Canines and Crime

by Sandra Baublitz

  Mark shook his head. “It’s your turn. What was in David Tanner’s will?”

  Lillian opened her mouth, no doubt to argue with Mark, but before she spoke, Jac said, “Why don’t we all trust each other and just tell what we know? We all want to find David Tanner’s murderer.”

  Lillian huffed, but to my surprise, Mark nodded his head in agreement. “Perhaps Jac is correct, and we should lay our cards on the table.” Lillian opened her mouth, but Mark held up his hand palm out and said, “I’ll go first.”

  Lillian settled back in her chair and stroked Saber.

  Mark stretched his long legs out and began to speak. “Tammy Williams appears to be a successful real estate agent. She represents and sells most of the homes in this area, and along the way, has purchased several for her own investing purposes. As I understand it, she wanted to purchase David Tanner’s house, and his neighbor’s house, but neither man wanted to sell.” Mark stared at the ceiling a moment then looked around at each of us. “I have never heard anything about her being involved in any criminal dealings. She seemed quite dedicated to the Betterment Foundation and supports several other charities around town.”

  Jac nodded. “Thank you, Mark. That is what we have discovered so far.”

  I shifted in my seat disturbing Paw who raised his head and whined. I bent forward, patted his back, and he settled down again. “David Tanner left a sizable portion of his money to the Betterment Foundation.” Mark raised his pen and opened his mouth, but I cut him off, “Yes, Tammy Williams knew about it. I was sent to Mr. Bishop’s office, he’s the attorney for the estate, in Tammy’s place to represent the Betterment Foundation.”

  “Why did you go?”

  “Because Alma, who is treasurer of the foundation, couldn’t go and Tammy had to go out of town because her daughter was having a baby.”

  Mark nodded and motioned for me to continue.

  “Charlotte Tanner gets the house which would ruin Tammy’s plans if Charlotte plans to keep the house. Charlotte Tanner, and her artist boyfriend, were furious to find out that David had left the money to the Betterment Foundation. Charlotte vowed to contest the will. You should know that Sam Davis, who is vacationing in town with his wife, was also at the reading.”

  Mark’s head jerked up from his notebook. “Sam Davis?”

  Bruce smacked him on the back. “You mean you don’t know everything that goes on?”

  Mark glared at Bruce. There was no love lost between the two men.

  I cleared my throat. “As I said, Sam and his wife, Laura, are vacationing in Tranquil Valley. Alma introduced me to them at the park fundraiser. Sam is named as the main beneficiary of David’s will, however, he claims he hated David and will refuse all bequests.”

  “Why does he hate him?” Mark asked.

  “I don’t know. I was under the impression that he didn’t know David. I was planning to find that out though.”

  Jac leaned forward. “What do you know about Charlotte Tanner’s boyfriend?”

  “The sculptor?” Mark asked.

  Jac nodded.

  Mark scratched his jaw with his pen. “He is a funny one. I tried talking to him, but he slammed his studio door in my face.”

  Bruce smirked at his statement and Mark caught his expression.

  “Yes, I do get that reaction quite frequently. But in this instance, I wasn’t even asking him questions about David Tanner. In fact, this was even before David Tanner died when I was doing a story on the local art studio. Why would an artist who relies on customers and the public turn down a chance to be featured in the newspaper? That bothered me, so I went and did some research on Turner. Turns out he is impossible to track before he arrived in Tranquil Valley. I have found no record of his existence prior to here.”

  Bruce rubbed his jaw. “I’ll contact my sources and see what I can find out.”

  “We should also ask Harry to check into his background,” I said, as I reached forward and picked up my teacup, filling it with tea.

  Jac handed me the sugar bowl and while I selected a cube, she asked, “Will Harry agree to that? He’s asked us to stay out of the investigation.”

  Bruce answered her. “I’ll speak with Harry. I’m sure he would want to know more about the individuals he suspects in David Tanner’s death.”

  Mark frowned at Bruce. “I’ll find out who Ned Turner is. You don’t need to involve yourself.”

  Bruce shrugged and winked at me. “I don’t mind helping Clarissa in her investigation.” Lillian barked out a laugh. “You’re like two five-year-old’s fighting over a toy.” She shook her head at Mark and Bruce while rubbing Saber under his chin.

