Downward Dog, page 9
part #1 of Dog Yoga Mystery Series
At that, the negotiator frowned. “But you didn’t do anything wrong so why should that worry you?”
“It worries me because I’ve had no sleep and I have to take a lot of classes tomorrow.” With one glance at her watch, Hine corrected, “Today.”
“You’ll have to cancel. Since the exchange went sideways, I’ll need you on-call for any new demands. We might have to rush to a new appointment without delay.”
“For what? The police have your briefcase of money. Unless you can lay your hands on another cool million, there’s nothing to pay them with.”
“I’ll get the money. If the police don’t turn over the case, then I’ll source a new sum from the bank.”
Hine stared at her, mouth open, then burst into laughter. “Oh, honey. You’ve been dealing with the big cities for far too long. Pinetar wouldn’t be able to pull together a tenth of that, not without a week’s warning.”
“This is my job. I know what I’m doing.”
“It sure didn’t seem like it back when you scarpered and left me alone with a criminal and a sky full of police.”
“And a briefcase full of my money.”
“It belongs to your employer, doesn’t it? Hardly yours.”
“They won’t be my employer if I can’t get this sorted and get it back.”
They stared at each other for a long minute, then Hine softened. “I’m happy to help out but not like last night. I don’t ever intend to stand alone at night with a case full of money and only my own wits to defend myself.”
Madeline raised her eyebrows. “Defend yourself? What do you mean?”
“I mean I had to claw his grubby fingers off the briefcase and hit him with it a few times before he’d let me go. Look.” She spread out her fingernails, showing the small flecks of blood still clinging to them. “Ugh. I need to have a wash.”
“Did the police take samples of that? For testing?”
“No, they didn’t.” Hine’s anger rose again. “What they did do was lock me in a room and throw a barrage of questions and accusations at me. If the dame’s life wasn’t at stake, I wouldn’t be offering up my services again, I can tell you.”
“They should have taken it for DNA. Just a minute.” Madeline ducked back into the car and rooted around in the glove box. When she emerged again, she was shaking out a plastic bag. “We’ll just keep that tissue protected until the police can be bothered to do their jobs.”
Hine pulled away, putting her scratching arm behind her back. “No, we won’t. I’m not taking yoga classes covered up in plastic bags. What’s happening with the new lady?”
Madeline lowered her hands and stared in confusion. “What new lady?”
“The one who just got kidnapped.” When the woman continued to stare at her blankly, Hine added, “The only reason the police let me go free. Larissa Hobson. Abducted. About an hour ago.”
“We don’t insure her.”
“But you should still investigate her disappearance. It’s highly unlikely that two sets of kidnappers walked into Pinetar today and started grabbing people. If you find Larissa, you’ll find Tilly.”
“But I don’t care about Larissa and we’re already in contact with the criminals who grabbed Tilly.”
“And look how far that got you. They sent the wrong link.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Then do it alone. I need to get some sleep.” Hine pushed past her and limped to the front door. In the time it took her to fumble her keys out of her pocket, Madeline’s car was reversing out of the drive.
She sighed and went into the bathroom. Although Hine hadn’t wanted the other woman to see it, her idea about preserving DNA was a good one. One the police force should have thought of if they weren’t so busy trying to implicate me!
But she wasn’t about to walk around with a plastic bag over her hand, regardless. Hine pulled out some nail clippers and clipped the offending nails as short as possible, collecting the remnants in a zip-lock bag. She tossed it in the freezer to keep the ice cubes company, unsure if nails deteriorated but erring on the side of caution.
A hot shower later and any lingering traces aside from the blood had been washed down the drain.
As Hine lay in bed, her mind ran over the events of that night, playing out the scenario to show her as a heroine instead of a waste-of-space. Instead of hitting him with the briefcase, she tugged the kidnapper into the darkness and put him in a choke-hold until he gave up the dame’s location.
The police never even knew she was there.
What if the reason they didn’t send proof of life is because there isn’t any?
“Quiet, brain. I need to get some sleep. You can think about all the dreadful things tomorrow.”
With that stern admonition, Hine fell asleep.
Hine finished off her afternoon yoga class differently than usual. Instead of walking around the group, constructing a peaceful vision and offering tips on relaxation, she sat at the front, barely speaking.
Even with the light movement she’d done that day, her ankle throbbed and sent stabbing sensations up the nerves of her leg. Walking around seemed a chore rather than the usual pleasure.
“Did you hear about the kidnappings?” Mildred Garrison said to her steadfast companion, Esther Wairoa, as they sat up, free of the restraints of silence the class demanded. “Poor Larissa must be out of her mind with worry.”
“Do you know her well?” Hine asked, sidling up to them. With Madeline expressing no concern about the second victim, her ire had been raised. “I can only hope she and Tilly are keeping each other company.”
The two women exchanged a glance then burst into laughter. “If those two are in the same room,” Mildred said, wrinkling her nose, “then the kidnappers won’t need to worry about causing harm. Larissa and Tilly will gladly poke each other’s eyes out.”
“They don’t get on?”
