trips to San Diego and Carmel had done nothing but eliminate another two suspects.

And lose him his dog.

He cleared his throat. “You’ll be wanting Mack back as soon as possible. He’s still convalescing, but as soon as his knee is healed I can drive him down here.”

Claire wrung her hands together. “Oh God, this is so difficult. Carmel is the most dog-friendly town in the country, but everything is so unsettled for me. I . . . I want Mack back desperately, but . . . I have to think what’s right for him. Not . . . not for me.” She drew in a deep breath. “Maybe it’s for the best if you keep Mack with you.”

“I can’t do that,” said Nick.

“But you said you adopted him? I got the impression you really care for him?”

“I do,” he said gruffly. “Which is why I don’t want to get attached to him only for you to come back for him when your circumstances change.”

She slowly shook her head in one of the saddest gestures Nick had ever seen. “You misunderstand me. My situation is no better than it was when I left Mack with Eric,” she said, her voice filled with pain. “I’m staying in my cousin’s spare bedroom. No way could that household accommodate Mack. Eric, of course, is dragging the chain on the property settlement so I can’t afford a place on my own. It . . . it wouldn’t be fair to Mack to shift him from person to person. I mean for you . . . for you to keep him permanently.”

Nick fought conflicting reactions of sadness for her and elation that he got to keep Mack.

“I . . . I just want to ask you some questions first,” she said.

“Questions?” said Nick, too shaken to know what else to say.

“Yes. Like, do you have a big yard?”

“Yes. There’s plenty of room for him.”

“He needs a lot of exercise.”

“I plan to run with him daily once his knee is fixed.”

“Good. And about the fast food. Do you intend to feed him burgers and fries?”

Was that a trick question? He had to answer honestly. “No. Maybe the occasional burger as a treat. But I don’t think that kind of diet is good for him.”

The relief in her eyes showed him he’d made the right answer. “That’s great. Eric thought Mack’s addiction was a joke and constantly undermined my efforts to wean Mack right off of the fast food.”

She nodded. “Okay. I know you care enough for him to pay for that surgery, and now I feel happy he’s in good hands. Mack is . . . is yours.” Her voice fell away on the last words.

Nick was so damned grateful to her that all he could do was mumble his thanks.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. “Do you want me to sign something to make the . . . the adoption official?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“I only ask one thing. Could I visit Mack sometimes? Not just yet. I don’t want him to get confused while he’s bonding with you. But when you judge the time is right.”

“Of course,” Nick said. “And Serena will want to meet with you.” Serena and Claire seemed to speak the same language. He had a feeling they would get on very well.

“I’ve got another question,” said Adam. “The spy cam receiver. Do you still have it?”

“Yes. I’ve got it in my purse. I haven’t gotten around to taking it to the electronic recycling place.”

“Can I have it?” asked Adam.

“Sure. I’ll go get it.” She turned and headed back into the restaurant.

“She’s nice,” said Adam in a low voice once Claire was out of earshot.

“She sure is,” said Nick.

“And a babe,” added Adam.

“Is she? Of course she is,” said Nick. Truth was, he had registered that Claire was cute. But that was as far as it went. Only Serena held any interest for him in a man-woman way. And he suspected he would feel that way for the rest of his life.

“But not as hot as Kylie,” added Adam, much to Nick’s surprise.

“What do you mean by that?” he said. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking with your johnson about a possible suspect.” He could not resist quoting Adam’s words right back at him.

“Hey, man, don’t get me wrong. I just said Kylie was hot.” Nick thought there was more to it than that, but Adam was saved from further interrogation by Claire’s return with the broken receiver. Nick and Claire exchanged contact details and then he and Adam were on their way.

Once out of the laneway, Nick stepped up his pace with a sudden urgency. He had felt utterly gutted at the thought of losing Mack, even though he had only been his dog for a few days.

It was unbearable to think what he’d feel if he lost Serena.

He had to get back to San Francisco as soon as he could and tell her how he felt about her.

He cracked his knuckles.

Would that be before or after he had to tell her S&W Investigations was no closer to cracking the case than it had been the day he had followed the paw-print trail to Paws-A-While?

He’d have to do some fast talking with Adam, too, to convince him to keep pouring their time and resources into sniffing out the doggy day-care connection. All his strong leads had fizzled to nothing. Yet deep in his gut he remained convinced that the scam somehow originated from Paws-A-While.

He knew the drive back would seem interminable.

Why
did she have so many darn clocks around Paws-A-While? Serena thought as she caught herself yet again checking the beagle clock in the reception area.

Where was Nick? She’d heard nothing but a brief phone call to report on his meeting with Claire Kessler. All she knew was that Mrs. Kessler was off the suspect list and that Mack now officially belonged to Nick. She ached to hear more details. And she ached to see Nick. She wondered if her sleepless night last night was as much to do with missing Nick as Mack’s disruptive behavior.

She looked down at her watch instead.

Would he ever get here?

The staff were asking her that question, too. They were short staffed without Kylie—Kylie, who did the work of two people and who Serena missed desperately. She felt ill every time she thought of the scene in her office, of Kylie’s shock and hurt and anger. Even though Kylie had done the wrong thing by withholding those details from her past, Serena was haunted by a sense that she had betrayed a friend who had been nothing but good to her. She’d left message after message for Kylie but with no reply.

Willing herself to keep her eyes away from her watch, she rearranged the display of doggy beauty goodies to disguise the gaps where products had been bought but not reordered. Until her credit was re-established, she did not dare commit to even a cent that wasn’t essential.

She was fussing with the bottles of Sexy Beast fragrance when “Who Let the Dogs Out?” chimed and suddenly Nick was there.

Her heart didn’t just do the skip-a-beat thing. It actually seemed to stall as she drank in the tall, powerful handsomeness of him. It only started to beat again when she realized the look in his eyes told her he was as glad to see her as she was to see him.

Her first impulse was to run to him and fling herself into his arms. But the fact he wore his Paws-A-While shirt restrained her. In front of the team, she had to keep up the pretense that Nick was just another employee. Though from the sly glances she had intercepted from the staff from the day Nick came on board, she was beginning to wonder if they were fooling anyone.

But if the speculation about her relationship with Nick kept the Paws-A-While team from wondering why clients were leaving and products not being reordered, and from discovering the fact they were all under investigation, she guessed that had to be okay.

Even though there was no one in the reception area with her, she thought she had better keep up the role-play just in case someone came in.

“Nick, glad to see you back. We’re short staffed with Kylie not in again today so—”

She didn’t get the chance to finish. Nick took two great strides toward her and swept her into a big, exuberant hug. “I’ve missed you, too, boss lady.”

He squeezed her so tight she found it hard to breathe. Or was that shortness of breath because of her proximity to his big, hard body, the Nick-scent filling her senses and—oh yes!—the pressure of his mouth on hers, hard and possessive.