Losing Patients (Animal Instincts Book 4) (7 page)

The drive passed quickly, and I found the hotel that he’d mentioned in our conversation. I pulled into a parking spot and went inside. The hotel was fairly small and unassuming. There was a small reception area with only one young woman standing there, filing papers. She looked young, probably a college student who was paying bills.

I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts about my mother on the drive down that I hadn’t formulated any plan for learning information. So I found myself pulling out my wallet and handing a credit card across the counter to the girl. “I just want to stay the one night,” I said without thinking.

She asked me the routine questions and ran my card through the machine. I frowned, knowing that I’d have to get more clients just to pay for this case. The costs were quickly adding up, and I’d already run through most of the money that Dr. Wilson had given me to cover expenses. I doubted that she’d be all in for paying my expenses in Lima.

The woman pointed out a few amenities and handed over the key.

“Thanks. A good friend of mine stays here, and he couldn’t tell me enough good things about the place,” I lied. Compliments were always a good way to get a conversation started.

“That’s always nice to hear. I hope you enjoy your stay,” she replied, eyeing the stack of papers on the counter.

“His name is Adamson. He stays here a lot.” I flashed a smile at her, hoping that if compliments didn’t work, maybe some flirting would.

However, it didn’t seem to work on her at all. “The name’s not familiar. Sorry.”

I nodded. “Wait,” I said, putting my hand in my jacket pocket. “I have a picture of him.” I pulled out the photos from Dr. Wilson’s file. It showed Adamson smiling for the camera with his cat. The photo of Mrs. Givens with her Newfoundland fell on to the counter as well. “This is him,” I said, holding it up for her.

“Oh, I do know him. He’s been here several times. Nice guy.” She seemed a bit more interested in the conversation now. I wasn’t sure what had gotten her interest, but I’d take it.

“Yeah, he’s here for business.”

She nodded with a smirk. “He’s been here with a woman. I’m not sure that it’s business or not.”

“Really?” I was not totally surprised. After all, he was separated from his wife, and most people did not live like hermits. When one relationship ended, another one began. I pushed my thoughts about my mother out of my head. I didn’t have time for that now.

“Yeah, I thought you knew.” She furrowed her brows and stared at me. “I thought from your actions that you knew all about it.”

“You did?” I asked incredulously. “How would that be?”

“You have the photo of her in your pocket.” She pointed down to the counter where the photo of Mrs. Givens and Nelly lay.

“Yeah, they’re pretty much inseparable,” I said, not caring how badly I lied now. I had some information to work on now – another motive for murder and another connection between the crimes. While it was far from enough to prove to Detective Green that these crimes were murders, it was certainly suggestive enough to any observer. Two people whose spouses both died in somewhat questionable circumstances, leaving the remaining person a significant amount of cash. I thought about what that relationship would be like now with both of them constantly questioning whether they would end up like the previous spouse. How could you relax thinking that you could be the next victim?

“Well, enjoy your stay,” she said again. This time she picked up a stack of papers before I could respond.

I walked upstairs to the room and sat down. I was shocked and pleased. I hadn’t expected the visit to pay off so handsomely. The police likely had asked the hotel if Adamson had been here. They had responded that he had. Depending on if this woman had checked him in, or seen the woman come later, the police might have missed this connection altogether. Besides, how closely would they question the hotel when the crime was ruled a suicide?

I thought about driving back home now, but opted against it. I had the room until tomorrow morning, and while I would have to go home in time to feed the animals, I had hours before I had to be back in Toledo.

I took off my shoes and socks and rested on the bed. The pillows were so thick that I nearly sat up, but I didn’t care. I was feeling productive and allowed myself a nap.

When I woke, the sun was still up, so I walked down to the hotel store. I purchased a swimsuit, changed and took a long swim until my muscles ached. I stuck mainly to laps, which is what I’d done in high school to burn off the stress of my family situation. I figured that if my head was underwater, I couldn’t hear what was being said about me. I’d never won any medals, but I’d been happy to just be mediocre.

