Losing Patients (Animal Instincts Book 4)

by Chloe Kendrick

  The Givens’ home was in Oregon, which sounds odd since it’s actually in Toledo, but they named a part of town Oregon. It’s not far from Maumee Bay and has some parks and other attractions.

  I pulled up to the house with about three minutes to spare. I checked my appearance, still not used to the new look with the buzzed haircut, and I stepped out of the car.

  I was immediately set upon by one of the biggest dogs I’d ever seen. It was a black ball of fur whose head reached my chest level. I was used to smaller dogs with little legs, but this dog could have towed my car down the street.

  A woman came out of the house, running towards us with a leash. She hollered at the dog, and it went prancing back to her. I drew a sigh of relief as the dog walked away. However, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was my new client.

  I walked up to the woman and put out a hand. “Mrs. Givens?”

  She nodded and snapped the leash on to the dog’s collar. “Yes, you must be Mr. Fitzpatrick. This is Nelly. Before you ask, she’s a Newfoundland, and she’s actually a bit small for her breed.” I had a chance to look at her while she was preparing the dog. She was only slightly older than me with blonde hair and dark eyes. She had some tan, which I suspected would be fading now that fall was fast approaching. She was dressed casually in jeans and a flowered blouse.

  Nelly looked like she could eat through the leash and the collar and perhaps my hand. I still put a hand out and let her sniff me. She wagged her tail and then turned toward the house to leave.

  I followed along behind them. Nelly was obviously a very happy girl. Her tail wagged the entire time, and she had a spring in her step belied by her size. She’d very much accepted me, as she’d ignored my presence as she stopped to check out things in the yard.

  Mrs. Givens held the door for me, and we entered into a two-story home with the living room off to the right and the staircase to the second floor on the left. She indicated the living room. I took a seat in the sole chair. Furnishings were rather sparse in the room, only a loveseat and chair in the entire room. I wondered if Mr. Givens’ income had paid for the nicer things here and his death had put a stop to those things.

  “Can I get you a soda or something?” she asked, sitting down on the loveseat.

  I shook my head. “It’s easier if I don’t have distractors around,” I lied, thinking that this would be an easy read. “The dog starts paying more attention to them than to me, and it’s hard to talk to them after that.”

  She laughed. “That’s Nelly in a nutshell. She’s got the focus of a goldfish – first this way and then that.”

  I snapped my fingers, and Nelly came over to me. She put her head on my knee and looked up at me with big sad eyes.

  “Well, first,” I started. “Nelly is a very happy animal overall. She tells me that she loves it here, and she loves you. I don’t know that I have to tell you that though. She says that she tries to let you know.”

  She smiled and nodded. “It’s still nice to hear. What else?”

  “She’s somewhat lonely, and she’s missing some interaction with a male figure in the household. Just the way she’s made herself comfortable here should indicate that she likes male figures, but they’re missing. Is there a male family member who could come by and play with her? I think she’d enjoy that very much.”

  This was the dicey part of the conversation. I was hitting close to home, and I wasn’t sure how it would go over with her.

  She was tough though. She sniffed a couple of times and then pulled a tissue out of the box next to her on the floor.

  “Yeah, I suspected as much. My husband passed away this month, and she’s been looking for him ever since. I noticed how she took to you and how much she enjoyed having you around.”

  “I’m very sorry to hear that. I should have been more careful about what I said.” I was glad to see that she was taking the news well. I thought that leading the conversation wouldn’t be too difficult.

  She gave me a wan smile. “That’s okay. How were you to know?”

  I felt immediately guilty for that, and I felt the tips of my ears burn red as she said it. How was I to know indeed? “I think she just misses the smell and sound of a man. A little bit of that might help her feel better.”

  She sniffed again. “My stepson comes over some times, but now that it’s been a few weeks, everyone acts like I should be over it. So the number of visits has dropped since then.”

  I nodded. “I know. People think you should snap out of something in a matter of days, not years. I take it that it was unexpected.”

  An expression clouded her face that I couldn’t read. “Boating accident. We were taking a rare day off at the marina. He and Nelly went out on the boat. I’m not sure what happened, but he fell overboard. The Coast Guard and the marina people towed the boat back in, but only the dog was in the boat. They didn’t recover his body for nearly two days.”

  “Wow, I’m really sorry to hear that.” Despite my methods for gaining access to her, I was very sorry. I knew how difficult it was to have a person missing and not know if they were alive or dead. I could empathize with her, though I knew I wouldn’t share my story with her. I only shared that with a few people, those who I trusted.

  “They still don’t know what exactly happened to him. He’d been wearing a floatation device when he left the marina, so I don’t know if he took it off or what, but when they found the boat, it was still inside – and of course, it wasn’t on him when they found the body.”

  “Thanks.” She cleared her throat and looked at me. “So what else does Nelly say?”

  I gave her a quick smile. “Nelly says she’d like to be fed more and more often, but I’m not sure that everyone’s in agreement with that.” That was always a safe statement, since I didn’t know a dog alive who wouldn’t eat his weight in food if given the chance.

