by Diane Meier
“I sure hope you can find the monster who did this,” said Donna, as she took the card and left.
“Let’s take a break and get some lunch,” said Aidan. “There’s a sub shop that looked pretty good.”
”I can’t imagine Donna killing Randolph,” said Matt as they drove down Route 1.
Aidan nodded. “Look, you can’t get into side issues like cats with these people.”
“I disagree that it’s a side issue,” said Matt. “Sasso asked for my address so he could go trap the cats living near me. It pissed me off. I imagine some of the people who feed cat colonies must be furious about how the SPCA traps and kills cats. I think we need to talk to some of the cat groups about this.”
“That sounds like a waste of time to me,” said Aidan dismissively.
Matt was irked by Aidan’s attitude. “I’m sure you won’t mind if I talk to some people about that.”
“Feel free to talk to the cat ladies all you want.”
“Fine, I will,” Matt said. It was ridiculous for Aidan to say “cat ladies.” Matt loved cats. Many men loved cats as much as women did.
They ordered subs and ate outside. Indian summer was still in full swing at the beach.
“There are a lot of people left on the staff list,” said Matt, trying to get past his irritation at Aidan.
“We also have to visit the satellite kennel owners up state. We need to find Anna the cleaning woman and Tina Patterson, the volunteer mentioned by Sasso.”
“That’s a lot of people. Should we split up on the interviews?” asked Matt. “I could go see if Anna is at home.”
“That makes sense,” said Aidan. “I’ll go back to the SPCA. Hopefully I can finish up with staff interviews this afternoon. If you want to go see Anna and Tina Patterson, that would be great. Let’s meet back at your station later today. Tomorrow morning we can go to the satellite kennels.”
“When will the autopsy be done?” asked Matt.
“Maybe tomorrow, since the Mayor reached out to the Governor to make this case high priority.”
“Drop me at Town Hall so I can get my car.”
CHAPTER TEN
M att drove along Gravel Hill Road searching for Anna’s address. He couldn’t find it but decided to drive down a dirt road that was between the other homes with address signs. Behind large pine trees were five trailers of varying sizes parked in a ring. At the center was a bunch of toys and bikes. An elderly woman got up from her lawn chair and stared at Matt. His uniform clearly scared her.
He put on her friendliest smile. “Buenos días.” That was the extent of his Spanish. “Do you know Anna?”
The woman shook her head.
”I’m not immigration. Don’t worry,” said Matt.
The woman grabbed two of the kids, and hustled them into one of the trailers. The tiny girl left behind started to wail. The woman came back to grab the little girl and rushed back inside.
Matt was very sorry to have scared them. He knocked on each of the trailer doors. “Anna, are you here? You’re not in trouble. I just have a couple of questions.”
Nobody answered. He wasn’t surprised. He had done enough damage there so he got into the car and drove back onto Gravel Hill Road.
If Anna had moved, she was probably undocumented, like many people in Delaware. They lived on the edge and were always worried that something would trigger trouble.
Sussex wasn’t a sanctuary county, but nobody went after the undocumented people unless they were suspects. The local businesses depended on them for cheap labor. The county was full of chicken processing plants with jobs that would have gone unfilled if not for undocumented people.
Matt felt bad that he may have scared folks in that little community. Matt called Aidan and reported what happened.
“I should have known she’d take off,” Aidan fumed.
“Do you actually think that Anna killed Randolph? What possible motive could she have? Whoever killed Randolph did it in anger. Anna was probably undocumented. Animals were not her biggest concern.”
Aidan wouldn’t let it go. “Maybe money was the motive. Anna had the key. She’s a possible accomplice. She could have let the killer into the building. Why would she run if she isn’t guilty?”
Matt had to restrain herself from laughing out loud. “Oh, come on. That is the least likely scenario. She’d have to be a hell of an actress to be so hysterical about the killing if she had given the murderer her key. She ran because she’s afraid we’re going to call immigration on her.”
“I’m going to get an APB issued. I’ve already got somebody doing a search on the license number you got.”
“Fine. But my guess is that she’s left the state and we’re never going to find her.”
Tina Patterson’s home was not far from Anna’s. Matt parked on the gravel driveway and walked up to the trailer door along a curving path of crushed oyster shells lined with gnomes and pots of yellow mums.
A heavy set woman about 45 years old came out to greet him. Her blond hair was dry as straw from decades of harsh dye jobs. Her tee shirt was pulled tight around her flabby stomach. Aidan always wondered why some folks didn’t order the next size.
He flashed his badge. “Tina Patterson?”
“You’re here about Gary, right?”
“Yes,. I understand that you volunteered at the SPCA. Can I ask you a few questions?”
“Sure. Let’s stay outside. I haven’t told my Dad about what happened because I don’t want to upset him. He knows how close I was with Gary.” Tina pulled the cigarette pack from her jeans and lit it.
“I hear that you sometimes worked with Gary at his office after closing.”
“Yes, Gary depended on me.” Tina said proudly. “I loved going to work with him there.”
“I’m sorry, but I have to ask this. Were you there the night that Gary was murdered?”
