Free Doghouse by L. A. Kornetsky Page B

one ear flipped inside out, and its eyes bright with uncertainty. “Hi?”
    Penny sighed, and Georgie shoved her much larger paw out between the two of them. “Parsi, stop. Penny. Parsifal’s important. He’s evidence ! Ginny said so!”
    Penny turned her gaze onto the puppy, coolly thoughtful. He whined a little, deep in his throat, but lowered his gaze and bowed his head in submission. He might be young and dumb, but he wasn’t stupid.
    All right, maybe she could work with that.
    Teddy barely spared a glance at the antics of the animals, watching Ginny instead as she tapped her fingers against the table, her eyes focused somewhere other than the screen of her tablet. They needed to get a large-screen monitor, so he could look at whatever she was working on, without standing over her shoulder.
    â€œWhat do we have that’s cold solid fact?”
    While he waited for her to answer, he took a quick survey of the bar. There were a half dozen or so people at the tables now, and another five bellied up to the bar itself. Stacy was taking orders while obviously, casually, eavesdropping on them. Penny, having deigned to come down, was now curled in her usual spot across Georgie’s front paws, the puppy sprawled on its tummy next to them, occasionally turning his head to look from one to the other. Nothing out of place, nothing he needed to worry about.
    â€œAll of the houses are about the same size, zoned for residential,” Ginny said. “They all have fenced yards, no garages, street parking, and a single tenant: male, between the ages of fifty and eighty, most of them retired from a blue-collar field, or long-term unemployed. And not a single one of them could actually afford to rent out an entirehouse, even one that was a little run-down. Not based on their stated incomes, anyway. Not unless they’re picking up more than Social Security or unemployment.”
    â€œThat’s not exactly building a case for the home team, Mallard. Huh.” He didn’t want to ask, but . . . “You got their names, and their income, off the Internet?”
    She gave him a look, like he should know better by now. Really, he thought, he should. “And a few phone calls, yeah. It’s not quite as easy as finding who lives where, but it can be done.”
    â€œCold calls and favor-trading? Man, I hate the research part of this.”
    â€œGood thing I’m good at it, isn’t it?” Ginny finished her ginger ale and pushed the glass forward for a refill. “Now focus, please.”
    â€œHave you always been this bossy?”
    â€œYes.” The answer came from both Ginny and Stacy, in unison, and Teddy laughed, getting up to refill their glasses. Stacy made a face at him when he leaned over the bar to hit the tap, but didn’t try to stop him.
    â€œSo,” he said, lingering by the bar, “the next logical question is—was their landlord a generous angel who liked to make sure the faded end of society didn’t end up homeless, and Deke just got caught on a bad day, or was something else going on?”
    â€œSomething else being, what?”
    Fair enough question. “The landlord freaking out because there’s dogfighting going on?” The accusation had to come from somewhere, and while Parsifal didn’t seemlike a dogfighting kind of dog, he was still a stone on the “guilty” side of the weights.
    â€œI really doubt the guy didn’t know. I mean, Deke’s lived there how long, ten years? And the landlord never had a clue? So why now?”
    â€œYou think the landlord’s involved somehow? I don’t know, Gin, it still feels reachy. I mean, why would the landlord be the one to accuse him, and kick him out? Wouldn’t he want to keep it quiet?”
    â€œYeah. I don’t know.” Ginny made another face. “Although there are a lot more dumb people than there are criminal masterminds.”
    He