Murder at the Art Gallery Page 13

  “I'm glad you're on top of these things, I would have thought it was another of David's stuffed animals. You know, I've walked in that room and I've seen animals there that he had since he was a boy. He was just a gentle artistic boy, he didn't have a mean bone in him. Lapses of judgment from time to time, to be sure, he was a bit of a space cadet. But he never willfully tried to hurt anybody.”

  “Well, the David I knew was always a gentle soul. Margot, I just want to mention that we may have to deal with some issues regarding David's painting business.”

  “Oh, what happened?”

  I couldn’t tell her the entire truth about David having ripped people off.

  “Well, apparently, to have time to paint his artsy stuff, David tried to outsource his portrait business. But between the art show and his passing, that kind of went south and he didn't refund the people's money. I think he was in the midst of looking for another outsourcer. In any event there are all these people that gave him deposits and never got a picture. I would be happy to help you in finding out who they were and how much they were owed. We could do this anytime, it's not like they needed this money tomorrow.”

  “Well, maybe in two weeks, when the dust has settled down from yesterday's events.”

  “Sure, whenever you're ready Margot, we'll do it.”

  I went to visit Jill at the animal shelter.

  “Hi Jill, how are you holding up from last night?”

  “I'm doing alright. I talked to Fred and he told me Bernard made a formal confession, so there's no way he's getting away with this. He told me he loved my tape and that if Bernard hadn't confessed, that would have been all the evidence they needed. Aside from the tape you found. Oh, and by the way, I'm so glad you're here, I want you to see something you're not going to believe.”

  She took me to the office to the computer. There was a video on YouTube called “hero cat saves owner from killer”. It had over one hundred thousand views.

  “I want you to know that this video has been shared on Facebook, tens of thousands of times. Roger is a superstar. Look at all these comments! People just love him.”

  I read all the comments below the video. People were saying great things about him. She had started the video when Bernard was threatening to kill me or anybody else and Roger jumped on Bernard. The video continued All the way through to when the security guards intervened and the cops arrived. You could hear me in the background yelling “Roger baby, come back”. I was amazed that so many people had watched the video, but it just showed how special Roger was. Maybe he thought he was a tiger. But whatever it was, he certainly saved the day.

  I got home and Roger was there rubbing himself against my legs when I walked in and I said,

  “Roger guess what? You're famous and you're a hero.”

  I pulled up the video from an email link Jill had sent and showed it to Roger. Plus I wanted to watch it again. “See Roger, that's you in action.”

  It had been a hectic morning, visiting the police, talking to Margot, and coming down from the complete shock of yesterday's events. It's like I was still full of adrenaline, but at the same time, I felt I had been in a war and had narrowly escaped being shot by the enemy.

  I sat and confronted the reality in which I had suddenly found myself. I had no job. Sure, I’d helped a lot of people, and that was great. But there wouldn’t be a gallery. Bernard’s wife wasn’t likely interested in keeping it open. Bernard himself had probably only kept it open to prove to her that he made money. It also had kept him out of the house and away from his wife. He also enjoyed rubbing elbows with the artists. More than elbows, apparently.

  So yeah, I’d gotten justice for David, but had lost a job and all the folks that worked there. Now it was time to see what else I was going to do in the future to earn a living. In the meantime, I was going to have to ramp up my Tarot readings at different restaurants and vanity businesses that could afford to have a Tarot reader as part of the décor.

  I would do an astrological chart to see what the planets had to say for the next couple of weeks. Maybe I could find a job writing horoscopes for people. Where would I get such a job? Maybe I'll reach out to some of the local papers.

  In the middle of all this, I got a call from Jill.

  “Listen, you're not going to believe this”

  “What?”

  “I got a call from a friend who has connections with an ad agency. Guess what? They saw Roger in the video and they want to use him in a cat food commercial.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I have to find out more about it, I don't know if it's a big agency or a small nearby agency. The whole thing about the internet is trends, and right now, Roger is trending. Whatever happens, it's a start. Roger is going to be on tv.”

  “That's the most incredible thing I've heard. But I have to tell you, after last night, I think anything can happen. I was just sitting around thinking about money, or lack thereof, and what I was going to do for a new job. Do cat food commercials pay a lot? I don't know anything about this?”

  “Don't worry, when the time comes I'll help you negotiate. I know a lot about online marketing and advertising rates and things on the production end of the ads.”

  “Well, let me know when you talk to them and what is the next step.”

  I hung up with Jill and I was excited. This could be an amazing prospect if it actually comes to be. This could actually become a job.

  “Roger, guess what?? You're going to be in a cat food commercial. You're going to be a tv star!”

  Thank you for reading this book

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  Preview of the upcoming book "Murder at the Pet Food Company"

  Thank you for reading "Murder at the Art Gallery". Below is a preview of my upcoming book "Mystery at the Pet Food Corp.".

  Mystery At The Pet Food Corp.

