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A Dog's Life V
The welcome return of Anita Carswell
from the fountain pen of Myra Love
previous chapter Chapter Index Next Chapter

 

A Dog's Life

by Myra Love

 

       Chapter V 

 

The next morning I woke up early and hurried out to replace the vanilla fudge ice cream. Lisa had phoned after I got back from spying on Jim and asked me what I’d had for dinner. I was tempted to lie and pretend I’d eaten something nourishing, but I don’t lie to Lisa, so I told her. She pretended to be outraged about my eating all her ice cream. Though I knew she was kidding, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. On my way back from the store, I stopped and got a cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant at the new chi-chi bakery that had opened on Main Street. The chief had bet me ten dollars that it wouldn’t last three months. That was two months ago, and it was still going strong. Folks had been suspicious at first, but the coffee was really good, the baked goods were tasty, if a bit expensive compared to donuts from the donut shop. Despite the upscale look of the place, the folks who ran it were down-to-earth and very friendly.

To compensate for the extra calories I was getting from the chocolate pastry I parked in front of the bank and trotted the two blocks to the station. “Hey there, Andy,” Joe Miller called out as he let the awning down over his hardware store, “you in a hurry?” Then he laughed so hard he almost fell over.

The chief was already at his desk when I got in. I took a deep breath and plunked myself down in the chair across from him. “Do you think we can get a search warrant to take a look at Jim’s PDA?” I asked without even greeting him.

He looked up from the form he was filling out and seemed surprised to see me sitting across from him. “Say that again!”

“Jim has a PDA, a handheld computer thingy…”

“I know what a PDA is, Andy. What didn’t you tell me this before? He coulda used that to erase the email on his computer. Hell, he coulda sent it from his Palm.”

I hesitated for a second. “I didn’t know for sure that he had it until last night.”

“What happened last night?”

The chief looked perplexed, so I quickly went on with my story. “I stopped by to see Jim and Mattie,” I explained.

“And he let you see that he had a handheld device? He must have thought you were completely computer illiterate!”

I shook my head. “No, he didn’t let me see it. Mattie came to the door when I rang and told me he was out, but when I went and peeked through the basement window I saw him using the thing.”

The chief let out a loud whistle. “Good work, Andy! I’ll phone Judge Carson and ask for a search warrant.”

I stood up and realized I’d been holding my breath in anticipation of uncomfortable questions about why I went to see Jim and Mattie in the middle of the investigation without telling him what I was doing. I let it out slowly and softly so as not to let on that I’d been nervous. As I started across the room, the chief cleared his throat. I stopped and turned to face him.

“Why did you peek into the basement window, Andy?” His voice was mildly curious.

I grinned. That was a question I was ready for. “I noticed the light was on. I thought that was odd if Jim wasn’t down there, so I went over to check it out.”

He nodded. “Good job. I take it you want to carry out the search of their premises?”

I didn’t, but I knew better than to say so. “Yes,” I replied with false heartiness. “I sure do.”

Judge Carson gave us the warrant after fussing a little about whether we had probably cause. I had to convince him that I wasn’t poking around where I wasn’t welcome, even though a good lawyer could have made the case that I was. I didn’t lie to the judge. I’d never do that. But I also couldn’t tell him Anita Carswell had given me a heads up about Jim’s PDA. Not that there was anything wrong with following up on a lead like that, but I didn’t want it to get back to the chief.

After insisting at first that he didn’t have a PDA, Jim was surprisingly cooperative about handing it over when I told him I’d seen him using it. “Oh, you mean my Blackberry,” he said. Just don’t you go and break it, Andy. I paid good money for that thing.” Mattie wasn’t speaking to me, I guess because of my showing up uninvited the night before. I figured she’d get over it. I was just doing my duty after all.

Of course, nothing showed up on the PDA when Donald checked it. So the chief sent me back out to the state police barracks to turn it in for analysis at the lab. I felt a little like a messenger boy, but he didn’t really have anyone else to send. The department used to have a couple more officers, but when the older fellows retired, there was no money to hire replacements. The town budget had been shrinking slowly for year, and that process showed no signs of reversing itself. The chief wasn’t complaining though. He was relieved that he hadn’t actually had to lay anyone off.

