“The dogs are gone?” Phillip repeated, cool and calm. But his stare was so intense, he might as well have been yelling at Carson. “As in ‘disappeared from my property’? How many?”
The tone of voice and the way he held himself, chest puffed up, looking down his nose at Carson, spoke of a quiet fury. If it had been someone else, someone not used to stress and pressure like a security guard would be, Addison thought they might have melted beneath his steady gaze.
“Three, sir.”
Phillip’s nose rose an inch. “How could you let that happen?”
Without waiting for an answer, he pushed his way past Carson and headed through the house to the backyard. Addison held Princess close and rushed to keep up in her heels, which clicked on the marble floors, echoing around the absurdly cavernous hall. Princess grumbled as the jostling slowly dislodged the fascinator from her head.
Once Addison crossed the threshold to the veranda, exclaims and excited chatter accosted her ears like an angry hive of bees. The guests huddled around the tall wrought-iron fence at the edge of the property. The wall of bodies slowed Carson and Phillip down, and Addison was able to catch up, following in their wake as the guests made way.
She couldn’t let herself fall behind. More dogs had gone missing. It had to be connected to the cocktail mixer somehow. Twice in one week couldn’t be a coincidence. She held Princess tighter, like she might disappear right out of her arms.
Phillip pressed his way to the front of the crowd as Carson updated him. Addison strained to listen in.
“I’m not sure how it happened, sir. We’re still looking into it. We have guards posted at every possible entrance. No one has left with any other dog but their own.”
Phillip wheeled on the head of security, coming nose to nose with him. “Obviously someone did. Now what are you doing about it?”
“We have the place on lockdown. No one in or out. The police are on their way.”
“Good,” he said, turning away. “Keep me posted. And find my dog, Baxter.”
Carson nodded and turned back around. He reached up to his earpiece and murmured something, but Addison missed what he said because the gathering crowd quickly swallowed him. She decided to stick with Phillip.
When she broke through the thick mass of people, she stumbled into a semicircle of open space. The commotion centered around three guests arguing with the security guards who had checked her in at the door.
“Just calm down sir. The police are on their way,” guard one was saying.
A man in a toupee wagged a finger in his face. “The police? The police? Then what are you here for? What were you doing when they disappeared?”
“Yeah, what are you doing to find them?” another man asked. He had his back to Addison, but she’d recognize that coiffed hair anywhere. Rex Harris.
A young woman with tears sparkling in her eyes ran over. “Phillip. Phillip.” She grabbed the front of his sports jacket. “He’s gone. Someone took my Lionel. You said it was safe here.”
“Don’t worry, Kayleigh.” He patted her hands and gently dislodged them. “I’m taking care of it.” He handed her his pocket square, and she dabbed at her eyes.
“You’ll be lucky if I don’t sue,” said the man in the toupee, shaking his finger at Phillip.
“This is a disaster,” Phillip muttered under his breath so only Addison could hear. “How could this have happened? I don’t understand. I took precautions.”
He looked distraught. In fact, she thought he looked the same way she probably had when the dogs had gone missing under her care. His body tensed like he wanted to take action, but it seemed there was nothing to do but wait for the police.
Addison laid a comforting hand on his arm. “It’s not your fault. You did everything you could. Maybe they got out of the yard somehow? Found a gap in the fence, or dug a hole maybe.”
Now she sounded like Felix. She recalled the way he’d comforted her at the cocktail party, tried to convince her it was going to be okay when all the facts pointed to the worst-case scenario. But now she understood why he did it, because she wanted to do the same for Phillip.
“My Rosie would never run away,” Rex said to her. “She’s too well behaved. She was stolen. I know it.”
“My property was secure,” Phillip said. “I took every precaution I could for this party.”
“If it was secure, then how did the dogs get off the property without anyone noticing?” Rex practically shook with anger, his coiffed hair falling down in strands across his tall forehead.
Addison saw a finger rise from among the crowd to point straight at her. It was Penny’s.
“It must have been Addison Turner,” the famed handler called out. “It’s the cocktail mixer all over again.”
“What?” Addison sputtered, practically laughing at the absurdity of it. “Me?”
Phillip stepped forward. “Absolutely not. She was with me the entire time. She had nothing to do with it.”
But Penny’s comment sent a ripple of whispers and glances through the crowd. Those who hadn’t recognized her now put a face to the name they’d all heard circulating the dog show circuit and from the media.
“Funny that she was present during both incidents,” Penny noted coolly.
