Page 5 of Pied Sniper

“Delgado and a ball of fluff that doesn’t reach past his ankles? Are you sure anyone will be convinced it’s his?” I asked. Antonio (Tony) Delgado was ex-Army and a lifelong friend of Solomon’s. Tall, broad, and menacing, he wasn’t someone you dared to cross. He married my sister, Serena, and became a stepfather to her daughter, Victoria. He also had the patience of a saint.

“Yes. He’ll claim it belongs to his wife and he is merely a tolerant hubby.”

“That works,” I said. I watched the young man pause as a dogwalker with a group of seven dogs of various breeds and sizes stepped onto the sidewalk. He stopped to pet some of the bigger, inquisitive ones and reached into his pocket, but I wasn’t sure if it was for a dog treat or a business card. Suddenly, two of the dogs started lunging at the grocery bag he carried. He jerked the bag away and the dogs leapt forwards, tugging their walker. The young man staggered backward as they crowded him and the walker lost control of all the leashes. Then the young man started running, but the dogs remained on his heels in hot pursuit as his shredded bag slowly released packages of raw meat.

He almost reached the parlor when several police cars came screeching around the corner. The cars pulled over and the officers jumped out, their weapons drawn. The young man stuck his hands in the air and the dogs went crazy for the suspended bags he held. Then the biggest one barreled into him and down he went in a pile of fur and sausages.

The dogwalker and the police officers pulled off all the dogs before one of the officers handcuffed the young man and hauled him to his feet.

I watched the whole thing unfold with my mouth open.

“This is interesting,” said Solomon.

“You don’t say.”

Solomon reached for the door handle. “I’m going to find out what’s going on,” he said as he got out. When he came back ten chaotic minutes later, he got into the car and shook his head. “Apparently, there was a case file open on this guy already for suspected narcotic thefts from the vet school. The drug division put out a warrant on him an hour ago. My contacts at the police department had no idea. They have him on camera handling the stolen dogs but no one understood the connection until now. A canine team was dispatched to collect them and bust the dognapping ring before they catch wind of this. I’ve sent one member of the team to identify the dogs that are being held. There was a mix-up as to who should arrest him, which is why there are so many officers here.”

“What about your case?”

“Seems our stakeout is over.”

I looked at two of the dogs happily sharing a raw steak seasoned with sidewalk grit. “Seems so,” I agreed.

Chapter Two

I sat at my desk and listened for sounds of life. The agency was ominously quiet. Usually, I could hear the distant sound of a door swinging, or footsteps jogging down the stairs, even voices beyond the office door. Today, there was nothing but the sound of Tony Delgado stabbing his laptop keyboard and Solomon on the phone in his office, with his back conveniently turned away from us. I wondered why he bothered to turn his back since I could hear every word of his call to the pet-owning client syndicate. From what I could glean, they seemed delighted with the police outcome although Solomon was refusing to take any credit.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“Huh?” grunted Delgado. I repeated my question and he paused his assault on the laptop long enough to glance over his shoulder. “Solomon sent the risk team on some big client project.”

“What kind of project?”

Delgado shrugged. “You’re married to him.”

Like that was an answer. “You’re his best friend,” I shot back.

“I still don’t know all the details.”

“Where are Fletcher and Flaherty?” I asked, noticing our fellow private investigator’s desks were unusually tidy. Matt Flaherty and Steve Fletcher often teamed up on cases, and made a formidable pair with their police detective and CIA backgrounds. But despite their collective years of raw experience, they didn’t have what I had: unconditional perkiness in every way and an uncanny ability to be completely overlooked as a PI. The latter was both a boon and a source of irritation. My colleagues finally took me seriously now thanks to a number of high-profile, solved cases under my belt but my clients were often still surprised at meeting a woman. There wasn’t a lot I could do about that except continue being downright awesome.

“They took a walk-in client. Something about a spate of robberies at a strip mall in Frederickstown. A couple store managers came in with the owner of the grocery store, who threatened to shoot the next jerk who tries to rip him off if someone doesn’t take a look into it.”

“Shooting is pretty effective.”

“Nah.” Delgado shook his head. “That’s like alerting all the armed thieves in the neighborhood that there’s something worth protecting beyond the day’s receipts. Best to nip it in the bud.”

“Huh.” Although it was a new perspective for me, I could understand it. Most of all I was sorry for the store owners. It couldn’t be easy getting robbed more than once and left wondering when it would happen again. Plus, if they protected themselves, they might end up on the wrong side of the law. It was a harsh predicament. “Why didn’t they call the police?” I asked.

“They did. The first unit got their car boosted when the officers were inside taking a statement. The second time, the wheels disappeared and the axles were put on bricks. The third time, the squad car was set on fire. Hey,” said Delgado as he swiveled his chair around and fixed me with an interested look, “have you bought a new car yet?”

I shook my head. “Later today,” I replied, the unpleasant memory of my car being burnt to a crisp, flashed in my mind. Now all I had left of it were the keys. Of course, they were rendered entirely useless. “Weren’t the police pissed at what happened to their cars?” I asked.

“I should think so but none of them wants to go back there now, so the store owners are joining forces to handle the problem themselves. Our colleagues are putting up discreet security cameras and planning a stakeout. I don’t think they’ll be waiting too long.”

“Should we help?” I wondered.

“Do you want to spend a night on a strip mall in Frederickstown?”

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