On the Scent: A laugh out loud pet detective rom com!

Zach shook his head. “Why would someone try so damn hard to kidnap a cat and a dog?”

“Ten million dollars isn’t motive enough for you?”

Not really.

Zach had a feeling the reason went deeper than that. He had no idea why he felt that way. He just did.

“No. Call it a hunch.” He reached for the keys he’d put in his pocket, then realized he didn’t have his car.

“No driving for at least another twenty-four hours,” Brian chided, guiding him toward the parking lot. He waited until Zach was seated in his truck to say, “Maybe you were right. Maybe it’s too soon for you to take another case.”

“I’m fine,” Zach growled.

Brian held up his hands. “I know she hired us, but we do need to consider another possibility here.” He gave Zach a sideways look as he buckled his seatbelt. “What happens to the money if the cat and dog get killed? Does it all go to Hannah, and if so, that’s one helluva motive right there.”

The jolt of anger he felt at that suggestion was immediate. “She wouldn’t do that.”

“How do you know? I mean, what the hell do we really know about her? You have to admit. Greed makes people do some crazy shit. She could think hiring us gives her a cover.”

Zach glared at Brian until he realized his friend hadn’t intended the comment as a jab against Zach’s own character. He tugged at his seatbelt and buckled up. “I already asked E.J. to do some digging on that front. Don’t worry. I still remember how to do my job.”

Besides, Hannah could get rid of the cat and dog easy enough. There were no other heirs to hold her accountable.

He reached for his phone and dialed E.J. They’d taken him in four months ago as a favor to E.J.’s grandfather. The kid had gotten mixed up with a gang but hadn’t been in so deep he couldn’t get out. Brian thought he’d shown potential, and he worked for peanuts. Right now, Zach wasn’t above using him as a spotter on this case.

“Did you find anything on those background checks?” Zach asked when E.J. answered.

“Hey, man, you alright?” E.J. asked. “Brian said somebody put you down good.”

He clenched his jaw, felt a shot of pain at his temple and sighed. “I’m fine. Tell me what you found.”

“Hold on. I got my notes right here. I think I found something good, too.” The sound of papers being rustled filled the slight pause in conversation. “Ellie Parham is the lady who left the money to Hannah, but funny thing is, Ellie Parham didn’t exist before thirty years ago.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there is no Ellie Parham of that age or race anywhere in the system before 1983. No social security number. No driver’s license. No address. No employment records. Nothing, not even a birth certificate I can find.”

“That’s impossible. Maybe she was married.” Or maybe the kid hadn’t done something right.

“Already checked, and before you start thinking I screwed up, Kellan did a search too and came up empty. The lady didn’t exist, boss. Hannah said Miss Parham told her she’d never been married, and I called the broad’s lawyer. He seemed kind of shifty about it, like he knew more than he was telling, but he swore she hadn’t mentioned being divorced or widowed either.”

Interesting.

“What about her will? Who gets the money if something happens to the cat and dog?”

“Hannah does.”

Zach refused to think that meant anything. “What if something happens to all three of them? Who gets the money then?”

The sound of papers shuffling again filled the line. “It all goes to charity.”

Zach rubbed at his forehead, not liking that answer. That answer left them without another obvious suspect. “What about Hannah? Did you run a background check on her?”

“No criminal record. Never been married. No kids. Went to nursing school at Emory. Worked five years at Saint Joseph’s before going to work for a homecare service. That’s how she met the old lady. She worked as a part-time nurse for a few different clients for about a year before moving in with Parham and working for the old lady full-time.”

“Anything else?”

“Just basic background stuff.” E.J. rattled off details Zach already knew. Hannah’s birth mother had been a college exchange student from Ireland who stayed here after getting pregnant. Father unknown. Hannah had been twelve when her mother died. She was in and out of foster homes after that.

Zach listened. He already knew Hannah’s background, but there was a gap he didn’t know—spanning the last four years.

“Is that all you could find?”

“You want me to dig deeper?”

“Yes.” A nudge at the edge of his conscience almost had Zach taking back the word. Are your reasons for wanting to know personal or professional?

He told his conscience to shut the hell up.

“Find out what her finances were before she got lucky and inherited a rich cat and dog. Find out if there are any ex-boyfriends who might want to cause her trouble and see what you can find on them.” He looked away from Brian and lowered his voice as he lied through his teeth. “She mentioned a guy—Eric Meester. M-E-E-S-T-E-R. See what you can turn up on him.”

Ending his call with E.J., Zach glanced at Brian in the driver’s seat. “Why are we driving toward your place?”

Brian didn’t say a word. His sunglass-covered gaze briefly turned toward him. His mouth was pursed in stubborn conviction.

“Take me to get my car,” Zach ordered.

“You need to rest. You can get your car tomorrow.” Brian’s fingers gripped the steering wheel so tightly it squeaked. “You can help Jenny with Jessica while I’m gone, but you need to rest your head a while longer.”

“I’ve been resting. I want back on this case. Now.”

“Why? Because of the money?”

A rush of frustrated air blew through Zach’s nostrils. He pointed at his face where a nasty bruise had already begun forming. “Because someone made this personal.”

This wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d hoped.

Driving past the police car that had been crawling through the neighborhood at different times over the last 24 hours, the man lifted a hand and waved so as not to seem too suspicious. His skin itched beneath the fake beard, and his head was sweating under the baseball cap. Behind cheap sunglasses, he did a quick survey of the situation.

They’d been so close to getting what they wanted yesterday before that idiot had interrupted them. The cat had been within arm’s reach and everything.

Zachary Collins. Yeah, he knew who the guy was. He’d done some research on the private investigator Hannah Dawson had hired yesterday. The guy’s agency had a solid reputation. Might be trouble.

In his rearview, he watched Collins and another guy approach in a SUV and pull into the driveway.

No opportunity. Gonna have to wait a little bit longer.

As if he hadn’t been waiting long enough.