The Telltale Turtle (The Pet Psychic Mysteries) (20 page)

A call came in almost immediately. "Good morning, Mary Catherine. I have a question for you about my hamster, Zack. He doesn't like for me to pick him up. He's started nipping at me when I put my hand down close to him. What can I do?"

"Well, first of all, did he ever like for you to pick him up?"

"When I first got him, he didn't seem to mind. We had an accident and I dropped him. It wasn't far. He didn't get hurt. I don't think that's the problem."

"You might if you were as small as a hamster and some giant came along and picked you up and dropped you," she said. "Are you sure he wasn't hurt? Did you take him to the vet?"

"No. But he was up and running right away."

"But he bites you when you come close now." She sighed. "You're going to have to be patient and work to regain his trust. You were the one who dropped him. You have to prove it won't happen again. It might take some time. Believe it or not, the hamsters I've known had very long memories of any slights against them."

"But he's just a hamster."

"And you're just a human. You made a mistake. Have you apologized to Zack? That might go a long way toward him trusting you again. After that, take your time when you approach him. Show him you aren't in a hurry and are willing to be very gentle with him."

"It might be easier to get a new hamster!"

Mary Catherine held on to her temper by a slender thread. Why was he even calling her about the poor hamster if he was ready to chuck him down the toilet and get a new one? "That may be true, but you would probably face the same issues with another hamster. They're small, fragile creatures. If you want to be careless and not take the time to get to know your hamster, I suggest you get a bigger pet."

"Thanks, Mary Catherine. I wouldn't really get rid of Zack. I'll try what you said."

Mindy pointed in her direction and Mary Catherine took her second call. "This is the Pet Psychic. What can I do for you?"

"Sorry about your dogs," the voice said. "I guess the Meaty Boy taste test failed. I hope nothing else happens to them."

This is Devon from Boston.

If you can really talk to animals, tell a bird to fly over our congressman's house and drop a bomb on his head.

'nuff said.

"WHY DON'T YOU TELL me what you know about that," Mary Catherine encouraged the caller.

"I think I've said enough for now. I think you know why this happened. I don't need to spell it out for you."

"You're wrong. I have no idea what you're talking about. If you were a dog, we might be on the same wavelength, but as a human-"

Corey made the cut sign, telling her the phone line was dead. Mary Catherine nodded and pressed the button for the second phone line. The caller was a teenager worried about her Lab puppy who didn't want to play. Shaken, but determined not to let the psycho caller ruin her show, Mary Catherine continued through that call and five more before the show was over.

She picked up Baylor and took him out of the sound booth with her. She was trembling with anger, but not willing to give the psycho caller the satisfaction of knowing it.

Angellus was already there. "Why didn't you tell me about all of the things happening around the clinic?"

"Because I couldn't see where they had anything to do with Ferndelle's death and that's what you're investigating."

Colin joined them. "We're getting slammed with phone calls about Meaty Boy dog food. What's going on, Mary Catherine? I know the station owner is going to call and want to know too."

"I don't know what to tell you. The dogs Buck brought in and the three dogs I brought for the taste test were all sick last night. Jenny said it was the Meaty Boy food, but it was just some extra fat he put on the food to make the dogs like it. Of course he cheated to make himself look better."

"That's just great." Colin threw up his hands.

"All of the dogs are fine this morning. Jenny thinks they can come up with a formula using that idea to make the food better. Buck is paying for testing and giving us a nice donation for the clinic. Or at least he was going to if we kept this quiet."

Angellus shook his head. "I think we've gone beyond the Jamison murder case. I don't know what's happening yet, but between finding your cat in a cage, and your threatening caller, something's wrong. I didn't even know about the dog food."

"Don't forget somebody cut the brake line on her car yesterday," Charlie added as he got off the elevator.

"You!" Mary Catherine flew at him. "You have a lot of nerve showing your face here. You sent my cousin pictures of my home and the clinic." "

I took pictures" Charlie defended himself. "But I haven't talked to him since I got to know you."

"So you quit the case?" Angellus asked.

"Not yet," Charlie admitted. "But I was getting around to it. Since I was spending time with her, it was a conflict of interest."

"Like I believe that!" Mary Catherine turned her back on him. "He's probably my psycho caller. Ask him where he was when that man called my show a few minutes ago."

"That's easy," Charlie said. "I was downstairs getting coffee, listening to your show. I knew you'd need a ride home"

"You bet that's easy," Angellus told him. "Let me see your cell phone."

"My cell phone? There are sensitive client numbers on my phone. I can't just hand it over to you.

"That sounds suspicious to me," Colin pointed out.

She raised her chin, conscious of all the men in the room looking at her. "He was there. He was there when Baylor ended up in the cage too. He was right there when my brakes failed."

Angellus nodded. "That sounds suspicious to me too. Dowd, I think you and I need to have a talk at the station."

Charlie spun Mary Catherine around to face him and held her arms. "I thought we had an understanding about all this." He kept his voice low, his eyes focused on hers. "I thought you understood the other part of me that knows when there's trouble. You don't really believe I had anything to do with what's happened, do you?"

She refused to look at him. "I don't know what to believe right now. All I know is that you've told me you were working for my cousin who wants the building I inherited. His lawyer showed me the pictures you took. What else can I think?"

"Come on," Angellus urged him toward the elevator. "I think you've become an unwanted member of this group now and we'd like you to be a member of our ongoing party at the station. Move, Dowd!"

