The look on Odelia’s face spoke volumes. Clearly those words had given her pause. “That is… troubling,” she admitted.

  I noticed that she hadn’t translated Brutus’s words to Chase, though, so my feeling was that Chase possibly wasn’t fully on board with Mick’s role in the investigation, and she didn’t want to pour fuel on the fire.

  And also, nobody likes to be told he has legs like sticks and biceps like mosquito bites. Except if you’re a supermodel. In that case, it’s probably considered a major compliment.

  All of this told me that this investigation was going to be quite the challenge.

  CHAPTER 10

  When we arrived at the house, the first thing we noticed was that another police car was already parked in the drive.

  “Looks like Mick beat us to it,” said Odelia, which drew a grunt of displeasure from her husband.

  “I told him to pay a visit to the bank,” he said. “Ask the bank manager about Bramwell Eiderduck’s finances. Looks like he ignored my order. Again.”

  We all got out, and I steeled myself for another confrontation with the huskies. At this rate, Hampton Cove wasn’t going to feel as pleasant a home as it had been all my life.

  Odelia and Chase had planned to talk to the Eiderducks’ business manager, who didn’t live on site but had traveled to the house at their request. We found the gentleman in question in Bramwell Eiderduck’s office on the second floor… being interviewed by Mick.

  “I’ll take it from here, Mick,” said Chase as he walked in, clearly not at all pleased with the behavior his underling was displaying.

  “I can handle it, Chase,” said Mick as he held up a hand. “You go and talk to someone else.”

  “Thanks, Mick, that will be all,” said Chase as he moved in with a smile on his face. He held out his hand. “Chase Kingsley, detective in charge of the case. And I see you’ve already met Mick Harper.”

  “An honor,” said the business manager. “I’ve always been a big fan of yours, Mr. Harper. It was quite a pleasant surprise to discover that you’ve decided to give Hampton Cove the benefit of your extensive experience.”

  “After I retired I figured I needed to become active in my community,” said Mick. “And what better way to serve my community than by becoming a cop?”

  “Absolutely,” said the business manager. He glanced from Chase to Mick. “So… who do I talk to?”

  “Me,” said Chase.

  “Me,” said Mick.

  “Can you step outside for a moment, Mick?” asked Chase, giving the hockey star a look that brooked no contest. “Right now?”

  “Oh, of course,” said Mick, and followed Chase outside.

  In the meantime, Odelia decided to take over, and took a seat in front of the manager. “So we wanted to talk to you about your client,” she said as she took out her digital notepad and stylus. “What can you tell us about him, Mr…?”

  “Readle,” said the man. “Albert Readle. Well, Bramwell was an amazing client. We had a close working relationship for going on thirty years. Unfortunately, these last couple of years have been challenging, and so I had to let him go a couple of months ago.”

  “You mean… you weren’t his business manager anymore?”

  “No. We parted ways after Bramwell engaged in a few investments that I had advised him against, but that he saw fit to pursue regardless. Suffice it to say that no business manager can work under these circumstances, so I told him I quit.”

  “What investment decisions were these?” asked Odelia.

  “Well, like I told Detective Harper just now, he had decided to invest in a pug breeding farm, which, as we all know, is not exactly without its detractors. And sure enough, before long he fell afoul of a local group of animal welfare activists, who decided to put a stop to what they called a blatant abuse of animals.”

  “A pug farm?”

  “A pug farm. He decided to invest all of his money in a pug farm. And that was only the latest in a long string of bad investments—all of which I vehemently warned him against. But to no avail. Suffice it to say that he lost most of his money.”

  “Am I to understand that Bramwell Eiderduck, the man who gave the world Steel Justice, Viper Squad and Hawk & Steele, was broke?”

  “Yes, he was. Completely broke.”

  “But what about the house?”

  “The house has been mortgaged to the hilt. And if Anthemia knows what’s best for her, she’ll refuse her dad’s inheritance. Otherwise she’ll be on the hook for a substantial sum.”

