Free Death at the Summit by Nikki Haverstock Page B

with a smug smile. Bucky’s face was tense and angry. They went back for forth until the fight was broken up. The whole time, Mac smirked while Bucky’s face got redder and angrier.
    “We need to see if we can get Bucky to tell us what they fought about.” I closed the video player and clicked the other video on the card. The camera appeared to be sitting on a desk or table and was pointed at a bed in an otherwise-empty room. A man’s voice was talking, and then he looked into the camera. It was Cold, and he was on the phone.
    “Don’t ever put that in writing again. No e-mail, no texts, nothing.”
    He walked around the room as he listened to the phone.
    “Ya, I can get it. Just remember, if this gets into food, it would kill someone, and if it was spicy or flavorful, they would never taste it. So I am saying not to do that. You’re such an idiot, I swear. Okay. Bye.”
    A few seconds later, the video ended.
    “What was that about?” Mary asked.
    I shook my head and we watched the short clip three more times. We leaned in close to the screen, straining to hear more details, but nothing more revealed itself.
    A chill crept over me. “Do you want to watch again?” Mary shook her head, and I popped the memory card out and put it on my desk. “That was ominous. Do you think he was getting poison for someone? Or convincing someone not to poison someone? Why did he film that? Is this connected to Mac’s murder or something different?” I had so many questions that were unanswerable.
    “I don’t know, but this doesn’t add up. Could Mac could have been poisoned?”
    I dropped the sweat shirt I had removed from Moo under the desk then opened his drawer to pull out a different Christmas vest. Moo shoved his head between us and nuzzled the drawer, which also held treats. I grabbed the container of treats and gave him one. Then I wrestled the vest onto him. It was green-and-red plaid with a Christmas tree on his back. “I don’t think so. Is there a poison that would make you bleed a bunch? We need to give this to Brian right away.”
    Moo bumped the container hard with his nose, and treats spilled over the desk. He was right on top of them, but before I could do more than yell out his name, Moo had picked the desk clean of every treat.
    Mary leaped from her chair. “No, no, no, Moo!”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “The memory card is gone.”
    I grabbed Moo and lifted his right jowl then the left one then pried his mouth open. Nothing was inside but massive teeth and his tongue. “Maybe he just knocked it on the floor.” I crawled onto the floor to check.
    Mary flopped into the chair. “No, I saw it disappear into this mouth. What do we tell Brian?”
    “Nothing, we say nothing. If anyone asks, we flushed it down the toilet hours ago. That video was too weird. Don’t tell anyone—that includes Minx and Tiger.”
    “Why not just tell the truth that Moo ate the card?”
    “Do you think anyone would believe the dog ate the evidence? That sounds an awful lot like ‘the dog ate my homework.’ Let’s just say that right after he gave me the card, I flushed it without looking at it.”
    Mary nodded. “Okay, that works. Something about that video was really off.”
    Chills crept up my arms, and I rubbed them, hoping to knock the feeling away.

CHAPTER NINE
    Walking down the hall, I kept an eye on Moo, watching him for choking or intestinal discomfort. I had looked around on the web, and Great Danes had been known to have eaten much larger things with no harm, but that didn’t mean I felt good about it.
    Mary sidled up to me, whispering so her voice wouldn’t carry, list of suspects in hand. “Wanna talk to Bucky next? Maybe we can see what he and Mac were fighting about.”
    “I’m gonna try a bluff. Just go along with me.”
    Mary rolled her eyes at me. “I think I know how to investigate a murder. Geez, this isn’t my first time.”
    “Two murders, and now we’re experts, eh?” I chucked.
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