Free Jingle Bell Bark by Laurien Berenson

value.”
    â€œThat’s all you want?” Johnny asked. “Information?”
    Peg and I both nodded.
    â€œAnd you won’t mess up the place or anything?”
    As if it hadn’t been a mess yesterday before Alice and I had cleaned up.
    â€œNo, we just need to find some papers.”
    â€œWell . . . I guess that’ll be all right.”
    Johnny’s acquiescence was probably at least partly due to the stubborn expression on Aunt Peg’s face. I’d seen that look before, and it didn’t bode well. No doubt Johnny was wondering how much more of his time she was planning to take up. Had he asked, I could have told him that this conversation was most assuredly going to continue until Aunt Peg found herself holding a key in her hand.
    â€œHang on a minute,” he said. “I’ll go get it.”
    â€œWhat an accommodating young man,” Peg said as we waited on the step.
    â€œIt wasn’t exactly as though you gave him any choice.”
    â€œQuite so. On the whole, I find that’s the best way to handle most people.”
    As someone who’d been frequently handled by Aunt Peg myself, I could vouch for that.
    Johnny returned a minute later, key ring in hand. He’d fit the earphones back into his ears and was now moving to a beat we couldn’t hear. He handed over the keys without comment. Peg and I waved our thanks.
    As Alice and I had done the previous day, Aunt Peg and I let ourselves in the back door. She stopped just inside and sniffed delicately. Peg didn’t comment but I knew she could imagine the condition the house had been in the day before.
    â€œIt seems odd,” I said, pausing to decide where to look first.
    â€œWhat does?” Peg, who’s never hesitated in her life, was already striding through the kitchen into the living room.
    Dutifully, I trotted along behind. “That just anybody can come walking in here. Short of Henry’s daughters arriving and securing this place, you’d think the police would do it. Especially if they think there was something suspicious about Henry’s death. What if we were the murderers, coming back to destroy all the clues?”
    Aunt Peg flicked a glance in my direction. “You’ve been watching too much television.”
    â€œNo, I mean it.”
    â€œThat’s what worries me. We’re not destroying clues, Melanie. We’re not even looking for clues. We’re looking for official AKC documents.”
    She said the words with reverence. Like we were on a mission from On High. Like that excused the fact that she and I might be trampling through a potential crime scene.
    â€œOkay,” I said. If the police weren’t concerned, far be it from me to make a fuss. “If you were important papers, where would you be?”
    â€œIn my office.” Aunt Peg looked around the small living room. “If I had one, that is. I don’t even see a desk down here. Let’s try upstairs.”
    Once again, I was left to follow in her wake. It felt kind of creepy, wandering around in the house of a man whom I hadn’t known well and who had died under suspicious circumstances. Aunt Peg, however, seemed to feel no such qualms. She went marching up the stairs as though she had every right to go looking through Henry’s things. What can I say? The thought of dogs in peril has an empowering effect on her.
    By the time I reached the second floor landing, Peg had already located a desk and small file cabinet in a spare bedroom. “Now we’re getting somewhere,” she said, kneeling in front of the squat cabinet and opening the top drawer. “Let’s hope that Remington and Pepper were important enough to Henry that he held on to their registration certificates. In a pinch, even a pedigree would do. I imagine I could probably hunt down a breeder if I knew what lines they came from.”
    I leaned in and looked over her shoulder. Peg thumbed quickly