Parrots Prove Deadly Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I mean, you’re too smart to spend your days talking to animals. And, hey, are you really going to give all that cheese to Wallis?” We both looked up at that. “I mean, isn’t she kind of stout already?”
    “Down, girl! ” I heard the voice in my head. “Isn’t it time for you to leave? ” I swear, I didn’t know which of us was talking.

Chapter Five
    Finding the aide was simple. I called LiveWell first thing in the morning and found out that Jean Sherry was working with other residents. Apparently, the aide was a longtime employee of the center, which spoke well for both her honesty and for a lack of financial duress. Not that I assumed “senior care aides,” as the receptionist had called her, were that well paid. If LiveWell was placing her with private clients, LiveWell was taking a cut. Still, it made it more likely that the aide hadn’t fled the state with the Larkin silver, and that I’d be able to find her when I went over for my afternoon session with Randolph.
    Before then, I had my regular clients: two dogs and one confused dogcatcher. Okay, in truth Albert was more than a dogcatcher. As I pushed through the glass doors of our town pound, I had to remind myself that the bearded lug behind the desk wasn’t some homeless guy or—considering our semi-rural surroundings—a lost mountain man who had stumbled into civilization. The flannel-clad man-lump seated behind the desk was the animal control officer for the town of Beauville. Not that he seemed to know it.
    “Hey, Albert.” The beard bounced off this year’s plaid, and I realized he’d been sleeping. “Too early for you?”
    “What? No.” He sat up straighter and blinked. “I was cogitating.”
    “Cogitating, huh?” The pound was quiet at this hour, and I pulled up the guest chair to sit down. I was hoping to spy a glimpse of Frank, Albert’s pet ferret. “Hope you don’t hurt yourself.”
    “Uh, I don’t think so.” He sputtered. “I mean…”
    I smiled. Frank liked to collect shiny things, too. Only his command of the things he found was better. And I was pressed for time. “Never mind, Al. You called about a consult?”
    “Yeah, yeah, I did.” He shuffled some of the papers on his desk, as if looking for notes. “It’s about a raccoon. A problem over at Evergreen Whatsits?”
    “Evergreen Hills.” I knew it. A condo development carved out of the woods. Longtime residents wouldn’t have called Albert about a raccoon problem. They’d trap it themselves. Or shoot it, I realized. Maybe having Albert here had some benefits. “Young male, right?”
    “Seems so.” He gave up with the papers. I doubted he had legible notes anyway. “They were calling it ah, um—a ‘home invasion,’ I think.”
    I rolled my eyes. Autumn and the young animals leave the nest. As the weather gets colder, they start looking for new places to stay. And as we encroach on their territory, they return the favor. “Got into the attic, huh?”
    Albert nodded, his beard bouncing on his chest. “I used the box thing and got it out.” Humane trap, raccoon, I translated. “The peanut butter really worked.” He chewed his lip at the memory, and I wondered how much had made it into the trap as bait. Enough apparently. “Thanks.”
    “And where did you release the animal?” I don’t know why I bothered asking.
    “Mile away.” He paused. “At least.”
    He’d let it go around the corner. “And it came back?”
    He nodded. Of course it did. To a young animal out on his own for the first time, those showy dormers looked as good as they did to the city folk. “The manager called. Again,” he said, his voice low. Someone had been angry.
    I sighed. A local would have been easier to reason with: if animals get into your house, you find out how—and block the entrance. Some of these new people didn’t get that. They just wanted the problem fixed. At least it wasn’t nesting season. I wasn’t as easily cowed as Albert, but I wouldn’t