Dog Days Murderous Nights: Winnona Peaks Mysteries Book 1 (6 page)

Christy sat with her for a few minutes letting her sobs die down.  “Can we call someone to help you?”  Gregory stood there shuffling from foot to foot, looking at the exit door.  Nori shook her head.

“Oh, no, Dears.  You’ve indulged the tears of an old woman long enough.  Showing dogs will break your heart.  That’s what my mother always said.”

“Mrs. Deswood, I’m sorry to ask this when you are so upset but how was J.W. dressed when you last saw him?” Gregory asked.

“What kind of a question is that?  He was wearing the light blue oxford he had on that afternoon.  He told me that he needed to freshen up for dinner and shower.  Don’t worry, Ms. Roberts.  You didn’t have any competition from me with J.W.  He was fully clothed when I left him.  J.W. was a kind man but he always loved the younger ladies at the shows.”  Christy blushed again and she looked down at her hands.  “You don’t think I had anything to do with his death, do you?  That’s absurd.  He was the only person I could turn to.  The competition is fierce and without corporate sponsors it is difficult to survive with the price of feed and veterinarians.”

“Did he offer you or your kennel any money?”  Gregory asked.

“I had my dignity.  I wasn’t ready to go begging.”  Nori started to cloud up again.

“Yes, you do.  You and Mable will be great today.”  Christy stood up and nodded at Gregory that they were leaving.

Sniffing through her tissue, she said, “Thank you so much.  Please enjoy the rest of the show.”  Christy patted her on the shoulder one last time.

“We’re so sorry for your loss.”  Christy whispered.

Chapter 12

Gregory Binks could go his entire life without seeing another dog show.  Well, unless Christy wanted to go.  Still, he was glad that she begged off before the evening round and trophy ceremony.  That would have been unbearable.  He understood that it was nice to have a pet around.  He’d remembered Buck, that Setter mix he had as a kid.  His Dad picked it up one day when he was a puppy from some little kid in front of a grocery store.  He loved that dog.  But what these people did bordered on insane.  Putting bows in a dog’s fur?  He couldn’t believe the money people were dishing out to those vendors.

“I think I’m going to go back and get a couple of those collars for Alfie and Snowy,” Christy said.

“What?”  Gregory asked. It was the first time either had said anything. Christy interrupted his thoughts as they got out of the car in front of Alfie’s Bed and Breakfast.  They were both lost in thought on the way home. 

“Things just seem so different now,” Christy said, looking up at the front door of her bed and breakfast.

“Oh, most of the effects will wear off after a while.”

“Effects?”  Christy asked.

“Being near a dead body.  Soon enough you’ll get on with your normal life.”  Gregory said.

“Is that what you did?” she asked as she unlocked the front door.

“Well, in my case I forgot what a normal life was.  To be honest, it’s why I’m back in Winnona Peaks.”

“You have time for a cup?”

“Sure, we need to bat around some ideas from the case, anyway.”

“So now we have a case?”  Christy smiled back at him.

“Tell me we weren’t there just for the poodles.  You still have that camera?” he said. Christy went about grinding the coffee and pouring the water.

“Yea, it’s in my bag over there.  Let me just push the button here.”  Finishing up the coffee, she retrieved the camera and sat down.  “You know our theory about Nori doesn’t hold up anymore.”

“I know.  She doesn’t have any motive.  Well, that’s unless she’s lying.  Are there pictures of her on the camera?”  Gregory asked.

“Yes.  Right here.” She  handed him the camera and got up to get some coffee cups.  “If you ask me, the shot of her and Mable standing in front of that vintage curtain is the nicest one.  That one sitting down on the sofa has too much background.  I mean I love the period mirror over the chest of drawers but it kind of clutters the photograph.”

“Oh, I’m sure they have ways to crop that out.  They have all sorts of ways to clean up the background,” Gregory said.

Sitting back down while she waited for the coffee pot to gurgle she asked, “Can I see that a second?”  He handed her the camera. “Oh, my!”  She put her hand to her mouth in shock.

“What?” he asked as she pointed to the mirror in the shot.

“There.  In the closet behind J.W.”

“I don’t see anything.”

“That closet door has a strange quirk.  If it’s open the slightest amount then it swings all the way open.  I just don’t know how to fix it.”

