Guard Dogs and Guitars

I never thought I’d be half of a crime-solving duo…working with a famous talking cat.
Country legend Benson Bridges is missing a rare guitar that he’s used to write four decades worth of hit songs. Duke, his old hound dog, is the only one who witnessed the crime.

That’s where Persephone and I come in.

Now we’re on our way to Nashville to find the guitar. I’m a little—make that a lot—nervous about calling myself a professional crime solver. Included in my list of suspects are an obsessed fan, a hotshot singer looking to blaze his own path, and a disgruntled ex-nanny. But this unlikely crew might turn out to be my secret weapons.

Because Duke doesn’t like newcomers so much. He’s set in his ways, just like his human dad. Persephone and I think the old hound might be protecting the thief.

Losing the guitar could end Benson’s career, but finding it might cost him so much more…

Hi, my name’s Addie Dawson, and I have a confession to make.
I’m not sure I’m cut out to be the pet parent of an internet celebrity cat.
As the director of Helping Paws, a no-kill animal shelter in Harmony, New Hampshire, I’ve found many animals their forever home.
Now it looks like I’ve added solving crimes to the mix.
I can’t do it on my own, and that’s where the cat of the moment comes into the picture.
My new sidekick, a black cat named Persephone, can talk to me. Don’t ask me how it works. I haven’t figured that out. But after word got out that Persephone helped me stop an art thief—in the middle of their second heist—and recover a priceless painting, our lives changed immediately.
“We’ve got three people in the waiting room interested in adopting.” There was a line out the door, but our shelter was tiny, and we could only fit so many people in here at a time without making the animals uncomfortable. This was their home, and we had to respect that. Even if things were a little crazy right now.
Since Persephone started helping me make connections between our animals and forever homes, we’d placed so many animals. We were even able to bring animals here from higher-risk shelters and get them homes, too.
Persephone licked her paw. She preferred her payment in tuna, and she’d just finished her lunch. “I’ll check them out, see if they’re dog, cat, or exotic pet people. Then I’ll make suggestions.”
“Excellent. If this gets to be too much, let me know, and I’ll tell everyone we’re done for the day.”
“I like doing this,” Persephone said. “Everyone’s really excited for a chance to go home. Especially the ones that miss their former people.”
I closed my eyes for a long blink. Working at a shelter wasn’t for the faint of heart. But placing an animal that used to be scared and lonely in a new home made all the hard stuff worth it.
Having a direct line to how everyone was feeling via Persephone made my job so much easier. She’d suggested I rearrange the living arrangements so everyone got along better, I knew what they all liked for food—and with the art heist reward money, I could afford to buy it for them.
“Ready?” I scratched Persephone between her shoulder blades. Otherwise known as the spot.
“I can never say no to anything when you hit the spot.”
“Hey, guys.” My coworker Casey came into the backroom. Once the stories broke about my crime-solving cat sidekick, she’d used her internet expertise to get the word out about the shelter and Persephone. Later tonight, she planned to host a live Q+A session with Persephone and me. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“Is someone out there getting impatient?” Sometimes people didn’t understand that Persephone worked on her own time, and others didn’t like it when she said that there wasn’t a good match for them. That had been a learning curve, but I’d learned to trust animals over people long before a talking cat came into my life.
“No, they’re all lovely. They let me film them for our online channel. I think you’ll like them.” She gave Persephone a scritch between her ears. “Margaret’s on the phone.”
The phone had been ringing non-stop with inquiries about Persephone, and how to adopt one of our animals. A lot of people thought all the animals at Helping Paws would be able to talk to them, and we had to gently weed them out of the adoption pool.
Margaret was Persephone’s former owner—after we’d helped her get a priceless painting back, she insisted Persephone stay with me. She couldn’t talk to her. To fill the void left by Persephone, she came to pick out a brand-new kitty friend and made an extremely generous donation to Helping Paws.
“Can you bring Persephone out to meet the adopters? I’ll be right there.” I would never not take Margaret’s call. Even at seventy, she was the coolest person I’d ever met.
Casey handed me the phone and motioned for Persephone to follow her into the lobby.
“Hey Margaret. How are things going?”
“Good.” She sounded hesitant. “I have a proposition for you.”
“Does it involve Nicole?”
After I caught Margaret’s niece red-handed, stealing another priceless work of art, she was placed on house arrest. Guess the police didn’t think she was that dangerous. She’d been staying with Margaret, working on art initiatives for kids in Boston as part of her community service.
No big surprise, Nicole and I didn’t exactly get along.
Margaret chuckled. “No. She can’t cross state lines yet without serious consequences. I got a call from Benson Bridges last night. Are you familiar with his music?”
“The name sounds really familiar.”
“He’s a big country music star. Has been for decades. Benson Bridges and the Quickdraw Quartet. His prized guitar, which I understand is quite rare, has gone missing. He says he won’t be able to write songs for his new album until he gets it back.”
“How does this involve me?”
“His dog, Duke, was the only one in the recording studio when the guitar disappeared. Benson is hoping that maybe you and Persephone might be able to get information that the police can’t.”
“Is there a reward if we can find the guitar?” I’d poured all the money Margaret gave me for finding her painting into the shelter, but I needed to find a new apartment. I lived above my sister’s garage, and she had a strict no animals allowed rule.
There was only so much longer I could hide a famous cat from my nieces.
“Probably, but you shouldn’t be working for reward money anymore.”
“But I’d have to take time away from the shelter, and…where does Benson live?” I had a pretty good feeling it wasn’t in New Hampshire.
“Nashville. Which is why you should establish a fee for your services,” Margaret said. “A fairly substantial one, at that. You and Persephone are providing a service that no one else can. You should add a clause that the fee is for your time, and not contingent on your success. I can have my lawyer draw up a contract for you.”
I wiped my hand over my face. Did that mean I was…a professional crime-solver now? “This feels complicated, and I’m not even sure what I’m doing.”
“Do exactly what you did before. Trust your instincts. If I didn’t have faith in you and Persephone, I wouldn’t suggest that you do this.”
“What are you thinking for a fee?”
The number she gave me was probably spare change to her, but it made my eyes pop out of my head. I was glad this wasn’t a video call. It was close to my annual salary from when I worked at the brokerage. Don’t even ask how it compared to what I made at the shelter. On top of that, she expected the client to pay all my travel and operating expenses while I worked on their case.
I had to work on my poker face before I got to Nashville.
Was I really thinking of going to Nashville to solve a crime…with my talking cat?
I’d never been on a plane before. Or left New England.
For that kind of money, I’d go to the moon.
“Do you want to call Benson, or would you like me to handle it for you?” Margaret asked. “Of course, you wouldn’t leave until the ink is dry on the contract, and the money is in your bank account.”
“It sounds like you just became my manager.” I laughed nervously. I was in way over my head.
“If there’s one thing I despise, it’s seeing good-hearted people get taken advantage of,” she said. “Benson’s not the first one who’s called asking about your services with Persephone. But he is the first one I thought would take you seriously. Don’t sell yourself short, Addie. You had faith that you could find my missing painting, and I believe you can find Benson’s guitar.”
I blew out a long breath. “This is crazy, but I’m in.”