Catwalk Read Online Free Page A

Catwalk
Book: Catwalk Read Online Free
Author: Sheila Webster Boneham
Tags: Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Fiction, competition, dog, animal, canine, animal trainer, dog show
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offer to join us, I wouldn’t be here almost alone with a belligerent boor. Oh please . Devilish Janet drowned out the whisper. Who saved whom last August, eh, girlie? That thought, too, was short-lived, because what mattered was not who did what, but that neither Tom nor I had been seriously hurt. But that was months earlier.
    That line of thought led my mind to an article I’d read not long before on how to survive a back-country encounter with a large predator. They meant, of course, a mountain lion or bear, but some of the moves would probably work on human bullies. The memory was interrupted when Charles took a loud couple of steps across the plank floor behind me. Jay’s hip was pressed into my back and his muscles were vibrating. I whispered “Down” and he oozed to the floor, his body still touching mine.
    â€œYou’ll be sorry you ever got involved with that woman.” The man’s voice was pitched low, almost a snarl, and I fought the urge to stand and face him. In the silence, I recalled what I had read. Face the animal. Expand, the article advised. Grow large. Raise your arms. If you have a jacket, raise it over your head like bat’s wings. Yell.
    â€œYou’re trespassing and I intend to press charges. Police will be here soon. I have friends …”
    Keep your wits about you. Don’t run, whatever you do. Don’t run.
    Even if I had wanted to run, I didn’t have time.

five
    â€œSir, are you the homeowner?” The voice was one I knew. Jay knew it, too, and I felt him start to wriggle, although he stayed down as I’d told him to.
    â€œWho the hell are you now?” Charles asked, then, “Whatever you’re selling, get out!”
    I turned in time to catch the look that flickered over Homer “Hutch” Hutchinson’s face, and I smiled. Charles may have called the police, but luck seemed to be on my side. I had met Hutchinson before, when he and his then-partner, Jo Stevens, investigated some murders that were far too close for comfort. We’d gotten off to a less-than inspiring start, but Jay had brought the man around and I’d come to almost like him.
    The studio’s lighting showed a flush spreading across Hutchinson’s fair skin, but other than a quick flicker of jaw muscles, he kept his feelings to himself. He lifted his badge holder toward Charles and said, “Hutchinson. We had a report of intruders. Woman at the house directed us back here.” Two uniformed officers with flash lights were in the yard, one of them checking the shrubbery near the house, the other apparently watching the studio from a few yards back.
    â€œAbout time you got here,” said Charles.
    Hutchinson pulled out a notebook and pen. “Your name, sir?”
    â€œRasmussen. Charles Rasmussen.” He stepped to the side and turned toward me and the animals. “There, you see? I want you to arrest them.”
    Hutchinson’s eyes went wide when he saw me kneeling by the chair. “Janet?” He looked at Jay, who lay watching Hutchinson with his nubby tail wriggling like a whirligig. “Jay?” Hutchinson paused as if he expected one of us to explain, but we both just grinned at him. “What’s going on here?”
    â€œLook for yourself,” I said, gesturing to the chair.
    Hutchinson stepped up, and the question written in the lines of his face morphed into a full-out grin. “How old are they?”
    â€œBrand new,” I said. “Alberta went to get a carrier so we can move them.”
    â€œOh, wow!” Hutchinson bent for a closer look, then straightened as Charles started to yell again.
    â€œFor heaven’s sake! Do something about this. They’re trespassing and that, that,” he hesitated as if searching for the right word, then continued, “that woman brought her vicious dog onto my property. I want them arrested.”
    Janet demon made me smile, whispering That the
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