Pet in Peril

by Marie Celine

  But not now.

  Perspiration rained from her brow and stung her eyes. Ted was loping toward Lina. The groomer had her back to him. Without skipping a step, Kitty yelled, ‘Lina, look out behind you!’

  Lina stopped at the edge of the lake and was standing on a small boulder that jutted out into the water. Her arm moved and Kitty saw a small splash as something struck the water and sunk. The groomer turned too late. Ted was on her, though she must have heard his steps pounding up the path at the last second. She dropped her arms and faced him. Ted had come to a stop a few feet shy of her.

  The dogs glanced at Ted then went back to sniffing the grass.

  Kitty jogged on, her view of the two unobstructed now. She waved her arms as she ran, trying to get Lina’s attention, but the groomer’s eyes were on Ted. The two appeared to be talking. Lina hopped down from the rocks. What was she doing? What were they saying? Why was she getting closer to Ted instead of running away? Kitty silently urged Lina to jump in the lake and swim to safety on the other side.

  Couldn’t Lina swim?

  Kitty opened her mouth to call out a warning then froze, her mouth hanging open. What on earth? Lina was approaching Ted. Had she lost her mind? Ted crossed his arms and said something. In the next instant, Lina had crouched and her arms and legs swung out with murderous intensity. Ted fell like a stone to the ground. Meek and mild Lina had some serious self-defense chops!

  Kitty once more pushed on. She wasn’t more than a minute or two away now. Ted was lying in a fetal position trying to fend off Lina’s blistering attack. Kitty couldn’t resist a smirk. That would teach him.

  Still, she couldn’t let Lina kill the guy. She had to reach her and help. Kitty was only a couple hundred feet away now. She could hear Mercedes and Benz barking like crazy but taking no sides in the fight. From her left, Kitty caught a blur of motion. It was Howie. ‘Howie!’ Her voice came out like a harsh whisper.

  Howie had broken through the trees only a few feet from Lina and Ted. He shouted and both Lina and Ted looked up. Ted’s hair was tousled and his nose bloodied. Lina waved to her co-worker. Thank goodness this was all over. Kitty slowed to a walk. Howie and Lina could handle things from here on in. She dragged her phone out of her purse and hit 911. Thank goodness she had reception. ‘Come quick,’ she said, ‘we’ve caught a murderer!’

  She pulled in a breath as the dispatcher spoke. ‘That’s right,’ answered Kitty. ‘Wendenhorn Trail, out by the lake.’ She waved her phone in the air in Lina and Howie’s direction but they still didn’t seem to notice her, too occupied with their own problem – Ted – at the moment. ‘Don’t worry, guys, I—’

  Kitty dropped her phone as Lina’s right fist lashed out, striking Howie in the neck. Howie blurted out in pain and fell to his knees, choking for breath. Lina leapt on him, clawing at his back, looking like a wild animal about to make a kill. Ted struggled to his knees and was grappling for Lina’s thrashing legs.

  Kitty ran as fast as she could. What was going on? Had everybody gone crazy?

  Kitty leapt on Lina’s back, grabbing her shoulders. ‘Lina, stop!’ She tried to pull Lina off Howie but the woman was too strong. What had gotten into the mild, animal-loving woman?

  Then it hit her. Lina was from Boston too, or thereabouts. She had to be. It was Olivier that had given her away. The Northern red-bellied cooter. They were an endangered species. And one of the few places where they could be found was in one small section of Massachusetts, in Plymouth, if Kitty remembered correctly.

  Lina drew back her arm and punched Kitty in the head. Kitty saw stars and screamed. Howie was barely moving and Ted was holding onto Lina’s legs as if he meant to weigh her down.

  Lina swung again, a glancing blow, as Kitty twisted away. She grabbed a fistful of Lina’s hair and pulled with all her might. Lina shrieked like a mad lioness and turned toward her, all three bodies tangled together as one.

  Kitty panted. She was losing strength fast. She knew there was no way she was ever going to win a hand-to-hand battle with the woman. Especially since Howie and Ted were already down for the count.

  Howie. The tranquilizer gun. The one he said he carried at all times. Kitty couldn’t remember if it had been on his belt when he broke into the clearing. She could only hope so. Ignoring the rain of blows falling on her back like softball-sized hail, she worked her way down Howie’s side, clutching at the security guard’s pants for grip. Lina’s torso was blocking her view. Kitty patted Howie’s midriff and legs. Where are you, tranquilizer gun?