“So?”  Gregory said.

“So right there it looks like fingers and right there it looks like a camera taking the same shot as J.W. I see the lens and what looks like the neck strap dangling in front.” Gregory took the camera and looked up close.

“Well it looks like something but we need someone who can get this printed out and blown up for us,” Gregory said.  Christy got up to get the coffee and came back.

“We need to think this through,” she said.

“Yea, all it proves so far is that someone else was in the room.  The problem is that without more hard evidence this still doesn’t even get Nori off the hook.  She may have been trying to blackmail him.  Sure she was upset, but who knows if she’s telling us the entire story. She could have had an accomplice so we can’t be sure of anything.  It’s obvious that Hailey benefited from his death.  She got a promotion right after he ended up dead.  ”

“It is a clue, though.  I think it’s time we called in Kathleen and see what she can do with the different camera shots,” Christy said, taking a sip of coffee.

“Maybe she can retrieve the deleted beagle shot?”

“I’m not sure that will help. You know, the only person around here with a bunch of cameras besides J.W. is that Diana character.  Didn’t she have that magazine Canine Philosophy printed on the back of her shirt today?”

Gregory nodded yes.

“I have to get dinner started around here.  I don’t want to draw too much attention to what we’re doing.  I’m pretty sure I saw them at a booth down at the dog show.  Why don’t you see if you can track down Kathleen and get Diana to meet you there, and see if you can track down her boss at the magazine? I’m sure he’s got to be around there somewhere.”

“I bet he may be able to help us blow up this shot and get a clearer view of whoever is in that closet,” Gregory agreed.

“Well, if you can get him to cooperate.  You look like a bodyguard for somebody, Mr. Binks.  I’m sure you can work that out.”

“Oh, so now I’m just the hired muscle?”  He smiled.

“Remember Mr. Binks.  We’re not hiring at the moment.” Christy smiled into her cup.

Chapter 13

Kathleen Jenkins wore a conservative blue jacket over her striped blouse and black skirt. Not her first choice but it fit in the dog show world.  She was happier wearing jeans and a wicker hat gardening, but this is what it took to live in this world.  When she got the call from Gregory Binks she reluctantly agreed to visit the Canine Philosophy booth.  It went against her better judgement since she was supposed to be investigating this case discreetly.  She knew that even whispering murder in the middle of the hawkers at the dog show would spread through the arena like wildfire.  Sure there was quite a bit of competition at these events but the rumor mill worked faster than the internet. 

Some people were already theorizing that J.W.’s death wasn’t an accident and that the judges should all start looking over their shoulders.  Luckily everyone here is really only here for one reason.  The dogs.  The shepherd class was magnificent this year and she was really glad she’d held off on showing Sohn des Donners this year.  Her beautiful German shepherd needed just a little more polish with the obstacles.  His lines were beautiful. 

People didn’t get why she got so deep into show dogs.  She didn’t see it as that big of a deal.  Other people bought their fishing boats or collected cookie jars.  She just loved showing her dogs.  Yes, she agreed with the critics of the dog show movement.  She detested the puppy mills and how cruel some people were. Even in cybercrime insurance she came across cases where they had to investigate puppy mills.  The schmucks were always trying to dupe brand new dog owners into thinking they were going to win the lottery with champion show dogs.  She just knew that the AKC was so regulated that there was no way people couldn’t love their dogs and make it very far. 

“There you are.” Gregory smiled, showing up with a camera around his neck and looking a little too much like a tourist.

“Nice camera, Binks.”  Katherine said. “Remember, we’re trying to be subtle about this, so let me do the talking. What is it we want to figure out again?

“Well we want to ask him some questions about his photographer, Diana Hansel.  From what we understood, the magazine had all the shots they needed of the beagle.  Then earlier today when Christy and I were watching the show we saw her jump in front of the judges table and take a bunch more shots.”

“It could have been just a routine follow-up to flesh out the spread.”

“I’m not so sure.  Oh, and the second thing we wanted is to see if he can zoom in and enhance one of the photos J.W. took the night he was murdered.  It looks like someone was hiding behind him in the closet.”

“Just remember, we have to keep as much as we can under wraps.  We don’t want to spook the you-know-who.”

