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Chapter One
I answered the phone. Without so much as a greeting, my sister said, “Clarence wants a team meeting this evening.”
“I have plans.” At Jen’s disappointed sound, I added, “But there’s no reason you can’t get started without me.” In fact, the best thing about having enthusiastic assistants was getting them to do tedious research while I focused on other things.
“What do you have to do tonight that’s so important?” Jen asked.
“Dinner at Todd’s.” Some people called Todd Paradise “Mayor.” I occasionally called him “sweetie,” though never in front of Jen.
“Ooh, dinner with your boyfriend tonight. Did you get permission from Dad to stay out all night? Are you packing your sexy undies?” Yeah, that’s why we kept the endearments private. She was one breath away from making kissing noises.
“I’m really looking forward to it.” I waited just long enough for her to come up with another teasing comment but not long enough for her to speak. “Because Finn and Alec invited me.”
“His boys invited you? Is that . . . does that mean . . . ?”
I rarely get Jen stumbling over her words that way. I never get her speechless. I savored that for a moment, but not so long that she got her brain and mouth working again.
“They want to consult with me.”
“Huh.” She paused. “Like, consult with you about becoming their new mom?”
“No!” I laughed. “Todd and I aren’t there yet. And even if we get there, I don’t think we’d do anything about it until the boys graduate high school.” They were fifteen and seventeen now, so it wouldn’t be too long. Well, depending on how long you considered three years. Not long ago, I moved multiple times per year. Now three years seemed like a safe distance before having to make big decisions about our relationship.
Jen gave a little gasp. “Like, consult with you about something mysterious and criminal?”
“I think so. They didn’t specify, but they know what I do.”
I’d first met Finn and Alec when I was investigating an anonymous claim that Todd was taking bribes. I’d told Todd, because I’d suspected a political enemy of his was trying to make him look bad, and I was right. Alec and Finn had admitted they’d been getting bullied via email, which turned out to be related. We’d seen each other quite a few times in the five months since then, but they’d never invited me to dinner before.
I sure hoped they wanted advice on something criminal, or at least journalism help, and weren’t planning to ask about my intentions with their father. I’d much rather deal with a good crime.
Being in a real relationship was still new to me and a little unnerving. Previously, I’d traveled the world as a war correspondent, often moving every few months. Anyone I dated assumed, as I did, that it was temporary, until one or both of us headed to our next assignment. Now I was trying to embrace a new lifestyle, one with a permanent residence and family nearby. Living with my father in the house where I’d spent my childhood might not make me feel especially grown-up, but I had plenty of adult stuff to deal with, what with menopause and retirement planning.
And now, apparently, a relationship that could actually lead somewhere. We were too busy to see each other more than a couple of times a week and had yet to talk about The Future, but things were going well, as far as I could judge with my limited experience.
Jen sighed. “Are you sure I can’t come?”
“What about Clarence? Don’t you want to know what he has for us? You even get to be in charge.”
“You just don’t want to deal with Clarence and Arnold.” She wasn’t entirely wrong. Dad’s friends might be around eighty, but they were as destructive as unsupervised toddlers on a sugar high.
“You’re just so good with them,” I said sweetly. “It must be all those years of mothering.”
She grunted. “They’re way more trouble than my teenagers though.”
She sounded a little sad. Her oldest had just graduated high school. Both her kids had summer jobs. Soon they wouldn’t need her much anymore. As a good sister, the least I could do was provide some troublesome seniors as a distraction.
“It’s exciting that we might have two cases at once,” I said. “Complain and you shall receive, I guess.” A couple of days ago, Jen had whined about being bored. I had articles to write, though I’ll admit that wasn’t quite as exciting as investigating.
“Yeah, but don’t try to foist all of Clarence’s stuff off on me.”
“I won’t.”
Good thing I like to be busy. Some people (cough my therapist cough) might suggest that’s because I don’t want too much time to think about the future. I disagree. I don’t want too much time to think about the present. I spent thirty years chasing stories and desperately trying to get them written and filed on time. It wasn’t fun waking up in the hospital with a damaged body and nothing to do but think about how I’d gotten there and how little I was prepared for the realities of aging and injury.
I ended the call, finished drafting an article for a magazine that paid almost decently, and got ready for my “not a date” with Todd and his kids. That meant changing into a “nice” T-shirt and shorts.
The doorbell rang as I headed downstairs, and the door immediately opened. Clarence and Arnold came in.
“Kate!” Clarence waved the folder he used to collect weird crimes in hopes of persuading me to investigate them. “I have a doozy for you.”
“Sorry, I’m on my way out.” I grabbed a cane from the big ceramic vase by the door. The leg damaged in a bombing had improved, but I might walk fine for a dozen paces and then lurch sideways with no warning. I didn’t expect to need the cane that night, but I’d faced lots of things I hadn’t expected.
Clarence’s expression looked like a scolded puppy. “But this one’s really interesting. And we know the people! They want your help.”
Arnold nodded. “Leslie and Bob Standish. They retired a few years ago and only spend their winters in Arizona.”
