Stay Calm and Collie On

by Lane Stone

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Let’s talk about what we learned from our interview that wasn’t an interview,” Lady Anthea said.

  “I learned that Henry was using the van outside of work hours. Hmm. Too bad we didn’t find out who he was with. Why don’t we go to Lewes Beach tonight and ask some of the regulars if they saw the van there at sunset? Maybe someone there will know who he was with,” I suggested.

  When we pulled into the side driveway of Buckingham’s, who did we see but Chief John Turner.

  “Ms. Patrick.” He touched the brim of his hat. “Lady Anthea.” Ditto with the hat touching. “I have some news.”

  I could feel Lady Anthea looking at me. I hadn’t decided if I was going to tell him about the email and the mystery woman, or our plan to ask around at the beach.

  “Henry’s cell phone was found on Cape Henlopen Drive near the ferry entrance. A jogger found it and turned it in to lost and found. This is one law-abiding town you’ve got here.” Except for the murder. We let that part go unsaid. “It was probably tossed from the van.”

  “So that tells you which direction the van was driving from?” I asked.

  For some reason, this made Turner smile. “Not necessarily. The killer could have tossed it on the way to or from the ferry terminal. There’s more. The phone had been wiped clean.” He paused and I was pretty sure it was a test to see if I could figure out what that meant.

  “So he was killed by someone he knew? Because he wouldn’t have called or been called by a stranger?”

  That got me a nod and a slow smile, which ended somewhere up behind his Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses. And it got me to show him mine.

  “We have an approximate time of death. He was killed around four thirty in the afternoon,” he said. “And the stabbing took place inside your van.”

  I didn’t have a response to this. It made the murder too real.

  “Fibers from his uniform shirt were in the wound,” he continued.

  “So he was wearing it when he was attacked?” I asked. The fact might mean something to a law enforcement person, but meant nada to me.

  Chief Turner nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Lady Anthea reached out her hands for the tote bag. “I’ll take the food in, to get it refrigerated,” she said. I handed it over, and she smiled at me.

  While we had been standing there, a few employees and clients had walked by, and I’d spoken to everyone I saw. After this morning’s cancellations, I needed all the good will I could get. When the area was clear of people again, I went ahead and told him about the email from Rick Ziegler on the tablet Henry used and our visit to Raw-k & Roll, figuring two out of three wasn’t bad.

  “So Henry had a girlfriend on the side.” He lifted his hat and ran his hand over his head. “Ms. Trent says she never visited him here. I’ll ask again this afternoon when she gets to town, just to be sure it wasn’t her in the van.”

  By some unspoken consent, we were walking toward the front door of Buckingham’s. “I, uh-h…” he began.

  “You need the tablet? I’ll go get it for you.”

  “Thank you.” The gentleness in that baritone voice took me by surprise. “Hey, when are you going to tell me why you call dog owners, pet parents?”

  “Right after we opened, we received an email from someone who objected to the term dog owner. She said ‘you’re a guardian of a pet so the ethics are different from owning property.’ She made a good case, so we began using the term pet parent. We’re not trying to say dogs and children are equal, but the decision to bring an animal into your home should be carefully thought out.”

  He smiled. “And I’m assuming it’s called the Buckingham Pet Palace because of Lady Anthea?”

  “Nah, it’s because Heartbreak Hotel was taken.”

  “Very funny,” he said. “You know, I have a feeling if Ziegler knew who the affair was with, he would have told you. You have that effect on people.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m going to need every bit of my charm after that Southern Delaware Daily article,” I said. Thoughts about the future of my business weren’t far from my mind.

  “You know that rumor about the dogs being taken somewhere didn’t come from me or the department, right?”

  “At first I thought it had, but now I don’t. The article said he drove the van to the ferry parking lot and, thanks to me, you know he didn’t.”

  I turned a little too quickly and saw a confused look on his face. Then he grinned and pointed to the windows on either side of the door—where two women were high-tailing it back to the reception desk.

