Never Steal a Cockatiel (Leigh Koslow Mystery Series Book 9) (16 page)

Leigh looked into the girl’s giant cornflower blue eyes, which they all knew could turn teary on demand. If Lenna ever decided to study acting, she’d be the scariest of the four. “Sure,” Leigh agreed. “I’ll pick you up at twelve fifteen.”

Shortly after one o’clock, Leigh, Allison, and Randall arrived at the clinic. Lenna had been left with her mother at the Koslow house, pouting at the prospect of being drafted into yet another happy afternoon of cleaning imaginary dirt, and the mood of the family had been somber. No one liked being laid up, having one’s home broken into, and then being stolen from. More surprising was that everyone, including Frances, truly seemed to miss the bird.

“I’ll check the mail, Mom,” Allison offered, flitting off the second they had Randall settled on his stool. His first patient of the day — another emergency visit — was already waiting for him.

Leigh looked across the exam table at a man who was about her own age, but for whom time had apparently frozen in the seventies. He wore a tie-dyed tee shirt, wide-bottomed jeans that dragged the floor, and grungy sandals. His long, graying brown hair was gathered into a thin pony tail, and the glasses perched on his head had giant round lenses framed with tortoiseshell plastic. He reeked of cigarette smoke.

“Hello there, Leonard,” Dr. Koslow said pleasantly. “What seems to be the problem?”

Leonard gave a sad grimace, then reached his arm into the carrier on the table. “Come on, Bartie bird,” he called with a clucking sound. “Come on, boy.”

The bird that stepped onto his hand was one of the most pathetic Leigh had ever seen. It was a cockatoo, and it should have looked very much like the magnificent Zeus that Olan had brought in yesterday. Instead, it looked like a caricature. Its head was snowy white, with a spiky bright yellow crest. But from the neck down, its bumpy pink skin was totally naked, without a single feather. Worse, in the center of its chest was an angry open wound.

“I hate to admit failure, Doc,” Leonard said sadly. “But I swear, I don’t know what else to do for him. Every collar we’ve tried drives him absolutely crazy. He obsesses about getting it off, won’t eat, bangs his head around till I’m afraid he’ll give himself a brain injury. But without the collar, there’s just no stopping him from plucking. I’ve tried every combination of on-time and off-time, and it just doesn’t matter. He won’t eat till it’s off and then he’ll start plucking even while he’s eating.”

Dr. Koslow sighed. “I know how hard you’ve worked with him Leonard,” he said sympathetically.

“Every enrichment I can think of,” the man lamented. “Everything that’s worked with the others. Toys, physical therapy, bird companions, no bird companions. One-on-one attention… I even hired a pet sitter during the day so he’d never be alone at the house. I’ve asked around online, and there’s only one thing that keeps coming up that might help him, and I can’t give it to him.”

Dr. Koslow nodded. “Flight.”

Leonard blew out a breath and nodded. “My house just isn’t big enough, even if he did have the feathers for it. I’ve got him on the waiting list for an outdoor sanctuary in southern Florida — they’ve had decent luck with some tough cases.” His voice suddenly cracked. “But now that he’s opened up that wound again, I’m afraid he won’t last long enough to get there!”

Allison rematerialized in the room. Leigh looked down and noticed that she was holding three more envelopes.

“Don’t feel bad, Leonard,” Randall assured. “You’ve done absolutely everything you could for him.”

Leigh watched sadly as the wannabe hippie lifted his free arm to wipe a tear onto his shirt sleeve.

“There has to be something else,” Leonard whispered hoarsely. “I can’t just let him die.” The cockatoo squawked. Then it bent down its dark beak and nipped at Leonard’s hand.

Leonard didn’t flinch. He just kept sniffling.

“Allison,” Randall said calmly. “Would you go get Morgan? We need to get this wound cleaned up.”

Allison nodded and disappeared. Leigh was about to disappear herself when an unexpected sound stopped her cold.

Leonard coughed. A long, drawn-out, hacking cough. A smoker’s cough.

It sounded eerily familiar.

“I’ve been thinking, Doc,” Leonard said when he could breathe again. “I know Bart’s a long way from flying right now. But… do you think being outside in an aviary could make a difference? Because if you do, I’ll… well, I’ll call Skippy. We’ve had our problems in the past, as you know. But if being at her place could help him…”

Leonard’s uneven voice trailed off, and Randall nodded. “I think it’s worth a shot, yes,” the veterinarian answered.

