Hounds Abound (29 page)

“I don’t mean just animals,” I said. I knew my tiny smile looked snide. And angry. “As far as I know, Dr. Miles
Frankovick wasn’t that old. Nor was he ill. Why did you … euthanize him, Dr. Drammon?”

His eyes widened behind his glasses in apparent horror. “That’s—Why on earth would you ask me that?”

“Because I think you murdered him.”

I watched for something on his face, in his rigid posture, his demeanor, to give him away. He just shook his head as his mouth pursed. “And I think you’re nuts, Lauren. Do you think that by accusing me you’ll somehow help Bella get off the hook, so she can help extend the lives of the poor, suffering animals here? That’s really stretching things.”

With a final glare, he hurried out of the room toward the front exit, while a lot of dogs in their kennels at the perimeter started barking again. They, too, seemed to voice their anger at Drammon’s opinions, which had now been proven wrong for posterity, on camera, at least in some cases.

But our disagreement now hadn’t gotten me the results I’d wanted.

Maybe I hadn’t asked the question right. Maybe—

This couldn’t be over.

I didn’t often change my mind. But my focus was no longer on Kip, at least not for the moment.

I followed Drammon.

But I couldn’t catch up with him. Once out of range of the camera and my inquiry, he all but ran to the front door, ignoring the greeters who watched him, careful only not to step on Ignatz and Durwood.

By the time I got to the exit, he was gone.

I sighed, heading back toward the filming. I’d been pleased to see Drammon get a dressing-down in public. He deserved it, after the position he’d taken against Save’Em, and against saving elderly or infirm pets that weren’t suffering.

But I hadn’t considered him seriously as a murder suspect. Until now.

I had been focusing on Kip, believed he had killed Miles to help Bella.

But what if he—and maybe Bella, too—were being framed instead by Vic Drammon, to keep scrutiny off himself?

Had Drammon killed Miles? If so, I didn’t yet know his motive.

He had denied it. Of course. I didn’t really expect him to admit guilt.

But his attitude hadn’t seemed to be that of a guilty man.

He’d admitted to me, when I’d called to ask him about parvo, that he sometimes treated sick pets from Animal Services. He might, therefore, have somehow learned when a few with parvo were being taken to Carlie’s. He might have wanted me not to keep digging into suspects to help Bella, so he could have then relinquished poor Miracle at HotRescues to distract me—and warn me off. And whoever did that had to be the person who’d made the threatening call to HotRescues.

I lifted my chin in an expression of indifference as I went back to where Carlie continued recording background scenery at Save’Em.

She was going to interview Bella some more, too. Kip was watching, and so were a lot of the volunteers and staff, plus some shelter visitors.

Was Kip in fact a victim and not a killer?

My goal today was to figure out a suspect and either exonerate him or prove he was guilty, maybe even get a confession. I could try that with Vic Drammon first.

I kept up my nonchalant demeanor as I soon left, heading toward my car. Good thing I hadn’t been very specific about what I’d been trying to accomplish here today.

If I had, Antonio, Brooke, and Matt would all share a laugh at my expense. Very soon.

There were a lot of cars in the front parking lot, partly because of all the vehicles driven here by Carlie and her film crew. As a result, I’d parked toward the back of Save’Em, nearer Bella’s house—and the area where I had found Miles’s body.

I was by myself as I crunched over the gravel in the athletic shoes I wore as part of my HotRescues uniform. I hadn’t dressed up to come here, since I had no intention of getting on camera.

My mood was partly bleak. I was thrilled for Soozle getting the new gadget attached that would help her walk more easily.

I was thrilled for Bella, since she and Save’Em would be featured on Carlie’s show—which would undoubtedly garner a lot of publicity. And with publicity should come donations.

And I was thrilled for Carlie. Her shows were always good. This one would be great.

But I was not thrilled for me. Where did I go now in trying to help Bella get out of her position as top murder
suspect in Miles’s death? I’d neither proved, nor disproved, that it was Vic Drammon—or Kip, for that matter.

