He shrugged. “She said that she’d tell someone some time, but I can’t say if she did or not. I wasn’t that close to her.”
“It just seems dangerous to not tell anyone where it is,” I said, mostly thinking out loud.
“Might be more dangerous to tell them,” he said simply, and I had to agree.
Before I could ask another question, the man walked back inside and took the two Beagles with him. I was left standing in the snow with cold toes and no real clues – just speculation and hearsay.
Just for kicks I went to the other side of the Jenkins house and knocked on the door. No answer. Damn these people and their jobs. How was I supposed to earn an easy dollar if everyone went to work like they were supposed to?
I walked across the street, which was only minimally better than running an obstacle course. The areas between the cars were covered with ice and packed snow. The road itself was clear enough, but we’d had another cold snap, and any melting had turned to ice again. I made it across the street in one piece and knocked on the door directly across from the Jenkins home.
A middle-aged woman, who wanted to be considered young, answered the door. I’m fairly realistic about my appearance. My coat and shirt were from the thrift store, if you keep track of those kinds of things. My chinos were ripped from years of use, not from a machine at the factory. My flannel shirt was red and green, though no one ever counts flannel as a real style.
Even so, I’m not a bad looking guy. I have dark hair, green eyes, and full lips that women do like to kiss. My hair was longer, just above the collar and I kept it down in the winter and pulled back into a ponytail in the summer. I knew that this woman, despite being a good twenty years older than me, had taken in all those details in the first fifteen seconds.
“Hi,” I said, trying my best to be flirty, but failing. I wasn’t really good with pretenses, which is likely why I’m better with animals than people. I don’t have to put on a show for a pet. They either like you, or they don’t. They don’t pretend to be something they are not.
“Hi yourself. What exactly is going on across the street?” Her words let me know that she’d been watching the activity. I hoped that she was the type of neighbor who kept tabs on the people around her, even when the police weren’t around. She could be very handy in this case, allowing me to surprise the police with a few more stories from Della.
“Mrs. Jenkins and one of the Scotties are gone.” I pointed at the snowed-in yard.
“I know. I’m the one who called the police.” She gave me a smile, and I grinned back at her.
“Good for you. We need more people who are concerned for the welfare of others.” I tried to keep myself honest in this situation. I didn’t do well with lying, but I could dance around the truth so well that I should be on one of those dance reality shows. I’d win, hands down.
“I think so too.”
“So how did you know something was wrong there? Did you see Mrs. Jenkins?” I tried to remember to flirt, but it was difficult to be in full investigation mode while trying to be charming. Blood, guts and subtle innuendo just didn’t mix.
“Her front door was open. Four am and her front door was standing wide open. The storm door isn’t worth a thing over there. It just pushes open or closed. No latch.”
“Was anyone home?”
“You’ll have to ask the police,” she said. I thought of the policewoman I’d met earlier and knew that I would be asking the police soon.
“Were there lights on? Did you see the dogs?” I was getting very cold on the front porch, but for all her smiles and titters, I hadn’t received an invitation into her home yet. I wasn’t sure if she didn’t trust me, or if she thought I was out of her league. In either case, I could feel my toes shiver. It was not a good feeling.
“I looked in the front door, since it was open. The lights were all on. I couldn’t see the dogs, and Miss Ruby wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It was like one of those alien abduction stories you hear. Everything still in place, but the people gone.”
I didn’t like the way the conversation was headed. I wasn’t about to discuss UFOs and aliens while my toes fell off from hypothermia. If I was outdoors, I needed to get my questions answered and get back to the warmth of my car fast. “Has she ever done that before?”
The woman laughed again and rested a hand on my arm. “Never. She rarely left the house except for going to get groceries, and even then she had the son of a friend come and stay at her place while she was gone. She spoiled those dogs like they were her babies. Worse even.”
“Interesting,” I said and I meant it. I’d met some devoted dog lovers in my time, but I’d never heard of one who wouldn’t ever leave them alone. That was a bit obsessive even for me. “Did she ever tell you why?”
“Nope. She was an odd duck. She’d always laugh and say that it was worth a lot to her to keep an eye on the dogs. I just thought she’d started downhill. She was older, and people get funny sometimes.”
I puzzled over the conversation, trying to figure out why Ruby had kept her dogs on such a tight leash, but nothing came to mind. The woman told me that she was getting cold and shut the door in my face before I could answer. I was still standing there, trying to determine Ruby’s motives when I saw my own reason to leave.
The policewoman in the pantsuit walked outside and gave me a stare that told me to leave now. I decided to follow her advice. I got in my car and drove home.
Chapter Two
Home for me was about 20 minutes away. My house, such as it was, needed its own style and renovations. I knew that, and yet I didn’t make any attempt to do anything about it. I’m not lazy, but I don’t like to stand out. So my sidewalk and driveway went un-shoveled as crushed snow turned to ice. I wanted to remain as unseen as possible.
My philosophy was that being an overachiever made you stand out from the crowd, which was the last thing I wanted. The same philosophy holds for the way I dress. Nothing too fancy, but nothing alarmingly shabby either. Sloppy moderation in all things was my motto.
