RAPID RODENT RESPONSE (HARDCOVER)

Chapter 1

Angela Atkinson sat tapping her foot against the chair leg as she waited in the lobby of the vet’s office. A mystery novel sat unopened in the bag at her feet, her mind too busy with thoughts of her hobby farm, barista job, and mother’s ailing health to enjoy such a luxury.
Ruff McPaw, her faithful border collie, sat at her feet, curiously inhaling the scents of the many furry, scaly, and feathery friends that passed through the office daily.

She received a text from her dad and was just checking her phone to let him know she would be on the way over as soon as possible, when the door opened, letting in a gust of cold air that sent the paper hearts hanging from the ceiling into a whirl of pirouettes.

She blinked in surprise, then laughed at David Pemberley’s equally surprised expression upon seeing her waiting in the vet’s office.

“Angela Atkinson.” Slowly, a smile spread over the man’s face. “Well, would you look at what the cat dragged in?”
Angela smiled. David Pemberley was a middle school English teacher with a penchant for wearing sweater vests whenever the occasion even remotely called for it. Angela’s niece had set them up on a blind date only a month prior, which hadn’t so much fizzled out as a murder investigation at the time had taken all of Angela’s attention. They were two very independent people who were happy with the status quo. Whatever the future held, they would remain friends.

“Chicken, actually,” Angela replied.

David’s eyebrows rose. “What does a chicken go to the vet for? Other than to cross the road, I mean.”

Angela laughed, and Ruff perked up at the sound. She would never admit it, but Angela had been increasingly stressed lately—overwhelmed even—between all her jobs, passions, hobbies, friendships, etc. Ruff wagged his tail and stood to sniff at the little cage in David’s hand.

Smells like the barn mice.

“A bad case of bumblefoot,” Angela admitted, then laughed at his expression and held up a hand to stop the protestations he was obviously en route to. “Yes, it’s a real thing. Anyway, what are you doing here? Aren’t kids going to show up at school any minute now?”

David cringed and ran a hand through his hair—somewhat more than peppered with gray, but thick enough to make a woman swoon. That is, if they could look past the heart-patterned sweater vest screaming to be seen from under his jacket.

“Yeah, they are. I always get in a few hours early for staff meetings and to get everything set up for the day, but when I came in today, Rufio wasn’t looking so good. I have a sub on standby to cover for me if I can’t get back in time.”

“Rufio?” Angela stood, curious, and peered into the little wire cage in the teacher’s hands. “Oh!” she cried. “A hamster! He’s adorable.”

Ruff gave a huff of indignation at this.

“I forgot how much of an animal lover you are,” David observed, smiling as he watched her bend to get a better look at the unmoving ball of orange and white fur.
“How many do you have now?”

Angela didn’t even have to think. “Two pigs, three goats, fourteen chickens, four ducks, one goose, one barn cat I think might be pregnant—”

David whistled, impressed.

“And of course, there’s Ruff. But he’s more of a friend than a pet.”

That’s right.

Ruff sat up straighter and puffed out his chest. He would have been mildly offended to be counted among the rest of the animals and was proud that she had made a point to differentiate him.

“No hamsters though,” Angela commented, resting her fingertips on the edge of the cage. “Poor little guy. He doesn’t look so good. Do you have any idea what’s wrong?”

David laughed, then cringed. “I can’t say I do. It probably sounds like a crime to you, but I’ve never been much of an animal person. I only got this little guy for the kids, and some days I think they stress him out more than he does them any good. I wouldn’t know where to begin figuring out what’s wrong with him.”

“Well.” Angela stepped back, gesturing to the front desk where the vet tech had just returned, typing something into the computer. “You came to the right place.”

David quickly checked in the hamster and was told they would call him when they figured out the problem. He whisked back out the door as soon as possible with a wave and a smile that Angela returned—even stopping to pat Ruff briefly on the head, which he accepted with grudging enjoyment.

A few minutes later, the vet returned to the lobby, carrying a large crate with the unhappy chicken inside.

“Eggatha!” Angela bounded to her feet, followed by Ruff. “Look at that little foot, all bandaged up.”

The vet smiled and handed the crate over. “That was one of the worst cases of bumblefoot I’ve ever seen. It’s good you brought her in. Just leave the wrap on as long as possible, and if you can soak it in an Epsom-salt bath, that may help too.”

“Thank you.”

Ruff sat patiently at Angela’s feet as she paid for Eggatha’s treatment, then followed her outside to load the rather haggard looking fowl into the back of the truck.