Morgan appeared and slipped behind Leonard to take hold of the bird. “Oh, poor baby!” she cooed. Her pretty nose wrinkled a bit, and her dark eyes narrowed at Leonard. “You
smoke
around him?” she asked disbelievingly.

Leonard bristled. Randall’s shoulders slumped with a sigh.

“I do
not
smoke around any of my birds!” Leonard retorted hotly. “I always go outside!”

“They can still smell it,” Morgan lectured, swooping up the bird like a pro. She held him out, chest nicely exposed, for Randall’s attention. “Bird lungs can be very sensitive, you know. You shouldn’t be doing it either. Have you heard that smoking causes cancer?”

The admonishing look that Randall shot at Morgan was stern enough to make Leigh cringe, but Morgan was oblivious. Leonard tried to respond, but succeeded only in bringing on another round of coughing.

Morgan rolled her eyes at him.

Hack, wheeze, hack. Hack hack hack…

Leigh’s mind flew back to the night before last. A dark house. No one in sight…

She couldn’t swear that the sound was
exactly
the same. But it was amazingly close.

She realized that Allison was at her side, watching her carefully. The look in the girl’s eyes showed she had guessed what her mother was thinking.

Leigh took another look at the slim, forty-something man in front of her. If he wore a hoodie that hid his hair… was it possible?

Her brain replayed the brief glimpse she’d gotten of the intruder as he hung over the window ledge, but there were no clues to draw from, no detail. She had seen light skin on his hands — that was all. As for body frame, yes, it was possible. This man was average height, with relatively narrow shoulders. She had assumed the figure to be a younger man, or a woman, but…

“What do you do for a living, Leonard?” Leigh asked pleasantly.

It was a non sequitur, but Leonard appeared to welcome the distraction, even though he probably didn’t know who Leigh was or why she was standing there.

I’m a professor,” he answered. “At Carnegie Mellon.”

Leigh tried not to look as shocked as she felt. She would have guessed he was a zookeeper. Or the owner of a kitschy vegan restaurant. Or perhaps on lifetime disability for some nonobvious malady. But a professor? “What do you teach?” she asked.

“Biological anthropology.”

Leigh was no longer surprised.

Leonard coughed again.

“Mom?” Allison said quietly, tugging on her shirt. “Can I talk to you a minute?”

Leigh registered her daughter’s words only with a lag. Her brain was still replaying the cough. She wasn’t imagining it. The pitch was a little different, maybe, but it was the same rasp, the same cadence…

She snapped back to alertness and followed Allison out of the exam room and around the corner to the treatment area. “What is it?”

Allison frowned at her. “You know what. You think it was him who broke into Grandma and Grandpa’s, don’t you? You recognize his cough! I can see it in your face. Shouldn’t we call the police? Or at least Aunt Mo?”

Leigh shook her head. “His cough does sound like the one I heard, but that’s hardly any reason to sic the police on him. We have no proof of anything, and he’s a client. Besides, he’s fully employed and obviously knows how attached people get to their animals. What motivation would he have for causing so much heartache and risking his own arrest?”

Allison’s small forehead furrowed with thought. “I don’t know. But I still think we should call Aunt Mo.”

Leigh struggled with her own battling inclinations. Hearing the same cough was downright spooky, but it was only a cough — she could never be certain to the point of testifying. Still, it was worth checking the man out, wasn’t it? “Maura’s already coming, remember? She should be meeting us here any minute.”

“Oh, right,” Allison said with embarrassment.

The door from the surgery opened and Kirsten’s fluffy blond head appeared. “Hi, Allison! Hello, Mrs. Harmon!” the girl said sweetly, bouncing by them to look around the corner toward the exam rooms. “Ooh!” she exclaimed. “It’s the bird professor. Does he have that pretty macaw?”

Allison’s scowl was so pronounced Leigh almost laughed out loud.

“No,” Allison said shortly.

“Does your cousin really live on a farm in the North Hills?” Kirsten continued. “With a pond and a log cabin and everything?” Her vacuous blue eyes were wide, as wide as they could appear with so much mascara weighing down her lids. The teen hadn’t been wearing nearly so much makeup yesterday, Leigh noted.

“Yes,” Allison snipped.