Bruno, my Corgi, met me with the happiest of smiles. Of course, he just wanted to go for a walk. I wasn’t fooled at all. Bruno’s life must be hard, because I practice all my animal reading skills on him. He can’t get away with much as I observe him constantly. By now, I could figure out his motivations from a few seconds of study.
Countess, the orange tabby who thought she ran the house, didn’t bother to come find me. I had to go in search of her, but that seems to be the way of all cats, even ones that had been homeless until you took them in. She was the stray who had led me to solve my first crime, and she never let me forget that she was the start of my livelihood. There was no bringing a dead rodent to me as a gift; if anything, she felt I should do that for her.
They were minimally glad to see me, if only for what I could do for them. Bruno got a small treat, and Countess got a rub on the head, which she didn’t appreciate. I tried to spend at least two to three hours a day with them, watching them and noting behaviors and habits that I could later identify in other pets as well. It’s served me well the last few months as I’ve gotten my business off the ground.
The phone rang just as I sat down on the couch, and I walked over to pick it up. I was still using a landline to the chagrin of practically all of my friends, but I could be old school in some ways. For starters, it kept family members from calling me when I was on the road. I’d trained them almost as thoroughly as my pets. Family should leave a message on the voicemail if I wasn’t at home, and I would call them back when I could.
“Hi, Mom,” I said, knowing that it had to be her checking up on me. She’d left me barely enough time to go to Ruby’s house, ask questions and come back.
“So what happened?” That was my mom in a nutshell. Straight to the point with no flowery language or greetings. Tell me what I need to know. She’d been this way for as long as I could remember.
“I’m not sure.” I thought over the crime scene again. I fe
lt like I’d missed something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. The case had some interesting features, and I love Scotties, so I knew I’d stick with it. Besides, it would give me additional chances to talk to the detective I’d met. “I’m still asking around.”
“What did the dogs tell you?” Even though my mom had seen my parlor tricks for what they were, I’d asked her to keep the pretense, which she did even when it was just the two of us. She was definitely in my corner when it came to making a good living.
I admitted to the people who were very close to me what I really did. I watched the tell-tale signs that a pet made, the pack movements, the position of the ears and the tail. Every inch of a dog or cat meant something. Then after I knew all I could about the pet, then I made some guesses about the situation to make it sound like the dog talked to me. I usually called the guesses “inferences” because it sounded better than taking a wild stab in the dark at what was really going on.
“Not much. The male, Perry, was gone. Della was there, but she was scared half out of her mind. There might have been blood on her, but the police have to send it away to determine if it is blood. It could be chocolate sauce for all I know.”
My mother clicked her tongue. “Chocolate is bad for dogs. Don’t you feed my grandpets anything like that.” My mother liked to rub it in my face that at 30, I still hadn’t settled down and started a family. Calling my pets her grandbabies was just one of her more subtle approaches.
“I don’t. All natural and organic for them.”
“Good. So when will you announce the solution to this? I’m getting a bit worried about Ruby. She’d never leave her dogs like this.”
“Uhh, I’m going to need a little more help here to solve this. The police mentioned Ida Jenkins. Who is that – a sister?”
“Younger sister. There were three girls in the family: Ida, Ruby, and Phyllis. Ruby never married, but both of the other two married. Ida got a divorce and changed her name back within a few years of getting married. Phyllis stayed married and had children. I want to say like two or three. Phyllis passed a few years ago, but Ruby always kept tabs on the girls.” This was the type of information I needed. My mother could be my partner-in-crime when needed. Usually “needed” was anything having to do with me finding a woman to settle down with or paying my own bills. Both admirable goals that I was failing at the moment.
“So any ideas on what could have happened?”
“I’ve known Ruby since we worked together nearly twenty years ago. It was a different set of dogs then, but the same behavior. She kept a constant eye on those pets. She would never leave her dogs with no one to take care of them – ever. Either something has happened to one of the dogs, and she couldn’t leave it, or something has happened to her and the other dog got out. That’s all it could be.”
“So no enemies or people who would want her dead?”
My mother made a noise best described as a raspberry. “She was a retired school nurse, not James freaking Bond. Of course she didn’t have any enemies.”
“And the family was fine?” I was running out of options quickly here. It looked like I’d have to do some leg work to make this happen.
“The family was family. They weren’t great, but they weren’t killing each other either. Ida didn’t care for dogs, so they didn’t get on too well. Phyllis’ kids mainly wanted a hand-out, so Ruby tolerated them in small doses, but little more. It doesn’t take much mooching for it to get old.”
“Any suggestions then?”
My mother gave me one of those sighs of exasperation that I’d thrived on growing up. “I told you. Dog hurt or she’s hurt. No way would that little puppy have been left there unfed and not cared for.” She said her goodbyes before I could ask any other inane questions, which just showed how stuck I was on the case.
I opted to visit the sister first. The police would have information on the blood stain soon, and I’d already tried the neighbor. So all that was left was the family.