  Then she felt it, clipped securely in its holster.

  ‘Stop fighting and I promise this will all be over quickly,’ grunted Lina.

  Kitty shouted something rather unladylike as her hands fumbled with the holster snap. She had it! Her hand trembled as she slid the gun from its holster. Lina’s elbow smashed into her ribs and the gun fell from her grasp. Kitty cried out in frustration. Her hands fumbled blindly for the gun.

  And found it.

  But Lina had found the gun too. Their hands fought over the grip. Kitty gritted her teeth and sunk her nails into the back of Lina’s hand with every ounce of energy she had left. Lina hollered and lost her hold on the gun. Kitty wrapped her fingers around the handle. There was no time to lose. Lina could knock her out or kill her at any moment or wrestle the gun away and use it on her.

  Kitty winced. She’d never shot anyone before but it was now or never. She felt the barrel of the gun hit soft flesh and flinched as she squeezed the trigger. There was a small bang and Lina grunted.

  Please let that be Lina’s leg and not mine, Howie’s or Ted’s, was all she could think as she fought off Lina’s attempt to wrestle her onto her back like a helpless turtle. Lina was still coming. Had she missed her mark?

  Lina’s hands wrapped around Kitty’s neck, squeezing like an unstoppable vice. The day was turning to black as Lina choked what little breath she had left out of her. Kitty was gathering herself up for one last rally when Lina suddenly stopped. The groomer rose, her eyes glazing over, as she looked down on Kitty.

  Kitty held her breath, her heart beating madly. Lina abruptly fell to her side and dropped into the lake with a dull splash. Kitty twisted, holding herself up on her right elbow. She hadn’t realized how close they had all come to the water’s edge in their thrashing.

  Howie lay moaning on his side. Ted appeared to be out cold. Kitty crawled to the edge of the boulder. Lina was lying face down in the shallows. With a giant groan, Kitty managed to rise to her knees. She reached out, struggling to grab Lina by the arms. But Lina was too wet, too heavy.

  And Kitty was just too plain tired.

  Still, despite everything Lina might have done, she couldn’t let her drown like this. Kitty waded into the shallows, sinking into the muck all the way to the tops of her ankles. Mustering up all her reserves of will and energy, Kitty plunged further into the lake and hissed as the glacial water hit her skin. She lifted and dragged Lina’s still form up out of the frigid lake and onto the black rocks then fell down shivering on the boulder beside Lina, arms and legs akimbo. Kitty had lost her shoes in the mud. The dogs had stopped yapping and were sniffing at Lina’s unmoving form. Kitty stared at the dark clouds above. This was all Steve’s fault.

  After all, whose bloody idea had this trip been away?

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Kitty had run out of steam. And words.

  Jack sat on the edge of her hospital bed. ‘That’s OK.’ He patted her hand. ‘Take it easy.’

  Kitty had been talking nonstop since Jack’s surprise arrival, trying to explain everything that had been going on during her stay in Little Switzerland. It hadn’t exactly been the relaxing getaway with her pets that it had been promised to be.

  ‘If I’d known things were going to get this crazy I would have stayed home, Jack.’ She was so glad he was here. He’d come in after breakfast and hadn’t left her side since. Elin Nordstrom wasn’t with him. The lieutenant had dropped him off and was driving bac
k to LA. Jack was going to take Kitty home in the Volvo once the doctor released her.

  ‘And missed all the excitement?’

  ‘The only excitement I’d like now is to curl up on the sofa with you and watch TV.’

  ‘I think we can arrange that. Especially since Fran’s got the guys.’ Fran had caught a ride back to Los Angeles with Greg and the crew. She had wanted to stay with Kitty but Kitty had insisted she go. She wanted Fred and Barney back home.

  They deserved a break from their vacation.

  ‘I can’t believe Doctor Peter made me spend the night here.’ Kitty shook her head and pulled at the stiff sheets. ‘I’m fine. Really,’ she added, seeing the look on her fiancé’s face. ‘Keeping me overnight for quote unquote observation.’ She made accompanying quotation signs with her fingers. ‘What a waste of a perfectly good hospital bed.’

  Jack snickered.

  ‘What?’

