Detective Sheila Green was there along with some police technicians who were taking photographs and measurements. They blocked the view of what had been Ruby, and I was good with that.
“So how did you find her?” I asked. I knew that vacant homes were not usually patrolled by the police. In my neighborhood, a pack of feral cats had taken up residence in a house that had been foreclosed upon. I observed them for a while, trying to see how they differed from The Countess, but I had a hard time reading their behavior, because much of their time was spent trying to avoid detection and capture.
Green looked at me with the silver eyes of hers, and I momentarily forgot where I was. I was still confused by her comments during our last meeting as well, so I felt flustered on top of the nervousness.
“Anonymous call.” She acted for a minute like she wasn’t going to say anything else, but I waited her out. “Someone called into the station and said that they’d seen something suspicious going on here.”
“Why is the house empty?” I wondered if the previous owners had anything to do with the case. I didn’t want to make any pronouncements and be found out for a fake if they already knew who did it.
“Foreclosure, why else?” She was right about that. Foreclosures had hit several of the Toledo working class neighborhoods hard, and some areas of town were riddled with empty houses that the bank did not take care of.
“Was the previous owner involved with this case in any way? Did they know Ruby?” I had planned to ask this casually, but the question immediately felt like I was pumping her for information. That wouldn’t help my reputation if I wanted to still be the guy who talked to dogs and cats.
“Not that we’ve been able to tell. The homeowners moved in with his parents in Cincinnati. We’re checking up on it, but it’s a long drive, so an alibi for the time period is likely. I don’t think that this killer wanted the crimes tied back to him, so he did this in a neutral place.”
One of the technicians moved to get a better angle for some measurement, and I got my first look at Ruby Jenkins. She was propped up in a corner. Her throat had been slit from side to side. I could see the marks on the side of her neck, even though her head hung down onto her chest. Despite the gruesomeness of the murder, her fingers were what made me gasp. Her nails had been pulled out, and the red raw skin under them was exposed.
“Her fingers…” I managed to say through a dry mouth.
“We’re guessing torture. She had information that someone wanted – and wasn’t squeamish about getting. So what do you know that Ms. Jenkins wanted to keep hidden? Those two dogs tell you anything?” She used air quotes again, but around the word “anything.” It would have been endearing if I wasn’t in danger of losing my lunch.
“Nothing,” I said hoarsely. I wished I could turn off my attention to detail, but I couldn’t. The floor of the kitchen was still clean. There was nowhere near the level of blood there should have been for a cut like that. So where had the crime taken place? It hadn’t been at her home, and it hadn’t been here either. Someone had taken her from the house, tortured her, and then brought her here to die. It was a rather cold-blooded plan.
“How long has she been dead?” I asked, getting a bit more of my voice back.
“She died yesterday, so about 24 hours after she went missing,” Green said. She was watching me to see if the sight of the corpse would impact me. My guess was that they’d brought me to the scene to see if I had any part in the crime and to discourage me from any more discussion with the Scotties about the crime and its solution.
It hadn’t worked, though I’d given it a moment’s thought. I needed the money from my business, and it wouldn’t look good if I couldn’t get the Scotties to tell me anything. But even more important was my desire to get back to a level of anonymity. I needed my own corner where I could watch and not be watched. I was too far out of my comfort zone at the moment.
Green still watched me as I put these thoughts together in my brain. She was observing me much like I observed the dogs. I wondered if she was coming to the right conclusions about me or if she was way off. At least with pets, they’re not likely to publicly disagree with you like humans could.
Giving the situation another once over in my mind, I realized that I’d missed something – something very important.
“Did you find any guns here?” I asked quietly.
Green pointed to the body. “Does it look like she was shot?”
I ignored the comment, because I didn’t want to look in that direction again. The agony of the fingernails being pulled out was more than I could take a second time. I knew that I’d be sick if I had to look at it again.
“No, but were there any guns here? He could have used a gun to make her leave the house. He could have used a gun while he tortured her. It’s not a totally unreasonable question.” I swallowed hard.
“No, I haven’t seen any use of guns. From what the coroner for the county has said, it appears that she had some contusion on the head. He thinks that she was knocked unconscious before she was taken. So there’s no trace of any guns anywhere.”
I didn’t speak, trying to process what I’d just heard. My entire theory had been based on Della being scared by a gun. No gun, no scare, no reason for Della to be so frightened at the crime scene.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Green said with a nasty tone. “You’re trying to come up with a way to explain your statement about what the dog said to you.” I was really going to have to teach her about the correct usage of air quotes. She still had them wrong, and right now she wasn’t looking quite so cute when she used them. “Now you’re stuck with a statement that doesn’t fit the facts. You’re either going to have to retract what was said and admit that this is a charade or you’re going to have to blame the dog for being wrong. I’m sure I know which one you’re going to choose.”
The problem was not that I’d have to blame Della for the statement, but that I knew I was right. Della had been scared by a loud noise. Two neighbors had heard a loud noise as well, corroborating my theory. “Mr. Lindauer heard a shot that night. I don’t have to blame Della for being wrong when there are humans ready to back her up.”
