Pineapple Puppies

by Amy Vansant

  There was no way she was going to let him deny his responsibility to those girls. To any of the orphans caused by that crash, for that matter.

  Kimber wasn’t an idiot. He knew she would take care of the girls without asking for his help beyond financial assistance and he knew letting her play mother would keep her around to take care of his every whim. He knew she wasn’t able to have kids, she’d told him as part of her argument for taking in the girls. She did become a mother though, and Kimber was back to being Kimber—aloof and uninterested in everything but businesses.

  He’d always been a selfish man. All he ever really wanted was to be a childless bachelor entertaining an endless string of floozies. If he hadn’t gotten ill, he would have had the house to himself again, even if his floozy days were long over. The girls would be going to college soon, and Lyndsey had moved out to the apartment over the barn years ago—

  Lyndsey.

  How was she going to help Lyndsey? Why did she have to be there when he fell? How could she help her without incriminating herself?

  I can’t go to jail.

  Who would take care of the twins?

  Behind her something buzzed and Mina turned to see her silenced phone glowing on the countertop. She didn’t recognize the number and picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  “Mina, it’s me.”

  “Lyndsey?” She turned away from the girls and whispered into the phone. “I was just thinking about you. We need to talk.”

  “I’m in jail.”

  “What?”

  Mina gasped and turned to find the twins both staring at her. She forced a laugh and rolled her eyes as if Lyndsey had told her a joke and walked out of the room to the front porch.

  “Mina? Are you still there?”

  “Yes. I was in the kitchen with the twins. I don’t want them to hear.”

  “You have to get me out of here.”

  “Me?” Mina felt her stomach twist with nerves. “What can I do? They’ll be on their way here to get me next.”

  “Tell them he slipped. Tell them I didn’t kill him.”

  Mina nodded without saying anything, her mind racing through the events of that terrible evening. “It was an accident.”

  “Of course it was an accident. We panicked. It was stupid to try and hide that I was there. To take the dogs. It was all so stupid. I knew it when you suggested it but my mother had been bugging me to ask you for one and I thought—”

  “You gave one to your mother?”

  “I know, I know. It’s just…she’s good at putting the guilt trip on me.”

  “For what? What did you ever do to her?”

  “She said she was rushing home to be with me when—”

  “She was drunk. Did you make her to drink and drive, too?”

  “Yes. Probably. It isn’t easy being a single mother. And then I didn’t visit her in prison for years...”

  “Kimber would have kicked you out of the house if you’d gone to see her. Did you tell her that?”

  Lyndsey sighed. “I know. Yes. I told her.”

  “How dare she?” Mina could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.

  “I can’t go there right now. I need you to get me out of here. I don’t know how long I can talk.”

  “Yes. You’re right. Of course. I need to figure out what I’m going to tell them. You know you’re not allowed to be upstairs. Why were you up there? And don’t give me that cock and bull about wanting to see the puppies either. All the litters we’ve had since you’ve been here and you haven’t asked to go see them since the very first time.”

  “He asked me to come up.”

  Mina jerked back her head so fast something in her neck twanged. She slapped her hand to her neck and rubbed the spot. The idea of Kimber inviting the girl to his sanctuary refused to compute. “He wouldn’t—”

  “He did. He wanted to talk to me.”

  Lyndsey’s tone grew hard and Mina suffered a pang of something she couldn’t place.

  Jealousy?

  “Talk to you about what?”

  Lyndsey paused before continuing, “I can’t say. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

  “You don’t want to say?” Mina heard the screechy tone of her own voice and looked behind her to see if the girls were watching. They weren’t. She moved farther down the porch and away from the front door, just in case. Usually, if one of the twins didn’t have her nose in her business, the other did. It was like being watched by a pair of owls. Or those little girls in The Shining…

  “How am I going to get you out of prison if you won’t tell me why you were up there?”

  “I can’t. It might make things worse.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’ll tell you later.”

  Mina swallowed. “He didn’t try to…you know…”

  “No!”

  Mina could tell by the shock and horror in Lyndsey’s voice that she’d barked up the wrong tree. Thank God. “I had to ask. He wasn’t right in his mind.” She opened her mouth and then shut it again, deciding against telling her that Kimber had grabbed her butt just a week or two before he died. No sense telling people about his shame. He didn’t know what he was doing.

  “I know. Just come be my alibi. Tell the police it was an accident and you saw it happen. Tell them you were there.”

  “But I wasn’t. Not when he fell.”

  “But that doesn’t matter. You know I didn’t kill him. Tell them you told me to take the dogs.”

  “What do the dogs have to do with it?”

  “They’ve got me for stealing the dogs, too. They think I killed him to steal the dogs.”

  “Why would you kill Kimber for a litter of puppies?”

  “They’re show dogs. They think it’s about money, even though I gave them away.”

  “That’s right. You passed them out all over that neighborhood. I’ll never understand why you did that.”

  “What was I supposed to do?”