  Jac nudged me. She whispered, “Looks like Mark and Bruce are jealous of each other?” I knew she was insinuating that Mark was struck on me, but I knew the reporter was very competitive and wasn’t about to let someone else beat him to a story.

  Shelbee spoke across Jac. “Will Harry tell Bruce about Ned Turner?”

  I quirked an eyebrow. “Most likely. Apparently, it’s all right if Bruce investigates just not us.” I tried to keep the bitterness from my voice as I loved my uncle dearly, but he knew we had solved many cases in the past and yet he still didn’t want us interfering in his cases.

  Lillian added, “What Harry doesn’t know about our investigation won’t hurt him. If Bruce can get the information, that is all to the good. At least he participates in our investigations and lets us question the suspects.”

  “Let’s us?” I huffed. “It’s not a question of lets us. We can do what we want to do.”

  Lillian grinned. “I wasn’t implying we couldn’t. Just comparing Bruce to Harry. And I think Mark is very appreciative of what you find out too.”

  Mark jerked his head in our direction, abandoning his argument with Bruce over who would find out the sculptor’s identity. “Did I hear my name?”

  Lillian waved her hand at him. “Just saying that I bet you know a lot more about all of our suspects than we have found out.”

  “Maybe,” Mark said warily. I could understand his suspicions as Lillian rarely complimented anyone.

  Shelbee cleared her throat. “What do you know about David Tanner’s neighbor? If Tammy Williams was interested in the man’s house, could he have also had connections with David Tanner and his death?”

  “I haven’t spoken to the man,” Mark said with a shrug. “So, I don’t know if he had any connection to David Tanner other than Tammy Williams. But I cannot see why David Tanner would be killed in connection with Tammy Williams wanting to sell their houses, unless like you said, Tammy Williams was killing people in order to get the property for the Betterment Foundation.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t see Tammy Williams killing someone for the property. If she truly is that dedicated to the charities, and helping others in need, that doesn’t seem to be the personality of someone who would murder a fellow human being.”

  “Stranger things have happened,” Bruce said.

  Samuel, who had sat up next to Shelbee, sniffed at the tea tray. Shelbee pulled his collar. “No, Samuel. You don’t like tea anyway.”

  The activity disturbed Bitsy who jumped from Shelbee’s lap and ran over to stand up at Lillian’s knee and sniff Saber. The cat hissed, stood up, arched his back, and spat at the little dog. I quickly grabbed Bitsy and held her on my lap as Paw raised his head to see what the problem was. He stared at Saber who continued to growl while Bitsy whined from my lap.

  A knock on my front door distracted the dogs and cat from there confrontation. They whirled their heads, jumped up, and ran to the door.

  “Woof.”

  “Yip. Yip.”

  “Ruff.”

  “Now who could that be?” Lillian asked, as Saber jumped from her lap and streaked into the kitchen. The dogs, too distracted by the door, paid no attention to the cat as she sped away.

  I started to stand up to answer the door, but Bruce waved me back to my seat and crossed over, peeking out the window. He s
hoved Samuel, Paw, and Bitsy aside and opened it. “Come in.”

  Chapter 11

  Jon Kenyon, the director from the theater, stepped inside, and as Bruce closed the door, he sneezed explosively.

  Bruce waved to me. “Can we put the dogs in another room?”

  Shelbee and I jumped up, and I led Paw while Shelbee led Samuel and Bitsy back to the utility room off the kitchen. All three dogs stared at us with big, brown puppy dog eyes. I closed the door on them to the sound of light scratching and whining.

  “No scratching,” I said firmly.

  “Stay there, baby,” Shelbee crooned. “We’re safe and will let you out very soon.”

  The scratching and whimpering settled, and we returned to the living room where Jon Kenyon had taken Bruce’s chair. Bruce had brought in another straight-backed chair to sit at the coffee table across from Lillian. “I asked Jon to come when he was done rehearsals,” Bruce explained as Shelbee and I settled in our seats. “When I was at the theater, I asked him about Tammy Williams’ and Charlotte’s presences there and what he knew about them, and Jon was willing to tell us. But first he had to finish rehearsals.”

