Paula K. Perrin - Small Town Deadly Read Online Free PDF

I
whirled to face it.
    “Oh!  Little Bunny Foo Foo,
you scared me,” I said to the sleepy beige poodle who’d stood up on the
front seat.
    I turned my back on him and opened
my door.  I started to get in.  “Oh, heck,” I said.  I looked back at
the dog.  He’d put his front feet on the arm rest and was fogging the window
with his breath.
    “What’s to become of
you?” I asked.
    He whined softly.  He had belonged
to Barry Kemp who’d been Andre’s assistant for years.  After Barry’s death a
few months ago, Andre had kept the dog as he had promised he would.  Little
Bunny Foo Foo had a pedigree that went back to Charlemagne and a little red bow
stuck in his top knot.
    “You’ll be okay,” I said
and got in my car.  I put my key in the ignition.
    The dog watched me, head cocked to
the side.
    “I hate poodles.”
    He dropped back onto the seat and
out of sight.
    I rubbed my forehead.  I’d lied to
Gene.  I’d been extremely angry at Andre.  Looking back, I could see I’d had no
reason to believe that while he was with me, he’d eschew other women, but that
hadn’t stopped it from hurting.
    But there’d been the good side,
memories that lingered and made me smile:  afternoons in the walnut sleigh bed,
green and burgundy sheets rumpled, Andre and me lying there together, not quite
asleep, Little Bunny Foo Foo yapping somewhere outside, Barry’s cajoling voice
barely heard.
    Andre had always been an elegant
man.  I thought of his crushed head, the horrible mess.  It wasn’t fair.  My
chest ached with grief.
    A knock on my window made me
yelp.  Little Bunny Foo Foo barked ferociously.  I rubbed the tears out of my
eyes with the back of my hand.
    Kirk said, “I’m sorry, Liz. 
Didn’t mean to frighten you.  Is there anything I can do to help?”
    I opened my car door and stepped
out.  “Quiet!” I said to the poodle.  He barked once more, then subsided.
    “It just hit me all over
again.”
    Kirk patted my shoulder.
    “I don’t know what to do
about Little Bunny Foo Foo.  It was so important to Andre to take good care of
him, and I feel—” my throat closed up.
    “I suppose the police will be
in charge of him, don’t you?”
    “But, Kirk, what will they do
with him?”
    “Let’s go ask.”
    Together we walked back to the
library, Kirk a solid presence at my side.  The door was locked.  Through the
glass doors of the lobby, I saw the cops standing together.
    Kirk knocked.
    The men turned to look at us. 
Gene said something, and Lofty came over and unlocked the door.
    We followed him in.
    Kirk said, “Andre’s dog is
out in his car.  Can you tell us what you’ll do with him?”
    “We’ll call animal
control,” Officer Jankowski said.
    “Wouldn’t one of you like to
keep him?”
    Lofty shook his head.  “Nah. 
He’s a poodle, isn’t he?”
    The tough cop said, “Good for
target practice.”
    A little sound of protest escaped
my throat.  The tough cop grinned.  “Can’t someone take him?” I asked.
    “Sure.  You want to?”
Millay said.
    “I can’t.”  I looked at
Kirk.
    Kirk’s ruddy skin grew redder. 
“I can’t, Liz, you know the rules at the rectory.”
    I looked around.
    Millay said, “Divorce city if
I look at another stray.”
    “He wouldn’t survive Oscar,”
Gene said.
    “He has a pedigree, you
know,” I said.
    “You want us to bury it with
him?” asked Toughie.
    “You don’t think they’ll put
him to sleep at the pound, do you?” I asked.
    “They’ll keep an appealing,
friendly dog as long as they can, and like you say, he’s a pedigreed poodle, so
that gives him pretty good odds,” Millay said.
    I sighed with relief.
    “Of course adult dogs don’t
have as good a chance as puppies,” he added.
    I looked around the circle of
implacable male faces.  I sighed.  “Mother’s going to kill me,” I
said.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Lofty’s skill with a slim jim was
awesome.  The poodle barked himself into a frenzy trying to