Chow Down (A Melanie Travis Mystery)

career.”
    Oh really? I thought. Bill and Allison looked surprised as well. Chris, who should have been listening to what Doug and Cindy were saying, turned his head and glared in Dorothy’s direction.
    “I guess it will be a beginning for one of us,” Allison said pointedly.
    Dorothy looked unruffled by the correction. If she was trying to psych out the competition, her tactics seemed to be having the desired effect. Across the way, Doug was now staring hard at Chris, wondering, no doubt, how he’d lost his subordinate’s attention. This room had more undercurrents than a Jacuzzi.
    Suddenly I realized that pictures of each of our dogs—the ones we’d submitted with our contest entries—were flashing by on the TV screen. Darlene was speaking and we all went silent to hear what she had to say.
    “Coming up in our last half hour is a special treat for all you dog lovers out there,” she said in a voice primed with bubbly enthusiasm. “I would say that includes just about everyone, wouldn’t you, Rob?”
    “I certainly would!” the cohost replied. “I know it includes me, and today we have some really special canines for you to enjoy. Five dogs—Brando, Ginger, Faith, MacDuff, and Yoda—have been selected from among thousands of entries nationwide to be the finalists in the ‘All Dogs Are Champions’ contest sponsored by Chow Down Dog Food. The winning entry will be the new spokesdog—” Rob paused for a well-rehearsed chuckle—“for that excellent product.”
    “And here’s the best part!” Darlene chirped. “The lucky winner of the contest will be chosen by you, our discriminating viewers. After watching the program today and seeing each of the dogs interact with our pet expert, Darren Abernathy, all you have to do is log on to the Champions web site and vote for your favorite.”
    “So be sure to stay tuned for the entire show,” Rob finished up. “We know you won’t want to miss a thing!”
    The screen went dark as the network went to commercial. It took us all a moment to adjust to the fact that the introduction to our segment was over. Then Doug’s face creased in a broad grin.
    “That went well,” he said heartily.
    “Top-notch,” Cindy agreed.
    “They mentioned the name of the product, the contest, and the company,” said Chris. “And that was only the initial promo. This is going to be excellent.”
    They were so busy congratulating themselves that they didn’t seem to realize that their three contestants hadn’t said a word. Finally I was the one who broke the silence.
    “I thought the judging committee was going to be picking the winner of the contest,” I said.
    “Yes, well . . .” Doug slid a wary look our way. Until right that moment, it hadn’t occurred to him that there might be a problem. He lifted his hands and rubbed them together, playing for time. “Of course. That’s right.”
    “That’s not what Darlene said,” Bill pointed out.
    The three committee members glanced at one another. Like maybe they were trying to formulate an instant plan.
    “She must have been reading the wrong copy,” Cindy said quickly.
    “I don’t think so,” Dorothy muttered. “She got all our names right.”
    “But she was mistaken about the other thing,” said Chris. “You know how it is with live TV. Sometimes stuff gets mixed up.”
    Bill and Allison didn’t look convinced either. Instead we were all digesting this last-minute change. It added a whole new set of parameters to the game we’d been playing, and we all knew it.
    “It’ll be easy enough to figure out when we get home,” I said. “All we have to do is log on to the Champions site ourselves and see if there’s away to vote.”
    “Right . . .” Doug said. His voice sounded strained. “About that . . .”
    “Yes?” Allison prompted.
    Ginger looked up at her owner and cocked an ear. If Dorothy and I had been dogs, we would have done the same.
    “I imagine you might see something on the web site about voting for your favorite finalist,” Chris said slowly. “But it’s not what you think.”
    “What is it, then?” I asked.
    “The popular vote is only going to act as a guideline,” said Doug. “It’s something we’ll take into consideration when we formulate our choice. It won’t be the entire deciding factor, just another facet of the competition.”
    “After all,” Cindy said with a laugh, “if we did that, we’d lose control of the outcome. It’s not as though we can let just