Trouble at the Animal Shelter: A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery

by Dianne Harman

  “Yes,” she said pouring each of them a cup of coffee, “and I think I have a suspect for you.” She told him what Sunny had told her about Jimmy Richards and her suspicions that he might have abused his wife.

  “Hmmm, that is interesting, although it’s hard to believe that someone would carry a grudge that long and then act on it. And Kelly, while you know how strongly I feel about domestic abuse, I don’t see where that ties into Maggie Ryan’s murder.”

  “I know it’s kind of carrying it to the next level, but I was thinking if someone is capable of domestic abuse, maybe they’re also capable of committing murder.”

  “I dunno, Kelly, that’s a pretty big leap, although in a convoluted way, I suppose it could be possible. I’ll have to think about it. Tomorrow I’ll call the superintendent of the Ocean Beach School District and see what I can find out about Allen Richards and his father, Jimmy, although he’s the only suspect I have at the moment.”

  “I thought you were a little suspicious of the neighbor across the street. You mentioned you were going to talk to a couple of the other neighbors and see if there was bad blood between Maggie Ryan and the neighbor,” she said standing up and walking over to the stove.

  “I went to every house up and down the street, which wasn’t very many considering the sizes of those lots. As you saw when you helped Jenna, it’s kind of a funny neighborhood. There’s several old farmhouses next to more modern houses that were built when the farmland around them was sold to people who wanted to build houses.

  “Anyway, no one knew anything about either the neighbor I was suspicious of or Maggie Ryan. Guess both of them rarely went beyond their own property. I did pay another visit to the neighbor I was suspicious of.”

  “Find out anything?” Kelly asked as she stirred the beef and vegetable dish she was making in a large pot.

  “Not really. The husband seems to be an okay guy, but the wife is another matter. From what I gather, she doesn’t do anything but look out the window or watch television to see what’s happening on the stock market. She’s the type who even knows exactly when the mailman is going to be there. She said he should be there any minute, and she walked out the door with me when I left. The mailman pulled up in front of her house as I got in my car. She was right. He was there at 3:30 exactly.

  “She mentioned again how much she hated the barking dogs and wasn’t the least bit sorry Maggie Ryan was dead. Pretty harsh, but harsh enough that she could have committed murder? Although it’s a stretch, I guess she could be considered a suspect.

  “Shannon did tell me something of interest, but I have no idea how to follow up on it. She told me she’d seen a person, she was certain it was a man, walking down the street around the time of Maggie’s murder. I asked all the other neighbors I talked to if they’d seen anything unusual that night, and all of them told me they hadn’t.”

  “From the tone of your voice it sounds like you’re not sure about that statement. Right?” Kelly asked.

  “Here’s what I’m struggling with, Kelly. On one hand the neighbor could be the murderer and made up the story about seeing someone walking down the street to deflect attention away from her. On the other hand, she could have seen the person who murdered Maggie Ryan, but how am I ever going to find out who that person is?”

  “Let’s take a break and eat. It’s been a long couple of days for both of us. I’ve got more to tell you, so don’t let me forget.”

  “Kelly, when you get involved in one of my cases, you’re like a dog with a bone. You just hang on and won’t let go. I don’t think there’s any way you’d ever forget something connected with one of my cases, and please notice I’m using the words ‘my cases,’ which I want to be very clear about. This is my case, not yours.”

  “Message received, Sheriff. I’m just going to tell you a couple of things I happened to learn today.”

  “Right, Kelly, right.”

  CHAPTER 20

  “I’ll do the dishes, Kelly. You just sit there, look pretty, and talk to me.”

  “I’ll sit here and talk to you, but as for looking pretty, think beauty is pretty much a matter of taste, and believe me, I’m glad that you have the taste you do. Okay, I just happened…”

  “Kelly, whenever you say the words ‘I just happened’ I know there’s a whole lot more to it, and how come things always seem to ‘just happen’ to you?”

