Murder at Jade Cove (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 2) (14 page)

“He’s absolutely
beautiful. Kelly, you must have spent a fortune on him.” He reached out and
took the puppy from her. “Welcome to your new home, boy. Oops, I didn’t even
check. Is it a guy?”

“Well, kind of. Here’s the
thing.” Kelly explained the circumstances of how and where she’d gotten him at
a reduced price. She didn’t tell him who Mrs. Lewis was. There wasn’t any
reason to.

“Fine by me. I’ve been
thinking for a long time that I needed to have a dog. It can get pretty
lonesome out here. I just never got around to buying one and it looks like you
saved me the trouble. Okay, little guy, I’m going to put you down so you can
get familiar with everything and you probably need to take care of some
business after that drive from the kennel.”

“Doc, I’ve got a dog bed
and some food for him. There’s enough puppy chow here for another week or so.
The kennel manager said to give him some of this chow for a few days along with
whatever you’re going to feed him so his stomach doesn’t get upset. Where do
you want me to put his bed?”

“At the foot of my bed. He
might as well get used to me and the ranch from the beginning. I never did like
to see a dog sleep in a garage, plus it gets cold out there this late in the
year.”

Kelly took the bed into
the house and walked down the hall to Doc’s bedroom. When she returned, Doc was
holding the puppy, his face covered with doggy kisses.

“Doc, you’ve had him for
all of five minutes and I think he’s already spoiled. Am I right?’

“Yep. It’s been a long
time since I’ve had something to care for, now with Liz and this little guy, my
world is suddenly changing.”

“Any idea what you’ll call
him?”

“As soon as I saw him, I
had one thought. I’ve been lucky that good things have happened to me in the
last few days. I know it’s kind of an overused name, but from now on I’m
calling him Lucky.” He put Lucky down on the floor where he proceeded to sniff
his way around the house, going from one room to the next.

“Doc, you may want to
close the doors to the other rooms. Fewer things for Lucky to get into.”

“Nope. His training has
already started.”

“The one thing that kind
of worried me was what you’d do with him when you go to the clinic and come to
the coffee shop for lunch. That’s a long time to leave a puppy alone.”

“What makes you think I’d
leave him alone? You take Rebel almost everywhere you go. From now on I’m
taking Lucky everywhere I go.”

“Doc, think about it.
You’re counseling people and pretty soon you’re going to be treating medical
patients. Do you really think it’s a good idea to have a puppy or a young dog
in the room?”

“I’ll keep a small wire
kennel in the room and I’ll train him to go in and out of it. If someone’s
allergic to dogs, I’ll have to see them in another room and I’m sure Rebel
would love to play with him at the coffee shop.”

“Swell. I’m not so sure
the customers are going to like two big dogs playing while they’re trying to
eat. You do realize he’ll probably be about Rebel’s size when he’s fully
grown.”

“That’s no problem. Kelly,
Lucky will be so well trained in a few weeks, having him at the coffee shop
won’t be an issue. And until he is, I’ll hold him or put him on a leash. Lucky
and I are going to do just fine together.”

“Actually, Doc, I think
Lucky is the lucky one. Having you for his master is probably as good as it
gets for a dog.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Now get
out of here. Time to start training Lucky. Does Mike know about this?”

“No. I didn’t even know
this was going to happen until I saw Lucky. I better leave. It’s been a busy
day and I’ve got a lot to tell him.” She walked over and instead of kissing Doc
on his cheek, she kissed Lucky on the top of his head. “Goodbye little guy.
Welcome to your new home.”

I’m kind of sorry I didn’t
keep him. Rebel’s getting more and more attached to Mike. Maybe I should get a
puppy and if I decide to get one, I think I know where to go and what breed to
get.

*****

“Mike, I’m home. You won’t
believe what happened today.”

“I’m glad you’re home, I
was getting worried about you. I tried to call you on your cell phone, but it
was turned off. Where have you been?”