  A Mandy and Roger Cozy Mystery - Book 2

  Eleanor Kittering

  Chapter One

  If today was the tomorrow we worried about yesterday, Mandy's worry had manifested itself again today. She worried that this TV commercial possibility with Roger was not going to come through. She hadn't found any steady work yet, and although she was beefing up her tarot readings and looking to work on more astrological charts, she still worried about her financial tomorrow.

  For those who missed the last book, after certain acts of heroism, Mandy's cat Roger became an internet celebrity and Mandy received offers from a local cat food company for Roger to appear in a cat food commercial.

  But after a couple of days, Mandy heard nothing more about it and nobody contacted her, so she thought it was just a fluke. Someone's notion of a good idea at the time, but probably abandoned at the last minute. So Mandy looked around for other ways to improve her money situation.

  She considered calling Jill, her best friend, to see if she had any ideas on how to cash in on Roger's newfound fame, as other animal people were doing on the internet. There were plenty of pets out there famous just for being cute. There had to be a way to spread Roger's fame for actually saving people from danger, in addition to his good looks, so the cute angle could be worked as well. Jill reigned as the local internet queen, and if there was a way to get Roger more promotion on the web, Jill would know it.

  “Hi Jill, I just wanted to run a couple of things by you.”

  “Okay, shoot.”

  “Well, not having received any calls about this cat commercial, I wondered what else I could do to cash in on Roger's present fame. I heard of some people have blogs about their pets and somehow those become successful. Could I do the same with Roger?”

  “Sure, you can. The first thing to do would be to set up a blog where it would be easy to add daily pictures of Roger. This would allow you to describe certain situations Roger is going through in his daily life. Once you've developed that, you need to start thinking about marketing – creating some T-shirts, perhaps some mugs. Those are pretty easy. Stuf
f like a Roger doll would be a little harder. But the most important thing is Roger has to have a web presence so the public can easily find him,” Jill said in explanation.

  “The next thing is to set up a Facebook page, not unlike what we did with David.” Jill continued.

  Memories of what that situation turned into sent shivers down Mandy's spine.

  “Although the David page became something else entirely, most Facebook pages are actually fun. The David page had way too much drama attached to it, considering the circumstances.

  “So, we'll definitely get a Facebook page going, afterwards you can send traffic to the blog. It's actually not hard to do.” Jill concluded.

  Hearing Jill speak made Mandy realize she had other options, that life didn't have to depend upon whether somebody crawled out of the woodwork and made an offer to her. She could create her own opportunities.

  “So, how long would this take?” Mandy asked.

  “Not very long. I could get something started today and we could add a couple of pictures later, showing Roger is actually a normal, sweet cat, explaining that he became an attack cat only because of what happened last time.”

  For those of you joining us for the first time, the short version of “what happened last time” was Mandy's boss was threatening to kill her in front of an audience and Roger, her cat, intervened and took him down. The video of this act of heroism made him a YouTube star and spurred the cat commercial offers, which unfortunately hadn't materialized yet.

  Mandy was heartened by Jill's suggestions and said “Sounds great! We definitely have to show the mellow side of Roger, so people can relate to him as a regular cat.”

  “Ok, I'll get a couple of things together and we can take it from there,” Jill said, offering her services.

  “Thanks, I'm looking forward to it.” Mandy said feeling much better

  Mandy hung up the phone and proceeded to look for as many cute pictures as she had of Roger. It gave her something to do and made her feel as though this could lead somewhere, that the future didn't have to be grim. Roger ambled over, sat down next to her and started to purr, always a sign he felt mellow. Mandy showed him the pictures on her phone.

  “See, Roger, there you are at Joanie's coffee shop, sprawled out on the floor. And here you are at the park with the leash.”

  She could get someone to take a picture of her walking Roger, and use it as the main page picture. In the middle of her musings, the phone rang.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “Hello, is this Mandy Cummings?” an unfamiliar voice asked.

  “Yes, it is,” she responded, somewhat hesitantly.

  “Hi there, my name is Stacy Parks and my company's name is Hedon Pet Nutrition. I called you because I'm interested in shooting a commercial with your cat Roger as the lead.”

  Mandy's heart leapt inside her - the commercial was coming through! “Oh yes, my friend Jill told me about you. Thank you so much for calling, Ms. Parks.”

  “Call me Stacy. And no, the pleasure is all mine. It's not every day we get a hero cat to represent Hedon, and I feel Roger would be perfect. I've seen that video a couple of times, and it was truly an act of selflessness how he attacked the man who threatened to kill you. He protected you at the risk of his own life. Truly a hero cat,” Stacy Parks said, her voice filled with admiration.

  “Well, yes, I feel very lucky to have found Roger, and he's been very protective of me from the very start. And the amazing thing is the rest of the time, he's very mellow; he lets people pet him and play with him all the time. It's only when he senses a situation where I could be harmed that he gets defensive,” Mandy explained.

  “Yes, I think he'll be perfect to represent us. You see, we're a niche cat food brand. We make chicken cat food which is organic but at the same time, we care for our chickens so we can provide the highest quality cat food possible. We are unique in the market, as such we require unique mascot, and when I saw Roger, I knew we found our representative.”