“Come on, Ruff,” she said, although he already knew the drill and was waiting to hop in ahead of her. “We need to drop this girl at home and head over to Mom and Dad’s.”

Ruff wagged his tail at this, predicting the cooing, coddling, and cuddling he would receive at the hands of his grandmother.

***

Angela and Ruff dropped Eggatha off at home and, after making sure she was comfortable as she was going to be, headed right back into town. Angela checked the clock on the truck dashboard, her heart beating a little faster in anxiety, seeing that she had less time than she hoped to visit her parents before her shift at the coffee shop started.

“We’ll have to be fast, Ruff,” she murmured, and Ruff whined, sensing her stress.

Poor Angela. Maybe she needs to go to the vet.

Angela’s parents lived well into town, which meant she passed just about every important building the small town of Hummings Hollow had to offer, including the elementary, middle, and high school—except something seemed different today. Rather than the typically eternal line of drop-off vehicles in front of the school, both of the town’s police cars and an ambulance were parked out front. And that was the least alarming thing.

Students, parents, and even teachers appeared to be pacing the parking lots, gathering into groups to talk with alarmed expressions and animated gestures. Angela’s gut gave a tug, and her eyes darted to the clock again.

Ruff sighed.

We’re definitely going to be late.

On a whim, Angela pulled into the middle school parking lot and parked as far from the commotion as possible, not wanting to get in the way.

She wondered if she would be stopped at the door, either because she was a lone adult on campus who did not have a child enrolled, or because she didn’t have the heart to leave Ruff in the car, but even the admin staff seemed to have bigger concerns.

Always one with a nose for trouble, Angela followed the sounds of intense conversation and the focused energy of investigation down several hallways. She didn’t dare stop anyone to ask what was going on, because she didn’t want to be sent away—though Ruff received a few dubious looks.

Finally, Angela turned a corner again to see paramedics, the school principal, Police Chief Herald Helbar (not her biggest fan), and—

“David?”

Angela hurried forward when David looked up, his expression flooding with relief at seeing her.

“What’s going on?” she asked as she approached, Ruff tense at her side. “I saw the police cars outside.”

“Oh god, Angie.” David looked pale and was even shaking slightly. “It’s so horrible. I didn’t even know he was in there. I’ve been here all morning.”

“Who?” Angela asked.

Who was in where?

“Roman,” David explained, expression sorrowful. “One of the janitors. They found him in the supply closet this morning.”

Angela’s eyes opened wide. “Dead?”

David nodded. “My classroom is just down the hall—I just can’t believe nobody knew he was there. I don’t know what to tell the kids, but the parents have already been calling me for an explanation and I—”

“Atkinson.” The police chief had finally noticed her presence and did not look pleased. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw the commotion outside, and I thought—”

“You thought since you forced your way into the last case, you would do the same with this one?” Chief Helbar crossed his arms. “You know, we solved plenty of crimes around here before you, Ms. Atkinson.”

Angela sighed. Clearly, some of the warmth that had built up between them when she helped solve the murder of Randy Miller last month was already dissipating.

“If you’ll excuse us,” he continued. “This is a closed—”
Before the chief could finish, a woman approached from the opposite direction, balancing multiple cups of what Angela presumed to be coffee.

“I’ve got your hot chocolate right here, Chief,” she announced, and Angela smirked. “Oh, hi, Angela.”
She gave the younger woman a warm smile. “It’s Kimberly, right? I’ve never seen you away from the desk.”

Kimberly gave a somewhat bashful smile as the chief rolled his eyes heavenward and snatched his cup, heading back toward the supply closet, where Angela had to presume the victim was still located.

“Chief promoted me,” Kimberly explained. “I’m a beat cop now. Officer Dell, at your service. But you can call me Kim. It was nice to have some more female energy around the precinct last month.”

“That’s amazing, Kim,” Angela said genuinely. “With what happened to Randy and now this, Hummings Hollow can use all the help it could get.”

Kim nodded, expression mellowing in light of the morning’s events.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to stay on the chief’s good side for now,” she explained, gesturing to the cups in her hand.
“At least until I get a chance to prove that I can be useful to the investigation, too.”

Angela nodded. “Then put those drinks down and let’s see what’s up.”

“Oh, I don’t think the chief wants—”

Before the woman could finish, Angela and Ruff had already stepped around the newly promoted officer and were headed toward the supply closet, David watching with a tortured expression.

Parents were starting to gather at either end of the hall where the principal hurried to keep them at bay, Officer Dell hurrying to assist.

