Three Dog Day

by Lia Farrell

  “Thank you for the information, Mr. Wilshire,” Wayne said, but his voice was defeated.

  “I’ve felt bad all these years, Detective. I’ve looked at it from every direction, wondering what I should have done different. There was no bringing back Kurt, you see, and Jocelyn was missing. So, I had to put it out of my mind. Had nightmares for months, finally had to see a shrink. I took every antidepressant they had then. Took electroshock to get me straight again.”

  Wayne took a deep breath, wanting to spare this good man any more pain. Thinking of Mr. Wilshire’s words—that he had to put the incident out of his mind—Wayne said, “You did just what I did, Mr. Wilshire. I put it out of my mind too. I regret that now.”

  “Well you were just a kid and what’s done is done. We have to concentrate on the living. I hope you can get Jocelyn released. She paid a terrible price for her marriage to old Aarne.”

  “Indeed,” Wayne said, and they said goodbye. He thought for a long time about what he had learned from Mr. Wilshire. Since he hadn’t actually seen the killing, his report would probably not be enough to convict Aarne of the killing, at least without the gun. He might never be able to get Aarne listed as Kurt’s killer. He might never be able to bury his brother. After all his years in law enforcement, he knew some questions never got answered. He would force himself to take Mr. Wilshire’s advice. It was time to concentrate on the living and on forgiving himself.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  January 25th

  Sheriff Ben Bradley

  Sheriff Ben Bradley, at the wheel of his own truck and feeling somewhat optimistic about the murder case for the first time in weeks, held the passenger door open for Mae. Detective Rob Fuller was already in the backseat. The three of them were going to the vet school. Mae had given him the idea of looking into Gretchen Wilkes, who had tried to adopt both of her pit bull puppies. Ben had learned to trust his girlfriend’s instincts and put Cam on it right away. As she had confirmed, Gretchen was employed by the vet school, but Cam hadn’t found other details of her employment.

  The College of Veterinary Medicine was administratively part of the University, although it was geographically separate. A complex of large individual buildings, it was set amid rolling hills and stock barns. The school owned flocks of sheep, a modern dairy facility, and a stable of blooded race horses with an oval track for trotters and an ice cream parlor. The ice cream parlor was a popular spot for students and faculty because the cream came fresh from the dairy herd and the cones were delicious.

  The three of them walked up to the large granite building with imposing Ionic columns. “I’m going to introduce you as a consultant, so don’t be surprised,” he told Mae.

  “Ooh, a consultant. That sounds official.” She gave Rob Fuller a sideways glance and he grinned at her. Entering the enormous glass doorway, they found themselves in a marble-floored expanse with a single granite pedestal on which stood a full-sized horse carved in clear Lucite. The animal’s mane had been so skillfully done, it almost looked as if it moved in the wind. A spotlight from the ceiling shone down on the magnificent sculpture. On the left side of the marble expanse, Ben saw a bank of elevators, and on the wall, a box listing the names of the faculty and their office numbers.

  The dean’s office on the fourth floor headed the list. They were waiting for the elevator, and when the doors opened they saw a tall young woman and a large Irish wolfhound. The dog’s long toothy jaw opened and it made a feral sound. The men waited respectfully for the girl and the dog to exit before entering the elevator. Mae made a happy noise in her throat and held out her right hand. The huge beast sniffed her hand and then licked it as she smiled. Ben held the elevator for her, with a wink at Rob.

  The elevator rose silently to the fourth floor. When they stepped out into a bright open area with large windows and plants at either end, Ben could smell lilies. In front of them were the glass-enclosed offices of the dean. Dory had made the appointment and forwarded the name and drawing of the dead man’s face as an email attachment. She asked the dean’s secretary to provide any information the college might have about the man to the sheriff. Ben introduced himself, Mae, and Rob to the receptionist who buzzed the dean’s secretary.

  “Ms. O’Connell will be right out,” she said. Shortly thereafter, an attractive woman, her high heels clicking on the marble floor, appeared. She had long legs, russet hair arranged in a French twist, and wore a sage-green pantsuit. Her eyes were dark and long-lashed. Although she appeared to be in her late forties, she was very slender and her movements were still graceful.

