Chapter 13

D oreen pondered the weird visit as she continued walking her animals in the park. It seemed as if some people were very comfortable around her and her pets, while others were just the opposite. She wasn’t sure what she did or could do to put people at ease, but it seemed sometimes she did. Yet other times she somehow hit a nerve, and people just took off, unsure what to say to her.

She got back in her vehicle, and Mugs started to woof beside her. She looked over at him. “What’s the matter, bud?” Not sure anything was the matter, she figured he wanted food. “Oh, food, yeah. You smelled some nearby restaurant, didn’t you?” Just then her stomach rumbled. She groaned. “We could head to the food court in the mall and see if there is anything of interest,” she muttered. Plus, she wanted to find Pengo’s sister’s business as well.

He barked again.

“Right, the trouble is, you’re always happy to get me into trouble, but Mack won’t be very happy if I do interfere in his current investigation,” she muttered.

Mugs barked again, as if in complete agreement. However, as far as she was concerned, it was an agreement that she was doing okay, not that she shouldn’t go into the mall.

Smiling, she drove toward the mall but then realized she couldn’t take all her animals inside a food establishment, unless the store had an outside eating area. Sure enough, as she pulled up to the side, she saw that it did, indeed.

She hopped out, looked at Mugs, and asked, “So, you want to go there?”

He pulled on his leash, eager to head inside. Goliath just stared at her. “Your leash is required. Otherwise you’ll have to stay in the car.”

He wailed at that, and she would be the first one to say she was maybe starting to lose it. If that was what it looked like, maybe she had. With a bright smile she put Goliath on his leash and perched Thaddeus on her shoulder, as she headed to the front door.

As she opened it and stepped inside, a woman turned toward her and her animals, and an expression of complete distaste crossed her face. Doreen nodded. “I guess that means we’re not welcome in here, are we?”

The woman replied, “Can you guarantee that they won’t leave a mess?”

“They haven’t left a mess yet,” Doreen stated, “but I can certainly understand if this makes you uncomfortable. I was looking for a place outside to sit, but it’s cold.”

“I’m not much of an animal lover,” she admitted, as she stared at them, trying to hide the disgust in her tone but failing completely.

“Right,” Doreen noted. “In that case we can leave. I just came hoping to see a woman called Miriam.”

The woman frowned at her. “I’m Miriam.”

“Oh, I just wondered where your brother was. I was trying to get a hold of him.”

At that, a cautious look came across her face. “Why?”

“I was told he was the person I needed to talk to,” Doreen replied. “Is that a problem?” She really tried to infuse enough guile into her tone that nobody would understand what she was up to. It was getting to be a bit of a handicap having the animals with her all the time, or at least being recognized with the animals, because that gave her away as the detective lady.

Mirian hesitated, then shared, “I think he’s at work.”

“Oh, and where does he work?” she asked.

She shrugged. “At the equipment rental place.”

“Okay, any idea when he gets off? I really do want to talk to him.”

Miriam frowned. “I’m not sure what your business dealing is with him, but he’s pretty busy.”

“I’m sure he is. Still, that won’t change the fact that I need to talk to him.” Miriam glared at her, and Doreen just smiled. “Unless, of course, there’s a problem.”

“No, of course not,” Miriam snapped in exasperation. “It’s not as if you’re telling me anything.”

“It’s not as if I need to though, do I?” Doreen asked, eyeing her in astonishment. “It’s your brother I need to talk to.”

Miriam finally conceded, “Okay, you can probably text him.”

“That would be good, but I don’t have his number. If you could share that with me, that would be awesome.” Miriam seemed frozen, and Doreen just studied her curiously. “I’m not coming after him for anything, and I’m way too old to be chasing anybody like that.”

She laughed. “Are you kidding? He would take anybody at this stage. He’s been single for a while. Never really a state I understood.”

Doreen just nodded, not sure whether the woman would give up Pengo’s number or not.

Finally Miriam sighed. “Whatever. I’m not his keeper.” And, with that, she handed over his phone number. “If he gets mad at me, I’ll just blame it on your animals.”

“Sure,” Doreen agreed, with a smile, and then thanked her, exiting quickly. Sometimes the animals helped, but, in many cases, they made life even more difficult for her. Yet today seemed to be a good day. She headed back to her vehicle, only to have Mugs give a long petulant howl, and she realized that he thought visiting the food court would be part of the outing.

“Sorry, buddy. I think we need to head home.” He gave another howl, and she groaned. “I won’t give in to that,” she muttered. “No way I can.” He gave her his woeful expression, and she sighed. “We can hit a drive-through, but that’s it.”

