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“I need your business license and the record of the animals in your care for the past year.”
Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
My heartbeat drummed in my ears. I hadn’t had time to enter the Jersey track dogs into our system.
“Sure,” I croaked.
He’d already moved over to the kennel closest to the door. He scribbled something on his notepad. Argh. Inspector Smith wasn’t exactly going to win any personality contests, but at least she waited more than three seconds to make notes and demands.
Did they train these people to scare the crap out of us?
I walked into the back on shaky legs.
“What’s wrong?” Miss Adeline asked, on high alert.
“State agriculture department is here.”
“Inspector Smith?”
I shook my head. “He wants our record of the dogs,” I whisper-hissed.
She looked to the side and winced. “Damn.”
The small miracle I’d prayed for that maybeshehad filled in the log evaporated.
“What are we going to do?”
She straightened. “You start working on it. I’ll distract him.”
“The book is in the desk.” I pointed toward the reception area. “Out there.”
She tiptoed to the door and peeked. Then she motioned me forward. “He has his back turned.”
I crept to the desk. And held my breath as I kept my eyes glued to him.
Carefully, I pulled on the drawer.
Creeeaaak.
He whipped around. I flashed him a sheepish smile.
After another scowl, he returned to his work. I exhaled audibly, grabbed the log book, and practically ran to the back.
I rifled through a drawer until I found a pen. Miss Adeline kept watch, stealthily waiting for the right time to distract.
Oh crap.
I hadn’t even added Ash to our records. The last entry was Oscar. I wracked my brain, trying desperately to remember if he was the dog we’d taken in before her.
I wasn’t sure. But there was no time to waste.
I wrote as furiously as I could, certain we were going to get written up for this.
How much is the fine for an out-of-date book?
This was a violation Inspector Smith would allow us to correct. With this guy, we probably already had so many he’d need a ream of paper to print them all out.
Focus, Pepper.