  Jack tapped her chin. Then her temple. ‘I think Doctor Peter might have been more concerned with your mental stability than your physical one.’

  Kitty huffed. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  Jack stood and paced alongside her hospital bed. ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ He started counting on his fingers. ‘Let’s start with how you decided to play detective and investigate a brutal murder and ended up here,’ he said, spreading his arms, ‘in a hospital bed, bruised and scraped, for the second time, I might add – but still beautiful,’ he said with a grin, ‘after chasing down the killer, wrestling her to the ground, shooting her with a tranquilizer gun and then jumping in an ice-cold lake to save her from drowning.’ He stopped there, their eyes locked in a dueling match.

  Kitty pouted. ‘I suppose when you put it that way …’

  Jack snorted. She wanted to be mad at him but she was just so happy to see him. And when he laughed like that, something inside her simply glowed with warmth and affection.

  ‘Did I tell you about the ring?’

  Jack nodded. ‘Victor Cornwall’s ring.’

  ‘That’s what it had all been about. Well, not the ring, but what it represented.’ She’d already told the police all this – and some to Jack – but felt a need to repeat it. ‘Victor Cornwall’s dog, Manchester, had won best of breed at the Boston Kennel Association annual show one year. Lina Dolofino had been working at the event. She’d seen the way Victor treated that dog and was appalled. When the dog died immediately after the show, Lina blamed Victor for his death.’

  ‘Why didn’t she try to kill Vic then?’

  ‘Who knows? But when their paths crossed here, Lina’s anger at his treatment of his pets came raging back. She couldn’t stand what he’d done to Manchester and didn’t want the same thing to happen to the poodles.’

  ‘So she confronted him.’

  Kitty nodded. ‘In his room. She wanted the ring, which he adored, and his promise that he would give up the dogs. Lina says Victor laughed in her face. He offered her money.’

  ‘But Lina didn’t want money,’ Jack said. ‘She wanted justice and, finally, she wanted revenge.’

  Kitty shivered. ‘Lina admitted strangling Victor. She wore a pair of those disposable latex gloves she used when bathing pets in the salon.’ She’d told the police she hadn’t gone to Vic’s room to kill him but Kitty figured she was going to have a hard time convincing a jury of that considering how she’d happened to have a pair of those gloves with her at the time. ‘The ring hadn’t been on Victor’s finger, though. Lina had searched the room and been unable to find it. What she didn’t know was that Victor’s ring was lying on the lobby floor.’

  ‘Where you found it,’ said Jack. ‘Which is how you ended up in this mess and in this hospital bed.’

  Kitty ignored the comment. ‘But Lina found something else. Something that only Victor, John and Eliza were aware of: Victor kept a pile of money with him. He was so fearful that the feds would take it all away again, like they had when he’d been convicted of swindling, that he kept a large stash of cash with him at all times.’

  Jack whistled.

  ‘When Lina heard me knocking on Victor’s door she stuffed the cash in a pillow case and rushed out to the terrace. That’s who I heard sneezing.’ Despite her love of animals, the groomer had a severe allergy to dog and cat dander. Kitty had noticed her sniffles now and again but hadn’t managed to put two and two together.

  ‘I heard Lina put the peanut oil in Eliza Cornwall’s perfume.’

  Kitty said she’d heard the same. ‘She hadn’t intended to murder Eliza, only to scare her. Lina wanted Victor’s dogs. She was sure Eliza couldn’t care for them properly and wouldn’t even try.’

  Jack sat at the edge of the bed. ‘So Lina found the money stuffed inside the dogs’ beds and took it. Then she used the money as leverage with Eliza – that and the fact that she’d nearly killed the woman – to get Eliza to turn the dogs over to her?’

  ‘In exchange, Lina gave the money back to Eliza, minus the fifty thousand dollars that she’d already given to the Little Switzerland Pet Shelter.’ Lina said she’d done it to prove to Eliza and John that she wasn’t bluffing about having the money. Apparently she had threatened to give it all away if Eliza didn’t give her custody of Mercedes and Benz. Eliza agreed to the deal. That’s why Kitty had seen the groomer with the dogs. It was their old dog IDs that Lina had tossed in the lake. The tissue Kitty had found in the mountains had been a dead end.

  ‘How did Lina know Eliza was allergic to peanuts?’ asked Jack. ‘It’s not all that common.’