  She sighed. “Definitely not. The vet was very strict about putting her on a diet. We have cut back on the amount we give her, so I’m sure she is hungry. I’ve been guilty of giving her too many treats this month, so I’m cutting back on that too.”

  I made a number of similar observations about Nelly, while she was content to drool on my knee. At the end of the time, I coughed and then stood up. Nelly whimpered a bit to have to move away from me.

  I stepped outside, and the dog barked, nearly knocking me over with the sound waves. I turned and waved at her, trying not to notice that Mrs. Givens was drying her eyes. Overall, I hadn’t learned much. There were a few questionable things in the story, but I was a long way from finding out anything that would bring answers to Dr. Wilson.

  I went home and gave both of my small dogs a big hug. I loved being able to pick them up and rub faces without worrying about being eaten.

  I hadn’t been home ten minutes when the doorbell rang. I took a deep breath. I had a good hunch of who was behind the door, and none of the dogs had told me a thing.

  I was right. Detective Sheila Green was standing there, drumming her fingers on the door frame. She didn’t look happy. Her eyes were more gray than silver today, which I’d learned meant she was angry. She was dressed in a tan pantsuit of the style she wore mostly for work. It made her look less feminine and more business. She stopped drumming her fingers as the door opened.

  “Hi. What’s up?” I asked, trying to play things off lightly.

  “Not much. I have this person who is going around and asking questions about a death. Know anything about that?”

  I did some quick calculations. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would follow me, so the police were keeping an eye on the Givens’ house. That meant that someone was not happy with the official ruling on the cause of death. I had to wonder why an accident would have the police still watching the house.

  This only served to back up Dr. Wilson’s theory of multiple deaths. However, I didn’t want to give away what I knew. I didn’t want to damage Dr. Wilson’s practice, and I didn’t want to involve myself in any open investigation. Howeve
r, I knew that when push came to shove, I had absolutely no standing to remain confidential with my clients. They were people who wanted someone to talk to their pets. It wasn’t exactly a decided precedent in law.

  Green just stood there and waited as all of this ran through my mind. I was glad that she couldn’t read my facial expressions and thoughts. I would have been in big trouble.

  “No comment at all?” she asked finally.

  “Well, I can only assume that you’re talking about the Givens family. She won an hour session with me as part of a giveaway I ran for the business. The death did come up, because Nelly is sad and needs some male contact in her life, but it’s not like I accused her of murder or anything.”

  “You think she did it?” was the comeback. Normally, I would have received a lecture of the charlatan nature of my business, but none of that happened today. She was all business.

  I shook my head. “No, if she was on land and he was on the boat, how would that have worked? Besides, I don’t think she’d do anything to harm the dog, and it was left floating alone in the boat until they towed the boat back to the marina.”

  Her brows furrowed. “For someone who doesn’t know anything about this death, you sure have a lot of details. What’s up with that?”

  I shrugged. “Her dog is lonely. We talked about that and the reasons why. It’s not a surprise. Pets are like people; they don’t take change all that well. Nelly’s had a big change that she can’t quite understand.”

  She laughed. “You seem to be doing well with it. You started with this idea of the talking to the pet business, and now you seem to be branching out into pure investigation.”

  I shook my head again. “Not really. I’m just trying to get some new customers. That’s all.”

  “So no one hired you to look into Givens’ death?” She waited with her hands on her hips and her silver eyes staring at me.

  “Not really.” I was skating on thin ice here. Before we had gone out on a date, I would have lied myself to sleep without a worry, but now I had to think about my relationship with Sheila Green as well as the information I gave to Detective Green. It was quite a tightrope walk.

  “Not really? Is that a yes or no? You do realize that people who talk to pets don’t get confidentiality with their clients. That’s only for lawyers. You’re absolutely fair game in this case.” She brought that up first, so I knew I was in trouble. I’d have to spill who hired me and why in this interview.

  “Look, I didn’t think that this was an open case. It was labeled an accident. I saw the newspapers. They said as much. Guy falls overboard with no life-saving device on. He dies. Sounds pretty accidental to me. You’re the first person to call this anything other than an accident.” My words sounded plausible, and I checked her face to see if she’d bought it.

  She rolled her eyes. “Maybe I’m the one who needs to be schooled in confidentiality. You’re right.”

  “So what gives? Can you even do that? I thought it had to actually be a homicide for you to get involved, not an accident or old age.” I was annoyed. I’d gotten involved in this strictly because I thought I would be safe, not looking into a homicide, but now I felt like the rules had been changed, and the lines had been blurred. Who knew what they were looking into when we weren’t looking?

  She sighed. “Can I sit down and explain? I need to know I can trust you though. You’re not going to go blabbing this around town, right? And of course, nothing to the newspapers. As far as the family knows, it’s still an accident. I wouldn’t want them to be informed of anything different until we’re sure.”

