Silent Night: A Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Read Online Free Page B

before we left, I turned and gave Esther a one-armed hug.  “You take care of yourself, okay?   Have a wonderful trip to California.  I’m going to miss you.”
    She patted my back affectionately, then pulled away from the hug.  Her eyes were dead serious as she looked into mine.  “You’re a good girl, Raine Stockton, and you and Cisco have meant the world to me these last few months.  You go on out and have a good life, and you let me know if you ever need anything, you hear?  I’ve got friends with connections.”
    Esther Kelp might be slipping into the pleasant mental fog of old age, complete with its delusions and oddities, but there was no denying the sincerity of her intentions.   “Thank you, Miss Esther,” I told her, smiling. I held up the box.  “And thank you for these.  I know what they must have meant to you.  I’ll treasure them.”
    But with all that happened later, it was several days before I remembered to bring it in from the car, and then I stuck it in the room with the Christmas decorations and all but forgot about it. 
    I suppose what happened later served me right.  
     
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    FOUR
     
     
    I live in the same white-columned farmhouse that my ancestors built in 1869, which is nestled at the base of Hawk Mountain on the edge of a national forest.  Deer graze on my apple tree and use my driveway as a shortcut to their beds. Foxes and raccoons give the dogs plenty to stay excited about, and every now and then a bear will wander down from the hills and make himself known on my front porch. Bobcats and coyote leave pawprints in the snow on my lawn. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
      Dog Daze Boarding and Training is located behind the house, where the original barn had been. After a small fire had caused enough smoke and water damage to justify a major remodel, I had decided to expand and upgrade with an indoor training room large enough to set up a small agility course, in-floor heating,  and twenty individual indoor-outdoor kennel runs.  As with most construction projects, it had quickly gotten out of hand.  I had been promised a fully-functional, bright and gleaming kennel facility complete with happy, barking dogs before Christmas.  What I had was an empty shell of a building with no heat, no electricity, no plumbing, and, needless to say, no dogs.  Just looking at the deserted structure every time I drove up depressed me.
    It was not even five o’clock when I got home, but the sun had already set behind my mountain and the twilight was deep.  My headlights flashed first on the red metal roof of Dog Daze as I came over the slight rise of  the long  gravel drive that led from the  road, and then on the dark windows of my house.  I had just enough time to feed the dogs, change into my shepherdess costume, and hopefully grab a bite to eat in town before I had to take my place in the Christmas parade lineup with Mystery and the sheep.  I parked in front of the house, opened the back of the SUV for Cisco, and the two of us hurried up the steps.
    The first thing I noticed when I flipped on the lights was a silver Christmas ornament in the middle of the floor.  I bent to pick it up and noticed another, a few feet away, and another beyond that.   I was starting to get a bad feeling, and I muttered under my breath, “Mischief.”  I had taken a box of Christmas ornaments down from the attic yesterday, but had made certain to put it on top of the highboy in the dining room before I left this afternoon.  Mischief and Magic were of course crated whenever I was away, but a locked door to Mischief was more of a suggestion than an impediment, so I always double-checked to make certain all valuables, breakables, and dangerous items were well out of reach before I left her alone.  But sometimes even double- and triple-checking was not enough.
    While Cisco bounded ahead to explore on his own, I followed the trail of shiny Christmas balls down the