Free Under the Dog Star: A Rachel Goddard Mystery #4 (Rachel Goddard Mysteries) by Sandra Parshall

things along.
    Pete’s sharp laugh combined disdain and self-assurance. “Oh man, yeah. They go a little crazy over it.”
    Looking in at the back seat, Tom wondered if Beth Hall had ever gone a little crazy right there. “You got a special girl?”
    Pete hesitated, his expression sobering into wariness again. “Why do you want to know that?”
    “Just wondering. Is there some reason you don’t want to tell me?”
    The boy glanced down the driveway at Brandon and back at Tom as if calculating his chances of escape. “Nobody special.”
    Tom leaned against the car’s front fender and crossed his arms. “You’ve got something going with Beth Hall, don’t you?”
    Pete winced. His gaze slid toward the dog, and it responded as if summoned, straining against the chain and barking. “Where’d you hear that?”
    “It’s pretty much common knowledge, isn’t it? And everybody seems to know how her dad felt about it.”
    Pete swung his eyes back to Tom. He opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it and pivoted toward the house. “Mom!” he yelled, sounding like a scared kid. “Mom, come out here!”
    Tom almost laughed.
    In a minute Babs Rasey appeared at the screen door, wiping her hands on a dishcloth. When she saw Tom, she pushed open the door. “What’s going on?” she asked, coming down the front steps. She was a foot shorter than her son, a handsome rather than a pretty woman, with wavy ash blond hair. She paused beside Pete and asked Tom, “What are you doing out here?”
    “I just need to ask your son a few questions.”
    “About what?”
    “His dealings with Gordon Hall.”
    She frowned at her son. “What dealings with Gordon Hall?”
    “He’s saying—He’s asking—” Pete slammed down the hood of the Thunderbird and grabbed a rag off a fender to wipe his hands. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
    Folding her arms, Babs Rasey tilted her head to look up at Tom. “You gonna tell us what you’re after?”
    Her husband, Beck, wasn’t around, Tom assumed. If he were, he would have been in Tom’s face long before this. “Pete’s been seeing the Halls’ daughter, Beth, and I heard Dr. Hall didn’t approve.”
    Babs maintained her tight, defensive expression. “You heard old news. That’s been over for a while now. And so what, anyway? The man’s dead now. Killed by that pack of wild dogs, I heard. Who cares what he thought about anything?”
    “The medical examiner has ruled Dr. Hall’s death a homicide.”
    “A homi—You mean a person tore out his throat? Well, that’s a new one on me.” Babs Rasey laughed, shaking her head.
    “We believe somebody sicced his dog on Dr. Hall.”
    Pete ducked his head, hiding his reaction from Tom’s scrutiny.
    Babs’ expression sobered, then twisted into a frown of disgust. “Well, that’s pretty cold-blooded. Who would do a thing like that?”
    “That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Tom said. “I’m talking to everybody who had trouble with Gordon Hall.”
    Pete jerked his head up. He looked scared and ready to bolt. “You accusing me of doing it?”
    “Now you just hold on a minute, Thomas Bridger,” Babs said. She stepped closer to Pete’s side. “You’ve got no right and no reason to come here accusing my son of—of God knows what.”
    “I’m not accusing him of anything. I just want to ask him some questions. Once I do that, I’ll probably be able to rule him out as a suspect, then I can move on. I’d like him to come with me to headquarters—”
    “ Mom ,” Pete said, his voice rising.
    Under the tree, the dog rattled its chain and barked in Tom’s direction.
    “You’re not taking him anywhere,” Babs said. “You want to question him, you come back with a warrant. Now get off our property.”
    “All right, if you want to make it harder on everybody,” Tom said. “I’ll be back.”
    She stepped in front of Pete, as if she could protect the muscular young hulk. Behind his mother, the