Dog Bones and Dead Bodies, page 3
“Well, whoever it is, they should get a medal,” Lucy said, gesturing with her fork. “If you ask me, they did this town a favor.”
Abby giggled. “I can see the headline now. Local Hero Commits Murder, Town Gives Them a Medal.”
Tassie burst out laughing, unable to help herself. It was probably wrong to speak ill of a man who’d just been murdered, but considering how hateful to everyone he’d been, could anyone really blame her?
“In all seriousness though, I don’t know one person in town who liked Conrad,” Lucy continued. “And that was before he won all those millions in the lottery.”
“I heard he didn’t even share any of the money with his son,” Abby said, finishing the last of her salad. “Can you believe that?”
Tassie snorted. “I can believe it. I’m pretty sure that creep didn’t have a generous bone in his body. Why the heck his ex-wife ever married him is beyond me.”
“Maybe he wasn’t always a jerk,” her sister suggested.
“Then again,” Lucy pointed out, “the woman is his ex-wife, so maybe he was.”
Tassie sipped her iced tea. “Enough about Conrad. Let’s talk about something funner.” She gave Lucy a pointed look. “Like whether you and Andrew have decided on a name for the baby yet.”
Her friend made a face. “Ugh. Not yet. We can’t agree on any of them. But on the bright side, we’ve come up with a way to finally settle on one.”
“Please don’t say you’re going to flip a quarter,” Tassie said dryly.
Lucy laughed. “No. Something even better. We’re going to have everyone at the baby shower write a name on a piece of paper and put it in a hat, then pick one out, and whatever it is, that’s what we’ll call the baby.”
Tassie exchanged looks with Abby to see that her sister was as stunned as she was. Even Baxter and Finn, who were sitting on the floor beside the table, seemed dubious. From the expression on Lucy’s dog’s face, Bruno the Basset Hound had already heard the idea and clearly thought it was as fraught with danger as the rest of them.
“You can’t be serious,” Tassie said.
“Of course, I am.” Lucy frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because someone could pick a name that you and Andrew hate,” Tassie said, pointing out the obvious.
“Or pick a weird name that’s a string of Greek letters with a hyphen somewhere in between,” Abby added.
Lucy waved her hand dismissively. “Everyone coming to the baby shower is either family or a friend. They aren’t going to do that to us.”
Beside her chair, Baxter gazed up at Tassie doubtfully. She shared the sentiment. But Lucy always did do things a little differently.
“Speaking of the baby shower,” Lucy said, looking at Tassie. “Are you sure you don’t need help putting it together? I’d be glad to give you a hand.”
Tassie had started planning the baby shower from the moment Lucy told her that she was pregnant. While she still had a lot to do, Tassie already had Sara making the party favors—cute homemade teddy bear soaps that smelled like baby powder—and Gwen was making assorted flavors of cupcakes decorated with equally adorable teddy bears. Unfortunately, Tassie hadn’t quite nailed down the menu or chosen a restaurant to cater the party. Or gotten the decorations yet. But in her defense, she’d been super busy at the bakery with multiple birthday party orders as well as getting everything ready for Bluewater Bay’s popular Dog Days event, which was happening a few weeks after Lucy’s baby shower.
So, yeah, it was a little hectic right now.
“I know,” Tassie said. “But what kind of godmother would I be to your sweet little girl if I let her mother help with her own baby shower?”
“A busy one,” Lucy insisted.
Tassie smiled. “Who is never too busy for my best friend, but if I need help, I promise to ask.”
That seemed to satisfy her friend. “Okay. But you’d better!”
Tassie glanced at Abby. “How’d things go with Isaac?”
Her sister had hurried out to make her appointment with the dog psychologist the moment Tassie had gotten back to the store that afternoon and then they’d both met up at Lucy’s, so she hadn’t gotten a chance to find out what had happened.
“Who’s Isaac?” Lucy asked, looking back and forth between them curiously.
