1 PAWsible Suspects (5 page)

If they hadn’t been valuable from birth, I wondered what else could have made them worth breaking into someone’s house for. In order to find that out, I planned to talk to the son of Ruby’s friend who had watched the dogs when she had to go out. I wanted to know where she had gone and why she couldn’t leave the dogs by themselves. I tried not to make a habit of leaving Bruno and The Countess at the house for too long, but there were times when I needed to leave the house.

I couldn’t discount the idea that the intruder was concerned that I would talk to the animals and learn their secret. If the person was gullible enough – or guilty enough, then they might want to keep the dogs away from me. However, I had no idea what crimes the dogs might have seen. Obviously, they’d been there when Ruby disappeared. Could it be that they recognized the person who had taken her? I was more convinced now that she hadn’t left of her own volition. She’d been taken. And if the culprit was concerned about the dogs mentioning who had come to the house, then it had to be a person who had been there before.

Other than that, the dogs rarely left the house. So the chances of Perry and Della seeing something in the neighborhood were extremely slim. They might have seen something at their vet or at their groomers, but I didn’t know the names of these businesses. Maybe Ida would know where the dogs had gone, but I doubted it. More than likely, I’d have to spend more time on the phone, trying to locate these people.

I must have drifted off at some point, because I started when the phone rang. I mumbled when I picked it up, but it was the veterinarian from the emergency clinic. “Hello, Mr. Jenkins.”

I started to correct him, but remembered at the last second that I’d given him a false name when I stopped by to pick up Perry. “Hi, what’s up? Did I leave something there for Perry?”

“No, but I thought you would be interested. The man who dropped the Scottie off came back this morning to inquire about the dog. He was rather flustered to find that a family member had claimed the dog and returned it home. He was rather puzzled by the whole matter.”

“Did he leave a name for you?” I hoped that a name would help me to solve this case once and for all.

“No, but after our last conversation, I switched on the security cameras. I do have footage of him, even if I don’t have a name. If you give me an email address, I’ll be happy to send you the file. You can look and see for yourself.”

Fortunately, my email isn’t my name, so I gave him
[email protected]
and made some coffee while I waited for the file. I hummed to myself, thinking that this might all be over in a matter of a few minutes. I’d get the footage, recognize the man who dropped off Perry, and be able to wrap this up in a nice package for the police. I’d be vindicated and the dogs would be safe.

However, even in the midst of these thoughts, I knew something was wrong. If the man had come by this morning to check on Perry, that meant he hadn’t known of someone else’s involvement until 8am. That still meant that the intruder was unlikely to be the man who dropped off Perry. I wasn’t quick to give others special talents, and seeing the future wasn’t a skill belonging to anyone I knew.

I cursed a little as I drank the coffee. I was still stuck with a mystery, even if I recognized the man who dropped off Perry. There was no evidence that the man with the dog was the same person who had taken Ruby – except for proximity of the woman to the dog.

Finally, the email appeared and I downloaded it and began to play it. I recognized the man in the video. It was Ruby Jenkins’ next door neighbor.

So now I had a plan of attack. I was going to find the vet and the breeder for more information on the dogs, and then I’d go back to the Jenkins’ house and question the neighbor about Perry. How had he gotten the dog? What did he know?

I called my mother first, since she was the one who knew Ruby best out of the people I’d met so far. She answered on the first ring. I knew she would. Mom rarely goes out these days. She has groceries and medicines delivered. Anything else she needs, she orders through Amazon. There were publicity stunts a few years back where people planned to live in a house for a year without leaving. My mother had decided to do that as well, except she didn’t make a fuss about it. She just stayed inside indefinitely. On rare occasions, she would go out to the doctor or for an emergency, but they were rare events and getting rarer all the time.

“Griff, how are you? Have you found the person who took Ruby?” The words seemed casual, but to anyone in our family, the thought of someone being taken was synonymous with fear.

“Not yet, but I’m getting closer,” I lied. I deliberately did not tell her about the intruder. I didn’t want a situation where my mother didn’t feel safe, even in her own room. Then she’d have no refuge at all. Plus the thought of another child being attacked would be too much for her. She wouldn’t be able to handle the loss of another child. I knew that as sure as I knew Susan was dead.

“So what do you need?” she asked.

“Did Ruby ever mention the breeder who sold her the Scotties or her vet’s name? I was hoping to talk to them about the dogs. They seem to be at the center of this mystery.”

“Hold on a second. I might have the groomer’s name. Ruby always thought that I should have a dog for protection. If that was the case, I’d want something big and scary. Scotties are adorable, but I don’t see them as a threat.”

I remembered last night and thought she might be wrong. I waited while she put the phone down and went to look up the information. She came back in a minute, out of breath. “I have the breeder’s name. It’s Harriett Anderson.” She read off a phone number to me that I duly copied down. She quickly hung up, and I got ready to visit the neighbor. I threw on the first things I could find, which were jeans and a bright green pullover. It was warm, but I hoped that I wouldn’t run into Detective Green in the outfit.

