The Puppy Project, page 6
part #9 of Tess and Tilly Cozy Mystery Series
“I understand Darian moved to Missoula.”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. I didn’t keep track of the guy after he went to jail.”
“Jail?”
“He got busted for running a chop shop out on the highway near Big Fork. Like I said, the guy was bad news.”
I figured that Mike must know about Darian’s arrest and conviction even though he hadn’t mentioned it. It was beginning to sound like Darian Redgrave deserved a second look, especially if the tip that Johnny had spoken to him on the night he went missing turned out to be accurate.
Brady showed up while Barbara and I were chatting. She greeted Brady and then headed home, where her family would be waiting for dinner. Brady took a minute to greet the newest residents of the shelter who seemed tickled pink to see him, before asking about the investigation and any news I’d heard. I filled him in the best I could and then segued into a discussion about the trainer position he’d brought up during a previous conversation.
“So, are you still thinking about hiring a full-time trainer?” I asked.
“I’m not sure I can afford full-time, but maybe three-quarter time. Do you know someone who might be interested?”
“Me, actually.”
He looked surprised. “Really?”
I nodded. “I’ve been thinking about moving out to Tony’s full time and selling my cabin. If I do that, I’ll need more flexibility with my work schedule than I have working for the post office. I think the position might actually be perfect for me.”
“I won’t be able to pay you anywhere near what you are currently making,” he warned.
I shrugged. “I don’t need a lot. I love working with the dogs, and the idea of helping you build a search and rescue team sounds exciting and meaningful.”
“If you’re serious, the job is yours. Have you talked to Tony about it?” He chuckled. “It’s actually the money he donated that I plan to use to pay for this position, which seems sort of crazy if it turns out that you take the job.”
I nodded. “I have talked to Tony, and he’s good with whatever I decide. He just wants me to be happy, and I think that this might make me happy. Not that I’m not happy now, but Tony and I have been dividing our time between two homes for a while now, and while it’s working out okay, it would be nice to have all my stuff in one place. To be honest, if not for the issues with the commute in the winter, I would probably have made a more permanent move out to Tony’s place before this. I really enjoy certain aspects of my job with the post office, but turning in my mailbag and taking a job here at the shelter will give me the flexibility I need to move forward.”
Brady grinned. “You know that I would be thrilled to have you take over the training program. The reality is that it wouldn’t even exist in its current form without you and Tilly.”
“Great,” I said. “I’m really leaning toward doing this, but I need to talk to Tony one more time before I commit a hundred percent. I want to give my notice at the post office right away so I can give them enough time to find someone to take my route. I also want to take some time off between quitting that job and starting this one, but we can work out the details. I’ll call you later this week.”
“If we don’t get the construction back on track, I’m afraid our whole timeline is going to be delayed,” Brady complained.
“I have a feeling Mike will take the tape down in the next day or two. Once they confirm they’ve found everything in the hole there is to find, they’ll have no reason to limit access.”
I chatted with Brady for a while longer and then headed home. The more I talked about my plan to take the next step with Tony, and with my life, the more excited I became about both. I loved my little cabin. It had served me well, but it was never supposed to be anything more than a temporary residence, and it really was much too small to raise a family in. That was if Tony and I decided to have one, which was a topic I was not ready to think about yet.
“I’m on my way home, do you need anything from town?” I asked Tony after calling him as I prepared to leave the shelter.
“No. I made lasagna for dinner. It’s ready and warming in the oven.”
I loved Tony’s lasagna. “Okay. I’m on my way. Is Tang still acting funky?”
“No, he seems to be fine. I think he might have kitty allergies. He was playing around in the flowers we bought yesterday.”
“I guess we should keep an eye on him. If he starts coughing again, I’ll bring him into town and have Brady look at him.”
“Did you talk to Brady?”
“I did. It’s beginning to look as if you, Tony Marconi, are going to have a full-time roommate who won’t make enough to pitch in with the expenses but will keep life interesting.”
“I like interesting. Hurry home, and we can talk about it some more. I have news about your father as well.”
“News?”
“We’ll talk about it when you get here.”
“You shouldn’t have brought it up until I got there. Now I’m going to be wondering the whole drive home.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I’d still prefer to discuss it after you get here.”
“Okay. I’m on my way.”
Unfortunately, there was an accident on the road leading up the mountain to Tony’s house on the lake that backed up traffic for more than a mile, so what should have been a twenty-minute drive, ended up taking over an hour. The fact that there was only one way in and out of the area where Tony lived, and this sort of thing occurred from time to time, drove home the point even more clearly that a job with flexible hours was going to be a must if I was going to live at the lake full time.
As I pulled into the private drive leading to Tony’s house, I asked myself one last time if it was going to be a problem for me that Tony would basically be supporting me. I knew it wasn’t a problem for Tony, but I’d paid my own way since becoming an adult, and it felt odd thinking about being a kept woman. I supposed what Tony and I had was a partnership and who paid which bills didn’t matter, but it was going to be an adjustment and one that I probably should really think through before making a final decision.
