Trouble with Horses: A Seafood Caper Mystery, #0

By Maggie Toussaint

In this short story, Caterer River Holloway needs the money from a corporate retreat client but the client is her ex, Pete Merrick. Her sidekick for this adventure is world-famous Trouble the cat, a feline who fancies himself as the Benedict Cumberbatch version of Sherlock Holmes. After the delicious meal, dangerous undercurrents lead to confrontations and all is not as it seems. Join River, Pete, and Trouble in this prequel to the Seafood Caper Mystery series of culinary cozies. This short story was originally released in the Trouble anthology, Trouble with Cupid.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maggie Toussaint
• Release date: Apr 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393440291

Maggie Toussaint

Maggie Toussaint has published seventeen books, fourteen as Maggie Toussaint and three as Rigel Carson. She is president of the Southeast Mystery Writers of America and has a seat on the national MWA Board. She is also a member of Sisters In Crime and Low Country Sisters In Crime. Toussaint won the Silver Falchion Award for Best Cozy/Traditional mystery in 2014. Additionally, she won a National Readers Choice Award and an EPIC award for Best Romantic Suspense. She lives in coastal Georgia, where secrets, heritage, and ancient oaks cast long shadows.

Book preview

Dedication

This book is dedicated to animal lovers everywhere.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to author Beth Terrell for inviting me to participate in the Trouble with Cupid romantic mystery anthology, featuring author Carolyn Haines’ famous crime-solving black cat, Trouble. It is a pleasure to join the Mad Catters collective who have written in this story world. The Forward on the next page is from that anthology, and I added it to help set the stage for a cat that fancies himself a first-order sleuth. Not just any sleuth though, he patterns himself after the Benedict Cumberbatch version of Sherlock Holmes. (You will also note, the cat’s point of view sections are illustrated in italics.)

Instead of continuing with the Catters, however, I used the main characters in my short story Trouble with Horses to spin-off my own mystery series, the Seafood Caper Mysteries. Critique partner Polly Iyer, along with Beth Terrell and several Mad Catters, were instrumental in helping the short story to shine. Any mistakes or errors in this short story are mine and mine alone.

Forward

One of the most fascinating, horrifying, and mystifying things about humans is their ability to lie. Cats never lie (though we are occasionally known to obfuscate). A purr, a hiss, a lashing tail—they mean exactly what they say. But humans have quite literally raised the act of deception to an art form. Fortunately, my feline intuition and my finely honed powers of observation can cut through a haze of deceit like the blaze of a lighthouse lamp. My method is simple. Like Sherlock’s, it is founded on the observation of trifles. But there is nothing trifling about the danger one can find oneself and one’s charges in when a web of lies begins to unravel.—Trouble

From the instant my paws land on the horse rescue farm, a pungent aroma fills my nose. My hero, Sherlock Holmes, probably has his fill of horses and manure back in the day. Horses get a bad rap for the stink of their road apples but it’s not their fault. Poop happens. Trouble’s my name, detecting is my game. I’m a black cat, son of Familiar, the famous feline detective. Like my sire, I’m attuned to threats in my surroundings, unlike most humans who ignore input from their intuition.

Before leaving for her week-long cruise, Tammy Lynn dropped me off in coastal Georgia with the admonition to protect her friend, River Holloway. River’s a cat person, but apparently she’s also a horse