The Dog Designer Ruffles Some Feathers (Moonchuckle Bay Romantic Comedy #8) Page 10

  Kea said, “She sprayed me with perfume, too, that day at the funeral.”

  Then Nalani told him about using Max the incredible sniffer dog to follow the scent from the scene of the fire.

  Sheriff Winston frowned. “I left two men on watch. How’d they let this dog sniff around?”

  “Don’t get upset with them, sheriff,” Poppy said. “Max is a special breed.” She paused. “He’s an … invisible … dog.”

  Winston just stared at her. “Say what?”

  She pointed toward the back of the minivan. “He’s not always invisible, but he can turn invisible. I keep a magical restraint harness on him so he can’t do it unless I approve of it.”

  He studied her. “You have unexpected depths, Ms. Brooks. Any other surprises?”

  She wasn’t going to tell him about Blaze, but Kea said, “She has a fire-breathing dog, too.”

  “Oh, great, Kea. Now he’s going to think I set the fire for sure.”

  “Depends,” the sheriff said. “Does that dog also have a restraint collar to keep him from firing up?”

  She nodded.

  He glanced back at four pounds of awesome. “And what about the Shih Tzu?”

  “The Shih Tzam can communicate mentally with me.”

  “Huh,” the sheriff said, shaking his head. “I might be in the market for one of your dogs, Ms. Brooks.”

  Surprised, Poppy said, “Okay.”

  “Back to what’s going on here, though.”

  So they told him what had happened, and that Lizzie had joined the man in the room.

  “Lizzie? As in your fiancée?”

  Kea shook his head. “As in my ex-fiancée.”

  “Does she know that yet?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, then here’s what I think we should do,” Sheriff Samuel Winston said. “I have two other patrol cars parked on the street. A team of werewolves have shifted and are joining us from the rear of the motel. But before we use any of these people, if you’re willing, Kea, I’d like to send you to the door and have you act like the angry fiancé and see what information you can get out of them.” He put a hand on Kea’s arm. “But only if you can control the rage I sense in you right now.”

  “I will not hurt either of them, though I may act as though I will.”

  Winston studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Good. Okay.” He got on his radio and let the other team members know to hold back, but to send in one of the werewolves with a camera and mic.

  “Won’t people recognize them as werewolves?” Poppy asked.

  “It can’t be helped. We need footage for court.”

  “What if we use Max? He’s cute and no one will really notice him.”

  The sheriff studied the cute little dog, then shook his head. “He’s too cute. Someone might pick him up and pet him and think he’s lost. I’m sending in Elvis.”

  Poppy remembered meeting Elvis. “Ain’t nothing but a hound dog, huh?”

  “Long story. I’ll tell you later,” the sheriff promised.

  “I could make Max invisible.”

  “But we can’t make the camera invisible so it would appear to be hanging in the air. Might attract attention.”

  When a very large and wild-looking black dog came to sit close by the door of Room 104, the sheriff clipped a mic on Kea, and said, “You're on, buddy.”

  Poppy watched Kea climb out, storm across to the door, and pound on it.

  “Go away,” a man’s voice yelled, and she heard him as though he was in the van with her. Then Poppy realized the werewolf’s camera was feeding back to the sheriff’s phone.

  Kea pounded again. “Come out here, you coward.”

  The sheriff chuckled. “I sure wouldn’t open that door when Kea sounds like that.”

  It made Poppy jealous to see Kea even acting jealous about Lizzie. She had it bad for the big guy.

  It took the blond man inside longer to answer this time, and she guessed it was because he was scrambling to put on clothes. Finally, he snatched the door open. When he saw Kea, his eyes narrowed, and he spat out, “You again!”

  Kea nodded. “Me.”

  The blond swore and spat out, “I already told you I haven’t seen your stupid dog,” and started to slam the door.

  Kea put up a big hand out to keep it open. “Come out and fight me, you woman-stealing scum!”

  “Who is it, Clark?” a woman asked, irritated.

  Lizzie.

