There was no way that she could have missed something like this. She started pawing through the paperwork on her desk. After some poking and prodding, Wednesday located the files if not the information she was looking for.
She couldn’t find anything in writing that claimed that Kaitlin was responsible for a pet’s death. The only complaints against the B&B were from Linda Grego. They were general complaints about being unsafe and unsanitary. The reports were never completely followed through with because the B&B had seemed so spick and span. Was it possible that the complaint was only directed at Kaitlin’s living quarters?
Wednesday jumped online and started looking into Linda’s online life. She was proud of what she found. Maybe she should be an investigator and not the secretary.
Linda had been posting pictures of two Yorkshire terriers on her Facebook pages, but then after some quotes about love and loss, the pictures transitioned to only having one little dog in them. Wednesday also found a GoFundMe page asking for donations for a pet’s surgery. Because of the rush deadline Linda had for it, the campaign had only reached about half of what she was asking for.
Wednesday checked the dates. Linda’s complaints against Kaitlin’s B&B had begun right after the GoFundMe was set up. This couldn’t be a coincidence. The dog’s death and the police complaints had to be related.
She texted Willow right away. She was sure that she would be awake. Even though her sister wasn’t much of a morning person, she had been getting up to have coffee with Griffin while they did the reno work. They were probably talking about their date now, which was something Wednesday did want to hear all about – but after she shared what she had found.
“Wait a second,” Wednesday said, before realizing that she hoped her followers never found out how often she talked to herself. “That’s only one dog.”
She sent another text to her sister. After all the digging she had done, she had only found a possible connection between Kaitlin and one dog. Were there more? What other dogs could have died?
The questions were racing through her head, and she was feeling impatient, and kept checking her phone. Why wasn’t Willow responding right away? Was she too distracted by Griffin? That would be bad timing for a good couple.
Wednesday started searching for cat videos that looked like Rover to distract herself. She wanted Willow to tell her what they should do next with this knowledge. What should they investigate next?
Wednesday froze and then hit herself in the head. How could she not have thought of this before?
She looked for the contact information at the bottom of the email she had been sent and placed a call. Her point-of-contact at Clickable ConTENt answered with a silky voice.
“This is Sherri Lee.”
“It’s Wednesday.”
“It can’t be. My calendar says—”
“No. It’s Wednesday Wells. I’m doing the feature for you.”
“Of course,” the voice said as if there had never been a mistake. “Did you decide what day you want to do your finale? I’m sure you have something special planned. Did I mention how much people have been loving this feature?”
“That’s great,” Wednesday said happily.
“Now, when do you want to end it?”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve had an idea.”
“I don’t want you to think that you were doing anything wrong. We loved your feature. Really. We just want to focus all our attention on this poisoning and dog killer story because we think it will get a ton of hits. We want it to be the only thing we’re pushing that day.”
“I think it will get a bunch of hits too,” Wednesday agreed. “And I want to be the one to tackle the story.”
“We have a reporter already.”
“Yes. But I’m already in town. I live here, and I know all about the complaints that were made with the police about the B&B.”
“I suppose we wouldn’t have to send anyone out there if we let you cover it,” Sherri Lee said thoughtfully. “But this is a really big story. We want it to be sensational. There are dead pets at a charming B&B. We can say how she even fooled us with her article about pet tips.”
“I can handle this,” Wednesday assured her. “I have an in with the police and with the local dog trainer. I could even incorporate this search into the ‘Week in My Life’ feature.”
“Beautiful blonde investigates poor dead pets,” the other woman said, testing out how it sounded.
“I know I can do this,” Wednesday said. “I can find out all the facts in this case. This can even be my grand finale. Let me have a shot at the Murder Dog House.”
“Murder Dog House,” Sherri Lee repeated. “I like the sound of that. All right. You’ve got your shot. Find us some juicy information for this article. We want it to live up to our name.”
“I’ll make sure it’s very clickable.”
“You better,” Sherri Lee said amicably. Then she hung up.
Wednesday smiled. She had saved her finale and now had an even more impressive story to write. However, she didn’t have very much time to do it.
She put the Linda files on top of the stack on Kaitlin’s death. Her father’s barely started bio was still on her computer, but she would have to finish that later. She had sleuthing to do!
19
Willow was determined not to focus on her fight with Griffin, but she was still having trouble focusing on her trip to the city council with Wednesday.
She didn’t like to think that she might have overacted and ruined a potentially great relationship. She also didn’t think that she was completely wrong in asking about his motives. He could have been trying to sweep her off her feet to get out of renovating the spa. She’d heard of crazier things that people did to get out of work.
She didn’t like arguing with people in general and hated when it was with people she cared about, and she had to admit that she cared about Griffin. She was sure that they had both said some things that they regretted that morning.
For example, what did he mean that she wasn’t living her life fully? She was living her life. She was running a business, and taking yoga classes, and helping a friend stop being the prime suspect in a murder. That sounded like living to her!
“Did you hear what I said?” Wednesday asked.
