A Shot in the Bark (A Dog Park Mystery) (10 page)

Lia kept looking down, shaking her head. Finally, she said, "This is too much. Luthor was murdered?"

"We think so, yes."

"Why?"

"We don't know. Lia, did you ever find your cell phone?"

"No. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because Luthor received a text from your phone shortly before he was shot. We have to find it."

Anna and Jim watched from the other side of the park as Honey jumped up on the table and licked Lia's cheek. Lia turned her head into Honey's neck and wrapped her arms about her, taking comfort in the silky warmth.

"What do you suppose he's saying to her that has her so upset?"

Nadine walked up. "Lia looks really unhappy. Should we interrupt?"

"I think she needs space right now," Jim replied, "She knows we're here."

Catherine walked up and took Jim's arm. "Hello, Anna, I just love your sweatshirt. You look so . . .
relaxed
." Anna ground her teeth. Catherine turned her attention to the pair under the tree. "Honestly," she said, nodding at Peter and Lia, "Why is he distressing her like that? She's in the middle of a big project. She doesn't need this."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Catherine, you're all heart."

"You'd feel the same way if it was your garden that might be late and your party that might be ruined," Catherine pouted.

"No, I wouldn't. And he didn't need to do much of anything. Lia's got a brave face, but our girl's been hurting. It's only been a week since Luthor died."

"Now, ladies, we all care about Lia," Jim said

"Of course," responded Catherine. Anna just narrowed her eyes until Catherine blinked and looked away.

Peter wondered if he'd dropped too many bombs at once. It took all his patience to sit quietly while Lia communed with Honey. Viola jumped up on the bench and rested her head on Lia's knee. Chewy bounced up on the table and shoved his head under Lia's hand. She scratched his ears absently while she brooded.

Eventually she sat up and turned around. "You dumped all this on me and I can't share it with anyone."

"Not for a little while, unless you have a priest or a therapist."

"I suppose I could talk to the dogs about it," she smiled weakly.

"Yes," he smiled wryly back. "You can talk to Honey and Chewy. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to tell you like this."

"Why did you? Why did you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to feel guilty about Luthor anymore."

"Oh. Is the way I'm feeling now supposed to be better?"

"Maybe not. But at least it's based on reality. It was unfair for you to keep blaming yourself."

"So you keep coming here, what, because I'm some kind of suspect?" Lia accused.

"Not to me. I should be treating you like a suspect but that feels totally wrong to me. I think his death has a connection to the park. I think the answer is here somehow, but if it weren't, I think I'd be coming up here anyway because I like you."

"I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for any of it."

"I know you aren't. You could help me though."

"How?"

"You know the players. You can give me background information.

"You really think somebody here did this? I can't believe it."

"It has to be someone you know. They had to have access to you to take your phone. And they'd have to have been to the park to know how secluded this lot really is, even though it's right on the street. They'd have to know you had a fight and that you were likely to unplug the phone."

"This keeps getting better and better."

"I'm really sorry. Do you see why it's so important that you not talk about this until I say it's okay?"

"I've got to tell them something. Everyone who's here knows you said something that upset me and everyone who's not here will know by tomorrow," Lia pointed out.

Peter pondered. "How about if you just tell them about the girlfriends? Will that work?"

She nodded. "Sure. I guess so."

"I'll need to interview you more formally, and record it. Later today, if possible. I can come by your place."

"How about the studio? It'll be easier for me to talk if I'm moving my hands."

"Will it be private?"

"Sure. Bailey's going to be out with Jose today, tearing up Catherine's yard. She won't be helping me."

"Can I give you a lift? This might not be a good time for you to drive."

"We walked up today. I think I need the walk home."

He watched her walk over to her friends, looked on as Marie and Bailey came out of the woods and joined them, saw Anna put an arm around her and stroll with her to the corral and down to the parking lot. He wished it could be him comforting her. But it couldn't. At least she had someone.

Keep still. This was getting increasingly harder. That scene at the park, what was that about? Surely it had to be more than Luthor's bimbo girlfriends. How could Lia not have known? And why was Dourson still pursuing this? She'd been over it again and again. She'd made no mistakes. Yes, the cash confused things and that was too bad. But people with money and extra girlfriends could still kill themselves.

She thought of a scene from the movie,
Lord of the Rings
, when the hobbits are hiding under the road as the Nazgul pass over. Worms and centipedes and every creepy thing imaginable are coming out of the earth to get away from the ringwraiths and they're crawling all over the hobbits, and the hobbits can't move a muscle or they'll be discovered.

Keep. Still.

Lia pulled out her template for "peace." Catherine's labyrinth called for fifty pavers featuring the symbol. Maybe if she dedicated today to "peace," some of it might rub off on her. She laid the circle on her work table and opened the box of midnight blue tile cut in random shapes. She got out her nippers and goggles and pulled up a stool. Arranging the tiles to fill the shape of the symbol absorbed her. When she was done, she filled in the background with random pieces of rose, saffron, and yellow. She gave the final design a once over, tweaking the tile shapes so that there was room for the concrete in between. Then she cut a one foot square of clear contact paper and laid this on top, carefully rubbing it on the tile so it would hold the pieces in place while the paver was cast.

After she did this, she took a mold base and lined it up on top of the contact paper, so that the template, tile, and base made a sort of sandwich. She carefully flipped the stack so the mold base was on the bottom and the tiles were upside-down. She replaced the template with a styrofoam ring and set the completed mold on a shelf.

"One down, thirty-nine to go."

When Peter arrived, she was working on her sixth mosaic layout. "You look like you're feeling better."

"Much. Making art is so centering. Can I get you something? Water? Sweet tea? I remember you like it."

"Tea would be great."