  “Well, not give one to your mother for starters.”

  Lyndsey released a little scream. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. That’s how they caught me. That’s why they think I killed him.”

  Mina took a deep breath and expelled it. “I’m afraid.”

  “Of what?”

  “If I tell them I found you there that night, they’ll make me an accessory or something. They’ll be wondering why I didn’t say something sooner.”

  “So you’re going to let me go to jail for murder?”

  “That’s just it.” Mina paused to chew on her lip. “You didn’t kill him.”

  “I know. That’s what I need you to tell them.”

  “No, you don’t understand. He was still alive.”

  “What?”

  “When you left with the puppies, I went into his bedroom and he wasn’t dead.” Mina whispered the last two words. She wasn’t sure why.

  “But he was dead. We both saw him.”

  “I know. But then he wasn’t. I opened the front window and called out and tried to catch you but you didn’t hear me. I ran downstairs to get my phone to call nine-one-one. I saw Payne. I didn’t want to upset her, so I talked to her for a bit and let her know it was no big deal—”

  “No big deal?”

  “I didn’t want her to worry. But I took too long or—” Mina stopped to catch her breath. With every word of her story it felt as though her chest grew tighter. “I ran back upstairs but by the time I got there he was dead.” A racking sob rose in her throat. “I should have stayed with him. Maybe he would have lived if I’d stayed with him and done something.”

  Lyndsey groaned. “I should have called nine-one-one instead of freaking out and hiding when I heard you coming. You did everything you could. It was all a mistake. A terrible accident.”

  Mina took a deep breath. Time to man up.

  “I’ll help you.”

  “Thank you!” Lyndsey sounded as if she might cry. “Thank you. Please, come soon. They ha
ve me in Sheriff Carter’s little jail here in town right now, but if we don’t get this cleared up they’ll take me to real prison. They have my mother, too.”

  Mina frowned. She’d just as soon let that trash stay in prison. “Why is your mother in jail?” Again.

  “They think she was in on the dog-napping. I’m afraid it’s going to trigger some kind of prison PSTD for her.”

  Mina sighed. She’d have to help Lyndsey. If that meant helping her mother too, so be it. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. And I’ll tell them the dogs were my idea. That will clear the puppy charges and then we’ll come clean about him falling.”

  I’ll maybe say I moved a little faster than I did, though.

  “Thank you.” She could hear the relief in Lyndsey’s voice as she hung up. Mina gripped the phone, battling back another wave of fear.

  They’ll think I had something to do with Kimber’s death. Did I? Did I drag my feet on purpose?

  Mina called the family’s lawyer and told him to bail Lyndsey out of jail. She was finishing that phone call when she heard the crunching of gravel and looked down the driveway to see a sheriff’s cruiser rolling towards the house.

  No. Not yet.

  She hadn’t had time to get her thoughts straight.

  She wanted to run but knew it would be a bad idea. Not that it mattered. It felt as if her feet had taken root. She couldn’t move.

  Sheriff Carter parked his car and got out to saunter towards her as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “How are you doing this morning, Mina?”

  “I’m fine.” She had to push the words past her lips.

  “Sheriff Carter. We met yesterday.”

  She nodded.

  “Lyndsey call you this morning?”

  She nodded again.

  “She told us you had a lot to share with us.”

  Feeling faint, Mina took a step back and sat in the porch chair. The officer climbed the steps and turned another chair towards her to sit down.

  Mina found it hard to look into his eyes. “I have a lot to do. I need to plan the funeral—”

  “I know this is a busy and terrible time for you, but I’m going to have to ask you some questions.”

  She nodded.

  Carter pulled a small notepad from his breast pocket and opened it to a clean sheet before slipping the pencil out from the coiled binding. “Tell me what happened the night you found Mr. Miller dead.”

  He wasn’t dead.

  That was the part she couldn’t say. How was she not going to say it?

  “I heard something upstairs.”

  “What? Screaming? Was Mr. Miller calling for you?”

  “No…I don’t know. Something didn’t feel right.”

  “Okay. Then what?”

  “I ran up the stairs and saw Kimber on the ground. He was, I mean he seemed…”

  “Dead.”

  “Yes. Dead. Then I heard a commotion in the whelping room next door. The puppies were yapping.”

  “Is that unusual for puppies?”

  Mina paused. “No. I guess not, but they don’t usually all go off all at once like that. I opened the door and Lyndsey was in there. Hiding.”

  “Was that unusual?”

  “Of course. Why would she—” Mina realized she was looking at the sheriff as if he was a little simple and wiped her expression clean. “Yes. It was especially strange because she isn’t allowed on that floor.”

  Why did I tell him that?

  Mina knew why. She wanted the sheriff to force Lyndsey into telling them what Kimber wanted from her. He’d have to ask why she was up there. Mina wanted to know for her own selfish reasons.

  What’s wrong with me?

  “What do you mean she’s not allowed?”