I pulled my key from my tote bag and pressed the button to unlock my Venza’s door. I opened it, planning to thrust the bag across to the passenger seat.

But before I could, I was grabbed from behind.

“How did you know?” demanded Dr. Victor Drammon.

I turned carefully, despite how his grip hurt my arms. Fortunately, he loosened it a bit. I supposed he didn’t intend to kill me from behind.

Maybe that was a good thing.

I wasn’t about to tell him that, until a short while ago, he’d been fairly far down on my suspect list—until my subconscious mind had veered way ahead of my conscious ideas.

“I just guessed.” I kept my voice as friendly as if we discussed the nice October weather in L.A. “Not too many people would consider an owner relinquishment of an ill dog at a shelter—
my
shelter—as a warning to back off. Where did you get that mask?”

“At one of those temporary Halloween stores. They’re
popping up all over now since it’s October. I paid cash. No way to ID anyone that way.”

“Smart.” I attempted to feign an admiring tone. “You were mad that I was trying to clear Bella, learn who really killed Miles, and you wanted me to stop, so you did the thing that you knew would get my attention.”

“You should have heeded the warning,” he said in a harsh growl. “It was a mild one. No other animal had to be hurt. Your dogs were all vaccinated, weren’t they?”

“We could have had puppies around that were too young to be inoculated,” I spat back at him, then made myself breathe. Showing my own anger might not be in my best interests. “I assume that you also called to threaten both me and my animals at HotRescues when you realized the parvo incident hadn’t warned me off.” I tried to smile, but I realized it must look like an angry grimace. I kept my voice calm, though, as I said, “It’s one thing to threaten me, but two warnings against my animals? Two too many. I’m really upset about everything you’ve done, Vic. I’m sure you understand why. But maybe we can work things out. Any suggestions?”

“Are you asking me to pay you so you’ll keep quiet?” he demanded. “That’s what the bastard Miles did. After his blackmail …” He trailed off, staring at me. “Did you guess that, too?”

“Some of it,” I lied. “But I’d like to hear your version.” Interesting. I’d just wanted him to keep talking, to make his own proposal about how we both could just walk away from here. Not that it would happen for him, of course.

He’d made his own assumption, based on experience.
And by doing so, he’d given me another piece of the puzzle: his motive. But I needed some elaboration.

“I figured you’d get it,” he continued. “And, you know, if I told you everything, you might even sympathize. It’s why I had to go against Bella and what I really thought about what she was doing here.” He gestured toward the inside of Save’Em. “But you’ll just have to die not knowing.” Oops. That wasn’t a negotiation for us both to walk away. “Yes, I killed Miles, so what’s one more? When the cops ask, I’ll say you attacked me here and I acted in self-defense.”

He lunged with his hands out as though he planned to strangle me. I carefully pulled my hand from where it had dipped into my tote bag and pulled out a can of pepper spray. Very calmly, I pushed the button and sprayed it into his eyes—just as Detective Antonio Bautrel dashed from the back of the Save’Em main building, along with a couple of uniformed cops.

“You’re under arrest,” Antonio told him, “for the murder of Dr. Miles Frankovick.”

“And for animal cruelty at HotRescues,” I added.

The next few hours were almost as chaotic as when I found Miles Frankovick’s body in his car here at Save’Em.

A bunch more cops arrived, including the lead detective on this murder investigation, my onetime adversary and current uneasy ally Stefan Garciana.

Antonio had cuffed Drammon and kept watch over him in an empty office near Bella’s. I would rather have seen
him in a remote, smelly, stark concrete kennel. He deserved to be there more than any sweet dog did.

Although the kennels here at Save’Em, like those at HotRescues, were actually fairly nice. Not as good as a wonderful home with loving humans around, but okay. More than Drammon was worthy of.

A pit in hell was more like it. One where its hounds could laugh at him.