  “It’s your ex-fiancée,” Kea answered.

  A moment later, Lizzie appeared, pulling her shirt back on. When she saw Kea, she said, “Baby!” and touched his arm.

  Kea’s rage seemed to melt away.

  “Baby, I’m so glad to see you.” The blond man disappeared back into the room as if he’d never been there, while Lizzie slipped into Kea’s arms.

  Kea hugged her!

  Then she leaned up to kiss him — and he kissed her back!

  “What on earth is he doing?” the sheriff said, sounding baffled.

  Nalani said, “I told you, we think she’s using a spell on him or she’s a succubus or something. Every time she’s around him, especially when she’s touching him, he gets like this.”

  Winston grabbed his radio. “All units go! Apprehend the woman with Kea and the man who’s hiding in the room.” Then he added. “Watch out for Kea because he may protect her. Suspicion of a spell on him. And be advised the woman may be a succubus.”

  Determined to snatch Kea away from the traitorous cheating Lizzie, Poppy stormed across the asphalt after the sheriff, and Nalani trailed behind her.

  At the door, Kea was still hugging Lizzie and looking down adoringly into her face, and pain slammed into Poppy. Pain — and rage. This whatever-she-was didn’t get to have Poppy’s man!

  The adoring couple was surrounded by six deputies — five large men and one woman.

  Plus Poppy and Nalani and the three dogs.

  Kea saw the men approach, and he pushed Lizzie behind him, ruffling up like the owl he was, ready to protect the woman he thought he loved. The sight tore Poppy’s heart to shreds.

  She couldn’t stand the pain, and wrapped her arms around her waist, rocking back and forth. Wencheng pressed against her. Are you all right?

  No.

  Wencheng whined and licked her arm as the deputies moved in and Kea put up his fists.

  Nalani called out Kea’s name, but he didn’t notice.

  One of the deputies went in through the window of the room, back where Kea didn’t notice him, and, a moment later, he reached out from the room and snatched Lizzie away from Kea, breaking their physical hold.

  Immediately Kea stood still, shook his head, and blinked his eyes, and the dullness faded slowly. He gulped in air, as if to clear his head, shook his head.

  Poppy stared at him. It was like he was coming out from under the same fog of forgetfulness she’d experienced, so she knew it wasn’t his fault, but it still hurt to see him adore another woman.

  Kea stumbled across the parking lot to the van, and Nalani followed him. He looked at Poppy. “I bet you think I’m an idiot, don’t you?”

  “I do,” his sister declared. “How could you let her bespell you like that?”

  “Is that what happened?” Kea asked, sounding relieved.

  “We believe so,” Poppy said. “And, no, I don’t think you’re an idiot.”

  Kea shook himself. “I’ve got to go help the deputies.”

  Poppy grabbed his hand, and he looked at her expectantly. “You were bespelled. You can’t go anywhere around Lizzie until an antidote spell is found or you’ll be part of the problem — like you just were.”

  “I can at least grab the guy hiding in the back.”

  But at that moment, two deputies brought that man out, and the man was crying.

  “Please, Kea, darling, help me!” Lizzie called out to him.

  The sheriffs were leading her toward the squad car.

  Kea turned to Poppy. “Would you please g
o show her the pictures you took of her kissing this guy?”

  “I’d love to,” Poppy said, and stepped toward the blonde.

  Nalani said, “First forward those pictures to my phone. You were bespelled by her, too. I don’t want you handing over the phone and her deleting the pictures.”

  After that was done, they approached Lizzie, who watched them warily. “What do you want?”

  Poppy smiled. “Kea asked me to show you a few pictures I took the other night.”

  She held up her phone. Lizzie looked and her eyes widened, then narrowed into death ray territory. “You witch!”

  “I am, but I’m wondering what you are.”

  “I’m a victim!” Lizzie cried out.

  The sheriff motioned for both Elvis — still a werewolf — and Kea to approach, though he told the two extra deputies to be ready to grab Kea, just in case.

