Bark If It's Murder

by V. M. Burns

  The outskirts of the room showcased many of the art exhibits up for bid. Paintings, objets d’art, and sculptures were positioned to provide easy viewing, but limited access. The center front of the room held a stage and a podium, and there were more than a hundred chairs facing the stage. On one side was a raised platform with seats and telephones.

  At the podium, a man announced the auction would be starting soon, and all of the guests took their seats for the show.

  My first auction felt more like interactive theater. The host, an apparently well-known art expert who’d flown over from Britain, joked and entertained the crowd. Unlike the typical fast-paced rhythmic chanting I’d seen at auctions at the fairgrounds in Indiana, art auctioneers spoke in a slow, deliberate manner. Instead of bidders yelling their price, they raised a small white paddle with a number on it. It was classy and distinguished, and I was enthralled as I tried to follow the bidding.

  “What’s with the phones?” I whispered to Linda Kay.

  She glanced to the side. “Those are people who are calling in their bids.”

  When the evening sale was over, everyone applauded and then made their way out of the room.

  “Wow. I’m tired just watching all of that. Will tomorrow be the same?”

  “The basics of how things work is the same. However, there won’t be nearly as many people and prices won’t be as high.”

  We said our good nights and made arrangements to meet for breakfast the next morning.

  In my room, I got ready for bed and marveled at the turn my life had taken. Just a few short months ago I was trying to cope with the end of my marriage. When my husband left me for a younger woman, I thought my life was over. Over time, I realized my marriage had ended long before Albert walked out. I looked out of my window on the city lights of Atlanta. I opened the balcony door, stepped outside, and listened to the buzz of the lights and conversations from people moving about, despite the late hour. There was an energy to the city that crackled like static electricity. For a moment, my thoughts took me back to a late-night train ride from Chicago to Lighthouse Dunes, where I met a woman who changed my life. Miss Florrie was a kind African American woman who helped me put things in perspective. My brief conversation with her helped me realize I’d been holding on to a life I no longer wanted. She gave me the courage to let go of the past and try to find my “happy place.” Now, here I was attending an art auction six hundred miles away from Lighthouse Dunes, Indiana. I was working at a job I loved. I was buying a house. I had friends and was starting a relationship with a man who was kind and genuinely seemed to care. It was early days yet, but I was excited to see where things might lead. I even had a dog, something I’d always wanted but Albert had vetoed. Thoughts of Aggie made me smile.

  I heard a loud clap of thunder, and lightning flashed across the sky. A light rain started to fall, and I went inside. I checked the clock. It was late, but I could still go online and watch Aggie for a few minutes on the pet cam before I went to bed.

  I was still smiling when I pulled up my laptop and navigated to Pet Haven’s website. I could hear the storm getting louder, and the Internet site that had been clear earlier in the day was staticky and slower tonight. I finally caught a glimpse of Aggie. She had moved from the bear-skinned rug to the cot, which was littered with stuffed animals. I was just about to turn off the screen when it flickered and then jumped to a view of one of the other cameras. I clicked around the menu on several links, which switched from one room to another in search of the link that would take me back to Aggie. Just about to give up, I clicked on a link that showed a woman spraying down the outside area of the kennels. It appeared to be raining there too, but the kennel area was covered. I squinted to make out who the woman was. It looked like the owner, Keri Lynn Simpson. She wore a yellow rain slicker and boots. I was glad to see Pet Haven was true to their brochures and cleaned every night. Her back was to the camera. She must have gotten a call because she moved the hose to her left hand and pulled out her cell phone. She glanced at the phone and then returned it to her pocket.

  I was just about to shut down when a shadow approached her from the back. That was when I saw a man’s arm reach around and grab her from the back. He put his hands around her neck and squeezed.

  She dropped the hose and clawed at the man’s arms and face, but it was too little, too late.

  She slid to the ground.

  What did I just see? What just happened?

  Thunder clapped, and my screen went black.

  Chapter 4

  I sat in stunned silence for several moments. I paced while I tried to wrap my head around what I’d just seen. It wasn’t until I picked up my cell phone and tried to dial Red’s number that I noticed my hands were shaking. It took several tries before my fingers managed to hit the right numbers.

  The phone rang so long I started to hang up, unsure if I’d dialed the right number.

  Eventually, someone answered, but I didn’t recognize the voice. “Hello.”

  “I need to get in touch with Red…ah, I mean Dennis Olson,” I stammered.

  “Who’s calling?”

  “Tell him it’s Lilly.”

  There was a long pause. “Hold on.”

  I heard grunting, shuffling, and the squeaking of a cot. Eventually, I heard footsteps.

  “Lilly? Are you okay? What’s happened?” He fired questions at me with machine-gun speed.

  “I’m fine. I just—”

  “What happened?”

  “I saw someone get murdered.”

  There was a pregnant pause. “Murdered? Are you okay? Did you call the police?”

  “No, I haven’t called anyone, but you.”

  “I’m not in Chattanooga, and it’ll take me at least an hour to get there, but you need to call the police.”

  “I’m not in Chattanooga either. I’m—”

  “Where are you?”

