by Diane Meier
Matt wondered about the FBI. Didn’t they go after dog fighters? He opened his laptop and started to search. He learned that federal law banned dog fighting in 2007 and that it’s a felony in all 50 states. Matt found the Animal Legal Defense Fund fact sheet about dog fighting. It confirmed that arrests had to be made when the fight was in progress just as Aidan said. What Matt hadn’t realized is that dog fighting is often linked to organized crime.
Then he saw the ALDF fact about bait dogs: “Trainers ruthlessly acquire animals to use as live bait. Acquisition methods include fraudulently acquiring dogs or cats from shelters or via ‘free to a good home’ ads, setting up a sham rescue organization, or outright pet theft. The bait animals are often attacked and torn apart during training.”
So it wasn’t just this SPCA. It happened at other shelters. And cats were also used as bait. Was this why they did the roundups of feral cats? They would certainly be more of a challenge for fighting dogs to kill than house cats.
Matt put down the laptop. How the hell could this be happening in a country that supposedly loved dogs and cats? It was horrible enough that millions were killed in shelters. Using them as bait animals in dog fighting was pure evil.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Since Henry was still sleeping, Matt left the apartment and knocked on Clara’s door.
“Is it time for dinner already?” asked Clara with a smile. “I couldn’t wait until tonight,” said Matt. “I wanted to tell you that
the Mayor called me into work right before I picked up Henry. I’ve been reinstated. It turned out that one Kent Council member was upset about the treatment of the dogs at that kennel. She knows the Mayor and called to thank him for the fact that I got things under control. The Mayor also wants me back on the murder investigation.”
“That’s terrific,” said Clara. “It was ridiculous to suspend you. You must feel so much better.”
“About that, definitely. But the bad news is that the Governor
won’t do anything about the sale of dogs up in New Castle. I’m
absolutely furious.”
“Oh no, I can’t believe it. This is horrible,” Clara cried. Sharon paced around the room in a fury. “Damn him to hell.” Of course, Matt didn’t hear Sharon. “Somehow it’s all so much
more real to me now that I know Smokey and Snowflake. I just never thought about any of this, much like most people. I knew some animals were put down, I guess. The sale of shelter dogs and
cats for bait is so evil that it’s hard to even imagine.”
“It is evil. I’m glad somebody killed Randolph. He should rot
in hell,” said Clara fiercely.
“I’ve got to do something. I can’t just stand by while this happens.” “I don’t understand the politics of this, Matt. I guess nothing surprises me when it comes to politicians. You can’t fix this
yourself. These dog fighters are dangerous people. What about
Aidan? Won’t he help?”
Matt thought for a minute. “No, I don’t think so. The state
troopers just don’t have the resources to do the undercover work
necessary. They have to find a fight in progress to bust dog fighters. Apparently these mobsters are very good at keeping the fight
locations secret.”
Sharon couldn’t resist grabbing Clara’s arm. “Tell him you’ll
talk to one of my contacts and get some information.” “No, that won’t work,” Clara hissed at her mother.
Matt was puzzled by that. “What won’t work?”
Clara shook her head. She had to be more careful about responding to Sharon’s comments in front of Matt. “Oh God, I’m
sorry. I just lost if for a minute.”
Matt could certainly understand that. “I’m losing it, too. I
didn’t mean to upset you so much. I shouldn’t have dumped this
all on you.”
“I’m glad you told me.” Clara decided to try her mother’s suggestion. “Maybe I could contact one of my mother’s old friends
and learn something.”
Matt froze. He didn’t want her mixed up in this. “No, you’ve
got to stay out of this. Like you said, the guys who set up these dog
fights are dangerous. It could be that the mob is involved. Please,
don’t start asking people about names and places where dog fights
are held.”
Clara could see how that idea worried him. “Okay. I won’t.” “I’ll figure something out,” he declared. “There must be a way
to stop this.”
After Matt left, Sharon blew up. “How can that idiot of a
Governor decide not to investigate this? He’s probably been
bought off by the dog fight organizers. “
“I think you’re right, Mom.”
“Look, I’m sorry that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I’m just
so damn angry.”
“It’s not easy for me to ignore you, you know.”
Sharon laughed. “I never found that to be the case.” Clara didn’t see the humor in that. “You know damn well what
I mean.”
“Sasso isn’t going to stop selling dogs. Maybe I should go to the
New Castle satellite kennel and follow whoever takes the dogs next
time. I could hang out around with the dogs until I hear when the
next fight is being held. I should have thought of this as soon as I
was dead. I bet that I can go anywhere. Why not take advantage
of being invisible?”
“And then what? If you get the information about the next dog
fight and I tell Matt, he is going to want to know how I found out.
He’s going to be unhappy that I ignored him when he said to stay
out of it.”
Sharon stopped pacing. “Look, I know you care about him. But
you saw how upset he is. Do you really think he’s going to mind if
you get information that leads to busting the dog fighters?” Clara thought about that. He probably wouldn’t mind it. He
might be mad at first. But if it turned out to be good information
Matt would be happy that he could stop the sale of the dogs and
get some dog fighters arrested. “Are you sure that you can even
leave the house? You’ve never done that before. What if it makes
you disappear forever?”