  “So the pug farm?”

  “Was a flop. And a major embarrassment. Activists were out here every weekend, and they successfully managed to stop any pugs from being sold to potential customers.”

  “Can you give us the names of these activists?”

  “All I know is that they’re locals.” He frowned. “I believe their leader’s name is… something that ends with Gardner?”

  “Not Ida Baumgartner?”

  The man’s face brightened. “That’s it. Ida Baumgartner. Bramwell called her the bane of his existence—said she was an even bigger pain in the behind than any of the horrible actors he ever worked with, or directors, or studio bosses.”

  “Okay, so can you think of anyone else who may have harbored a grudge against your former client?” asked Odelia.

  “There is one person that springs to mind,” said the manager as he pursed his lips thoughtfully. “You remember Hawk & Steele?”

  “I remember it fondly,” said Odelia with a smile. “I used to watch that show on repeat. I can still sing the theme song.” She started to hum it, eliciting a smile from the manager, who briefly joined in.

  “Well, the lead actor—Billy Placid, the one who played Steele—claimed Bramwell still owed him money. Said he’d been stiffed out of part of his fee and had been trying to get Bramwell to admit wrongdoing. He even took him to court, but luckily the judge didn’t side with him. Though honestly, I could’ve told Billy it was a waste of time.” He spread his arms. “You can’t squeeze blood from a stone, right? Even if he’d won, it wouldn’t have mattered. Bramwell couldn’t have paid.”

  Outside, a heated argument seemed to be taking place, if the words drifting into the room were any indication.

  “Excuse my husband,” said Odelia. “He and Mick have only just started working together, and Mick still has to learn the ropes.”

  “Oh? But he told me that he aced the police academy. First in his class. That the instructor told him he had never met a recruit as talented as him. And that his superiors said they were lucky to have him.”

  “Well, that’s certainly true,” said Odelia. “But that doesn’t alter the fact that there’s a major difference between acing a test and being out in the field running an actual investigation.”

  “Of course,” said the business manager. “The same can be said about my line of work. The stuff I’ve had to deal with—none of that can be taught. Only the school of hard knocks can teach you that.”

  “Was he a difficult client, Bramwell Eiderduck?”

  “He was a sweetheart,” said the manager. “But stubborn. Because of his success in a previous life, and his position as a top producer, he had gotten into the habit of believing that everything he touched turned to gold. And that may have been true when he was a TV executive. But once he stepped away from the business and launched himself into other enterprises, effectively he was starting from scratch—and that was hard for him to understand. Or to accept. I tried to explain it to him, and to protect him from some of his worst instincts, but he simply wouldn’t listen. And that, in my opinion, was his downfall.”

  CHAPTER 11

  When the shouting began, we decided to remove ourselves from the scene. I’m not a big fan of shouting, and neither are my friends. And since I was still nervous about encountering Mick’s huskies again, I hoped that by taking a ramble around the house and grounds, we might be in a position to avoid them altogether.

  “This is no way to run an investigation,” said Brutus. “Mick and Chase at loggerheads, and a pair of interfering huskies making life difficult for us? I’m starting to think that maybe they are in cahoots with the killer.”

  “I’m sure that’s not the case,” I said. “Why would Mick Harper want to get rid of Bramwell Eiderduck? They didn’t even know each other.”

  “And how do you know? It’s possible they were friends. The hockey star and the successful producer? Chances are they bumped into each other at some celebrity shindig.”

  I had to admit that Brutus had a point. Then again, if they did know each other, it would all be revealed sooner or later. Knowing Chase, he would leave no stone unturned in his pursuit of justice.

  We had left the house and were traipsing around the garden, hoping to find a sign of pet life. Mostly when Odelia drags us out on these investigations, it is with one clear-cut goal in mind: for us to talk to the victims’ pets, and extract some confidences from them if we can.

  “According to that business manager, Bramwell Eiderduck was in the pug-breeding business,” said Brutus. “So we should be able to find those pugs and have a chat.”

