Read Queens Ransom (Sofie Metropolis) for Free Online

leave, but . . . Well, I’d ask if you could recommend anyone else, but I’m thinking I’m going to get the same response from them.’
    ‘Yeah, thinking you’re right.’
    ‘It’s just that I’ve had Rudy for five years. He spends the majority of the time on my cousin’s farm out on Long Island, but I bring him in especially for the holidays. The thought of him wandering the busy streets, no food to be had, no one to look after him . . .’
    I didn’t even want to think of what could have possibly happened on those busy streets, but the word ‘roadkill’ came to mind for the second time in as many days.
    I shuddered.
    Rosie had somehow climbed down from the chair and the box in those heels without serious injury and leaned back to stare into my office.
    ‘Tell you what,’ I said. ‘Why don’t you leave whatever information you have, like a photo, and I’ll see if there’s something I can do.’
    Her face lit up like the Christmas lights Rosie was even now inspecting at her desk.
    ‘I can’t promise anything. Chances are I won’t be able to do anything.’
    But I just couldn’t let her walk out of the office looking like someone had just crumbled her sugar cookies.
    Or, rather, pissed on her stockings.
    I couldn’t help looking again. Only I couldn’t make out the yellow stain.
    Muffy got closer and sniffed then looked up at Mrs Clause as if he, too, were puzzled.
    He began lifting his leg again.
    ‘Muffy, don’t!’
    I shooed him away with a Manila folder I took from the corner of the desk even as Mrs Claus rattled off details, apparently completely oblivious to the Jack Russell terrier’s designs on her leg.
    I gave a mental shrug. Could be worse. He could have been trying to hump it.
    She pulled out a photo from the pocket of the white apron edged in red. ‘Here he is.’
    I took the shot and began to put it down without looking at it but found myself looking closer instead.
    Was that a red nose?
    I shook my head and tossed the photo to the desktop. Since the shot had apparently been taken in the dark, probably it was red eye that had transferred to the nose.
    ‘I’ll call if I see anything.’
    ‘Is there a number I can reach you on?’
    Rosie did her leaning-back bit again and shook her head in stern warning.
    ‘I think it would be better if I called you if I come up with anything, OK?’
    There was that scent again. Only this time, it smelled like . . . peppermint?
    I led her from the office and out on to the sidewalk.
    ‘Thank you so very much, Miss Metropolis. I can’t tell you how much this means to me and the kids.’
    I nodded and mumbled something I hoped was appropriate, my attention already diverted to the hot Australian still leaning against his truck across the street.
    Damn.
    Jake gave me a brief nod, pitched his cigarette to the street, then climbed into his truck and pulled from the curb.
    Hunh.
    ‘I can’t believe you let that poor old woman believe you’re going to help her,’ Rosie said, hanging the lights in the front window.
    ‘Shoot me, but I think kicking her to the curb is just a wee bit crueler.’
    She tsked. ‘No it ain’t. Letting her believe you’re going to find her stupid reindeer is crueler.’
    ‘Whatever.’
    ‘When do you think you’ll get to that info I asked for?’
    She walked to the printer, pulled paper from it and held it out, her ever-present gum popping.
    There was no way she’d done all that . . . when? She’d been in my line of sight since I put the list on her desk. It was impossible. There was no way . . .
    ‘I think we should talk about Christmas bonuses,’ she said.
    ‘I think you should stop making this place look like a Christmas shop and get back to work.’
    She raised a brow.
    ‘Sorry.’
    And I was.
    Kind of.
    ‘You’re not the only one allowed to have a bad day,’ I told her.
    Bad day? Hell, the rate I was going, I was having the mother of all years.
    ‘I don’t never have no bad days.’
    I gave her a long