I found only one Ida Jenkins in the phone look-up app and then mapped her address and directions. I love technology. I also loved old-fashioned names that made locating people easier.
Ida’s home was in Crossgates, only ten minutes from her sister’s place and that meant a fifteen-minute drive for me to get there. I was putting more miles on my car than I usually did in a week, which is to say that I don’t get out all that much. I found a place on the street and knocked on the door to the house.
If Ruby’s neighborhood had reminded me of the post-war era, Crossgates reminded me of the 1980s. There were rows of identical bi-levels and tri-levels on the street as far as the eye could see.
There were no pets at Ida’s house, which made me wonder. I find that usually pet ownership seems to be somewhat genetic. If the parents have pets, the kids end up with pets too. For Ruby to be such a big dog person, it seemed odd that Ida would have none at her house, especially given that she was going to be taking custody of a Scottish terrier or two in the very near future.
I was just about to leave when a small woman opened the door and peered out at me. “What do you want?” she asked.
“I’m a friend of your sister Ruby. I was hoping you had a minute or two to talk?”
She sighed deeply and pushed the door open. “I’m guessing that you’re here about her disappearance?”
I nodded. “I was at her house earlier today, and I noticed a few things that I wanted to talk to you about. If that’s okay?”
“Are you the police?” she asked, staring at me. From her expression, it would only be a few minutes before she realized my claim to fame and understand why I was asking about Ruby’s dogs. I wanted to use that time before she started wondering if I was the real thing or a charlatan. People rarely had a moderate opinion of me.
“No, I’m an investigator who was asked to look into her disappearance by a friend,” I said, dancing better than Fred Astaire. She could never accuse me of lying to her.
The woman just grunted and showed me into the living room. She plopped down into a chair and motioned for me to sit on the sofa. There was a Scottie hiding in the doorway, and I assumed that Ida had picked up Della from her sister’s house. The little terrier timidly approached me and sniffed my hand. Her tail wagged, and she jumped into my lap. She definitely remembered me and my hot dogs. Ida had not made the place pet-friendly at all. The carpet was the color of coffee with too much cream. I wondered how long it would take Della to leave her mark on the house.
“Well, if the dog vouches for you, I guess you’re okay.” She snapped her fingers. “You’re that guy who talks to dogs, aren’t you? You look a little different than you did on the TV.”
I suppose that publicity never hurts anyone. I didn’t bother to ask what looked different. I didn’t want to hear about the weight I’d lost this winter or that my hair was too long now. Sometimes mysteries are just fine with me. “So have you heard from Ruby?” I asked, wanting to get back on topic.
“Nope. Not a word. She’s not usually a big talker anyway, but I haven’t heard from her in a while. I can tell you one thing. She’d sooner be dead than leave those dogs alone. She told me once that she had a fortune invested in them.”
I nodded my head, thinking about how much Bruno cost me each month. I tried to talk to him about getting a part-time job, but he pretends that he can’t understand me. “When was the last time you heard from her?”
“It would have been Christmas. I brought over some turkey and fixings to her house and we ate a meal together. Just the two of us and those dogs. I’ve tried to invite her over here, but she always wants to bring the dogs with her. I have a niece who is allergic to dog dander, and I hate to have to get the house steam-cleaned before she can visit.”
I thought of the children that my mother had mentioned to me. This might be a chance to talk about Ruby’s moral side. “I heard about your nieces,” I said without lying.
“I bet you did. Melissa and Marie were the two girls’ names. Ruby ne
ver got over what happened with the older one, Melissa. She’d met a man when she was only 19 years old. She fell in love and got pregnant. The man, of course, denied the whole thing and skipped town before she even gave birth.”
“Couldn’t she trace him?”
“He told Melissa that his name was John Smith. How are you going to trace that? Anyway, Melissa was in pretty bad financial trouble and she asked Ruby for some help. Ruby always had money around. She kept it hidden in case she needed it.”
“And Ruby said no?”
Ida’s eyes got large. “Ruby said a number of things, and ‘no’ was the smallest of the things she said. She pretty much just cut the girl off entirely, which was too bad, because Melissa just adored Ruby. She lost the baby – miscarriage, and she lost a favorite aunt. Everything gone in a matter of months.”
“Is she the one who’s allergic to dogs?” I asked, wondering if I might get a chance to meet these women.
“No, that’s Marie, the younger one. Melissa doesn’t come around too often these days. Just on holidays and such. She is still pretty bitter about the whole thing with Ruby.”
“But Della’s here now?” I reminded her.
“You don’t need to remind me. I already know that I have to clean the house from top to bottom before I have anyone over again, but if I had let those dogs go to the pound, Ruby would have had my head for it.”
I smiled. “Either you’re a dog person, or you’re not.”
“I’m not. I’m happy to be around people, and forget the pets. Don’t tell Della I said that though. I think she knows that I don’t like her.” She eyed the dog, which was still sitting on my lap and accepting the stroke of my hand against her fur. Della didn’t even bother to look at Ida, which gave a good indication of how she felt about the situation. She knew who liked her and who didn’t.
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