Game of Dog Bones

Book 25: Melanie Travis Mystery

by Laurien Berenson

Genres: Amateur Sleuth; Cozy Mystery; Female Sleuths

Synopsis

As Greenwich, Connecticut, slows down during a bitterly cold February, Melanie and her spunky Aunt Peg head to the city that never sleeps for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Aunt Peg can't wait to demonstrate her judging chops on national TV, even after being hounded by frustrating mishaps—all seemingly orchestrated by Victor Durbin, an ousted Paugussett Poodle Club member with a bone to pick. But the bright lights of the show ring grow dim when Victor is found murdered, and she's the one topping the suspect list . . .



Driven to solve the crime on her aunt's behalf, Melanie fetches hair-raising clues about the victim. Victor didn't score many friends with his unethical breeding practices, sketchy puppy café, and penchant for mercilessly scamming others to get ahead. He burned so many bridges that his own business partner admits to being delighted by news of his death. It appears Victor finally toyed with the wrong person, and as Melanie digs up more chilling evidence, she realizes that exonerating Aunt Peg means confronting a murderer who's in it to win it . . .

Release date: June 30, 2020

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 241

Sample

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is the pinnacle. For two days in early February, New York City is the only place for the country’s best show dogs to be. This event is the American dog world’s biggest stage. The top handlers, owners, and exhibitors are all there, eager to test each other’s mettle as their dogs compete for the ultimate prize: Westminster Best in Show.

Throughout the year, there are dog shows with larger entries. And ones held at easier venues. There are certainly shows with better weather. But none captivate the imagination the way Westminster does. None possess its enduring allure.

The Westminster Dog Show is the second oldest continuous sporting event in the country. First held in 1887, it began before the formation of the American Kennel Club. The show has always made its home at Madison Square Garden, and over the years judging has had to persevere through such disruptions as blizzards and transit strikes.

Westminster isn’t just the oldest dog show in the country, however; it’s also the most prestigious. Dogs with connections to famous athletes, rock stars, and a British monarch have all competed there. This is the event that every dog lover wants to attend, and every exhibitor wants to win.

The individual breed competition now takes place on Monday and Tuesday at two West Side piers. But at night the show returns to the Garden for judging of the seven groups and Best in Show. Dogs and their handlers are all perfectly groomed, on their toes, and ready to perform.

There’s a sudden hush, quickly followed by a burst of appreciative applause, when the day’s winners gait into the big ring for the first time. The air in the arena feels electric. Clearly something special is happening.

Westminster has never forgotten its roots as a sporting event for serious dog fanciers. But it has also evolved into spectacular entertainment for a national audience. The result is pure magic for dog lovers.

“Magic,” I murmured. I was staring out the car window at the passing scenery, which was currently the Bronx.

It was the Sunday before the start of the Westminster Dog Show and we were on our way to Manhattan. My husband, Sam, was driving. My Aunt Peg—also known as Margaret Turnbull, esteemed dog show judge and breeder of some of the best Standard Poodles the breed had ever known—was sitting beside him in the front of the SUV.

I’d been relegated to the rear seat, which was no surprise. Aunt Peg was clever and astute. She loved a good argument and preferred her own opinions to anyone else’s. But mostly she liked to be in charge. That feat was more easily accomplished from the position with the best view.

Aunt Peg’s gaze flitted to the window. We were driving past a factory that had seen better days. Probably during the previous century. “Magic?” She turned to look at me over her shoulder. “This?”

“No, I was thinking about Westminster.”

“Of course you were thinking about Westminster.” She settled back in her seat happily. “Who wouldn’t be?”

Two years earlier, Aunt Peg had received the coveted letter inviting her to judge this year’s Non-Sporting Group. She told us later that she’d shrieked out loud and danced around the room. Aunt Peg is seventy years old, nearly six feet tall, and not known for her agility. I wish I’d been there to see that.

“Your judging assignment is a huge honor,” Sam said. He kept his blue eyes trained on the road but he was following the conversation. Sam and I have been married for six years and he’s always been able to manage Aunt Peg better than I do.

“It is indeed,” Aunt Peg agreed. “I only hope I prove worthy of the faith the Westminster board has placed in me.”

“You will,” I told her. “You’re an excellent judge.”

“I know that.” Lack of confidence has never been a problem for Aunt Peg. “But Westminster is more than a dog show. It’s a grand spectacle for the dog-owning masses. Not to mention a wonderful opportunity for good canine public relations. The show’s television audience numbers in the millions.”

“Don’t tell me you’re nervous about being on TV,” I said.

“No, that part of it is just a distraction. My job is about the dogs—not the lights and the cameras.”

“Yes, but you’ll still have to get your hair and make-up done beforehand,” I teased. Over Aunt Peg’s objections, both appointments had already been made.

