Bark If It's Murder

by V. M. Burns

  Monica Jill raised her hand. “Let me go.”

  Everyone nodded agreement.

  “I found out not only is Dallas and Keri Lynn’s house for sale for an ungodly amount of money, but they have also listed the Pet Haven for sale.”

  Everyone seemed surprised.

  “I thought they just opened,” I said.

  “Two years ago,” B.J. added. “Well, I found out…oh, I’m sorry.” She turned to Monica Jill. “Were you done?”

  Monica Jill nodded.

  “Well, I found out that someone”—she looked pointedly at Dr. Morgan—“someone has declared the accident suspicious.” She smiled. “My insurance company is ecstatic. They just about pooped in their pants at the idea of paying out on her five-million-dollar life insurance policy.”

  “Five million dollars?” everyone echoed.

  She nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I told you it was the largest policy I’d ever written. So I was ecstatic.”

  We turned to Dr. Morgan. He explained his concerns about the evidence of frostbite on Keri Lynn’s toes and the other abnormalities in her autopsy. However, the biggest problem seemed to be the tissue samples he’d sent to have analyzed in Nashville. Apparently, they suggested Keri Lynn might have also been drugged.

  We discussed the implications until there was nothing left to speculate about. Then Dixie and I told what we’d learned about Heather.

  Madison and David had been eating quietly for the majority of the time.

  When I finished, Madison said, “Well, today Mr. Simpson announced he was closing Pet Haven.”

  “Closing? Why?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “He said Pet Haven had been Keri Lynn’s dream and he just couldn’t go on without her.”

  David looked at me. “He was very emotional.”

  “I guess that explains why Pet Haven is up for sale,” Dixie said.

  Monica Jill looked shocked, but then pulled out her phone and scrolled through several screens of messages. Eventually, she stopped and read. “That doesn’t add up.” She put her phone down. “My friend said he put Pet Haven up for sale over a week ago.”

  “Hmmm, so the entire time when he was saying Keri Lynn was alive, he was planning to sell it.”

  She nodded.

  When the shock wore off, Beau cleared his throat. “Well, I talked to my friend who owns the Tesla dealership. He said the car was serviced three weeks ago and everything checked out just fine. However, those cars have a lot of software. They send information to the company all the time. So, if there was anything mechanically wrong, they would have known.”

  That reminded me of my conversation with Red. “But she wasn’t driving the Tesla.” I shared the fact that Keri Lynn had actually been driving Dallas’s BMW.

  “Well, that’s odd.” Madison stared. “I mean, she didn’t like driving his car because it was a stick shift. Plus, with her being left-handed, she preferred the Tesla.”

  We talked for several more minutes but were left with more questions than answers. Eventually, we called it a night. We tossed our trash and practically had to drag our dogs away. In fact, I had to pick Aggie up to get her to leave. Even then, she clamped down on the liver jerky and left with it in her mouth.

  David drove Madison home, and Aggie and I went home to think through all of the information we’d learned. Well, I did. Aggie continued to chomp on her foul-smelling treat on the back seat.

  When we were home, I poured myself a glass of wine. Perhaps if I could relax, I could make everything make sense. I took a long, hot shower. I lacked Dixie’s knowledge of dogs to get Aggie to voluntarily relinquish her treat. In fact, the only way I could get the liver away from Aggie was by tricking her with string cheese. There was nothing like the sound of a cellophane wrapper to distract a dog. She fell for the ruse, and I snatched the liver jerky.

  Liver packed away, Aggie eventually stopped looking for it. Although I wasn’t crazy about the look she gave me before she turned around so her back was to me and then lay down and went to sleep.

  I tried to relax my mind. I breathed in and held the breath and then released it slowly. I thought back to the night of the murder. After a few moments, the tension in my neck relaxed the slightest bit, and I allowed myself to think about the storm. I thought about the kennels at Pet Haven, and before long, the image of the woman I believed to be Heather hosing down the kennels came into view. I saw her dressed in a raincoat and boots. She held the water hose.

  I sat bolt upright in bed. “Oh. My. God.” I tried to steady my breathing, but my heart raced. It was the only thing that fit. Like the tumblers in a lock, all of the pieces fit together, and I knew what had happened. There was one question I needed to answer.

  I picked up my cell phone and called Dixie. “Can you give me Dr. Morgan’s number?”

