Bride & Groom

drive somewhere and get home after dark, don’t go to your back door alone. And by alone I mean without another human. Dogs don’t count.”
    “Kevin, I’m more alone with most people than I am with my dogs.”
    Kevin repeated his warning. “Stay indoors after dark, Holly. I’m a cop and I’m telling you that in Cambridge these days, don’t go out alone at night. Not for two seconds. Don’t get cocky. I’m telling you one more time: With what we’re dealing with here, dogs don’t count. And for all you know, one of your dogs could get killed, too.”
    “I will murder anyone who even thinks about hurting one of my dogs.”
    Kevin can be so corny. “Not if you’re dead first,” he said.
     

CHAPTER 12
     
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subj: Mushing Boot Camp
 
 
Hi Holly,
I'll be traveling all the way across the country to New Hampshire for Ginny Wilson's Mushing Boot Camp. Any chance you'd be interested in going? It's from October 4 through October 6. This is the boot camp we normally attend, but we haven't driven this far before. It will be worth it. Ginny's my hero , definitely the "been there and done that but not gonna brag about it" sort. You'd learn a lot and love it. I'll have all eight dogs with me. I never go anywhere without North, and rarely do I attend dog-related functions without everyone. But you'd have fun with just your two. Think about it!
 
Twila
 
 
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subj: Re: Mushing Boot Camp
 
 
Hi Twila,
 
Camp sounds like fun, but I can't go this year. Steve and I will be in Paris on our honeymoon! But I have a plan. We're getting married on September 29, the Sunday before camp. Could I persuade you to come to our wedding? You could stay here in Cambridge until camp. My house has three apartments. You could have the one on the third floor. My father and stepmother (she's anything but wicked) will be there from Friday though Sunday, but they'll leave right after the wedding, and you'd have it to yourself after that. My yard is small, but it's fenced, and you and the dogs would be more than welcome. In fact, would North like to attend the wedding? He's so beautiful that he'd be an ornament to the occasion.
In fact, you and North could do me a big favor. My father is very devoted to me and very generous, and he's wonderful with dogs, but he's far from the easiest person with other people, especially, alas, Steve. North would be the perfect father-sitter. With North around, my father might totally forget about the wedding!
 
Holly
 
 
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subj: Promotion
 
 
Dear Holly,
 
In the spirit of taking an assertive approach to promotion.
 
I have given your name to a shameless number of people who will ask you to donate autographed copies of your book to Sundry Good Causes—Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue's auction, a couple of literacy groups, and an AIDS charity. All are excellent opportunities for you.
With warm regards,
 
Mac
     

CHAPTER 13
     
    Public fear of the so-called Cambridge Killer arose not on Saturday, immediately after the murder of Victoria Trotter, but on Sunday, September 1, a day that Steve and I spent hiking with our dogs in an area of Gloucester known as Dogtown. As we hiked, we made some decisions about our marriage and our wedding. In the manner of a purebred registered dog, I was keeping the kennel name I’d started with. Anita the Fiend had hyphenated her name, by which I mean, of course, that she’d been Fairley-Delaney and not that she’d asked people to call her Anita-the-Fiend. I had no desire to copy her. Cambridge being Cambridge, substituting Delaney for Winter was out. If you think that the breakfast-food consumption ordinance is fierce, you should see the penalties for female nomenclatural submission to the patriarchy!
    We also debriefed the previous evening, which we’d spent at a South End bistro with Rita and Artie.
    “Artie seems crazy about Rita,” I said. “Did you notice what he said when she was on her way back from the ladies’ room? He said, ‘Isn’t Rita wonderful! I just adore her!’ ”
    Steve was silent.
    “It evidently didn’t make a big impression on you,” I finally said.
    “Actually, it did. I didn’t like it.”
    “Because you wouldn’t say something like that? Even if you thought it? You wouldn’t. I agree. But I think it’s just a difference of style.”
    He