  ‘Eliza had mentioned it when Lina was describing to her the various lotions and ointments she used on the pets that came in the salon. Eliza insisted that she use nothing with peanut oil in it. She was deathly afraid of it remaining on the dogs’ hair and then transferring to her.’ Not that Kitty had actually ever seen the woman pet the dogs.

  Lina had given Kitty some of that same ointment after her tumble down the mountain; Rick had brought it for her. Odd, considering that she’d been the one who had shoved Kitty down the mountainside and was the reason for her pain and suffering. All because she thought Kitty was getting too close to the truth. Lina claimed she had panicked and felt guilty afterward. The liniment contained peanut oil. Lina had explained that peanut oil was very good for joint pain and used it herself. Her hands had taken a lot of abuse bathing and grooming dogs over the years. The police had discovered two bottles of peanut oil in the salon, hiding in plain sight.

  ‘Get this, Jack. It turns out that John and Eliza weren’t a couple at all – not that John hadn’t wanted them to get back together, at least, according to Eliza’s version of the story. All they shared was a greed for Vic’s cash.’

  ‘And it looks like Eliza is going to get to keep it,’ Jack said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It wasn’t ill-gotten gains, just a chunk of loose cash, and it appeared that Eliza had every right to the money.’

  ‘John ransacked my room and broke into Victor’s car in a search for that loot. Eliza was in on it. She’s an accessory. She must have telephoned from the movie to say that I was occupied.’ That had been their chance to search her room. They must have believed that she had Victor’s cash. She hadn’t, of course, but since she and Fran were the last people to be seen in Victor’s room, they were convinced that Kitty and Fran were holding out on them. ‘Now she gets to keep it?’

  ‘I’ve seen worse,’ Jack replied. ‘At least she doesn’t have the dogs.’

  Sheila, from the pet shelter, had already found a lovely home for the two poodles. Lina wasn’t going to be caring for them from her jail cell and Eliza had not wanted them back.

  Lina had asked to see Kitty before she was hauled off to the county jail and Kitty had agreed to meet her. The groomer had been escorted into her room in handcuffs. She expressed some remorse over practically killing her, Ted and Howie but said she hadn’t planned on harming any of them. She’d only wanted to disable them long enough to make her getaway with the dogs
. Start a new life in a new town. Lina asked Kitty to look after Olivier, her turtle. Kitty had agreed. Olivier was sunning himself in a cardboard box near the hospital room window now. Kitty could only hope he got along with Fred and Barney otherwise she’d be in for another session with Dr Newhart. But who can’t get along with a turtle?

  Kitty glanced at a vase of yellow daffodils on the dresser, a gift from Ted Atchison for saving his life, and found herself lost in her thoughts. They’d come from the Alpine 4U Card and Gift Shoppe, of course. It turned out that Ted was a reporter. He’d been sent to the resort to cover the New-Age/New-Pet Festival and do a fluff piece on the resort. After the murder he’d decided to do a little investigating himself. That’s why Fran had seen him exiting the police station. He’d been trying to gather some information on the victim and see if the police had any suspects.

  That was why he’d lied about his background and the dog. He hadn’t wanted to blow his cover. Besides, Rick had made it his mission after the murder to keep reporters out. Ted couldn’t let that happen. That also explained what he’d been doing when Kitty had spotted him outside her room with binoculars the other day. He’d thought she might be involved too and was spying on her.

  Ted had been hoping that finding Victor Cornwall’s killer and breaking the story would be his big break, his way out of the lifestyle pages and onto the front page. Instead, it had almost gotten him killed. He’d been snooping on all the guests, including John and Eliza. He explained that he had seen Eliza and Lina in a heated argument after which Lina handed Eliza a small bag and Eliza, in exchange, handed over the dogs.

  Intrigued, he had started keeping tabs on Lina, too. When he saw her hurrying from her room with the dogs he had decided to follow. John was with Fran and Eliza had driven off. He’d figured she was the only suspect worth following at that point.

  Ted was now bandaged up and on his way back to San Juan Capistrano. The good news was that he was keeping Chloe. He had lied about having a dog before. Kitty wasn’t real fond of Ted Atchison’s somewhat devious character. Maybe that was what made him a good reporter, so he just might make the front pages one day yet.