Maddie Hough hadn’t planned on providing the crime scene for a murder when she organized the fundraiser for Ethan Conway’s animal rescue shelter. After all, the worst thing that ever happens in her pet boutique on Chicago’s North Shore is the occasional tray of burnt organic dog biscuits. But there Ethan is, bloody and very dead in her storeroom, clocked over the head with one of her shop’s crystal paperweights.
It doesn’t take long for the amateur sleuth/owner of Tess And Me to jump into the murder investigation…with the able assistance of her beloved English cocker, Tess, and blue-crowned conure, Walter. The fact that Maddie is an animal communicator not only makes the teamwork among the three all the more efficient, it also means Maddie can turn to other members of the Animal Kingdom for help. As Maddie can tell you, animals make kick-ass witnesses.
The trio launches its investigation by looking into Ethan’s shady past inside an East Coast crime syndicate. But it turns out that Maddie and her canine/avian duo don’t have to go far afield to find suspects in Ethan’s murder. A troubled teenage stepson who hates the fact that his mom married Ethan, a neighbor who has been mauled by Ethan’s prized mastiff, and a staff assistant at the shelter with his own secret history, all have reasons to want Ethan dead.
When Maddie’s life is threatened more than once, the trio realizes they’re on to something. Now if they can just stay alive long enough to solve the case….
Coming Soon…
EXCERPT
I tripped over him on my way to get more napkins. Head bashed in and ominously still, Ethan Conway looked like a mangled stuffed doll in a Raggedy Ann and Andy nightmare. His blood pooling across the dusty stone of the storeroom floor didn’t lighten the mood.
Eyes frozen wide open stared up at me. Ethan’s eyes weren’t the only thing frozen. I wasn’t feeling so great, myself. I hadn’t agreed to use my store to host the fund-raising benefit for Ethan’s animal rescue shelter with anything more traumatic in mind than a spilled platter of canapés. My name is Madison Hough—everyone calls me Maddie—and Tess And Me is my pet boutique and bakery in the village of Prescott Woods on Chicago’s North Shore. Violent murders are not the usual thing around here.
I jumped as Walter swooped to my shoulder. Walter is one of Ethan’s rescues…a blue-crowned conure with an impressive array of swear words and a bad-ass attitude. Ethan had brought him to the benefit thinking the little bugger would be a good advertisement for adopting homeless exotic birds. I thought the green-and-blue feathered one was more of a warning to run as far away from them as possible.
“Help, bitch!” he screeched.
I winced at the raucous voice that could shatter glass. I also didn’t appreciate his claws digging into the delicate silk of my one-and-only nice blouse. “Where was your hue and cry before someone clocked him over the head?”
Even my muttering sounded shaky. But my curiosity was stronger than my initial shock had been. Truth is, I’ve always loved a good mystery, although I’ve never been so close to one this personal. Ethan had been a friend.
I felt my energy shift to sleuth mode. I knelt beside the body and checked for a pulse just to be thorough. Nothing. His skin was already cool to the touch. The cause of death was obvious, especially with the blood-smeared crystal paperweight lying next to his head. It was in the form of a Neapolitan mastiff. The beast looked supremely bored. Clearly, it didn’t care that it had ended a man’s life.
Ethan had raised mastiffs all his life…magnificent dogs that had made him a celebrity among those equally smitten by the breed. And so it was that the deadly tableau before me indicated that this crime was personal and, most likely, premeditated, if all the tidbits I’d learned hanging out at the Prescott Woods Police Department were to be believed.
Why have I hung out at the offices of our local gendarmes? Police work is in my blood. And the Prescott Woods police chief happens to be my godfather. I’ve always found police work intriguing. I even interned in the department when I was in college.
Mom, what’s taking you so long? Grandma just spilled her glass of wine and couldn’t find napkins.
I looked up to see the other namesake of my store, my English cocker spaniel, Tess, glaring at me from the doorway of the store room. Did I mention that I’m also an animal communicator? It pays the bills when the demand for organic doggie cookies and designer leashes wanes. It’s also proven useful in helping the Prescott Woods police solve criminal cases. Animals make kick-ass witnesses. Besides which, I really don’t have any choice in the matter. I’ve been “hearing” the more articulate members of the animal kingdom for as long as I can remember.
I winced as Tess spotted Ethan’s body and let loose a string of swear words interrupted by heartfelt sighs. Ethan had been one of her favorite humans.
I did my best to ignore her epithets. Usually I can filter out the saltier language when communicating with the animal kingdom. You have to, really. If I allowed my brain to fill with every muttering, mental picture, and grunt coming from the animals, birds, lizards…even a pet snake or two…I pick up every day, I’d go crazy. Some of my animal brethren I shut down altogether…like the alligator who sprawled across the hiking path during my Florida vacation a few months ago. He was beyond nasty. Who needs abuse from a crocodilian obsessed with tea tree oil-scented deodorant?
Some folks call animal communication a “gift.” I find it distracting, entertaining, amusing, vexing…and lucrative since I charge clients a reasonable fee to hear the truth of what their pets are thinking—whether the owners are ready for it, or not. Friends think I should expand my practice to include therapy…for the humans. Hey, hearing what your golden really thinks of your new boyfriend can be traumatizing.
“Need help!” Walter seemed determined to keep me focused on the tragedy at hand.
© Laura Abbott