“The old neighbor? The guy next door? When did you talk to him?” The color went up in her cheeks.
I told the story quickly. I left out a huge part of the story in telling her when I’d talked to him. I just mentioned that I’d gone back to the house, and he was there.
“You know that could be considered witness tampering? Talking to people about potential evidence. How do we know that you didn’t pay him to tell that lame story after you realized you were going to be busted on the whole gun scenario? You could be making it impossible for us to ever get a conviction on this case if you keep telling people your theories and observations.”
“I didn’t do that, and you know it. He heard a gunshot that evening.”
She shrugged. “He’s old. He probably has a hearing aid. It’s not real proof.”
“The woman across the street said so too, though she called it a backfire.” I crossed my arms over my chest. No one was going to get the better of me when I knew something like I knew this.
She gave a wry laugh. “You just keep getting yourself in deeper and deeper. Now it’s two people that you’ve tampered with. Want to go for three? You don’t know when to stop.”
I figured that the color was probably up in my cheeks too. I was mad, though a part of me did call this our “first fight.”
“I don’t have to stop when I’m right. There was a scream, a gunshot, and then she was gone.”
“You know what else is wrong? People don’t scream before they’re shot. They’re usually worried about pissing off the person with the gun. So they stay still. Why scream and make it worse for yourself – but why am I asking you that? You seem to want to make it very difficult on yourself.” She shook her head at me. I was guessing that I wasn’t looking very cute to her at the moment.
She had a
point though. Why would Ruby have screamed before the shot? Had the intruder been someone she recognized, or had the intruder hurt Perry before he’d hurt her? I tried to think about my reaction if someone hurt Bruno. I wouldn’t be worried about making noise or appeasing an intruder. I’d be angry and want revenge. I wonder if she’d been conked out, because she had been adamant in saving her pets. They’d have to knock me out cold to keep me from protecting Bruno and The Countess.
Yet I still knew that Della had been scared stiff. She’d been hiding and shivering when I found her that morning. She’d heard a loud noise like a gunshot. That had been confirmed by two witnesses, even if Detective Green thought that I’d made that happen. I knew I hadn’t, and I knew that someone had shot a gun or made another loud noise that night. I was just stuck now with finding out who that was and what the noise had been.
Green was staring at me again. “What is going on in that head of yours? Are you trying to come up with some way of blaming all this on that little dog?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. I was just thinking that I had a few more people to see before I announce the solution to what happened to Perry. I remember you saying that I’m not allowed to work on the murder case, now that it is murder, but a hurt dog is fair game for me.” My brain was suddenly popping out ideas. Seeing Ruby’s body had answered a few questions and brought up a few more. I needed to ask some questions before I’d be done though. None of my answers would be found from sparring with the police.
“Listen Fitzpatrick, you’d better not get any more involved in this. You’re in too deep as it is. Someone already broke into your home to steal the dogs. Next it could be an attempt on your life. I wouldn’t want to see that – even with as much as you annoy me.” She tried giving me a small smile, but it looked forced. Still, I gave her points for trying. Maybe I was cute after all.
I walked outside and went back to my car. I took out a pad of paper and started writing down what I wanted to know. I had solved a few things. I knew who the murderer was, but I didn’t know a name yet. I only had a category. I wanted to tie this up with a bow as a present to the detective with the silver eyes.
Finding out the name of the son of Ruby’s friend had taken me longer than I’d expected. Everyone had just called him the son of a friend as if no other name was needed. They didn’t know who the boy was and they didn’t know who the friend was. So it was difficult to track someone down like that.
It took me the better part of four hours along with my mother’s help to find a name and phone number for the guy. I called as soon as I hung up with my mother, who had found a woman who knew someone who knew someone else. Old-fashioned women’s networks were never to be scoffed at.
The son of Ruby’s friend was named Jimmy, and he answered the phone on the third ring. I was glad, because the explanation of what I wanted would have used all of his available voicemail space. He agreed to talk in person, and he even offered to come over so that he could visit with the dogs as well. It sounded good to me, since I wouldn’t have to leave again. I was feeling a bit weary of the world after my experiences at the abandoned house.
He showed up about an hour later. I hadn’t asked where he lived, but everything is within easy driving distance in Toledo. It couldn’t have been much of an inconvenience for him.
The dogs recognized him instantly. Della talked to him, while Perry wagged his tail so hard that I felt the breeze from it. He crouched down and played with them for a few minutes, nuzzling one and then the other. This guy was definitely a dog person.
“So you heard about Ruby?” he asked when he finally stood up and looked at me. He was a younger guy, probably 19 or 20. He was thin in that high metabolism way, and he had dark brown hair and darker eyes that reminded me of Della’s eyes. He had an infectious smile that made me want to grin even after the day I’d had. No wonder Ruby liked him. He would be great working with pets.
“I did. The police told me about it.” I thought again of what I’d seen at the house. It would take a while to replace those memories with something else. The gruesome fingernails had already haunted my thoughts.