I thought about taking the Scotties with me to interrogate the neighbor, but I didn’t want to disturb Perry. He seemed pretty laid back at the moment, and I didn’t want to put him under any undue stress. After all, he’d had stitches and pain pills in the last day.

If he’d been hurt at the Jenkins’ house, it would be better if he visited the house again with Ruby, so she could comfort him. Dogs have good memories when it comes to people or places and the memories associated with them. Perry had plenty of good memories at Ruby’s house, but his most recent memory would have been the attack.

So I went by myself to the Jenkins’ house. The snow still covered the street and made an icy fence against the chain link. I didn’t bother with the Jenkins’ house. No one was there. I walked to the house with the two Beagles, but apparently everyone was inside, a good idea since the high was only supposed to be ten degrees today. The old man answered on the third knock and looked a bit startled to see me. “What can I do for you?” he asked. Now that I knew to look for it, he did have a scar on his eyebrow. It was just confirmation of what I already knew.

“Perry had a very interesting story to tell me after I picked him up at the animal hospital. He told me that his neighbor had dropped him off there. Care to comment on that?” I skipped the whole part about how I had evidence to prove it from the hospital’s video. I would save that for if we needed to go to court. Otherwise, I’d leave it.

The man took a look at me. I could tell he was puzzling over whether or not to tell me the story. I’d learned in life that sometimes it’s better to the let the other person talk first. So I waited.

Finally he looked at me and said, “I don’t know how you know it, but you’re absolutely right. That’s just plain scary. I thought those stories were all fake.”

“Years of practice. They just tell me what’s on their minds and what they’ve seen. I have to translate that into what actually happened. Needless to say, Perry was pretty upset about what happened at the house.”

“He should be,” the neighbor said, seeming to get into the spirit of me talking to the animals. “Poor little guy was banged up pretty bad.”

I nodded, remembering what the vet had said about Perry’s condition. He’d had a nasty gash on him, though the vet was unsure what had caused it. Maybe the neighbor would be kind enough to confess all.

“Do you want to just hear the whole story? I don’t know if Perry would know everything that I heard, but I can tell you my side.”

“That sounds reasonable.” The house was warm, and I was able to unzip my jacket.

The man motioned to a pair of chairs in the corner. They were thread-bare, but clean and faced each other. I’d be able to watch the man’s face as I heard his story.

He started again once we’d sat down. “Well, it was the night that Ms. Jenkins disappeared, but I’m sure that Perry told you that.”

I agreed with him. “You do know that dogs don’t recognize things the same way that we do. He doesn’t know the vocabulary for many things. He sees things from his perspective and his memory.”

He cleared his throat and continued. “It must have been about two in the morning. I heard this awful sound. A shriek followed by a gun shot, or at least that’s what I thought it was. Loud bang noise. I looked outside and the lights were off at all the neighbors. No one seemed to have noticed a thing.”

“That’s about what Perry said,” I concurred. I thought I might as well make Perry sound like one smart Scottie.

“I kept the lights off, because I didn’t want whoever had fired the gun to see me. I was a bit scared to be honest.”

“Perry said that Della’s scared of loud noises, but your beagles aren’t. They’re used to it from hunting, right?”

“You bet. I’ve had them from pups, and I taught them how to hunt and to get over being gun-shy. My daddy had this beagle pup that couldn’t stand the sound of a shotgun. He used to go and hide from it.” The man continued on for a few minutes about his childhood before I could get him back on to the topic at hand.

“So you heard a gunshot and then nothing else?”

“Not a thing. I thought maybe I dreamed it. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t. I just tossed and turned. About twenty minutes later, I heard a scratching at the door. I was a bit worried about it after all the commotion. I opened the door and found little Perry sitting there. He’d got a big gash on his leg. His collar was off, which meant that he needed to stay close to home or he’d get picked up by the SPCA. I didn’t want that to happen. I love my dogs too, and I wouldn’t have wanted someone to cart my puppies off to the pound. Ruby would have had a fit to think of Perry at the pound. The lights were on at the Jenkins house, but the door was open. I knew that wasn’t a good sign.”

“I’ve heard from others that she didn’t leave the house very often.”

“Never,” he said. “The only times she left were for doctor appointments and such, but even then she’d have someone come over and babysit the dogs. They are two spoiled little terriers, let me tell you that. They had constant attention.”

“So what happened after that?” I asked, though I knew the outlines of the story from the vet.

“I took the dog to an all-night animal hospital. The vet fixed up the dog. He needed a few stitches. He was going to keep him overnight and call me the next morning to pick him up. Cost me nearly five hundred dollars just for the visit. I can’t imagine what the rest of the charges would have been.”

