The Dog Who Knew Too Much

by Krista Davis

  “If he’s smart, he’ll leave the area,” observed Holmes.

  “I don’t know how far he’ll get without someone noticing the arrow sticking out of his leg. Aside from the pain, it has to make it hard for him to walk.” I ate the last bite of my slice of chocolate cake. Holmes was right. I did feel better!

  “Liesel and I agreed that I should stay here tonight. The inn will be a central point of contact for me. I hope that’s okay.”

  I grinned, because Dave clearly wasn’t asking. It was a done deal. “Sure. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “Not yet.”

  Holmes was staring at Dave in a way that I didn’t like. He looked worried. “Sure. Holly and I will stay with you. Whatever you need. You just say the word.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that. Hate to eat and run, but I’d like to keep an eye out for Jim and Pippin. They’re out to dinner somewhere. We’ve locked up the reception entrance, so I’ll see them when they come in.”

  “Why don’t you go with Dave?” I said to Holmes. “I’ll clean up in here and put on a pot of coffee.”

  Dave and Holmes left the kitchen. The first thing I did was make sure the back door was locked. I started coffee brewing, washed and dried our utensils and food containers, and tidied up.

  As awful as he was, I felt sorry for Wade. It was hard to imagine being alone in the dark woods with an arrow in my thigh. Maybe the cops would locate him soon.

  I loaded a tray with mugs, sugar, milk, and coffee and carried it out to the Dogwood Room. As I approached, I heard Holmes ask Dave, “You don’t think this Wade guy is coming here to harm Holly, do you? Is that why you’re staying here tonight?”

  “Partly. We know he wants Pippin and Trixie. And both of them will be here. Like Holly pointed out, he’s not in very good shape. I didn’t find the arrow, so it’s probably still in his leg. If it were me, I’d be more interested in leaving town. But this guy has a long rap sheet. He doesn’t think the way we do. There’s no telling what he might do.”

  “Any violence on that rap sheet?” I asked as I set the tray on a table.

  “Surprisingly little, actually.” Dave poured himself a mug of coffee. “Mostly con jobs. Stealing dogs and selling them is right up his alley.”

  “I don’t get it.” I sat down with them. “Pippin is so famous. He would be recognized right away if someone bought him.”

  “You’d be surprised how many people would pay to own the real Pippin, even if they had to keep him hidden.”

  “You were right all along, Dave. He probably came here to steal Pippin and happened to read about Trixie. I don’t understand why he would want Trixie. I love her to bits, but if she was his dog, he threw her out. Why does he want her back now?” I gazed at her, and she hopped in my lap. Wrapping my arms around her, I whispered, “You’re staying right here with me.”

  “Are you kidding?” asked Dave. “It’s all about money, Holly. He probably thinks he can get a good price for her now that she’s been featured in a national magazine.”

  As Pippin’s entourage filtered in, they joined us in the Dogwood Room. Wade Holt and the arrow in his leg were the main topic of conversation.

  I made more coffee and raided the freezer for high tea leftovers. Before long, it looked like a party with chips and dip, fruit tarts, cookies, and a raspberry swirl cheesecake.

  Oma joined us and brought Gingersnap and Stella along. She hit the stash of liqueurs and offered everyone after-dinner drinks.

  The only ones missing were Jim, Pippin, and Marlee. Their absence was notable.

  “They were with us at dinner,” said Camille.

  Dave strode to the front door and stepped out on the porch. He returned quickly. “No sign of them yet.” His phone buzzed, and he took a quick call. When he hung up, he said, “Jack Klausner says his German shepherds are, and I quote, ‘barking their fool heads off.’ He has pretty good lighting around his place, but he doesn’t see anyone.”

  “Where’s that?” asked Rae Rae.

  “Just outside of Wagtail. If it’s Wade and not a deer, then he’s made good progress for someone with that kind of injury.”

  “I’m getting worried about Jim,” said Camille. She hastened to add, “And Marlee and Pippin! They should have been here by now.”