“I still can’t believe she’s gone,” he said, looking back to the dogs. I wondered if he would volunteer to take them now that she was dead or if Ruby’s will had provided for the dogs in the event of her death. I’d have to ask about that.
“It’s hard to believe,” I replied, not wanting to say that my motives in helping out were less than altruistic.
“So what exactly did you want to ask me about?” he said, facing me again.
“Well, first, I was hoping to find out their routine, what they ate, what activities they did. You know. Things like that.”
He flashed me a grin. “Aren’t you supposed to be that dog talker? Didn’t they tell you all that stuff?”
I mentally rolled my eyes. This was a hard reputation to live down when everyone thought all the answers in the world were handed to you by the family pets. “Dogs aren’t specific like we are. Della will tell me that she wants to eat, but she won’t tell me what brand she eats or where I can get it. See what I mean.”
He nodded, like he believed what I was saying. Good for him, I thought. A new generation of clients would be heading my way. “Yeah. Do you have some paper? I’ll write it all down for you. Ruby had very specific instructions for me when I stayed there.”
I handed him a pad of legal paper, and he began to write things down. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to continue talking or let him think and write in peace, but since time was becoming more important for me, I decided to talk. He could shush me if he wanted to. “What types of things did she have you do?”
He continued to write for a minute and then stopped. “She walked them twice a day, morning and evening. Fed them 45 minutes after the walk each time. In the morning, they both got fish oil and another medication, but I forget what it’s called. It’s a powder of some sort.”
I nodded. I’d actually heard worse instructions than this, so I was pleased. “What else?”
“They had their own beds in the spare room, but normally when I slept there they slept on the sofa with me. They were never allowed out the front door. We always had to leave from the back, in case one of them got off the leash, they’d still be fenced in. Then we could go for a walk.”
For those who think that pets aren’t canny, both dogs perked up their ears at the word “walk” and began jumping on Jimmy’s leg. They knew the word and what it meant.
“What type of food did they eat?” I interrupted. I wanted to get to the information that I needed to know about Ruby’s house.
“One of those holistic type dry foods. You’d have to check the house. No grain, no chicken. Only natural products. It was pretty expensive. Perry gets a little more than Della, because she’s a bit more compact.” He leaned down and scratched her behind the ears, while he mouthed “fat” in my direction.
I nodded. I could easily see that she didn’t meet the criteria for a lean dog, but she was still cute as she leaned into the ear scratch. “It sounds like it would be best if I just went over and found the things I need. I hate to trouble you anymore, but could you write down where to find all of these things? I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get these things or if the police will want to bring them to me.”
“Yeah, I was so shocked when I heard. I’d never have thought that Ruby would end up that way. Nice lady, loved her dogs. Very particular about things, but nice.” He looked a little sad for a moment, in the way that the young do about death and finality. I don’t think Jimmy had ever stared it in the face like I had.
“Particular about other things besides the dogs?” I asked, my ears perking up. He’d brought up the topic I wanted to discuss, which was my good luck. It would look more natural this way and less forced.
“Yeah, Ruby was supposed to be very moralistic about some things. The person who used to watch the dogs had taken a nickel out of some change on the coffee table, and she’d thrown him out of the ho
use. She stayed home until she found someone else. Called him a thief and much worse.”
“For a nickel? Did she put things where you couldn’t get to them? I think that would be safer. If she didn’t want her money touched, she could have put it away. You know, put the valuables in a room and lock the door?”
He laughed. “Oh yeah. One of the bedrooms was strictly off limits to me. You’d have thought that the crown jewels were in there. She locked the door as she left, and she always checked the door when she returned. Sometimes she didn’t even wait until I was gone before she ran in and checked.”
“Wow, that’s pretty intense. What was in there?”
He shrugged at me. “Damned if I know. I never tried to bust down the door. The pay was great for a few days away from my parents’ place. It wasn’t worth the trouble to find out what was behind the door.”
He gave me a rundown of the house, including the locked room, and what supplies I’d need for the dogs. Jimmy gave them another scratch behind the ears. Before he left, I got his contact information. He seemed like an ideal house-sitter in case I ever needed to be gone.
I wasted no time in calling Detective Green. I wanted to find out what was behind that door, but I needed to do it legally. She didn’t answer, so I left a message for her. In it, I just said that I wanted to gain entrance to the house to get the dogs’ supplies so they could stay with me indefinitely.
I hung up and waited. I still only had a collar for Della. Perry’s was missing, and Mr. Lindauer hadn’t mentioned anything about it. So I took one of Bruno’s old collars and put it around Perry’s neck. It was a little loose, but overall, it wouldn’t slip off and allow him to run away.
All three dogs and I went out for a walk. True to form, they wanted to eat 45 minutes later. I fed them and still hadn’t heard a word from the police. I knew it was too early for them to have results from the autopsy. It could be days before they learned anything, but I wanted to know if Ruby had fired a gun recently. The gun situation still bothered me. The battle was currently between the police and three witnesses, but I suspected that with those odds the police would have their way. I needed to find that gun as well. It could be key in finding out who had killed her.
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