2 Any Meat In That Soup? (13 page)

Finally George and I returned to my car, parked at the far end of the lot. He walked around to my side, and opened the door for me. Before I could get in we shared another kiss that warmed me to the tips of my toes. I don’t know who he’d been kissing in the many years I’d been gone, but whoever it was deserved my thanks. He knew what he was doing.

I don’t remember the one minute drive to his house. When I stopped the car, George repeated his performance. Wow.

“Want to come in?” he asked.

“Yeah. No. I can’t. No. Ummm, I have to pick up Clancy at Gus’s house.”

“Okay. The offer is out there, for whenever.”

All I could do was nod. It was hard to drive home because of my weak knees. This was just crazy. A guy I loved in high school, then hated for years because he stood me up on prom night, and now I loved him again.

I was able to put George out of my mind when Clancy enthusiastically greeted me. So did Gus. His wife had gone to bed so I didn’t have to deal with her calling Clancy a “dear little poochy-woochy.” We stepped out on his back porch as Gus repeated that Clancy had been fine, and that it had been fun watching her.

“Any time, honey. Any time.” Then he said, “I thought I was going to help you out with this case like I did the last one…‌?” He made it a question instead of a statement and his disappointment was evident.

“I’m sorry. I’m working two jobs, and I’m taking Clancy to Chatham to get certified tomorrow, and I’m kind of dating George.”

“Whoa. I need to be brought up to speed on a lot of stuff. Could you use a companion on the trip?” Clancy looked up at him. “Besides Clancy, I mean.” Clancy smiled at her friend.

“Well, it would be nice. Even though Clancy is a great listener, she’s not the best conversationalist.” I looked down at her, “Don’t pout. You know it’s true.”

I looked at Gus again. “I’m leaving at 6 in the morning.”

“Well, I better get to sleep then.” He walked back in his house with a lively step.

Clancy and I hit the sack practically the minute we got into the carriage house. Before I drifted off, I apologized to her, “Sorry I haven’t told you everything that’s going on. I’ll fill you in tomorrow. Love you…”

It seemed like only a moment later that I heard the noise of the alarm clock. It was abrupt and unwelcoming.

SEVENTEEN

G
us was waiting by my car at 6 AM with two coffees in his hand. I had planned to stop for a caffeine fix along the way, but was grateful I didn’t have to. Clancy didn’t like being relegated to the backseat, but since it was Gus, she didn’t complain too much.

During the almost two hour drive Gus asked a lot of questions. I answered them, making sure to include Clancy in the conversation. Gus seemed appeased after he found out what little I knew.

He finally said, “Maybe I could do some checking around about the dog poisonings. Or follow some of your suspects.”

I nixed that immediately, taking my eyes off the road for a moment. “Gus, you were a huge help in the Burns murder case, but your wife would kill me if I got you involved in another one.”

“Sam, please. You know how I love helping you.”

I couldn’t say no to him. He was the one who’d always been there for me, and not just for giving me the carriage house when I moved back to Quincy. “Okay. I’ll let you check on the dogs. Maybe you could get George to tell you some of the names of the dog owners. Then we can interview them together. We might be able to find some commonalities.”

“Thanks, Sam. You won’t be sorry.”

I certainly hoped not.

Then I filled him in on the George situation. “I’m glad you’re happy for me.”

“Happy doesn’t begin to cover it. I’m thrilled. You’ll finally have a social life.” Gus squirmed in his seat like a little girl at a One Direction concert.

“I already had a social life,” I sputtered. “It just so happens that it revolved around my dog, my family, and you.”

We arrived just in time for Clancy’s test. There were about twenty dogs there with their owners. We’d been told that we couldn’t bring in any treats or food; the dogs had to follow the commands because they wanted to, not because they were going to be rewarded with treats.

Clancy had to redo the skills she’d already demonstrated to earn the Canine Good Citizenship Test. She’d been through all the levels of obedience class at the Quincy Kennel Club, and I know she remembered how to do them.