This time Esther spoke. “That’s an understatement. As far as I last checked, they were sworn enemies. You’ve no idea how many council votes those two have been on opposing sides.”
“Larissa is on the council, too?” Hine hadn’t known that. Of course, she hadn’t known the dame was either. She frowned, thinking of Reginald and his concerns the day before. “Was she voting on the water rights issue they’ve got scheduled for tonight?”
“Oh, yes.” Mildred rolled her mat up and tucked it under her arm. “Nothing would’ve given her more pleasure than to see that motion defeated.” She shook her head, the twinkle in her eye disappearing. “Larissa would’ve loved to vote it down since it was the dame’s ballot.”
“I hope the kidnappers aren’t going to target everyone on the council,” Hine said, falling into step with the two women as they walked out of the studio. “Otherwise, it’ll leave Pinetar in a right mess.”
“You’re assuming the council gets anything done around here,” Mildred said with an undercurrent of hostility. “I’ve had a neighbour who won’t mow his berm for the past three years. Three years. And they’ve still done nothing about it. I had to hire a kid from the high school to keep it decent.”
“Did the two of them have any enemies on the council?” Hine interrupted before the conversation went completely off track.
“Apart from each other?” Esther shrugged. “They have their cliques and each group hates the other equally. Unless somebody kidnapped them both to hold an intervention, I doubt there’s any connecting factor. Chalk and cheese, they were.”
“There’ll be a connection,” Mildred corrected gently. “It’ll just be one of those things when we can’t see it until it’s over.”
“I hope it’s over soon.” Esther cupped her elbows in her hands and swayed back on her heels. “After hearing the news about Larissa, I had half a mind to stay indoors, just in case I got snatched, too!”
Hine headed to the dame’s house next, only stopping to top her car up with petrol on the way. Thanks to a few cash payments, she had money enough to get her to the end of the week. Not a great achievement, but she’d take it.
This time, when Hine parked out back of Dame Cholmondeley’s house, police were visible all around the property. As she limped up the path, PC Perry stopped her with a raised hand. “I don’t think so.”
“I just wanted to check on Penelope.” When his face stayed blank, she explained, “The dame’s bulldog.”
“Her cousin will be taking care of the dog. You need to keep away from here until the investigation is over. Do you hear me?”
“But it’ll just take—”
“It’ll take no time at all because it isn’t happening.” He tipped his head to one side, squinting at her through narrowed eyes. “If the sergeant caught you out here, he’d rip me a new one. Now, either go back to your vehicle voluntarily or I’ll cart you down to the station and we can have a repeat of last night.”
“Fine.” Hine held her hands up in surrender. “Can you just check with Wilber that the dog’s doing okay?”
As the constable continued to keep his level stare, she turned around. It would have given her great pleasure to stomp up the path, but she couldn’t. Instead, she limped with her mouth set in a stern line.
She sat, waiting for a few minutes to see if the officer would walk around the other side of the house. Since his gaze didn’t waver from her car, Hine sighed and drove back home.
The heightened police presence probably meant there’d be no subsequent ransom demand coming through Madeline McStar. If anyone called the home again, Hine couldn’t imagine the officers would let Wilber take the call without them listening in.
As she sat in her driveway, Hine thought about the revelation Larissa also worked on the council. She put her car into drive and backed out, heading for the council chambers.
If the kidnappers were intent on picking off the council members one by one, then it stood to reason something weird was going on in their chambers. As far as she knew, the meetings were all open to the public. She could sit in the back and see what triggered her interest.
Maybe she’d even find out what these abductions were all about.
Chapter Fifteen
The council chambers were in a draughty stone building. Large gaps around the thick oak door let in a constant breeze and, given the autumn nights dropped into the single digits, Hine shivered as she took a seat on a pew.
That and the strange setup for the council chairs reminded her of an old church. Perhaps it had been at one point—that would explain the strangely shaped lead light windows, narrowing to a point.
Only a dozen other people sat in the public gallery. With the amount of room available, it made the viewers appear sparse. On the other hand, if Hine had been asked how many townspeople attended the local council meetings, she would probably have guessed lower.
After the first ten minutes of droning business, twelve onlookers seemed a very good turnout indeed.
By the time the council got to the actual vote, Hine had drifted into a doze. When the chairperson called out, “How many in favour?” she jerked awake and hurriedly sat up, staring about her in case someone else had noticed.
“How many against?”
A flurry of hands went up. To Hine, it looked about half.
“The Nos have it.” The chairperson banged his gavel. “Enter it onto the official record.”
“This is rubbish,” a large man in front of Hine said. He lumbered to his feet, muscles flexing. “If we can’t get access to water, our animals will die.”
She sat up straight as he said that, mouth dropping open in horror. The way Reginald had explained the situation, it had sounded like it would just stop farmers converting their stock over to bovine, not harm those already practising.
“Sit down, Jack.” The chairperson banged his gavel again. “We’ve already listened to your rhetoric and we’ve held the vote, fair and square. If you set up your place anticipating a different result, that’s not on us.”
