In Dog We Trust (Golden Retriever Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

a lot about pizza and burgers, while correcting dangling modifiers, unyoking fused sentences, and introducing my students to the concept of punctuation and its place in the grammatically correct sentence.”
    Remembering Caroline, I felt a few long-ignored stirrings. Just my luck; I find a smart, pretty woman who’s single and maybe interested in me, and she gets killed before I can even think of making a move.
    The next time I ran into Caroline it was at The Chocolate Ear, on a Saturday morning. The usual suspects were there—the people who always seemed to be hanging around the café when I stopped by. My childhood piano teacher, Edith Passis; Gail, the café owner; and her grandmother Irene.
    I stepped up in line behind Caroline, noting the Oriental simplicity of her white blouse, black jacket, and black slacks. With her hair pulled up into a knot, she looked fresh and pretty, and I wondered again if she’d go out with me, if I asked, and if the parole would be a deal-killer.
    We started to chat while we waited, and then sat down across from each other at one of the white wire tables. “I’m still finding my way around,” she said, breaking a biscotti and dipping it in her coffee. “The other day I got lost trying to find my way to Newtown on the back road.”
    Her fingers were long and delicate, with a French manicure on the nails. I’ve always been a sucker for a woman with beautiful hands. “If you need to know how to find anything, just ask,” I offered. “I know my way around.”
    “But you’ve lived here less than I have.”
    “I grew up here. I was born in Trenton, but my parents relocated to Stewart’s Crossing when I was two.”
    “And you’ve been here ever since?”
    “College upriver in Leighville; New York for nine years; then Silicon Valley for ten. I’ve been back here a few months, but in many ways it seems like I never left.”
    “I wish I had a home town,” she said. She clasped her coffee cup in both hands. “I was an Army brat, and we moved around a lot. People say it must have been romantic to live overseas, but not when all you ever saw was a military base.”
    “Where do your parents live now?”
    “My dad was killed in the first Gulf War,” she said. “And my mom died last year. So it’s just me.” She smiled. “And Rochester, of course.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “My mom died about the time your dad did, and then my dad sold our house and bought the townhouse next to yours for his retirement. Did you know him? He didn’t get to spend much time there. He only lived in the townhouse for a few months before he passed away.”
    “I think I said hello to him a couple of times,” Caroline said.  “I’m sorry I didn’t get to his funeral. I know some of the other neighbors went.”
    How could I tell her that the State of California had prevented me from looking after him in his final illness, had even kept me from his funeral? “It was a busy time,” I said, trying for vagueness.
    Caroline left a few minutes later, and then Edith came over to sit with me. “Do I seem more confused to you lately, Steve?” she asked.
    “Confused? No, why?”
    “I feel so distracted. It’s been hard for me to concentrate on reading or playing the piano. And I’ve been losing track of my finances, too. I’m worried someone might be stealing from me, because checks have gone missing.”
    I contemplated Edith’s decline as I cupped the white china mug which held the remains of my raspberry mocha. She had been a friend of my parents, and I remembered her at parties at our house, her black hair teased into a beehive. She wore glasses that feathered up at the edges and thigh-high black leather boots.
    Edith had become a touchstone for me in the few months since I’d been back, and it worried me that she might not be around much longer. I had lost so many people who had mattered to me – both my parents, my ex-wife, many friends who hadn’t wanted to stand by me while my case