My calves burned as I climbed the ladder. I wasn’t necessarily in bad shape, but I hadn’t done much in the way of organized exercise in ages. I toweled off, enjoying that I didn’t have much hair to work with. I went back to the room and changed into my clothes.

As an experiment, I found a side door that had been propped open. I left through that door. I was in my car and out of the parking lot with no witnesses to my actions. Adamson’s alibi was no better than Given’s alibi had been.

The dogs were thrilled to see me and intrigued by the unique scent of chlorine on my skin. I was the subject of a significant amount of sniffing for twenty minutes. After that, they were more interested in being fed.

I knew I had to call Detective Green, but the situation with my mother kept me from making the move. I still was having difficulty in getting my mind around it. I took the dogs for a long walk and then made a dinner for all of us before I decided to make the call.

“Green,” she said on the first ring.

“It’s me. I think I have a lead on the two cases.”

“Talk fast. I’m kind of in the middle of something,” she said. Her lack of specificity told me that it was police business. I wondered what was going on now. Did she have a case where the murderer was easy to catch or was this another case with no clear solution in sight?

“Mrs. Givens and Mr. Adamson were having an affair. I found proof – a witness – who put them together at the hotel in Lima, Adamson’s alibi. So it’s more than suspicion that something is going on here. Two people having an affair don’t just suddenly get so lucky that their spouses fall over dead and leave them a ton of cash.”

“You’re right. This is good stuff, but you know I’m going to tell you that it’s not enough. You’ve developed a great motive, but you haven’t shown how the crimes were committed. You have two people with no opportunity, but plenty of motive. You need to add that last piece.” Someone spoke to her from the background. I tried to make out the words, but I couldn’t. “Look, I have to go. I’ll talk more later, okay?” She hung up before I could say anything. I guess it would have to be okay.

I was disappointed. I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts and I wanted a little bit of praise for the legwork I’d done. If I was totally honest, I’d lucked into it, but I still had uncovered something that the police had missed. That was worth some approval in my book. I decided to call Dr. Wilson, to see if she could provide any suggestions for how these two could have met. Given that they were having an affair, they’d obviously met somewhere. I wondered if I shouldn’t be doing what Detective Green suggested, which was to find out how the crimes were committed with the alibis.

I had picked up my cell when it rang in my hands. I nearly dropped it in surprise, but then answered. “Hello?”

“Mr. Fitzpatrick, is that you?” I recognized Dr. Wilson’s voice even though it seemed rather strained at the moment.

“It is, and you can call me Griff,” I said, wondering why she’d called again.

“There’s been another death, Griff. Allen Hale. He’s a client. He has a Yorkie and a cat, and someone killed him in a drive-by outside of Kroger.” I thought I could hear her weep as she finished her sentence. I’d been feeling good about the information I’d collected, and while I was away enjoying a good swim, someone else had died.

This had to be where Detective Green was at. She’d been working and with people, and I thought I could hear outside noises. I was willing to bet that this was another case she’d been called in on.

“Do they even have drive-bys in Toledo?” I asked. I knew what they were, but the gangs did not have neighborhoods and the same turf wars that larger cities had.

“Apparently so,” she said huffily. “I think that the police will be back after this to ask more questions, but I don’t know anything. This is terrible. I’m going to lose the business if this keeps up. I can’t keep losing clients.”

“I found out some evidence today. Mrs. Givens and Mr. Adamson were having an affair. Do you think it’s possible that Harriet Marksberry and Allan Hale were involved as well?”

Dr. Wilson snickered. “Sorry. That was just a picture I didn’t want to see. Mrs. Marksberry is older, maybe 50ish, and Hale is barely out of college. There may be a connection, but I can state with certainty that it’s not romantic.”