“Well, I was so happy for
Doc I bought Lucky for him and…”

“Stop.” He held up his
hand. “I don’t have a clue who Lucky is and why you bought Lucky for Doc and
why you were happy for Doc. Kelly, start at the beginning.”

She told him everything,
starting with when Doc had come to the coffee shop that morning and finished
with driving home from Doc’s a few minutes ago.

“Kelly, that’s wonderful.
I’m really happy for him. I’ve met Liz a few times. Actually, she’s helped me
with a couple of people I made a judgment call on. Told them they had a choice.
They could see a psychologist or be tried for a crime. While she can’t tell me
the details of her sessions with them, she does tell me whether or not they’re
continuing to see her and how they’re doing. And to think that Doc will be
practicing medicine again! I’m sure Dr. Amherst will be happy to hear that. He
told me once how much he wanted to retire, but as the only doctor in Cedar Bay,
he didn’t want to abandon his patients. Now he can simply shift them over to
Doc. Everybody wins. I’d say you had a good day. Now, let’s talk about dinner.”

“Sheriff, if it wasn’t for
the ring on my finger I’d swear you care more about food than me, but then
again, I’ve always heard that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.
Sure think it might apply to you. I’d like to ask you if you’d still want to
marry me if I wasn’t such a good cook, but I don’t think I want to know the
answer to that one. I remember something Lem said once about a lawyer never
asking his client a question unless the lawyer knew the answer, because many a
case is lost when the client blurts out something other than what the lawyer is
expecting. I think it might be applicable here.”

“Why, Kelly,” Mike said
with a playful shocked expression on his face. “I can’t believe you’d even
think such a thing.”

“Let’s put it this way,
Sheriff Mike, I’m not asking the question. As for dinner, how does stuffed pork
chops, creamed spinach, a fresh garden salad, and that killer chocolate cake I
make sound to you?”

“Kelly, would you think
I’d become senile if I started drooling?”

“No. I’d say you were just
a man who appreciates good food.”

A few minutes before noon the
following day, the door to Kelly’s Koffee Shop opened and in walked Doc with
Lucky on a little blue leash. It was obvious to Kelly that he’d been one of the
first customers at the pet store that morning. Everyone in the coffee shop
oohed and aahed over Lucky and told Doc how cute he was. Rebel got up from his
customary place on his bed near the cash register and sniffed the little puppy.
Satisfied he wasn’t a threat to Kelly he got back on his bed and watched the
puppy with a look of disdain in his eyes.

“Kelly, how about putting
a little water in a saucer for Lucky? He’s had a busy morning at the clinic.
Poor dog has had people fussing over him all day. I think he’s ready to spend
some serious quiet time back at the ranch.”

“Here you go Lucky.” Kelly
put the dish on the floor in front of him. “Doc, it may have been awhile since
you’ve had a dog, but you need to make sure he’s got water. Poor little guy
seems to be really thirsty.”

“I know, Kelly, but
remember, the more he drinks, the more I have to get up and let him out and
he’s too little to go outside by himself. Plus, we’ve got coyotes around the
ranch and he’d make a nice appetizer for one of them.”

“Well, Doc, you better get
used to it. That’s part of owning a dog. How did he do last night?”

“Actually, better than I
thought he would. I only had to get up once in the middle of the night to let
him out and then again at dawn. I don’t think housebreaking him will be a big
problem. I’m going to have to fix a couple of holes in the fence to keep the
coyotes out. Other than that, I think we’ll get along just fine. Was Mike
surprised you got me the puppy?”

“Not only surprised, but
grateful I didn’t come home with one. He thinks Rebel is great, but he has
mixed feelings about puppies. Thinks they’re cute, but knows they require a lot
of work. He’s not sure he’s up to it. He likes to have a dog that’s already
trained. He doesn’t know it yet, but I’m getting a puppy when we get married.”

“As well trained as Rebel
is, someone must have spent a lot of time working with him. I remember you
telling me you got him when a drug agent was killed and Rebel had been trained
by the agent as his drug-sniffing dog,” he said, reaching down and petting
Lucky whose head was on his shoe. In a minute the little dog was snoring
softly.

