Nonstop Spaniels (Novella) (4 page)

Chapter 5

We walked slowly back the way we had come on the pathways that I now noticed required a lot of repair. At least the kennel areas looked up to par.

But I had the impression that PetForYou was, or at least would be, in a struggle to survive.

Dr. Ideman might have used some of his own funds from his veterinary clinic to tide things over. Maybe he’d blended the finances somehow. That was the impression I got from what Spencer had said, even though he had implied possible misuse of funds—or not.

I didn’t know how things had been left by Ideman upon his death, but at the moment I had to assume that, even if all had been adequate before for the shelter, that wasn’t necessarily going to continue.

But could I help?

Ellie apparently wondered the same thing. “Lauren, I hate to ask this, but I know that HotRescues is funded by Dante DeFrancisco of HotPets. Do you think he’d be willing to help us out here?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Dante sees things his own way. He’s a great proponent right now of NKLA, and since PetForYou hasn’t joined, that could weigh against his decision. But—”

“I love the idea of making PetForYou officially no-kill and joining the coalition,” Ellie said enthusiastically. Then she wilted again as we continued to stroll back toward the office building. “But I just sort of unofficially took over running the place today, pending what the board decides. The best I can do right now is to make a motion at the emergency meeting we’ll have soon.”

“And I can let Dante know that when I tell him about your request for some financial help,” I assured her.

Knowing Dante and this situation, I suspected he would provide some funding, especially if PetForYou’s board approved joining NKLA. But he hadn’t gotten unimaginably rich by just tossing his money around.

I had a feeling he’d want some kind of audit of this shelter’s books done before he threw funds in this direction.

But I’d let him tell me that.

When we returned to the office, I saw that several police officers—as well as guys in suits who were probably detectives—were striding up the walk from the opposite direction. Ellie gasped. “I talked to them already.”

I didn’t tell her that murder investigations could involve several interrogations, although that had been what I’d seen and even experienced.

And now I wondered—and even hoped—that the cops were turning their suspicions on Ellie Hankley, and off Ricki.

She did seem to have a good motive, after all.

“You go ahead,” I said. “I’ll see myself out.”

“I’ll walk with you,” Spencer said. “I have to get back to work. I was only here for a little while to give Ellie some moral support.”

“Which you did,” she said, sounding brave as she gave him a quick good-bye kiss.

I walked out of the facility with Spencer. “This is all such a mess,” he said. “And Ellie was unhappy with good reason. But she didn’t kill Dan, even though we’re both glad that Ricki got that mad and did it.”

I stopped, glaring at him. “Why do you say that?”

He looked somewhat abashed as he lowered his eyes. “That’s what the news suggested,” he mumbled.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “I know Ricki didn’t do it. I hope Ellie didn’t do it.” What about Spencer? Would he kill to protect the shelter his girlfriend loved? Somehow, that didn’t sound right, especially since I hadn’t heard anything specific that would trigger either him or Ellie to have killed the vet. “I’ll approach Dante, as I said,” I continued. “But I want Ellie and you to come up with the names and motivations of as many people as you can think of who might have wanted to get rid of Dr. Ideman and let me know.”

I didn’t leave right away, though. Ellie had heard about my offer to take in some animals who were long-timers at PetForYou. Apparently the police weren’t there to interrogate her, at least not immediately, since she soon caught up with us and asked whether I’d been serious about my offer.

“I realize that things have changed around here,” she said, “but for their sakes . . . well, if you’re still okay with taking them, you’re welcome to them.”

I agreed to take six animals, the four dogs and two cats, to HotRescues. That did involve my getting their medical records from the veterinary clinic, among other details. I asked Ellie to fax pertinent pages to Carlie’s animal hospital and she indicated all of them were a go.

Even so, I’d take them there for another checkup before bringing them to HotRescues.

Both Ellie and Spencer helped me to load them into crates I had at the rear of my pet-friendly Venza. As we left, I saw one of the guys in suits approach Ellie. Time now for her next interrogation?

• • • 

I approached Dante quickly, not in person but by a call on my hands-free phone system as I drove away.

I’d barely said hello before Dante said, “You’re calling about the Ideman murder, I assume.”

“You assume correctly about the general topic,” I said as I stopped at a traffic light near the entrance to the 134 Freeway headed west. “But why do you assume I’m calling you about it?”

He laughed. Fortunately, even though Dante was a business associate who was essentially my boss since he controlled all the purse strings, we were also friends. “I can guess, but why don’t you fill me in?”

I did, including my concern that our HotRescues volunteer Ricki was a suspect in the killing. “I’ll see if I can help her, of course.”

“Of course.” He still sounded amused.

“But I’m really concerned about what will happen to his shelter PetForYou and all its current inhabitants. I’m already taking six animals with me now, and I’m going to call some friends from Southern California Rescuers to see if we could find a place for all of them to go if the shelter goes under. But I also want to know more about its reputation in the rescue community. I’d heard of it but didn’t know much about it until Ricki brought me there this week and introduced me to the facilities and to Dr. Ideman.” I was cruising west along the freeway now. It was midday and wasn’t extremely crowded, so I was making good time.