“What about Givens and Adamson? Could they have met at your clinic? Is that possible? I need to find out how they met. It might give me a lead on what happened. The police won’t want me looking into the Hale case. It’s fresh, and it’s an open case, so they want civilians as far away as possible. These other two cases were already closed and labeled as an accident and suicide. That won’t happen with Hale for sure.”

She sighed. “I’ll check my records again. There might have been a vaccination night or a class that they both attended. I keep records, but they’re on paper and I’ll have to go through several years of papers to find out anything about them. Those records are something that we keep saying that we’re going to automate, but we never get around to it. That’s why they wouldn’t have shown up in the files on the patients, especially if it was just an informational seminar.”

Since Detective Green wouldn’t be stopping by with food because of a new homicide, I was on my own for the evening. “I could come by and help you. Two sets of eyes would make it go faster.”

“Great, let’s meet at the clinic in about 30 minutes. That will give me some time to clean up. I’m a mess from crying. It’s bad enough when you lose a pet, but all these human deaths are about to kill me.” She sniffed loudly.

I agreed to meet her there, and we hung up.

In less than 30 minutes, I was in the parking lot. I knocked on the door and Dr. Wilson answered it, wearing jeans and a sweater. She had an armful of papers balanced on her forearm, and I took them from her. We went back to the filing room, where she’d set up a picnic-like area on the floor, a bottle of wine, two glasses and a stack of papers up to my knee.

“You have the classes I’ve held. There are also vaccination records. I’ll go through those because they have patient information, and I’d rather not release that yet, even though there technically isn’t any law against releasing pet data to an outsider. After that, I have the records of the classes that other people have held here at the clinic. We’ll see what we can find.”

I started going through the records of the classes held. She’d had some classes for housetraining, how to avoid puppy mills, and other interesting topics. I flipped through the pages, attempting to read the scrawl of the participants. Some of the handwriting was so unclear that I had to hand it over to Dr. Wilson for assistance. She could read the names with effort, but the handwriting slowed down our work.

She poured us each a glass of wine and then went back to her vaccine records. She was able to move faster through them since the receptionists had logged all of the patients in and apparently her handwriting was impeccable. However, there were far more of these papers, and she continued to flip through them.

When I finished the stack of classes, she handed me another pile of records, this time speakers who had come in to talk about adopting a rescue animal. Her hand brushed mine, and in that instant, even with my alarming lack of social skills and experience, I knew that I could have kissed her. The emotions, the wine, and the closeness were a recipe for a sexualized situation. However, since I was still the same guy, even if my life was changing around me, I let the moment pass without doing anything about it. I wasn’t the type of man to kiss a woman when I didn’t even call her by her first name. I thought of Sheila Green and wondered if we’d ever move further along in our relationship. I’d told Ryan about her, but that seemed more like a step I’d taken on my own, rather than one we’d taken together.

Lost in those thoughts and trying to ignore what I perceived as awkwardness now, I focused on the papers in front of me. Saved by the Bell, a group that I’d worked with in the past, had come in, answered questions, and brought some of the animals currently sponsored by their group. I was glad to see them reaching out into the community.

There had been another set of sign-in sheets where people had signed their names. I stopped when I got to Givens on the list. However, it wasn’t Mrs. Givens, but her husband who had attended that night. I wondered if Nelly was a rescue animal.

In my haste, I missed Adamson on the list as I scanned down, but a slower, more fastidious look at the names came up with Mrs. Adamson. The two participants in the affair hadn’t been at the seminar, but their spouses had been.

At the very end of the list, Harriet Marksberry’s name was in small scribbled writing. In my excitement, I forgot about the awkward moment and handed the paper over to Dr. Wilson. “Three out of the four are listed here. Now we just need to figure out how to tie in Allan Hale, and we’ve made a huge step in the case.”

She cleared her throat and took another sip of wine. “I can answer that. Hale’s dad has a catering business. Allan works for his dad, mostly doing deliveries and taking orders. I can ask the staff if this was one of the nights, but on more than one occasion, he dropped off a cake or cookies for the seminar. I don’t remember this one from the others, but it’s quite possible that he was there as well.”