“That’s just a lot of pointless fuss and bother,” she grumbled. “Everybody already knows what I look like.”

“Not in TV land,” Sam said with a grin. “You know, the dog-owning masses?”

“You’re not helping.” Aunt Peg reached over and smacked his arm. “I’m already well aware that this assignment is a big deal. But what I’m feeling about it isn’t nerves. It’s anticipation. I can’t wait to get my hands on all those wonderful dogs. But at the same time, I want to be sure that I rise to their level. My judging must be every bit as good as the champions in front of me.”

Sam and I nodded. We could both understand that.

“Not only that, but when you look at the list of Poodle breeders who have judged this group before me, I am following in some very distinguished footsteps,” she continued. “Heaven forbid I let the side down.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Sam told her. “If you weren’t every bit as good as those judges who’ve preceded you, the Paugussett Poodle Club wouldn’t have asked you to conduct today’s seminar on evaluating Poodles.”

“Yes, well, that’s another thing,” Aunt Peg said with a frown. “Before I can even get to tomorrow evening’s show, first I have to make it through the rest of the weekend.”

From my perch in the middle of the backseat I could see that her hands were fidgeting in her lap. Whatever she was doing, Aunt Peg almost always had one of her beloved Standard Poodles at her side. Today we’d had to leave our dogs at home. Without a warm Poodle body to caress, her hands must have felt empty.

“Surely you’re not worried about the symposium?” I asked.

“Heavens, no. I could lead a judging seminar in my sleep. It’s Victor Durbin who’s a concern. Along with that dratted Empire Poodle Club specialty that will be running at the same time. All things considered, it’s drawn quite an entry.”

All things considered, indeed.

Victor Durbin was a Miniature Poodle breeder and a former member of Connecticut’s Paugussett Club. He’d been asked to resign from the club several years earlier after the board discovered that Victor had been allowing Cocker Spaniel and Schnauzer owners to breed their bitches to his Mini Poodle stud dogs. The resulting mixed-breed litters of Cockapoos and Schnoodles were flooding the local pet shops.

After his expulsion from the club, Victor claimed to have changed his ways. He’d petitioned to be reinstated. His request was summarily denied. Aunt Peg had led that charge—but a majority of the other members agreed with her. Most hoped that Victor would quietly move on. Perhaps find another breed with which to become involved.

But Victor had had other ideas. Instead, he’d decided to form his own Poodle club. Though the tri-state area was already home to several other affiliate clubs, Victor was undeterred. He’d taken the other groups’ membership rosters, and proceeded to search their ranks for disgruntled members who could be convinced to jump ship and join his nascent club. Once he had enough names, Victor had doggedly shepherded his Empire Poodle Club through the steps required for AKC accreditation.

EPC had received a license to hold its inaugural Poodle specialty the previous year. A date that fell on the day before Westminster had been applied for and approved. A Manhattan venue was booked. The single-breed show would take place in the ballroom of a hotel on Seventh Avenue. It happened to be the same hotel where the Paugussett Poodle Club was hosting its judging seminar at the same time.

Nobody thought that was a coincidence. Least of all Aunt Peg.

“You don’t need to worry about Victor.” Sam exited onto the Henry Hudson Parkway to head south. “His specialty show is in the second floor ballroom. The conference room for the symposium is on the fourth floor. There’s no reason that your paths should even cross.”

“Our paths have already crossed, in a manner of speaking,” Aunt Peg replied tartly. I couldn’t blame her for being annoyed. “It’s perfectly obvious that more people would have signed up for the seminar if there weren’t a competing Poodle event happening right downstairs.”

“If more people had signed up, the club would have had to book a bigger room,” I pointed out. Poodles’ three varieties—Toy, Miniature, and Standard—meant the breed offered aspiring judges entrée into both the Toy and Non-Sporting Groups. That automatically made them a popular breed for which to apply. “Even with the specialty, there are more than a hundred people coming to learn more about Poodles from you.”

“You needn’t sound so surprised,” Aunt Peg said drily.

Sam cast her a glance. “Actually I’m a little surprised that the Westminster show committee is allowing you to participate in both this symposium and their event tomorrow. We all know that they frown on even a hint of bias or favoritism. The group and Best in Show judges are barred from attending the show before they arrive to do their part, for that very reason.”

“The committee would indeed be very unhappy if I was socializing with exhibitors who might later find themselves in my ring,” Aunt Peg admitted. “But in this case, they agreed that I could hardly get up to much trouble in the company of my fellow judges.”

“They must not know you nearly as well as we do,” I said under my breath.

“I’m sorry.” Aunt Peg turned in her seat again. “Did you say something?”

Fortunately, I was saved from having to answer by the buzzing of my phone. Our home number came up on the screen. Knowing that between the symposium and the dog show we’d be busy all day, Sam and I had left our kids at home in Connecticut.

