No Kill Station: Murder at Rehoboth Beach

by Diane Meier

  People were so irresponsible. Gary and Tina were always talking about that. Sometimes people without money for euthanasia just dumped their old and sick pets near the SPCA. Nobody would adopt those animals.

  Oh, for heaven’s sake, Tina thought. Somebody posted complaint about feral cats being picked up by the SPCA. Only morons failed to understand that feral cats are wild animals that carry disease. The feral cat population was out of control. The SPCA didn’t even get paid to pick them up, but Gary did anyway because of the danger to the community.

  The no kill movement was fundamentally flawed. Unadoptable animals had to be put down. The only other alternative was that they spend the rest of their lives in cages where they never got any love or attention. That was what happened in the no kill shelters. Putting animals down was a mercy that ended their suffering.

  Tina slammed her laptop shut. If she looked at any more nasty comments about Gary and the SPCA, she would scream.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  O

  n the morning after the murder Matt was at Town Hall by 7:30 am. Putnam was there waiting and waved him over to the car. Putnam said, “Is there any place open to get a decent cup of coffee?”

  “Absolutely,” said Matt. “Java Jukebox. It’s opposite the YMCA on Rehoboth Avenue just before the intersection with Route 1.”

  As they walked in the door of the coffee shop, Janice Redman, a Beach Herald reporter came up to them. “Matt, what luck to run into you. What’s the latest on the Gary Randolph murder? I’ve got a deadline today and need to get a story.”

  Before Matt could open his mouth to reply, Putnam said sternly, “The last thing we need is to have details about the case in the newspaper.”

  Janice gave him a frosty look. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Aidan Putnam, the lead detective on this case. You need to talk to the State Trooper press guy.”

  No Kill Station “And he will give me almost no information at all,” Janice argued. “The Beach Herald is our community paper. This affects everyone, and we can’t just echo the Delaware Star.”

  Seeing that Putnam was going to argue with Janice, Matt knew he had to say something to calm the waters. “Janice, if you print details about the case that you get from the SPCA staff, it will hurt the investigation. I know you want the killer brought to justice. Gary was a close friend of Mayor Riley’s, so he got the Governor to assign me to the case. I am going to do everything I can to find out who murdered Gary,” Matt said.

  Janice hesitated. “Will you talk me to off the record?” Matt saw Putnam try to keep himself from telling Janice that was out of the question. “Yes, of course. I trust you to do the right thing, Janice.”

  “Okay, I’m going to hold you to that,” Janice said seriously.

  Janice had been appeased for the moment, Matt thought. But she was going to be a problem. Her aggressive reporting was well known. Her beat on the Beach Herald was anything with a hint of scandal and that included murder.

  Matt knew he was going to catch hell from Putnam when they got in the squad car.

  “You cannot give that woman any facts about the case, either on or off the record,” Putnam said angrily as they closed the car doors.

  “Look, I agree with you completely,” Matt said. “I don’t trust Janice for a second. That was the only way to shut her up. If we had kept arguing with her, she would have just gotten louder and louder until everyone in the shop heard her. I’m going to ask Mayor Riley to lean on the editor and keep Janice under control.

  “Well, that better work,” Putnam replied tersely.

  “Look, I know you didn’t want me involved in this case. That was all Mayor Riley. As you could tell yesterday, he is devastated by the murder. He’s been a friend of Gary Randolph’s since they were in grade school together.”

  “The State Trooper Division has officially expressed its strong disapproval about the interference, I can tell you that much,” Putnam said. “I have a slightly different view. You know the people around here and that is going to help us solve this case. I think we can work together. Call me Aidan. Have you been on the job here for long?”

  Matt was relieved that Putnam , wasn’t going to be a complete jerk. “Call me Matt. I was a cop in Baltimore for five years. I understand the need to keep the details of the case quiet. I’m certainly not going to tell that reporter anything about the details of the murder.”

  “I assume the Mayor and your boss know better than to talk about any details of the case.”