  “I'm so glad. In person he actually is a very sweet animal, it's very likely he'll work well with your product.” Mandy said.

  “Interesting; I would love to meet him in person.” Said Stacy. “Would you be available to bring him by tomorrow morning, say about 10:00 a.m.?”

  “Oh sure, that would be great,” Mandy said.

  “Yes, and we can speak later about the advertising possibilities. I gather Roger is not representing anyone else right now?”

  “No, he's not.”

  “Good, so we'll start with a clean slate. Also, I would like you to view our company video, which is a kind of curriculum vitae explaining the ethos of our company.”

  “Oh, I would love to see it, please send me the link; here's my email.”

  Mandy proceeded to give Stacy her email address.

  “Great. I'll have my assistant send you the link and we'll meet tomorrow. It's been such a pleasure speaking with you.”

  “Same here Stacy, I'm looking forward to meeting you.”

  As they hung up, Mandy was super excited. She figured with this commercial making opportunity and the cat blogging project, she might actually be able to make enough money to live on, and this would become her full-time job. She called Jill.

  “Guess what? I got a call from Stacy Parks with Hedon Pet Nutrition, and she definitely wants to make a commercial with Roger! She was very nice and positive, and she's going to send me a link to their main company video, which defines their whole company philosophy.”

  “Cool beans. Between getting the commercial and getting the blog going for Roger, this could become a nice income source for you.” Jill said.

  “That's what I'm hoping. I almost gave up on the possibility of a commercial, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, Stacy Parks calls. We haven't talked any money yet, but apparently she's thinking of more than one commercial. What do you think I'll get for this?”

  “Chances are, for the first one, you'll get some money up front but no residuals. However, if the commercial becomes successful, you should negotiate for more money. But take it one step at a time; even if you just get one commercial, you can always go to another company and try to get more work. There are people out there making money with their pets, and there's no reason why you can't try to do the same.” Jill said.

  “Yeah, I really hope this can turn into a regular thing,” said Mandy, allowing herself to plan for the future.

  “Well, let me try some ideas for the blog, you get some pictures and text for me to use on it, and we'll get together later this week and start putting everything together.”

  “Sounds great, I'm getting very excited about all this!” Mandy couldn't contain her excitement.

  “Me too!” Jill agreed.

  And so, they hung up. In the middle of the call, Mandy received an email which she figured would be the email with the link to Hedon's company video. She opened it up and sure enough, there it was.

  The link took her to a very well-produced video. It started with an early morning sunrise and chickens walking about on a well-manicured lawn. In this country setting, a beautiful young woman picked up one of the chickens and hugged it close; the slow motion shot implied she loved this chicken very much. After holding the chicken for a little while, she picked up another chicken.

  An announcer, in very soft, modulated tones, began saying “At Hedon, we really love our chickens. We do everything we can to make them feel special.” Soft piano music could be heard in the background.

  The announcer continued “Every day is another opportunity to do our chickens proud and make them feel good. A happy chicken is a thing of joy.” More piano music. “We also make sure our chickens get their rest. Well-rested chickens are healthier chickens.”

  The camera panned to a chicken coop panelled in Koa wood, and each sitting area for the chickens covered with a purple satin cushions. “Scientific studies have shown the right kind of music can have a positive effect on the growth of animals,” the announcer int
oned. In the background one could hear Mozart's 'A Little Night Music', followed by Boccherini's 'Minuet'. The chickens in the coop seemed to be swaying to the music as though they were meditating in a semi-trance.

  The camera switched scenes again, to the chickens eating, each with an individual crystal bowl and the corn piled high in these dishes. They pecked elegantly at the food as though they had been thoroughly trained in etiquette matters.

  The music continued, and the camera changed back to the young woman at the beginning. This time she held a chicken and smiled angelically at the camera. “At Hedon, we make sure our chickens are treated to the highest standards. Hedon. It's not just a dream. It's a way of life.” As the camera moved back, the young woman waved goodbye and the farm looked like a fantasy, with rich saturated colors. Then the video faded out.

  Mandy was quite amazed. They really treat their chickens exceedingly well, she said to herself. And they're a pet food company. This all must be very organic. Mandy sent Jill the link to the video so she could check it out. She called her.

  “Jill, you have to watch the video I got from Hedon Pet Nutrition.”

  Jill started watching and said “Wow, these guys must be a big operation or at least a fancy one. Definitely a unique way of making pet food, I'm sure they're going to do right by Roger,”

  “I feel the same way, I mean, they're very in tune with the needs of animals.”

  “Well, you can't go wrong with that, and they seem to have money, so you'll probably make some decent up-front money.” Jill said.

  “I'm hoping for that. If people go to these lengths to take care of their farm animals, you figure they also take care of the people who work with them.”

  “Yeah, it's this whole holistic approach to the work force companies have nowadays. It's no longer about employees, but everybody is part of the family and everybody makes a contribution for the future that will benefit everybody. Bringing Roger in will help their brand to flourish, so Roger and you, of course, contribute to the overall business. When are you going to see her?” Jill asked.