Killing Kari (Over and Over)
an excerpt

Aggie laughed. The laughter started as little snort, somewhere between a cough and a tickle. The sounds trickled out of her mouth like smoke. Short chuffs from the thin smokestack of a train, erupting finally into an industrial belch of sooty sound. Aggie roared with laughter and kicked her feet out. “Sherlock, stop licking my toes!” The apricot poodle dodged the half-hearted kicks and then doggedly proceeded back to its intended torture. Aggie scooped the small dog into her lap. He transferred his licking to her face without missing a beat.

“I don’t have time for this,” she explained under the flood of bacon-scented kisses. “I’m on a deadline. Mara will be here in an hour to walk you. You can wait til then.” The wagging tongue took on a surge of panic as he recognized the refusal in her tone. “Enough kisses,” Aggie insisted, setting her demanding admirer in the hallway and closing the door firmly between them. On a post-it note she wrote “Mara, extra long walk today!” If the dog-walker managed to exhaust Sherlock (and she didn’t have any other distractions) Aggie might actually finish this chapter tonight.