  “Jay made a point out of that to the Mayor, so I think everything is okay,” Matt said.

  “Let’s get to the shelter. I read Sasso the riot act about staying out of the lobby and Randolph’s office.”

  “Sasso seemed genuinely shook up about the murder,” said Matt. “But he needs to be checked out, of course.”

  As they drove, Aidan told Matt about the quick interviews with staff yesterday and how nothing seemed particularly helpful. The Medical Examiner wasn’t able to give an opinion at the scene about cause of death. Clearly there was blunt force trauma, but the ME had to see what else was going on.

  At the front door of the shelter was a sign telling people to enter from the back door There was somebody posted at the back door. Matt guessed it was a volunteer. “Mr. Sasso said to send you to his office when you got here. Just go down that hall and hang a right.”

  Sasso was eating a chocolate doughnut out a box with five assorted pastries. With his mouth full, he asked “Can we get the cops out of the lobby this morning so I can get that cleaned up?”

  “Not yet. We have to check the crime scene again,” Aidan said. “What can you tell us about Gary Randolph? Did he have any enemies? Was there anyone who would want to do him harm?”

  “All the animal freaks hated his guts. And mine too, for that matter.”

  “Why?” asked Aidan, clearly puzzled. “You save homeless animals, right?”

  “There’s limited space in this building for all the dogs picked by animal control. A lot of the dogs are aggressive so we just put them down. We almost always put the Pit Bulls down unless some rescue group makes a stink about a particular dog. They’re better off dead than being chained up in some backyard for their whole lives or abused by people who don’t give a damn about them.”

  Sasso’s bluntness surprised Matt. He seemed to have no compassion for the dogs. Maybe this kind of work made you numb like the way Matt had gotten to feel about all the murder victims he saw in Baltimore. The difference was that Sasso was involved in the killing. Maybe Sasso honestly believed that the animals were better off dead. Or perhaps he was a sociopath who had found a way to kill without being guilty of breaking any laws.

  “We hear a lot of bitching about how we kill animals. But nobody else will do the job of dog control in this state.”

  “So have there been threats by the animal rights advocates?” asked Aidan.

  “No, no threats exactly, just a lot of complaints.” Sasso admitted.

  “Do you have some names of the complainers?” asked Matt.

  “No, no, I don’t bother with those people. I just do my job. But I’ll tell you who knows all about the animal rights nuts. A volunteer named Tina Patterson. She’s our defender on Facebook and she regularly came to work with Gary on that. She had a huge crush on Gary. She was the definition of thirsty,” Sasso said with a nasty grin.

  “What do you mean?”

  “She was desperate for Gary’s attention,” Sasso said with contempt. “I don’t know if she thought Gary was interested in her, but if she did, she’s totally delusional. He was a serial dater. He’d go on one of those online match websites and find a woman. She had to be a good looking babe or he wasn’t interested. He’d brag about how he screwed her and dumped her.”

  “Write Patterson’s contact info down for us,” said Aidan. “We’re going to talk more to the staff today. Can you tell us about any of Randolph’s family?”

  “I think he may have an aunt in Maryland.”
Sasso wanted to get back to the subject of Gary’s dating. “Sometimes I suspect these old bachelors are gay, but not Gary. All he talked about was screwing women.”

  “Do you have any names of the women?” asked Matt.

  “Nope,” said Sasso. “He didn’t date anybody very long.”

  “Well, if you remember any of the women’s names, let us know. We also need the contact info for all the Board members,” said Matt.

  “Why do you have to bother with them? They don’t know anything,” Sasso said dismissively.

  Aidan was getting irritated. “Just give us their names and phone numbers. Please tell us where you were the night of the killing.”

  Sasso laughed. “That’s a joke, right?”

  “Answer the question,” Matt said.

  “I went to the Rotary Club meeting and straight home to my wife.”

  Aidan stood up. “We need the phone numbers of anyone who was at the meeting and also your wife’s phone number. We also need the time sheets from the day of the murder and the security camera tape. We’ll be back with additional questions.”