“So were you,” Phillip said. “So were all of us.”
“You can’t blame me for this one,” Addison told her. “I’m just a guest here.”
“Maybe you had help,” she said. “A partner in crime.”
There were noises of affirmation scattered among the guests. Addison saw heads nod up and down.
Addison threw up her hands. “Like who?”
A honking horn interrupted her. Through the vines covering the wrought-iron fence, Addison could see a vehicle pull through the private drive to the mansion’s back access.
The crowd surged forward, eager to see what the commotion was about. Addison was bulldozed closer to a set of gates in the fence separating the yard from the driveway. She cradled Princess close to protect her from bumps and elbows, afraid for a moment that they’d be trampled.
The van crawled up to the iron gates that blocked its path. The driver honked the horn impatiently, but the security guards kept it firmly shut.
Guards one and two rushed ahead of everyone. They waved their hands in the air to signal the van to stop. Guard two moved a hand across his throat in a kill-the-engine motion.
The van door popped open and the impatient driver jumped down onto the flagstone driveway. It was Red Bra girl.
She took in the gathered crowd from the other side of the iron bars. “What’s going on?”
Carson pushed his way through the mob with Baxter on a leash. Phillip rushed over and grabbed the leash, bending down to his English mastiff, like he had to touch him to believe he was safe.
Carson stalked up to the gate, nose to nose with Red Bra. “Where have you been?” he asked.
“The bar. Making a supply run.” She was eyeing the crowd, clearly confused.
Guard one turned to his boss. “This was the only vehicle to leave the premises.”
“Did anyone search this van when it left?” Phillip demanded.
The security guards glanced at each other. Eventually one said, “Yeah, but it was just full of empty barrels and boxes.”
“How do you know they were empty?” Carson asked them. “Did you look inside of them?”
They silently conferred with each other again before shaking their heads.
Carson swore. “Who was in charge of this vehicle!?” he called out, as though it was the guests’ job to know and not his.
“I’m the manager.” A deep voice carried across the crowd from behind Addison.
She turned, along with everyone else, to see Felix walking down the drive. He came to a stop next to her and crossed his arms.
“How can I help you?” he asked. But with the scowl on his face and his head cocked like he was ready for a fight, he didn’t come off as very helpful at the moment.
Carson faced him, calling his tough guy bluff. “Were you aware that your employee left the premises?”
“Of course. I’m the one who sent her. We ran out of supplies. She went to the bar to stock up on a few items.” Felix was close enough to Addison that she heard him mutter to her, “The Head Turner was more popular than I expected.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Penny take note of the exchange. The look on her pinched face made Addison’s toes curl in her pink heels with annoyance.
Red Bra grabbed the iron bars and stared helplessly through them at Felix and Carson, as if she’d already been condemned. “What have I done wrong?”
“How long ago did you leave?” Carson asked her.
Felix stepped in and answered before she could, keeping the focus on him. “About an hour ago.”
“That was when I last saw Gumball,” the man with the toupee said.
“This guy was at the cocktail mixer last weekend too,” Rex said, indicating Felix as “this guy.” “Maybe he stole those dogs.”
Penny Peacock turned to Addison, almost gleefully. “Looks like we’ve found your partner in crime,” she said, eliciting a sudden uproar from those around her. It sounded like calls for blood to Addison’s ears.
“She had nothing to do with this,” Phillip yelled over them all. “She’s my guest here.”
“I saw them talking together earlier at the bar,” Kayleigh said between shuddering sobs.
“Probably conspiring,” Rex added.
Addison shot daggers across the stone driveway at Rex, sorry she’d considered him attractive for even a second. “I was ordering a drink.”
“They must be working together,” toupee agreed.
Penny never said another word. She didn’t have to—her nasty theory had taken root and was growing all on its own.
Addison threw her hands up, ready to argue, but Felix sidled close to her and muttered under his breath. “You’re dealing with a mob mentality here. You’re going to lose. Stop before they pull out their torches and pitchforks and you have a real problem on your hands.”
She glared at him like this was somehow his fault. Heck, maybe it was. Maybe he did steal the dogs. After all, she thought, he was so determined not to help her find the guilty party. Maybe that was because he was the guilty party. But by the looks on everyone’s faces, he was probably right about keeping quiet, so she took his advice.
She held Princess close to her chest protectively, like someone might want to get revenge through her own dog, an eye for an eye. “Yeah, well it looks like it’s not just my problem anymore,” she informed Felix coolly. “Now it’s yours too.”