  Inside the two sets of double doors, Abby was barking and pacing, anxious to greet me. After I rubbed her back, she turned to Chief Turner and looked up at him. He was looking around the lobby, taking in the large photograph of Lady Anthea. Abby was unaccustomed to being ignored and had no intention of getting used to it. She pressed her head against his leg.

  “This is Abby,” I said.

  He looked down at her and moved away.

  “Have you changed your mind about letting me be there when you question Ashley Trent?” I asked.

  “Not even a little. Absolutely not.”

  Chapter 5

  Though all the home pickups had been cancelled, there was still plenty of work to do. I kept myself busy sanitizing the inside of the mini-indoor-cabanas dogs go into for their afternoon naps. Unfortunately, very few would be needed today. To my surprise, Lady Anthea pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and helped me.

  At noon the two of us, along with Shelby, took a break to have a sandwich at my desk. As soon as I sat down, my phone rang.

  “Do you mind if we tuck into ours?” Lady Anthea asked, picking up her ham and Swiss.

  I mouthed, “go ahead,” and answered the call.

  “Ms. Patrick, this is Chief Turner. I’m trying to interview someone who brought her dog with her. The dog is distracting and I’m finding it difficult to—”

  He was interrupted by a women’s high-pitched voice in the background. “He’s just sitting here, not bothering anybody.”

  “She says it was too hot for her to leave the dog in her automobile. Can the dog stay at Buckingham’s for a short while?” It was cute that he still couldn’t bring himself to say Pet Palace, but he’d come around eventually.

  I put him on speaker phone. “Not even a little,” I replied. “Absolutely not.” I let that lean on him a few seconds before giving him an out. “Maybe we could make a deal.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “It’s Henry’s wife-to-be you’re trying to question, right?”

  “Correct.” Chief Turner was wound up even tighter than usual. That’s not healthy and it’s very un-Lewes like.

  “I can’t have her dog here at the Pet Palace,’” I said, emphasizing our correct name for his benefit. “I don’t have his vaccination records, and we haven’t completed a behavioral assessment to be sure he’s not aggressive and that he can get along with other dogs. I am, however, happy to offer a dog walker who can come and exercise him while we conduct the interview.”

  “Just a second.” I heard a chair scrape along the floor and then a door being opened. “While we conduct the interview?”

  Had I gone too far?

  He continued, “I will conduct the interview and you can wait in the viewing room. You’ll be able to hear and see everything.”

  “Lady Anthea and I will be there in five minutes.”

  She had finished her sandwich and was sitting on the sofa going over personnel files. “Another Ride of the Valkyries?” she asked after I hung up.

  I was pretty sure that was from something classical. When she dropped lines from poems or book titles into emails, I could google them, but what was I supposed to do now? It sounded vaguely familiar so I lobbed a guess. “That’s an opera?”

&nbs
p; She nodded and closed the folder she’d been reading.

  “Is there an opera about a police chief who’s afraid of dogs and armed?” I asked.

  ***

  The police station was in the Lewes City Hall Building on East Third Street, and we were there in no time. Chief Turner was waiting outside for us and walked up to me on the driver’s side of the Jeep. “Park over there,” he said, pointing to a reserved space at the end of the block.

  In the summer, parking is at a premium, so I was doing a happy dance with a feather boa in my head at his words. I parked, and we walked back to meet him in front of the one-story red brick building with its robin’s egg-blue shutters. Lady Anthea’s cell phone rang, and she took it out of her shoulder bag. She took one look at the screen and frowned.

  “I’m afraid I need to take this,” she said and walked a few paces back the way we’d come.

  “So Chief Turner, where is this dog?” I asked.

  “It’s in the lobby.” He looked around me to Lady Anthea. “Will she be able to handle this dog by herself? It looks like something’s wrong with it. Like, he’s not normal.”

  I stopped walking. “How so?”

