ppp cove 06 - criminals on vacation Read Online Free Page A

wanted to give them time before she got there. It didn’t take long. The officers had cuffed the men, scooped up the dog, and put her in one of the cars. The men were seated in the other.
    “Larceny at best; dogs don’t fall under kidnapping charges. Grand theft in the third degree, since the law goes by value,” the offer said to Poppy as she walked up. “Not a huge fine, but with prior convictions, these guys won’t get off as easily.”
    “The thing is,” Poppy started. “I think they were working for someone. Would I be able to talk to them?”
    “Not standard procedure,” the officer stated. He winked. “Of course, I’m going to check out the camper to see if there’s anything else I need to collect as evidence. If you happened to talk to them through the partially rolled down window of the car, there’s not much I can do about that.”
    “Right,” she said, catching on. She went over to the car, took a deep breath and said, “I know you’re working for someone else. If you tell me who hired you, we might be able to lessen the charges against you both.”
    “I’m no rat,” Jimmy “Bag-of-Bagels” spit out. “Go pound sand.”
    Klondike Mike growled at Jimmy. “This was all you. One small job you said, and we’d be ready for the big time again. We’d get our reputation back, you said. Instead, we’re going to end up back in the slammer.” He turned his attention back to Poppy. “Watch your back, lady. You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
    “Is that a threat?” She raised her voice. Turning around, “Excuse me, officer…”
    “Not a threat, knock it off.”
    Poppy grilled him again. “Who are you working for?”
    “I don’t know; some guy hired us off of an online classified site. We’ve got reputations. They know how to find us. We were getting paid through a PO Box at a local office. We can’t get paid if we don’t hand over the dog.”
    “When were you going to do that?” Poppy quizzed hoping to get more details.
    Mike glared at her. “Lady, why should I tell you?”
    “Because I can help you,” she said, daring him to find out if it was true. She bluffed as well as anyone.
    “Lady, I’m beyond help. I’m not talking. A squealer doesn’t get more work, and I’m not ready to change my profession.” He clamped up, refusing to say another word.
    If she could figure out what post office, who was renting the box out, and where and when he was supposed to drop off the dog… She sighed. That would be next to impossible.
    Not long after the officers left, she called Carmella to let her know Anastasia was on the way home. Only, nobody answered. She left a message, hoping she was home when the police showed up with her dog. Poppy decided to head over, in case she wasn’t around, she could take temporary ownership until her friend arrived.
    Once again, stopping in the office, she checked in on her father. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. I’ll fill you in later, but the guys that checked in were the ones that stole Carmella’s dog. Now, we just need to find out who was behind it. Who was paying them to do the deed? I’m sorry to do this to you again, but could you watch over the counter?”
    “Are you going out again?” he asked. “We should hire someone again, only not as a temp.”
    “I wish we could afford it. Anyway, yeah, I’m heading over to Carmella’s. She’s not answering her phone and the police are on the way to her house. I want to be there in case she’s not.” Poppy explained.
    “Sure, sure, just pick up some cocktail sauce on the way home,” he said, double checking the fridge. “We’re out of cocktail sauce.”
     

Chapter 7
     
     
    Somebody had taken the time to hire those guys to steal the dog. Why? Why didn’t they get the dog themselves? And what did they want the dog for? Did they simply want to remove the dog from the premise, or did they want the dog? Was it to hurt Carmella, to get back at her, maybe her