  “Hello to you too.”

  “I’m sorry. I have a really important question I need to ask him.”

  I heard her rustling around. “It must be important.” She fumbled with something, and then I heard a beep. “I just sent you his number.”

  “Great. Thanks.” I hung up.

  I quickly clicked on the contact information for Dr. Morgan she’d sent. It was only after the phone rang that I wondered if he was married. Thankfully, he answered the phone.

  “When you examined the body from the accident, were there any metal plates or rods?”

  He sucked in his breath. “How did you know? There was a metal plate in her foot and a rod. At some point, she must have had a really bad break that had required surgery and replacement of the bone with metal. How did—”

  “Thanks.” I didn’t wait to hear the end of his question before I disconnected. I swiped until I found Red’s number and pressed dial without thinking. It was only when I heard his groggy response that I looked at the time.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, but I’ve figured it out.”

  “Figured what out?”

  “I know how they did it. It wasn’t Keri Lynn I saw murdered and Dallas wasn’t the murderer. Keri Lynn and Justin murdered Heather, but Keri Lynn was behind it all. She convinced Justin to kill Heather.”

  “Why?”

  “Insurance. She did it for the insurance money. Keri Lynn faked her death to get the insurance money. Heather looked like Keri Lynn. They were the same size and had the same hair color, and they looked a lot alike. Only Heather was right-handed and Keri Lynn was left-handed. That’s why when she was hosing down the kennels, she had the hose in the wrong hand. She also wasn’t wearing the expensive Rolex watch that Keri Lynn had.” I smacked my forehead. “And the killer wasn’t wearing Dallas’s expensive watch either. How did I miss that?” I also explained about the plate in her foot that Heather told me about and that Dr. Morgan confirmed the body in the car crash had had.

  I could tell Red was awake now, and if the rustling and breathlessness were an indication, he was quickly getting dressed.

  “Why’d he do it?”

  “Justin’s naïve. I think she manipulated him…somehow she convinced him to help her. He probably thought he had to do it to get her to love him. Monica Jill said he’d do anything for Keri Lynn.”

  “Why’d she do it? If she was manipulating Justin, then why’d she care if her husband was having a fling with Heather?”

  “She didn’t kill Heather out of jealousy. She did it for the money, for the insurance money. Keri Lynn had a pattern of getting insurance money after a death. First her parents were killed in a car accident and she must have gotten the insurance money. Maybe that’s what got her started. Anyway, she married her first husband, thinking he would make her a star, but he died.” I paused.

  “Are you saying she killed him?”

  “I don’t know. Stephanie said she was three hours away when he died. Although I’m guessing she had something to do with it. Maybe she tampered with
the brakes or something. I don’t know.” I hopped up and paced around the bed. “He was a lot older than she was. Maybe she just thought he’d die naturally. I don’t know, but she didn’t get anything except a million-dollar insurance policy. His family wouldn’t even make her films.”

  “A million dollars is a pretty good motive for murder.”

  “Five million is even better.” I quickly explained about the five-million-dollar life insurance policy on Keri Lynn. “Keri Lynn has to be behind it. She was the one in the gas station video. She must have put Heather’s body in that car and sent it over the cliff.”

  He rang off the phone with a promise to call me later.

  I was too nervous to go back to bed, so I got up and dressed and made a cup of tea. Aggie must have forgiven me, because she got up and joined me in the kitchen.

  Aggie and I were sitting on the sofa in the living room when David pulled in to the driveway.

  “Don’t tell me you were waiting up for me.”

  “Of course not. I’m waiting for Red.” I took a sip of tea. I told him about Dallas and Keri Lynn’s plans.

  He made more tea, and we sat together and waited. It was very early before I got a text from Red. They had arrested Keri Lynn and Justin as they were boarding a plane for Greece. He promised to fill me in later.

  “I can’t believe you figured all of this out.” David looked at me with awe and respect in his eyes. “You’re like Sherlock Holmes or—”

  “I prefer Agatha Christie.” I scratched Aggie’s head while she slept on my lap.

  Red arrived at seven, and I could tell by the bags under his eyes and his wrinkled clothes, he had yet to go back to bed.

  “I figured you’d want to know the details before you went to work.” He yawned.

  “Coffee?” I offered.

  He shook his head. “It’ll just keep me awake, and I’m planning to sleep for at least eight hours.”

