Drool Baby (A Dog Park Mystery) (Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries) (6 page)

"No, I wasn't," Peter admitted. "Officially, we left it that Catherine murdered Luthor and drowned accidentally."

Jim shook his head. "You know how I feel about that. Catherine couldn't have staged a convincing suicide, even if she could bring herself to pull the
trigger. You can't tell me you were happy with that decision."

Peter rubbed his temple and made a face. He took a sip of his coffee to give himself time to think. "No," he finally admitted. "I wasn't happy. I always
thought there was another person out there responsible for Luthor and Catherine. Bailey never felt like a good fit, but I found it hard to believe there
might be two killers running around. I guess it might be possible that some other person targeted Bailey, too."

"Don't forget Terry's fall."

"Heaven forbid." Peter leaned back and considered. "I guess I can give her a little time and look into this."

Jim took this as a promising sign and moved forward. "Frank gave me this list of people. Bailey wrote down everyone who knew where she kept the spare key
to her back door. She figures it has to be someone connected to the park, so those names are underlined."

"She thinks it was someone she knew?"

"Frank says she never saw signs of a break-in. Your guys never noticed anything like that, did they?"

"No, we never did. Not that we were looking."

"So, if this happened, they probably used a key."

Peter noted the underlined names. There were several in common with a list Lia created last summer, of people who could have stolen her cell phone. He'd
deduced back then that whomever killed Luthor, had also stolen Lia's cell. "What are Jose and Charlie doing on the list?"

"Frank says Bailey thinks they're both mechanically inclined enough to break into her house without leaving any evidence."

"Maybe so, but they're both going to the bottom of the list."

"Why is that?"

"Whoever did this is sneaky and vicious. We don't know any sneaky, vicious people at the park. So that means they have to be able to hide that part of
themselves."

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that. You're right. Jose can't keep a secret to save his life and Charlie isn't one to hide his feelings. But that would mean a
woman did this. You think a woman could pull all this off?"

"We thought it was Catherine, then we thought it was Bailey. Why wouldn't it be a woman?"

"I guess you're right. I guess I'm too old fashioned to think a woman would be a murderer."

"I'm not convinced it was anybody, and I don't care to do Bailey any favors. I'm willing to consider the possibility, because, if someone framed Catherine
and messed with Bailey's head, Lia could be a target. I either want to rule that out or do what I need to do to keep her safe."

"So what do we do?"

Peter frowned. "The first thing is to tell Lia."

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

"I'm not looking forward to it. But I learned the hard way not to keep secrets from her. I won't go through that again."

"And after that?"

"We check out Bailey's meds. I don't recall them being on the inventory sheet for the items we took from her house. Likely they're still there. If they
are, then anyone could have got at them at any time. That means Bailey could have sent her friend Frank to doctor them before he came to you with this
story. Do you understand?"

"You mean Frank and Bailey could be pulling a con job on us?"

"Exactly."

"So why bother to test her medicine?"

"You never know what we'll find out. Maybe something conclusive. Maybe a fingerprint."

"So how do we start?"

"Look, all of this has to be kept off the clock. I can't bring it into the department or Roller will blow a gasket. After that, he's going to pull Bailey
out of the psych ward and put her in jail so she can go to court. He is not going to want to reopen a case that's resolved as far as he's concerned, not on
a flimsy theory by a mentally ill perp. He'll say it's up to her defense to investigate that. I doubt Bailey can afford a lawyer who would invest that much
in her case.

"I can help you, but I can't act as a police officer or use department resources. I might be able to pull in a favor with the fingerprint tech, but that's
about it.

"If lab results suggest we investigate further, we need to narrow down the list and do deep background checks on the most likely suspects. Deeper than I
could do last summer. We'll have to find people who knew them years ago."

"Lotta work."

"Yes."

"And we say nothing to anyone except Lia?"

"Exactly. I'll call you after I talk to Lia, and we'll figure out how to get started. I've got to think about this."

