“I don’t know much. The police aren’t telling me anything other than to watch my back.”
“Do you think the two are connected?”
I examined her outfit. It was October, and while it wasn’t exactly cold, in my opinion it was too late for open toed shoes, and it wasn’t at all the environment for those things anyway. Jennifer didn’t want to volunteer because she wanted to help the event, not dressed like a woman on the prowl at least. She was there for other reasons. I wondered if that was true of Gina and her fashionable attire, too? I knew she was fishing for information, and I wasn’t going to give her anything. “I think I should leave it to the police to figure out.”
I didn’t want her to think I suspected her of anything, and realized my tone came off rude when she jerked her head back and narrowed her eyes. I dialed it back the best I could. “I’m sorry, Jennifer. I guess I’m just stressed out from all of this. It’s scary, thinking it’s possible someone wants me dead.”
She placed her hand on my shoulder. “Oh, honey, I can only imagine. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Hey, what’re you doing tonight? How about I come by with a bottle of wine and we can chat? Say around seven o’clock?”
There was nothing less enjoyable for me than idle chit chat with a woman I barely knew and wasn’t quite sure I liked. Hayden said I needed a tribe, but I didn’t agree. Groups of women were fine in social settings, but I’d learned that women weren’t a lot different than they were in junior high. Cliques established themselves everywhere, and I’d felt the thrill of being on top along with the burn of being left out. I wasn’t comfortable in either. It was likely my mouth and my inability to keep it shut at the most important times, but I wasn’t about to change. I have six versions of the the more I know people, the more I like my dogs shirt for a reason. But if Jennifer knew something, or if she was involved in any way, it could be my only chance to find out. “Sure, that would be great.”
I offered her my address, but she declined. “I know where you live.”
“Great. I’ll see you tonight.”
“I’ll be there,” she said, and went on with her business.
I had enough time to check on the dogs at the shelter, give them some much deserved love and treats—which I enjoyed more than them—and then rush back home to search the internet for Gina Palencia. I started my laptop and searched her name, but I wasn’t going to pay for some cheesy background check that wouldn’t get me anything. She had several social media accounts, and I was able to give those a cursory eye, but since I wasn’t on any of them, I really didn’t understand how they looked.
I’d downloaded the few pictures I’d been able to take over the past few days and stared intently at the shoe prints. I had no idea what I was looking for, and even less of a clue what the police did in that kind of situation. I thought about Gina, Jake, Rick, and Jennifer, and anyone else that might have a reason to kill Traci Fielding and hurt me. I couldn’t come up with any concrete thoughts, but I did know not one of those people wore boots with a large square heel like the print in the photos.
Could it have been someone else entirely?
Allie snored loud enough to break her out of her instant slumber. Both dogs were exhausted, having spent the day in the fresh air, and since I’d fed them at the shelter, when we got home, they each dropped onto a fluffy dog bed in the keeping room and were out like lights in minutes.
I desperately wanted to change into a baggy sweatshirt and sweats, especially since Jennifer was dressed to impress earlier, but I didn’t. I stayed in my dark jeans and burgundy sweater and tidied up our already clean kitchen waiting for her to show up.
Which she did, promptly at seven o’clock.
I answered the door with a fake smile plastered on my face. “Hey, come on in.”
She stepped inside and handed me a bottle of cheap white wine. “I know it’s not fancy, but it’s actually one of the better ones I’ve had. I’m in this wine club, and I get all these fabulous wines that honestly taste like garbage. This one is a hundred times better.”
I smiled. “It’s fine. Sam and I used to drink wine from a box. He always said it was the people you drank with, not the cost of the bottle that mattered.”
She nodded. “Smart man.”
We stared at each other for a moment in that awkward we have nothing more to stay kind of way. I finally shifted my feet, closed the door behind her and headed to the kitchen. “Follow me. The dogs are crashed, so you don’t have to worry about them.”
“Oh, I’m not.” She examined my house. “Wow, your home is beautiful. I’d love to live in something like this.”
I unscrewed the bottle and poured us each a glass. “Thank you.” I handed her one. “We like it.”
She gave me a sad smile. “It must be hard.”
I realized what I’d said. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just used to talking like a couple.” I hesitated and laughed. “I don’t even realize I’m doing it most of the time.” I walked over to my gray sectional couch and moved my laptop over to the coffee table. “Let’s sit.”
She followed. “So, how are you doing with all of this? It must have been awful, finding Traci and then seeing someone had vandalized your area of the festival.”
“I’m okay. It’s business as usual for me. I’ve got to get everything ready, make sure the dogs we’re bringing are up to speed with their training and all, so that’s taken a lot of my time.” While that was true, I hadn’t exactly ignored what had happened. I just didn’t think that was information she needed. I wasn’t up for the additional prodding.
She placed her wine glass on the table and shifted her position on the couch. “Can I ask you what it was like, finding Traci?”
