Guy E was a police officer whom she thought she remembered seeing the night before. He seemed to recognize her too. Ultimately, she decided that it might be too weird. Mr. D was a lawyer with a warm smile and friendly manner that put her at ease. C and B both looked as tired as she felt by the time they reached her but seemed like good guys.
She flashed Guy A a big smile, relieved that she was five minutes to freedom and then recoiled as he burst into tears.
“My girlfriend left me, and my buddy made me come here. Said I had to get out and meet people.”
“I’m sorry, when did she leave you?” Cindy asked.
“Six months ago.”
“Oh.” She had nothing else to say and so just sat quietly while he continued to cry.
The final bell rang, and she sagged in her chair. From the table next to her, Joseph gave her a little wave. They walked up together to the sign-in table and picked up the forms where they were supposed to put down who they were interested in.
“What if no one puts down my name?” Cindy whispered to Joseph.
“Unfortunately, you never know who puts down your name unless you put down theirs as well. Something tells me, though, that you don’t want to put down every guy here.”
“Heavens, no,” she said.
“Yeah, same with the women.”
“Are you putting any of them down?”
“A couple,” he admitted, avoiding her eyes.
She took a deep breath and began writing on her form. B and C both had earned at least a chance. D seemed nice. R, the computer programmer, was the one who seemed the most interesting of the group. She hesitated for a moment and then blushed as she put down T, folding it quickly so that Joseph couldn’t see that she’d put him down. After all, he was the nicest guy in the room, and Geanie’s admonition that she should go out with him came to mind. Wouldn’t it be freaky if the newspaper caption turned out to be prophetic?
They made it outside, and Joseph turned to look at her. “You want to get some coffee or some food? I don’t really want to go home yet.”
A wave of sympathy filled her. “I’ve been there. I would love to get something to eat. I was too nervous to eat earlier.”
“Okay. Meet you at Outback Steakhouse?”
“All right.”
Fifteen minutes later they gave the waitress their order and then settled back and began to dissect the evening.
“Did you see crying guy?” she asked.
Joseph winced. “He was hard to miss. I sat one table over from him the entire night. He cried most of the time. It was distracting, to say the least.”
“I can imagine. So how did you come up with Animals to the Rescue?”
“Well, I’ve been a supporter of various charities around the country that have been taking dogs into hospitals, nursing homes, and retirement communities.”
“I’ve heard of those,” she said.
“They have had some phenomenal successes. One day last spring I was walking Clarice in the park, thinking about what else might be done with dogs in a therapeutic setting, when I saw this homeless man sitting on a bench. Some volunteers were giving out free sandwiches and passing out information about the homeless shelter. I watched this guy feed half his sandwich to the dog that was sitting with him. One bite for him, one bite for the dog. Well, I asked one of the volunteers about it, and she said that he had some severe mental problems and it used to be no one could get near him; he would just rant and scream and throw things. Then one day he showed up with the dog and asked for a sandwich. They said he’d been making marked improvement ever since.”
“Amazing.”
“That’s what I thought. I talked to a few people around the country, and they all said that when a homeless person started caring for a dog, he took better care of the dog than himself. I theorized that it might be a way to reach out and start bringing these people back into society. Taking responsibility for something other than themselves has got to be a big step.”
“Wow. This program could do so much good.”
“Or fail miserably. There’s obviously a lot of concern for the welfare of the animals and a lot of people who think I’m part of the problem instead of part of the solution.”
“Yeah, but at least you’re trying to do something to help. I mean, really help. Oftentimes all people need to change their lives is a reason.”
“Give a man a fish…” He shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, that was a rather long answer. I hope I didn’t bore you.”
“Not at all. I just kind of wish now that I had a dog.”
“Feel the need to have a reason to change your life?” he asked with a sly smile.
“Something like that,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, if you decide to take the plunge, I know a lot of great dogs that need a good home.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Her phone rang, and she slid it out of her purse and looked at the caller ID. It was Mark. She frowned and flipped the phone open.
“Detective?”
“Listen, I need to know where your boyfriend is.”
“Who are you talking about? I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Joseph.”
“Oh, um, just a second,” she said, feeling herself flush. She held the phone out to Joseph. “For you.”
Joseph listened for a moment, and then his face went completely white. “We’re at Outback Steakhouse. Okay, we’ll wait.”
He hung up the phone and handed it back to Cindy. “What’s going on?”
“There’s been another murder.”
Cindy sat up straight, and her heart pounded. “Did he say who?”
“No.”
Deep, paralyzing fear reached inside her mind. Was it someone else connected to Joseph? It had to be if Mark was looking for him. Her mind swirled with possibilities, faces floating in her mind, people from the church, people from the event, Jeremiah.
Mark arrived within a few minutes and slid into the booth next to Cindy. His face was grim, and she gripped her soda hard, trying to read his expression.
“Is it bad?” she whispered.
“It’s bad. You know that guy from the event last night, Randy Garcia?”
“The one I gave Duchess to?” Joseph asked.
“Yes. He was murdered.”