  “Well, what do you know?” Lillian asked in her usual gruff tone.

  Jon scowled.

  I stepped into the conversation. “We appreciate you coming to talk to us, Jon. What can you tell us about Tammy Williams and Charlotte Tanner?”

  Jon tore his gaze from Lillian and glanced around the room at each of us. He settled back into his chair. “I don’t know much about Charlotte Tanner as I have rarely met the woman. She doesn’t contribute to the theater, nor does she have an interest in the place as far as I can tell. Tammy Williams is a patron of the theater. She has donated quite a substantial sum of money to keep the place in business, and she was at the theater today to speak to me about including several of the children that are supported by the charities into the theater. She had several good ideas and I was excited to discuss them with her. But then Charlotte Tanner showed up and drew Tammy away to speak to her.”

  “How did Tammy act when Charlotte spoke to her?” I asked.

  Jon shrugged. “She seemed eager to talk to Charlotte. Although I think it was because Charlotte said something about selling a house. When Charlotte first walked in, Tammy didn’t pay her any attention. Until the woman interrupted our conversation. Tammy seemed surprised that Charlotte Tanner wanted to speak to her.”

  Lillian turned to face Jon. “Surprised good or surprised bad?”

  “I wouldn’t say she was surprised either way, good or bad. More that she was just in general surprised. Like when somebody comes up to you and wants to talk to you, and you had no idea they wanted to speak to you, and you hadn’t really had any contact with them before. Oh dear, I don’t think I’m explaining this well.” Jon rubbed his hands together. “I’m better at directing than I am at speaking.”

  Shelbee smiled at him. She had helped at the theater before, so Jon was most comfortable with her. “That’s all right, Jon. We know what you’re saying. So, after Charlotte drew Tammy away, how did they act?”

  “To tell you the truth I didn’t pay much attention to them. I was drawn to the stage by Saber who had sauntered across and was sniffing at one of our actors who doesn’t like cats.”

  Lillian straightened in her chair. “What do you mean doesn’t like cats?”

  Jon placed his hands in the air, palms out to supplicate Lillian. “Simply that he’s allergic to them. He’s never harmed the cat and Saber is popular around the theater. We all appreciate his mousing abilities, but Warren is very allergic and so he tries to stay out of Saber’s way. But Saber seems to delight in following Warren around.”

  Lillian crossed her arms. “Saber is a perfect gentleman. I’m sure if Warren ignored him Saber wouldn’t bother him.”

  Mark covered his mouth to hide a smirk, and I knew why he was smiling. Saber had a warrior’s disposition and a streak of mischief which often meant he loved to find trouble. If he knew Warren didn’t like cats, it was very likely Saber would purposely try to irritate the man.

  “I need to get going,” Jon said as he stood up. “If you have any more questions, you can find me at the theater, although I doubt, I know anything of value.”

  Once he left, I released the dogs. They rushed into the living room with tails waving. I had just sat down when the doorbell rang again.

  Chapter 12

  Bruce got up, walked to the door, pushing his way through the dogs, and peeked through the door’s window then opened it, saying, “Come in.” He stepped back and Kathleen sauntered through the door with Robert right behind her, Pedro on his shoulder. Kathleen, a gray and black-striped cat, sauntered through the dogs over to the sofa and jumped lightly to the back of it, where she strolled across and stared over at Saber on Lillian’s lap.

  “Hiss.” Saber stood up, arching his back.

  Kathleen sat down and tilted her head to the side, switching her tail back and forth.

  Saber, tail straight up, stood on tiptoes and glared at Kathleen who continued to ignore the black cat’s bad humor.

  Pedro squawked. “Ack! Cat!” He flew across the room and briefly landed on the back of Bruce’s vacated chair, only to take flight again when Saber whipped around to face the bird. I lunged across at the bird, barely missing him by a feather. Pedro flew around the room, squawking and cursing at the same time. Since Robert was an accomplished linguist, Saber knew how to curse in many different languages and did so fluently.