“So they’re not here?” Most snowbirds don’t return until October, and it was late August.
Clarence waved both arms like an orchestra conductor. “They came back early because their electric and water bills were unusually high! They thought maybe they had a water leak. But they have squatters!”
I winced. “That must’ve been a shock.”
“They’re pretty upset,” Arnold said. “Imagine coming home and finding strangers living in your house.”
“Did they call the police?” I asked.
“Yeah, but apparently it’s not that easy,” Clarence said. “The squatters have a rental contract—forged, of course—so the police said it has to go through the courts. It could take months.”
The door was still open, letting in the heat. Marty and Joe Washington came up the sidewalk. Dad appeared in the archway into the kitchen, and Jen was listening from the living room.
“They’re desperate,” Arnold said. “We want to help.”
“Okay, but I really do have to go. You guys can get started, figure out the laws covering squatting and recommended responses.”
“We thought we could move in and be really annoying until they move out!” Clarence said.
“That doesn’t sound entirely safe.” I waved them out of the way so Marty and Joe could enter. “Don’t do anything drastic yet. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Clarence and Arnold beamed. So did Jen. Marty and Joe just looked confused, and I’d call Dad’s expression resigned.
I drove to Todd’s house pondering my suddenly very busy schedule. Todd let me in and gave me a quick kiss. Whiskers, their giant dog, also greeted me with kisses. His were much wetter than Todd’s but fortunately confined to my hand. Whiskers could absolutely reach my face if he chose to jump up, but he only did that when really excited. Good thing, since if he jumped up on me, I’d land on the floor and he could slobber everywhere.
I petted Whiskers a bit and then headed to the kitchen to wash my hands. Alec grinned and gave me a little wave. We’d bonded over writing. He’d even let me see some of his fanfiction that he posted online. Finn was busy cooking but glanced over. “Hi, Kate.”
“It smells good,” I said.
“That’s why I start with sauteed onions.” Finn gave them a stir. “They always smell good.”
Alec shot his dad a playful glance. “Unless you burn them.”
The boys liked to tease Todd about his mediocre cooking skills. He was perfectly capable of making decent, if not great food, but neither of us counted cooking among our favorite activities. Good thing Finn was an accomplished chef. He was also vegetarian, but the healthy food he made helped balance out the cookies and margaritas considered an important part of every meeting by the Coffee Shop Irregulars, a.k.a. our father and his friends, who enjoyed investigating crimes and setting up dangerous sting operations sure to go wrong. Our senior friends were a bad influence in many ways.
Finn added some ingredients to the pan and covered it. “This needs to cook for twenty minutes.”
“Can we talk about the dogs now?” Alec asked. “I’m sorry, I know you just got here, but . . .”
“But you invited me here for a reason.”
Alec bit his lip, looking guilty.
“I don’t mind,” I said. “I’ve already had Clarence and Arnold ask for help on behalf of their friends today. That’s what friends are for.”
“Sounds like you’re awfully busy,” Todd said.
“That’s a good thing.” Whiskers had his head pressed against my thigh, which meant I had to brace myself on the counter or risk toppling over. “Let’s sit down and you can tell me what’s up with the dogs. You’re not trying to convince your dad to get another one, are you? You already have, what, two hundred pounds of dog? That’s like four medium sized dogs or about a hundred Chihuahuas.”
Todd chuckled. Alec managed a weak smile. Finn didn’t bother pretending to be amused. Maybe this was more serious than “about the dogs” suggested. We settled in the living room, with Whiskers’s head on Alec’s lap.
“Okay, what’s the issue with dogs?” I asked.
“Someone’s been stealing them!” Alec wrapped an arm around his dog’s giant head.
“Stealing how?” I asked.
“Some have gone missing at night from their yards, and a couple disappeared from a dog park,” Finn said.
“What makes you say they’re being stolen rather than getting loose and lost?”
“Animal control has had ten reports of missing dogs in the last two weeks,” Todd said. “Well, more than that, but ten that haven’t turned up again. Obviously not all lost dogs are found, but apparently the current numbers are unusual, and the owners of the ones Finn mentioned insist their dogs couldn’t have escaped by accident.”
“There could be more!” Finn said. “We saw a poster for a different lost dog that hadn’t been reported.”
“These are just from this area? Not all of the Phoenix metro region?” With a population of around five million, I’d expect dozens of dogs to go missing every day from the Phoenix area, and many of those would never be recovered. But ten in two weeks could be a lot for our much smaller town.
“Right,” Todd said. “I asked our animal control officer to find out if it’s localized or a metro-wide problem. She’ll check with county animal control and the Arizona Humane Society, but it might take a couple of days to get all the info. But it sounds like an unusual pattern.”
Average numbers didn’t mean always numbers. It could just be a particularly bad week. But I could see why the boys were concerned. “You think someone is stealing these dogs.”
Alec nodded. “Three of the dogs were taken from our neighborhood. What if they get Whiskers?”
We all looked at the sweet, goofy dog they loved so much.
End of Excerpt