“The you-know-who?  Really? Do you have your decoder ring and spy detector in your pocket too?”

“Quiet, Binks. We’re here.”  Kathleen looked up at the banner Canine Philosophy above the booth.  Framed photos of champions were hung with care on the outside of the tent and a table full of older issues and current photos from the show were tastefully arranged for people to look through.  A white five o’clock shadow was hovering over a photo with a jeweler’s magnifying glass. A pair of reading glasses was perched on top of a balding head with age spots waving at Kathleen and Gregory.  He looked up as they approached.

“Can I help you?”

“We were wondering if you could help us with a technical problem.”

“Well, I can’t really fix cameras if that’s what you mean.  I’m kind of busy trying to put the magazine together.  With that judge dying and all, it’s really screwed up my deadlines.”

“You mean J.W. Augustine?  How does that mess up your magazine? If you don’t mind my asking.”  Kathleen said.  Apparently he didn’t mind.  The five o’clock shadow was quite the talker.

“It’s just a nightmare.  First of all, I had these gorgeous shots by J.W. and he was going to let me have them for free!  I mean it felt too good to be true but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  Or should I say a gift dog in the mouth.  Then his assistant came in this morning and said he was dead and that she wasn’t sure she could find his thumb drive in all the commotion.  So I tell my photographer to hurry up and take some shots of Snoopy’s Tempting Delight. 

Then right before the announcement by the show narrator my national distributor says they want a tribute issue to J.W. Augustine, and it had to come out instead of our normal issue to honor his memory.  I said, fine, of course because these tribute issues get picked up by collectors and loved ones.  They are a gold mine.  The trouble was I had only a few shots from J.W.

His assistant came back with a thumb drive and even one of his caméra redondante and I thought I was saved.”

“A what?”  Gregory asked.

“Not everybody does it but it’s a smart move.  J.W. was fastidious about backing up all of his shots onto a thumb drive.  He went a step further.  He had a spare camera that sometimes doubled as another thumb drive.  His little joke was to call and say, “spare camera” in French.  He would toss around the phrase when stuffed shirt fashion photographers would blow in from New York.  He could always pull off the joke because everything he said sounded like a line out of a James Bond movie.  The bottom line was that he carried around another camera just in case something went wrong with the one he was using.  He never wanted to lose out on a great shot.”

“Do you still have that camera with you?”  Kathleen asked.

“Sorry.  When his assistant came back to me she said J.W.’s business partner wanted to renegotiate the consent to use the pictures.  All I got was the thumb drive.”

“Let me guess.  The new business partner wanted you to pay for the pictures,” Gregory said.

“It was highway robbery what she charged me!  She knew she had me over a barrel and I had to take it in the shorts on buying that thumb drive.  My only prayer now is that the tribute issue sells well enough that I can recoup the money I paid for those shots.”

“That sounds terrible Mr.—” Kathleen began.

“Kibbe.  Mr. Charlie Kibbe.  When I have time to show my Dachshunds, they call me Kibbles.  Around the magazine they call me Charlie.  Just call me Charlie.  Oh, I’m just whining a bit.  I do this to Diana every month and she just puts up with it and listens.” Charlie smiled.

“Diana is your photographer?” Gregory asked.

“Why yes.  She has been on and off for about three years.  When she started she could barely find the lens cap but she’s turned into a solid photographer.”

“Has she been acting differently, as far as you could tell, lately?”  Kathleen asked, looking from side to side for listening ears.  Charlie looked around to see what she was glancing at.

Stepping back, Charlie said, “What do you mean differently.” The smile faded and Charlie, unconsciously, rubbed his right wrist.  He looked from Kathleen to Gregory.

“Please help us out,” Kathleen asked, watching their prospect clam up.  “I am with the police and we are just trying to quietly rule out the idea of J.W. being murdered.  Diana was a guest at the bed and breakfast where J.W. was staying.”  Charlie’s tone changed immediately.

“Oh, dear.  That’s horrible.  Was she the only one there?”

“No, in fact there were two other guests connected to the dog show and one of them was the assistant that just sold you that thumb drive the day after J.W. died.”

“Oh, my.  Well how can I help?  I can’t believe Diana could be mixed up with this.”