  Mark doubled over laughing at the bird’s antics while Saber raced around the room following the bird. The parrot flew into the kitchen, Saber hot on his heels, and Bitsy, sensing more fun, raced after them. Her paws barely skimming the ground. Not to miss out on the fun, Samuel and Paw raced after them. Kathleen raised her paw and began to clean her face.

  Lillian jumped up, crying, “My baby!” She ran after them as I jumped up, saying, “Oh no, the cookies!”

  “Cookies?” Mark gasped as he tried to get his breathing under control from laughing so hard.

  I rushed into the kitchen where Pedro perched on the very top of the kitchen cabinets, and Saber sat on the counter two inches from the cookies I had baked early this morning.

  Bitsy stood on her hind legs just below Saber, yipping as she swiped at the cat’s tail which twitched back and forth as he tracked Pedro’s movements.

  “Squawk! Bad. Bad cat.”

  Robert, who had rushed in behind me, said, “Pedro, shut up. You’re drawing attention to yourself.”

  Lillian rushed in and scooped up Saber into her arms, brushing past Robert while saying, “You should know better than to take a bird everywhere with you.”

  Robert looked at me and shook his head. “Wouldn’t that apply to a cat too?”

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t tell her that.”

  “That’s the truth.”

  Shelbee brushed past the both of us and picked up Bitsy, cooing to her. “That’s my sweet girl. Don’t worry about the kitty cat; you come with me.”

  Samuel and Paw had both lost interest in the drama and were inspecting Paw’s food and water dishes on the floor. Neither seemed interested in the cookies, which I thought was odd, as Paw especially like to eat my peanut butter cookies.

  I grabbed four kitchen towels and draped them over the cookies as Robert coaxed Pedro down from his perch on my upper kitchen cabinets.

  “Come on, Pedro. It’s safe now. Saber has gone into the living room with Lillian.”

  “Squawk. Bad cat.”

  Robert settled the parrot on his shoulder, smoothing his feathers with his index finger. “Not all cats are bad, Pedro. You like Kathleen.”

  Kathleen strolled into the kitchen and gazed up at Pedro. The bird glanced down at her with his head turned on the side and said, “Kathleen good.”

  “Meow.”

  Robert glanced over at me. “Is there somewhere Pedro could stay until we finish our conversation?”

  I threw the last t
owel over the cookies and nodded, gesturing to the pantry door behind him. “Would Pedro be fine in there? There’s a few food staples and boxes, but the rest is either canned goods or extra linens.”

  “That should be fine. Pedro, behave yourself.”

  I opened the pantry door and Robert stepped inside, lifting Pedro off his shoulder and over onto one of the shelves. “Stay here, boy. I’ll come and get you in a short while. This way, you’ll be safe from Saber.”

  “Grr.”

  Startled, I asked Robert, “Did he just growl?”

  Paw, who had wedged his head in next to me, gave a soft woof of inquiry as well.

  “Yes. He picked up the growling from the dogs. At least, that’s my theory.”

  I shook my head. “Looks like you have a guard dog, or I should say, a guard bird.”

  Robert burst out laughing, causing Paw, Pedro, and Kathleen to jump. “I guess I do,” he said between peals of laughter.

  I laughed with him then turned and nudged Paw out of the pantry, Robert close on my heels. He closed the door behind us, shutting in Pedro who would be safe from Saber. Kathleen strolled ahead of us as we returned to the living room.

  Shelbee, who sat on the sofa with Samuel across her feet and Bitsy on her lap, half turned as we returned to the living room. “Is Pedro okay?”

  Robert sat down across from her in the chair that Jon Kenyon had recently sat in. “He’s fine and will be fine staying in Clarissa’s pantry until we’re ready to leave.” He scowled at Saber who sat on Lillian’s lap with a smug expression on his whiskers. “That one needs to learn to behave.”

  Lillian stroked Saber and glared at Robert. “That bird is a menace. He upsets my poor baby. Besides, it’s not normal for a bird to be flying around outside its cage.”

  “Birds fly free all the time, Lillian.” Robert pointed a finger at Saber. “Most people keep their cats indoors. Saber is a menace to the bird population.”

  Before Lillian could argue, Shelbee asked, “Robert, what do you know of Tammy’s connection to the theater?” She cuddled Bitsy.