Page 26 of The Attercop

He pointed to the summons. “Is the young man a licenced private investigator, or, at least was he at the time of the investigation that’s referred to in this document?”

“He certainly was,” she answered.

“I’ll have to confer with him, but we must be able to assure ourselves that he was acting within the scope of his practice, as we say.”

“I can guarantee you that if there’s a rule out there, Charlie would be abiding by it. He’s so proud of getting his licence. I don’t think he’d do anything to jeopardise it.”

Harold pursed his lips. “I’ll have a talk with him and look over his case notes and any other documentation he has. If he’s as meticulous as you say he is, then he has nothing to worry about. This is just a nuisance suit. I’ll prepare a response to this summons that will shake the plaintiff down to his very socks.”

“Thank you, Harold. I knew I could count on you,” she said, placing her hands on top of his.

“Joan, you know I’m always here for you.”

He leaned over and gave the back of her hand a kiss. The dog quickly moved between them, letting out a low growl. Harold jumped back, spilling some of his Scotch on his jacket.

Mrs B looked crossly at the dog, then at Harold. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what got into him.”

“Well, you have a good protector at least. If you’ll just excuse me for a moment, I’d like to wipe off my jacket.” He stood and headed to the washroom.

Mrs B looked at the dog, then scrubbed him behind his right ear. He yowled with delight. “You don’t need to protect me. I can take care of myself.”

The lawyer returned, brushing off his jacket. “There. Clean as a whistle, no thanks to your little friend.” He leaned in to give Mrs B a hug, then paused. The dog stood beside her, eyeing him. He stayed where he was. “Until next time, Joan.”

“Thank you again, Harold. Let’s not leave it as long for your next visit.”

“Indeed.” He opened the door and left the office.

She looked down at the dog. “Okay, mister—it’s time. Don’t look at me that way… You know you can’t stay. We’re going to have to take a trip down to the pound to see if you have an identification chip.”

The dog took a few steps away in the direction of Charlie’s office.

“Your owners have probably already called the pound about you.”

He looked back at her.

She walked up to him and knelt. “They probably miss you a whole bunch.”

He let out a soft plaintive yowl.

“It’ll be okay. I promise.”

Chapter Thirteen

Charlie parked his car on the street outside of Bar-None. “Have you noticed that we’ve been driving my car a lot lately?”

Declan rolled his eyes. “I thought you hated being seen in the van. I believe you said—what was it? Oh yeah. ‘Driving a white minivan destroys all credibility that we’re a couple of hot private eyes’.”

“And I still stand by that comment. But I was wondering if I could get reimbursed for mileage? As sexy as this car is, it eats gas.”

Declan patted him on the thigh. “Good point. I’ll talk to Mrs B about it when we get back.”

Charlie opened his door without looking. The driver of a passing vehicle blared their horn and yelled something unintelligible as they passed. Charlie got out, quickly slammed the car door, and made his way to Declan on the sidewalk. His heart was racing. Declan took him by the shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes without saying a thing. Staring into those blue irises for a few moments quickly lowered Charlie’s pulse rate. He found himself matching Declan’s slow deep breaths and in a matter of seconds, felt much calmer.

“Ready to go in and look at some videos?” Declan asked.

Charlie smiled. “Let’s do it.”

They walked through the front door.