I quoted him a number, though I knew he had no more obligation to pay the bill than I did.

He gave me a long whistle. “Well, I left some money there to pay his bills. Ruby always has a little cash lying around. I knew she’d pay to make sure Perry was safe and healthy.”

I knew that my client aka my mother would not be picking up the fee for that. She probably wouldn’t be paying me for the entire matter either.

“Yeah, so what happened after you dropped Perry off at the animal hospital?” I asked, wanting to end this. Even though I hadn’t asked outright yet, I knew that he was going to claim he had no knowledge of the actual crime here. He would only be recounting the aftermath of whatever had happened to Ruby.

“I came home. It was nearly light by then. I sat down in my recliner and dozed off. The next thing I knew there were police here, looking all around for Ruby.”

“Any thoughts on what happened to her? You didn’t see her leave?”

He shook his head. “I just think it has to be something bad since she’s been gone so long. Ruby would never have left her dogs alone, just like I wouldn’t leave my two.” One of the beagles came up to him, as if on cue and started nuzzling his hand.

“There had to be something that happened,” I stated firmly. “It’s not like a grown woman just up and leaves without any notice. She’d likely be taken by force, so wouldn’t there be some sort of struggle or shouting?”

“The only thing I can think of,” said the old man, “is that she might have been knocked out before she left. Hard enough to render her unconscious, but not hard enough to leave blood. That way, she could be moved easily without her screaming.”

“But what about the shotgun noise? Why would you shoot her and then knock her out? Seems like a bit of overkill. Dead bodies aren’t easy to move either. That’s a lot of dead weight to haul.”

The man stroked his chin as he looked at the beagle. “I’m not sure. I can only tell you what I heard.”

“Well, thanks. I appreciate it.”

I left him in the house and went back outside. The weather was actually cooperating, and the temperatures had finally decided to jump the freezing mark. Some bits of snow and ice had puddled around the sidewalk and street. I crossed the street without as much peril to life and limb as last time.

I knocked on the door of the house across the street and waited. There was only one question that I really wanted answered, one that needed an answer.

The same woman answered the door, wearing a blouse that showed off her ample cleavage. I wasn’t really interested in another woman especially now that Detective Green had been forward with me, but I pretended to flirt so that I could weasel some information out of her.

She invited me inside and I went, only because I was tired of being cold. The air inside the house was oppressive, overly warm with some cloying scent dancing in the air. I took off my coat, and she eyed my body with obvious intent.

I thought about flexing for her, just to see what she’d do, but I wasn’t up to peeling her off of me later. I was all about the question at hand.

“So what can I help you with?” she said with a smile.

“I just had a question for you, something that the man across the street said to me.”

She waved a hand. “I saw you over there with old man Lindauer. I can’t imagine why you’d spend all that time with him when you could be here with me instead.” She licked her lips with obvious intent.

“We were talking about the Ruby Jenkins disappearance,” I said. “She’s still missing.”

Her eyes widened. “I know. It makes me somewhat fearful to stay here alone. I could use some company if you know what I mean.” This time she gave me a wink.

I did, but I ignored the comment. “Anyway, Mr. Lindauer mentioned that he heard a gunshot in the middle of the night – the night that Ruby Jenkins disappeared. I was just wondering if you heard the same thing?”

She paused. I think she would have furrowed her brow had it not been for the fact that she didn’t want a wrinkle on her face while she was trying to impress me. “I didn’t hear a gunshot. I did hear a sound, but I thought it sounded more like a backfire or another loud bang. My father had guns, and they didn’t sound like this at all.” In answering the question, she had forgotten her overt flirting. It was nice to get a straight answer for once.

“Mr. Lindauer said something about a scream as well? Did you hear anything like that?”

She gave me a small smile. “No wonder you were over there so long. No, I didn’t hear a scream either. Just that noise and then it was just so silent. Almost eerie. I didn’t turn on the lights or anything because I didn’t want to be considered the nosy neighbor.”

I nodded. Before she could say anything else, I had my coat back on and was heading out the door. I climbed into my car and started thinking. A loud noise had occurred sometime in the night. Lindauer had called it a shotgun; the woman had said it was not. He’d heard a scream, but she had not. I’d always heard that eyewitnesses were terribly unreliable, but now I was learning that for myself.

It didn’t help me much. It boiled down to the fact that there had been a loud noise of indeterminate origin and perhaps a scream at the same time. It meshed well with what I knew of Della, which is that she was frightened by loud noises. It moved me a step further, but not much more than that.

My next stop was the breeder Ruby had gotten the two dogs from. I’d called there in the morning to see if they would be home. The woman, Harriett, had laughed at the question. “Where else would I be with a house full of puppies?” she’d asked. I could hear yapping sounds in the background. She didn’t sound like the type who raised prize-winning dogs, but I was running out of options and people to question. I wanted to have the police away from my life and my business. I wanted to go back to anonymity.