Basically, she just did. I gave her question some serious thought. “You know, I’m not sure how it felt. I saw her, and I did what I had to do. I don’t even know if I thought it through. I just acted.”
She nodded and relaxed her back. “Oh, well, I would have been a complete basket case, finding her like that.” She continued to nod. “But I’m a hot mess when anything out of the ordinary happens.” She reached for her glass and took a sip. “You were probably devastated to find the pumpkins smashed on the turf. And to discover they had cyanide on them.” She waved her empty hand in the air. “That must have been awful.”
“I just hope the police solve both cases quickly.” I took that moment to turn the tables on her and see what I could find out. “Do you think the two are related?”
She pressed her lips together. “I mean, it would be quite a coincidence to have two random people use the same type of poison, unless of course the person responsible for the pumpkins was just a copycat. I guess it would help to know if cyanide is easy to get. I wouldn’t know anything about that, but I’m sure you’ve checked into it given the circumstances.”
I raised an eyebrow. We’d had a similar discussion earlier and she’d said she knew it could be purchased over the internet. Had she forgotten, or was she lying? “Didn’t you tell me earlier it could be bought on the internet?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, gosh. Yes. I forgot about that. I’m all stressed out about this. I can imagine you must be, too. Do you think it was purchased on the internet?”
“I have no idea,” I said, wondering what she was trying to accomplish.
“Oh. Well, I guess if someone wanted to, they could. I mean, desperation is a strong motivator.”
“What makes you think they were desperate?”
“Because of the dogs, of course.” She stood and walked over to our half wall of bookcases, eyed the various books, and then removed The Art of War. Flipping casually through the pages, and without looking at me, she said, “I’ve been thinking about it, and whoever killed Traci must have done it because of the pooch party. She’d pushed so hard to keep it part of the festival, and it’s obvious to me that’s what got her killed.”
I straightened my back. “You think Traci’s death is because of my dogs?”
&nbs
p; She placed the book back on the shelf. “Don’t you? Just hours before she died she was arguing with the festival powers that be to keep the pooch party there, and then the smashed pumpkins on your turf? Doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me.”
“You saw her arguing? With whom?”
She sat back on the couch. “Rick Morring.”
I pressed my lips together.
“You do know he wants your program shut down, and poor Traci, she was determined to keep it up, at the festival at least.”
I nodded. “I can’t imagine she’d be killed over my event.”
“You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“What Rick’s been doing? About the beer garden?”
I tilted my head. “Apparently not. Why don’t you tell me?”
“That’s what the argument was about. He wants to replace your event, at the festival at least, with one. He said it’ll bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the city. Last year the festival brought in over a million dollars, but he thinks a beer garden will up that by at least half. Given that your dogs don’t bring in a dime, he feels eliminating it is fine.”
I had to force myself from not appearing shocked. It wasn’t easy. “This is the first I’m hearing about a beer garden.”
She shrugged. “Given my relationship with Traci, I didn’t talk to her about it personally, but she wanted nothing to do with a beer garden, and she made that clear at the volunteer meetings. The festival has beer sellers already, and drinking is limited to certain parts, so she thought adding a beer garden would be more of a problem than it’s worth.”
“I imagine it could be a nightmare for the police.”
She nodded. “That was her other issue. Encouraging people to drink may be good for city budgets, but it’s not good for the community.” She sipped the last bit of her glass of wine. “But your program, it’s good for the community.”
“And for the dogs. Did you hear all Morring say any of this to her?”
“With my own ears.”
“Did you tell the police?”
She sighed. “No. I didn’t think about it at the time, but I guess I should.”
“You need to tell them. It could be important.”
Jennifer spent another hour talking about the festival and then left. I finally had a moment to change into my comfy clothes but went for my pajamas over the sweats. I let the dogs out and sat on the couch, staring at my computer.
After thirty minutes of blank staring and deep thought, I abandoned my laptop on the couch and walked out to the gazebo. Sam and I used to stroll the property at night, and though it was safer with a man next to me, it was a tradition of sorts I wasn’t willing to give up. The walking allowed me to think, gave me peace, and made me feel more connected to my late husband.
I wandered the property thinking about what Jennifer had said. Was it true that Rick Morring wanted a beer garden? If so, why hadn’t that been mentioned in the council meetings? More than likely that would have required a permit or approval or something, so wouldn’t he have mentioned it?
I checked the time on my phone, which I’d always carried with me while on the property. I’d been out for over an hour, and it was just past ten o’clock. Growing up, we weren’t allowed to answer the phone after nine, but times had changed, and texting at any hour didn’t appear to be an issue for most, so I decided to go ahead and text Max.
“Hey, I’m sorry if it’s late, but are you aware that Morring wants to put a beer garden where the pooch party is?”
I watched as the three dots on the text message thread appear. “He mentioned it briefly, but that’s it.”
My thumbs went to town on my screen. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
More white dots that took forever to become a message. “Because he dropped it.”