When I got back to the station, I asked the chief what he wanted me to do next. He tapped his fingers on his desk for a few minutes before answering. When he did, I nearly fell over in surprise. “I went over to talk to Anita Carswell while you were out, Andy. She seems to think Jim arranged the whole scenario to extort money from Mattie.”

I acted interested as if he wasn’t telling me something I already knew.

“I’m not persuaded she’s right, but she could be,” he went on. “She told me she’d filled you in on what would have to be done to investigate along her line of reasoning.” He gave me a tight little smile when he said that. “I agreed to let you go ahead and do as she suggested. I’ll keep on working the angle that some person or persons unknown really did break in and take the dog.”

“That’ll probably mean more search warrants,” I said quickly. “She wants me to check out cars for dog hair.”

“Not a bad idea. I’ll phone ahead to Judge Carson. He’s impressed with you and isn’t likely to give you any trouble.” The chief looked at me out of the corner of his eye to see how I was taking the compliment.

I kept my face impassive. “Okay then,” I said gruffly, “I’ll do that. Anita, er, Miss Carswell also told me to question the neighbors. You said you’d already spoken with them. If I could see your notes, it might save me some time.”

The chief snorted. “What notes? I asked them if they’d seen or heard anything. They all said no, so that was that.”

This time I had to struggle to keep my face impassive. I could hardly believe the chief had been so slipshod. Didn’t he want to solve this thing? Or was he somehow involved? I shook my head hard when that thought came to me. The chief couldn’t be involved. Could he?

“Something wrong, Andy?”

“Just a bug in my ear,” I replied with a laugh. He looked at me appraisingly. “Are you okay? You seem a bit out of sorts.”

“No, I’m fine. I’d best get busy.”

The chief nodded. “Talk to the neighbors first. That’ll give me time to make arrangements with Judge Carson.” He took a pencil from the cup on his desk. “Now whose cars do you want to search?”

I had time before the neighbors got home from work, so I phoned Anita. She told me she was about to head into town so we made a date to meet for coffee at the new bakery. She said she hadn’t been there yet, and I told her she had a treat in store. After we hung up, I remembered that she had stopped drinking coffee.

When I entered the bakery, I saw that Anita had somehow gotten there before me. I’d only stopped at the post office and the bank. I waved and ordered coffee at the counter. She already had a cup in front of her. When I looked up at the listing of beverages, the list included several normal teas, a couple of herb teas, a Chinese tea that I tried once because someone told me it was healthy (but it tasted just like dirt), and that spicy brew they call chai that smells like a musty carpet. Thank heaven I didn’t have to feel bad about luring Anita to a place where she couldn’t drink tea!

“Have you been speeding again?” I teased her, as I sat down across from her at a small table in the back of the store.

She raised her eyebrows. “It never takes me more than seventeen minutes to drive into town. It’s almost forty since we talked.”

I looked at my watch in disbelief, but she was right. When I looked up at her again, her face was set in an unpleasant frown. “Tom Willard is standing at the counter looking over here. He doesn’t seem very happy to see you.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.

“Maybe it’s you he’s not happy to see,” I countered.

She chuckled and shook her head. “When he looks at me, he looks like a small boy who’s been caught deliberately peeing in his pants. Right now he’s eyeing you as if you were a duck he’d like to shoot.”

It was all I could do not to turn around. “Do you want to go somewhere else?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not at all.” She waved at Tom Willard, and the next thing I knew he was standing next to us, balancing a cup of coffee on one hand and holding a sticky bun in the other.

“Take a seat,” Anita ordered, pulling an unoccupied chair over to our table. Willard glowered at her but obeyed. He didn’t look at me. I felt as if I were part of an audience at a play with only two characters, Anita and Willard.

“What do you want?” he growled at Anita, who smiled back at him and sipped her tea before answering. “I’m thinking about buying a new home computer,” she said. “Can you recommend one?”

Willard’s face took on an incredulous look then he shrugged. “Nope. I don’t have one at home. I use the computer at the high school, but that’s on a whatchamacallit, a server.”