Renee is too outrageous, Lia decided as she studied the drawing she was making for the ebullient socialite. Lia was sitting on the wood floor of her living
room with her back against the mission style couch. She had a drawing pad braced against her knees. Chewy and Honey snoozed comfortably on the sofa.

She'd met with the petite brunette at her East Walnut Hills home overlooking the Ohio River. Renee's house was placed outermost on a curve in the river,
giving her a clear view of both the eastern and western horizons. The view from the flagstone patio was a breathtaking panorama of the sinuous river and
the hills of Kentucky on the other side. Below she could see the B & B Riverboat paddling along on a lunchtime cruise. Off on the right was the Big Mac
Bridge, a pair of elegant yellow arches reminiscent of the first McDonald's restaurants. Past that was the Roebling Suspension Bridge, a prototype for the
Brooklyn Bridge that caused Lia to occasionally mistake New York for Cincinnati in a certain television commercial. Renee's collie, Dakini, lay in the
middle of the yard, queen of all she surveyed.

Lia looked over the piece of land Renee had set aside for her solar marker. "You've picked your spot well," she'd told the fun-loving woman. "First thing I
think we should do is plant a ten foot PVC pipe where you want the pillar. The equinox is coming up, and this is something I can do in a hurry. With the
pole up, we can figure out where the markers should go for the equinox. That will give us an idea how we're going to lay out the whole piece."

"How exciting! We should have a sunrise party, and breakfast afterwards."

"A party?" Lia nearly stammered at the thought.

Renee's eyes danced. "No need to get nervous. Just you and me and some pre-dawn lattes. Harry will join us for breakfast, I'm sure. Company for breakfast
will give Esmerelda an excuse to show off her eggs Benedict. She makes it with smoked salmon. It's to die for."

"That would be lovely. Now tell me what you had in mind for the design."

"You mustn't tell anyone."

"It'll be our little secret."

"The standing stones I saw in Carnac looked like so many erect penises," Renee began.

Lia sputtered. "Really? How evocative."

"Precisely. I'm imagining this enormous phallic shadow reaching across the lawn, all dressed up, so to speak, and the poor thing has nowhere to go. So I
remembered how the Hindu have their lingam stones, and how they pair them with a yoni stone. Are you familiar with that?"

"No, afraid not."

"I have a set inside. I can show you. Anyway, it's a pairing of male and female. I'd like this to also be a pairing of male and female, but abstract, of
course. Sheriff Si Leis is retiring. We wouldn't want him coming back to ban us. The poor man's wasted enough of his life fighting pornography and adult
entertainment. We absolutely must leave him in peace."

Lia couldn't help laughing. She, too, had found the sheriff's moralizing tedious.

"I'd like this to be subtle, so it can be my private bit of symbolism. Is that enough to get you started?"

"Sure, I'll put some drawings together."

"Excellent. Come inside and I'll show you my lingam stone. Oh, and I mustn't forget to pay you. Is two thousand enough to get you started?"

Lia smiled at the memory. This project was going to be fun.
Too bad Bailey's not here, she would enjoy Renee
, she mused. The lapse shocked her out of her
reverie. What was she thinking? What was she doing missing someone who tried to kill her? Peter was right. Once somebody hurt you that badly, you had to
cut them off.

She scowled, angry at herself. She got up from the floor, stretched, and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. She sat down on the sofa. Honey put her
head in Lia's lap and Chewy snuggled up against her on the other side. She pet each in turn. "You would never try to shoot me, would you?" she asked them.

"Of course not," she answered herself. "You couldn't get your paws through the trigger guard. Okay, I need a change of scenery. Who wants a walk?"

An hour later, Lia was at her drawing table, reviewing her sketches. The brisk walk had cleared her mind and returned her to good spirits. She'd sketched
out a variety of ideas for the markers that would indicate the equinox and solstice. She'd started with the obvious, then simplifying to create the
abstraction. The first one was a "Venus of Willendorf" type fertility figure, an enormous belly overlapped by two ponderous breasts. No . . . It wouldn't
do. It looked too much like Mickey Mouse ears.

