Excerpt

Marsha

"Klaus, Klaus, we have to get inside!"

"I know!" Klaus barked back. "But I'm stuck!"

"Calm down, you two!" Garrett said.

Calm down? How were we supposed to calm down? Couldn't they tell something was wrong?

"I'll stay with the dogs," John said. "You go see if Saschi needs help."

"Yes! We'll go help!" I said, but our humans didn't seem to understand.

Garrett just nodded and hurried inside, leaving us with John.

I gave a mighty wrench to my leash, breaking free and head-butting John's shin. Which was hard. Ouch.

No time to recover though, I had to take my chance, and raced after Garrett, Klaus's barks spurring me on.

"Marsha, you're not supposed to come in the restaurant!" Garrett said, grabbing hold of my leash and stopping me at the door.

I just stared up at him, making my eyes big, willing him to obey my every wish.

It worked. Garrett relaxed his shoulders and sighed.

"How can I resist that little face?" he said. "Come on then, but stay close."

I tugged Garrett into the cool, dim light of the restaurant. It smelled like tea, furniture polish, and fish. Not the weird, fish-oil smell I'd gotten from Saschi's skin, but the delicious scent of fresh fish. My tummy rumbled. I wish I'd had time to beg a piece of tuna before the loud noise happened.

I trotted between tables of murmuring humans, nails clacking on the dark wood floors. Everyone was turned to the far end of the room, near the long bar topped with the glass cases of fish on display.

The music from the speakers was the loudest thing in the room, which was strange. Usually, humans eating and drinking things got very loud. The hairs on the scruff of my neck stood up.

Something very bad had happened. My corgi senses could tell.

"Marsha!" Garrett hissed. "Where are you going?"

I ignored him and followed my nose, and everyone's eyes, toward the foot sticking out from behind the long bar.

It was a bright pink boot that I had seen just moments before.

"Saschi!" Garrett gasped behind me.

Two people in white jackets and white hats were crouched near the waiter, who was splayed out between the sushi bar and a long metal table. A tray sat half on, half off their skinny chest, and their hands clawed at their throat.

"Get your dog out of here!" That was the owner, Daniel, growling at Garrett. I ignored him and trotted over, nosing one of the chefs out of the way. He made a soft grunt of surprise but moved enough so I could get near Saschi's face.

I sniffed around their face, but only smelled spearmint from the wad of chewing gum half hanging out of their mouth. And that fishy smell again, plus something sour.

It really didn't smell anything like the fish smells from the two chefs crouched nearby, but I had no idea what it could be, and why the smell was seeping out of Saschi's skin.

"What happened?" Garrett asked one of the sushi chefs.

The woman looked up and shook her head. Whipping the white hat off her dark hair, she ran a hand over her forehead. Under the yummy fish smells, I could smell her sweat.

"I don't know. One minute Saschi was chatting, waiting to pick up an order, the next, they were on the ground. I actually yelped, I was so shocked."

More like a shriek than a yelp, but I know better than to argue with humans about things like that.

"I did hear them throwing up in the bathroom earlier," the other chef said. "But when I asked, they said they'd just eaten something that disagreed with them."

I knew something smelled wrong about Saschi! A sick tummy could do that.

Garrett crouched down and put two fingers on Saschi's neck. "Did anyone call the paramedics? Saschi still has a pulse." He frowned. "Their heart is racing."

"I did," said a woman with short blond hair and a lot of tattoos. She smelled like sunshine. I recognized her as the one who led us to the table outside.

Speaking of, I wished Klaus was here with me. Together, we could hunt through the restaurant and sniff up all sorts of clues.

We learned about clues from Adam, the ghost who lives in our house, and from John, who writes books where nasty things happen to people, but things turn out okay in the end.

We also had to help Garrett when our neighbor's cat went missing. We found all sorts of clues that led us to Misty. She'd been shacking up with a man two blocks away.

He feeds me superior wet food, she said. I couldn't blame her for leaving her other cheapskate of a human behind. Naturally, Klaus and I didn't tell anyone we found her.

After Misty promised to cut us in on her treats.

Well, with Klaus tied up outside, I guessed it was up to me. I shoved my little body back out into the dining room, and started sniffing under tables, leash dragging, tail held high. I wished I could take the darn leash off. As it was, I had to be careful to not snag it on a table leg.

"Oh! Cute doggo!"

"Hey there, are you lost?"

I ignored the human voices and focused on what my nose was picking up.

Saschi had smelled like mint, it was true. Plus, soy sauce. And that old fish smell, plus what was probably their sour stomach. But there was something else… they smelled like fear. I had noticed it in the shop.

Turns out Saschi had been right to be afraid. Something was very wrong.

I just hoped they didn't die before they told us what it was…