  Sasso scribbled down some names and phone numbers. “Here are the Rotary Club members and my wife’s number. I’ll get you the other stuff when I can get around to it.”

  As they walked down the hall to Randolph’s office. Aidan said, “The crime lab team got everything they needed yesterday. We got plenty of photos of the victim and the scene. I just wanted you to have another look before we allow the SPCA to clean up. Gary Randolph was killed after closing by someone he had let into the building. There was no sign of forced entry. ”

  Matt looked at the chalk outline of where Randolph’s body had been. The residue of his brains and blood was still on the floor. There was blood spattered on one wall. “Whoever bashed in his brains came at him from behind with something like a bat. He must have landed on his back because his face was also smashed by the killer, right?”

  “Right. I had officers search the whole building, the dumpsters and the grounds yesterday, but we didn’t find anything that could be used to kill somebody. Hopefully, we’ll find out something from the ME about the murder weapon.”

  Matt walked over to the whiteboard and stared at the message. “Dog Killer. It’s almost too obvious as a clue about the murderer.”

  Aidan looked through the files and desk drawers. Nothing of great interest. No file called “threats” on anything obvious. “No signs of a struggle. The desk looks neat,” Aidan said.

  ”Since a murder weapon wasn’t found anywhere, I assume that the killer took it with him. Or her.”

  “Most likely. Have you seen enough in here?” asked Aidan.

  Matt nodded. He found it hard to listen to the dogs barking and lunging at the gates. They were so clearly freaked out. He figured that they must be hurting themselves. The quiet dogs hiding at the back of their kennels were even sadder to see. Matt thought they should be in a separate room where they wouldn’t be terrified by the barking. “All of those dogs must be miserable in the cages.”

  “They’re alive,” said Aidan.

  Matt nodded. “So they’re the lucky ones.”

  They walked through the lobby again and looked at the footprints of the cleaning woman and the Mayor. Matt took another look at the mural. He could see what Clara had been talking about. They were no mutts and no Pit Bulls on the happy train leaving the station. “I don’t see anything new here,” said Matt.

  They headed back to Sasso’s office. He was on the phone, and raised his hand to indicate they would have to wait. Sasso hung up the phone finally. “You know that I have a shelter to manage, right?” He saw the angry looks on the cops faces. “Okay, okay. What can I do for you?”

  “You can clean up the lobby. I left the crime tape up at Randolph’s office. It would be obstruction of justice if anybody goes in there and messes with our crime scene. I’m serious about that. Now please give us a list of the staff and their time sheets. Where can we interview them?”

  Sasso handed the list and time sheets to Aidan. “Talk to the staff in the break room. As you can see, our operation is bare bones. We have one person in charge of dog care and one for the cats. We have an administrative assistant and an adoption coordinator who works ten hours a week. We have six animal control officers across the state with two for each county. By the way, the cleaning woman, Anna, didn’t show up today.”

  “We need Anna’s address,” said Matt.

  “I noted it by her name,” replied Sasso.

  “All the animals picked up across the state are brought here?” asked Aidan.

  “No, the dogs picked up in Kent and New Castle counties are taken to satellite facilities, which are boarding kennels. Their staff handles care of those dogs. All the cats all come here.”

  “You pick up cats? I thought you had dog control contracts with the counties,” asked Matt.

  “It’s a public service. We don’t get paid for that,” said Sasso.

  “Don’t people typically let their cats wander outside?” asked Matt.

  “If they do, they’re idiots. Cats are hit by cars or caught by wild animals. And even caught and tortured by crazy people,” Sasso said. “We pick them up when there are complaints from neighbors about cats crapping in their mulch. We euthanize all the feral cats because they can’t be adopted. They all ought to be picked up because they carry disease but we don’t get enough money for that.”

  “I didn’t realize that the SPCA did that,” said Matt. “We have a nice woman who feeds a bunch of cats in our neighborhood. They don’t bother me any.”