“I don’t think he did though. Traci was arguing with Morring about it before she was killed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I’d sat in the gazebo as both dogs slept on the floor beside me. “He wanted to—Can you talk? It’s easier than texting.”
There were no dots, and when the phone rang, and Max’s contact popped onto my screen, I quickly answered.
“Who told you this?”
“Jennifer Lee.”
He was silent.
“Okay, I know what you’re thinking. She’s probably not the most reliable source, but she offered to come over with a bottle of wine, so I figured, why not, and that’s when she told me.”
His breath was heavy and long. “Tell me what she said.”
I gave him the details, ticking them off like bullet points on a typed to do list. “She thinks Traci’s death is because she didn’t want the beer garden.”
“He doesn’t need her approval for it. It’s a city run festival. Council makes the decisions.”
I figured that, but I had a theory. “Sure, but Traci’s been running the show for how many festivals now? If she was against it, she could have threatened to quit. That would have been an issue, don’t you think?”
“Gina seems to be doing a decent job of managing it now.”
“Because it’s in the final stages. Traci handles it from day one, or she did. From planning to scheduling to execution, she was in charge of everything, and she’d already done most of it. What’s to stop Morring from killing her and setting it up at the last minute? Cutting a large area like mine for a beer garden would be easy and it would definitely go over well with attendees. And what’s the best way to make that happen?”
“Vandalize the pooch area so it’s considered unsafe.”
“Em.”
He was silent for a moment. “Let me do some digging in the morning. Can we talk after breakfast?”
I headed back to the house, walking faster than the dogs because they’d done a lot of running earlier on their four legs than me with my measly two.
Chapter Nine
“It’s the backdoor over here.” I pointed to the door leading out to our deck from the keeping room. “They broke the window to unlock it,” I told the police officer standing beside me.
He stepped toward the door carefully as Justin entered through the front of the house hollering, “Missy?” with panic in his voice.
“Back here,” I replied.
He jogged into the room and gave it a quick examination. “You okay?”
I nodded. “We were at the gazebo. I didn’t hear anything.”
He pointed to the dogs on each side of my legs. “They didn’t either?”
I shrugged. “They had full days. They were snoozing in the gazebo, and you know how far it is from the house.”
He nodded. “Might want to keep one at home if you go out like that.”
I shuddered at the thought of what could have happened to one of them if whomever had broken into my house saw them. Dogs couldn’t protect themselves from bullets.
Justin studied the broken window on my door. “This is new, isn’t it? The door.”
I breathed in deeply. “You do pay attention to detail, don’t you?”
“It’s my job. The last door had small windows on the top. We had to knock to get in one night, and Hayden couldn’t see inside them because she’s too short.”
I smiled at the memory. They’d walked to the end of the property, and Sam knew it was probably to do something neither of us would want to know about, so he decided it would be funny to lock the door and make things awkward for all of us. It was definitely awkward then, but a fun memory now. I smiled.
Justin did, too. “Mr. Kingston would have never approved a door like this. It’s not safe, especially for a…” He let the rest of that sentence finish itself.
“I like the natural light that comes through.” I shook off the discussion, saving it for a later date. “My laptop is missing.”
When I’d come back with the dogs, I saw what I thought was a person running along the side of my house, but I wasn’t sure until the dogs barked and took off run
ning. I immediately commanded them to heel, and though Bandit did, Allie isn’t as trained, and kept going. I went into panic mode and ran at full throttle with Bandit just ahead of me, chasing my dog to make sure she was safe over chasing after the person who’d been inside my home.
It might not make sense to a non-dog owner, but for me, I’d rather lose my personal belongings over my animals.
“Did you get a good look at the person?”
I shook my head. “Just their back. Short, under six feet, wearing all black, including a mask which covered the person’s entire head. I’d left lights on outside, but the person was already rounding the corner of my house by the time I saw them.”
“Tell me what happened.”
I went through the details once again, since I’d already done it for the officer that had responded to my 9-1-1 call. “We stayed out of the house in case someone else was inside. I kept the dogs with me across the street and waited for your officer to arrive, and now we’re here.”
“And just the laptop was taken?”
“As far as I can tell.”
A young man in khaki pants and a blue windbreaker with the city emblem on it, walked over to us. “We’ve got some footprints. I’ve taken photos of them. Do you want a mold?”
Justin nodded.
I asked Justin, “Do you know if they found any prints at the pooch party?”
“Only about two hundred. We’ve got people going through them all now.”
Training dogs without knowing their history was hard, but that had to be next to impossible.
I’d noticed the prints outside and snapped photos of them with my phone, but they were hard to see with the flash.
Allie approached the man dusting the door for prints. She kept her head low. “Allie, it’s okay. Place,” I said, pointing to her dog bed near the couch.
She gave the man one last sniff and sulked as she walked to the bed. When she laid down, she groaned her frustrations.
“Maybe you should stay in a hotel tonight. I can board up the glass for you, but I think Hayden would be more comfortable if you weren’t here.”
Pooches, Pumpkins, and Poison Page 10