Kennel Club

by Geonn Cannon

  “Mrs. Willow?”

  “Miss Frye,” Dale corrected. “And she’s Miss Willow.”

  “Of course, my apologies. I’m Graham Cosgrove.” He waited for them to take their seats before he sat down. “I have two questions before we begin. First, are you absolutely positive that the woman currently incarcerated for the murder of Shannon Hardy is innocent?”

  Dale said, “I would stake my life on it. I’ve known Ari as a friend, an employer, and a lover, and there is no part of me that thinks she did this. I believe she is capable of murder under the right circumstances. But there was no reason for her to do it, or to lie about it once she was caught.”

  Graham nodded. “Second.” His professional mask slipped a little, and he leaned forward with a sly grin on his face. “Did you really slap Cecily Parrish in the face?”

  Dale looked at Diana, who looked at Gwen, who shrugged. “It was the best part of the story.”

  “Yes,” Dale said. “She had it coming.”

  “You’re damn right, she did,” Graham said. “A wrongfully accused woman and a woman who lived the dream of two dozen attorneys in Washington state. I’m definitely taking this case pro bono just so I can tell the story for the rest of my career.”

  Gwen said, “We appreciate that, Mr. Cosgrove.”

  “Graham, please. And may I call you Gwyneth?”

  “Gwen,” she said.

  “Dale.”

  He nodded to them both and tapped his phone. It was sitting on the table beside his empty plate, which seemed to remind him they were at a restaurant. He sat up straighter, scanned the area for a waiter, and motioned one over.

  “Feel free to order something. It’s on me.”

  Dale looked at the menu and almost threw it on the floor in terror when she saw the first page. Did they use gold-plated spinach for their dip? She finally settled on a bowl of soup. Graham ordered fish and chips “for the table.” When the waiter was gone, he referred to his phone again.

  “Now to business. I’ve gone over everything Detective Macallan here has given me on the case. It’s thin, but in this case a lot of weight will be given to who is presenting the evidence to the jury. Walter Cronkite could have told people the moon was populated by lemurs and half of America would have taken it as gospel. Cecily Parrish can work wonders with the thinnest of circumstantial evidence. We have Miss Willow as a frequent guest of Shannon Hardy. Is there any way that’s true?”

  “No,” Dale said. “Ari never saw Shannon outside of GG&M’s offices. And any implication she was doing it in secret? We live together, work together, commute together. I don’t know when she would have the time.”

  Graham said, “I want you to really think about this, Dale. There’s no time period during the day where Ariadne could have slipped away to meet this woman without you knowing about it?”

  Well, sure, Dale thought. During any one of her night-long runs as the wolf. Out loud, she said, “Ari goes on stakeouts, she investigates. We’re not chained together at the ankle. But there are times when we might as well be. And you might think that, oh every spouse says the same thing. But trust me, I work for a private investigator. Seven times out of ten, the spouse knows and we’re just being hired to confirm what they already know. Ari... she can’t eat my yogurt without feeling guilty. She reaches out to touch me when she’s asleep. She doesn’t even have a favorite chair in our apartment because she wants to sit next to wherever I happen to be sitting, and if you think a woman like that is cheating on me...”

  “Dale,” Gwen said softly, her hand on Dale’s shoulder.

  She realized she had been ranting and on the verge of tears. She lowered her head to catch her breath. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Graham said. “I like that kind of passion. It gives weight to your denial that she was having an affair. This is good, it helps us.”

  Gwen said, “What about the doorman? Why would he claim to have seen Ari if she’d never even been to the building?”

  “The fact he never saw Ari in person could actually have caused the confusion,” Graham said. “If there is a tall brunette with an athletic build who was a frequent visitor to the building, then the officers showed him a picture of Ari, it’s easy for the brain to combine the two. I’m confident I can throw out his identification of Ari when we’re in court.”

  Diana said, “And speaking of reasonable doubt, we tracked down the car from the security camera.”