  “Sheriff Bradley, Miss December, and Detective Fuller?” she asked, and at their nods said, “I’m Ruth O’Connell. The dean will see you now.”

  Dean Emmitt Wolfe, DVM, was a long-legged stork of a man in his mid to late sixties with pepper and salt hair and an open countenance. Ben had expected him to be stuffy, but when they were introduced and shook hands, he seemed like a down to earth person.

  “Please come in. Would you like coffee or tea?”

  “Nothing for me,” Mae said with a smile.

  Both men wanted coffee, and Ms. O’Connell poured for them. The dean’s desk was a huge slab of redwood topped with glass. It contained a built-in computer monitor that disappeared when the Dean pushed a button, and nothing else.

  “You certainly keep a clean desk, Dean Wolfe,” Ben said, gesturing to the open, shiny surface.

  “Yes, the vet school has gone paperless,” the dean said. “I’m not sure when the idea was first proposed, but it seems to be working out. I understand you’re looking for a man named Web Johnston.”

  “What I’m about to show you now is a photograph,” Ben said, holding out a photograph of the dead man’s face.

  Dean Wolfe winced. “Yes, that’s Web Johnston. He’s dead, I take it?”

  “Yes, we found his body in the Little Harpeth River and we’ve been trying to find out more about him.”

  “I see. Well, I don’t know every contract employee for the school, but there was a problem with this guy. He supplied animals for experiments and didn’t show at the time he was expected, so we called the campus police. When did he die?”

  “The first week in January,” Detective Fuller said. “We were wondering if he worked for the vet school.”

  “He’s not an actual employee of the school. He was paid as a vendor to deliver animals for research studies, specifically dogs for Dr. Weil’s lab. They’re doing some state of the art work on Canine Leukemia and Parkinson’s. If you don’t mind, Sheriff, how did Mr. Johnston die? Did he drown?”

  “No. Unfortunately, he was murdered, and we think his death may have been connected to his work supplying pit bull puppies. We’re trying to locate his killer.”

  Dr. Wolfe was quiet for a moment. “I hope that whoever killed Mr. Johnston had nothing to do with the vet school. I know Dr. Weil well, and he certainly would not have been involved in a violent crime. I would appreciate you calling me when you know more. If someone from the faculty or staff was involved in Mr. Johnston’s death, it would reverberate through every department.”

  “I will,” the sheriff said. “Please keep the information I just shared with you about the murder confidential. We need to meet with Dr. Weil as a first step. Could you direct us to that laboratory?” Despite the dean’s disclaimer about Dr. Weil, Ben felt his optimism quicken. He caught Rob’s eye. They were finally about to learn something about the place where Web Johnston worked. Ben hoped it would lead to his killer.

  “Ms. O’Connell will take you down there. His lab is at the back of the building, near the loading zone. It’s a maze down there. Goodbye.” He gave Mae a twinkly smile. “Lady and gentlemen. I’m wanted in surgery. Good luck.” Dean Wolfe shook hands with Ben again.

  Ben thanked the dean and Mae and Rob, and he followed the Dean’s secretary to the elevator area. One elevator was labeled “Large Animals,” and when it opened, they saw a burly man holding a German shepherd puppy.

&nbs
p; “Ruth, is the dean coming down?” he asked. “He’s supposed to be in surgery to fix this guy’s leg.”

  “As soon as I take them to Dr. Weil’s lab, I’ll make sure he appears,” Ruth O’Connell said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the man said. The elevator doors slid shut.

  “It’s interesting working here, I bet,” Mae said.

  “It sure is,” Ruth said, smiling. “Last week we actually had a yak in the large animal elevator.”

  When they reached the first floor and began walking down the corridor toward the back of the building, Ben noticed that every wall had large framed photographs of people with their pets.

  “Those are our staff,” Ruth O’Connell said with pride. “Everyone who’s worked here for a year gets a photographic portrait taken with their pet at the vet school’s expense. We frame them and they’re hung throughout the building.”