“Really? Well, surely you must have a Palm Pilot or a Blackberry.”

Willard shook his head. “No, I don’t need one of those things. I don’t have that much to keep track of. Except football practices.” He chuckled.

“That’s too bad,” Anita said as if she meant it. “I was hoping to get advice from someone knowledgeable who wasn’t trying to sell me anything. Any idea whom I could ask?”

Willard sneered. “No, I don’t. Now if you’re done interrogating me about the email to Jim and Mattie, I’d like to go drink my coffee where the atmosphere is better.”

He stood up so fast that he sloshed some coffee on the table.

“Careful!” Anita sang out. “I’m sure that’s too good to waste.”

“Too expensive, you mean,” Willard growled and jogged off.

“What was that about?” I demanded.

Anita laughed. “Just curiosity. I actually believe him. I doubt that he was the one who sent the ransom message to your uncle’s computer. I wonder how he found out about it though.” She shrugged. “Maybe Jim told him at their poker game.”

“They haven’t played poker since I took the computer and the PDA.”

She shook her head. “Sure they have. Last night, after you took the PDA.”

“At Jim and Mattie’s house?” I asked, probably sounding as bewildered as I felt.

She nodded and looked mysterious. I hated when she did that, so I didn’t ask how she knew. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction. She probably heard about it from Timmins the insomniac. He seemed to be her head snitch.

“Willard could have taken the dog,” I said without thinking. “He’s big and strong.”

She shook her head. “Unless all the dogs were unconscious they’d have barked up a storm the minute he walked up the path to the house. He hates animals and the feeling is mutual.”

I remembered the exchange at Clausen’s car dealership and looked at her in amazement. “Is that common knowledge or did you ask your cats?” I inquired facetiously.

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Andy. You must walk around with earplugs on. Don’t you remember the time he threatened to poison Mrs. Franklin’s poodle when it sniffed at his crotch? And he tried to get animal control to remove the cats from Anna Healey’s house when she was on vacation and her sister was house-sitting for her. He even kicked little Martin Shelby’s puppy…”

I held up my hand to stop her. “Enough! The man is a monster, an animal-hater, unfit to be considered human.”

She laughed again. “Good. Now what are you doing first? Talking to the neighbors?”

I nodded, but before I could say anything, she hushed me. “John Walsh at the counter to your left,” she whispered. “I think maybe we should get out of here. It’s hard to talk when every possible topic of conversation comes walking through the door.”

We left money for our drinks and Anita walked with me in the direction of Mattie’s street. “Did you interview Jay Timmins?” she asked.

I nodded. “He said the night of the supposed dognapping was the first and only night that barking didn’t keep him awake because there wasn’t any.”

“And from that you conclude?” she asked, her eyebrows rising.

“That the dogs were drugged?”

She chuckled. “Possibly. Or possibly the person who removed Dr. Phil was well-known and well-loved by all the dogs.”

“The poker players?”

“Not Tom Willard,” she replied. “Can you imagine dogs loving John Walsh or CC Clausen?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Dogs are pretty indiscriminate. You really have to work at getting them to hate you.”

She sighed. “Think, Andy. The dogs didn’t have to hate the person who came in and removed Dr. Phil. They just had to bark the way they do when you or anyone comes to the door.”

“How do you know they bark when I show up?”

“Jay Timmins,” she replied. “He’s an incredible gossip and sees and hears everything since he doesn’t sleep well.”

I shook my head. “But why does he talk to you? You don’t even live in town.”

“Valerian root,” she replied.

“What?”

“An herbal sleep aid. I grow it in my garden.”

“Aha! So he does sleep sometimes.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t work for him, but he was terribly grateful when I gave him some and then listened sympathetically when he complained about its ineffectiveness. We’ve been on excellent terms ever since.”

“And how long ago was that?”

Her eyes twinkled at me. “Let’s see, you were in third grade, I believe.”

I shook my head and we parted so I could walk up Mattie’s street unaccompanied by Anita.

“Let me know if you find out anything,” she called after me.

“Nosey old woman,” I called after her, but my tone was fond. She waved and turned back towards the center of town. Only then did I remember that I’d intended to ask her what was up with her and the chief.