  “Really?” Dale perked up. “How?”

  “We got lucky with a security camera outside of the park. Apparently the locals have a problem with coyotes coming into their backyards. And I looked closely. They actually are coyotes. Not... anything else.” She looked at Dale and Gwen, then looked at Graham, who remained clueless. “So, uh, a few of them have cameras set up at night. I had some officers go through the tapes people were willing to offer us and we got lucky. The same car from the park’s camera was spotted on Orcas Street, turning north onto Wilson. The camera was at the right angle to give us a license plate.”

  Dale held up crossed fingers. “And it’s registered to GG&M?”

  Diana smiled. “We didn’t get quite that lucky. The car was reported stolen the night before Shannon Hardy was killed. It was found Sunday morning after being stripped for parts. Whoever was using it probably left it in the bad part of town and let car thieves do the rest. Any chance of fingerprints or residual evidence is long gone.”

  “So it was a dead end,” Dale said.

  “For now,” Diana said, “but we have leads. At the very least we believe the car was involved with something suspicious that happened the same night as everything else. We’ll keep digging on it and see what we can find.”

  Graham said, “In the meantime, I’ll go over everything GG&M sends me now that I’m officially working for Ariadne. They’ll probably try to bury me in discovery, but I’m prepared for that.” He looked at Dale. “As much as I respect it and as fun as it probably was, I have to ask you to refrain from further violence against Cecily Parrish.”

  Dale smiled. “I’ll try.”

  “If you surrender to the urge, film it and put it on YouTube.” He winked. “For now, let’s just relax and have a feast to prepare for the battle to come. The world may not pay much attention to what’s going to happen in that courtroom, but for us, it’ll be the trial of the century. We’ll need our strength.”

  #

  That night, after her shower, Dale lay in bed and tried to figure out what was bothering her. Graham Cosgrove seemed like a competent lawyer. He was charming and confident. She noticed that he’d given the waiter a one-hundred percent tip, which meant he was either a good human or compensating for the fact they hadn’t eaten very much. Or maybe making up karma for being a lawyer. Either way, the waiter got paid. So it went in the “plus” column.

  But something was gnawing at her. She couldn’t get comfortable. The house was quiet and still enough that she could hear traffic on the street outside. She also heard sounds coming from Gwen’s bedroom, but she’d been a guest in the house long enough to ignore them. She sighed and closed her eyes. The awkwardness of overhearing Gwen and Milo having sex might have been gone, but she and Ari had been apart for almost a week now and she was lonely. They’d never gone a week without having sex.

  Maybe the prison had conjugal visits. Or maybe they’d get lucky and Graham would find a magic bullet that completely destroyed Cecily’s whole plan. That would--

  Her thoughts stopped dead as suddenly as if a radio had shut off. Under her breath she said, “Destroying Cecily’s plan. Oh, god...”

  She didn’t bother putting a robe on over her pajamas - shorts and a T-shirt - as she burst out of her room and hurried down the hall. She smacked the flat of her palm against the master bedroom’s door. “Gwen! Wake up. You have to wake up.”

  She heard a door open behind her. She looked back to see Hannah and Mia peering out of their room. Mia said, “What’s wrong?”

  “We made a mist
ake,” Dale said. When she faced forward, Gwen was standing in the open door of her bedroom. She was wrapped in a sheet while Milo, behind her, had just finished shrugging on a T-shirt. Dale refused to acknowledge seeing that and focused on Gwen’s worried expression. “We made a mistake,” Dale said again.

  Gwen said, “In what regard?”

  “In Cecily Parrish’s plan,” Dale said. “We’ve been trying to find ways to prove Ari’s innocence in court. Meeting with Graham at lunch today, having Diana look for that car. We’ve been trying to find a legal way to win this fight and clear Ariadne’s name.”

  “Of course,” Gwen said.