His tail started to wag, and she realized what a monster she’d created. A few months ago she’d stopped at the drive-through of one of the coffee shops. She was asked if she wanted to get her dog a pup cup, something she’d never even heard of. Sadly now Mugs seemed to think that every time they were in the car that a treat was in it for him.

“I shouldn’t let you get away with this,” she muttered, but he’d saved her so many times and had been such a blessing, it was really hard for her to be a hardnose about it.

Groaning, she headed to the closest drive-through, and, as soon as she got there, she ordered him a pup cup. Immediately her stomach growled again, and she was getting ravenously hungry. So she picked up a sandwich for herself. As she drove home, she muttered, “That was just silly. I could have made a sandwich at home.”

He woofed as he sniffed the pup cup, trying eagerly to get to it. “Oh, no you don’t,” she muttered. “We’re going home to have it.”

Which really didn’t make any sense because the whole point of a pup cup was to have it while they were out. She groaned, and, by the time she was parked, he was misbehaving to the point that she didn’t want to give him anything. Yet he calmed down when they got into the house and then sat beautifully, while she held it out to him. He scarfed it up in seconds. Afterward, he danced around in joy, making her laugh, then curled up on his day bed and fell asleep. She stared at him, smiling at his antics.

Her phone rang a few minutes later, and, as soon as she answered, a man asked, “What did you want with me?”

She stared down at the phone and asked, “Who is this?”

“You’re the one who sent me a text.”

“Oh, right. I’m just now at home.”

“Whatever. What do you want?”

“I wondered if you knew about your friend who has passed away, Brandon Phelps.”

The rude man went silent for a moment. “He’s dead?” he asked.

Something was off in his tone. “Yes,” Doreen confirmed. “He’s dead. I’m so sorry.”

“How did you know that we were friends?” he asked.

“I inherited a box of materials from him, and your name was mentioned a few times,” she shared. “I haven’t really had a chance to go through very much of it yet, but I figured you probably hadn’t heard. So I wanted to confirm that you knew.”

“You’re right. I hadn’t heard.”

“I’m sorry. It’s always tough to hear news like that.”

“Yeah, you’re not kidding,” he muttered. “So you say you inherited a box…”

“Yeah, just some of his keepsakes and things and papers from some court case. I think he was working on trying to clear his name. I haven’t really had a chance to sort through it all, but I did see your name mentioned on the paperwork as somebody he knew well. So, I just thought maybe I would give you a shout and let you know about his demise.” Then she just waited.

“Thank you for that.… Nobody ever tells people these things. Since I don’t do social media, it’s not as if posting it would help me out.”

“Right. I’m not big on social media either.”

With that, he rang off without another word.

“Darn it, Mack’ll be pissed off that I got to Pengo first about this,” she muttered to herself. Of course it had been sheer instincts to have an honest talk with him, but that would mean something completely different to Mack. She sent him a text and waited.

When Mack phoned a few minutes later, he asked, “What are you up to?”

Such wariness filled his tone that she sighed. “It would be so much nicer if every time you asked that question it didn’t sound as if you were expecting the world to collapse.”

He snorted. “It would also be awesome if I could ask that question and not be holding my breath, wondering if the world was about to collapse.”

“I guess I’m just a trial, aren’t I?” she asked in a sad tone.

“Ha. You won’t catch me with that question. Nope, not touching it. So, what have you been up to?”

“How do you know I’ve been up to anything?”

“For one thing, you’re stalling, which means you’re up to something, and, two, it’s you.”

She groaned. “Yet it’s Christmastime, and, as everybody keeps telling me, you’re not supposed to ask a ton of questions because you might find out more than you should. Plus, I haven’t been up to anything.” She hoped her sunny tone would throw him off, not make him more suspicious.

“I should get off work at a decent hour tonight,” he shared. “How do you feel about dinner? If I get tied up, we can always do dinner tomorrow night.”

“Dinner tonight or tomorrow night sounds wonderful,” she replied. “I just picked up a sandwich, so I can wait for dinner, even if you are late.”

“Where did you go?” he asked.

She sighed. “Remember that thing about not asking questions?”

“You won’t get away with saying that for much longer,” he noted, a sharpness in his tone. “Christmas is right around the corner, and, after that, you don’t get to use that excuse anymore.”

“Oh.” She would have to think about that. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Yes, it makes sense,” he agreed, a note of laughter in his tone.

“In the meantime, I’ll keep using it while I can.” And, with that, she ended the call.