“You met him? This week?” Dante sounded astonished—and I’d thought nothing ever surprised him.

“Well . . . yes. Ricki was concerned about the shelter, too, and Ideman’s failure to join NKLA. I told her I’d sound him out about it. He claimed his shelter was a New Hope Partner and they adhered to his own no-kill policies as much as a vet could, but he didn’t want any other group telling them what to do. My attempts to explain what NKLA was all about got nowhere.”

“And you’re not a suspect in his murder?” I knew Dante was kidding, but his question still sent a shiver up my back. Good thing I was just cruising along without many cars near me.

“No, but I do admit I was going to try to keep a closer eye on the kill rate there, as much as I could from Ricki and any other source I could dredge up.

“I’ll just bet you were. And if it was higher than the good doctor admitted?”

“A little bad publicity might have hurt his veterinary clinic. But I’d have been careful to make sure he didn’t start disposing of healthy animals in his shelter in response. I’d already asked to take some of his longest residents to HotRescues for rehoming in case he was thinking about disposing of them to make room for more.”

“So is whoever’s in charge now of a no-kill persuasion?”

I told him about Ellie Hankley taking over at least until their board made a decision. “That leads me to why I’m calling. While I was there, we visited their food storage area, and the cupboard was nearly bare.”

“And you want HotPets to contribute some supplies to fill it up?”

“Yes, if that’s okay with you, but I think there need to be some conditions.” I told him that I’d heard Ellie and her CPA boyfriend surmise that Ideman had been using monetary contributions for his own benefit since he donated veterinary services to the shelter.

“But he didn’t own the shelter, did he?” Dante asked. “I assume it was a nonprofit, and he just ran it.”

I maneuvered into the right lane since my exit would be next. “Exactly. The ongoing board and whoever’s in charge aren’t likely to do the same thing, but—”

“But I think I’ll make HotPets’ contributions, which could be ongoing, subject to an initial audit of the books, plus periodic ones after that.”

“Amen,” I said.

• • • 

Good. Several things were now addressed and I could worry a little less about the PetForYou animals. Or at least their having enough to eat.

After dropping my six new guests for rehoming off at Carlie’s, I headed toward HotRescues.

And was met, inside our welcome area, but one extremely irate man. Nina was rarely cowed, but she was by this guy, whom she introduced as Warren Bartt.

“I was promised by that jerk Ideman that I’d be able to adopt Ivo this week if I contributed a ton of money to his miserable shelter,” Bartt shouted at me. “He kept putting me off, and now that he’s dead I figured I’d be able to pick up Ivo today. They told me he was coming here instead. I want my damned dog. Now.”

As taken aback as I was, I believed I now had yet another murder suspect to add to my list.

Chapter 6

“When was the last time you spoke to Dr. Ideman?” I asked, keeping my tone mild. I stood in front of our leopard print welcome desk as if hiding it, since this man wasn’t welcome in the least, not with his attitude.

Even so, he didn’t look particularly dangerous. He wasn’t much taller than my five foot six, plump but not huge, with a lot of mousy brown hair that he might not have combed that day and enough of a beard shadow to make me wonder if he was trying to look sexy. If so, he didn’t succeed.

“Yesterday,” he spat. “And the day before. And the day before that.” He took a deep breath while glaring, as if preparing to shout once more. Then he seemed to take control of his temper. “Okay, look. Dan Ideman was the vet a friend’s family used for their dog. I learned about his PetForYou shelter and when I decided I wanted a dog, I went there. My friend introduced us, and then someone showed me around the place. I really liked Ivo and told Dan so. Ivo’s a really nice Brittany spaniel mix.”

I knew that. He was one of the dogs I’d scooped up and taken to Carlie’s.

“Dan seemed happy about it,” Bartt continued. “Said Ivo’d been there for a while and had nearly reached the time he’d be put down simply because he hadn’t found a home.”

“Really?” I knew I must have sounded incredulous. Sure, Ricki had had her concerns, and Ideman had said he didn’t want to join NKLA. But despite my own doubts I was surprised he had been so open with this man about the possibility of killing Ivo. Bartt took a menacing step toward me. Beyond his shoulder I saw Nina pick up the phone and motion toward it, silently asking if I wanted her to call the police.

I gave a quick shake no, then said, “Look, Mr. Bartt. Since you’re here, you must know I’ve taken Ivo away from PetForYou to make sure nothing like that happens to him. But we have a lot of policies here. Right now, Ivo’s being checked over by our vet of choice, and that’s not Dr. Ideman’s clinic. Assuming he’s okay, he’ll be available for adoption here in a week or so. You can always put in an application, but you should know that we only adopt out to people we think will provide a good home.” I hoped my smile wasn’t too challenging. “And if you think that’s you, you’re not really demonstrating it here.”

