Chapter 66

"Would you like to go meet the poodle, Studmuffin? Detective Palmer is picking me up so we can talk to Mrs. Salmon."

Finally, he turned around. "I'll go but only to protect you from a murder suspect. I will not give that poodle one second of my precious time."

"Fair enough."

"And Detective Palmer is starting to grow on me."

"Me too," I admitted.

"He's so shiny."

"Okay, what does that even mean?"

He held up one murder mitten and started counting the reasons, one extended claw at a time. "One, his shiny badge. Two, his shiny shoes. Three, his shiny watch. Four, his shiny forehead. And five, his shiny...shine." He set his paw back down again. "He lights up a room."

I nodded. "Pretty impressive for a guy who reminded me of a thunderstorm when I first met him, but...yeah. I see where you're coming from. He doesn't have Travis's boots though."

He sighed wistfully. "No one has Travis's boots but Travis. They're magic."