Foal Play: A Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

weren’t for his expert nose, she would have left him safely locked up at the station.
    Sparky pulled hard on his leash. “Hey, easy there,” Colleen said in a firm voice.
    The dog barked loudly. He cocked his head to the side with one ear up. Colleen followed Sparky’s gaze south, away from the fireworks. Her eyebrows furrowed. Then she realized what had put him on alert. A fire.
    Colleen leapt into action, her athlete’s reflexes kicking in. The fireworks’ grand finale began as she raced to her SUV at top speed, Sparky right beside her. She yanked open the door and Sparky jumped inside ahead of her. She whipped the door closed, started the engine, and flicked her emergency lights on. Just as she was reaching for her cell phone, it rang. She checked the number on the display. It was Jimmy. She hit the green button.
    “I’m headed down Ocean Trail now,” she said before Jimmy could speak.
    “The call just came in. How’d you know, Chief?”
    Colleen peeked at Sparky and rubbed his ears. “Sparky.”
    “That dog deserves a medal,” Jimmy said.
    “I think he’d prefer a pig’s ear. See you there,” Colleen said and hung up.
    Colleen zipped down the two-lane highway, lights flashing and siren blaring, and heard the alarm at the firehouse sound. She would be just in front of them. She peered at the night sky and could barely make out a path of black smoke obstructing the stars. Familiar with the neighborhood, she traced the smoke path to its source. Mostly locals and vacationers interested in fishing on the sound resided there. The booms of the fireworks were fading behind her when, suddenly, there was a loud explosion up ahead. Sparky howled.
    “Damn,” Colleen said and stomped on the pedal. The explosion meant gas had leaked at the fire. She hoped nobody had been home at the residence.
    The hot summer wind whipped through Colleen’s hair. She reached into the glove compartment for an elastic to tie her tresses back. With a practiced hand she wrapped her hair in a short regulation ponytail at the nape of her neck and put on her hat. She saw the engine approaching in her rearview mirror. Good. Jimmy and the guys were right behind her.
    As Colleen pulled off the main road four wild horses darted across her path in a panic. They had clearly been near the explosion and were disoriented and confused. Colleen took a second to watch them run to safety among the dunes, then steered onto a side road. As she made her way to the scene, she could feel the heat of the fire. It was only then that she realized the residence rapidly burning to the ground was that of Myrtle and Bobby Crepe. Myrtle’s earlier words about the man with the gun echoed in her mind. “A man saw me.… If I go to the sheriff they’ll whack me.” The hair on the back of Colleen’s neck stood on end. Was someone trying to kill Myrtle because she had seen too much? Had she been wrong to advise Myrtle to go home? Colleen swallowed hard, hoping Myrtle was still at the fair with Nellie.
    Colleen screeched to a halt in the sand a safe distance from the house, ordered Sparky to stay, and slammed her door closed. Bill was already there ordering his men to secure a perimeter to keep onlookers away. The engine arrived and the firefighters jumped into action putting on masks, grabbing Halligan tools and axes, and pulling hoses.
    Her first priority was to ascertain whether Myrtle and Bobby had been home and if so, to get them out. She glanced over the one-story rambler. Most of the activity was in the front left of the house. The blast had shattered windows in that section and smoke, heat, and gases billowed out and heavenward. That would save her team the task of ventilating the building. They needed to enter the structure and locate possible victims soon before it collapsed. She met Jimmy at the front of the engine.
    “The search-and-rescue guys ready?” she asked.
    Jimmy peeked around the side of the engine at the men donning their facepieces and