Charlie tried to shake Angellus off. The detective threatened to put him in handcuffs if he didn't cooperate. With a last look at Mary Catherine, Charlie left with Angellus.

"Wow!" Colin sat down on one of the green plastic chairs. "That was intense. I don't know why he'd want to hurt you, Mary Catherine. It doesn't make sense."

Mindy came out of the engineer's booth and put her hands on Colin's shoulders. "I think Corey got a fix on the number that called you, Mary Catherine. We could try calling it back again and see who answers."

The three of them, with Baylor looking over Mary Catherine's shoulder, looked at the cell phone screen as she dialed the number. The person who answered was Teddy, who said he was working first shift at a local convenience store in Landfall Park, about twenty minutes from downtown.

Teddy didn't sound anything like the psycho caller. After twenty years of taking phone calls, one thing Mary Catherine knew was voices. "Was there anyone else using the phone at the store?"

"I'm the only one here until noon every day," Teddy responded. "I went to the bathroom for a few minutes but the store was empty when I left."

Mary Catherine thanked him and hung up. "I don't know who it was, but it couldn't have been Charlie. It would take him too long to get back here."

"Who else would want to do something like this?" Colin asked. "Not that I'm complaining. Your ratings are gonna go through the roof."

"I'm sure that's not what the caller had in mind," Mary Catherine said. "The question is: how does this person know so much? Charlie, Buck, Jenny, Danny, and I were the only ones who knew about the dogs being sick."

"Maybe Charlie is keeping someone posted on this," Mindy added. "He's a private detective. Maybe someone hired him to do these things."

"And the psycho caller is the one who hired him," Colin added. "That makes sense."

I feel so stupid letting him into my life," Mary Catherine told them. "You'd think I'd know better by now."

"You?" Colin laughed. "At least no one is trying to frame you for murder."

"One thing I'm curious about," Mary Catherine said. "What made you come to Ferndelle's house the morning I found her? Was that a routine thing?"

Colin shrugged. "Not really. I visited her once in awhile. We weren't especially close, even before my parents died. After the thing with the money, we only saw each other occasionally. Believe it or not, she was angrier about the money than I was. I went there that morning because someone called me and told me there was a problem. I thought it was the police when I found out she was dead."

"Did you tell the police about this?"

"I think so" He played with his glasses. "I'm pretty sure I did. I might've forgotten. It's hard to think when you're worried about someone beating the information out of you."

Mary Catherine thought for a minute. "Did he call you on your cell phone?"

"Of course! I don't have a land line. Those are so passe" He smiled at Mindy. "Only old folks have those now."

"What are you thinking?" Mindy wondered.

"I'm thinking if someone called Colin that morning to lure him to his aunt's house, we should be able to find out who it is."

"How would we do that?" Mindy held Colin's hand. "I thought you couldn't trace a cell phone call."

"Of course you can," Mary Catherine told her. "Even us old folks know you can look at calls made to your cell phone from your online account. Let's find a computer"

Colin logged into his cell phone account, recalling about what time the call had come in telling him he needed to go to his aunt's house. "I just got off my treadmill after the Pet Psychic show was over and Buck had finally stopped complaining and left the studio. I think that must've been around 10:15 or 10:30."

"There it is!" Mary Catherine pointed to the incoming phone call on his account. "Let me write that down."

"You don't need to." Corey was watching from behind them. "That's the same number of the convenience store where the call to the Pet Psychic originated today."

"Are you sure?" Mindy asked. "That would mean the two things are related."

"That might mean I'm off the hook." Colin stood up and did a little dance. He stopped, red-faced, when he realized what he'd done. "I guess we should call the police."

"I don't know about that," Mary Catherine disagreed. "I think we should pay Teddy at the convenience store a visit. Then if we find something important, we can call Detective Angellus. Otherwise I'm afraid he might ignore it."

"I'm for anything that proves I'm not a killer," Colin said. "We can take the station van."

"One of us has to stay here," Mindy said. "I'll stay, honey. You go out and prove you're innocent."

Colin kissed her. "You're the best, sweetie. I'll call you if we find anything."

Mary Catherine waited until she and Colin were on the elevator alone going downstairs. "You lied to me. You haven't told her yet, have you?"

Colin squirmed. "I was all ready to tell her. Then I started thinking: is this the kind of thing I'd want to know about Mindy? I decided it wasn't. She's better off not feeling guilty about me turning to another woman."

"Are you serious? Why would she feel guilty?"

"Because women are like that, Mary Catherine. They don't always want to know the truth. Sometimes, they want to be coddled and protected from the harsh realities of the world."

"If you were worth it, I'd kick you in the butt! You can't put this off, Colin. If you don't tell her the truth, I will. Every woman deserves to know the truth about the man she's going to marry. You might be telling yourself all that other hogwash, but don't ask me to buy it."

"She'll leave me. I might even lose my job."

"You should've thought of that before you started running around with Charlene and her egotistical poodle." Mary Catherine walked out of the elevator as the doors opened.

"You don't understand." Colin followed her. "I don't think Mindy can take the truth. She might go off the deep end. She really loves me, you know."

"And obviously she's a fool to do it." She looked down the street to find where the station van was parked. "I'm not kidding. If you don't tell her by this time tomorrow, I will."

Colin pulled the keys out of his pocket as they located the van parked near the corner. "Okay. I'll tell her. But it's on your head if something bad happens."

"I'm afraid not, my friend." Mary Catherine boosted herself up into the passenger seat after putting Baylor on the floor. "It's about time you grew up and took some responsibility. I suppose that's why your aunt kept the family money."