She didn’t always obey me, and I didn’t expect her to. I treated her as a friend and not a subservient species. However, there were times she had to do what I said. If I yelled STOP she knew it was an emergency and always did what I asked then. Normally I didn’t have to give her too many commands, because she just knew how to behave. I’d warned her ahead of time, however, that today she had to pretend she was “just a dog,” and that she needed to do what I asked. I could tell she knew how important this was, so I had no worries.

She did great on the earlier skills she already knew; then came the new stuff. I had her sit on my left side with a loose leash. Four people approached her, each with a different apparatus—a wheelchair, a walker, a cane, and crutches. She continued to sit but looked expectantly at each person. When the wheelchair came so close that the person could touch Clancy, she graciously offered her head to be petted. The same thing happened with the other people. Whew! Passed that one with flying colors.

The next part of the test consisted of four or five people approaching Clancy quickly and invading her space. It reminded me of Loretta and her son Dr. Dougie. Clancy was startled but continued to sit, looking at me to see what I wanted her to do. “Good dog, Clancy. Keep sitting. Good girl.” She looked up at the individuals who were so close she could lick all of them if she chose. Luckily, she didn’t choose that option.

Other people and dogs were going through the same exercises and with varying degrees of success. I felt bad for the ones who had to leave. I believe that dogs love to have a job to do. And being a therapy dog seemed like a great job to have. Of course that’s just my opinion. I’d have to ask Clancy later about it.

She breezed through a few more tests, then it was time for the final one. She had to walk over a hot dog without trying to eat it. A few dogs passed, and a few failed that task. Two dogs were able to grab the hot dog without their owners even knowing it.

I had to stop the “just a dog” charade for a moment. I got down by Clancy and asked, “Have you ever picked up food on our walks without me knowing it?” She looked away, which was like a big guilty sign wrapped around her.

“Aha,” I yelled, disturbing everyone in the facility. “Sorry,” I said quickly, not wanting to ruin Clancy’s chances of getting certified. Some folks continued to look at me, but most went back to the business at hand.

At last it was our turn for the hot dog exercise. I got down to Clancy’s level and said, “Don’t you dare!” She knew exactly what I meant. Since I’m a vegetarian there isn’t meat in my house, except for what is in Clancy’s dog food, so having a hot dog sitting right in front of her would certainly be tempting. “Don’t you dare,” I repeated. She looked at me with her “you’re only human” countenance.

As we sailed over the hot dog as quickly as my short legs could manage, I prayed silently for Clancy to be able to resist the temptation. As we crossed the finish line I looked back to see a hot dog, right where it was supposed to be. I heard Gus cheer from the bleachers.

“Clancy, you are awesome!”

Her look said, “Of course I am.”

“I’m going to buy you a hamburger on the way home.”

Then she broke protocol and jumped up on me. I didn’t care, but she wasn’t supposed to do this. A woman approached me with a clipboard, and unfastened a paper to give me. She said, “She jumped up on you after the exercise was completed, so it’s not a problem.” She smiled then and said, “Congratulations to you and Clancy. You both did a nice job, and Clancy will be receiving her certificate in a week or so.”

I couldn’t help it. I hugged the woman.

Gus had a hug for both me and Clancy. My grin was so big my cheeks hurt. Before we even got outside I told Gus, “Two things. First we’re going to buy Clancy a hamburger somewhere. Second, I figured out how she got poisoned.”

“How?” He got closer as we walked.

“Did you see those two dogs who got the hot dog and their owner didn’t even know?”

“Yeah.”

“That had to be what happened to Clancy. I never let her eat stuff when we’re outside or on our walk. She had to have done it quickly, without me looking. Plus she looked guilty when I asked her.”

Gus was one of my friends and family who didn’t roll his eyes when I talked about Clancy knowing things. He asked, “What are you going to do about it?”

“I guess I’ll tell Michael and George.” Omigod. Michael was my boss in the investigation and I forgot to go see him yesterday. Crap. I promised myself I’d call him when we got on the road and see if he had time to meet when I got back to Quincy. I’d call George from the car too.

But first things first. We got in the car and drove to the first fast food place with a drive through. A bored voice said, “Help you?”

