Murder at Ring 5: A Mathias Dog Show Mystery

By LF Hembree

Maggie Pelham, a successful dog show handler, loved to play detective games when she was a kid. Now all grown up, she ends up becoming involved in a real-life detective game when a fellow handler is murdered outside a dog show ring in the wee hours of the morning. Maggie was the last person (except for the killer) to see him alive and she was even a suspect for a while. However Maggie and her champion canine companion, a wire fox terrier named Mathias, do a little digging into the victim's past and find clues as to who might have committed the murder. In the end, however, it is Mathias who alerts the cops to the real culprit and solves the case.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LF Hembree
• Release date: Jun 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005732851

LF Hembree

LF Hembree is an emerging author of cozy mysteries who lives in the upstate of SC. A retired journalist and speech language pathologist, she won numerous print media awards before returning to school for a career change to speech-language pathology. For the past 20 plus years, she has been actively breeding and showing wire fox terriers and currently has five wires in her home menagerie. The Mathias Dog Show Mysteries are her first venture into fiction and the character Mathias is based on her first wire fox terrier Hunter. When not writing or working with her dogs, she enjoys international travel and reading mysteries.

Book preview

Chapter 1

The lights were off throughout most of the building. A few people, correcting the day’s groom errors, were still around. But for the most part, it was quiet, especially for a dog show.

Maggie, one of the well-known handlers who specialized in terriers, was cleaning around her set-up when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She quickly looked in the direction of Ring 5 but saw nothing. Must have been a shadow from one of the lights, she said to herself, and kept on working.

A short girl, slightly overweight by just a few pounds, Maggie always had a pleasant smile on her round face. She wore her auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail just as she always did when she was showing Mathias, her two-year-old tri-color wire fox terrier.

About that time, Mathias, who was in a crate under the grooming table, started a low, guttural growl. He was Maggie’s best friend and did a good job of looking after her and keeping her safe. He also shared all her secrets and kept her informed of everything going on around them.

Maggie was a quiet and shy young woman. She grew up in the south. A small town in South Carolina to be exact. She was one of three children and the only one involved in the dog-show world. She had gotten interested sort of by accident after watching a show on television and seeing a newspaper ad for a dog show in nearby Columbia. She begged her parents to take her and they reluctantly gave in after days of her nagging. Her mother, an elementary school teacher, somehow knew this would end up being more than just a one-time thing. It would mean Maggie would want to get involved in this craziness herself and they would end up getting a dog. She wasn’t wrong.

Maggie was totally enthralled by what she saw when she and her parents entered the fairgrounds building near the college football stadium. Dogs were everywhere. There was a constant din from the barking in the building, but it wasn’t as annoying as barking dogs often are.

With so much going on and so much to see, Maggie didn’t know which way to turn when she looked around her. Taking her mother by the hand, she sighed deeply, stood unmoving for a couple minutes and then looked to her left tugging on her mother’s arm. Let’s go this way.

They worked their way through the crowd while Maggie’s dad headed for a nearby concession stand. The first ring they came to was filled with big black and brown dogs Maggie soon learned were Airedale terriers. She didn’t take her eyes off the regal animals as they went around the ring on the end of their handlers’ leads. Watching patiently until the last dog had made his trip around the square fenced enclosure, Maggie looked up at her parents, eyes brimming with excitement. That’s what I’m going to do one day.

The family, now rejoined by Maggie’s father, ambled from ring to ring. They tried to keep her attention off any one breed for too long lest she decide immediately she wouldn’t leave without one.

After a couple hours of walking ring to ring and watching the magnificent animals strut their stuff, Maggie and her parents found chairs next to another terrier ring. It was a blessing of sorts to see their daughter so interested in something for so long. They had never known her to be this quiet and focused on anything before. Actually, it was kind of nice.

A few minutes later, a woman left the ring with her black, tan and white terrier and headed past them. Suddenly, she noticed Maggie intently watching the action she had just abandoned and stopped.

Do you have a dog entered here today? she asked the threesome. They responded that they did not and were there for their daughter to have a chance to see the different breeds. While the adults chatted, the little terrier had focused on Maggie and was eagerly wagging his tail as she scratched his ears.

Looking down, the woman noticed and focused her attention on the dog and little girl. Looks like you two are friends, she said.

What’s his name, Maggie asked. And what kind of dog is he?

His name is Mickey and he’s a wire fox terrier.

I love him, the child whispered.

Well, why don’t you come over here to my set-up and I will show you my other dogs, the woman responded. The foursome left their ringside perch and headed toward the back of the building.

Maggie was totally amazed at what she saw next. Tables with dogs standing dead still on them while their owners brushed, combed and fluffed. Chalk dust was in the air. Dogs of every kind were in pens and crates. All watching what was going on.

The woman, who had now introduced herself as Marjorie Stern, put Mickey in his crate and turned around to remove a wiggling, squiggling little pup from a crate above Mickey.

This is Mickey’s son, she said, inviting the little girl to some closer to the puppy. He’s just three months old. He has a brother and two sisters back at home.

Maggie’s parents looked at each other, knowing what was about to happen. When they looked at the joy in their daughter’s face as she held the little puppy close and he licked her ears, nose and eyelids, both knew they would never be able to tell the child no.

A couple weeks later, Maggie and her family drove home with a wire fox terrier puppy in tow. Maggie took care of him to perfection. She named him Sunrise Samuel because they had to leave her house at sunrise for the drive to Raleigh to pick him up. Maggie was determined to learn to groom and show him. She stuck to it religiously and about a year later, she walked into the ring with Sammy proudly at her side, the first step on her journey to add champion to the beginning of Sammy’s name. They lost that day, but she was not deterred.

Two years later, she and Ch. Sunrise Samuel walked out of the ring together, ribbon clutched in her hand. They were constant companions until Maggie went off to college at the state university. She went home to see him almost every weekend. Then one morning, Maggie’s mother called to tell her Sammy was ill. He was almost 15 years old. Maggie headed home immediately to spend what time she could with him. He had been declining for the past year. Although it was not unexpected, Maggie was devastated. She was losing her best friend.

When he passed away, everyone thought she would change her major and become a veterinarian. But she didn’t, saying she couldn’t bear to seeing animals so sick. Instead, she completed a degree in business and soon after graduation, much to her parent’s disappointment, landed a position with one of the handler teams she had met while showing Sammy. There was no turning back.

Maggie apprenticed for about 2 years and by then had some clients of her own. She was ready to take the plunge and strike out on her own. She purchased a used RV to get her from show to show and provide a home on wheels. Sometimes, when she thought about her debt, she panicked, but knew this was what she wanted to do. The dinners of ramen noodles were worth it.

Showing dogs and trying to make ends meet had caused Maggie to give up lasting relationships with the opposite sex. A life on the road wasn’t a good fit with romance or a future family life. She had dated a young man in high school and off and on when she was in college. He wanted to settle down, but she knew it wasn’t right for her. They had gone their separate ways after graduation. He headed to law school and a legal career. She just went to the dogs.

Mathias came into her life about 18 months later. After Sammy had died, she knew she needed to wait a while before getting another wire. She needed time to let the pain heal. But one day she was walking by the motor home of a well-known terrier breeder when a pen full of puppies caught her eye.

She immediately stopped, knelt down to their level and laughed when a rambunctious little fellow strode up to the fence and licked her fingers. No matter how much she tried to pet the other puppies in the litter of six, he