“A good-looking dog psychologist who Abby’s attracted to,” Tassie said simply. “But instead of asking him out for coffee, she’s decided to take Finn for therapy so she and Isaac can get to know each other first.”
Lucy considered that, a confused look on her face. “Won’t a dog psychologist figure out pretty quickly that Finn doesn’t have any behavioral issues?”
Tassie nodded. “That’s what I said.”
“He did.” Abby let out a sigh. “And now Isaac thinks I’m the one who needs therapy because I’m not projecting the right kind of energy with Finn. Which was true, I guess. At least when I was there. I mean, I was acting all weird. Even poor Finn noticed.” She reached down to run her free hand over her Dachshund’s head. “Sorry, boy. But on the bright side, we have another session with Isaac.”
Lucy shook her head. “Well, this isn’t the craziest thing you’ve ever done to meet a guy.” She looked at Tassie. “Remember in middle school when Abby talked your mom and dad into getting her an oboe because the boy she liked was in the band and she ended up passing out trying to play the darn thing?”
“I remember.” Tassie couldn’t help grinning at Abby. Or teasing her big sis. “How about in high school when you went to get a tattoo because the guy you were crushing on was into them?”
Abby groaned. “At least I was eighteen and didn’t try to use a fake ID or anything. But yeah, I remember. Unfortunately, now I have one little ink dot on my ankle instead of the flower I wanted because getting a tattoo hurt too much. This isn’t the same thing though.”
“If you say so,” Lucy muttered. “But if you ask me, I think this is all going to blow up in your face.”
“Lucy’s right,” Tassie said. “Just be honest with him, Abbs. Tell Isaac that the whole thing was a pretense so you could meet him. Then ask him to grab coffee.”
Her sister’s brows drew together as she considered that, but before she could say anything one way or another, Tassie’s ringing cell phone interrupted the conversation. She glanced over at where it lay on the table near her plate to see Sara’s name on the screen.
She looked at Lucy and held up her finger. “Hold that thought.”
Picking up her phone, Tassie thumbed the green button and held it to her ear. “Hey, Sara. What’s up?”
She hoped there wasn’t an issue with the teddy bear soaps for the baby shower. She really had her heart set on them.
“Tassie! Thank goodness you answered.” Sara sounded as flustered as she had that afternoon at the bakery. In fact, it sounded like she was bordering on tears. “The police are arresting me for Conrad Meyers’ murder.”
Tassie did a double take. Surely, she hadn’t heard that right. “What?!”
“I know. I can’t believe it either,” Sara said, voice trembling. “Can you come over and get Roxie? I was hoping you could babysit her for me.”
Beside Tassie’s chair, Baxter immediately got to his feet, ears alert.
“Yes, of course,” she said. “I’ll be right there.”
Still stunned, Tassie hung up. The amusing discussion about picking baby names, whether she needed help with the shower, and her sister’s guy problems suddenly felt like a distant memory. This couldn’t be happening, right?
“What is it?” Lucy asked, the same concern on her face mirrored in Abby’s eyes as well.
Tassie quickly filled them in as she pushed back her chair and headed into the living room where she’d left her purse on one of the two swivel cushion chairs near the stone fireplace, Baxter prancing along at her side.
“Do you want us to come with you?” Abby asked, she and Lucy following at her heels.
She shook her head and gave them a small smile. “Thanks, but I’m good. I’ll call you guys once I find out what’s going on with Sara. Hopefully, this is all some big misunderstanding.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“The police can’t really think that Sara murdered Conrad, can they?”
From where he sat in the safety of his doggy car carrier in her SUV, Baxter gave Tassie what could only be described as a worried look.
“I know. I’m concerned too,” she muttered, then quickly added, “Not because I think Sara did it, but because the police think she did.”
Tassie clicked on her indicator, then slowed at the next street and turned right. Sara’s place was only about fifteen minutes from Lucy’s house so luckily, it didn’t take long to get there.