  David joined us and we sat at the dining room table.

  “You were right…about everything. Keri Lynn planned the entire thing. She encouraged her husband to start an affair with Heather.” He shook his head. “One night when Heather was working late, she took her rain jacket. So, Heather was forced to wear hers.”

  “So she planned that someone would see it?”

  He nodded. “She thought it likely. She made sure the footage was destroyed.”

  I frowned. “But that means…” I stared at Red, who nodded.

  David was still confused. He looked from Red to me. “What? What does it mean?”

  I shook my head. “It means she was setting up Dallas. If someone, like me, saw the tape and if the entire scheme fell apart, then Dallas would be blamed for the murder.”

  Red nodded. “She admitted as much. In fact, she laughed about it. Dallas would go to jail and she would just disappear.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “So she stole Heather’s identity and hightailed it to the mountains of Georgia.”

  I shook my head. “I should have remembered sooner that she didn’t have any family. That whole family emergency thing was ridiculous.”

  He reached across and squeezed my hand. “She fooled a lot of people, including her husband. Dallas knew she was in Georgia, that’s why he wasn’t upset at first. He didn’t get upset until I told him Keri Lynn was dead. He really thought she was alive.”

  “Did he know about Heather?”

  Red shrugged. “Keri Lynn says he did. He says he didn’t. He’s blaming everything on Keri Lynn and Justin, which may be the truth, but that’s up to the lawyers to work out.” He squeezed my hand. “Stop beating yourself up. You figured it out in the end. In fact, if it hadn’t been for you, she would have gotten away. They were boarding the plane when we caught them.”

  “So Keri Lynn planned this entire thing to get the five-million-dollar life insurance policy?” David asked.

  Red nodded. “In fact, the real kicker is she changed the beneficiary on her policy just a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Who was her beneficiary?” David asked.

  Red looked at me. “Wanna guess?”

  “Heather?”

  He nodded. “Bingo. She planned to start over as Heather and collect the insurance policy.”

  “But what about Dallas?” David asked.

  “My guess is if he wasn’t convicted for his wife’s murder, then he would have met with an untimely accident.”

  “The poor sap,” David said.

  We asked a few other questions, but Red was so tired I decided to take pity on him and save my questions for later.

  He declined my offer to take a nap. When Aggie and I walked him to his car, that was when I realized he wasn’t alone.

  A large dog sat on the front seat of the car.

  I immediately looked for Aggie, who was completely unconcerned. In fact, her tail wagged, and she got in her play bow stance: butt in the air, shoulders down. I looked from Aggie to Red. “Who is that?”

  “Heather’s dog, Steve Austin. I was planning to take him to animal control. At the kennel, he seemed completely out of control. However, for some reason, he seems to have mellowed a lot.”

  I stared at the dog, then looked at Red and smiled.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, but I think Steve Austin just picked his new owner.”

  He looked confused. “Oh no. I don’t think so. That dog is vicious. He most likely will need to be put down.”

  I was nervous, but something in my gut told me I was right. I walked over to the car and opened the door. Out jumped the pit bull/Labrador mix. He was a big dog, but I trusted my gut and I trusted Aggie’s instincts. I tried not to notice Red’s hand slide to his inside jacket and grip the butt of his revolver. We watched as Steve walked slowly toward Aggie. He sniffed her butt and then surprised us by giving a play bow. Front legs out in front of him, chest low to the ground, and butt in the air, he lay on the grass, tail wagging.

  After a few moments, the two launched into a rousing game of chase in which the larger dog was no match for Aggie’s speed. Several times he barely missed flying into the side of the car or a tree when she made a sharp turn at the last minute. However, the two dogs played until their tongues hung from their mouths and they lay on the grass, panting.

  David had been watching from inside and came outside with a large bowl of water, which both dogs lapped up eagerly.

  “Everyone said that dog was vicious.” Red seemed confused.

  “Maybe he was at Pet Haven. That’s where his owner was murdered.” I smiled. “However, I know Heather loved him, and I suspect he missed her a lot.” I looked up at the scar on the side of Red’s face. He and Steve Austin had both been through a lot. Like Aggie and I had searched for, and found our happy place, I hoped Red and this poor animal could both find theirs. With any luck, there’d be room for a widow and a pushy poodle when they did.