Chapter 8
When I finally arrived home, I headed upstairs to change out of my uniform while Tony fed Tilly and then got dinner on the table. He’d selected a new wine that a friend of his who owned a vineyard near his hometown in Italy sent him to try out to go with our lasagna. In a word, it was delicious. We were both hungry, so we didn’t talk much during the meal, but once more lasagna was consumed than I would ever have thought possible, and the dishes had been put into the dishwasher, I asked Tony what he had to tell me about my dad.
“I heard back from the man I’ve been corresponding with. He correctly told me that the dog in the story was named Daisy.”
I narrowed my gaze. “I guess this guy really is my dad. I was so sure he wasn’t. Mike agreed with me that it seems odd that Dad would handle things the way the person you’ve been corresponding with has.”
“I suppose there is one other explanation,” Tony said. “One that I hate to even bring up.”
“Oh, and what’s that?”
“I suppose the person who sent the email might have your dad in captivity. Either your dad can’t or won’t tell him where the women he’s looking for are, so he emailed me pretending to be your dad.”
“If that were true, why would Dad give the man the right name to open the file?” I asked.
“Maybe he didn’t have a choice. Maybe he was given truth serum, or maybe he’s being tortured.”
“How can we find out?” Suddenly this thing seemed a lot more urgent.
“I’m not sure. I suppose we can ask a second question. Maybe we really are corresponding with your dad, or maybe this person knows your dad and tricked him into telling him the name of the dog in the story. Maybe your dad doesn’t even know he’s working with me.”
I frowned. “How would that work? I want to believe that my dad was simply tricked and not tortured, but I can’t imagine a scenario where that might occur.”
Tony shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the guy knows your dad and figured out a clever way to bring up children’s stories, and then he got your dad to talk about children’s stories he may have heard. It’s also possible your dad told the story to someone else, and that person is either the one behind the emails or they told the story to the person behind the emails.”
It seemed unlikely that my dad had shared this little known name with a random person no matter what the circumstances, and it seemed even more unlikely that Dad had told the story to someone who just happened to be looking for the same women Dad had helped escape. Unless...
“When my dad told me the story about the sick puppy, I was sick, and I assumed he was making it up just for me. But what if he wasn’t? What if he told me a story he already knew, and what if he’d told others the same story either before or after telling it to me?”
“Who would he tell the story to?” Tony asked.
“Other children. What if my dad not only helped pregnant women who’d been used to provide a womb for the test subjects to escape captivity, but what if he also helped children who’d already been born? Not all at once, of course, but maybe over time.”
“I suppose that’s possible. We only have a handful of facts and a general idea of what it is that Henderson’s even doing. We really don’t know the extent of the experiments or the extent of your father’s involvement.”
I paused to let that sink in. “So if the person who’s sending the emails, the person looking for these three women, isn’t my father, maybe it’s someone my father knew or knows. Maybe the person behind the emails, assuming it really isn’t my father, knows my father well enough to have heard his story.
“I suppose the person behind the emails might be a colleague or perhaps an old love interest who he may have shared the story with.”
“Or maybe,” I countered, “the emails are from one of the women he rescued. Not the three listed in the email, but someone else who for one reason or another wants to get ahold of other escapees.”
“Or maybe the person behind the email is one of the children who were born to be test subjects. These children would be adults by now and who knows what was done to them after birth or where their loyalties might lie.”
“I guess that someone associated with the program would provide a possible link to my father, but why look for the other women?”
Tony frowned. “I’m not sure, but I think we should proceed carefully from this point forward. Since we really don’t know what’s going on, I’m going to continue to look for the women as your dad or whomever I’ve been corresponding with wants me to, but I’m not going to turn over any information I might find until we’re sure the person behind the emails really is your dad.”
I nodded. “Okay. I guess that sounds like a good plan. Maybe we can try to trip him up by slipping faulty statements into the emails and see if he catches the errors.”
“That’s a good idea. As long as we’re careful about how we go about doing that. I think we need to keep our eyes and ears open for any communication from your dad if the person I’ve been corresponding with isn’t your dad. He may find out what’s going on and try to reach out. I think we should give Mike a heads up about everything that has happened as well.”
“Okay, I’ll call him. I want to talk to him anyway.” I glanced at the clock. “He had meetings with two people associated with the Johnny Peyton case this afternoon, so I’ll wait until around seven.”
Tony nodded. “Okay. That sounds like a plan. So how did your meeting with Brady go?”
“It went well. He is, of course, thrilled to have me take on the role of lead trainer, and he’s willing to be very flexible with my hours. He plans to pay me with the money you’re donating, so that’s a little weird, but I’m sure we can work it all out.”
“So, are you really going to do this?”
I hesitated.
“Is there a problem?” Tony asked.