None of the neighbors had heard anything the night of the alleged break-in and dognapping. When I asked if that was unusual, they all agreed that it was since the dogs regularly barked intermittently throughout the night. I was positive they’d been drugged, but what did I have to do to prove it?

The vet! I got into my cruiser and drove to Pet Helpers Animal Hospital at the edge of town. Francine King worked at the desk and she had been in Lisa’s class in high school.

“Hi Andy, what can I do for you?” Francine greeted me.

“I need a little information. Did my aunt or uncle bring any of the dogs in recently?”

She turned to her computer. “Let’s see. Dr. Phil was in for shots when they first got him. That was their last visit.”

That didn’t help. “Any of the dogs ever treated for something that required sedation or pain medication?”

She scrolled down the page. “About two years ago. Jerry was neutered.”

“Did any kind of sedative or pain-killer go home with him? Or sleeping pills?”

She shook her head. “No, by the time dogs go home after that procedure they don’t need medication.”

“Any time they took a sedative home for one of the dogs?”

She looked at the screen for a couple of minutes, then shook her head. “Mostly they’ve come in for shots. Judge Judy had a piece of glass removed from her, I mean his left front paw, but the only thing that went home with her, him I mean, was antibiotic cream. Sorry, Andy, can’t help you.”

I sighed. “Do you know anyplace else around here where they could have gotten a sedative or sleeping pills for the dogs?”

She thought for a moment. “No, but there’s nothing to stop dog owners from medicating their pets with human sleep aids. It’s a bit risky because of the dosage, but people have been known to do it.”

I didn’t think Jim’s or Mattie’s medical doctor would be as forthcoming with information, so I sighed and started to leave.

“Doesn’t even have to be prescription sleep aids,” Francine added. “OTC stuff will do.”

Great! That made my task even harder. “Thanks, Francine,” I said glumly and pulled the door shut behind me.

I drove back to the station to see if the chief had arranged the search warrants. He wasn’t there, so I sat down at my desk and tried to organize my thoughts. What was it Anita had proposed as an alternative to drugging the dogs? I couldn’t remember. So, I picked up the phone and dialed her number. She didn’t answer. I phoned the state police lab to see if they’d made any progress on the computer or PDA. Nothing there either.

Dead ends. I hate dead ends. Something was bothering me, poking at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t get hold of it. I sat back in my chair and dozed off. When I woke up about ten minutes later if was because I heard barking. I looked around, but the barking had stopped. Had I dreamed it? Was there something about barking I should realize?

The phone rang and I picked up quickly. “Andy, this is Mattie. I need to talk to you.”

“I’m here, Mattie.”

“I mean in person. Come on over to the house as soon as you can.”

“Okay, I’ll be over right away.”

I was hoping for a break in the case and thought this call might be it. But when I got there, Mattie was holding a piece of paper with block letters pasted on it. “This came in the mail today,” she grumbled and thrust the paper at me. It was a ransom note, demanding five thousand dollars for the return on Dr. Phil. The price had gone up. The only other words on the paper were “or else.” I sighed and pocketed the note. “I guess we’ll have it tested for fingerprints and see if we can get any other information from it. Do you have the envelope, Mattie?”

She shook her head. “Judge Judy chewed it up.”

I sat down on the sofa. “Sit down, Mattie,” I said. After she’d complied, I continued. “Did you see Judge Judy chew it up?”

She shook her head again. “I found a few scraps of it on the floor in the kitchen, all wet and slimy. Judge Judy was there too. He had glue all over his face.”

“I see,” I replied. “Was there a lot of glue on his face?”

She glared at me. “I just told you. He had glue all over his face. I tried to clean it off, but he howled and snapped at me.”

“Mattie, don’t you think…”

She didn’t let me finish. “Think? I’m sick of thinking about poor Uncle Phil. I think we have to pay the ransom and get him back before it goes even higher.”

“But Mattie,” I protested.

“If you police had done your job we’d have him back, but the longer he’s gone, the less likely it is that we’ll ever see him again.”

She wasn’t being fair, but I could forgive that, seeing as how she was so upset. However, something didn’t ring true to me.