  I knew it was concern for my safety, but if he kept interrupting me, I’d never get this out. “I’m in Atlanta. Red, I need you to listen.” I explained about the art auction in Atlanta and the pet cams at Pet Haven as quickly as I could. He listened in silence. When I was finished, I took a deep breath.

  “Are you sure she’s dead?”

  “I’m pretty sure. She slumped to the ground, and…it was awful.” I shuddered at the memory.

  “What do you see on the camera now? Is she still there?”

  I looked at my laptop, which was still black. “I don’t know. The storm made the screen staticky and the picture went black.”

  “Okay. I need you to call this number.” He rattled off a number and I grabbed a pen and paper from the desk and wrote it down. He repeated the number. “Got it?”

  “Yes, but what is this?”

  “It’s the number for the Chattanooga Police, homicide division.” He told me what to say and I wrote down the key phrases. “Tell the detective that you’ve notified TBI and I’ll be there in an hour.” He paused. “You got it?”

  I nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see me.

  “Lilly?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just so flustered. Do you think I should ask Edward to take me home early?” I hated to ruin the auction for Linda Kay, but surely murder took precedence.

  “No. You stay where you are. I’ll call you in a few hours and let you know what we find.” He hesitated. “Okay?”

  “Okay.” I released a heavy breath. “Red…thank you.”

  I could hear the smile in his voice. “You’re welcome.”

  Not surprisingly, I wasn’t able to sleep after all that excitement. The storm continued into the early morning before it moved on. I tried several times to reconnect to the Internet, but the service was down.

  Three hours later, my phone rang and I jumped.

  “Red?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. I’m here wi
th Officer Lewis.” He sounded tired, and I felt bad for waking him and causing him to drive through the night; however, the poor woman who’d been murdered deserved to be treated better. She deserved better than to be brutally murdered as she was. Besides, I knew, from reading and watching mysteries, the sooner the police were brought in to investigate, the more likely they were to catch the killer.

  “Did you find her? Was the killer still there? Did you catch him?” It was my turn to machine gun–fire questions, and at the speed of sound. When I finally stopped to catch a breath, I noticed the line was quiet. “Red, are you still there?”

  He sighed. “Yeah, I’m here.”

  I waited.

  After a long pause, he sighed again. “Lilly, we didn’t find anyone.”

  “You mean the killer got away?”

  “No, I mean we didn’t find anything. We’ve searched every inch of the facility and there’s no body.”

  I was stunned into silence. When my brain started working again, I said, “He must have gotten rid of the body.”

  “Did you see the man’s face?”

  “Well, no…but I’m pretty sure it was the owner, Dallas Simpson.”

  “Why?” He paused. “If you didn’t see his face, what was it you saw that made you believe it was Dallas Simpson?”

  “Well…” I thought back to what I’d seen. “It was a man. Who else could it have been at that time of night?”

  “But if you didn’t see his face, what makes you think it was this particular man?”

  I was confused, and my brain wasn’t functioning on all cylinders. Red was being cautious with his words, and there was something in his questions that gave me pause. “You don’t believe me?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to.” I was hurt, probably another result of my lack of sleep and the trauma of the past few hours. “I’m not crazy.”

  “No one said—”

  “I know what I saw.”

  “I’m sure you saw something, but—”

  “Is Keri Lynn Simpson there? Did you see her?”

  “No. She’s away at a dog show, but we spoke to her on the phone.”

  That left me stumped for a few seconds. “If you didn’t see her, how do you know it was really her?”

  He sighed.

  “You know what, just forget it. I’m sorry I bothered you.” I hung up.

  My phone rang almost immediately, but Red’s face popped up on the screen and I turned it off. I was behaving childishly, but I couldn’t stop myself. I paced around the room and tried to gather my thoughts. Obviously, Dallas Simpson had hidden the body somewhere. “That explains why they didn’t find the body,” I muttered aloud as I paced. “Surely Red must have thought of that.” I glanced at myself in the mirror over the dresser as I paced. That was when I realized I was crying.

  I stopped and stared at what was looking back at me. Unlike actresses on television, I lacked the skill to cry and still look beautiful. My eyes were red and puffy, and I looked like a hot mess.

  I looked at the clock. It was almost five, but I might as well get dressed. I needed a hot shower and plenty of coffee.

  The bathroom wasn’t a large room; it had nice finishes, which made the room feel opulent. I turned on the shower. The key element for me with any shower was the water pressure. The shower at the Ritz didn’t disappoint. The water got steamy hot, and the water pressure pelted my skin with force. I didn’t feel like I needed to hold on to the handrail to prevent being blown away, but I was pleasantly surprised at the spray. I stayed in the shower quite some time. The water helped my outer being as well as my emotional state. I knew Red was only doing his job. However, the fact that he didn’t believe me still hurt. How could we build a relationship if we didn’t have the single most important thing…trust? Trust was the foundation that everything else was built on. Without that, we didn’t stand a chance. Months of analyzing my own failed marriage had helped me come to that realization. It wasn’t the fact he’d cheated and been unfaithful. It was the fact he’d demonstrated he couldn’t be trusted.