  Dale’s eyes were wide, frantic. She shook her head. “No, but... no. We might win that way. Maybe Graham is a super-lawyer who will find a magic bullet or, or there might be some little piece of evidence Cecily overlooked that might bury her.”

  Mia had stepped out into the hallway. The other bedroom doors were open now, and the hall around her was full of wolves in various states of undress.

  Gwen put her hands on Dale’s shoulders and spoke calmly. “Those are all reasons to be hopeful, Dale. We can still win this.”

  “No,” Dale said. “That’s my point! We could win that way, and Cecily won’t allow that.”

  Mia sucked in a breath. “Oh, shit.”

  “What?” Hannah said. “What’s going on, why is she freaking out?”

  Dale said, “Because Cecily isn’t going to take a chance we’ll find a way to trick her in front of a judge. She’s not going to endanger her career with a public humiliation like that.”

  Mia said, “She has no intention of this going to court.”

  “Right,” Dale said. “She’s going to have Ari killed in prison.”

  Gwen tensed. “No.”

  Mia said, “The alternative is risking exposure in court. On her home turf. If Ari says, under oath, what happened and it gets put into the public record... this Parrish woman won’t allow that. And even if she got a conviction, do you really think she would let Ari rot away in prison looking for a way to get her revenge?”

  Dale said, “Cecily told Milo that this was the termination of her relationship with Ari. She meant that literally. She never intended this to end with a guilty verdict, it always ended with Ari dead.”

  “Then why didn’t she kill Ari instead of Shannon?” Paige asked.

  “Because...” Dale didn’t have an answer. “Because...”

  Milo said, “Because this way, her reputation gets killed first and Dale’s life is ruined as collateral damage.”

  Paige growled under her breath and shook her head. “I really hate this woman.”

  “We have to warn Ari,” Dale said.

  Milo said, “The die is cast...” Everyone looked at her. “In Cecily’s office, when I offered to take the job, she said the die was cast. She seemed to believe the matter was done. If she arranged to have Ari killed, then she’s probably already got all the pieces in place. The person who is going to kill Ari is probably another prisoner, probably someone she’s already crossed paths with.”

  Hannah said, “Okay, well, how do we find out who that is?”

  Gwen’s face was hard, an emotionless mask to prevent herself from breaking down as she said, “I’m afraid we can’t. We can’t even warn her until next Monday unless Ari chooses to call us.” She looked at Dale. “For the time being, our girl is on her own.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ari tried to remind herself that no matter how friendly her new prison acquaintances might be, they were all prisoners. Some might have been falsely accused but she couldn’t assume they all had been. She knew Segura was a con artist, which meant she was most likely non-violent. She hadn’t seen any evidence of a temper or any violent behavior from her. She was probably safe.

  Kunz, Henning, and Frankie were a different story. Kunz had been arrested for assaulting someone in a drunken haze. When Ari asked her about it, Kunz worrisomely referred to the victim as “the one who was willing to press charges.” Frankie was in for theft. She said that she “went about ten bucks over the limit and turned it into a Class B felony.” She’d shrugged indifferently. “I’ve always been lucky like that.” Henning was in for selling drugs and running a group of prostitutes. “They were tricking anyway,” Henning said. “I just took over as new management so they’d have a boss they could trust.”

  Not exactly the most ideal group of new pals, but they were fine in a pinch. The first dinner after making friends with the “kennel club,” Ari noticed everyone in the cafeteria watching her.

  Segura explained once they sat down. “You got your face beat in by Kunz, and a couple of days later after round two, you’re best buddies. Everyone thinks you’ve got some kind of Midas touch.”

  “Hopefully no one calls my bluff,” Ari said.

  “Mm. Also, you’re friends with me. That earns you some brownie points, too.”

  Ari said, “Good to know.”

  After dinner, she had an hour to kill before lights out. She still wasn’t entirely confident how far she could wander, so she cautiously moved down the hall while bracing for a guard to stop her at every step. When she arrived at the infirmary, she saw Dr. Byrne through the glass and knocked as she opened the door. Val looked up and then went back to the file she was writing in.

