Lilly Echosby just witnessed a murder on a pet cam. Or did she? When a last-minute opportunity arises to accompany her boss to an art auction in Atlanta, Lilly throws some money at the problem of where to board her toy poodle Aggie (short for Agatha Christie). Posh Pet Haven offers the most luxurious canine accommodations in all of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The place even provides pet cams so anxious owners can check in on their pampered pooches. But when Lilly tries to take a peek at her poodle, she gets a terrible shock—she witnesses what she’s sure is a murder. She thinks the victim may be the wealthy co-owner of Pet Haven. The police follow her lead but find no body, no evidence of a crime, and no video record. Starting to feel like the dog owner who cried wolf, Lilly decides to go undercover to catch a killer who may be hiding in plain sight . . . Bark If It's Murder A Dog Club Mystery By V.M. Burns KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. Copyright © 2019 V.M. Burns All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5161-0792-6 CHAPTER 1 "Is that a cow?" Dixie snorted from the back seat. "Didn't you have cows in Indiana?" I turned around in my seat and looked around the car seat's headrest. "We do have cows in Indiana in the country, but not in the city. Cows belong in the country. I'm a city girl." Monica Jill pulled the car into the driveway and eagerly turned to face me. "It's just a few cows. They're behind a fence." She pointed to the fence across the road. I shook my head. "Nope. No cows." She sighed. "Cows weren't on your list." The list my Realtor was referring to was my list of "must-haves" and "deal breakers" for my new home. Monica Jill held up her hand and ticked items off. "No mountains or steep hills, no basement garages, no bears, coyotes, snakes, and now ... cows." She sighed. "Three bedrooms, two baths, in your price point, which aren't on a mountain or hill or near any type of wildlife, is challenging, especially in Chattanooga." "You can afford to raise your budget," Dixie said tentatively. This was a conversation we'd had before. Technically, I could afford a much more expensive house than the limits I'd set for myself. I'd been frugal with the money from selling the house I'd shared with my husband in Indiana. I was determined not to touch the life insurance money, preferring to create trusts for our children. Stephanie and David were both grown and on their own. Stephanie was a lawyer in Chicago, and David was an actor in New York. I couldn't help but think at some point they would marry or purchase homes and I wanted to be able to help them. However, I didn't need to look back at Dixie to know she was alluding to the million dollars my husband had socked away in an offshore bank account before he was murdered. However, I wasn't comfortable touching that money, at least not until the police investigation was over. "The housing market here is super hot and it's not easy finding properties that meet all of your criteria and now I need to eliminate all houses that are close to cows?" Monica Jill looked at me over her tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl glasses. She was a thin woman with long, dark-brown hair and brown eyes. "Yep. That's what I'm saying." I stared back at her. The look on her face almost made me feel sorry for her. It had to be difficult for a Realtor to spend hours driving people like me around, burning up their gas, especially since she wouldn't get paid unless I bought a house. As of this minute, I estimated she'd shown me fifty-two houses. I'd never considered myself a difficult client, but apparently I was. Living in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains meant finding a house that wasn't on a mountain or a steep hill was challenging. Few homes had all of my must-haves. "I'm hungry. Let's eat and talk about our next move." She backed her car out of the driveway, all the time mumbling under her breath about cows. Monica Jill drove to a seafood restaurant in downtown Chattanooga which was known for its shrimp and grits. I'd admit, prior to moving south, shrimp and grits was not a combination that would have appealed to me. In fact, grits wasn't exactly on my top-twenty list of favorite foods. However, the spicy dish had grown on me. While we ate and sipped sweet tea, another Southern favorite, we talked about options. Monica Jill pulled up the Multiple Listing Service app on her phone and showed me the homes that fit her filter, and I acknowledged that pickings were slim. Monica Jill Nelson was a devout Christian with an almost sickeningly optimistic disposition. We met in the dog obedience class Dixie taught at the Eastern Tennessee Dog Club. Now we were both members of the Eastern Tennessee Dog Club and were enrolled for a second round of basic training. My toy poodle, Aggie, was an exceptionally smart dog, as was Monica Jill's dog, Jac, a mutt with lots of personality and a genuine zest for life. After a relatively short period of time with Dixie, we both realized our