  Finch, in his usual deadpan way, said, “They probably went to a bar. I wouldn’t worry about them yet.”

  Oma shook her forefinger. “It is not safe for Pippin to be out tonight. Jim should bring him home.”

  Another half hour passed before Jim, Marlee, and Pippin arrived to our cheers.

  Casey followed them in to take the night shift.

  Trixie, Gingersnap, and Stella rushed at Pippin as if they had been concerned, too.

  Oma breathed a sigh of relief. She walked over to me and whispered, “I am going up to bed now. I will take Gingersnap and Stella with me. Good night, liebchen! Please call me if anything happens.” She walked down the hallway and disappeared into the elevator with the two dogs.

  For a while, the party atmosphere continued. But one by one, Pippin’s entourage bid us good night and went upstairs to bed.

  By three in the morning, I had come to the conclusion that I would have made a lousy cop, because I didn’t have the patience to sit around and wait. I curled up on a sofa in the Dogwood Room listening to Holmes, Casey, and Dave talk about Wade.

  The next thing I knew, Mr. Huckle was saying, “Time to rise, Miss Holly.”

  I opened my eyes. He smiled at me and waited for me to sit up before handing me a steaming mug of tea. “Where is everyone?”

  “Holmes and Casey went home. Officer Dave is having breakfast with Liesel.”

  “Did they catch Wade?” I asked.

  “Alas, he is still at large.”

  Since I was already downstairs, I took Trixie out to the doggy bathroom. It was another gorgeous day. The sun shone high in an azure blue sky. Wagtail and the lake were calm. A lone red canoe was tied to our dock. No one would ever have guessed a dog thief and possibly a murderer was on the loose. I sipped my tea and waited for Trixie.

  The door behind me opened, and Pippin ran out to join Trixie. Jim followed him, carrying a mug of coffee.

  “That was quite a night.” Jim yawned. “I don’t imagine it will go on like this much longer. That wound has got to be unbearably painful, and it’s probably getting infected by now.”

  “If it had been me, I would have begged for an ambulance,” I said. I knew it was nosy of me, but I asked anyway. “Where did you and Marlee go last night after dinner?”

  Jim chuckled. “She bought me a drink to thank me for being nice when Howard said such cruel things to her. That’s all. It was no big deal. We didn’t realize everyone was looking for us.”

  I dared to ask, “You went back to Howard’s house later, didn’t you? The night he died?”

  He seemed surprised. “After I brought Marlee back to the inn, I played poker for a while. Then I left Pippin in our room to get some sleep, and I went to Hair of the Dog. I never saw Howard again until we walked into his house together.”

  That would be easy enough to confirm. I happened to know the owner of Hair of the Dog pretty well. Of course, unless he was flirting with her, she probably wouldn’t have noticed if Jim slipped away for half an hour to murder Howard.

  “Listen,” he said. “Some part of me might have wanted to throttle Howard for what he did to Lucy. But my goal was to find her remains. His death pretty much ends any hope that she will be found. Nope. I wanted that jerk to be alive and tell us what he did with her.”

  I watched Trixie chase Pippin down to the lake. They ran along the shoreline then raced to the dock, where Trixie froze.

  Thirty-six

  “Trixie?” I called. I dropped my tea mug and ran toward her as fast as I could.

  “What’s wrong?”
cried Jim behind me.

  “I don’t know.” By the time I ran onto the dock, Trixie had shaken her fear and was barking loud and nonstop.

  Pippin lifted his nose and sniffed the air. He barked at the edge of the dock like he was agitated.

  A rough green tarp in the canoe moved. Trixie and Pippin launched themselves at it.

  A hideous scream filled the air as the tarp thrashed and the canoe turned over.

  “Pippin!” howled Jim.

  Where was Trixie? She knew how to swim, but she hated the water. I jumped into the chilly lake. Trixie’s head bobbed up a couple of feet away. In two strokes I had her in my arms. Pippin swam steadily beside me.