“Why do the police think Sara did it anyway?” she mused to Baxter. “Sara didn’t even know him. Heck, she didn’t even run into Conrad other than whenever she walked by his house with Roxie on the way to the dog park.”
The whole thing simply didn’t add up.
Sara lived in a one-bedroom studio apartment on the north side of town. The building—like many in Bluewater Bay—had been recognized by the historical society, meaning that while the exterior had been refurbished, the building had to maintain the original style, architecture, and colors. Tassie had to admit the gabled roof and clapboard painted Wedgwood blue were pretty stunning.
Sara’s car was in her reserved parking space, but there weren’t any police cars around—unless you counted Detective Sterling’s SUV.
Pulling into one of the guest parking spaces, Tassie attached Baxter’s leash to his harness, then looped her crossbody bag over her shoulder and headed toward the building.
Sara’s apartment was on the third floor halfway down the hallway. When she and Baxter reached it, Tassie knocked on the door, then anxiously waited. If Detective Sterling were the only one here, maybe she could talk him out of arresting Sara for Conrad’s murder before he took her to jail.
Tassie was just about to knock again when the door opened. Jack Sterling stood there looking as handsome as he had earlier when she’d seen him at Conrad’s house. In the soft glow from the floor lamp just inside the doorway, his brown eyes reminded her of the delicious imported Belgian chocolate she sometimes splurged on.
“Ms. Drake,” he said. “Come in.”
“Detective.”
She walked past him, Baxter right beside her.
Usually so warm and welcoming, Sara’s cute apartment seemed somehow a little less cheerful even though the familiar comforting scent of essential oils she used in her soaps lingered in the air. Vanilla, lavender, and patchouli combined into a delightful mix, filling the space.
Roxie immediately jumped off the couch and ran over to greet them, touching her nose to Baxter’s. Tassie crouched to run her hand over Roxie’s wiry fur. “It’s okay. Baxter and I are here now.”
Straightening, she looked around. The kitchen, living room, and bedroom were combined into one big colorful area, but Sara was nowhere to be seen.
She turned back around to face Detective Sterling. “Where’s Sara?”
“An officer already took her down to the station for booking.”
Drats. So much for talking him out of arresting Sara.
Tassie folded her arms and pinned him with a look. “Mind explaining why my friend is behind bars for Conrad’s murder?”
In the back of her mind, she remembered her grandmother telling her when she was a little girl that she’d get more with honey than she would with vinegar, but right now, she wasn’t eager to pick up their flirting where she and Detective Sterling had left off that afternoon. Her friend might be facing life in prison for a murder she didn’t commit.
Baxter gazed up at the detective, clearly as interested in the answer to that question as she was.
“Because we have evidence,” he said simply.
“Evidence?” Tassie scoffed. “Against Sara? She might not have liked Conrad, but murder? I don’t buy that.”
Jack took a deep breath and gestured toward the couch. “Let’s sit down and talk.”
“The evidence you have is so bad that I need to sit down?” she practically squeaked. “What, are you afraid I’m going to pass out or something?”
He didn’t say anything, but simply gestured to the couch again.
Worried they might be a while, Tassie unhooked Baxter’s leash from his harness and sat down on one end of the couch, while Detective Sterling took the other. Baxter and Roxie immediately jumped up to sit on the cushions between them. The detective reached out to pet Roxie even as Tassie did the same to Baxter. She might be annoyed with the man right now—he did just wrongly arrest her friend regardless of whatever evidence he had—but it was obvious to her once again he had a soft spot for animals.
So, there was that.
“I spoke to Conrad’s next-door neighbor after talking to you at the crime scene and she said that she saw Sara arguing with him right before he was murdered,” Detective Sterling said.
Tassie made a face. “Everyone who walked by Conrad’s house with their dog argued with him at one time or another. If you go by that, you’d have to arrest more than half the town.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “But not everyone followed him into his house to continue fighting with him.”
“Wait. What?” Tassie stared at him in disbelief. “Sara was in his house?”
