Free In Plain Sight by Barbara Block Page B

pretty sure I knewwho that someone was, had killed and stuffed them. The tips of their little pink tongues protruded between their teeth. One of the dogs was wearing a blue bandana around his neck while the other one was wearing red. Their fur looked stiff, as if it had a coat of shellac on it. As I drew closer I could smell a faint rancid odor. Looking at them made me want to cry, and then it made me very, very angry. I was just about to reach up a hand and touch what was left of Po’s fur—a penance for things left undone—when I became aware of a movement behind me. I turned. It was Merlin. He’d lost the serious expression he’d assumed at the funeral home and replaced it with a jittery smile.
    â€œDid it myself,” he said, pointing at the two dogs. “They look almost alive, don’t they?”
    â€œThey’d look better if they were.”
    Merlin’s smile faded slightly. He ran his finger around the edge of his collar. “Hey,” he protested, fanning his hands out in a gesture of denial, “I admit this is a little weird, but Marsha asked me to do it. Really,” he told me when I raised an eyebrow. “It was in her note. Her dying wish. You got to honor someone’s last request,” he whined. “She said that this way I’d always have something to remember her by.”
    I folded my arms across my chest so I wouldn’t be tempted to put my hands around his neck and squeeze. “I didn’t think she’d left a note.”
    Merlin’s smile flickered and went out as if it had been a candle I’d blown on. His face looked puddinglike in the dim indoor light. “Are you calling me a liar?” he demanded.
    â€œAmong other things.” You had to give it to the man. Not much got by him.
    Merlin’s eyes got as dark and opaque as the black marbles in Po and Pooh’s eye sockets. “Who the hell are you to come into my house on the day of my wife’s funeral and say something like that?”
    â€œI’m Robin Light.”
    Merlin’s face collapsed in confusion. “You’ve changed. I didn’t recognize you.”
    â€œWell it has been a while.”
    â€œIs Murphy here, too?”
    â€œHe died a couple of years ago.”
    â€œOh.” I watched Merlin fumble around for something to say. He finally came up with, “I guess that gives us something in common.”
    â€œSomething,” I said dryly before pointing to the dogs on the mantel. “Didn’t you get my message about them?”
    â€œWell I ...” Merlin’s voice faded off. Then he rallied. “What do you have to do with them?” he demanded.
    â€œMarsha asked me to take care of them if anything happened to her.”
    â€œShe never told me that.”
    â€œWell, she told me.”
    â€œWhen?”
    â€œOn the Friday before she died. She came to see me at the store.”
    â€œStore?”
    â€œNoah’s Ark. It’s a pet store.”
    â€œI see,” Merlin replied even though he clearly didn’t. He gestured to the mantel. “You know those dogs always hated me. Marsha made sure of that. One of them bit me last month. Right here.” He showed me his wrist. “I had to get a tetanus shot. Check with the doctor if you want.”
    I pushed a hank of hair off my face. “Is that why you couldn’t wait to kill them? Because they bit you?”
    â€œI got your message too late,” Merlin muttered.
    â€œYou sure didn’t waste any time, did you?”
    â€œThey would have died anyway. They wouldn’t eat for me. I bet they wouldn’t have eaten for you either,” he said sullenly. “She cooked for them, you know. She made them steak and meat loaf. She made me TV dinners.” Merlin the aggrieved husband.
    I pointed to Po and Pooh. “So you were really being charitable when you did this?”
    â€œYeah. Yeah I was.” Merlin brightened