Beauty to Die For and Other Mystery Shorts by Lauren Carr Page A

found that she was not a big shopper, which was one of the things he liked about her.
    Appearing to be bored with the affair, Gnarly fell asleep on top of Mac’s feet at the end of the row next to the aisle … until the bird lady entered the room.
    As the bird lady passed the sleeping dog, he awoke with a start and sat up.
    At this time, the mannequin donning the diamond rhinestones was brought up to the stage.
    The auctioneer announced into the mike, “We now have Celeste Taylor’s diamond gown worn onstage in the wedding scene in Sparkle when she appeared on Broadway.” He went on to read the catalog number which was drowned out by Gnarly’s barking at the blue bird in the chair in front of him.
    The man on the phone covered one ear while listening with the other.
    The man in the suit in the front row was sitting at attention. While shooting a glance back at them to settle the dog threatening to jump up to snag the fake feathered fowl, he thrust his paddle up in the air.
    “We have a bid of five thousand dollars,” the auctioneer announced. “Do we have fifty-five hundred?”
    “Gnarly, quiet,” Mac hissed while jerking on the leash.
    Crying, Gnarly laid down with his eyes on the hat up above him.
    When the man on the phone raised the bid to fifty-five hundred, the man in the front seat countered with six thousand, to which the call in bidder upped it to seven thousand.
    Ben suddenly found things interesting.
    Gnarly refused to be thwarted in his capture of the bird. With his eyes on the prey, he continued to cry. His ribs quivered in his frustration at it being so close while he was unable to touch it. It danced in front of him every time the woman turned her head to make him even more anxious.
    Thinking that Gnarly’s anxiety would be eased if he was unable to see it, Mac lifted the paddle to block the dog’s view of it.
    “We have a bid of twelve thousand from number seven-oh-two.”
    Instead of quieting down, Gnarly stepped over to look around the paddle to continue gazing up at the bird. Letting out a long painful whine, he pawed at the back of the Bird Woman’s chair.
    The woman turned her head to cast a perturbed glance at the dog.
    While Catherine tried to pretend not to be with the party with the crying dog, Archie and Ben glanced around to see who had joined in the bidding.
    Casting an angry glance at the new bidder behind him, the man in the front row raised the bid another thousand, to which the phone in bidder raised it to fifteen thousand.
    Meanwhile, Gnarly retaliated to Mac’s lack of action in getting the bird for him by trying to climb into his lap. In the struggle, Mac raised up his hand holding the paddle.
    “Seventeen thousand!” the auctioneer declared. “Seven-oh-two has bid seventeen thousand.”
    The phone in bidder raised the price to eighteen-thousand.
    The bidder in the front row raised it to nineteen-thousand.
    While Gnarly cried out insistently at the blue bird mocking him by showing no intimidation, the two bidders battled it out until the price went up to twenty-five thousand.
    “Since when did you become a fashion critic?” Mac hissed at the dog. Now the bird hat was annoying him as much as it did Gnarly.
    At twenty-nine thousand dollars, the bidder in the front seat dropped out.
    While the auctioneer waited, it went once, it went twice, and Mac raised his paddle to flip the hat off the woman’s head onto the floor in the aisle in front of Gnarly, who pounced on the bird that had been torturing him.
    “We have thirty thousand from number seven-oh-two!”
    Ben and Archie followed the tip of the auctioneer’s fingertip to Mac.
    She grabbed the paddle out of his hand and checked the number painted on it. “You’re number seven-oh-two.”
    But Mac had other matters to contend to.
    With the blue bird in his grasp, Gnarly ripped it from the hat and was trying to eat it.
    With the bird lady screaming bloody murder, Mac grabbed Gnarly in a head lock and extracted the mangled