  “His tongue is mostly blue. It’s a little black, but mostly blue.”

  “And he’s big?”

  “Extremely. She says he just has a lot of fur. His name is Lion King. That should tell you what he’s like.”

  Lady Anthea walked up. “I apologize for delaying you.”

  “It’s fine,” I assured her. I told her the dog’s name and that he was a Chow Chow, a beautiful breed despite Chief Turner’s accurate, if not exactly flattering, portrayal. She gave us a curt nod, and we marched inside to make his acquaintance.

  Ashley Trent was perched on the edge of a sofa and at her feet sat a well-behaved long-haired dog. She stood as we approached. Long, straight black hair framed her young face. Forlorn is a word we don’t hear very often, but it accurately described her. She appeared lost. Her dark eyes darted between the three of us.

  “I’m Sue Patrick and this is Lady Anthea Fitzwalter,” I said. “We’re so sorry for your loss.” I held out my hand to shake hers, and she looked at it before taking it.

  “I’m Ashley Trent. You worked with Henry, didn’t you?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw my co-owner’s eyebrows shoot up at the worked with reference. I’m as egalitarian as the next boss, so it hadn’t really bothered me at the time.

  “I’ll be taking Lion King for a walk,” Lady Anthea said, reaching for the brown leather leash. Ashley sat back down, still clutching it, and seemed to be considering whether or not to relinquish it.

  I sat next to her on the couch. “I understand how much comfort and security our pets are to us when we’re in pain,” I said. “It’s like they know we need them, and they’re there for us, sometimes in a more meaningful and authentic way than a person can be.”

  Ms. Trent looked down at the dog, and I was afraid I had made her cry. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. Then she handed Anthea the leash.

  We watched the two of them walk out into the sunny day.

  Chief Turner looked at me. “Wait here.” Then to Ashley Trent. “Let’s go back to the interview room.” On their way down the hall that spoked off the lobby, he motioned to a young female uniformed officer and she filed in behind them. Turner opened the door for the two of them to go into a room midway down the hall, then returned to me. “I’ll show you to the observation room.”

  To call the space he led me into a room would be unfair to rooms in general. It was an opening between two real rooms and usually reserved for wiring and insulation. The width was the same as the door we had entered. I’m not usually claustrophobic, but it was dark in there and I was going to be left alone. The thought made me wish I had Abby there to reassure me, the way Lion King had bolstered Ashley Trent. Suddenly I felt Chief Turner’s arm reach around my back. “Whatha…?”

  “I need to open this curtain. And you’re facing the wrong way. You’ll need to turn around if you want to see anything.”

  He pulled a cord and once I turned around, I could see into the stark interrogation room where Ashley Trent sat at a wooden table, across from the police officer.

  I turned to Turner. “You couldn’t talk to her in an office? You’re treating her like a suspect.”

  “The discovery of the other woman makes her a person of interest,” he whispered.

  “She wasn’t even in town when he was murdered.”

  “You’re probably right. Even if she’d flown, instead of driving, she couldn’t have made it back to upstate New York when I talked to her. I reached her on her cell phone, and we placed her in a suburb of Albany. I do love technology.” He leaned against the back wall and crossed his arms.

  “Don’t you have some place to be?” I asked and pointed to the large window. “I think it’s inconsiderate of you to make her wait. Her husband-to-be was murdered yesterday and it’s obvious she’s grieving. Why can’t you be kind to her? This is a small town, and we don’t treat people like that when they’re down.”

  He straightened and said, “You’re right.” Then he took a side step and was out the door. In a matter of seconds I saw him go into the room where Ashley Trent and the uniformed police officer waited.

  He started by apologizing to her for the delay. “You said earlier that Mr. Cannon relocated here about three months ago?”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “Did he ever mention anyone that he did not get along with, or that he had argued with? Anyone that might have a grudge against him?” Turner asked.

