Free Paint the Town Dead by Nancy Haddock Page A

buy toys at some point, and he and Fred proudly announced they’d taught Amber to sit, turn in a circle, and lie down on command. I had to wonder how many dog treats they’d fed her to accomplish all that, yet she dug into her food.
    From all I’d heard, you can’t train cats; they train you. But T.C. must’ve hung out with Amber long enough to think she was part dog. She, too, sat on command. Okay, close to it. She lowered her hindquarters halfway to the floor, and then snapped up the cat treats as fast as Amber did hers.
    Eric didn’t call to check on the animals Saturday night, but he did text that he’d be at the rededication party the next morning. I hoped his job didn’t get in the way of his coming. We’d both been busy since I moved to town, me withrefurbishing the building, him with detecting. When all the dust settled, I hoped we’d be able to spend more time together, but at least I’d learned some things about him on our one-and-so-far-only dinner date.
    I knew he’d been a military policeman in the U.S. Army, and had been deployed to the Middle East. He’d bought a house a few years back and fixed it up with help from friends. He fished when the mood struck, but didn’t hunt. Not animals anyway. He liked football, soccer, and baseball more than basketball. He watched the History Channel and movies when he had the chance, but his job demanded more than a nine-to-five commitment. Especially since the other detective, who’d been out sick in April, had experienced complications and was still out of commission. The police and sheriff’s departments fully cooperated with each other, so there was usually someone to take up the slack, but Eric took his work seriously, and it was a part of him I appreciated. When he’d mentioned the department was looking to hire more personnel soon, I’d nearly done backflips. Yes, we’d first been drawn together by a murder case, but I sure didn’t want to continue
that
trend.
    I sighed and looked at my furry companions, their small warm bodies curled at my side. A relaxing end to a hectic day.
    It was not so relaxing to awake to paws on my chest the next morning. Amber licked my cheek, T.C. gave me a gentle head bump. At least they’d let me sleep until nine. Perfect since the cemetery rededication wouldn’t start until one.
    Should I be going to church? Probably, especially since I now lived in Small Town USA in Aunt Sherry’s shadow. Not to mention the rest of the Six. I put that little guilt trip aside and dealt with the morning feeding and exercising of Amber and T.C. Yes, the cat refused to be left behind during Amber’s amble. Did the leash law extend to cats? If so, I was covered, but I held hope someone would claim the critters soon.
    As I strolled the square with the critters, a leash in eachhand, it hit me that I’d learned the rhythm of Lilyvale. Or at least my corner of it. I’d absorbed the routine sights and sounds of the neighborhood, and become part of its beat. Not that I knew every resident by name, but I recognized people’s faces, or simply their voices when they called greetings to one another. Now that I walked T.C, and Amber, I was learning to pair people with their pets, too. This morning I stopped on a street just off the square to chat with teenager Louie while Amber and Louie’s beagle, Harley, did their business.
    â€œNice car,” Louie said of a silver Audi that glided around the corner and headed toward the Lilies Café.
    â€œI thought you were into motorcycles,” I teased because I knew that’s why he’d named his dog Harley.
    â€œHey, a sweet ride is a sweet ride. Have you seen that black pickup with monster tires? Don’t know who drives it, but I could do some serious off-roading in that sucker.” He paused, cocked his head. “Although that truck needs a tune-up soon.”
    Louie had an eye for cars, but