  She sat down in one of the chairs in the living room. The furniture was all mix-and-match, my idea of decorating in a less than vibrant manner. She didn’t seem to notice. Green was focused more on what she could tell me and what she’d have to hold back. I could read that in her face just as I could tell when Bruno wanted to eat. The same cues and tells that I picked up from people and animals that I used to talk to pets were extremely helpful in investigating certain types of crimes too.

  “At first, we had no doubts about the accident theory at all. People fall out of their boats and drown all the time. Nearly always it’s alcohol related. It’s practically a check box on the ME’s forms. Anyway, we did think it was a little odd that he hadn’t been drinking, but we just chalked it up to him being a novice. This was their first year of having a boat, and the police assumed that he’d made a beginner’s mistake.”

  “They bought a boat this year?” I asked, thinking back to the lack of furniture in the house. They didn’t appear to be a wealthy couple, and a boat seemed outside of their economic grasp.

  “Yeah, why?” Green sat up in her seat and stared at me.

  I wasn’t intimidated by the stares anymore. I took my time in forming my answer. “Have you been in their house lately? There’s hardly any furniture at all. She only had two things to sit on in the living room. I would think that a boat would be the last thing that they needed to buy right now.”

  Green pulled out a notebook and scribbled something down. “I’m sure the police were in the house at the time of the notification, but like I said, it didn’t seem like anything more than an accident at first.”

  “What changed?”

  “We found the body two days after the boat was towed back to the marina. The autopsy took place. Givens didn’t have any safety gear on, and that was a major factor in the decision to call it an accident.”

  “Right, but …”

  “About two weeks later, we got a call for another accident on the lake, not far from the marina. Same sort of case. Guy was drunk and fell out of his boat. The thing is that when the police went to fish the body out, they found another life jacket. They thought it belonged to the dead guy, and they were right. But it was a different dead guy. Givens’ name was written in permanent marker along the bottom of it. One side of the device had been cut with something sharp.”

  “Like someone had cut it off him?” I was starting to see the idea behind the change of heart.

  “Exactly like someone had decided to cut it off him. Enough of the straps were cut that it could have been pulled off, and then the body left. No floatation device, no chance to survive long in that lake.” She air quoted “that,” which I found endearing. She had a knack for using air quotes at all the wrong places. I was never sure if she didn’t know that she was choosing the wrong word, or if she did it on purpose to mess with people. I’d seen a few witnesses who had been so thrown off by the move that they’d shared more than they had intended.

  “Why wasn’t this on the news?”

  Green shrugged. “And say what? The captain was very clear that we had no proof at all. The straps could have been cut at any time before or after the time of Givens’ death. So we had no case. He wanted a lot more than that to make a case and announce that we’d been wrong in calling it an accident.”

  “So what have you been doing?”

  “Anything we can, while keeping a low profile. We can’t get a warrant. We can’t search anything. We do watch the footage from the red light camera on a daily basis, so we can keep an eye on her movements and any visitors. Patrol cars go by on a regular basis too. That’s about all. We’re stuck. Whoever did this, and we’re all betting that it’s the wife who bumped him off, has gotten away with murder, and it’s driving us crazy. We don’t like to let people get the better of us.”

  I thought back to what little the wife had told me. “You do know that the wife was on shore while the boat was out? She couldn’t have killed him before she waved goodbye, and she certainly couldn’t have killed him after you found him. So when was she supposed to have killed him?”

  Green shook her head and then put her head in her hands. “That’s just it. We don’t know. Just barely enough evidence points to homicide to make us suspicious. No motive, no means, and a coroner’s report that says it was an accident. It’s a mess, a big mess, and no one has any idea how to fix it. Except right in the middle of al
l of this, you come strolling up the door to give away a free dog talk to this lady. There’s no way in hell that this is a coincidence. I just spilled my guts to you. Now it’s your turn.”

  So I told her everything. I had no choice, but I made her promise that she wouldn’t release the information about the veterinary practice to the press unless it became necessary for the investigation. Otherwise, she’d keep my client to herself.

  I gave every detail that I’d uncovered, which was not much yet. I did leave out the other two names. She didn’t ask me who they were. I figured that Green could figure it out on her own. There weren’t that many deaths in Toledo for her to go guessing. She’d be able to pick them out in a few minutes.

  I took a deep breath and slumped back in my chair. I felt a bit like a traitor in giving her so much information, but at the same time, I knew that they would get farther with this than I would by myself. They had the resources to investigate. I could only go and ask a few questions here and there. While I’d done well with the matters I’d investigated, I always doubted that I would be able to do it next time.

  Plus I really didn’t want to be taken into the police station. I knew that I had no standing as an investigator and I had no right to keep information from the police. I knew that Dr. Wilson would not be happy with me, but she had contacted me to talk to animals, not get involved in an open murder investigation.

  “So you’re talking about the Adamson suicide, aren’t you?” she asked.

  I raised an eyebrow. I had specifically not mentioned a name in that case.

  “I talked to Bruno,” Green told me. “He’s a pushover when it comes to telling me everything he knows. He read the file and knew about it. 32 was about to take a whiz on it.” She gave me a smile as she talked about my dogs.