  “Don’t know, Sheriff. Guess I’m just lucky, anyway, I told you I was going to the Cedar Bay Nursing Home with Rebel after work today. We went, and Roxie’s neighbor absolutely loved Rebel. He was wonderful with her, and the director asked if we could come back next week, which we’re going to do.”

  “Kelly, this is kind of like what Sunny had to eat for lunch. Is this about the Ryan case?” he said as he loaded the dishwasher with the rinsed dishes and began scouring the pots and pans.

  “Getting there, Mike, getting there, just bear with me. The director asked if there was anything she could do for us, and I told her yes.”

  “What could she possibly do for you?” Mike asked as he turned around and faced her.

  “Well, it’s kind of a coincidence, and I know how you feel about them, but I prefer to think of it as karma, or something that was meant to be. When I talked to Sunny earlier in the day she told me Maggie Ryan had been friends with a retired teacher who was convalescing from a fall she’d taken and was a patient at the nursing home where Rebel and I had gone. Don’t you think that’s a coincidence, Mike?” she said smiling up at him. Her smile was returned by a raised eyebrow.

  “And I’m sure Sunny just happened to mention that. I’m sure it wasn’t in response to a question you’d asked of her.”

  “I really can’t remember, and anyway, it isn’t important. What is important is that the director introduced me to Linda Devine, Maggie’s friend, and we had a long talk.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought otherwise. And what did you just happen to find out?” Mike asked turning back to the sink.

  “She used to take groceries to Maggie, and they talked a lot. She told Linda she’d been getting strange phone calls for some time. No one ever said anything, and then they hung up. She seemed to be frightened about them. Linda said it was about the time she started increasing the number of dogs she had. She thought Maggie was getting them for protection.”

  “I wondered about that, and it makes sense.”

  “She also told me Maggie had changed her will recently and seemed to be a little concerned about it, because Reverend Barnes still assumed he was going to inherit her estate.”

  “That fits in with what Lem told me when he called me after he’d met with Reverend Barnes. Evidently the reverend was in shock when he found out she’d changed her will. Lem said it was almost as if he personally needed the money. He told me that over the years he’d met with other organizations who’d been promised money by one of their members, but when he told them the member’s will had been changed, they seemed to understand, and although they weren’t thrilled about it, that was the end of it. He said that was not the case with Reverend Barnes.”

  “Well, since she was murdered before he found out about the will, that would probably mean he isn’t a suspect. Would I be right?”

  “Yes and no. Yes, he probably wouldn’t be a suspect given the fact she was murdered prior to his finding out she’d changed her will. If he knew she’d changed her will, he might have killed her out of anger for what she’d done to him. But since he didn’t know about the change, and he assumed he was still the sole beneficiary, there was no need for him to speed things up, so to speak, and take the risk of killing her. He could simply sit back, be patient, and eventually inherit her estate when she died of natural causes.

  “On the other hand, no, he’s still a suspect because of mistakenly believing he was the sole beneficiary of Maggie’s estate. He may have murdered her in order to quickly get the money he desperately needed to pay off his gambling debts.”

  “Mike, are you saying he
could have murdered her? I mean he’s a reverend.”

  “Unfortunately, Kelly, people are human, and sometimes humans do bad things, professions notwithstanding.”

  “I had another thing happen that ties in with this.”

  “Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. I thought all you were going to do today, in addition to taking care of everyone at the coffee shop, was talk to Sunny.”

  “So did I, Mike, and honest, this was a complete coincidence, kind of one of those things you can’t believe is happening.”

  “If you can’t believe it’s happening, that really causes me concern.”

  “Here’s the deal, Mike. I stopped in at the market and happened to see a good customer of mine, Mary Price, she’s the church secretary, and here’s what she had to say.” Kelly told him about her conversation with Mary.