I braced myself either to duck or run, but instead of attacking he wilted.

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that . . . well, Dan was a con man, or at least I think he was. He said that the PetForYou shelter had some financial issues despite its being related to the veterinary clinic, which was fairly successful. I own my own trucking company, it does well, and I gave him some substantial contributions for the shelter. He kept asking for more, figuratively dangling Ivo in front of me to keep me coming back. I could have strangled him—” His eyes widened as he realized what he’d just said. “But I didn’t. I didn’t kill him and didn’t mean to imply . . . Really.”

“Mm-hmm,” I said noncommittally as I continued to assess him as a more viable suspect.

His gaze at me now looked imploring. “Please, Ms. Vancouver. I’ve already been questioned by the cops. I’m not under arrest or anything like that. And there’s no reason for me to be. But I really, really want to adopt Ivo. Will you let me?”

All business now, I explained our process in more detail and handed him an application.

“Assuming Ivo’s healthy, I’ll want you to come back and we’ll go over the application. If everything in it is in order, then I’ll probably allow the adoption to go through.”

I again met Nina’s gaze. Her eyebrows were raised, as if she asked “Really?”

“Of course, that’s only going to happen if you genuinely didn’t kill Dr. Ideman,” I said offhandedly and watched his reaction. He still seemed sad and withered.

“I understand, the way I came in here and what I said, why you might think I did, Ms. Vancouver. But honestly, I didn’t. I was just so frustrated . . .”

“I understand,” I said, then paused. “Do you have any idea who might really have killed him?”

“Other than the lady they’re talking about in the news, that woman who was an intern or something at his veterinary clinic? They said she argued with him about killing animals unnecessarily. Hearing that made me believe even more that he might have wound up killing Ivo. But—well, I once met Dan’s ex-girlfriend, Janine Norgram. She seemed nice enough, and their breakup was a few months ago. I doubt she would have killed him, and other than her—I’ve no idea.”

He left soon after filling out the application for Ivo. I now had enough information to follow up on him, both as a potential adopter and as a murder suspect. I also jotted down Janine Norgram’s name.

Then, back in my office with Zoey lying, as usual, at my feet, I called Antonio Bautrel to see what he could tell me about the cops’ current take on suspects.

“Hi, Lauren,” the detective said. “I was wondering when I’d hear from you next.” We chatted for a minute about how he was doing, how I was doing, how Brooke was doing—and then we got down to the purpose of my call. “I can’t tell you much,” he said, not surprising me. “But here’s some general information.” He told me that the detectives on the case were in fact looking at the ex-girlfriend, but she was just a person of interest without being much of a suspect, at least not yet. “That guy Bartt? He was at the shelter when our guys were there asking the volunteers and staff some questions. His attitude sucked, so he was interrogated. He’s more than a person of interest, but they’re still checking him out.”

Good,
I thought. And yet . . . well, despite what I’d initially thought of him, I almost felt sorry for Warren Bartt, and how Ideman had apparently strung him along. After all, I could understand how someone would do virtually anything after falling in love with a dog and wanting to adopt it no matter how many hurdles he had to overcome.

I purposely knelt on the floor and hugged Zoey, who nuzzled me. Then I spoke to Antonio again over my cell phone. “Is Ellie Hankley a suspect?”

“The volunteer whose grandfather founded PetForYou? Our guys on the case are aware there was some ill will there. So, yes, she’s being considered. But, Lauren, you won’t be surprised to know that Ricki’s still the most likely suspect. She and Ideman were arguing the day he was killed. You were there. You saw it.”

“But I also know Ricki, and so do you. She was angry because Ideman wouldn’t commit to a no-kill policy, just gave lip-service to it. I wouldn’t kill a human being over that, and neither would she. But I can understand her anger—and maybe even an urge to strangle him.”

“Then should I have them put you on their list, too?”

I knew he was joking but said, “Don’t you dare!”

“Okay.” He paused. “I know that when you get involved in these situations, you worry the case like a hunting dog with a stuffed animal in its mouth, till you kill it. The case, I mean, not any animal, stuffed or not. What’s your take on this one so far?”

I smiled. I didn’t like getting involved in homicide cases, but I was somewhat glad that this real cop recognized that I’d had a bit of success in determining who actually committed some murders. But of course this was Antonio, my friend and Brooke’s significant other.

“Still working on it,” I admitted. “But just so you know, I’ve asked Dante to make a contribution to the shelter to ensure the animals have enough to eat. Apparently it has some money problems.”

“Even with its connection to the veterinary clinic? I’m sure the guys on the case are aware of it, but it still sounds strange.”

“I agree. A condition of Dante’s contributing anything, money or supplies, will be an audit of the books.”

“And you’ll supply a copy to the authorities.” It wasn’t a question, nor did it need to be.

“Of course I’ll cooperate, and I’m sure Dante will, too.”