  Lizzie held her hands up toward Kea in a pleading gesture. She was pretty compelling, if a person didn’t know the truth about her. “Please help me.”

  “I’ve seen the pictures,” Kea said, and his eyes didn’t seem to glaze over at five feet away from Lizzie. “I know you cheated on me. I’m pretty sure you put a spell on me.”

  “No one can prove that,” Lizzie said. “Don’t believe lies, Kea. We can still get married.”

  He shook his head. “It’s over, Lizzie. There is no engagement between us. There never should have been.”

  She howled in rage. “I’m the victim here. Why’d you have to save us last year anyway? You ruined everything.”

  “Save you from the fire?” Kea asked, sounding confused.

  “I had it all set up. Old Man Burrows had me in his will, and when he died in the fire, everything would have gone to me. But then you had to save him, and made such a good impression on him that he changed his will to give almost everything to you.”

  Kea looked surprised. “You tried to kill the old man so you could take his stuff?”

  She was sputtering in such rage that Poppy didn’t believe she realized that she was confessing. Perhaps she hadn’t made the connection with the dog-like werewolf and a camera because dogs didn’t usually hold cameras.

  She stomped her feet. “That money should have been mine! I’m the one who spent all that time grooming him to marry me, and I took such good care of him and then he gave nearly all of it all to you! He left me a piddling five thousand.”

  “Why didn’t you just put a spell on him?” Poppy asked. “Like you did to Kea.”

  The blonde spun her head around and glowered at Poppy. “He was impervious to spells. Not that I used one on Kea, of course.”

  “No, just on me.”

  Lizzie smirked at her. “It was so easy to spray you with the perfume that held the spell. I wanted you to forget all about Kea.”

  “It didn’t work. I didn’t forget him, just the pictures I took of you and Clark kissing.”

  As the deputies led out Lizzie’s lover, she went all pitiful again. “It’s his fault. He made me do it. I didn’t want to.”

  “You’re lying,” the man yelled. “It was all your idea!”

  “Oh no,” Lizzie said sweetly, looking up at Kea. “Don’t believe him. He’s lying.”

  How did you spell sociopath? Poppy suspected it was L-I-Z-Z-I-E.

  The woman lunged at Kea and grabbed his hand — and the big guy moved to wrap his arms around her protectively.

  Oh, here they went again.

  Deputies from both sides grabbed Kea and Lizzie, prying him off of her.

  Shaking her head in disgust, Poppy turned away. She couldn’t deal with this.

  Too Weird for Me

  “WHERE ARE WE GOING NOW?” Nalani asked. “Any place specific? Or just as far as possible from my idiot brother?”

  Sadness enveloping her, Poppy shook her head. “I’m driving back to the Bubbling Cauldron to see if there’s any news about the spell that Lizzie purchased.”

  “I think I’m going to officially disown him as my brother because it’s too darned embarrassing to be related to someone who acts that stupid, even if he is under a spell. In fact, I’m going to have a T-shirt printed up saying My Brother Is an Idiot.”

  That made Poppy nearly chuckle. “And mine will have an arrow and say Her brother Is an Idiot.”

  Nalani snorted.

  I like him, Wencheng sent. He gives me really good tummy rubs.

  He’s never given me a tummy rub.

  Maybe you should try it.

  Poppy laughed. “Wencheng says I should give Kea a chance to give me a belly rub.”

  “If he touches your belly, my mother will kill him.”

  Poppy parked the van in the shade and looked back at the dogs. “You guys stay in here. We’ll be back in less than five minutes and I’ll leave the windows partway down. It won’t get too warm in five minutes.”

  That’s what they all say. Wencheng’s mental voice sounded fatalistic.

  Poppy stepped down among the monsters and tourists and locked the van door.

  Nalani opened the door to the Bubbling Cauldron and stepped inside with Poppy on her heels.

  The place was busy, but Marigold smiled and came forward immediately. “Ready for a good meal?”

  “I’d love to, but my dogs are in the van and I can’t leave them that long,” Poppy said. “We need some information.”