“It’s okay. You’re just doing your job. I wasn’t there. My Dad can confirm that. I wish I had been there because then the killer might not have come in.”
“I’m wondering who Gary might have been meeting with that night. There are no signs of forced entry.”
“I just can’t imagine. Maybe one of the Board members? A couple of them didn’t like Gary much.”
“Oh, is that right? Who?” asked Matt.
“Well, there was Hal Gordon. He’s an accountant. I think he wanted to get Gary out of there because the donations were down. And then there’s that witch Cassie Deaver. She seemed to believe the stuff about Gary that was circulating online. She asked him sometimes about that garbage during the Board meetings.” “That’s helpful. I’ll talk to them,” said Matt.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” said Matt.
“Why are you involved? I thought the state troopers were doing the investigation.”
“That’s a fair question,” said Matt. “The Mayor thought it would help to have someone local involved.”
“I see,” said Tina. “Well, that’s Delaware for you. It’s fine for the big shots to bend the rules.”
Matt ignored that comment. “I’ve heard that some people in the community didn’t like the SPCA. I’d like to learn more about that.”
“Just go on my Facebook page,” said Tina. “You can learn all about it there.”
“I’ve heard about these extremists who criticize SPCA operations. Can you tell me some names?” asked Matt.
“I wish I could tell you who writes that damn No Kill Delaware blog,” said Tina with disgust. “I bet the blogger was the one who killed Gary.”
“Is that right? Why would a no kill advocate commit a murder?”
“People like that only care about animals, not people. You should see how they bullied Gary online. We looked up the blog domain name and tried to find out who was blogging. Somebody in Minnesota is listed as the domain owner. Of course, that’s just a cover. We contacted the guy but he wouldn’t tell us anything. We also contacted Facebook about the bullying.
That was pointless. Facebook wouldn’t do anything.”
Matt could see that Tina had a hell of grudge against the blogger. He was also struck by how much she respected Gary. Maybe she even had a crush on him as Sasso had suggested. If Randolph was such a Casanova, it was hard to imagine him with Tina. Maybe her feelings were unrequited love. Tina was certainly a big woman who could swing a blunt instrument.
“That’s good information, Tina. It sounds like we need to find the blogger. You’ll be around? In case we need you to make a statement.”
“I’d be delighted. And put me down for the lynching party,” she said fiercely.
Matt saw she was a woman full of fury. “Here’s my card, in case you think of anything else.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“H
ow’s the investigation going,” Jay asked when Matt returned to the station. “Anna didn’t show up for work and she wasn’t home. My guess is that she has disappeared. The state troopers will put out an APB for her and check out the license plate on the car that drove her away from the SPCA. I bet that license plate was stolen from somewhere.”
“I think you’re probably right. But you don’t think Anna killed Randolph, do you?”
“No,” said Matt. “Putnam thinks that since she was in the build
ing, she’s a suspect. I assume they’ll try hard to track her. I’m
more interested in Tina Patterson. What do you know about her?” “Not much,” said Jay. “Her family’s been in Sussex for generations. I’m pretty sure she’s a veteran. I think there was some issue with the SPCA Board. She applied to be on it but she wasn’t
accepted.”
“I wonder if that’s because she lives in a trailer. Not that I think
there’s any snobbery in Rehoboth, of course.”
Jay frowned a little. He didn’t like any kind of criticism of his
town.
“Just kidding, Jay. You know I love Rehoboth. Anyway she admits that she was often in the building at night with Gary. She says
she wasn’t there that night and her Dad will confirm her alibi. I’m
sure he would so I didn’t bother asking him. What struck me is
that she’s big and angry as hell.”
“Do you think Tina did it?”
“Sasso said she had a crush on Gary. That may well be true.
You know the old saying —you always hurt the one you love. I’ll do
a background check on her.”
“Okay, I’m out of here. I know Putnam’s coming and I don’t
want to get in the way.”
“You’re not in the way, Jay.”
“You can brief the Mayor and me tomorrow morning.” “Yes, absolutely, Chief,” said Matt, as Jay left.
Matt checked on Tina Patterson. She was a Coast Guard veteran with no criminal record. Not even a parking ticket. Aidan arrived at Town Hall. “I didn’t get much out of the staff.
Everybody liked Randolph and thought he was tough but fair as a
boss. I got an APB out on Anna. The license number for that car
is registered to a guy who had his plate stolen so that’s a dead end.
I didn’t hear from the Medical Examiner yet. Hopefully we’ll have
that report tomorrow.”
“Good,” said Matt. “We really need to know more about the
murder weapon.”
Aidan nodded. “Tomorrow, let’s do the visits to the SPCA satellite facilities. If I go to Doggy Haven in New Castle, and you go to
Holiday House in Kent County, we can get that done quickly. We
need to talk with the kennel owners and the two animal control
officers assigned to each county. I told Sasso that we needed to
talk to them.”
“That makes sense,” said Matt.
“What did Tina Patterson tell you?”
“She’s certain that the killer is somebody who hated Randolph’s
management of the SPCA.”
Aidan laughed. “A lot of people want to kill their boss. I don’t
think anybody I interviewed today held that kind of a grudge
against Randolph.”