I hung around to answer questions. Again. I was a witness once more, and I’d also helped to bring in evidence to convict Dr. Victor Drammon.

I’d played the game well this time. Good thing I had a cop-friend. This had been Antonio’s day off, and he’d been willing to participate in my scheme.

Maybe “willing” was too strong a word. I’d let him in on the fact I was attempting something regarding the case without specifying exactly what. He hadn’t been happy but he knew that forbidding me would be to no avail. Plus, he knew about the threat that had been phoned in to HotRescues, and had expressed his concern about me to Brooke.

Consequently, he had come to Save’Em in case I was right and put myself in more danger. It never hurt to have official help nearby. He had been one of the visitors in the background wearing casual clothes instead of a suit, watching the filming. Apparently he’d also had backup on standby.

Antonio had fitted me with a wire. All Drammon said had been recorded, including his confession.

Of course the suspect I’d reeled in wasn’t the one I’d anticipated tossing bait to. But it really made sense, now that I had more time to consider Drammon as the murderer.

He had known Miles Frankovick. But Bella had
appeared to think that with her ex out of the picture she might have had some kind of relationship with Vic. Of course, the way she had intended Miles to go was simply through divorce, not death.

But instead of being on her side, Vic had publicly chastised her for her laudable work with special-needs animals. She’d thought it out of character, but he had refused to discuss it with her. Instead, he had become even more of a buddy to Miles—or so it had appeared. He had even admitted to it.

I still couldn’t shout out triumphantly to the authorities that I knew, and understood, it all. I was still unclear about all facets of his motive. What was Miles blackmailing him about? And why was it so important that it caused Vic to kill him?

I hoped to learn more. Soon.

I didn’t have to wait long, as it turned out. Just till later that evening.

I’d left Bella in Kip’s hovering care. Was that good for her? I wasn’t sure how I felt about Kip now, after holding him in my mind near the top of the suspect list for so long and even planning on outing him today—till the truth had implanted itself in my mind like some alien force in a sci-fi movie that wouldn’t let go.

Plus, he acted so clingy. But it was her life. And maybe she needed a lot of extra attention and TLC right now, after all that had happened.

I had returned to HotRescues, exhausted and talked out. I felt as if I’d been a contestant on some bizarre reality TV
show where the idea was to extract every ounce of knowledge from the foolish soul who’d agreed to participate, leaving her an oozing puddle of emptiness lying senseless on the ground.

Maybe it got worse each time I was interrogated by the cops, or maybe I just imagined it. Either way, I’d driven back to my shelter slowly and carefully, no doubt making other freeway drivers crazy.

I’d walked slowly with Zoey through HotRescues, too, earning me a lot of sympathetic and even pitying comments from everyone I met along the way, even sad-eyed gazes from quiet, attentive dogs. I couldn’t help it. I needed some TLC as well, so I ducked into some of the kennels to give hugs and receive licks. Zoey, of course, was my main supporter, staying close by my feet and kissing my face each time I bent to pet her.

The cats? They, too, paid attention to me—at least most of them did. I hugged those who allowed me to, stroked others till they purred. I dragged my feet even more in their enclosures, trying to lure as many as possible into my arms.

It wasn’t like me to be so sluggish. I hated it.

But I perked up with Brooke’s call after I returned to my office. Antonio wanted us all to meet for dinner, including Matt.

Matt. He’d called me earlier. Chewed me out for doing what I’d done—and for not telling him about it. The media had gotten wind of it when more LAPD officers and detectives besides Antonio arrived at Save’Em, so the news was full of the arrest. Matt had known right away that I had to be involved.

“I’m fine,” I’d told him.

“Good. Then you’ll be in great shape for me to give you a good spanking the next time we’re together.” I doubted he meant that in a sexual sense, but I grinned anyway.

“Guess I’ll have to avoid you, then.” We had nevertheless made plans to meet for dinner that night so I could tell him what I knew—which, unfortunately, wasn’t everything.