STRANGER DANGER

  SIT, STAY, SLEEP COZY MYSTERIES

  BOOK 2

  PATTI BENNING

  SUMMER PRESCOTT BOOKS PUBLISHING

  Copyright 2025 Summer Prescott Books

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying, or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.

  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

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  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Also by Patti Benning

  Author’s Note

  Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  CHAPTER ONE

  The kennels rang with barks, howls, and the melodious baying of a hound, and the air smelled of dog and professional grade, pet-safe disinfectant. Despite the recent cleaning, a tumbleweed of dog fur floated out of one of the kennels, propelled by the force of its occupant’s wagging tail.

  Sadie Barton, in a set of damp, sky-blue scrubs with her arms loaded down with dog bowls, couldn’t have been happier.

  “Does Miss Luna need to be brushed again?” she asked in a singsong voice as she stopped in front of the husky’s kennel.

  The black and white northern breed was the one who was responsible for the tumbleweed of fur — and the howls. Luna’s family had just moved from Maine, to a town forty-five minutes away. To say the dog was still adjusting to the heat would be an understatement. Yesterday, Sadie had filled a kiddie pool with cool water and ice cubes to give her a chance to cool off outside; otherwise, the husky spent all day hiding inside where the air conditioning kept the worst of the heat at bay. The indoor-outdoor runs were a blessing, since they meant the dogs could choose whether they wanted to brave the Georgia summer or not.

  Despite not being suited for the warm weather, Luna looked happy as she danced around inside of her kennel, waiting for Sadie to open the door. The bowl of dog food in her hand probably had something to do with it, but Sadie liked to think her hard work to make sure each of her guests was comfortable and happy was paying off.

  After putting Luna’s food bowl down, she moved on to the next kennel, where Rosco, the young and energetic lab mix who was their very first regular client, was bouncing straight into the air. He let out a high-pitched bark at the apex of each jump, unable to contain his excitement at the promise of food. This was his third stay at Sit, Stay, Sleep Motel and Boarding. His owner, Beth, liked to visit her daughter’s family on the weekends, but they had a new baby and Rosco was a little too rambunctious to accompany her.

  He had been their very first guest, and Sadie hoped he would keep coming back for a long time. She and Penny, her best friend slash business partner, had been on the verge of giving the entire business up as a bad idea when Beth booked his first stay.

  “Here you go, handsome; kibble mixed with boiled chicken bits, just like your mom makes it.”

  She left him to gulp down his food while she carried the last bowl to the occupant of the last kennel. While Rosco had a special place in her heart, this dog owned a bigger chunk of her heart than most people did. Unlike the other dogs, he sat politely on his bed, but the quiver in his muscles and string of drool hanging from his lips gave away his excitement for the meal.

  “Hey, buddy,” she said as she opened the door to the kennel. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

  Unlike the other dogs, she wasn’t worried he would run out. Jasper was her dog and had over a year of training under his belt. As far as she was concerned, he was the handsomest foxhound in the whole world, and one of the best dogs she had ever met.

  She set his bowl down on the ground. He glanced down at it, then stared back up at her, his soft brown eyes asking a question as clear as any she had heard from a human.

  “Okay.”

  At that single word, he lunged forward and dove into his bowl, his white-tipped tail wagging so fast it blurred. She backed out of the kennel, re-latched the chain-link door, then raised her arms over her head to stretch her aching shoulders. It was only mid-morning, but running a boarding kennel was a lot of work, even with just three guests — well, two, since Jasper didn’t count. She only had him in the kennel right now since she thought he would be more entertained there, where he could see and smell the other dogs, than he would be alone in the apartment above the motel’s lobby while she helped Penny with the other part of their business.

  She knew it wouldn’t always be this way, but the past few weeks had been stuffed to the brim with almost nothing but marketing, cleaning, and as much DIY renovation as they could get away with. Running a boarding kennel out of the back of a motel made sense to her but a lot of the people she tried to advertise to were confused at first. She suspected many of them had never tried to take a road trip with a dog. Even though all but one of their motel rooms were going to be pet-friendly — she and Penny both wanted somewhere comfortable for their guests with allergies to stay — leaving a dog alone in a motel room was just asking for trouble, and leaving a dog alone in the car was a bad idea even at the best of times, but down here in Georgia, it would be deadly for most of the year.

  What was a vacationer supposed to do with their beloved pet if they wanted to do something that wasn’t pet-friendly? Why, board them for the day at the Sit, Stay and Sleep kennel! That was Sadie’s idea, anyway. So far, all of their clients had been locals, and they had only had a few of them. She hadn’t had time to start offering dog training lessons yet, but she was hoping once she did, things would pick up. Getting the motel rooms up to code and officially opening their doors to human guests would help too… if they could convince anyone to stay there with the motel’s sordid history.