She pulled a jug of tea out of her studio fridge and poured two glasses. She dragged another stool over to the table. "I hope this is okay, I don't have regular chairs here."

"This is fine. What are you working on?"

Lia described the garden she and Bailey were creating for Catherine and showed him the mosaics she'd already set up. "We're using jewel tone colors, like aura colors"

"What do aura colors look like?"

"Clear and intense, like a rainbow or prism, but more variety. In addition to Roy G Biv . . . ."

"Roy G Biv?"

"It's an acronym. You know, red, orange, yellow, green, blue indigo and violet. It's the order of colors in the rainbow."

"Never heard that one before."

"Anyway, along with Roy, you can also have, say, turquoise or peach and blues from royal to cerulean, spring greens, forest greens. Browns, black, grays, and muddy colors, too, if you're unhealthy. Anyway, that's what Bailey's aura-reading friend says, I wouldn't know. So the background of each symbol is meant to evoke aura energy without being obvious about it. Catherine wanted to do a repeating rainbow theme, you know one red paver, one orange, one yellow, all through the labyrinth, but Bailey and I talked her out of it."

"How did you do that?" Peter asked. "She seems like a determined sort of woman."

"Bailey's so funny. She'll say, 'Oh, that's such a great idea! And then she mentions some tacky place where she's seen it before and Catherine can't change her mind fast enough. I caught on, so now I do it, too. Say, should we be wasting your time talking about this?"

"It's not a waste at all. Anything that helps me understand the park crowd better is helpful. If I record this, will you be self-conscious?"

"Dunno. You can try."

He set his digital recorder on the table and turned it on. "You were telling me about Catherine."

"You want more of this stuff?"

"Sure. So she sounds like she's very concerned with her image."

"Pretty much. She's the sort who won't leave the house without make-up on."

"And this project, the aromatherapy labyrinth and koi pond, that's a big undertaking. So what's that about besides wanting to be the coolest kid on the block?"

"She said she wanted an 'island of serenity' and she's seen labyrinths and aromatherapy gardens. She wanted to put it all together." Lia gave him an earnest look. "I feel kind of sorry for her."

"Why is that?"

"When you're that socially competitive, when you're that focussed on material things, well, I don't think you can like yourself all that much because just you by yourself is not enough."

"So you're wise, as well as talented?"

Lia snorted. "If you say so."

"When did Catherine decide she wanted the garden?"

"Not long after she started coming to the park. Three months ago? She found out I was an artist and started having all kinds of ideas. I thought it was just talk, so many people like her dangle their money in front of you and never come through. Like talking about doing a big commission means you're going to suck up to them. But somehow the idea caught hold and she got serious, even if she does argue about every nickel. I might have to give Luthor credit for selling her on the commission. He kept taking about what a romantic setting it would be for her. I don't know if you've noticed, but she really eats up up male attention."

"I noticed. So was she interested in Luthor?"

"How could she not be? He used to play up to her. It was like a game to him. Or at least he said it was like a game to him. Now I'm not sure anything he told me was true." She moodily pushed some tiles around.

Peter wasn't sure either. There wasn't anything he could say to that, so he changed the subject. "How about your partner Bailey?"

"We're not partners, except on this one project. She's a woo-woo queen."

"Woo-woo queen?"

"She hasn't suggested we hold a seance for Luthor, not yet, but she's into just about every other New Age thing. Chakras, aromatherapy, herbs, acupuncture, energy healing, animal communicators, astrology . . . . She's at least tried it. She's a great landscaper. She only started coming to the park recently. I've known her for years through library events."

"You sound a bit skeptical of her inclinations."

"I really don't know much about all of it. She says she's seen auras a few times. Maybe if I saw an aura or two I might be more interested. But it's a huge market, and she can talk the language. She's interested in the healing potential of plants, both in the herbs and in what she calls 'High Vibration Gardening.'"

"What's 'High Vibration Gardening'?"

"It's a new concept she came up with, using specific plants to create an environment that encourages certain mental and emotional states. I get lost when she talks about it. She says it's like the music woo-woo people who claim listening to Mozart aligns chakras, but with plants."

"Huh."

"Anyway, when we're done with Catherine's garden, we're going to take pictures and shop it around on the internet and at New Age fairs and see if we can drum up some business."

"Why gardens? I thought you had a good thing going with the paintings."

"I do, but this is fun because it's physical in a way that painting isn't. And it will be like a painting you can walk through. When I get Catherine's bench done, it'll be a painting you can sit on." She grinned at the thought.

Peter smiled back. "Sounds nice."

"It will be. Catherine bought the house next door to her last year and tore it down, said it was an eyesore and she didn't want to look at it anymore. You know the old neighborhoods around here, showcases next to dumps. If you ask me, she was just as happy to get rid of the neighbors. She didn't like their 'breeding.' Anyway, she's been dying to do something showy with the lot, and this is it."

"So what's someone like her doing hanging out at a dog park?"

"Good question. She doesn't seem like the type, does she?"

"Not to me."

Lia crinkled her eyebrows as she considered this. "Well, some of us are arty, and she likes that. When I'm being cynical, I think she comes because her husband won't come anywhere near the park. Too much poop for Leo. She can flirt as much as she wants and none of it will get back to her society friends. When I'm not being cynical, I think it's a relief to be around people who don't care how she's dressed or how much money she has. But that could just be me. If I was around her crowd all the time, I'd go bat-shit crazy and I'd be rolling in the mud for relief."

This created an interesting visual for Peter, which he chose not to share. "So, how does Jose fit in?"

"He's doing the parts that require machinery. Right now he and Bailey are roto-tilling."

"What's his story?"

Lia smiled. "Jose is Jose. Though, now that I think of it, he's not really Jose."