  Marigold motioned for another server, then led the two women into an office in the back. “What do you need?”

  “My idiot brother has had a love potion spell put on him. We need to know who sold it to Lizzie. When I asked a few days ago, no one knew what she’d bought, but they also said one of the witches was out of town.”

  Marigold nodded. “That would be Elizabeth. Let me see if I can reach her on WitchTime.”

  She turned on her computer and turned it so the screen was facing all three of them. A few minutes later, they could hear the ringing of a phone, and a woman’s face appeared. “Hi, Marigold. What’s up?”

  Marigold said, “Hi, Elizabeth. I have Poppy Brooks and Nalani Pueo in my office. We have a situation here. You sold a potion to a woman named Lizzie McBean and we need to know what it was. We suspect a love potion.”

  “I didn’t sell any love potions last week.”

  Poppy exchanged a disappointed look with Nalani.

  Nalani pulled out a picture she’d taken of Lizzie at the family party. “Have you ever sold this woman a love potion?”

  “She bought a Forget-Me-Aught perfume.” The witch in the box nodded. “That woman is a lazy witch. She wanted to buy a love potion from me a year ago. I told her I’d teach her how to make one. She told me she had met the love of her life, and he liked her, and she just wanted something to nudge that along a little, and told me how she just couldn’t do potions. Finally, just to get her off my back, I sold her a short-term love potion that would only last for a month or so, and she was only to give him a small dose.”

  “Thank you.” Marigold frowned. “And there will be no more selling of love potions without a council of three witches approving it first.”

  Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Marigold said, “Can you mix up an antidote for that potion?”

  “Sure, though it could take a day or two.”

  “Do it, please. It’s urgent. We have a man bespelled to a con artist and criminal.”

  They thanked Elizabeth and then Marigold, and went back out to the van.

  You were gone eight minutes, Wencheng sent accusingly.

  I parked in the shade and it’s just barely warm in here, Poppy sent back.

  She turned on the van, but just sat in the driver’s seat, shaking her head. “She really did try to use it on the old man last year, didn’t she?”

  Nalani nodded. “It sure seems like it. What a horrible person.”

  “And no wonder she wanted to marry Kea so fast. The potion’s effects would only last for thirty days. And after a year, maybe not even that long.”

  �
��I am so thankful you came to town. You’re the only thing that took his attention off her.”

  “When she wasn’t touching him.”

  Poppy pulled the van onto Mane Street and began to circle Town Square.

  “What now?”

  “I think we need to call the sheriff and tell him what we learned, and then it’s time for me to go home.”

  “Oh, no,” Nalani said. “Give me one more day with you. Please. We won’t have anything to do with my family. Just you and me. Girls night tonight, at least.”

  Poppy smiled. “Just you and me.”

  What are we? Chopped liver? scolded Wencheng.

  Poppy finally laughed. “And the dogs, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  After stopping at the nearest Redbox to rent two movies — both the latest Marvel Comic and the latest chick flick — Poppy and Nalani drove back to the house.

  Poppy took the dogs for a run, and fed them while Nalani made some treats for the movies.

  Then the two of them, plus the three four-footed furballs, settled on the two couches. Wencheng deigned to sit by Nalani, and Blaze and Max by Poppy.

  “What if the sheriff won’t let you leave tomorrow?” Nalani asked. “He did say you needed to stay in town until this was solved.”

  “And now they’ve got the arsonist, so I should be free to go.” Poppy pulled out her phone and started dialing. “I’ll call him and ask him.”

  “Well, yeah, if you want to be direct, I guess you could,” teased Nalani.

  “Sheriff’s Department,” a woman answered.

  “I need to get in touch with the sheriff. This is Poppy Brooks.”

  “If you’ll leave your phone number, I’ll pass it on to the sheriff, Ms. Brooks.”

  “Okay.” She rattled off her number, hung up, and asked Nalani, “Which movie do you want to watch first?”

  “I’m in the mood for love. Love and brownies.”