“Huh?” Willow said. So much for not focusing on Griffin. Apparently, she hadn’t been paying attention to her sister at all.
“How are we going to get Linda to talk to us?”
“Good question,” Willow admitted. They had just arrived outside of the city council’s office building and were ready to go inside and find Linda. They were supposed to have decided on the best way to approach her on their ride over, but Willow had been distracted.
“I need to make sure that I get all the facts right,” Wednesday said. “Both for the police investigation and for my article. However, I also need to make sure that I get some juicy details for the piece.”
“If Linda’s dog died because of something to do with Kaitlin, then she has a motive for the murder. That’s a pretty juicy detail.”
“Yeah. But I don’t expect her to outright admit that she killed somebody. We’ll have to be sneaky about this,” Wednesday said. “But first, let’s take a pic.”
Willow recognized the irony of taking a picture to post on social media while claiming to be sneaky but agreed to the picture. Wednesday made a hopeful face and crossed her fingers. Willow crossed hers too though it was partially because she hoped that no one following Wednesday online would realize why they were there.
“Come on,” Willow said, as soon as her sister lowered her phone. She dragged her inside and they found the office marked L. Grego.
Linda looked up as they entered. “Can I help you two?”
“Hopefully,” Wednesday said before casting a glance at her sister.
“We’re following up on that complaint you made with the police about the bed-and-breakfast,” Willow said quickly.
Linda gestured towards the chairs by her desk but frowned.
“It’s a bit late for that, isn’t it?” she asked. “I mean, the problem basically resolved itself.”
“Because of her death?” Willow said.
Linda nodded as they sat down. “The B&B will either close or go to a new owner, and they won’t be able to carry on like Kaitlin did.”
“What do you mean by that exactly?” Willow asked.
“I mean – not to gossip – but she was a slob, and it got so bad that it became dangerous. I’m surprised there weren’t constant complaints about her.”
“The guest portion of the house was immaculate,” Wednesday said.
“Yes. But Kaitlin wasn’t,” Linda said. She seemed to regret saying that and continued. “I’m sorry. But I don’t see how discussing this anymore will accomplish anything.”
Willow decided to just ask her outright. “Did Kaitlin have anything to do with your dog’s death?”
Surprise crossed Linda’s face, but then she nodded. She placed her hands on the desk to support her. “Yes. I know she did.”
“You didn’t mention that in your complaint,” Wednesday said.
“It’s very difficult for me to talk about this,” Linda said. “And I thought the police would realize it when they investigated the complaint. Then, Kaitlin wouldn’t be able to accuse me of slander or anything like that.”
“What happened?” Willow asked gently.
“Kaitlin ran such a lovely bed-and-breakfast. The guest area really is stunning, and it’s so dog-friendly. I thought the rest of the house would be too,” Linda said. It was clear that she was trying to hold back tears. “Kaitlin was also a dog sitter. I had to go out of town for a weekend, so I left my babies with her.”
Linda picked up a picture frame, and it obviously became harder for her not to cry. She showed the photo to Willow and Wednesday. It was of two Yorkies in matching sailor costumes. One had a blue bow in her hair, and the other had a tiny hat on his head.
“My Pepe and Pattie,” Linda said wistfully.
“I’ve only met Pattie,” Willow said, thinking of the small dog that Linda was so protective of at the doggie gym.
“I thought Kaitlin would be a great dog sitter,” Linda said. “But I was wrong. Her apartment was such a mess, and it turned out to be deadly. There was all this junk on the floor, and it was dangerous. Pepe and Pattie must have eaten something while they were there. Pepe died! And Kaitlin didn’t even notice until I came to pick him up. I could have hit her, but I was too busy worrying about Pattie who was also sick.”
“You mentioned that she had recovered from surgery,” Willow said.
“When I came back for her, she was so sick. I took her to the vet, and he said that she had an obstruction. She needed surgery for it. It took my poor baby so long to recover from it, and it was very expensive.”
“You set up a GoFundMe page,” Wednesday said.
“That’s right. I couldn’t lose Pattie as well as Pepe, so I needed to get the surgery. But it did cost a lot. I tried to raise money from donations, but it didn’t cover the whole cost. That’s why I’ve been pushing my candle sales more. I even tried to sell them to that hyper employee of yours.”
“But,” Wednesday said, “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have put this in your complaints.”
“Kaitlin tried to say that it must have been something that I did that hurt them. She tried to say that my babies must have eaten what did that to them while they were home with me,” Linda said, shaking her head. “She tried to say that it was my fault.”
“But you’re saying it was her fault,” Willow said.
“It was. My dog died because of her. And I thought that’s what the police would discover when they looked into my complaints about it being unsafe,” Linda said. “But I guess she knew about those complaints because she got a dog of her own soon after. She wanted to be able to say that her dog was able to survive there, so I must be crazy. That I must have been the one who did something to hurt my dogs. But the only thing I did wrong was to trust the wrong person.”