  But when we reached the shore, I realized that someone was thrashing in the water. Jim wasn’t on the dock anymore. “Jim!” I yelled. He turned to look at me. “What are you doing in the lake?”

  And then Wade’s head emerged from under the water. He reached out for Jim’s neck. The two of them wrestled, trying to shove each other under the water.

  I ran back to the dock. The tarp had sunk when the canoe flipped, but a wooden canoe paddle floated by the dock. I picked it up, took a running start, and leaped into the water while cracking it over Wade’s head with all the strength I had.

  The churning in the water stopped.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dave running down to the lake from the inn.

  Jim and I turned around in panic. There was no sign of Wade.

  Dave ran across the dock and dove into the water. I grabbed hold of the ladder on the dock and hauled myself out. I’d barely stepped on the dock when Dave’s head came up. He had Wade under his arm and swam toward me.

  Jim clambered up the ladder. Our eyes met for a brief instant. Did we really want to save this guy? We knelt on the side of the dock and heaved his lifeless body out of the water.

  “I killed him,” I whispered. “Oh no! I killed him!”

  Jim nodded. “Looks like it.”

  I rolled him on his side and watched as water dribbled out of his mouth.

  “Shove over, Holly.” Dave knelt next to me, rolled Wade on his back, and started chest compressions.

  Wade sputtered and spewed water. He coughed several times. His steely eyes landed on Jim. “I should have killed you when he told me to. Never was any good at following instructions.”

  It wasn’t until I stood up that I realized the arrow was still in Wade’s thigh. He had cut off his trouser leg. The wound looked pretty bad. Jim was right. It had become infected.

  The rays of the sun gleamed off Wade’s watch. It was a fancy silver model with a brown band. I had seen it before.

  The chaos continued as two of Wagtail’s volunteer firemen showed up and moved Wade to a gurney. They carried him up the hill to wait for the ambulance.

  “Did he say what I thought he did?” asked Jim, whose face had turned ashen.

  Dave nodded. “I think so.”

  “Who?” Jim started to run uphill after the gurney. “Who? Who told you to kill me?”

  By that time, it felt like everyone in town had shown up. Oma hurried toward me. “Are you all right?” She picked up my hand. “You’re cold as ice!”

  We walked up the hill with Dave and watched as they loaded Wade into an ambulance that had arrived.

  Jim was still shouting, “Who?”

  And suddenly I thought I knew who.

  Dave placed a hand on Jim’s arm and spoke calmly. “I’ll find out.” To the rescue squad, he said, “I’ll swing home for a change of clothes and meet you at the hospital.”

  I took Dave aside and whispered, “Was Howard wearing a watch when he died?”

  Dave looked at me like I had lost my mind. “I don’t know. We’ll talk later, okay?”

  “Dave! Check Wade’s watch. I think it belonged to Howard.”

  Dave took off, and the ambulance departed only minutes later.

  I was drenched and shivering. It was too early in the summer for the lake water to have warmed up enough for a morning swim. “C’mon, Trixie.”

  After I took a shower and Trixie had a bath, I dressed in jeans and a thick fuzzy top that was better suited to winter weather. I wasn’t sure I would ever be warm enough again. I rubbed Trixie’s fur with towels until she’d had enough, and we went down to breakfast.

  Jim was already there, sitting at a table with Oma and Rae Rae. “Tell them!” he said to me.

  Pippin and Trixie didn’t romp around like they usually did. I suspected they were exhausted.

  I sat down at the table wondering if I should tell him my suspicion. “What I heard him say, and he was looking straight at Jim, was ‘I should have killed you when he told me to.’”

  Rae Rae and Oma were horrified.

  Shelley arrived at the table to take our orders. “You two are town heroes. Everyone saw what happened. People who were dining out on the terrace started screaming. The cook and I ran outside to see what was going on.”

  “Jim wrestled with him in the water!” said Rae Rae. “It was amazing.”

  “Did you call the ambulance?” I asked Shelley.