Angela stepped back as the paramedics loaded the victim’s body, already sheathed in a thick plastic bag, onto the gurney. Her stomach churned and her resolve intensified; whatever happened to Roman was a tragedy—and it didn’t need to happen. Ruff felt the same and immediately lowered his nose to sniff out clues—quite literally.

The chief glanced up at her approach as she stepped cautiously into the doorway of the supply closet; he made no move to stop her, though he raised an eyebrow at the dog.

“Just don’t touch anything.”

Angela nodded, and Ruff stalked cautiously closer to the corner of the closet. The chief watched him.

“Looks like Ruff figured out where the body was.”

“In the corner?”

The chief nodded. “Found him propped up and partially covered by some decorations they’d stored in here for the big Valentine’s Day dance coming up.”

“Hmm.” Ruff sniffed around Angela’s ankles, then sniffed at the corner of the room, comparing the scents on the pink and red crepe paper to that which was familiar to him.

Roses?

Ruff whined, and Angela spared him a glance, but it was clear he had no way of communicating to her the smell he had picked up.

Perfume? Angela herself rarely wore perfume, but he had seen Abigail Atkinson, her mother, spritz it on during multiple occasions, and it hadn’t smelled entirely dissimilar to this.

“How long do you think he was here?”

The chief sighed and scratched his head. “Can’t have been longer than last night, because we’ve got multiple eyewitnesses who saw him cleaning up around the school after the building closed.”

“He was moved, right?” Angela asked, eyes roving around the room for some other clue to hang onto. “I mean, there’s no sign of a struggle in here, so—”

“Yes, yes.” The chief cast her a withering look. “Yes, we believe his body was moved after he was killed.”

A middle school supply closet isn’t really the smartest place to hide a body.

“Weird place to hide a body,” Angela murmured, as if reading his thoughts. “The killer probably hid Roman here out of convenience, which means it wasn’t planned out, making this a crime of passion?”

She seemed to have reached the end of the chief’s patience. He rolled his eyes and shooed her out of the room. “That’s enough conjecturing, Angela. Your father may have been a cop, but unless you want to go to the academy and do your time, you have no business inserting yourself into other people’s business.”

Angela frowned, but before she could protest, the chief had already removed her from the room and was walking over to talk to the principal with a very serious expression.

The halls were still crowded at the ends, with parents looking worried, annoyed, fearful, and all manner of emotions. Officer Dell had strung police tape across both ends of the corridor to keep onlookers back, and the principal seemed to have just barely caught his breath when the chief approached.

David was sitting on the tile floor outside his classroom, head in his hands.

One group of parents looked particularly put off at being left out of the loop and carried themselves with an air of importance that led her to believe maybe they held some kind of power or sway with the school. As a single forty-year-old woman with no children, it had been a long time since she mixed with the school crowd, but she would have liked to believe she’d seen enough comedies to recognize the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) when she saw it.

She looked over her shoulder to make sure the chief was still talking to the principal and Officer Dell was busy keeping the other parents back.

One parent, a woman with long, honey-blonde hair, noticed her approach and quickly tapped the arms of the women around her.

“What’s going on?” she demanded, taking Angela for an authority on the case since she had been allowed behind the tape. “Is he dead?”

Angela didn’t miss the woman’s somewhat wild expression, but she wasn’t the only one. The entire PTA looked half-crazed with panic. She wasn’t sure how much to reveal about the case either, as she hadn’t asked the chief what information they were releasing to the public.

“We saw them wheel a body out,” one of the other women snapped, a significantly shorter woman with dark hair. “He must have been dead.”

Ruff sat at Angela’s feet, giving her a look filled with pity.

“This isn’t going to interfere with the dance, is it?” The tall blonde woman snapped, to which Angela raised an eyebrow. Ruff and Angela exchanged skeptical expressions.

“I’m not sure,” she finally replied. “I think right now the police are more focused on figuring out who killed Roman than whether it’s going to interfere with a middle school dance.”

The brown-haired woman frowned, and one dad spoke up. “Are our kids safe?”

At this point, the chief had noticed Angela talking to the parents and hurried over, barking at them to move away from the tape.

“If I wasn’t clear before,” he growled. “Angela, you’re free to go. As for the rest of you, we’ll release more details as we have them! For now, take your kids and go home. I just spoke with Principal Warner, and he has agreed to cancel classes for the rest of the day. School will be back in session tomorrow. Now, if you know anything about our victim or why someone would have wanted to hurt him, you can call or visit us down at the precinct to give a statement.”

Angela sighed and turned to Ruff, who gave her a look as if to shrug.