  “Let me know if you see Gretchen’s picture,” Ben said quietly to Mae, who had stopped to study one of the portraits.

  “That’s her.” Mae angled her head toward a portrait at the end of the row. A young brunette woman with a long-haired white cat in her lap looked back at them from the wall.

  Ben looked at the label on the bottom of the frame, which read ‘Gretchen and Maia.’ He nodded at Mae and tapped Rob on the shoulder. “Keep an eye out for her,” he told the detective, who glanced back at the picture and raised his eyebrows.

  They finally reached the lab with “Bill Weil, Principal Investigator,” lettered on the door.

  “Here you are,” Ruth O’Connell said. Ben thanked her and held the door for Mae and Rob to enter the lab. A smell assailed him, but Ben couldn’t quite identify it. It might have been ammonia. A girl—her long hair caught up in a ponytail, young enough to be an undergraduate—looked up from her desk.

  “We’re here to see Dr. Weil,” Ben said. “This is Miss December, who’s consulting on one of our cases. I’m Sheriff Bradley and this is Detective Fuller.” The lawmen showed the girl their credentials.

  “He slipped his leash,” the girl said in an ironic tone and grinned at their perplexed expressions. Mae stifled a giggle. “I’m kidding. That’s just what we say when someone’s out of the office.”

  “When did he leave?” Ben asked. “Specifically, we need to know whether he was in town the first week in January.”

  “He and Mrs. Weil were in France then. It was their twenty-fifth anniversary or something,” the girl said.

  “Is he still out of the country?” Rob asked.

  “Oh no, he got back on January tenth. He’s just not here today, went to a meeting in Memphis. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “Who’s in charge of the lab in his absence?” Ben asked, thinking if Dr. Weil and his wife had been in France the first week in January, he wasn’t their guy.

  “That would be Gretchen. I’m Megan, by the way,” the girl said cheerfully.

  “Pleased to meet you.” Rob gave the ponytailed girl an extra-bright smile.

  “Gretchen Wilkes?” Ben asked. That would be a lucky break. All Cam had found online was that she was employed by the vet school.

  “Yep. She’s gone, too.” Megan gave him a little grin. “Went with Dr. Weil to the conference. They never take student helpers along, what a surprise. We just stay here, handle the phones, take care of the mail, and call the students when their experiments need to be checked. What did you want to see Dr. Weil about?”

  “Just need to ask him some questions. When did you say he would be back?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “We’d very much like to talk to him as soon as possible. Could you leave him a note to call our office?”

  Just then a willowy young woman came through the lab door. Seeing the sheriff’s uniform, she said, “Can I help you, sir?”

  Ben and Rob again produced their credentials. Mae introduced herself as a consultant after a quick glance at Ben.

  “They’re looking for Dr. Weil,” Megan offered.

  “We’re here to speak with him in connection with a crime. What’s your name?” Ben asked.

  “I’m sorry. Where are my manners? I’m Julia D’Amato. I’m a PhD student working on a project on Canine Parkinson’s under Dr. Heisey’s direction. Is there something I can help you with? I’m sort of in charge at the moment.”

  Rob Fuller was the first to speak up. “Do you use puppies for studies done in the lab? Pit bull puppies?”

  “Yes, we do, for Canine Leukemia studies and Parkinson’s. I do the Parkinson’s work. As you probably know, Parkinson’s is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. It develops gradually, sometimes starting with a barely noticeable tremor, but it can progress rapidly in a dog.”

  “What do you use the puppies for?” Mae asked, giving Julia a serious look. “And what happens to them afterwards?”

  “Dogs with Parkinson’s are often anemic. We give them transfusions. Whole blood transfusions from young animals that helps them enormously, but the puppies aren’t harmed. As soon as they recover, we find good homes for them, don’t worry.” Julia gave Mae a quick smile. “Once the older dogs’ iron levels are stabilized they can have the deep brain stimulation surgery we’ve developed here. We’re implanting what’s called a brain pacemaker with quite good results.”