Davey was fourteen, and halfway through his first year of high school. He was babysitting his younger brother, Kevin, who would turn five next month. Both boys shared our interest in Standard Poodles. But Kevin was too young to follow us around quietly for hours at a time. And Davey had no desire to devote a weekend day listening to Aunt Peg deliver a lecture. That sounded entirely too much like schoolwork to him.

I lifted the phone to my ear. “Hey, Davey, what’s up? Is everything okay?”

“Yup.” Now that he’s a teenager, Davey doesn’t expend extra words on his parents. “But we need carrots.”

“Carrots?” My sons were asking for vegetables? That was a first.

“Kev and I are building a snowman in the backyard. The dogs are helping. Except Bud. You know.”

I did. Bud, a small spotted mutt we’d adopted two summers earlier, was more trouble than our five Standard Poodles combined. I gave Davey props for the snowman idea, though. We’d had four inches of fresh, powdery snow on Friday night. Now on Sunday morning, it would be packed just right for building.

“You want a carrot for the nose?” I asked.

Davey laughed. “You would think—but no. Kevin wants them for his ears. So they stick straight up like Bud’s.”

Technically only one of Bud’s ears stuck up. The other flopped forward over his eye. It wasn’t worth debating.

“Did you check the vegetable bin in the bottom of the refrigerator?”

“I looked there first. The only thing in there is onions.”

“Ewww!” I heard Kevin say in the background.

“Yes, I can see how that wouldn’t work.” I looked up at Sam. “Are we out of carrots?”

He shrugged. Traffic was light on a Sunday morning. Even so he was paying attention to the route as he pulled off the highway onto a side street.

“What do we have that’s long and skinny?” I mused, putting the phone on speaker.

“How about straws?” Aunt Peg offered from the front seat.

“Too small,” Davey replied. “This is a big snowman. Almost a snow monster.”

“It’s a snow monster.” Kevin giggled. “Except he needs ears.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “How about a couple of hot dogs? That could work. They’d even wiggle in the wind like real ears.”

“Good idea,” Davey agreed. “I’m on it.” He ended the connection.

“Hmmph,” said Aunt Peg.

I tucked the phone back in my pocket. “Now what?”

“Am I to understand that your kitchen is lacking in vegetables but well stocked with hot dogs?”

I wanted to deny it, but really there was no point.

“Something like that,” I said.

“Sometimes you feed kids what they’ll eat rather than what’s good for them,” Sam mentioned.

Thanks, honey.

Aunt Peg wasn’t appeased. “It sounds as though I feed my Poodles better food than you give your children,” she huffed.

“You might,” I agreed easily. I would never argue with Aunt Peg about canine care. Hers or anyone else’s.

“Stop squabbling, you two.” Sam turned on his blinker and turned into the entrance to a parking garage. “We’ve arrived.”

We entered the Manhattan hotel lobby loaded down with gear.

Sam was carrying the grooming table tucked beneath his arm. Aunt Peg had a briefcase filled with slides and notes she’d brought from home. I was holding a box that contained handouts for the attendees. The only thing we didn’t have with us was a live Poodle.

The audience for the seminar would be made up of people who wanted to learn how to judge Poodles. With that in mind, Aunt Peg wanted to display a dog that looked exactly as it would appear before them in the show ring. Coral, the teenage Standard Poodle that she and Davey had been showing together, was too young to serve as a model. However Crawford Langley—a professional handler who was showing at the Empire specialty on the second floor—had offered to supply her with a demo dog later that afternoon.

I looked at my watch as we headed for the elevators. It was eleven a.m. Both the specialty and the seminar were scheduled to begin at noon. Once again, probably not a coincidence.

“After I deliver this stuff to the conference room, I’m going down to spend some time at the show,” I told Aunt Peg. Though the judging wouldn’t start for another hour, the ballroom would already be full. Poodle exhibitors always arrived early since they had plenty of pre-ring grooming to do.

Aunt Peg turned to me in mock outrage. “You’re not going to attend my seminar?”

We’d been over this before. Possibly a dozen times. I’d lost count of how often this complaint had come up during the past month.

“Not all of it,” I said. “First, I’m going to the specialty.”

“You’re passing up a wonderful learning opportunity.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked. “You’ve been lecturing me for years. It hardly seems possible you might have more stuff to say that I haven’t heard yet.”

Aunt Peg looked at me down her nose. “I don’t see why. I learn new things all the time.”

I juggled the heavy box to one side and pushed the button for the elevator. “Then it’s a good thing Sam will be listening to your entire talk. He’ll be able to fill me in on anything I miss.”

The elevator door slid open. We fit ourselves inside. “Thank goodness one of my relatives is here to support me,” Aunt Peg sniffed.