  “If you’re here for more pain meds, I’m cutting you back.”

  “No, I’m... I’m more or less fine on that. I was just wondering if it was okay for me to hang out in here for a while.”

  Val looked up again. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” She sat on one of the beds. “I’m just trying to deal with the fact everyone I’m interacting with in here is a criminal. I’m a private investigator. My job is to put people in here, to make sure they pay for crimes. Now I’m relying on those people for my safety. Segura, for instance. She’s a con artist. A month ago, I would have gladly gathered evidence on her to make sure she ended up in here. Now she’s my friend. I just thought that it might be nice to spend a little time with someone who is a civilian and gets to go home at the end of the day.”

  “I get that,” Val said. “Sure, you can hang out. But fair warning, I’m going home in about twenty minutes, so it can’t be a long visit.”

  “That’s fine,” Ari said.

  Val had gone back to her work, and Ari took the opportunity to look at the doctor. She wasn’t wearing her lab coat, so she looked like a normal person. It made her the first person who actually looked like a civilian that Ari had seen since getting to prison. Her red turtleneck was tight in the right places, and when she turned to check something on another table, her skirt showed off just enough of her legs to make Ari’s mind wander.

  She snapped herself out of it and focused on the ceiling tiles instead. She was really starting to feel the separation from Dale. She hadn’t gone this long without sex since they started dating. She was starting to get an undeniable itch.

  “So why do you do this?” Ari said. “I’m getting sick of only seeing convicts, but you could probably be making big bucks out in the real world.”

  “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong,” Val said. “This is where the real money is. Private practice has nothing on correctional work.”

  Ari said, “Really?”

  “Yep. The state does what it needs to ensure it gets qualified physicians to work here. And it’s not much different from working in a small town.”

  “You don’t have a partner who gets worried that your job is dangerous?”

  “Not anymore,” Val muttered.

  “Sorry.”

  “No, don’t be. It was an epiphany moment. I wasn’t going to let someone else decide what was right for me.”

  Ari smiled. “Sounds like something I went through recently. I was trying to make a decision that affected my girlfriend’s job without consulting her.”

  “Yeah? How’d that go over?”

  “Poorly. Of course, it ended up with me in prison, so I’m not sure there w
as a good path out of that situation.”

  Val walked over to stand next to Ari’s bed. “I get a lot of people in here claiming they were set up. You, I actually believe.”

  “Because I seem like such a good person?”

  “Because you seem like the sort of person who could piss someone off enough that they frame you for murder.”

  Ari opened her mouth to defend herself but realized she didn’t have an argument. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

  “Most people wouldn’t, but okay.”

  Ari sat up and got off the bed. “I’ll stop bugging you now. I’ll stop by tomorrow to get some more painkillers.”

  “How are you doing on that?”

  “Good. I’ve dealt with pain for a while, so it’s no big deal.”

  She was at the door, but Val began speaking almost as if to herself.

  “You found those girls.”

  Ari looked back at her. “Excuse me?”

  “Melody Scott and Jenna Morris. I Googled you last night and saw you were the one who brought them home. I remembered the disappearances when they happened, but I didn’t remember the name of the person who saved them. I decided that if the person who did that was in prison for murder, she’s either innocent or she had a good reason.”

  “I appreciate the benefit of the doubt.”

  Val said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Willow.”

  Ari waved goodbye to her and left.

  Her cell was empty when she got back. She hadn’t seen Vogel in the halls and had to assume the two illicit lovebirds were out looking for a new place for their alone time. She wished them luck and stretched out on her bed. So far prison was what she imagined college would be like. There were cliques, she had a dormmate, she had responsibilities she didn’t ask for. Val was right about it being a small town. Now that she had the wolf under control she could focus on staying alive until trial. The worst part about that was being away from Dale.