  “She told you she overheard the reverend saying ‘It was all for nothing. I did it for nothing. She left everything to the animal shelter. I don’t believe it.’ Wow, that puts him pretty close to the top of the list of suspects. Sounds like he had a motive in that he needed a lot of money, and he needed it fast because he owed thousands of dollars to online gambling sites. Even if he had such a motive, I have nothing other than that to tie him to the murder. I wonder if I can get a photograph of him. Maybe there was a man walking down the street the night of the murder, and Mrs. Lewis could identify him, although she told me she didn’t think she could,” Mike said.

  “I could ask Mary if she has a photograph of him for you, or you could probably go to the church’s website and get one.”

  “Absolutely, emphatically do not ask Mary for a photograph. I’ll handle this from now on. You are through doing anything else on this case. It’s over for you.”

  “Okay, but will you tell me what’s happening, at least? I really would like to know what’s going on.”

  “Yes, I’ve told you before that although I don’t like you involved in my cases, your instincts are often pretty good. Chief Rogers called me today. When his lab was going over more DNA evidence, they found a lot of animal byproducts. They even went back to the house today and vacuumed the carpeting and flooring. Evidently they found far more animal byproducts than would be normal, even when over thirty dogs were involved. He said it was strictly a theory, but he wondered if the killer knew about the dogs and brought a lot of dog treats so he or she could gain entrance to the house.” He put the dish towel he’d been using on the rack and sat down across from Kelly.

  “That would mean the killer knew there were a lot of dogs in the house, right?” she asked.

  “Not only that, but it probably meant Maggie Ryan knew the killer. She might have even let him in and then the killer gave the dogs the treats or maybe he gave them to the dogs, closed the bedroom door, and killed her. That’s just a theory. We really have nothing solid to back it up.”

  “Could the lab determine the brand of the dog treats?”

  “No, I asked Jenna about that, and she said most dog treats have animal byproducts in them unless they’re the vegetarian variety. By the way, when I gave the dogs a treat when I came home, I noticed that we’re almost out of them. Might want to put that on your shopping list.”

  “Thanks. Since I’m not their primary treat giver, I hadn’t noticed. I’ll pick some up tomorrow. You mentioned Jenna. What’s happening with her?”

  “I think I told you Maggie Ryan left her entire estate to the Cedar Bay Animal Shelter. I went over to the shelter to tell her and she was thrilled. No, make that beyond thrilled, since she didn’t know how she was going to keep it open because of the financial stress caused by the sudden influx of thirty dogs. I guess they’d been operating on a shoestring for quite awhile and the arrival of Maggie’s dogs was about to put them under. It gave me a good feeling, and I’m sure if Maggie was alive, it would give her a good feeling, too.”

  “I’m so glad that at least something good has come out of all of this.”

  “I’d like to say I went over to the shelter to see Jenna for purely altruistic reasons, but to be honest I wanted to see her response when I told her,” Mike said. “I know you’re not going to like to hear this, but crime solving 101 teaches us that if someone or something is going to be the beneficiary of a will and a murder has been committed, that’s where you start your investigation.”

  Kelly looked at him wide-eyed. “You can’t seriously think that Jenna Lee had anything to do with the murder.”

  “No, I don’t think so, but in a case like this I can’t allow my emotions or personal feelings to affect my judgement on whether or not someone might have committed the crime.”

  “That’s crazy, Mike. How could she have possibly known that the animal shelter would be the beneficiary of Maggie’s estate?”

  “I have no idea, but I’m just saying in a case like this I can’t rule anything out, although she seemed to be both sincerely shocked and happy when I told her. Personally, I don’t think she had anything to do with it, and I’d have to put her at the bottom of the list of possible suspects.”

  “I certainly hope you don’t waste another minute going down that dead end, but Mike, something just occurred to me. The dogs were in the house when Maggie was murdered. I don’t know how you could do it, but I wonder if one of them could ID the murderer.”

  “Nice thought, Kelly, but think about it. What would I do? Take each possible suspect and get thirty people to put thirty dogs or however many there are on leashes and then parade each of them by the suspects to see if there’s a reaction. No, I don’t see that happening.”

  “You’re probably right. I just wish they could talk.”