  “Pug-breeding?” asked Dooley. “Don’t you mean pig-breeding?”

  “He clearly said pug-breeding,” said Brutus.

  “I didn’t even know that was a thing,” said Harriet. “I’ve heard of people breeding pigs, but pugs? How do you even breed a pug?”

  “Same way you breed a pig?” I suggested. “By getting them to mate and then selling the offspring?”

  Harriet made a face. “That’s disgusting, Max.”

  “No, it’s the way things go,” said Brutus. “Nature and all of that, snookums.”

  “I guess,” she said, glancing around and hoping to catch a whiff of these pugs. “And did I hear that manager right? Was Ida Baumgartner involved in all of this?”

  “She tried to stop Bramwell from breeding pugs,” I said. “So we probably should go and have a chat with her.”

  Ida Baumgartner is an old acquaintance of ours. She is one of Tex’s most faithful patients, and is in his office practically every week with some new real or imagined disease. Mostly she trawls the internet looking for possible symptoms she might be afflicted with, then prints out her findings and brings them to Tex, causing the good doctor no small amount of headache. Most doctors hate it when people use Google as a doctor and try to find remedies for their potential illnesses, and Tex is no exception.

  It was at this moment that we became aware of some kind of altercation taking place in the vicinity of a nearby free-standing structure. It looked like a stable, though it was quite large and sturdily built.

  “Over there,” said Harriet, as we started heading in that direction.

  As we drew closer, a familiar voice reached me. If I wasn’t mistaken, it belonged to Blizzard.

  And since we had all grown to thoroughly dislike Mick’s huskie, we halted in our tracks.

  “Maybe we should go the other way,” Harriet suggested. “We don’t want to run into those annoying dogs again.”

  “And I say we charge ahead,” said Brutus. “I mean, what right do they have to prevent us from running this investigation the way we see fit? We have every right to be here—as much as them.”

  “I guess,” said Harriet, but it was clear that for once she didn’t agree with her boyfriend. “You go first,” she said, giving Brutus a gentle push.

  “Maybe Max should go first,” said Brutus, suddenly nervous. “The huskies seem to like him.”

  “Like me!” I cried. “They basically called me fat, orange and stupid!”

  “I’m sure they meant it in jest,” said Brutus. “You know, like friends joshing. ‘Oh, you handsome devil, you.’ Tongue in cheek, you know.”

  “That did not sound like tongue in cheek to me,” I said.

  “I guess it all depends on your interpretation.”

  “My interpretation is that they don’t like us and that they’d much rather drive us out of town, stripped, tarred and feathered. Though in our case probably more like skinned, tarred and feathered.”

  We all gulped at the prospect of being skinned alive, then tarred and feathered and driven out of town. I didn’t think I’d enjoy the procedure.

  “But I don’t want to be skinned, tarred and feathered, Max,” said Dooley. “It sounds painful!”

  “I’m sure it’s not,” I reassured him.

  “And I’m sure it is,” Brutus grunted.

  While we had been discussing the pros and cons of encountering the huskies again, we had approached the stables, where the sound of a quarrel was still emanating from. As we moved closer, it became clear to me that the huskies—for I could clearly detect both of their voices now—were arguing with some other dogs—possibly the pugs.

  “Why do Mick’s dogs always move in a pack?” asked Dooley. “Is it because they like each other so much they can’t stand to be apart, Max?”

  “I’m sure that’s the reason, Dooley,” I said. “They’re best friends and enjoy each other’s company.”

  He smiled. “Like us, you mean. I enjoy your company so much that I start to worry when you’re not around, Max.”

  “Hey, and what about us?” asked Harriet. “Don’t you miss us when we’re not around?”

  “Of course,” said Dooley. “But not as much as Max. He is my best friend in all the world.”

  “I should have known,” Harriet grumbled. “Playing favorites has always been the bane of my existence. Kingman and Shanille. Max and Dooley. Nobody likes me.”