I stood up and stretched. Spending a few hours on the floor was not my idea of a relaxing pose. “Can I get a copy of this? I want to ask a few of the other attendees if they remember anything unique or special about that night, something that might have caused all these deaths. I’ll be discreet about it. I’ll try to keep your name out of it as well.”

She flushed. “I appreciate that, but I’m more worried that the name of the murderer is on that list. If something did happen that evening, I’d think the only way that someone would have known about it would be if they were there as well.”

I hadn’t thought about that. I ran a hand over my cropped hair. I remembered the last time I’d confronted a murderer, and I’d nearly lost my life. It wasn’t something I wanted to repeat. However, I wasn’t sure of any other way to learn what had gone down that night. Something had to have happened then, a catalyst that had led to four deaths. It seemed hard to believe that a rescue seminar could create all of this chaos, but apparently it had.

I knew one place where I could start, and that was Saved by the Bell. I knew Allison from that rescue shelter, and I highly doubted that she’d been involved in any plots conceived there. She would have been too occupied with the animals and the questions.

Dr. Wilson came back with a copy of the paper. She’d written a few phone numbers next to the names on the list. She handed the paper to me and gave me a smile. I pretended to study the paper and ignored the smile. I said my goodnights to her and headed back to my car.

Sheila Green hadn’t called me. I checked the answering machine and then checked the caller id on the phone to see if she hadn’t left a message. No dice. She hadn’t phoned. I put the list on the end table by the door and went to play with the dogs.

When I awoke the next morning, I started with a call to Saved by the Bell. Allison was working the phones like she usually did. We had a tense relationship at times. For a while, she had flirted with me, but despite being a keen observer of animal behavior, I was equally unaware in my personal life. When I had started investigating some crimes and worked closely with Sheila Green, Allison’s attitude had taken a turn for the worse. Sheila had actually pointed out what I’d been missing – with some amusement.

So when I called today, I tried being extra polite, in hopes of getting answers to a few questions. “Allison, how are you? Do you have a moment?”

“What do you want, Griff? And whatever it is, it will cost you four hours of volunteer work here at the shelter.” The shelter always wanted my services. I would come in and talk to the animals there, so that I could tell the volunteers more about what the dogs and cats were like and how they would interact with humans and other pets. It worked out well for both of us, since the rescue organization had supplied me with information on more than one occasion.

“Deal! I had a couple of questions about a seminar that you spoke at for Dr. Wilson’s veterinary practice. There was one in May that I’m interested in particularly.” I took the list and ran down the names again.

“I do a lot of these, you know. I’m not sure if I’ll remember any one particular meeting. What do you want to know about it?”

“Well, actually I wanted to know if there were any baked goods at the meeting.”

Allison snorted. “Wow, I didn’t see that one coming. You mean like pies and cookies? I have no idea. I have to say no to so many different baked good that I couldn’t possibly keep track. You’re going to have to do way better than that.”

I tried to summon up what I knew about these people. “There would have been a guy who had a Newfoundland. There was a lady with a cat. Another lady with a ferret as well. Anything help?”

She thought for a moment and then answered, “The guy with the Newfoundland was kind of a big build, red face, talked a lot. Yeah, I remember him. He talked to one lady for most of the meeting. I didn’t know what was up with that. They were so loud that some of the other people shushed them, and amazing as it might sound, yeah, they had baked goods that night.”

“Wow, that’s a great memory,” I said, impressed with her knowledge of something that had happened months ago. I’m not sure that I could have remembered a single meeting from that long ago.

She laughed again. “It’s not that great. I had to stop twice to ask them to keep it down and the second time, they left their seats and argued by the cookies. A few people wanted cookies but were afraid to go over there. Just a matter of tying all the thoughts together.”

“That sounds like quite an argument they were having. I don’t suppose you’d know what they were talking about? Was it loud enough for people to hear?”