Joseph began to shake uncontrollably. Cindy felt overwhelming relief that it wasn’t Jeremiah or Geanie or someone else she knew. In her relief, though, one question came to her. “How is Duchess?”
Mark shook his head. “We don’t know. When we got there, there was no sign of her. It’s possible she was taken by the killer.”
4
JEREMIAH FIXED HIMSELF DINNER BUT COULDN’T EAT MUCH OF IT. HIS MIND kept drifting to the man in the park. Had he actually recognized him? What had happened to him? He looked like a homeless person, but Jeremiah had a hard time believing that was true.
The last time they had met had been five years earlier in Israel. Jeremiah remembered the details clearly. He could only imagine the other man did as well.
Could it actually be a coincidence, them being here in the same town? If it wasn’t, then he would need to tread carefully. If it was, then what could Adonai possibly have in mind? He bowed his head and prayed, asking for strength and clarity as he figured out what it all meant.
The phone rang, interrupting his prayers. He answered it and heard his secretary, Marie, on the other end.
“Attendance was down today,” Marie informed him.
“It looked a little thin,” he said with a sigh. “But some people are probably getting out of town ahead of the Thanksgiving exodus.” He smiled at his own joke.
“That better be what it is,” she grumbled.
“Speaking of, aren’t you leaving soon?” he asked.
“We’re in the airport right now; we’re taking the red-eye.”
“Well, have fun visiting with your family.”
“If I wanted fun, we’d be spending Thanksgiving at Disneyl
and or The Zone, not Jersey.”
A thousand retorts filled his mind, about people who would give a lot to spend the holiday with family and that there were far worse places in the world than New Jersey. He bit his tongue, though. “At least have a safe trip.”
“That would be remarkable. Two years ago everyone got food poisoning at Cousin Tina’s house. It was miserable. You should have seen it.”
“I’m kind of glad I didn’t.”
“You’ve got all the keys to the synagogue?” Marie asked.
“Yes.”
“You remember where everything is?”
“I think so.”
“If you get in trouble, you can call my cell phone.”
“I’m sure it won’t come to that.”
“Just promise me.”
“Okay, Marie, if I get in trouble, I’ll call your cell phone.”
“And you best be thinking about what we’re going to do to make sure there are bigger crowds during Hanukkah. The numbers today don’t bode well.”
“Yes, Marie, I’ll be thinking about it.”
“Good. We can talk about it when I get back. Now, where are you going for Thanksgiving dinner?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” he said. The year before had been easy; he’d gone to her house.
“Do you want me to make a couple of calls?”
“No, I promise I’ll figure it out myself. Be safe.”
Jeremiah hung up the phone and realized he was more shaken than he had thought. He hadn’t used be safe in lieu of good-bye in a long time.
“I knew it!” Cindy burst out loud enough to startle herself as well as Mark and Joseph.
The second puppy had been taken. It had to be about the dogs.
“Do you know for certain that Duchess was stolen, that she didn’t just run off?” Joseph asked.
Mark shrugged. “We don’t know for sure, but a guy called the police station to complain about a dog barking like crazy in the alley next to his apartment. It took a while for an officer to go check it out. When he did, there was no dog, but there was a body. So, we’re assuming the dog was still there right around the time Randy was killed. Now, she could have run off.”
“She was stolen,” Cindy insisted. She could feel it. Two men dead in twenty-four hours, both of them in possession of one of Joseph’s puppies, couldn’t be a coincidence. She tried to push from her mind the tears of joy on his face as Randy had accepted the dog the night before.
Joseph’s cell phone rang and he answered it. A moment later he bolted up from the table, slamming into the waitress carrying a tray with their food. The plates crashed to the floor, showering Mark and Cindy with a spray of mashed potatoes and gravy.
“Look!” an excited patron shouted. “There’s blooming onion all over the blooming floor!”
Mark lurched out of the booth, struggling to maintain his balance on the suddenly slippery floor. Joseph threw some bills down on the table and then took off for the door at a run. Mark ran after him, and Cindy scrambled to keep up, her stomach growling noisily as she saw what would have been a lovely dinner covering the floor.
When she made it out the door, Joseph was already in his car, pulling away. “What is it?” Mark yelled.
The window rolled down, and she heard Joseph shout back, “My alarm service. Someone broke into the house.”
With an oath Mark lunged toward his car, and Cindy stood for a moment before running to hers. She yanked on her seat belt, started the car, threw it in reverse, and peeled out of the parking lot right behind Mark. That’s when her mind stopped spinning long enough for her to wonder what in the world she was doing. This is insanity. I’m not seriously speeding toward the scene of a crime! What am I doing?
She could still feel the adrenaline rushing through her body, courtesy of Joseph’s flight from the restaurant. He hadn’t wanted to go home. Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t. She remembered what it had been like when her home had been broken into— the fear, the violation—and she felt for Joseph. He shouldn’t have to face that alone. She had had Jeremiah to lean on.