  Sadie forced the worries from her mind as she left the kennel room and walked through the laundry room to the motel’s lobby. All they could do was try their best. The few boarding clients they had gotten so far were enough to keep them afloat or at least pay for their electricity bill and the cheapest frozen burritos and ramen noodles they could buy at the grocery store. They had drained their savings accounts to pay for the motel in cash — no lender would have given them a mortgage for it with the state it had been in — which meant they didn’t have a monthly mortgage payment to worry about, though their bank accounts were all but empty.

  For now, Sadie was just trying not to think about the fact that their insurance and property tax payments would be due in three months. If things weren’t better by then, they might have to revisit selling the motel and moving back to Lexington.

  Stepping outside into the humid, overcast day, she turned left and walked down the row of motel rooms. There were ten rooms in total — and eight kennel runs out back — but for now, they were only able to use nine of them for guests. Penny was staying in Room Three until she could draw enough of a salary to rent a place in Greencreek.

  Sadie felt bad that her best friend was relegated to living out of a motel room, but they both agreed it made the most sense for Sadie to live in the on-site apartment, since she needed to be on the premises in case there was an emergency with the dogs overnight.

  A week ago, they had used the last of their savings to hire a company to come out and install cheap but new carpets in all ten of the motel rooms. They had already purchased all new mattresses and linens and had finished painting the rooms before they replaced the carpets. Rooms One through Six were now fully complete and ready for guests; the motel rooms would be a little basic and boring for now, but at least they would be clean and — Sadie hoped — comfortable.

  They were putting the finishing touches on Room Seven today. Penny was already hard at work; she had a hammer in her hand and two nails clenched between her lips when Sadie walked in. They had picked up some cheap artwork at a thrift shop a few days ago in an effort to add a little more life to the rooms. The picture Penny was currently hanging was a print of an oil painting of a lovely, sunlit grove with a stream running through it.

  “Here, let me take that,” Sadie said. She supported the frame while Penny marked where the nails should go, then stepped back while her friend hammered them in.

  She wouldn’t insult her friend by saying it, but she was impressed. Penny’s family was the sort of well-off, old money family that almost lived in a different world from most people. She wasn’t sure her friend had so much as lifted a hammer for the first twenty years of her life. There had been a few bruised fingers for both of them when they started working on the motel. Sadie might have been a little more familiar around hammers and nails, but that didn’t mean she was good at that sort of thing, but now they were practically pros.

  She hung the picture up, the tilt
to the right immediately noticeable. Well… they weren’t novices anymore, at least. They still had a lot to learn.

  “Dang it,” Penny muttered. “Where did that level go?”

  “We probably should have checked before hammering the nails in.” Sadie laughed, but she pitched in to help look until she heard the sound of a car turning into the motel’s parking lot. They were on Highway 78, just a couple of miles past the turn into town, and so far they’d had more people using their parking lot to turn around than actual guests, so her hopes weren’t high as she peeked out through the open door. When she saw the old station wagon pull to a stop in front of the lobby door, and heard the driver’s side door pop open, she felt a thrill go through her.

  Another customer. Or a potential customer. She had to go and lock them down, quick.

  “Good luck. I’ll be right back,” she said with a hurried wave to her friend as she raced out of the room. She wished she had taken the time to change out of her damp scrubs, but it had been days since they’d had someone drop by unexpectedly, and she had been planning to spend most of the day cleaning, which always ended up being a surprisingly dirty endeavor.

  She strode down the sidewalk that led down the row of rooms toward the lobby, trying not to look as eager as she felt. Even the appearance of the man who got out of the car, who was about her height and lean, and was wearing a ratty old ball cap pulled low over his eyes, which themselves were covered by dark sunglasses despite the overcast sky, didn’t dampen her enthusiasm much especially when she saw the dog that he let out of the back.

  The dog was tall, with long, silky golden blonde fur that flowed like water over her lean frame, an Afghan hound. The breed was unmistakable, despite it being the first one Sadie had seen in person. She was immediately in love.

  “Oh, my goodness,” she crooned, forgetting that she wanted to act casual. “Who do we have here?”

  She forced herself to stop a few feet away from the gorgeous dog; she looked friendly, but Sadie hated it when people tried to pet Jasper without asking first and she didn’t want to be a hypocrite.

  “Her name’s Cleo,” the man said.

  He held out the dog’s leash, which was made out of buttery soft leather. Sadie took it reflexively as he ducked back into the car to fetch a folded paper and an envelope. He held both out to her, then paused, looking around as if he had just noticed the cracked asphalt, the lawn that was more crabgrass than real grass, and the laminated sign that was stapled to the post by the road, rather than the lovely wooden sign Sadie wished they could afford.