  “She’s not allowed upstairs. It’s a house rule. She’s never been upstairs before, as far as I know.”

  “Why is that?”

  Mina shrugged. “Kimber liked to keep his life separate from the girls’. He didn’t like them in his stuff and the easiest solution was to split the house into his space and their space.”

  Carter looked up and away, telegraphing his disapproval. “Okaay...” He seemed to chew on the information for a moment before continuing. “Did you ask her what she was doing up there?”

  Mina’s brain spun. Tell the truth. Say what she said the first time.

  “Yes. She said she’d gone up to see the puppies.”

  “So then you told her about Mr. Miller’s death?”

  “Yes. I mean, I did, but she already knew.”

  “Right. Because you said she was hiding in the puppy room. Not that she was in there playing with the puppies.”

  Mina nodded. He’d already caught a fact she hadn’t considered evident from her story. She made a mental note to try very hard not to lie. The sheriff would know. “Right.”

  “So how did she know Mr. Miller was dead?”

  “I’m not sure. I think she heard him fall and maybe saw him?”

  “And that’s when she hid?”

  “I guess.” Mina shook her head. “I’m not sure about all the details and the order of things. It all happened so fast.”

  “I understand. Take your time. So you both knew Mr. Miller was dead. That’s when she took the puppies and left?”

  Mina took a deep breath. “I told her to.”

  “You told her to take the puppies or you told her to leave?”

  “Both.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it was an accident. She was worried she’d get in trouble. She thought her DNA was all over the puppies and everyone would know she’d been upstairs when she shouldn’t have been. She looked so scared.”

  “So you told her to take the puppies and run.”

  Mina nodded.

  “You wanted to make it look like a robbery.”

  “No!” Mina jumped in her chair. “No. I wasn’t thinking that at all. It wasn’t until you all showed up and Gemma mentioned the puppies…I didn’t think anyone would notice they were gone. No one but the family knew about the litter. Thanks to Gemma, you all assumed a robber had killed him for the puppies.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us Lyndsey took the puppies then?”

  Mina dropped her head against her hands and rubbed her temples. “I don’t know. I realized how stupid—” She looked at Sheriff Carter. “You have to know none of this was on purpose.”

  He nodded, but didn’t look particularly convinced. “So Lyndsey left with the puppies. What did you do next?”

  “I went back out into the hall and saw Kimber on the ground—”

  “Dead.”

  “Alive.”

  Carter’s attention snapped up from his notepad. “Alive?”

  She nodded. “I was relieved, of course. He was alive and groaning a little but he wasn’t getting up. I ran downstairs to get my phone to call nine-one-one.”

  “Did you tell Lyndsey?”

  Mina shook her head. “She was gone.”

  “Right. So you got your phone...”

  “Yes.”

  “And you called for help.”

  “Yes, well, I talked to the twins a moment.”

  Mina sucked in a breath. Why did I mention that? That is exactly what I didn’t want to say!

  “About what? You told the twins what happened?”

  “Not exactly. I didn’t want to upset them. I told them he’d fallen but that he’d be okay.”

  “Why did you say that?”

  “I don’t know. It seems less scary than telling them I’d thought he was dead. And at that point I did think he would be okay.”

  “His head wasn’t bleeding?”

  “I didn’t think so at first but...” She felt a sob rising again and took a moment to quell it. “I thought he’d be okay.”

  “What did the girls say?”

  “Gemma didn’t say anything. She just wandered off to do her own thing. Payne kept asking questions. She’s like that, always has to be in the mi
ddle of everything. But she finally stopped and I ran back upstairs to make the call so she wouldn’t hear me tell the dispatcher the details.”

  “And catch you lying about how serious it was.”

  “I guess.”

  “But when I got upstairs...” Mina faded off, realizing this was the part of the story she didn’t want to remember.

  “He was dead?”

  She nodded.

  “Was there more blood then than you remembered?”

  She looked at him. How did he know that?

  “Yes.”

  “Had he been moved?”

  “Moved? He’d moved a little. Yes.”

  “Why do you say he moved?”

  “How else could he have moved? I told you he was alive when I left him. Groaning…”

  “Was there anyone else in the house?”

  “Just me and the girls.”

  “Anyone working on the grounds?”

  “Maybe. Yes. There’s always someone here. The stable boy, the gardeners…”

  Carter stood and slipped his pad back into his pocket. He put his hands on his hips and stared down at her.

  “Thing is, Mina, Mr. Miller didn’t just fall.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “The coroner says there are two distinct patterns of injuries. One, a single blow, more consistent with the story you and Lyndsey told me about a fall. But the others...” Carter turned his palms to the sky.

  “Others?”

  “It looks like someone finished him off with something round and hard.”

  Mina gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Carter stared at her with his steely blue-eyed gaze until a new thought emerged screaming into her already spinning head like a freight train.

  “Wait. Are you saying Lyndsey did that to him?”

  “You said yourself he was still alive when you saw him. Not too much blood.”