  By the time I got out of the shower, my skin was pink and a little sore from the pounding from the shower, and I had a headache from crying. However, I was done. Miss Florrie had been right when she told me, “Tears are a precious commodity.” She also said, “Ain’t no man worth crying over.” I pulled myself together. I knew that without trust, Red and I didn’t have a future together, and I was too old to waste my time with someone who wasn’t in this for the long haul. The next time I saw him, I would end the relationship.

  I got dressed and applied makeup to try to hide the damage of a sleepless night and a morning spent crying. Then I went downstairs for coffee. I still had a couple of hours before I was scheduled to meet Linda Kay and Edward for breakfast. I grabbed a pen and notebook from my computer bag. Ending my relationship with Red wasn’t the only decision I’d made in the shower. Just because someone didn’t believe in me didn’t change the facts. I’d seen someone murder another human being. Regardless of who she was or what she’d done, no person deserved to have her life snuffed out in such a way. That poor young woman was someone’s daughter. I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if something like that happened to Stephanie or David. I might not have been able to prevent her murder, but the least I could do was try to make sure her murderer didn’t get away scot-free. I was going to find her killer and bring him to justice.

  Chapter 5

  The hotel dining room had just opened. In fact, there was only one other person in the room when I arrived, so I had my pick of seating. I chose a table near the front window and ordered coffee. It looked like I was going to need a lot of it to stave off a pounding headache and convince my body I didn’t need sleep.

  The smell of bacon wafted from the kitchen and my stomach growled. My original intention had been to subsist on coffee until Linda Kay and Edward arrived. However, I switched to a new plan, which included bacon, eggs, and toast, and, of course, coffee now rather than later.

  It didn’t take long for them to prepare my breakfast. Everything was cooked perfectly, and there was even a small bowl of fruit. I ate quickly and washed everything down with coffee. When my hunger was sated, I pulled out my notebook and wrote down what I knew. After about ten minutes, what I knew wasn’t much. I knew Keri Lynn and Dallas Simpson owned Pet Haven Pet Resort and Doggie Day Care. I knew a lady named Heather worked at the spa. I knew a woman wearing a yellow rain slicker and boots was rinsing out the kennel area last night. A man came up behind her and killed her. I also knew that by the time the police arrived, the killer had removed the body.

  I tapped my pen on the table. “Surely there’s got to be something else?”

  My waiter was lingering nearby when I started muttering to myself, and he hurried over to see what I needed. I didn’t think admitting I had been talking to myself instilled confidence in my waiter, who smiled and then rushed away, glancing back over his shoulder at me.

  I took out my phone and turned it back on. I had twenty missed calls from Red and at least ten messages, but I didn’t bother to listen to them. Instead, I got on the Internet and searched for information on Keri Lynn and Dallas Simpson. I found their names in connection with Pet Haven, plus there were several sites that promised to give me additional information for a fee, which I passed on.

  I got lost in the sea of Internet searches and was surprised when I looked up and saw Linda Kay and Edward.

  “Earth to Lilly.” Linda Kay smiled as she motored up to one of the empty spots at the table.

  “Sorry. I was absorbed.” I put my phone down.

  Edward pulled out a chair, sat down, and immediately poured Linda Kay a cup of coffee from the pot on the table, then poured one for himself.

  “What’s wrong?” Linda Kay sipped her coffee.

  “Nothing.”

  She
raised an eyebrow and stared. “I can tell by your eyes that something is wrong. Is it the children? Are Stephanie and David okay?”

  “Everyone’s fine.”

  “Don’t tell me something happened to Aggie?”

  I sighed. She was going to get it out of me one way or another, so I might as well come clean and tell her.

  The waiter showed up and both Linda Kay and Edward ordered.

  I waited until they were done and the waiter had gone to put in their orders before I started. I told them what I saw on the pet cam and also about Red’s reaction.

  They both listened to my tale with few interruptions. At times, Linda Kay shook her head and expressed shock and concern, especially when I described the murder. In fact, Linda Kay reached out a hand to comfort me.

  By the time I’d finished telling my version of events, the waiter returned with their plates. They asked a few questions while they ate. I drank so much coffee I felt like I was going to float away. So I excused myself and went to find a nearby bathroom.

  When I returned, I was stunned to see Red at the table. He stood when I arrived.

  “What are you doing here?” I held my breath and whispered, “Aggie.”

  “Aggie’s fine. I saw her a few hours ago.”

  I released the breath I’d been holding and tried to will my heart to slow down.

  Red was about five ten, stocky, and rock solid. His short buzz cut proclaimed he’d been in the military. The scar that went down the right side of his face and something in the back of his dark eyes indicated he’d not only seen combat but had grappled with evil that would have crippled most humans.

  “We need to talk.” His eyes were bloodshot, and a five-o’clock shadow coated his face. His clothes were wrinkled and rumpled, and I could tell he’d had about as much sleep as I had.

  “I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

  “I gathered as much when you hung up on me and refused to take any of my calls.” His voice sounded tired.

  I looked over at Linda Kay and Edward. “I’m working. I’m going to a day show in”—I glanced at my watch—“less than thirty minutes.”