  “I like you, my precious snow bunny,” said Brutus. “I like you a whole lot. And I miss you when you’re not around.”

  “Aww, that’s so sweet of you to say, Brutus,” said Harriet, mollified to some extent.

  We had reached the stable and peered through a crack in the wood. Inside, both huskies had engaged a pack of pugs in a verbal spat. Unlike us, though, the pugs had decided to give as good as they got.

  “You have no right to come in here and start to interrogate us!” said one of the pugs, who may have been the leader of the pack. “No right at all!”

  “We have every right!” said Blizzard. “We are running a murder investigation, and so you better answer all of our questions, pug, or we will arrest you for obstructing the course of justice. Is that understood?”

  “You can’t arrest us! You have no right!”

  “We do have the right,” said Storm. “We are police dogs, and you are all suspects!”

  “How dare you come into our home and start accusing us!” another pug yelled. He had approached the two huskies in a menacing fashion and didn’t seem afraid of the overbearing twosome at all. “I want you to leave right now!”

  “We aren’t leaving until we have gotten all of your statements!” said Blizzard. “And your alibis for the time of the murder! Is that understood?”

  “No,” said the pug leader. “We won’t do it. No way. And if you want to arrest us, I want to see you try. Well, go on. Arrest us!”

  “You and whose army?!” one of his friends yelled. At this point, they all started yelling, trying to drown out the other dogs and make themselves heard. It was such a cacophony that I didn’t understand a thing. Even the huskies seemed to have a hard time following what was being said.

  “Quiet!” finally Storm shouted. “Your human was murdered. Don’t you want to find out who the culprit is?”

  “Not necessarily,” said the pug leader. “You see, we didn’t like our human very much—or at all. And that goes for both of them.”

  “They were so mean to us I can’t even begin to describe it,” said another pug. I couldn’t tell who was who, though, as most of these pugs seemed to have come from the same nest since they all looked exactly the same.

  “I knew it,” said Blizzard. He fixed all of the pugs with a kindling eye. “You killed them. All of you banded together and killed your humans!”

  “I wish,” said the pug leader, which was quite the startling statement, I felt. “And now you better get lost. We don’t like it when you start throwing all of these accusations around. Go on. Get lost, I’m telling you!”

  The huskies didn’t seem to be on the same page, but in the end they decided to clear off. There were easily a couple dozen pugs in there, and even a huskie doesn’t enjoy the prospect of being attacked by a bunch of these yappy little creatures. They might be a lot smaller than the huskies were, but from what I could tell, they had a pretty fierce temper—and some extremely sharp teeth. They might bite one of the huskies’ tail clean off!

  Before long, their strategy paid off, and the huskies beat a strategic retreat. We watched them go, hidden from view behind the barn.

  “Good riddance,” Brutus grunted.

  “Okay, let’s go and talk to the pugs,” I said.

  “Hey, no!” Brutus cried. “Didn’t you hear what they said? They don’t like intruders!”

  “But we’re detectives, Brutus. Odelia gave us an assignment: talk to any pet witnesses. And these are pet witnesses.”

  Brutus hesitated, then finally relented. “Okay, but you do the talking. I do not want to get into a fight with these fierce creatures. I mean, they scared off those mean huskies!”

  “They’re pugs, Brutus,” said Harriet. “Not Dobermans. Come on, they won’t bite.”

  “Says you,” he muttered.

  I have to admit that I wasn’t feeling all that happy about the prospect of encountering these pugs either, but what had to be done had to be done, and so I gathered all of my courage and stepped out from our hiding place and into full view of the pack of pugs.

  CHAPTER 12

  The pugs had been talking amongst themselves when we arrived on the scene, but the moment we moved into view, all conversation halted and silence reigned.

  I cleared my throat. “Hi there,” I said. “My name is Max, and these are my friends Dooley, Harriet, and Brutus. We’re investigating the death of Bramwell and Reyna Eiderduck and were wondering if you would be able to shed some light on the circumstances of their recent demise.”