  “Who supplies your pups?” Rob glanced at Ben, who gave a slight nod.

  “A man named Web Johnston brings them to the lab on a weekly basis, although I haven’t seen him now in a couple of weeks. We’ve been trying to reach him with no luck. If you give me your office number, I’ll have Dr. Weil call you tomorrow.” Julia picked up a pen.

  “No need to write it down. Here’s my card,” Rob said.

  “One more question,” Ben said. “You mentioned Dr. Heisey. Do you work in his lab also?”

  “No, Dr. Heisey’s my dissertation director, so I meet with him weekly to go over my results. The transfusions are all done here in Dr. Weil’s lab.”

  “Does Dr. Heisey supervise any other faculty or students who work with the pit bull puppies?”

  “Yes, there’s one other student, Anthony Puglisi, but he already defended his dissertation and went home to see his parents just after the first of the year.” At the name ‘Anthony,’ Mae stiffened beside him.

  “Thank you, Miss D’Amato. We’d appreciate your asking Dr. Weil to come to our office first thing tomorrow morning. Could you help us find our way out?”

  “I’ll take them out, Julia,” Megan said. “I can hear your blood monitor beeping.”

  They followed the helpful Megan through the lab complex until she opened two large metal double doors into a delivery bay.

  “Just head to the exit door,” she said. “It’s to the right of this cargo bay. This is where Mr. Johnston delivers the puppies. You can see the parking lot from there. I’ll put a note on Dr. Weil’s calendar to come see you as soon as he gets back.”

  When Megan left, the three walked along the side of the large cargo bay to the door.

  “Not much point staying around to talk to anyone else until we talk to Dr. Weil,” Ben said. “Certainly the slender Miss D’Amato, who is right-handed as I noticed when she grabbed her pen, couldn’t have overpowered Web Johnston.”

  “It could have been that Puglisi guy she mentioned,” Rob said. “Depending on when he left campus after the first of the year.”

  Mae raised her hand as if she were in class. “Gretchen said something about a boyfriend named Anthony when she came to my house.”

  “Or this Dr. Heisey,” Ben said. “If he supervised several students who were using pit bulls in their research, having the supply cut off could have led to a confrontation. But the first thing we need to do is talk to Dr. Weil. He couldn’t have murdered Web if he was in France the first week in January. We’ll need to check his passport. He probably knows whose studies would have been most impacted by the loss of the pit bull puppies.”

  “Just what I was thinking.” Rob gave a slight nod. “
He can probably give us contact information for this Puglisi guy, too. Our window began January first. Puglisi might still have been in town then.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  January 26th

  Sheriff Ben Bradley

  Dory brought Dr. Weil into the conference room after buzzing Ben to say he had arrived. Ben walked into the conference room as Dory was getting Dr. Weil coffee.

  “Dr. Weil, do you take sugar or cream in your coffee?” Dory asked.

  “Cream, thank you,” Dr. Weil said.

  “I attended the Clifton puppy mill hearing, where I heard your testimony,” Dory went on. “I was very impressed.”

  “Oh yes. I remember that the judge didn’t call you to testify. Miss Seng was going to call you, but the judge declined your testimony.”

  “That’s right. It was going to be my big moment.” Dory shrugged and smiled. “You did a wonderful job describing the animal care tree that the vet school uses.”

  Detective Rob Fuller came into the room and said good morning to Dr. Weil. Dory caught Sheriff Bradley’s glance, said goodbye to Dr. Weil, and departed.

  “Good morning, Dr. Weil. Thank you for coming to the office,” the sheriff said. “This is my colleague, Detective Rob Fuller.” The two men shook hands.

  “Happy to help. What’s this about?” Dr. Weil asked.

  “It’s about Web Johnston, the man who delivers puppies to your lab for experiments.”

  “He hasn’t shown up since January first, when I left for France. I was surprised when I got back to find that several experiments had to be shut down because we hadn’t heard from him. I had our lab manager call the campus cops to try to locate him.”