  “Where do you live?” Sasso asked, picking up a pen.

  “What?” asked Matt, surprised by the question.

  “If you tell me, we’ll go pick up the cats,” Sasso said.

  “No way am I telling you that. I like cats and I like that woman.”

  That irritated Sasso. “She’s breaking the law.”

  “Since when is it against the law to feed cats?” Matt asked indignantly. “I’d like to know the Delaware Code section for that.”

  Aidan interrupted him. “That’s enough about stray cats. Please send the first staff person in for us to interview.”

  Matt ignored Sasso’s hostile glare and made a mental note to check the Delaware Code on animal welfare. He doubted that there was a law against feeding stray cats. Sasso clearly didn’t like his authority questioned.

  “Donna Briggs, our administrative assistant is coming to the break room first,” said Sasso, picking up his phone to dismiss them.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A s they waited for Donna in the break room, Matt looked at the OSHA work safety posters on the bulletin board. He certainly wasn’t going to talk further with Aidan about the cat issue. Matt was surprised that Aidan seemed to be ignoring the possibility that somebody who fed feral cats would have a grudge against Randolph.

  Donna knocked on the open door. “Ready for me?” She had short grey hair in a cut that announced that she didn’t bother with fashion. Her baggy knit pants and sweater proved it.

  “Please come in and sit down, Donna. We just have a few questions for you,” said Aidan in a friendly tone, trying to put Donna at ease. “I’m Detective Aidan Putnam with the state troopers. And this is Officer Matt Thomas with the Rehoboth Police Department. We’re trying to find out who killed Gary Randolph. Any help that you can give us would be greatly appreciated. Do you know anyone who might have wanted to harm Mr. Randolph?”

  “I can’t believe that this is all happening,” Donna said miserably. “Were you close to Gary?” asked Matt. “I worked for him for 10 years. So many things have changed here. Our work used to be appreciated in the community. Now so many people complain about how we do things. I’d like to know how they would do any better. There just aren’t enough people willing to adopt these poor animals. The SPCA can’t afford to just keep them forever and the animals would be miserable living in cages. Gary didn’t trust that rescue groups would find good homes. We don
’t want our dogs and cats adopted to people who neglect or abuse them. The poor things are better off dead.”

  Matt could see that Donna wasn’t angry with Randolph. It was unlikely that she had killed him.

  “Do you know the names of the SPCA critics? Sasso didn’t seem to know any names,” said Aidan.

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Donna said, with contempt written all over her face. “Doug Sasso sits around on his ass. He was certainly no help with fundraising. The dog control contract doesn’t pay for much. The counties are just plain cheap. They don’t give a damn about animals. All they want to do is be sure that dog control costs stay low so they don’t have to raise taxes. And now the state has passed this shelter standards law that makes it almost impossible for us to do business.”

  “I’ve seen some of the articles about it. There do seem to be a lot of people who were angry with Gary. Can you give us some of their names?” Matt tried again to get some names out of Donna.

  “I don’t keep track of that. That’s all above my pay grade,” she said.

  “Can you tell us about Gary’s family or friends?” Aidan asked.

  Donna thought about that for a minute. “Well, he wasn’t married and he never talked about his personal life or friends. I think his family lives out in Ohio. I just can’t think of much more to tell you.”

  “What kind of a boss was Gary?” asked Aidan.

  “Oh, he was such a nice boss. He brought me some of the flowers from his yard. He always had a smile for everyone.”

  “Did anyone working here seem angry at Gary?” Matt asked.

  “People always have grievances, but there’s nobody here is crazy enough to kill Gary.”

  “We have to ask this, Donna. Can you tell us what you were doing on the night Gary was killed?” asked Aidan.

  Donna was clearly surprised by the question. “After work, I went to home to make dinner, and my husband can vouch for that. Then I was at a church meeting and afterwards I went home.”

  “Thank you, Donna, you’ve been very helpful,” said Aidan. “Here’s my card if you think of anything else that might help us.”