I ordered a double burger with no bun and no condiments and heard the voice say something about “one of those crazy no-carb diets.” I ignored it because I was in such a good mood. I also ordered a sweet tea for me and a cup of coffee for Gus.

After I paid for and received the purchases, I handed the bag to Gus, who promptly unwrapped the treasures and leaned around and gave them to Clancy. She did not eat like someone with manners. I could hear the “gulp” and the satisfied belch. I know she would have verbalized a “thank you” if she could have. This was indeed an unusual treat for her.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Gus and I sang World War I and II era songs, which is what we did when we first met when I was in grade school. He was one of my oldest friends.

When we arrived home, Gus hugged both Clancy and me and turned to go into his house. Before he’d taken two steps he turned around and said, “You forgot to call Michael and George.”

I slapped my head, then thanked Gus for his reminder. I thought about a thing I’d seen on Facebook. “Two things that bother me about aging are losing my short-term memory and losing my short-term memory.” My memory may be suffering, but Gus was in his eighties and as sharp as ever.

Clancy relieved herself on Georgianne’s plants. For some reason I couldn’t rejoice in that as much as I used to.

Clancy led the way into our home. I immediately sat down on the couch and called Michael. It was Saturday, but I was sure he wouldn’t mind being bothered.

The first thing out of his mouth after the hellos was, “Looks like you and Lansing have become quite the item.”

I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything.

It was only a short silence, and he broke it. “Interesting.”

Even though I didn’t know what “interesting” meant, I thought he might be a little upset that I was with George. “You didn’t act like you wanted anything else from me. I mean, you said things, but you didn’t act on them.”

His chuckle made me smile. “Your directness is one of the things I like about you.”

I didn’t know what else to say about the situation, and it seemed that Michael wasn’t as upset as I thought, or wished, he’d be. I guessed there would be no duels fought over me, but if truth be told, it was okay. I had George and I loved him.

I decided to continue. “Who was the woman with you at Joe’s Place?”

“Just a business associate.”

I thought he was a one-man operation. Maybe he had others like me who worked as needed for him. And when I say “like me,” I meant only in the sense that we were both women. The resemblance ended there.

Putting aside those errant thoughts, I said, “I wanted to tell you something I came up with.” I then went through the tale of the hot dog at the therapy dog test.

Michael said, “Sounds plausible. Maybe meat was poisoned, and somehow made its way to both dogs and humans. Let’s hold onto that and think about it for a while.”

I disconnected, then wondered what went wrong. Michael always said really nice things to me, and was flirtatious, but never made a move.

I’d think about that later. I immediately called George, to give him basically the same information. The phone call ended differently however. He thanked me, and then started talking about personal matters.

He made me feel like a teenager, all mushy and gooey-eyed, when I wanted to concentrate on murder. After we ended the conversation, I sat and thought about two things—George and the murder. My thoughts were convoluted, but both subjects made me smile. George, for obvious reasons, and the murder because I figured out something important.

Now to find out who poisoned the meat, and how it got to both dogs and humans.

EIGHTEEN

I
woke up the next morning, and decided to skip Sunday church. I felt guilty but had a good reason. I was going to snoop.

I put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, filled a vacuum mug with coffee, put Clancy on a leash, and set off. There was no coherent plan. That’s not what I was good at. I was good at impulsive and sometimes stupid behavior…‌but it got the job done. Kind of.

Shaking off any doubts, I talked to Clancy out loud, making my plan as we went. “I think Loretta goes to the Full Gospel Praise the Spirit Church of Divine Love.” I could feel Clancy’s doubt. “I’m not making this up.”

I thought I’d go to her church. And then do what? Well, I hadn’t gotten that far yet. I’d go to her church and wait. That’s what I’d do. I told Clancy as much. No response from her. That must mean I was on the right track.

Right track or not, that’s what I was going to do. And since Clancy was riding shotgun, that’s what she was going to do too.

I had no problem finding the church because I’d volunteered there earlier in the month, debriefing some kids and families after a traumatic event in the community. Even though I poked fun at the name of the church, the members were the warmest and most welcoming people at any church I’d been to, including my own.