“Mattie, how much glue did Judge Judy have on his face?” I said sternly. “This is important.”

Her gaze was icy. “I told you, you stupid boy, his face was covered with it!”

“And the envelope:? What size was it?”

She sniffed disdainfully. “Ordinary size. What do you call it? Number ten?” She let out a small gasp and then added, “At least that’s what I think, since it was all chewed up and I never saw it whole.”

“Mattie,” I said, feeling sad, “what’s going on? You better tell me now before things really get out of hand.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Andy. But I do know that we need to get my dog back and if paying the ransom is the only way to do it, we have to pay.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked at me with fierce eyes, as if I were the only obstacle between her and her dog.

“You and Jim don’t have five thousand dollars, do you, Mattie?”

“Of course not! But a lot of people in town have been very supportive. I’m sure they’d help us if we asked.”

Was that it? I shook my head. “You could end up in jail, Mattie.”

“What are you talking about, Andy? It’s not a crime to make an appeal like that.”

“It is if the dog wasn’t stolen.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’ve been out in the sun too long, Andy. Go home and get some sleep.” She walked to the front door and opened it. “Out of my house now. I’m sick of looking at you.”

I followed her to the door. “Mattie, Judge Judy’s face was full of glue because she, I mean he got into the glue when the ransom note was produced, not because he chewed on the envelope. You must realize this can’t go on. If you appeal to the public for money, you’ll be committing fraud.”

“Go away, Andy,” she said and then slammed the door behind me.

The only question in my mind now was whether Mattie was in on the scam from the start. I was sitting in my cruiser chewing on my thumbnail and asking myself that very question when my radio came on. The chief had the search warrants.

“I’m not even sure we’ll need them,” I said.

My bitter tone must have alerted him that something had happened because he told me to come back to the station before going to see the judge to pick up the paperwork. “Whatever it is, Andy, we’ll handle it,” he said reassuringly.

When I got the station, the chief was waiting for me. So was Anita.

“What…?” I mumbled.

“She was here on an unrelated matter, and I told her to stick around,” the chief said. “Figured three heads are better than two, even if one belongs to a stubborn old woman.” He grinned at Anita, and I could tell that whatever had come between them before was no longer an issue.
“So what have you got for us?” the chief askedme. His voice was calm and professional, and I was glad for that. I filled him in on my visit to Mattie, starting with the fact that she’d phoned me. I’d brought the alleged ransom note with me.

“That looks like it’s made of letters from the circular that the Methodist Church sends out,” Anita said after a quick glance at the note.

“I didn’t know you got news from the church,” I said, surprised because if the entire town agreed on one thing, it was that Anita Carswell was a godless woman.
“I don’t, but Jay Timmins does, and he passes it on.”
I shook my head. “Well, Jim and Mattie don’t belong to the Methodist Church. They go to that big place up by the new mall. What’s it called again…?”

The chief chuckled. “You always forget the name of my church, Andy,” he said. “Mattie, Jim, and I are all Congregationalists.”

“Right!” I said with a smile. “And I keep saying ‘Constitutionalist’ by mistake.”

Anita’s mouth twitched, but she switched the subject back to my visit with Mattie. “You didn’t see glue on the dog’s face, did you?”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t see any of the dogs. Maybe Jim had them out for a walk. He wasn’t around.”

“Perhaps,” Anita said thoughtfully, “he was out feeding Dr. Phil.”

The chief and I looked at each other. “What?” we chorused in unison.

Anita smiled brightly and stood up. “Care to go for a drive? We’ll take my car so as not to give anyone reason to hide anything.”

“Where are we going?” the chief asked.

“There’s a cabin in the woods that belongs to Jim. I think he uses it on his hunting trips.”

The chief shook his head. “I’ve already been out there. No sign of Jim or the dog.”

Anita laughed. She wouldn’t say anything else, so we piled into her car. The chief offered to drive, but Anita told him to get into the passenger seat and took the wheel herself.

“I think you’ll find the back comfortable, Andy,” she said to me. Her car was old and big as a boat, so I had plenty of leg room. The chief looked at her skeptically but climbed into the front passenger seat and we headed slowly up Main Street.

 

 

 


 

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