Villains, Vipers, And Dogs

by A.D. Price

About the Author: A. D. Price is an Emmy-winning screenwriter and author. In 2022, she published her debut novel After the Blue, Blue Rain. Her numerous publications (as Amy Dunkleberger) include educational books and feature articles on historical and arts-related subjects.

Excerpt

Yep, I confess. The puppy had taken me by surprise. Like the Boy Scout I’d once been, I do my best to be prepared when I’m on a job, to be ready for anything. But how could I have anticipated a puppy? Sure, I’d seen the photo of the Rin Tin Tin lookalike in the agency’s Yellow Pages advert. But a dog manning the office in the middle of the night? When I was planning my break-in, puppies just weren’t on my mind. What was on my mind was getting in and out of Comfort & Company as quickly as possible, with the file I’d been hired to steal.

Armed with the wrenches, picks, hooks, and rakes of my old lockpicking kit, I had arrived at the Spring Street address well past midnight. The agency was located above a watch shop, and as expected, the street, like all of L.A.’s business district, had gone to sleep for the day.

Two doors stood in my way, one outside, one inside. The outside door, protected only by a Yale lock, opened onto a staircase, which in turn led to Kit Comfort’s second-floor office. It’d been a while since I had picked a lock, and the last-minute nature of the assignment gave me no time to reacquaint myself with the moves I could once do in my sleep.

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