All Shots by Susan Conant

possible that Mellie made some kind of promise. She takes promises seriously. And concretely. Her universe is very black and white.”
    “But why would she…? Well, maybe. I guess it could be a divorce situation, a sort of custody battle, and one of the partners could’ve stashed the dog with Mellie. Would you see if you can find out? See if you can get Mellie to say anything.”
    “I’ll try, but I probably won’t get anywhere, especially with Mellie so anxious. After what happened to Zach’s house sitter.”
    “Is that Dr. Ho?”
    “Lovely man. One of Mellie’s mainstays. He’s the one who gave her the DVD player and set it up for her. He somehow managed to make it so simple that she can use it. I wish someone would do that for me! And he tracked down all those DVDs about dogs.”
    “I wondered,” I said. “She actually does know a lot about dogs. I wondered where she’d picked up the vocabulary.”
    “Well, that’s where. She watches those things all the time. Some Scandinavian earth mother. I don’t know.”
    “Turid Rugaas,” I said. “Does Dr. Ho have a dog?”
    “Fish. Except that the poor things are probably all dead now. That’s why he had this house sitter, really. He’d’ve been better off hiring Mellie, but he knew she’d have trouble. Something about different tanks on different days, and if you overfeed them, they die. And the truth is, I think he was reluctant to give her the responsibility. Not that Mellie would’ve particularly wanted to be responsible, either, not for that long. Three weeks. And he’s in Africa. It isn’t as if he could come running home if there were problems.”
    “So, Holly Winter, the other one, was…”
    “What?”
    “That woman and I have the same name. It’s very—”
    “She’s unidentified,” Francie said.
    “Are you sure? What about her car?”
    “What car?”
    “A little blue car. In the driveway. The parking space next to the house.”
    “That isn’t hers. It’s Zach’s.” Francie cleared her throat. “We think, uh, the neighbors think…” She paused. “Zach has a little weakness.”
    “For cars? That one didn’t look—”
    “No, not cars. He has an eye for the ladies, so to speak.”
    “He got one of his girlfriends to house-sit? I don’t see that that’s—”
    “He hadn’t necessarily known her for very long.” Hesitantly, she added, “Meaning for more than a few hours. He, uh…”
    “He picks up women,” I said. “At bars? Clubs?”
    Francie laughed. “Not at all! We think his favorite place is Loaves and Fishes. You know those tables at the front? He buys sushi and then…”
    “He picks up women at a health food supermarket? That’s—”
    “Zach is very attractive. Charming. Very appealing. Why he…well, I have no idea. But he does.”
    “Maybe he likes his women well nourished,” I said.
    After a moment’s silence, Francie said, “I think I consider that a sexist remark.”
    “Not at all. The preference must extend both ways. The women are presumably picking him up, too. For all we know, they lurk at the sushi counter and trail after him. Or it’s a process of perfect equality. The raw fish acts as an aphrodisiac on both sexes alike, and whatever happens after that is strictly between consenting adults.” I paused. “Unless, of course, one of them ends up dead.”

CHAPTER 9

    Kevin Dennehy’s gigantic appetite helps to account for his horrible taste in restaurants. He loves any place that dishes out mammoth portions. If he were served a plate heaped with garbage, he’d be perfectly happy as long as there was lots and lots of garbage, especially if it contained very few green vegetables. My dogs love vegetables, but life with malamutes has accustomed me to Kevin’s general attitude. I have often thought that instead of training my dogs with liver, cheese, and beef, I could use eggshells and coffee grounds. The dogs would get sick, but before they did, they’d work as hard as they do now.