Next was a chalice and blade, symbols mentioned in The Da Vinci Code. These were signified by overlapping reversed triangles. This formed a Star of David.
While Renee was Jewish, she didn't think Renee would go for this bit of misdirection, so she removed the baselines of the triangles to form interlocking,
reversed V's. Then she removed the upward pointing triangle and just left a "V" shape. Perhaps if she pointed the top of the pillar, and everything lined
up just right, the shadow would create the 'blade' and interlock with the 'chalice.' She'd show it to Renee, though she thought it too stark for the lusty
woman lurking beneath the society wife veneer.

She'd done another sketch of a pair of spread legs. Very obvious. She'd played with it for a while, but found no way to abstract it. It just looked dumb.
None of this was earthy enough, pagan enough, subtle enough.

Suddenly, she flashed back to her college days, when everything she painted reminded some professor of a vagina. That was the problem with flowers.
Everyone compared her to Georgia O'Keefe, and talked about how sensual her flowers were. And she'd constantly said, "Georgia O'Keefe found such comparisons
boring, and so do I."

A flower wouldn't be quite right. But hadn't that one adjunct teacher compared her bay leaves to vulvas? A nice, big leaf split by a vein, symbolizing the
earth and fertility. And the pillar representing the sun, which is necessary to make things grow. The sun which is the male principle. She could wrap the
pillar in flames, hot yellows, oranges, reds, against cool greens. There would be six large leaves to represent each of the sunrise and sunset points,
placed in a circle made of pavers in a repeating motif of some kind.

She could include verdigris copper in the design somehow, or should she make the leaves out of copper? Copper is the metal of Venus, symbolizing beauty and
the female principle. What metal was associated with the sun? Gold, she'd use gold metallic tiles as part of her flame design. And while she was at it, she
should include the Golden Mean in the proportions of the piece, as much as she could. She'd get out her old copy of The Da Vinci Code and read the pages
where he explains the ancient symbolism. Renee would love this.

She sat back satisfied, and relaxed. She jumped at a touch on her shoulder. The large hand settled in, warm and familiar and began kneading the back of her
neck.

"Mmmm. Since when do housebreakers have such strong, talented hands?"

Peter leaned over and whispered in Lia's ear, "Your door was open and the screen door was unlatched. Pretty girls shouldn't be so careless. They could get
into trouble."

"Doesn't sound so bad. How much trouble?"

"A whole lotta trouble." He bit her earlobe.

She yelped, then whirled around, glaring. "That wasn't nice."

Peter grinned. "But it was fun."

"Just wait, Kentucky Boy, I'll get you back. You won't know what hit you."

"Viola will protect me."

"I've known her longer. Where is she, anyway?" She glanced over and found the bundle of black fur curled up on the couch with Honey and Chewy. "How long
have you been here?"

"A while. I like watching you think."

"You like scaring me to death, more likely."

"Poor baby. You in the mood for sushi? My treat."

Lia perked up. "Can we go to The Painted Fish and get one of those wooden boats?"

"For you, Darlin', the sea's the limit."

Lia was gazing fondly at the wreckage she and Peter had made of the sushi boat. She enjoyed the kitschy vessel and refused to let the server take it away
from the table. She took a bite of tempura ice cream and sat back in her wide rattan chair.

"That was excellent. You can always count on Nick," she said, referring to the chef. She noticed a worried look on Peter's face. "What's wrong? You look
like you're not feeling well."

Peter heaved a sigh. "We need to talk. It's serious, Lia."

Lia looked at him quizzically. "This isn't one of those staged break-up scenes, is it? You know, doing it in a nice restaurant so I won't go berserk
because we're in public?"

"No, nothing like that." He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "But I was trying to butter you up." He nervously tapped his fingers on the black linen
tablecloth.

"Oh, really? And why is that?" She cocked her head.

"I talked with Jim today. He had a visit from a guy named Frank. Frank works at the psych unit where Bailey is staying."

"This has something to do with Bailey?" Lia tensed.

"Yes. I hate worrying you, but I promised I wouldn't keep secrets from you. I haven't made my mind up what to think, but I have to look into it."

"Look into what?" Peter's dithering made her nervous.