“That is so cool!” Kirsten enthused. When Allison made no further response, Kirsten moved toward the exam rooms again. “Well, I’m going to go see the pretty macaw!” she said with a smile. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Harmon.”

Allison made a low, grumbling noise.

“Hey, everybody!” a husky voice boomed from the waiting room.

Leigh and Allison hurried in its direction, and found themselves surprised. Maura’s presence in a small room always had its effects, but usually they were positive. Today the policewoman seemed to usher in a chill. The waiting clients sat as tense as drums, even as they smiled at the dour-looking infant protruding from Maura’s chest. With petnapping on their minds, they probably wondered if the detective’s appearance at the clinic meant something sinister had happened. Leigh had disturbing visions of the false rumors that could be generated.
A patient must have been snatched from the clinic! Whatever you do, don’t leave your pets there!

“Hey,” Leigh called out in her most cheerful tone, gesturing for Maura to come on back. “It’s about time you got here. I’m starving. How’s Eddie?”

The baby turned his head toward Leigh, looked her up and down, and started to cry.

Maura sighed. “Good going, Koslow.”

Leigh’s shoulders slumped. “What did I do?”

Mrs. Gregg, who sat by the reception desk without her Maine Coon today, chuckled warmly. “Oh, the poor little tyke,” she cooed. “So many new faces! My Jonathan always cried when strangers talked to him.”

Leigh fought the urge to argue that she was hardly a stranger. Why advertise the fact that your best friend’s baby couldn’t stand you?

The door to the far exam room opened, and Leonard appeared with his carrier in hand.

“My man!” Maura called happily, stepping over to extend her hand.

Leonard looked up with a smile and offered his own free hand for a fist bump. “SuperCop!” he replied, only afterwards seeming to notice they had an audience. His smile disappeared as he looked around the room, but upon noticing the baby, he brightened up again. “So here’s the new arrival!” he exclaimed, bending down for a closer look.

The baby smiled back at him.

Leigh sighed. Allison giggled.

“I’d say that what’s new with me is pretty obvious,” Maura chatted. “What’s new with you?”

Leonard straightened and turned his attention to the reception desk. “Aw, you know. Same old, same old.”

Leigh watched the exchange with curiosity. She didn’t realize that Leonard and Maura knew each other; then again, she didn’t know Leonard at all. But the policewoman and the professor gave the impression of being old friends.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to it,” Maura said finally, turning back toward Leigh and Allison and following them out of the waiting room. “Take care, dude!” she called over her shoulder.

The women didn’t speak until they had made their way downstairs to Randall’s office. Unfortunately, there was no more privacy to be had downstairs. Ethan and Matthias were busily stacking piles of newspapers while Jared pushed a broom, and Paige was attending to a Yorkie that had chewed its bandage off.

Leigh lifted her hands helplessly. “Isn’t there anywhere you can talk in this place without being overheard?”

Allison shook her head.

Leigh figured the girl should know. “Let’s go outside.”

Chapter 15

The women walked up the street a bit and leaned against Leigh’s van. “How do you know Leonard?” Leigh asked.

Maura seemed surprised. “We went to school together. He’s an Avalon boy.”

Leigh explained about the familiar coughing sound. “So I guess you think I’m crazy and that there’s no way he could be our petnapper?”

“Well now,” Maura said with a smile. “Those are two separate issues. But no, I can’t see Leonard risking everything for a few extra bucks. It’s not his style; he’s too much of a softie. It would take some pretty extraordinary circumstances to make him do something that desperate.”

“Aunt Mo?” Allison said plaintively, holding out the handful of letters. Leigh suspected the child was about to burst with curiosity.

“Right,” Maura agreed. “Just to be on the safe side…” she dug into the bag slung over her shoulder and produced a pair of gloves and a paper sack. Leigh opened the van and the detective set up a field lab in the back seat. She opened the first envelope and held out a single square of notepaper with block handwriting in blue ink.

CATCH HIM! Saw his back running off — skinny guy in hoodie.

“That’s not much to go on,” Allison said disparagingly.

Maura opened another. This note was longer, and produced by a computer printer.

I’m afraid to go to police but this [expletive] grabbed my cat out of the backyard and made me pay $500 to get him back! Wanted money in can behind elementary school. I heard some woman in Ben Avon had to pay two grand for her dog, but that’s all I know. The [expletive expletive]!