Why hadn’t her friend mentioned that? Unless…
No. Sara did not kill Conrad. She wouldn’t believe that.
Detective Sterling nodded. “Yes. Then, a little while later, she came running out.”
Tassie took a deep breath. Then another.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “But that doesn’t necessarily indicate she killed Conrad. I mean, someone could have gone into the house and killed him after Sara left. Right?”
“It’s possible,” he agreed. “But the coroner puts the time of death right around the time that the neighbor saw Sara leave and she didn’t see anyone else go inside after that. Tassie, this isn’t the first time the woman saw them fighting. And it’s not the first time Sara followed him into his house. The same neighbor saw her there at least one other time. We have a pattern here.”
Tassie’s mind raced as she grappled with that revelation. Why would Sara be visiting Conrad, especially when arguing with him upset her so much? None of this made sense.
“A pattern still doesn’t mean she killed him, Detective. Sara might have hated Conrad, but to say that she murdered him is a stretch to say the least. I don’t care how many times that neighbor saw her go into his house.”
He sighed. “Sara’s fingerprints were on the murder weapon.”
Tassie opened her mouth, then closed it again, not sure what to say. That information was a little harder to discredit. Beside her, Baxter leaned in close, resting his front paws on her lap and nuzzling her with his nose. She ran her hand over his silky head.
“I don’t know why her fingerprints would be on the murder weapon, but I’m sure there’s a good explanation,” she finally managed, wishing she could offer him that better explanation right now. “What about that shoe print? Did you check to make sure it matched Sara’s shoes? Because she didn’t have blood on them when she came into Pupcakes.”
He looked at her in surprise. “How did you know about the shoe print?”
“I noticed it when Baxter and I found Conrad’s body,” she said. “I told you that I watch a lot of mysteries. So did it match Sara’s shoes?”
“No,” he said. “But since it was only a partial print, it wasn’t much help in that area.”
Tassie didn’t say anything.
Detective Sterling leaned forward, his gaze unwavering. “I get it. Friends want to defend each other. But I have a job to do, and that job includes putting murderers in prison.”
“Well, Henry wouldn’t have arrested Sara.”
In all honesty, she wasn’t sure what the town’s former detective would have done in this situation. He’d never had to investigate a murder.
Scooping Baxter up in her arms, Tassie shot to her feet and glared down at Detective Sterling. “I don’t care what you think. I know Sara, and she’s not a killer.”
And she was going to prove it.
Tassie clipped Baxter’s leash on his harness, then picked up Roxie’s from the hook beside the door where Sara always kept it and hooked it onto the harness the Jack Russel was already wearing. When she was finished, she turned to Detective Sterling.
“What happens to Sara now?” she asked.
“She’ll be arraigned in the morning and most likely make bail,” he said, getting to his feet. “After that, it’s up to her lawyer.”
She frowned. “That’s it? You aren’t even going to entertain the possibility that Sara didn’t do it and keep looking for the person who actually did?”
The detective gave her a thoughtful look. “If new evidence comes to light, then yes.”
But would he look for that new evidence?
One leash in either hand, Tassie lifted her chin. “Well, then I guess now I have a job to do too.”
He lifted a brow, a move that made her pulse skip a beat because he looked even more handsome when he did it despite how annoyed and frustrated she was with him at the moment.
“What job is that?” he asked.
“Finding out who really killed Conrad and clearing Sara’s name.”
With that, Tassie stormed out of the apartment, Baxter on one side of her and Roxie on the other, leaving Detective Sterling to think whatever he liked. She might not be a cop like him, but she was determined to figure out who murdered Conrad.
And she’d always been very good at solving mysteries.
Well, at least the ones on TV.
CHAPTER FIVE
Roxie was the perfect little house guest. And since Tassie shared a condo with Abby, both Baxter and Finn got to play with Sara’s dog. But ever since they’d arrived at Pupcakes the next morning, poor Roxie kept looking out the windows at everyone who walked by, searching for her mommy. It was all so confusing for the little girl.