“Yes,” I said, punching the next button with more force than was strictly necessary. “Lucky you.”

Sam was standing behind Aunt Peg, trying not to grin. He’d always been her favorite. I was used to that by now.

“I should think you’d want a first-hand report on Victor Durbin’s specialty,” I mentioned. “It’s the Empire Club’s first attempt to stage an event—and in New York City, no less. I wonder if they’ve taken into account all the things that could possibly go wrong?”

Aunt Peg considered that, then nodded. “You have a point. I suppose you’ll be making yourself useful, after all.”

It was a small victory, but I’d take it. Especially as it meant I could now attend the specialty with a clear conscience.

The conference room was open and waiting for us. Rows of folding chairs had already been set in place. There was a slide projector in the back of the room. A dais in the front held an empty table and a podium with a microphone. Behind it, a white screen had been pulled down from the ceiling.

I put the box I’d been carrying down on the table. A hotel employee came over to make sure that Aunt Peg had everything she needed. Several Paugussett Club members had also been waiting for her arrival. They gathered around too.

Aunt Peg appeared to be in good hands. That was all I needed to know. I sketched Sam a wave and made a hasty exit before my esteemed relative could change her mind.

The Poodle show awaited downstairs. Excellent.

The conference room had been quiet and nearly empty. By contrast, the ballroom on the second floor hummed with activity.

Dog shows generate their own particular buzz of excitement. Some exhibitors thrive on the winning, and the thrill of competition. Others come to show off the best dogs that their breeding programs have produced. Many treat the shows as social events, since they’re a wonderful opportunity to spend a day surrounded by friends.

Indeed, the first dog shows were simply gatherings of neighbors who brought their dogs together for the purpose of debating their relative merits. Though the sport has grown tremendously since then, at its core, not a lot has changed.

Breeders still strive to produce the finest dogs they can, always bearing in mind the purpose for which the breed was intended. And judges and exhibitors still argue over which dog is actually the best. It all makes for a lively exchange. As well as the occasional impassioned dispute.

A specialty is a dog show devoted to a single breed of dog. On this weekend before Westminster, a dozen different breed clubs were holding specialties in Manhattan. With the top dogs coming to New York for the big show, it made sense for the clubs to capitalize on the influx of out-of-town exhibitors. In various ballrooms around the city, spectators could enjoy watching Boston Terriers, Pekingese, and French Bulldogs all strut their stuff.

The ballroom I entered, however, held only Poodles. Just what I wanted to see.

A large rectangular ring had been set up in the center of the room. Though it was currently empty, the perimeter of the floor had already been lined with nonslip mats. The judge’s table was in place. All was ready for business.

The day’s exhibitors had arranged their setups around the outside of the ring. Crates were stacked. Tack boxes were open. Blow dryers were in use. Dozens of Poodles were already out on their tabletops, being groomed. Thanks to the layout of the room, exhibitors would be able to prepare their dogs and spectate at the same time.

According to the judging schedule, Standard Poodles would be shown first. They were followed by the Miniatures, then Toys. As the largest variety, Standards took the longest to prepare for the ring. It was no surprise, then, that most tables held the bigger dogs, while the Minis and Toys waited their turn in nearby crates.

I paused just inside the doorway to the room. It only took me a few seconds to locate my good friends Crawford Langley and his life partner and handling assistant, Terry Denunzio. When I spotted their setup, my eyebrows rose. Even in the crowded ballroom, Terry was hard to miss.

Which was probably the point, I thought, smothering a laugh.

Terry has a flamboyant streak a mile wide. Since the last time I’d seen him, he had changed his hair color again. Blond before, he’d now opted for a shade not often found in nature.

Perhaps he’d been inspired by the Westminster’s own club colors, I realized. Either that or an eggplant. Standing out amidst the beautifully coiffed Poodles with their black, brown, and white coats, Terry’s hair was a brilliant shade of purple. I wondered what Crawford thought of that.

Probably not much.

Terry and Crawford were opposites in many ways. Maybe that was why they made such a great couple. In his sixties, Crawford was staid and dignified. The consummate professional, he’d been at the top of the handling game for more years than I’d been going to dog shows. Terry was closer to my age; we were both edging toward forty. He was a blithe, free spirit who took almost nothing seriously. Except his longstanding relationship with Crawford.

I made my way quickly through the setups that clogged the area between us. Some of the exhibitors I passed were familiar to me, as we were frequent competitors at the local shows. Others had come from all over the country; they were in town now for the Westminster show. Previously I’d only seen their Poodles on the pages of the glossy canine publications. I couldn’t wait to have a chance to admire them in person.

“Air kiss,” Terry said as I approached. There was a white Standard Poodle lying down on the grooming table between us. He leaned over it and aimed a pair of smooches in my general direction.

I followed suit. It . . .