  “No! Everybody liked Henry. He’s, uh, was that kind of guy.” Ashley didn’t sound defensive. She sounded like a loyal woman in love.

  “So, you can’t think of anyone from either here or from before he moved here that might want to harm your fiancé?” He was pursuing this line like a dog with a bone.

  She shook her head. “Who would want to kill the CFO of a pet spa?”

  Chief Turner reached around to the other officer and held out his hand for a manila folder she had brought into the room. He opened it and rifled through the first few pages. “He worked as a Chief Financial Officer at a pet spa in Albany?” He had paced the words so there was no mistaking what he was asking, though I wondered why. It hadn’t been an obtuse question. I didn’t remember it from his resume, but it wasn’t a hard question.

  “No, here in Lewes, Delaware.” She looked across the table at him with a you’re not very far along with this, are you? expression. “Henry was the CFO of Buckingham Pet Palace.” She hesitated and studied her hands. “I hope they’re going to be okay without him.”

  There was just enough room where I was to let my mouth fall open. At that point, I didn’t want Abby with me; I wanted Shelby to hear this. She would really get a kick out of that. At least if I fainted, I wouldn’t fall, there wasn’t enough room.

  “Weeeelll,” Chief Turner said. “They’ll have to worry about that, won’t they?”

  “He came home once a month. It was hard on us, but we’ve been able to get ahead financially.”

  So far the chief hadn’t trusted himself to look up from the file, but his head shot up at this mention of money. “He had extra money?”

  “Oh, yes. He had never made a six-figure salary before. Though I don’t know why. Henry was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known.” Ms. Trent teared up and Chief Turner pushed the tissue box at the end of the table her way.

  I made a mental note: Set up audit with accountant. Just as soon as I could breathe again, that’s what I’d do. I was frozen in place. Almost everything the business made went back into it. A nice surfboard, a car that runs, and new running shoes when the old pair wears out was all I needed. I had a lot of friends and I had the Atlantic Ocean. Why be greedy? Though I pretty much lived on subsistence wag
es, I paid Shelby, Dana, Mason, and Lady Anthea as much as I could. None of us pulled down six figures. They made very real contributions to Buckingham’s. Henry hadn’t.

  That was when I realized Chief Turner and Ashley Trent were talking. I guess he had asked her a follow-up question about the money, like had she seen a bank statement? There was hope. Maybe Henry had just told her he made a lot of money. That had to be it. And that would be just like Henry to brag. I was beginning to breathe again.

  “Of course. I pay the bills. His base salary isn’t that much, but with last month’s bonus check we were able to get out of debt. We bought a new car, and we were planning a cruise for our honeymoon. Our wedding was supposed to be next spring,” she said. She trailed off at the last. “We’ve been living together for almost three years.”

  “I’m sorry you’re seeing Lewes for the first time under these circumstances, Ms. Trent,” Chief Turner said. He sat silently after that, and I’m pretty sure just pretending to look at the folder. She didn’t take advantage of the dead air to contradict him.

  As far as I was concerned, she hadn’t been to Lewes before and she wasn’t the woman in the van. After all, why would she lie about visiting the man she was about to marry? Whether or not it would satisfy Chief Turner was another matter. He didn’t believe people for a living.

  And he wasn’t done. He closed the file and leaned forward. “Had the deceased made friends here?”

  I whispered into the dark, “Please don’t go there.” Surely he wasn’t going to tell this grieving woman that the man she loved had been unfaithful to her. Why inflict this extra bit of cruelty when all he had was what Rick, a not exactly stellar witness, hadn’t seen? I liked Rick. To a certain extent, we’re kindred spirits, but he’s definitely an acquired taste.

  “Oh, no. Ms. Patrick makes her staff work a-l-l-l-l the time,” Ashley said. “Once I called Henry pretty late at night and she had him at the beach walking a dog. Can you believe that?” She shook her head at the harsh conditions Henry had had to bear up under.