Page 52 of K-9 in Pursuit

“I know.” Chloe straightened her shoulders and picked up her phone. “I wanted to wait to call them until I had someone here with me. Someone who wouldn’t dismiss my concerns.”

Her vote of confidence warmed him, and he moved in closer as she held the phone to her ear. “This is Chloe Anderson,” she said. “My purse was stolen from my shop, Moon Glow Spa and Salon, today.”

A long pause. “Yes, I’m positive it’s stolen. And I think I know who took it. She may be the same person who broke into my apartment yesterday.”

Another pause. “I’ll be waiting.” She ended the call and pocketed the phone. “They’re sending someone to take my report.” She looked around the silent, chill room. “In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to spend the night here. The keys to the shop were in my purse and it’s too late to call someone to change the locks. I can lock the door from the inside, but I can’t leave and lock the door. I can’t risk having this place trashed like my apartment.”

He rubbed her shoulder. He really wanted to sweep her up and carry her away from any hint of danger, but that wasn’t really practical or helpful. He’d have to settle for trying to play bodyguard. “Then Daisy and I will stay with you.” At the sound of her name, the golden moved from where she had been sniffing around the stylists’ stations to join them by the front desk.

Chloe patted the dog. “I hoped you would say that. I’m going to ask the sheriff to patrol here, also.”

“Maybe they’ll get lucky and catch her in the act,” he said.

She shuddered. “Maybe. Though I hope it’s the cops who catch her, not us. I would just as soon never see her again.”

He followed her into the back of the building. “There’s a sofa back here,” she said. “And a little floor space. Not the best setup for sleeping.”

“I’ve got camping gear at home—sleeping bags and a foam mattress. We can make it comfortable.”

A knock on the door alerted them to an arrival. Deputy Schneider waved from the other side of the glass door and Chloe opened it for him. He nodded to Brian, then turned to Chloe. “Did you find your purse?”

“No. The purse was stolen.” She led him to a waiting area with three chairs and sat. “I’m pretty sure a woman who identified herself as Bunny Allerton took it. She was waiting for me to open up this morning and watched me put the purse in a drawer behind the front counter. I then went to the back of the building to turn up the heat and make coffee. She had plenty of opportunity to take it while I was away.”

“When did she leave the salon?” Schneider asked.

“She was here about an hour. She had a manicure.”

“She left this morning but you’re just now reporting the theft?”

“I didn’t discover the theft until I got ready to leave to go home.”

“Did you have customers all day? And staff going in and out? Could one of them have taken your purse?”

“They could have. But this woman has acted suspiciously since we met.” Chloe smoothed her hands down her thighs. “Bunny is the woman I told you about yesterday—the one who booked appointments all afternoon, guaranteeing I wouldn’t be around when my apartment was broken into.”

“What excuse did she give today for not being here yesterday?” Schneider asked.

“She said her mother in Florida had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance. The neighbor who notified her didn’t know how serious the problem was or where her mother had been taken. She said she spent the rest of the day phoning hospitals, trying to locate her mother, then trying to learn more about her mother’s condition. She forgot all about calling me.”

“Have you tried calling her this evening?”

“Yes, and I got a message that the number is no longer in service.”

“Give me the number.”

She recited the number and Schneider made a note. “Do you know where she’s staying in town?”

“She didn’t say. And she paid for her manicure in cash. I don’t have any verification that her name even is Bunny Allerton.”

“What’s her description again?”

“Long white-blond hair. But I suspect it’s a wig. And lots of makeup. Even today, when she looked less flamboyant, more washed out, up close I could see she still had foundation applied pretty thickly. And long false lashes. Her nails were in terrible shape—the polish chipped, a couple of them broken. She blamed the damage on her distress over her mother, but maybe it was from tearing apart my apartment.”

“Have you figured out what she was looking for?” he asked.

“I don’t know. And there’s nothing valuable in my purse. Only a single credit card and a few dollars in cash. And my keys.”

“Is that all that was in your purse?”