“If you’ve got a minute,
Kelly, I’d like to talk to you.”

“Again?” she asked,
sitting across from him. “After everything that happened yesterday, I didn’t
think you’d need to talk to me for quite awhile.”

“This is about Brandon
Black. He called me from school this morning and asked if I had a minute to
talk to him. His dad had told him about his meeting with me and how much he
trusted my judgment. Brandon said if his dad trusted me that much, he’d feel
comfortable talking to me about something that was worrying him. He was at the
ranch Sunday morning and Marcy was pretty excited because she’d received the
proceeds from the insurance policy. Evidently she didn’t think she’d get it
that fast. He said what worried him was that Gabe had come to the ranch that
morning. He doesn’t like Gabe at all, because Jeff was honest with him and told
him that the reason he was divorcing Marcy was because of the affair she was
having with Gabe.”

“I wondered if Brandon had
heard about it. I’m not surprised that Jeff told him, considering how close
they were.”

“Anyway, Brandon was studying
for a test he was going to take yesterday. He told me he got hungry and on his
way to the kitchen, he overheard Gabe ask Marcy what she was going to do with
the insurance money. She told him she was going to cash the check at the bank
the next day, which would have been yesterday. Gabe told her he’d like to go to
the bank with her, that he could probably help her invest it and make a far
better return on it than she’d get at the bank. Evidently she didn’t want to,
but in the end she agreed to do it. Brandon’s worried that she might have given
Gabe some or all of the money.”

Doc doesn’t know about
Carlos. I wonder if Marcy cashed the check, hoping to pay him off.

“From everything I’ve
heard and read,” Kelly said, “Gabe is having some terrible financial problems.
If he could convince Marcy to give him the money, that sure would take care of
his financial problems. I’ve heard he needs a couple of million dollars, like
right now.”

He looked at her
quizzically. “How could you possibly know that?” he asked.

“Someone mentioned it to
me, but for the life of me I don’t remember who it was,” she said, mentally
crossing her fingers. “What did you tell Brandon?”

“I told him I’d see what I
could find out, although I don’t know how I’m going to do that. I’ve met Marcy
maybe once and I sure couldn’t just go out to the ranch and ask her if she’d
given Gabe the proceeds from the insurance policy.”

“No, of course not. Let me
think about it. Maybe there’s some other way we could find out. Doc, I’d love
to stay and talk, but the coffee shop is filling up and I stranded Roxie
yesterday. I can’t do it to her two days in a row. I want to keep her happy and
making her work twice as hard is not going to keep her happy. I’ll talk to you
later. You and your new little friend here have a good rest of the day.”

“Kelly, have you been to
the bank today?” Roxie asked. “We’re getting really low on change in the cash
register. For some reason, almost everyone who’s come in today has paid with a
credit card.”

“No, it kind of slipped my
mind. I’ll do it right now. Even though we have a crowd, it seems under control
and I’ll just be a few minutes. Thanks for the reminder.”

Kelly opened the door of
the First Federal Bank and waved to Patti, her friend from high school. “Hi,
Patti. What exciting things have happened at the bank this week?” she asked,
walking over to her and pulling an empty money pouch out of her large tote bag.
“I need to get some cash. Seems like everyone’s paying with credit cards and
when we do have to make change, it’s getting to be a problem.”

“The exciting thing was
that we’re almost out of cash, too. One of our customers cashed a huge check
yesterday. The bank manager called our parent company to see if we could cash
it immediately or if we should put our usual hold on it, but since our parent
company was the maker of the check, we didn’t have a choice. Left us really
stranded. I mean three million dollars is a lot of money.”

“Wow! That is a lot of
money, particularly for a bank in a small town.” Kelly said, handing her a
withdrawal slip for $200.00. “Any chance I can get that much cash out of my
account?” she asked with a mischievous smile on her face.
And I know who
cashed it. Now I wonder who has the money. Maybe I should go out to Marcy’s and
see what I can find out.