Dial C for Chihuahua by Waverly Curtis Page A

and then said good-bye. I stood there looking at the phone.
    â€œWho was that?” Pepe wanted to know. “The guy with the rude dog?”
    â€œYes, it was,” I said.
    â€œHe is trying to get closer to you by using me,” Pepe said. “That is a clever strategy. I have used it myself to good effect.”
    â€œI’d actually like to see him train you,” I said to Pepe.
    â€œWhat would you like to see me do?” Pepe asked. “I can already jump through a ring of fire.” He looked around the living room. “But you do not appear to have one nearby.”
    â€œWhen did you learn to jump through a ring of fire?” I asked.
    â€œWhen I performed in the circus,” Pepe said, with great dignity. “A Mexican circus. The very best kind.”
    I needed to go to Pete’s Market to get ingredients for dinner. I was hoping Pepe would insist on going along, but he had gotten really involved in an old episode of Law and Order . He told me he wanted to pick up some pointers on interrogation techniques.
    â€œDo not forget we are out of bacon,” he said, as I headed out the door.
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    It was still raining, and I got soaked, though the market is only a few blocks from my home. I picked up ingredients for nachos, thinking Pepe might enjoy it, but he just turned up his nose.
    â€œBeans give me gas,” he said.
    Luckily I’d also purchased some fancy dog food that looked like stew. Pepe seemed to approve of this. He danced around as I was spooning it onto a saucer and polished it off within a minute.
    I’d picked up some books from the library between Brad’s shop and home, so I opened up The Idiot’s Guide to Being a Private Investigator while I was eating. It was very informative. I learned that careful note-taking was the most imperative task so I got a blank notebook out of my desk drawer and labeled it C ASEBOOK N UMBER 1.
    I started recording all that had happened since I first went to meet Rebecca Tyler. While I was writing, a commercial came on and Pepe strolled over to see what I was doing.
    â€œGeri, how long have you been a PI?” he asked.
    â€œNot long,” I said.
    â€œThat’s obvious,” Pepe said. “What did you do before?”
    â€œI was a stager.”
    â€œIs that like an actress?”
    â€œNo, a stager decorates houses that are for sale to help attract customers.”
    â€œSo you create a false appearance to produce a positive impression,” said Pepe thoughtfully.
    â€œI guess you could say that. But I don’t really think of it that way.”
    â€œHow do you think of it?” Pepe asked.
    â€œI think of it as bringing out the inherent personality of the place so people will see its possibilities.”
    Pepe seemed perturbed. “I do not see how that will be of benefit in our current case.”
    â€œI suppose I might notice something that seems out of place that other people might not notice.”
    â€œDid you notice anything at the Tyler residence that was out of place?”
    â€œCome to think of it, yes! I did think it was odd that David Tyler was in the living room. It didn’t seem like the sort of room where someone would be sitting and relaxing. I would expect him to be in his office or bedroom or even the kitchen.”
    â€œYes, but what if he surprised an intruder?” Pepe asked.
    I nodded. “A possibility. But why would an intruder stand in the middle of the room? One would expect he would be looking for something to steal. There was nothing of value nearby.”
    â€œUnless something was taken that we do not know about!”
    â€œVery nice, Pepe. I’ll put that in the casebook as one of the questions we should try to answer to-morrow.”

Chapter 15
    It was shortly after noon when we got to the Tyler residence. I drove by it slowly, scanning to see if there was any police activity around it. Seeing none, I found a parking spot up the