Death Takes a Ride (The Cate Kinkaid Files Book #3): A Novel Read Online Free PDF

to pass. Cate saw pointing fingers and laughing faces. A pickup passed them. A guy rolled down the window to yell, “Who’s the good-looking one in the middle?”
    By the time they roared up the steep driveway to her house, Cate felt as if she, Clancy, and Mitch had been melded into some inseparable lump.
    “How do we get off?” she asked.
    Clancy solved that problem by squirming out from between them and jumping to the ground. Cate stumbled off the bike and removed her helmet. She spit out dog hair, wiped what she suspected was dog slobber off her neck, and brushed ineffectually at enough dog hair on her jacket to knit into a mutt suit of her own. Mitch’s back, she noted, was neat and tidy. His smooth jacket shed hair as if the leather had a Teflon coating.
    “I’ll come in and help you get him settled,” Mitch said.
    Cate’s house key was on the key ring she’d let Shirley have, so she had to go around back to retrieve the spare she kept hidden under a brick. Clancy loped along with her. In the backyard, she spotted movement along the far fence.
    Cate stopped short, imagination in overdrive after what had happened out at H&B. Burglar? Killer? Beside her, Clancy’s muscles bunched as he readied for attack.
    She grabbed his collar just in time as she saw what was moving by the fence. Not a killer. A skunk!
    Clancy was perfectly willing to give her another belly-skid across the yard to go after the skunk, but this time she managed to grab a patio post before he got in full gear. She yelled, and Mitch came running. He still had a tight hold on the dog when they went around front and Cate unlocked the door.
    Octavia met them in the foyer. Her white fur instantly bristled into porcupine spikes. She skidded into a turn, then apparently remembered this was her house, built especially for her, actually. She took a stiff-legged stance that practically shouted “C’mon, dog. Make my day!”
    Clancy, for all his size, plopped his hind end on the floor and looked up at Cate uncertainly.
    Octavia advanced a step and let out some warning yowls. She couldn’t hear herself because she was deaf, but that had never inhibited the volume of her yowls. Clancy stood up as if he might take Octavia up on her challenge after all. Octavia, apparently deciding she’d made her point and discretion was the better part of valor, made a dignified turn and then scooted up the padded pole that led to her private walkway near the ceiling.
    “I think you can let him go now,” Cate said.
    Mitch released the dog’s collar, but Clancy just sat there until Cate patted her thigh in invitation.
    “C’mon. We’ll see if we can find you something to eat.”
    In the kitchen, broad-minded Clancy gulped dry cat food. Then he explored the house at race-dog speed, around the coffee table, down the hall, through the laundry room and bathroom, before finally jumping on Octavia’s prized, pillowed window seat. He sniffed it thoroughly, turned around a couple of times, and curled into a shaggy ball. Octavia, from her walkway, hissed disapproval. Clancy rumbled matching disapproval.
    “I don’t think this is going to work,” Cate said.
    “It isn’t fair to expect Octavia to stay up there all night,” Mitch agreed.
    “I suppose I could lock Clancy out in Octavia’s play area. It’s screened in.”
    Mitch straightened the shade on a lamp Clancy had knocked askew. “It’s going to get cold out there tonight.” His glance flicked between Octavia, now prowling her walkway, and Clancy, still claiming the window seat. “I guess I could take him home with me for the night,” he finally said with all the enthusiasm of volunteering to walk the nearest plank into some bottomless sea.
    “They allow pets in the condo?”
    “I see other people with them. Mostly snuggly little lap-dog types.”
    “I imagine Clancy would be glad to snuggle in your lap, if that’s required.”
    “That’s what I’m afraid of. The headline may read ‘Condo Resident