1 PAWsible Suspects by Chloe Kendrick Page A

like a grown woman just up and leaves without any notice. She’d likely be taken by force, so wouldn’t there be some sort of struggle or shouting?”
    “The only thing I can think of,” said the old man, “is that she might have been knocked out before she left. Hard enough to render her unconscious, but not hard enough to leave blood. That way, she could be moved easily without her screaming.”
    “But what about the shotgun noise? Why would you shoot her and then knock her out? Seems like a bit of overkill. Dead bodies aren’t easy to move either. That’s a lot of dead weight to haul.”
    The man stroked his chin as he looked at the beagle. “I’m not sure. I can only tell you what I heard.”
    “Well, thanks. I appreciate it.”
    I left him in the house and went back outside. The weather was actually cooperating, and the temperatures had finally decided to jump the freezing mark. Some bits of snow and ice had puddled around the sidewalk and street. I crossed the street without as much peril to life and limb as last time.
    I knocked on the door of the house across the street and waited. There was only one question that I really wanted answered, one that needed an answer.
    The same woman answered the door, wearing a blouse that showed off her ample cleavage. I wasn’t really interested in another woman especially now that Detective Green had been forward with me, but I pretended to flirt so that I could weasel some information out of her.
    She invited me inside and I went, only because I was tired of being cold. The air inside the house was oppressive, overly warm with some cloying scent dancing in the air. I took off my coat, and she eyed my body with obvious intent.
    I thought about flexing for her, just to see what she’d do, but I wasn’t up to peeling her off of me later. I was all about the question at hand.
    “So what can I help you with?” she said with a smile.
    “I just had a question for you, something that the man across the street said to me.”
    She waved a hand. “I saw you over there with old man Lindauer. I can’t imagine why you’d spend all that time with him when you could be here with me instead.” She licked her lips with obvious intent.
    “We were talking about the Ruby Jenkins disappearance,” I said. “She’s still missing.”
    Her eyes widened. “I know. It makes me somewhat fearful to stay here alone. I could use some company if you know what I mean.” This time she gave me a wink.
    I did, but I ignored the comment. “Anyway, Mr. Lindauer mentioned that he heard a gunshot in the middle of the night – the night that Ruby Jenkins disappeared. I was just wondering if you heard the same thing?”
    She paused. I think she would have furrowed her brow had it not been for the fact that she didn’t want a wrinkle on her face while she was trying to impress me. “I didn’t hear a gunshot. I did hear a sound, but I thought it sounded more like a backfire or another loud bang. My father had guns, and they didn’t sound like this at all.” In answering the question, she had forgotten her overt flirting. It was nice to get a straight answer for once.
    “Mr. Lindauer said something about a scream as well? Did you hear anything like that?”
    She gave me a small smile. “No wonder you were over there so long. No, I didn’t hear a scream either. Just that noise and then it was just so silent. Almost eerie. I didn’t turn on the lights or anything because I didn’t want to be considered the nosy neighbor.”
    I nodded. Before she could say anything else, I had my coat back on and was heading out the door. I climbed into my car and started thinking. A loud noise had occurred sometime in the night. Lindauer had called it a shotgun; the woman had said it was not. He’d heard a scream, but she had not. I’d always heard that eyewitnesses were terribly unreliable, but now I was learning that for myself.
    It didn’t help me much. It boiled down to the fact that there had been a