That stopped Sharon. She wanted to do something but Clara
was right. If she left the house she might not be able to get back.
That wouldn’t do any good. “You’re right. I don’t know what would
happen to me.”
Clara nodded. “Let’s just wait and see what Matt figures out.
I trust him to take action. He’s not going to just let this selling of
dogs continue.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
On Monday morning, Tina walked into Sasso’s office. It had been difficult to enter the building and walk past Gary’s office. She had forced herself to do it. If she stayed away for too long, it would seem strange to Sasso. She didn’t want to raise his suspicions.
”Tina,” said Sasso. “I wondered when you’d show up. Hard to believe that Gary was murdered, isn’t it?”
Tina nodded. “I’ve been in shock. When is the memorial service?”
“I don’t know. I think the state troopers found some aunt of his and she’s handling all that.”
“Do you need me to do anything on the SPCA Facebook page?” asked Tina.
“I think the Board is figuring that out.”
“I just want to help if I can. You know how much I enjoyed working with Gary.”
Sasso leered at her. “Oh, how well I know.” He knew Tina had some kind of crush on Gary. It was ridiculous because Gary only dated women who were hot. Tina was definitely not in that category.
“What are you implying?” Tina ask
ed testily. He had no business talking like that to her.
“Nothing, nothing at all.” Sasso shuffled papers on his desk. Tina looked tough enough to beat him bloody.
“Good.” Tina thought for a minute. “What are you hearing about the investigation?”
“Not a damn thing. They questioned everybody on the staff. Did they talk to you?”
“Yes, I tried to get them to follow up with those no kill extremists. Too bad we don’t know who writes that blog. Gary and I tried to find out but the domain is registered to some guy in Minnesota.”
“That makes no sense.”
Matt and Aidan came to Sasso’s door.
“Hello, Officers,” said Tina. “Doug and I were just talking about the blogger as a suspect. Did you talk to that guy in Minnesota who owns the domain name?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t not too helpful,” said Aidan. “The woman who started the blog is dead, and he has no idea who else is doing the blog. Any ideas about that?”
Matt wished Aidan hadn’t revealed that the blogger was dead. They didn’t need to tell Sasso and Tina a damn thing.
“I know nothing about any of that, as I told you before,” said Sasso.
“I’m no help on that either,” said Tina. “Can’t you track the IP address to a house?”
“No, we can’t,” said Aidan. “There are privacy laws, you know. We’d have to get a warrant and that requires probable cause.”
Tina couldn’t help digging a little. “Well, who was the blogger that died? Maybe I could get some ideas if you told me the name.”
“No, Tina,” said Matt quickly. “I’m guessing that you already contacted the domain owner since you know he’s in Minnesota. If he wanted you to know the name of blogger he would have told you,” said Matt.
“It’s been this big mystery in town. Everybody would like to know,” said Tina as she tried to persuade them.
“The answer is no, Tina,” said Matt. He wasn’t sure if the fears about SPCA retaliation made sense but he saw no reason to tell Tina or Sasso that it had been Sharon.
“I think the officers are here to talk to me about some things,” said Sasso. He had never liked Tina. It had always infuriated him when she was playing on the computer with Gary. Sasso didn’t believe in that Facebook crap that she and Gary did. She acted like she was the queen of the place. It irritated other volunteers who actually did something useful.
“I need to get going anyway,” said Tina as she left. “Hope you find the killer.”
Sasso stood up. “Before you ask me any questions, I want to know why the hell you interfered with the care of the dogs in Kent County, Officer Thomas. I spoke to a Kent Council member who was very upset. And I was told that you were suspended and taken off the case.”
Matt had to struggle to control his anger. “You were told wrong, Sasso. Apparently one of the other Council members cares about the county’s dogs. I am still on the job, which is unfortunate for you.”
“You had absolutely no right to get involved in the care of the dogs at that kennel,” said Sasso, standing up.
“Sit down, Sasso,” Matt spit out. “You should be arrested for animal cruelty. That may still happen so I’d be careful if I were you. Now you are going to tell us all about how you’ve been selling dogs as bait from the New Castle satellite facility.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sasso said angrily. “Those two Kent County animal control officers were lying. I fired them. Maybe you should get your facts straight next time instead of believing every rumor you hear.”
“You son of a bitch, you are not going to sell one more dog or cat. You better take great care of every animal that is picked up from now. You are going to comply with every damn requirement in the shelter law from now on.”
“We already do comply with every requiremen,t” said Sasso smugly.
“Bullshit,” said Matt.
Aidan wanted to settle Matt down. “Sasso, we need the names of your Board members and the tape from your security cameras.”
Sasso pulled out a flash drive and slammed it on the desk with a surly look at Matt. “There’s the security video and the list. I want that flash drive back after you download that stuff.”
Aidan picked up the flash drive. “You need to calm down, Sasso,”
“I’ve got work to do, Officers, so if you’re not arresting me, please leave my office.”
