Page 33 of Death on Riddle Road
Hattie was so good it seemed fitting to speak of her misbehavior in a whisper.
“She clacked at Murphy,” Donna said in a normal voice.Maybe she wasn’t as impressed with Hattie’s status as the perfect dog, so her misbehavior didn’t warrant Donna’s whisper.“She didn’t go after him and she sure didn’t bite him, but she clacked her teeth at him, reminding him she could.At least shethoughtshe could.”
“But why?”
“Because the old fool has the delusion that the puppy’s hers and, in her dotage, she’s gone all maternally protective on me.She even got sniffy with the grandchildren and Bernie’s their dog.Not clacking, but trying to get between them and the pup — possessive.”
“Bernie?”Clara asked.
“Yeah.My daughter left it up to the kids what to name him.They didn’t go too far afield, considering he’s a Bernedoodle.
My turn for a repeat-the-word question.“Bernedoodle?”
“Bernese Mountain dog and poodle cross.Bernese Mountain dogs are known for being susceptible to certain cancers.Hope the poodle in Bernie gives him a good, long life, because the kids are gaga about him.Not to mention my old girl.”
I latched onto the opening.“Speaking of gaga...”
“So you’re not here solely for the dogs.”
I ignored Donna’s jab.After all, it’s not rude not to answer when the other party already knows the answer.
“We hoped to get background—”
I could not ignore the next voice.
“You two are screwing it up again!”came a shout from the small dog enclosure.
Our heads whipped around for our eyes to confirm what our ears already knew.
Berrie Vittlow and her mini-herd of Boston Terriers had entered the dog park’s small-dog enclosure.
Occupied with the drama around Hattie and the puppy, we’d made a major tactical error by sitting on the picnic table closest to the fence that divided the areas.
There were no other people in the large-dog enclosure to alert us to the Berrie arrival.The two humans and three dogs retreated to the farthest corner of the small-dog enclosure and looked between Berrie and the gate, likely calculating their chances of escape.
We’d been deprived of the usual last-ditch warning system of a near encounter with Berrie and the Bostons because their patriarch, Marcus, who indulged in outraged histrionic barking if I arrived after he did, stuck to his bizarre rules by not barking at me since I was inside the enclosure.
So, here we were, in Berrie shouting — more like screaming — range.“Screwing it up again!”she repeated.
She has a tendency to say the same thing over and over.Have you ever noticed people who do that often are lying or — and I think this is the case with Berrie — have such a limited repertoire of thoughts they have to repeat.
“You can’t go after Dova Dorrio, you know.”
Okay, that Berrie screech made me look toward her.Possibly with my mouth open.What on earth was she talking about?
“She’simportant.”Her emphasis said we were not.Now, there, she had a point.We weren’t especially important.Not more so than other individuals.Mind you, our system does tend to hold that individuals are important, but somehow an open and reasoned discussion of social philosophy with Berrie did not seem likely in my near future.
The screech went on.“You better not mess with her.She’s got connections.Not just Emil Dorrio, either.She’s real, real good friends with our congressman.The one who goes to Washington.”Apparently, she added that in the belief that she was the only one who knew where Congress was.“And he’s not the only one.She knows lots of important people down in Frankfort.All she has to do is pick up the phone.”
I slid off the table and turned away, pretending a need to straighten Gracie’s leash, which I’d looped around my neck like a long, fur-encrusted necklace.In the process, I added a few steps away from the fence.
Clara followed me.
“Frankfort, that’s the state capital,” Berrie tacked on with further lack of confidence in our knowledge.
Donna had been off the tabletop like a shot with the first screech and was in the lead.Heck, she might have already been out of Berrie’s spittle range.
“If you had any sense, you’d be looking at the drugs...Theysaythey lock up the drugs at places like Kentucky Manor, but people can walk in and out of the rooms without the least little bit of security, not to mention the ones who live there.They should have guards every step of the way.”