She began to cry. Wednesday stood up and moved closer to comfort her. She placed an arm around her. Willow stayed in her seat and made eye contact with the sobbing woman.
“So, you’re not very broken up about what happened to Kaitlin.”
“I just wanted her shut down, so she wouldn’t hurt others too,” Linda said. “I didn’t wish her dead.”
Wednesday continued to soothe the woman. Willow pressed on with her questions.
“Your business card was found on some coffee grounds in her apartment. Can you explain that?”
Linda looked down. “I was mad when I sent that to her. But it was just outdated coffee. There wasn’t anything that could have killed her. I just wanted her to feel bad about what she did. If she wasn’t going to feel bad emotionally, I wanted her to have stomach pain.”
“She ended up feeling worse than that,” Willow pointed out.
“I don’t even know if she drank the coffee I sent her,” Linda said. “I haven’t stepped foot inside her house since the day I went there to collect my dog’s body.”
“I can’t imagine how terrible that must have been,” Wednesday said. “I was panicked when my cat needed stitches. To picture her having life-saving surgery after discovering her brother was dead? I couldn’t stand it.”
Willow didn’t want to imagine anything happening to Rover or Tele either. However, nothing could condone murder.
“All I wanted was for the place to be closed down,” Linda said. “And it would have been better for everyone if that happened. I mean, look at how she died. Nothing she was doing could have been safe. She was apparently ingesting poison without knowing it. She could have hurt other people. I know she hurt other animals.”
“Other pets died in her care?” Willow asked.
“Definitely,” Linda said. “There must have been several.”
Wednesday nodded to her sister subtly but then gave a tiny shrug. Willow got the message. Wednesday had also heard that other pets had died but had no knowledge of specifics or real evidence to back up the claim.
“Who?” asked Willow.
Linda blushed. “All right. I guess I don’t know all the animals who have been injured. And maybe some owners did believe that it was their fault and not Kaitlin’s.”
“You don’t know anyone in particular?” Willow said, growing less certain that there was anyone else.
“There was at least one person I know who had an incident. Truman Fitzpatrick lost his championship dog, Nero, because he stayed with Kaitlin. He didn’t tell me all the details, but I know that it happened.”
Willow tried not to frown noticeably. Linda wasn’t proving to be a reliable witness. Truman’s dog, Nero, was alive and well and going to be her main competition at the dog show.
Were the flaws in her story because she was so focused on covering up her guilt? It was time to discover if Linda had an alibi for the mornings that Kaitlin’s coffees had been poisoned.
“You said that you never went by the bed-and-breakfast again,” Willow said. “You didn’t even stop there one morning to see if your complaints were resulting in changes?”
“No. I didn’t go there. And I didn’t poison her coffee grounds,” Linda said.
Willow tilted her head as she realized that the council member had mentioned that the grounds were what was tampered with.
Linda continued. “And this week has been especially busy for me.”
Wednesday looked nervous, and Willow knew she was wondering whether there would be even more paperwork for her to fill out.
“I’ve been doing some secret shopping in town, and I’ve been volunteering in the mornings. I’m helping with breakfast duty at the high school. One of the lunch ladies is battling cancer and hasn’t been able to come in. Especially because I’m on the city council, I feel like I should pitch in and help.”
“You were there every mor
ning?”
“For the past two weeks, actually,” Linda said.
“Do you have the person in charge of breakfast duty’s contact information?” Willow asked.
“Why? You don’t believe me?”
“No,” Willow said. “It’s because we’ve been looking for some more volunteer opportunities in town. Wednesday thinks it will be good for a feature she’s working on.”
Linda went through her drawers and found the phone number. She wrote it down and handed the paper to Willow.
Willow thanked her and left the office with Wednesday. Linda was looking at the picture of her dogs as they walked out the door.
Once they were on the street, Wednesday plucked the piece of paper out of Willow’s hands.
“I’ll call them,” she said. “I actually might see if I can volunteer at the high school cafeteria. It could be good for my feature. I can take pictures of the good deed, and I can reminisce about my own high school days.”
“They’d probably make you wear a hairnet,” Willow cautioned.
Wednesday frowned. “I’ll call them later. But what do you think about all that? It seemed like there was some good information for my article.”
“I don’t know how much Linda really knew,” Willow said, thinking aloud. “We now know the story about what happened to her dog and where the rumors about other dead pets started. However, she can’t have been right about Nero. He hasn’t been training at the gym since Terry and Lady Valkyrie have been using it, but he’s entered in the Field Club Championship. A dead dog can’t compete.”
“Why would she lie about that?”
“Maybe so we would believe her about her complaints against Kaitlin,” Willow suggested. “She doesn’t want to be the only one with a problem with the victim.”
“That’s not the case though, is it? Weren’t there several people with a motive?”
Willow nodded. “But, they’re also starting to be eliminated because they have alibis. We’ll have to check and see if that’s the same case for Linda. But there’s something else that she got wrong too.”
Bark Up and Smell the Coffee Page 14