  “So do I, sweetheart, so do I. I’m going into our office and do a little work. I’ll join you in about an hour. Thanks for dinner. It was delicious, as usual.”

  “Thanks for cleaning up my mess. Love you, Sheriff.”

  “Ditto.”

  “Oh, Mike, one more thing. I don’t know if I mentioned that one of the dogs that was at Maggie’s was in pretty bad shape. It’s a female German shepherd, anyway, when Jenna came to the coffee shop, and I told everyone about the dogs, Roxie and Jenna started talking. Dr. Simpson wanted to run some tests on the dog, and Roxie, her son, and her husband went over to see the dog, because her son had always wanted a German shepherd.

  “Unfortunately, the X-rays showed she had a tumor. Dr. Simpson did a biopsy on it, and it’s malignant. Roxie’s beside herself, because they’d decided to adopt the dog if she was okay. Now she doesn’t know what to do. Betsy, that’s the dog’s name, is being operated on in the morning. Roxie was thinking of going over to the veterinary clinic and waiting there during the surgery. Instead, I suggested she go over there when the surgery was completed, and Dr. Simpson should know something by then. I hope Betsy will be okay.”

  “Well, if anyone can help the dog, I’m convinced Dr. Simpson can. I think this little town is pretty lucky to have a vet of his caliber. When you find out anything, I’d like to know. Would you give me a call tomorrow?”

  “Consider it done.”

  CHAPTER 21

  On her way to the coffee shop the following morning, Kelly hoped that because several days had gone by since Maggie Ryan had been murdered, the crowds at the coffee shop would taper off. It turned out to be a futile hope. There was a killer on the loose, and it made the townspeople of Cedar Bay nervous and they wanted to talk about it. Kelly’s Koffee Shop was the logical place to go in the hopes that someone had news about it. No one knew anything other than what had been discussed for the last two days. Several people made comments that the sheriff should know something by now. It was very unsettling for Kelly.

  She tried to allay the customers’ fears with talk that Mike was getting very close to solving the murder, but she knew that was idle talk. From what he’d told her the previous evening, he was no closer to solving it than he had been just after the crime had been committed. She wished there was something she could do to help him, but nothing came to mind.

  P
romptly at noon the front door opened, and Doc walked into the coffee shop carrying a bulldog puppy with a bright red collar and a leash attached to it. Kelly rushed over to him and said, “Doc, this must be Max. He’s adorable. I can see why you took him.”

  “He and Lucky are doing great. He seems to have accepted Max. I’ve been keeping him at the clinic with me in a wire kennel, so he can see me when I’m treating patients. Little guy follows me everywhere I go. Okay if I sit in that booth over there?” he asked. “I brought a couple of dog treats for Max, so I think he’ll be fine sitting or lying down by my feet.”

  “Of course. If any food inspectors from the county come in, you can leave through the back door, but I don’t think that will happen.” She looked out the window and said, “I see Mike’s patrol car pulling into the parking lot. Looks like you’ll have company for lunch.”

  “Hi, sweetheart,” she said to Mike as he walked in the door. “Roxie hasn’t heard from Dr. Simpson yet, so that’s why I didn’t call you. Doc’s in a booth at the back, and since he brought the newest addition to the Burkhart family, Max, you’ll have a chance to meet him. He’s absolutely adorable, and Doc says he and Lucky have become friends.

  “Here’s a menu for you and one for Doc as well. I didn’t give a menu to Doc when he walked in, because I wanted to seat him in his booth as quickly as possible before someone complained about him having Max with him. I’ll be over in a minute.”

  Kelly served several customers their orders and then walked over to the booth where Mike and Doc were sitting. “Well, gentlemen, anything look good to you?”

  “We’re going to make it easy on you and Charlie. We both want the blue cheese burgers, and we’re going to split an order of onion rings,” Doc said.

  “You’re the doctor here. You sure you two don’t want something a little healthier. Mike, this kind of negates your healthy breakfast.”