“I had it on good authority—”
“Nobody promised you anything and if they did, you should’ve known better than to believe them.”
“Can I propose a motion?” The new query came from a silver-haired woman dressed from head to toe in tweed. Hine guessed her age to be somewhere between forty and eighty but couldn’t pin it down more than that.
“This is a meeting for votes only,” the chair said in a resigned tone. “If you want to propose a new motion for consideration, please come to our open forum next month.”
“But—”
The gavel banged down.
The silver-haired woman crossed her arms. “There’ve been two women kidnapped off your bench in as many days and I for one would like to know what you’re doing about it.”
One of the councillors seated at the head of the room buried her face in her hands. “Mum! Just leave it alone, okay?”
Hine revised the woman’s age to be upward of fifty.
“No, it’s not okay. It was bad enough when it was just Dame Cholmondeley who’d been snatched but now Larissa? I’ve known her since she was in high school, getting into trouble for smoking behind the sheds.”
“It’s that criminal they’re letting speak at the community centre tomorrow.” A new woman stood up. Hine recognised her as Sparkle’s owner. “When it first came up, I warned you all it’d be a slippery slope and now look!”
“Please sit down, all of you.” The chair banged the gavel three times in a row. “We’ve discussed the issue of the speaker ad nauseam and voted on it three months ago.”
“Another rigged vote,” Jack said, slapping his palms on the back of the pew in front. “Just like this one. The lot of you are as corrupt as a… a… corrupt thing!”
“I can assure you—”
“Does anyone here know of a connection between the two kidnapped women?” Hine asked, standing up. She could recognise a free-for-all from a mile away and wanted to get some answers before it descended into a rigmarole. “I know they’re both part of the council but is there anything else?”
A silence fell upon the room as the audience waited for an answer and the council members frowned at one another. Finally, the chair cleared his voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever met two women with less in common than Larissa Hobson and Tilly Cholmondeley.”
With the entire panel nodding in agreement, Hine decided she could put that question to rest. She slipped out of the hall just as Jack launched into another round of accusations over who had promised him what.
“What a waste of petrol,” Hine muttered under her breath as she unlocked the car. A movement in the shadows behind her gave her a fright, and she spun on her heel. “Who’s there?”
“Just having a smoke.”
A lit cigarette circled in the darkness. After a moment, the figure stepped forward and Hine relaxed when she saw it was a woman, dressed in a dark green leather coat and black pants. Her voice had been so deep, it hadn’t been immediately obvious.
“Have a good night,” Hine called out, then focused all her attention on getting her hurt ankle into the footwell without bumping it. When she next looked up, the shadowy figure had gone.
Hopefully, not inside the council building or she’ll have a very dull evening, indeed!
The roads were clear as Hine began to drive home. Halfway there, she changed her mind and looped further out of town to pass by the dame’s house instead. Not seeing Penelope in good health with her own two eyes had left her restless. If the police had gone, she might risk a knock on the door.
But the police were still stationed outside. The only difference was the constable had swapped from Perry to Mitchell. Since Hine didn’t know that officer at all, she guessed he’d issue an even firmer no than the last she’d received. Shaking her head, she gave up the idea.
Since the dame lived so far out, the road back to her house took Hine past Pinetar forest, part of the reason the town had its name. Although greatly reduced by the infringement of a growing population on the surrounding area, it was still large enough she wouldn’t venture inside without a compass.
If they still sold compasses.
With her high beams lighting up the clear road ahead, Hine leaned to her side to grab a packet of tissues from the glove box. The first tickles of a cold were hitting her, and she wanted to be prepared.
As a woman staggered out from the edge of the forest, Hine slammed on the brakes, sending the car in a sideways skid. With horror, she calculated the trajectory a split second before her rear-end side-swiped the woman.
With a scream, Hine wrenched open the door, attempting to jump out before it came to a stop.
“Don’t be dead,” she yelled, racing toward the prone figure. “Oh, please God, don’t be dead!”
Chapter Sixteen
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Hine repeated the words like a mantra the full drive to the hospital.
“Give it a rest, will you?” the woman said as they pulled up outside. “Honestly, the bumper missed me completely and the falling over was due to my clumsiness, not yours.”
“But if I hadn’t driven straight towards you, there wouldn’t have been a car to fall over getting away from.”
“And if I hadn’t walked into the middle of the road, you wouldn’t have swerved to avoid me.”
At a stalemate, Hine limped around to the passenger side door and tried to assist the lady. Instead, the woman laughed and pointed to her ankle. “You look worse off than me.”
Together, they arrived at the front desk and were steered into chairs by the nurse doing triage.
“We should call the police, too, I suppose,” the woman said. “Otherwise, they won’t know to stop looking for me.” She hesitated for a second. “That’s if they’ve worked out they should be in the first place.”
“What?” Hine hadn’t stopped long enough in her apology spiel to think to get the woman’s name. “Who are you?”
“Larissa Hobson.” She held out her hand and Hine shook it numbly. “And you are?”
“Sorry, sorry. I’m Hine Trewlove. The police are definitely looking for you. How did you get away from your captors?”
