Losing Patients (Animal Instincts Book 4)

by Chloe Kendrick

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?”

  “Well, I couldn’t hear since I was in the front of the room, but I could hazard a guess. I’ve seen other conversations like this before. They were loud, but they also tried to keep it quiet. My guess would be guy or girl trouble. It smacked of that.”

  “Did anything else happen that night? What about the lady with the ferret? Did she do anything in particular?”

  Allison paused again. “Not really. She gave me a hard time about not rescuing ferrets. That’s how I remember her. But she wasn’t causing a commotion. She did eat a number of cookies though. I remember that too. It was two strikes against her. Ferrets and the ability to eat what she wanted.”

  I thought about the combination of all three of those people there with Hale coming in to drop off the baked goods. What had happened there that at least two people had witnessed and been killed for? I couldn’t possibly imagine why they had seen it, and Allison had not. She’d been in the front of the room, facing everyone. Shouldn’t she have seen anything that happened there?

  I said a few words to her and hung up. I still hadn’t heard from Detective Green, but now I knew I needed to tell her something that could impact her investigation. Before I did, I made multiple copies of the attendance list from the May seminar. I wanted to have my own copies even if she confiscated the one I had.

  I took a deep breath and called her number. She picked up on the second ring. “What?”

  “Hi to you, too,” I said cheerily. “I was hoping to talk to you for a few minutes. I have something that I think you might want to hear.”

  “Was it about the little wine fest you had with Dr. Wilson last night? I know all about that. Is that what you wanted to tell me?” The tone was clipped, and I knew she was mad about something.

  I was surprised at her anger. She’d been angry with me before, but mostly over incidents where I’d interfered with her investigations or clues to a crime. I’d been walking on eggshells with this case in order not to do that. Still she was angry. Was this jealousy? I’d have to ask someone about this, because anyone feeling emotions for me was outside of my comfort zone. I was supposed to be inauspicious in my manner, not the center of a fight for my affections.

  “I was following a lead. She had wine, because I was asking her to work overtime to go through a mountain of papers. It was not fun work.”

  “After your last talk with me, TPD decided to talk to her to see if Hale was a patient. She told me that you two had found an attendance sheet from a seminar where everyone was there. The blanket was still on the floor and the wine bottle was in the trash. It wasn’t hard to see what happened.”

  “Then you know about the rescue seminar that they all attended?” I was trying to steer the conversation back to safer ground. I wanted to solve this and earn the rest of my fee. I didn’t want this to become an issue for S
heila Green and me.

  “Yes, I do. Granted, it is suggestive, but it’s not worth you spending an evening with another woman.”

  I ground my teeth, not knowing how to fix this situation. I took a long deep breath and thought of her. She was one of the prettiest women I’d ever met with her light brown hair and silver eyes. I didn’t want to screw this up. “Look, I understand that you’re angry but I never looked on this as anything other than a chance to solve this case. I would have done the same thing if she was three hundred pounds and a man.”

  The honesty seemed to lighten her mood some. “Well, she’s not. She’s very pretty. I would have liked it better if she was a fat guy.”

  “She stood between me and getting the information that might crack the case. I had to go there and look through the papers myself. I found it in like the third stack that we looked through. Nothing happened, and I don’t want anything to happen either.” I felt a little jittery. I sat down to continue the conversation.

  All this emotional stuff took a toll on me. Our family had become experts at non-confrontation after Susan disappeared. That probably explained why my mother had not told me about her own dating life. She knew that I would have questions and disapprove. So instead she had opted to take the easy way out. Now I could understand why she had. This discussion of feelings stuff was hard.

  “Thank you for that,” Sheila Green said finally. “It means something. I wish I’d known, because I wouldn’t have been surprised when she told me. I got my feelings hurt. Next time, would you…?” She let the words trail off, but I knew what she meant. She wanted some confirmation that something was here – between us.

  “Absolutely. It was just that I’d already called, and you were on a new homicide case. I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I was just trying to not interrupt you at a very busy time.” I wanted to bring the discussion back around to the homicide and return to my comfort zone. It was a bit sad that murder was more calming to me than dating.

  “So which one?” she asked. “Givens or Adamson? They each had a motive to kill their spouse. Did they each kill their own? Did they kill each other’s spouse? I don’t want another Strangers on a Train bit going on here.”