Toes up in the Tulips


 
 
 Table of Contents
 Cover
 Title Page
 About This Book
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Chapter 11
 Chapter 12
 Chapter 13
 Chapter 14
 Chapter 15
 Chapter 16
 Chapter 17
 Chapter 18
 Chapter 19
 Chapter 20
 Chapter 21
 Chapter 22
 Chapter 23
 Chapter 24
 Chapter 25
 Chapter 26
 Chapter 27
 Chapter 28
 Chapter 29
 Epilogue
 About Uzi in the Urn
 Get Your Free Book Now
 Author’s Note
 About the Author
 Copyright Page
 
 About This Book
 A new cozy mystery series from USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. Follow gardener and amateur sleuth Doreen Montgomery—and her amusing and mostly lovable cat, dog, and parrot—as they catch murderers and solve crimes in lovely Kelowna, British Columbia.
 Riches to rags. … Time heals all wounds, … but old deeds still haunt, … even for the innocent!
 After helping the captain solve his long overdue case, Doreen’s reputation is well and truly cemented in Kelowna. That’s proven out when a young woman is murdered in her own apartment, and the police start looking at the boyfriend. With the town on edge, this young man seeks out Doreen’s help to prove his innocence.
 Corporal Mack Moreau is back to light duty work—mostly keeping an eye on Doreen, if the captain has any say in it. It’s hardly a hardship, as he loves being around her, when she’s not dipping her toes in his active cases. And yet somehow she manages to find old cases that dovetail with his ongoing ones, giving her an exaggerated opinion of where her boundaries are.
 What seems simple on the surface goes back into history to a case that was done and dusted, with the killer now out free, looking for revenge. But, of course, it’s not that simple or that easy; and, by the time Doreen and her animal crew are done, the world has shifted for more than just one person in this case.
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 Chapter 1
 
 Thursday Evening, Not Quite a Week Later …
 Almost a week later, she sat outside, her face up to the sun, just enjoying having nothing to do—no killers to run down, no crazies to go after, just finding some semblance of normality in her world. The captain had been more than profuse in his thanks, and, as she had filled everybody in afterward, there had been several news announcements about the case being cracked finally.
 As a lot of people already knew Doreen had been on the case, she had already received a lot of cheers and well-wishing.
 She was due to head down to Nan’s soon, and Mack was coming with her for a postponed celebration. They were supposed to have the celebration a while ago, but then Mack had been shot. Since then they hadn’t been able to set it up—until tonight. So, in about ten minutes, Mack would be here. She got up, brushed the grass off her dress, and slowly moved toward the house. She wandered through to the front door and found Mack standing outside on the front step by the hydrangeas.
 He said, “Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen you in a dress before.”
 She looked down, smiled, and replied, “I haven’t had a whole lot of reason for wearing one.”
 He asked, “Are you ready to walk down to Rosemoor?”
 “Yep. Are you?”
 And, with his nod, they locked up the house and slowly moved toward the creek, all the animals coming as well. She had insisted because it wasn’t fair to have a private celebration for Mack and Doreen in solving all these cold cases, when the animals were as much to thank for everything that she’d done anyway. And the Rosemoor management had finally agreed.
 As she walked with Mack at her side, she noted, “It has been a crazy-busy summer.”
 “You think?” he quipped. “But the captain is chortling because of the cold cases you’ve closed, even though we had to open a couple new ones due to you,” he added, with an eye roll.
 “I think it is only fair to the families to explain their loved ones didn’t die by accident and that we have the murderer behind bars.”
 “Absolutely,” he agreed, squeezing her hand.
 “Ha,” Thaddeus cawed in her ear. He’d been riding on her shoulder, humming gently as they strolled along. But now he poked his head through her hair and turned a gimlet eye on Mugs.
 Recognizing the signs, she hurriedly warned him, “Don’t you dare. You be good. Mugs is being good, you can be good too.”
 That gimlet eye turned her way. Doreen quickly picked up the pace.
 “Problems,” Mack asked as he kept pace. He looked at Thaddeus curiously. “He’s behaving nicely.”
 “So far – but not for long. He’s got that look in his eye.”
 In a master move, Thaddeus sniffed his disdain and quickly shifted to Mack’s shoulder. He then proceeded to cry out, “Hehehe.”
 She glared at him but ignored him. As long as he didn’t ride Mugs or chase Goliath they might get past the creek without a catastrophe.
 As they walked closer to Rosemoor, she looked at the houses on the opposite side of the creek. “Some really beautiful places are here.”
 “They truly are,” he agreed.
 “And I did finally connect with Scott at the auction house.”
 “Oh, good. Anything coming?”
 She looked up at him. “Yeah, a pretty hefty check for the books. I haven’t even told Nan.”
 “Is it enough to keep you in style for a little while? At least in pizza?” he asked, with a grin. When she told him how much, he stopped in his tracks. “Good God, you can almost buy a house in Kelowna for that.”
 She shook her head. “I wouldn’t want to.”
 “Why not?” he asked. “Are you not planning on staying?”
 “Oh, I’m planning on staying, but I’m partial to