Chow Down (A Melanie Travis Mystery)

only way she could have done any better would have been if she’d deigned to eat the Chow Down dog food they offered her.”
    “She didn’t?” Sam laughed. I knew he was picturing the scene in his mind. And enjoying every minute of it, the fiend.
    “Thankfully she wasn’t the only finalist who found it less than palatable. MacDuff was good, but I gather Yoda was the only one who actually dove right in.”
    “Odd for a Yorkie.”
    “You’d think. But this one apparently loves to eat. Also, I suspect she’d been slipped a sample ahead of time to practice with.”
    “Yoda’s the dog who belonged to the man who died?”
    I nodded. “Larry Kim. His wife, Lisa, plans to continue with the competition. She says it’s what Larry would have wanted her to do.”
    Sam sat in silence and thought about that. I kept working. Finishing with Eve’s second paw, I cooled my blades with a blast of spray, then reached around and picked up the third.
    “Okay, here’s the thing,” he said after a minute’s consideration. “If I fall down and break my neck at a dog show, I don’t want you to simply continue on as if nothing has happened. Don’t keep a stiff upper lip. Don’t go marching into the ring anyway. And for God’s sake, don’t go all out for the win.”
    “No?” I was amused by his train of thought.
    “No way. I want you to dissolve in tears on the spot, maybe scream and rant a little, and tear your hair—”
    “My hair, not Eve’s?”
    “Hell no, don’t touch the Poodle’s hair.”
    “Just checking.” Nice to know that even in times of crisis, Sam had his priorities straight. “This dissolving thing . . . Would that be like the bad witch in the Wizard of Oz ?”
    “If you can manage it.” Sam considered the options. “It would certainly be a nice touch under the circumstances.”
    “Okay, I’ll try.”
    I finished clipping Eve’s feet and turned her around on the tabletop so that her hindquarter faced the best light. Carefully, I began to work the clipper blade up her back legs against the growth of the hair. Meanwhile, my husband was apparently contemplating his own demise.
    “Is there anything about this conversation that strikes you as just the tiniest bit strange?” I asked. You know, just to make sure we were on the same page with this life-and-death thing.
    “What seems strange to me is that three days after Lisa Kim’s husband plunges to his death—accidentally or not, apparently still to be determined—his loving wife seems to care so much about the outcome of a dog food contest.”
    “I was wondering about that, too.”
    “Maybe they weren’t such a loving couple.”
    “Hard to say. I hadn’t seen enough of them to have an opinion. Could be though, that her behavior has nothing to do with how she feels. Maybe now, especially with Larry gone, Lisa needs the money.”
    Sam looked up. “How much money?”
    “The winner of the contest is guaranteed a hundred thousand dollar modeling contract as the spokesdog for Chow Down dog food.”
    “You never mentioned there was a payoff like that involved.”
    “I didn’t?”
    “Nope.”
    I nudged Eve’s tail to one side, concentrating on perfecting the circular line around her hip rosette. “The information is on the web site. I guess I just assumed maybe you’d seen it, or that Davey had mentioned it to you.”
    “Davey’s a little hazy on the details when it comes to high finance,” Sam said. “As far as I could tell his major motivation for entering Faith in the contest was getting the chance to see her on TV.”
    “The thing about that contract is that it’s enough of an incentive to give everyone a decent motive. Even without the added bonus of having your dog appear in magazines and on TV.”
    “I wonder what the police are doing,” said Sam. “Coverage in the paper has been pretty sketchy. The first article simply said that they were looking into a suspicious death at Champions’s headquarters. I haven’t seen anything since that labeled it a homicide.”
    “Lisa told me this morning that Larry suffered from vertigo. She thinks he must have tripped and fallen. It sounds as though the police might be buying her version of the events.” I turned off the clipper and stopped and thought. “Suppose Lisa’s right and Larry did fall. Why didn’t the other person who was there with him do something? Or say something? Why didn’t they raise the alarm?”
    “Good questions.”
    “Instead, I heard a door slam