  “You do boarding?”

  He sounded doubtful, but Luna chose that moment to let out a howl from the kennels out back. Sadie nodded. “We definitely do. Normally I’d ask for a reservation in advance, but we have space if you need to drop her off right now. Let’s go into the lobby, and I’ll get her checked in.”

  He shook his head and shoved the paper and envelope into her free hand. “It’s going to be at least a week. Maybe two.” He hesitated, then added, “Take care of her. She’s a good dog.”

  “Wait—”

  Before Sadie could say anything else, he got back into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut. She had to back away with Cleo to be sure he wouldn’t hit them as he backed out. After putting the car into drive, he peeled out of the parking lot with enough acceleration to leave tire marks on the asphalt.

  Sadie stared after him, then looked down at the dog whose leash she was still gripping. Cleo looked back up at her with dark eyes, then pointed her long muzzle down the road where the station wagon had disappeared and let out a worried whine.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Penny poked her head out of the door a few rooms down. “Everything all right?” she called out. “I heard tires screech.”

  “I’m not sure,” Sadie said. “Some guy just dropped his dog off, without even leaving his name.”

  “Weird.” Her friend approached and held a hand out. Cleo sniffed it politely, then sat down and turned her head to look down the road again. “Does she seem all right?”

  Sadie looked down at the dog. She looked healthy and well-groomed, and she didn’t see any obvious injuries. She knew the asphalt had to be hot on her paws, though, even with how overcast it was.

  “I think so. He gave me these papers too. We can look everything over and decide what to do from there.”

  As soon as she started moving, Cleo fell into a perfect heel at her side. Penny opened the door to the lobby to let them through. The air conditioning wrapped around the three of them like a cool blanket.

  “Can you fill up one of the dog bowls with water for her?” Sadie asked. “I don’t want to take her into the kennel room yet. Not until I know whether she’s up to date on her vaccines and get a chance to look her over.”

  The last thing she needed was to send one of her canine guests home with fleas or kennel cough. Cleo looked healthy, but it wouldn’t be fair to the other dogs’ owners to demand vaccine records from them, only to expose their dogs to a dog whose medical history she didn’t know.

  “Yeah. I’ll be right back.”

  While Penny went to get the water, Sadie sat in one of their uncomfortable chairs and patted her leg, hoping to encourage Cleo to approach her. The dog was staring at the door, as if hoping her owner would walk through at any second but turned toward her at the sound. She sniffed Sadie’s hands and pants delicately, then rested her narrow chin on Sadie’s knee. Sadie ran a hand through the silky fur on her head.

  “You’re gorgeous,” she murmured. “And such a polite dog, too. You put Jasper to shame.”

  She wanted nothing more than to spend the next hour petting the dog, but she needed to get to the bottom of this first, so she opened the envelope. It was stuffed full of cash. She flipped through the bills quickly to make sure he hadn’t hidden a note between them. It was nice that he hadn’t dropped Cleo off without paying, but at the moment she was more concerned with the dog’s welfare than money.

  After setting the envelope of cash down on the seat next to her, she unfolded the piece of paper. It was a photocopy of Cleo’s vet records — the dog’s full name was Cleopatra, and according to the records, she was three years old and spayed and was up to date on everything Sadie required and more. That was a relief, but the relief was short-lived when she realized that all of the owner’s identifying information had been blacked out. Even the vet clinic’s name had been redacted. She felt like she was reading a classified government document, not a dog’s vaccine records.

  “Did he leave a note?” Penny asked as she came back into the room. She set the bowl of water down next to Cleo, who took a few grateful laps from it.

  “No, just some cash and her vet records,” Sadie said. She held the paper out to her friend. “He hid all of the owner’s information, and there’s no way to figure out which vet clinic she was taken to, either.”

  Penny took the paper with a frown. “‘The owner’? You think the guy who dropped her off isn’t the owner?”

  “I don’t know. The whole thing was weird. He didn’t give me his name or any contact information; all he told me was her name, and that she would need to be here for a week or two.”

  Penny set the paper down and picked the envelope up to begin counting the cash. “What do you think?” she asked as she flipped rapidly through the bills.

  “I don’t know.” Sadie looked down at the dog, who was sniffing her shoes. “I think… it’s possible she was stolen.”

  The thought made her feel sick, but it was the only thing that made sense. What other explanation could there be for the secrecy, otherwise? She had no idea why someone would send a recently stolen dog to a boarding kennel, but she could hardly even fathom the thought of stealing someone’s obviously loved and cared for dog in the first place.

  “That would be bad,” Penny said. “The last thing we need is to get caught up in a dog theft ring. Should we call the police?”

  “Maybe,” Sadie said. “At least to ask if there are any reports of missing Afghan hounds that match her description.”