“It’s sort of silly, but if I quit my job and take the job with Brady, I won’t be making much money. Basically, you’ll be supporting me. I’ve supported myself my entire adult life, so it’s going to feel odd not to do so.”
“I understand that, but you know I’m not at all concerned about the money thing. I mean, really not at all concerned. I don’t want you to worry about who pays for what bills. As I’ve said many times in the past, we’re a team. We each bring different things to the relationship, but when combined, we’re unstoppable.”
I smiled. “Okay, if you are absolutely sure about that, I think I’m going to give notice at the post office this week. They’ll need time to get someone hired and trained, so I plan to give a month’s notice. The new training facility won’t open until late summer or early fall, so I’m going to take some time off before really digging in. I’ve actually been thinking quite a lot about that trip to Hawaii. I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“And I’ve always wanted to share it with you. There is so much I want to share with you. Have you made a decision about the cabin? You don’t have to sell it if you’d prefer to keep it.”
“It doesn’t make sense to keep it, and selling it would give me a nice nest egg. I guess I’ll contact a real estate agent this week as well. We’ll need to move my stuff out and make any needed repairs, but summer really is the best time to sell real estate in this area.” I looked around Tony’s house. “I’m not really sure what I should do with all my stuff. I could sell most of the furniture with the cabin, but I do have some things that I want to keep. I guess I can put everything into storage, so I don’t clutter your house.”
Tony pulled me into his arms. “First of all, from this point forward, I want you to think of this house as our house. And if you want to bring your stuff from the cabin out here to the lake, bring it. I can move some of my stuff to make room for whatever is important to you. I love you. I want you to feel right at home. I want you to be happy.”
I nodded. “I am happy. And I’m relieved to have made a decision. Change can be hard for me, but I really feel like I’m ready for this. All of this.”
A short while later, I called Mike, who was home from the interviews he’d set up for today. The poor guy sounded tired and somewhat defeated. “I have news about the dad emails.” I jumped right in and then filled him in on everything Tony and I’d discussed. Mike agreed with the strategy of moving ahead slowly and carefully and assured me that he would keep an eye out for any sort of communication from Dad too.
“What sort of information does Tony have?” Mike asked.
“The email he received contained three names, which we are assuming are three women who were part of whatever Layton Henderson was doing. The man who sent that information told Tony he didn’t know what became of either the mothers or the babies after they were born. Basically, that’s what he wants Tony to find out.”
“That’s not a lot to go on.”
“I know. Tony and I are concerned that providing this information to the person behind the emails might put these women and children at risk if the person behind the emails isn’t Dad. Tony is going to start looking, but we both agree that we aren’t going to pass any information along until we’re one hundred percent certain that it’s Dad, and only Dad, we’re giving the information to.”
“I think that’s a good idea. Better safe than sorry. It sounds like the two of you have this under control for now. I do appreciate the update,” Mike said.
“So how’d the interviews go?” I asked, hoping that he’d fill me in on the highlights.
“They went okay. I met with Donny Smith first. If you remember, he was the last person Johnny called from his cell phone. As we already knew, he said Johnny had called him about the party where they planned to meet when Johnny got off work.”
“So, the two were good friends?”
“Pretty good friends. In fact, he spoke very highly of Johnny, both during his interview in twenty twelve and again when I spoke with him today. The story he told was of a friendship with a good guy and a serious student who was home to spend time with his family and save some money before grad school. That did seem a little off to me, given the fact that everyone else seems to have had harsh things to say about the guy.”
“Did Donny have any theories on how Johnny ended up in the ground?”
“Not really. He did say that he always suspected Johnny’s disappearance was the result of foul play. He admitted that Johnny and his father butted heads and that the pressure his dad put on him to succeed was a bit over the top, but he also said that Johnny loved his parents and would never do anything to cause them the amount of worry and distress his disappearance caused. I asked about the drug use, and he sort of laughed it off. He made a comment about Adderall being on the menu of the cafeteria at most colleges these days.”
I wished I could say that the joke was ridiculous, but we live in a high-pressure society, and college students looking for an extra boost coffee just couldn’t provide had become commonplace. “Okay, so he admitted that perhaps Johnny might have used something to enhance his study experience while in school, but did he seem concerned that the guy had come home an addict who would do anything for his next fix?”
“No. He thought Johnny was handling things just fine. He said he planned to blow off some steam that summer and then hit the books again in the fall. According to Donny, Johnny was excited to see what the future held in store for him.”
“So do you think Johnny acted differently around Donny, or do you think Donny is lying?”
“I’m not sure,” Mike admitted. “Johnny and Donny went way back. Donny knew Johnny’s family and had spent a lot of time in their home during the time Johnny lived in White Eagle. I suppose Johnny might have reined in his erratic behavior when he was around Donny out of fear that Donny would tell his parents what was really going on, but I suppose it’s equally as likely that Donny feels a sense of loyalty to both Johnny and his family, and is choosing not to say anything negative about either.”