  “That was me.” Oma placed her hand gently on my arm. “I was afraid someone would drown.”

  “What would you like for breakfast?” asked Shelley.

  “How about a nice hot ham-and-cheese omelet. The dog version for Trixie, please.”

  Jim piped up. “I’ll have the ham steak with eggs and hash browns, please. Pippin would probably like what Trixie is having.”

  While he ordered, I could hear the buzz about our morning swim at the other tables. Frankly, now that it was over, I was enormously grateful that I hadn’t killed Wade. How could murderers live with themselves and go about their lives knowing what they had done?

  While we were eating, Dave called Oma from the hospital in Snowball. Jim would have to wait a little longer to find out who wanted him dead. They had taken Wade straight into the operating room to remove the arrow from his leg.

  Rae Rae grimaced. “How do they do that? Ugh.”

  “I’m going to be there in his room when he wakes up,” grumbled Jim. “The first thing he sees when he opens his eyes will be me looking down at him. And I will stay there until he tells me the truth.”

  I understood Jim’s frustration, but I had a feeling that I knew who had asked Wade to kill him. “Jim, do you remember the fancy watch that Howard wore?”

  “The one he pointed out to everyone? We have laughed so many times about that crazy watch. It was good-looking. I’ll give him that. But who flashes a watch around bragging about it?”

  “I think Wade was wearing it.”

  The look on Jim’s face was priceless. He sank back into his chair. “Do you think Wade murdered Howard? He would never have given up that watch willingly.”

  “I’ve asked Dave to look into it. I imagine they did an inventory of his belongings. Especially anything he was wearing at the time of his death.”

  Rae Rae’s mouth actually hung open. She snapped it shut. “Jim, you and Marlee were the last to see him. Do you recall if he was wearing it?”

  “It was dark and I was angry. I wasn’t paying attention to his watch. It’s quite distinctive, though. I’d like to see the one Wade had on. One thing’s for sure, if it was really the same expensive brand, then I bet Wade stole it from someone.”

  We ate in silence for a moment. And then Jim asked, “Does that mean it was Howard who told Wade to kill me?”

  Thirty-seven

  “Has Pippin had his massage yet?” I asked.

  “Are you serious? Someone wants to kill me and you’re talking about dog massages?” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he apologized. “I’m sorry. This has got me on edge. Will someone rush at me with a knife? Will my food be poisoned? It’s pure agony.”

  “All the more reason fo
r both of you to relax with a massage,” said Oma. “I will book them for you.” She bustled away to the phone.

  “Do you suppose that’s why Wade came here?” Rae Rae held her coffee mug in both hands. “Howard hired him to murder you?”

  Jim mashed his eyes shut for a moment. “It’s a funny thing. I would have sworn that I was being followed when we got to Wagtail. You know how you just have that feeling? But there were so many people around Pippin all the time that I couldn’t pick anyone out. I thought I was imagining things. Now I know I wasn’t.”

  “Sort of ironic, actually,” I said. “While Dave was thinking you might have committed murder, someone was planning to murder you!”

  Jim started to choke. He waved us away and caught his breath. “I’ve been running around trying to get in Howard’s face and annoy him. It never even occurred to me that he might try to get rid of me. It could be me in the morgue right now instead of Howard.”

  Rae Rae blinked. “It will be interesting to find out why Wade spared you and killed Howard instead.”

  Jim’s face flushed. “He spared me, and I was trying my best to drown him today. Everything is turned around.”

  * * *

  I tried to act like it was just a regular day. Around eleven in the morning, I finally felt warm enough to change into a coral sleeveless blouse and a white skort. While Pippin was off being pampered, Trixie and Twinkletoes helped me do my rounds at the inn.

  Holmes found us on the second floor. He rushed at me and picked me up in a bear hug. He set me down, his eyes wide. “Are you all right? I leave the inn for a few hours and you incapacitate the man everyone was looking for?”

  “You’re making too much of it. But it appears that he might have had a hand in Howard’s murder.” I told him my theory about the watch.