“Tina was talking about the people who are angry at Randolph
for not taking good care of the animals,” said Matt. “I never
thought much before about what animal shelters do. I know all
the cartoons show dog catchers as the bad guys. I always thought
that was for laughs and that shelters performed a public service.
Owners pick up their lost dogs or cats at the shelter or new homes
were found for them.”
“Does Patterson think the SPCA was a bad place?” asked Aidan. “No, she doesn’t. She thinks Randolph was wonderful. Remember
how Sasso talked about the animal rights extremists?” “Yeah, I do. I asked all of the staff if they could give us any
names. They couldn’t. They all seemed pretty defensive about any
criticism of the SPCA. They were resentful that people don’t appreciate how hard they work and how much they care about the
animals. The cat lady was crying. She said it breaks her heart every time a cat is put down. The dog guy didn’t seem as broken up
by putting dogs down. He was talking more about how hard it is to
deal with all the aggressive dogs.”
“Patterson said that there’s all this arguing on Facebook about
the way the SPCA operated. She was enraged about criticisms of
the SPCA and Randolph. She counters all the criticisms on the
Friends of the SPCA page on Facebook.”
“Don’t these people have lives? What a waste of time,” said
Aidan in disgust.
“We used Facebook a lot in our investigations in Baltimore. It’s
amazing how much people show about themselves with photos and
comments.”
“It’s stupid,” said Aidan. “I wouldn’t parade my life online like
that.”
“I wouldn’t either. But a lot of people do, and it’s useful information sometimes. I’ll do some reading tonight. I want to see the
no kill blog and the criticisms of the SPCA on Facebook.” “That’s a good idea. I can’t stand Facebook stuff. Have a ball,”
said Aidan as he got up. “It looks like we’ve got our work cut out
for us. Are we done?”
“Yes, that’s all I’ve got.”
“Okay, we can start again tomorrow,” said Aidan as he left.
CHAPTER TWELVE
A fter Henry went to bed, Matt got a beer from his fridge and went online to find the blog and Facebook pages. He read many posts by people about their unhappy experiences with the SPCA. If the stories were true, Randolph was a very callous guy who didn’t care about animals or owners. Matt wondered why someone like that would go into the shelter business.
He turned to Tina Patterson’s Facebook page and read her comments about the people that she called no kill extremists. Clearly she believed that Randolph was a hero and was unfairly attacked. A lot of people on that page agreed with her. They seemed to be mostly people who had adopted their animals at the SPCA. There were complaints about the state’s new shelter law and the demands it put on the SPCA. Tina’s posts lambasted the No Kill Advocacy Center for having developed the model law for standards that was the basis for the Delaware law.
Matt clicked to the No Kill Advocacy Center web page and started reading. He had never thought about any of this. He was struck by the arguments against the idea of pet overpopulation. Statistics were cited about the numbers of animals killed as compared to the numbers of people looking for pets. It seemed clear that there were enough people out there to adopt homeless animals.
He read about how 99% of those dogs and cats in shelters are adoptable. That didn’t include feral cats of course. Matt agreed with the argument that they shouldn’t be taken to shelters. The
y were wild animals and should be left alone. The feral cats that Clara fed were neutered. They liked the little shelters in the plastic bins. To Matt that was the humane approach.
Matt and Henry liked seeing the cats come for dinner right around 6 pm in Clara’s yard. Of course, they didn’t approach the cats. Clara said that if any cat seemed to be friendly, her mom found a home for it.
Matt kept reading the web site. The arguments that it’s actually cost effective to get shelter animals adopted were persuasive to Matt. Matt read about the shelters all over the nation that were committed to the no kill ethic. He was interested to read about getting animals adopted by means of good marketing and adoption events.
Then Matt started reading about dogs that were labeled “aggressive.” Some shelters used behavioral tests to decide which dogs had to be killed. The tests seemed ridiculous to Matt. Pulling a food bowl away from a shelter dog seemed unfair since they might be starving. Evaluating a dog’s reaction to a big doll dancing around was not fair either. Matt remembered a neighbor telling him that her dog was even afraid of the scarecrows put out in yards at Halloween. Dogs were stressed just from being in the shelter. The big doll might be scary to them.
The dogs at the SPCA were clearly freaking out. Being locked in a cage surrounded by barking dogs must have made them anxious. Matt wondered whether they would be barking so wildly if they got time out of the cages for walks and a little TLC. Matt started to think that the No Kill Advocacy Center was onto something about the problems at traditional shelters.
He returned to Tina Patterson’s Facebook page. Her arguments in favor of traditional shelters like the SPCA seemed to be defensive and emotional. She accused no kill shelters of just being warehouses where dogs and cats lived miserably in cages. She said they hoarded animals. Matt had encountered hoarders in Baltimore, but the people were seriously mentally ill. Sometimes they did think they were rescuing animals. But he didn’t buy the allegation that all no kill shelters were hoarding animals.
The adoption rates at no kill shelters showed that they were not hoarding animals. There could be exceptions where animals were not getting adopted quickly, but the priority at no kill shelters was clearly to get animals to rescue groups and adopters.