The Money Bird (An Animals in Focus Mystery) by Sheila Webster Boneham Page B

deck, so I bit back my questions until after they did their recall and Jay and I did ours. When we were all back in line again, I said, “Giselle, really, you look fantastic. How …?”
    “My daddy helped me. After, you know, all that happened, I was, you know, in a pretty bad way.” I did remember that. Giselle had found a murder victim. “My dad said he was worried and, you know, he offered to pay for me to go to fat camp. So I did.”
    “I’d say you went to skinny camp, the way you look.”
    Giselle blushed as red as Ava’s feathered forehead and scooped Precious into her arms for a security hug, so I suppressed my amaze ment at her makeover and changed the subject.
    “Giselle, I met your cousin yesterday. Persephone.”
    “You did? Where’d you meet her ?” Giselle’s tone did not express affection.
    I told her about my project at the vet clinic. “I love her beautiful bird. I wanted to take some photos of her but she wouldn’t let me.”
    “Don’t know why she had to come back to Fort Wayne.”
    “Come back?”
    “Oh, she lived in, wow, I’m not even sure, somewhere in the East,” Giselle spoke slowly, looking at the ceiling. “New something.”
    “New York?”
    “Ppfff. No, silly, I know New York.” Giselle giggled. “I haven’t even talked to her, really, since she got back,” Giselle set Precious back down, then continued, “except, you know, at Treasures, I mean, I say hi, but we don’t talk.” She giggled again, but sounded more nervous than amused. “At least not to each other.” I was going to ask about that when she said, “She’s not supposed to let anyone take pictures.” She paused, then went on, “I might get a bird, too.”
    “Really? Wait, Giselle, hold that thought. What do you mean, ‘she’s not supposed to’ let me take a picture of her bird?” Giselle had a way of saying odd things, but that was one of the oddest I could remember.
    “It upsets the birds.”
    My encounter with Persephone flashed through my mind. Ava the badly named bird didn’t seem to give a squawk. It was Persephone who was distraught about my camera.
    “Giselle?” I thought about pressing the point but I could see that Giselle was beginning to fidget again, so I let it go. “So you’re thinking of getting a bird?”
    “Maybe. You know, just for a while. Sort of foster it. If they need me too.”
    “Okay, I’m lost, Giselle. Are you talking about the shelter?” I knew Giselle had volunteered off and on for the county animal shelter for a long time, and they got all kinds of animals, but I didn’t realize they had an off-site fostering program.
    “Umm, no. I, umm, you know, I go to Treasures on Earth now and, umm, I’m learning to be a Guardian.”
    I flashed on the parking lot outside the Treasures on Earth Spiritual Renewal Center and tried to imagine Giselle’s beat-up old Yugo among the luxury cars there. Or Giselle hanging out with Mrs. Willard or even Giselle’s own well-heeled-and-coiffed cousin Persephone. “Yeah, I saw the sticker on your car on my way in. That’s quite a shift, Giselle, isn’t it?”
    “No, umm, not really, not so much? You know, it’s all about loving the world and taking care of Mother Earth and her creatures?” Giselle was back to her old habit of making every sentence sound like a question. Still, everything she said echoed what Neil had told me at dinner.
    We had reached the head of the line again, so I put my next question on hold, planning to continue after Precious and Jay did their stays and recalls. Precious finished and I told Jay to sit and stay. I had just reached the far end of the ring and turned to face my dog when a half-grown Brittany slipped her collar and zoomed around the place looking for a playmate. She ran up to Jay, licked his chin, backed away, and bowed, an invitation as clear as any you might get in the mail. Jay’s fanny was wriggling but he remained sitting. The Brittany apparently decided he was a fuddy duddy and