Free Silence Is Golden (A Pet Psychic Mystery No. 3) by Shannon Esposito Page A

even barely take care of himself. In his defense, he does look awful."
    "Selfish," she said softly. "Always has been. Victoria couldn't have children. This soul was her child. To just turn her away, deny her the comfort of her home..." she choked on the words.
    "I know, but I can't say I'm not happy to have her with me. You were meeting Victoria that night, weren't you? That must have been such a shock."
    "Yes. It's still hard to believe she's gone."
    "Were you good friends?"
    "I am... was a long time friend of Renny Desoto, Victoria's uncle who recently passed. Victoria was like a second daughter to me."
    Her daughter, Kimi, said something in a harsh tone I didn't understand.
    Jade threw her a quick look and then continued. "In fact, that's why we were meeting. She wanted to give me an artifact she found while cleaning out Renny's attic after he passed. Something she was very excited about over the phone, but she wouldn't tell me what it was. She wanted it to be a surprise. Renny collected all kinds of Native American treasures, and I guess she wanted to make sure this particular one came back to us instead of being sold by Eugene's friend, Big Barnie, at his artifact shop."
    Barnie? That was the second time someone had mentioned his name to me. And he knew Victoria? I was getting the feeling he was involved somehow.
    "Renny and Eugene had more than a few arguments over giving the artifacts to Big Barnie to make a profit. Renny understood how much these things mean to my people." She paused. "Funny thing is, your Detective Blake showed me the artifact, and I was a bit confused. It was a fairly nice beveled arrowhead but not something to get so excited about."
    I knew nothing about artifacts or Victoria, so I didn't know what to think. I did know one person in their family, though. "I met Renny's daughter, Josie. She came to my pet boutique Wednesday night to see Goldie."
    Kimi scoffed and walked away.
    Jade watched her daughter leave and shook her head. "Trouble, that one. Renny named her after Jose Gaspar, the pirate. He wanted a boy." She smiled almost sadly. "Renny's great-great-grandfather supposedly pirated with Gaspar back in the 1900's. I told him not to name a child after a pirate. It was just asking for trouble."
    I watched the investigators pack up their gear. "Well, she seemed real... nice."
    "Mmm. Maybe just lost." She leaned over and planted a kiss on Goldie's nose. "Thank you for taking her in, Darwin. Looks like she's already attached to you. Victoria would be happy to know she's in a loving home."
    As she stood, I heard Bob talking to the man with the thin, gray braid down his back. The man was explaining how this was their ancestors' sacred resting place and that's why they would try to restore peace to the disturbed ground.
    I stood, too, catching Bob's question to the man. "So, you believe a ghost dog could be the Mound's guardian spirit?"
    He nodded and patted Bob's arm. "We believe everyone has a guardian spirit. But, Westerners ignore nature and her power so what can the spirits do?"
    I smiled at Jade. "Well, we should let you get started. It was real nice meeting you. Feel free to come by Darwin's Pet Boutique any time and visit Goldie. I'm sure any friends from her old life can only help her heal."
    We all said our goodbyes and then followed the investigators off of the Mound.
     
     

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    Frankie pulled her leopard print wrap tighter around her shoulders and shoved her fingers into her spiky red hair to fluff it. "So fill me in why you arranged this dinner again."
    "Because of Victoria. Josie is her cousin and she might hold some clue as to who killed her, whether she knows it or not. Thanks for coming with me, by the way. Are you cold?" I pulled my own sweater in around my neck. "I can run Goldie upstairs, and we can eat inside if you want."
    "No, no." She lifted her glass of merlot. "I'll have one more of these and be toasty warm." She smiled down at Goldie, lying between our chairs