Jeremiah. Her hand moved to her cell phone, but then she hesitated. Aside from his being there the night before, this really didn’t have anything to do with him. He would probably thank her to leave him out of it. Reluctantly, she let go of her phone and concentrated on following Mark to Joseph’s house.
When they finally got there, she was relieved to discover that the police were already there ahead of them, apparently alerted by the alarm company. The front door was open wide, and lights blazed all over the mansion. Cindy followed Mark as he walked over to Joseph who was talking to a uniformed officer. She was stunned to discover that it was the guy from speed dating.
He looked equally surprised to see her but flashed a grin. “I just started work like half an hour ago,” he informed her.
“Oh,” she said, not sure what else to say.
The officer turned back to Joseph.
“What are you saying?” Joseph asked, looking bewildered.
“Whoever it was deactivated the alarm on their way in and then on their way out tried to reactivate it and failed to do so correctly. That’s what alerted the security company.”
“Are you saying someone has my access code and can come in whenever they like?”
“It looks that way. We’re going to need a list of people who have that code.”
“Nobody,” Joseph said, pulling at his hair with his fists. “Just me. The only other person who had it was my personal assistant, Derek, and he was killed yesterday.”
“Derek had the code?” Cindy and Mark asked in unison.
“Yes, of course.”
“Is there anyone he would have given it to—a housekeeper, dog sitter, girlfriend, anyone?” Mark asked.
“No, absolutely not.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“Could it have been someone at the alarm company?” Cindy asked.
“No. I entered the code after installation. No one at the company knows the code.”
“If someone from the company had used an override, it wouldn’t look like this,” the officer explained.
“Was anything taken, Vince?” Mark asked.
Vince—it was a good name for him, Cindy decided.
The officer shook his head. “We’re still searching. Whoever this was probably knew exactly what they were after. Electronics, files in the office all seem to be undisturbed.” Vince shifted his eyes to Joseph, “Sir, if you could help us check to see if any valuables like jewelry, cash, anything readily portable is missing, we can move this along.”
“What about the puppies?” Cindy asked.
“Ma’am?”
“The puppies, are they safe?”
Vince shook his head. “We haven’t seen any pets at all. Where would they be?”
Joseph pushed past him and sprinted into the house. Cindy and Mark followed as he passed the staircase and headed to the left. At the end of a hallway a door stood open, and they followed him inside.
The room was tiled. The left front corner of the room was covered with newspapers. In the back left corner there were food and water dishes. The right side of the room held a comfy-looking old couch, a couple of arm chairs, and almost a dozen different dog beds scattered around. In and on everything were a variety of dog toys. It was a dog’s dream pad without the dogs.
“Where are the puppies?” Cindy asked again.
“Where is Clarice?” Joseph asked.
“It really was about the dogs,” Mark muttered.
Vince joined them inside the room.
“Did you or anyone else open this door?” Joseph asked.
Vince shook his head. “I was the first one in the house, and I can tell you this door was open already.”
“All right, let’s spread out and search the grounds for any sign of those dogs,” Mark said.
Mark and Vince left the room. Cindy watched Joseph. He stared vacantly at the sofa,
and she wondered what it was he was seeing. She stepped forward and touched his arm. He jumped and turned to look at her.
“Is there anywhere Clarice would go if she was upset? Somewhere she would hide?” Cindy asked.
It was a long shot, but making off with a puppy was one thing, making off with a full-grown standard poodle was quite another.
He nodded and left the room, walking back toward the foyer. Outside she could hear men calling and whistling for dogs that weren’t coming. She followed him upstairs and into what was probably his bedroom. Like the guest room, it was also large and elaborately decorated.
Joseph got down on the floor and peered underneath the giant four-poster bed. “Clarice?” he called.
He stood up, a look of desperation on his face. “This is where she hides when she’s upset about something. She’s not here. She’s gone.”
“If she ended up outside the house, where would she hide?” Cindy asked.
“There’s an old work shed close to the tree line. She likes to crawl underneath it. I caught her hiding out there a couple of times when she was a puppy.”
“Then let’s go check it,” Cindy said.
She had to keep Joseph thinking, moving, otherwise he was going to lose it. She recognized the look of despair on his face. She had seen that look in the mirror before and knew that she had to keep him busy for as long as she could.
They made it downstairs, where he grabbed a flashlight and a leash from the kitchen. Then they jogged across the lawn. After a minute they reached the shed, and Joseph flashed his light underneath.
“Clarice, are you there, girl? Come out. Here, Clarice.”
Cindy held her breath. Several seconds passed, Joseph’s shoulders began to droop, and then she heard a scratching sound coming from the dirt below the shed. A moment later Clarice emerged, limping. Her coat was matted and dirty, and when the flashlight hit her head Cindy gasped. The dog’s muzzle and throat were covered in blood.
Joseph collapsed to his knees and wrapped his arms around Clarice. Cindy shouted, “Over here, we found the mother!”
As the officers descended, Clarice jerked and looked like she was trying to struggle out of Joseph’s arms. He made soft noises to calm her.
I Shall Not Want Page 4