Free Doghouse by L. A. Kornetsky Page A

he’s in denial,” Ginny was saying. “I’d love to spring Parsifal here on him and see what happens, but odds are he’d go into exactly the kind of meltdown Seth was afraid of. The only thing worse than a client who lies is a client who might not even be aware he’s lying.”
    Teddy would almost rather be dealing with his family than a depressed and disheartened Ginny. “So what do we have?”
    â€œWhile you were arguing with Patrick, I did some digging on the landlord. Public records, gotta love ’em, and then I did some real estate hunting.” She sorted the papers, and pulled one out. “The guy owns five different houses in greater Seattle: two in Lynnwood, another in Rainier Beach, one in West Seattle, and Deke’s. All of the houses are just on the edge of slumlordhood, but staying on the right side so there aren’t any formal complaints filed.”
    â€œNice. So?”
    Ginny looked at him like he’d missed a clue somewhere.“He’s a slumlord. It’s not exactly whiffly, but it’s kind of whiffly.”
    â€œWhiffly? What the hell is whiffly?”
    â€œYou know.” She made a vague gesture with her hand. “Off. Weird. Suspicious.”
    Teddy shook his head. “Hardly whiffly, Gin. Lots of people own property. And yeah, okay, borderline slumlord, maybe, or at least Bad Landlord of the Year. But that doesn’t mean he was involved in anything that was allegedly going down in Deke’s place. Hell, a couple–five years ago, real estate values were way down. Now they’re going up again, all over the city. He might be looking to flip them; that’s why he’s kicking Deke out.”
    Ginny had that expression on her face, the one that said she was going to be bullheaded stubborn. “You’re right. But do you have any other place to start? Some magical dog-hoarding connection I missed?”
    He sighed, and looked over to where the two dogs had collapsed in a joint nap. “No.” He finished his beer, and nodded. “All right. Fire up your spreadsheets and let’s see what we’ve got.”
    Penny curled herself comfortably on her perch, tail over nose, and watched the humans with one eye while keeping her ear cocked on the interloper. Georgie had tried to get her to come down and join them, but the cat had merely twitched her whiskers at the smaller dog in disdain, and stayed put.
    â€œC’mon, Penny.” Georgie tried again, hoping the cat would have changed her mind now that she’d seen the puppy wasn’t a threat. “Don’t be like that.”
    The tabby flicked her tail, and half slitted her eyes, still watching. She was going to be exactly like that. The newcomer was curled up against Georgie’s side, its ears twitching occasionally as it dreamed. Bad dreams, not good play-hunt dreaming.
    If that fact bothered the cat, she refused to let it show.
    â€œPenny.” Georgie was trying to be reasonable, but the whine at the end showed her uncertainty. Penny was never like this, she didn’t throw sulks. “Listen! They’re on a job. We can’t help them if we’re not talking to each other.” Her curled tail gave a single wag, and she looked hopefully up at the cat, while the puppy started and woke up, eyes blinking at Georgie, then turning to look up at Penny. “Pennnnnny,” Georgie coaxed.
    The cat’s ears twitched irritably. “Don’t do that. Makes my whiskers hurt.”
    â€œThen come down here.”
    Penny sighed, then uncurled herself and leaped gracefully from shelf to counter, and then down to the floor, pausing only long enough to allow Stacy to give her an absent pat.
    She came around the edge of the bar, and was greeted by a skitter of claws and a too-inquisitive nose. “Hi? Hi!”
    Penny lifted her paw and swatted the interloper. The puppy went down in a sprawl of limbs, and then bounced back up again,