Matt wanted to smash his fist into Sasso’s fat face in but settled for a kind of growl. “I’ll be watching you, Sasso.”
“We’ve got to talk,” muttered Aidan to Matt as they walked from Sasso’s office to the lobby.
Matt nodded. Seeing the mural of the happy dogs and cats on the train made him even more angry about what the SPCA had been doing to the Pit Bulls and mutts. He could now understood why Sharon hated that damn mural.
“I cannot believe that arrogance of that bastard,” Matt exploded when he got out the door.
“You need to cool off, Matt. I’d hate to see you get thrown off the case again. You’re too emotional about all this.”
“You’re right,” Matt said tersely. “Seeing those dogs did something to me last Friday. I want to continue on the case. But I also want to stop Sasso from mistreating the animals.”
“Just make the murder investigation the higher priority. Okay, let’s go look at the security tape at Town Hall. I think you made it clear to Sasso that you expect him to comply with the law.”
Diane Meier “I doubt it,” said Matt. He tried to get his brain focused on the case. “I wanted to tell you that somebody is still writing that blog. Do you think you can get a warrant to track down the IP address for whoever is writing the blog now?”
“That would be hard as hell. We don’t have any evidence to back up the warrant. We’d need probable cause. Have you ever tried to get a warrant in Delaware?”
“Not easy to do?”
“Hell no,” said Aidan in disgust. “Remember Watkins? He told me that he tried to get a warrant to track down an IP address on another case. The judge practically laughed in his face. It’s just one of the ways that the justice system makes it hard for us to arrest criminals.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“W
e’re going to watch SPCA security video,” Matt told Jay when they arrived at Town Hall. He put the flash drive into his computer. Matt forwarded the video to the day of the murder. It showed the back of the building. They watched the SPCA van arrive in the driveway. The animal control officers opened up the back of the van and pulled out crates with dogs in them. Then the van drove away. That happened a second time.
“I’ve never understood how they catch dogs and get them into those crates,” said Jay.
“The last time I saw a lost dog, he came right up to me,” said Matt. “He clearly wanted help. He followed me home as a matter of fact. I called animal control because I didn’t know any better. When they arrived they opened the van and put a couple of treats in the crate. The dog hopped right into the van. I feel like shit about that now because that dog was a Pit Bull mix and he probably was killed.”
“That’s really sad,” said Jay.
“All this video shows is the animal control van coming and going. Nobody else went into or out of the back door,” said Aidan. “Let’s look at the video at the SPCA front door.”
“There’s the cleaning woman leaving the building and the staff arriving,” said Matt. “That’s the first time I’ve seen Randolph alive. I had never met him. Look how he swaggers. It’s like he’s on top of the world.”
They watched a number of people arrive and depart during the day. Some of the people who left were walking dogs on leashes, and some had cat carriers. The faces of the people weren’t visible because of the camera angle.
“They really need to adjust that camera,” said Aidan.
They watched the staff leave the building at closing time, with the exception of Randolph. Then there weren’t any arrivals or departures until 10 pm when a
person wearing a hoodie left the building.
“That’s got to be the killer,” said Aidan. “Dammit, we can’t see the face or really much of anything that helps us. About all we can say is that person was average height and a little on the heavy side”
“Hey, the killer’s carrying a big bag of some sort,” said Matt. “My guess is that the murder weapon is in that, since it couldn’t be found in the building or on the grounds.”
“Maybe it’s a brick of some kind in that bag since that clay dust was found in Randolph’s brain matter.”
Matt nodded. “The bag has big flowers on it. It’s hard to imagine a man carrying something like that.”
“Damn good point,” said Aidan. “The killer could very well be a woman.”
“That’s important, isn’t it?” asked Jay, clearly pleased that they were getting somewhere. He needed Matt back on the job in Rehoboth. His wife was getting irritated by the extra hours that he had to spend at work.
Matt nodded. “I’ve got the names of three women in town that we should interview. The Mayor knew two women who dated Gary. The other woman is an SPCA Board member. Maybe one of the women is our killer. Let’s see if we can find them. It’s a terrific day. Let’s walk to the places where they work.”
“Candy Central on Rehoboth Avenue is closed for the season,” said Jay. Then he saw Matt’s smile. “Okay, I admit it. I buy candy for my wife. You guys aren’t married. You don’t know about wives.”
“Just for your wife, huh?” Matt smiled. He knew Jay had a small stash of chocolate in his desk.
“Get out of here and find the killer,” laughed Jay.
They left the station and walked along Rehoboth Avenue toward the little shopping center at 4th Street. It was one of those warm November days that’s perfect for sitting on the beach. Not that Matt did much of that. He and Henry liked to cycle on the bike path. That was one of the reasons he had taken the apartment. With Clara’s house backing up the bike path it was easy to go for a bike ride after work.
“Jay seems like a good guy to work for,” said Aidan.
Matt nodded. “He’s a great boss.”
“Was he like you? A city cop who chucked it all to move to the beach?”