The Puppy Project, page 8
part #9 of Tess and Tilly Cozy Mystery Series
The items that would go out with the garbage were the hardest. When I tossed out my first pair of torn jeans, I felt a tear well up in the corner of my eye. By the time I made it to the pile of linens that had been handed down to me by my mother, the task became a bit easier. And by the time we tossed the fifth chipped plate into the trash, I felt like a god.
Brady and I’d talked in-depth about the role I would play once I started as training coordinator. I had to admit I was really excited about this new phase of my life, but I was also looking forward to some time off. As it turned out, my boss already had someone in mind to take over my route, so maybe the transition wouldn’t take as long as I’d first imagined.
Mike and Frank were still working on the Johnny Peyton murder case with the help of Gage, and while they seemed to have uncovered a lot of information, neither felt that they had what they needed to make sense of the whole thing. Everyone seemed to agree that Johnny Peyton had come home from college in the summer of two thousand twelve, a very different person than the man who left for California in the fall of two thousand eight. What no one seemed to agree on with any degree of certainty was the extent to which this change led to his death.
As far as the emails from my father, or the person pretending to be my father, Tony was working quietly in the background, trying to track down the women he was asked to locate, although the emails between the two men seemed to have stalled. I supposed that made sense if the person behind the emails wasn’t my dad, which is what we suspected at this point. Our little test may have been enough to tip the guy off that we weren’t necessarily buying the story he was telling, and he may have decided to move on.
“Morning, Hattie,” I said to bakeshop owner, Hattie Johnson, when I stopped in to drop off her mail. “It sure smells good in here.”
“Morning, Tess, Tilly. Are you enjoying our beautiful spring day?”
I grinned. “I really am. It seems like this past winter was particularly long and cold. Personally, I’m happy to move onto some warmer weather.”
“So, I hear that you’ve decided to move on from the post office.”
I nodded. “I’m going to move out to the lake house full time with Tony, and I needed a job with a more flexible schedule, so I decided to take the job Brady is in the process of developing as training coordinator once the new facility is complete.”
Hattie handed me an oatmeal cookie, which I happily accepted.
“Sounds like a good match for you.” She handed a dog cookie to Tilly. “Hap told me that you plan to develop a local search and rescue team as well.”
I took a small bite of the cookie and then answered. “That’s the plan. White Eagle has a volunteer search and rescue squad of sorts, which is run out of the firehouse, but the closest dog team is in Kalispell. The plan is to identify a group of five dog and handler teams to undergo specialized training. Once the dogs and their handlers are trained, we plan to work closely with the existing team, which tends to rely on men and women trained in tracking. Don’t get me wrong, the team we have now is awesome, but a team of expertly trained dogs can only add to their success rate.”
“Are you and Tilly going to join the team?” Hattie asked.
“I’m going to undergo the training and will probably head up the canine unit of the local search and rescue squad, but Tilly isn’t quite right for the job. I’ve been talking to Brady about finding the right dog to undergo the sometimes intense training.”
“Will Tilly be okay with that?”
I looked at my best friend. “I think so. Tilly is going to continue to go to the shelter with me every day, and she’ll still be my training assistant for all the basic behavior classes. But search and rescue requires a very specialized skill set, and it’s best to start off with a younger dog. Not that Tilly is old, but she isn’t a pup any longer, either.”
“Well, good luck to you, Brady, and the shelter. I think you are doing wonderful things that will really make a difference.”
I glanced at Hattie’s dog, Bruiser. He was a rescue I’d placed with Hattie two years ago. He was a bit of a grump, but it was obvious to anyone who stopped by that he loved Hattie as much as she loved him. “Tilly and I should get going. I still have more than half my route to do.”
“Have you stopped by Hap’s place yet?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Will you give this to him?” She handed me a paper bag with something wonderful smelling inside.
“Be happy to. Is that cinnamon?”
“Fresh blueberry muffins with cinnamon crunch topping. They’re his favorite, so I set a few aside. It’s been a while since I’ve had them as the special of the day.”
“I like blueberry muffins,” I hinted.
Hattie laughed and handed me a second brown bag. “Be sure to eat them while they’re still warm. Tell Hap the same. They really are best when they’ve just come out of the oven.”
I delivered Hap’s mail and muffins, stopping to chat with him while I ate my muffin. Hap provided us with a cup of hot coffee as he shared a funny story about a woman who came in to buy paint. I really would miss this part of the job, but sometimes change required giving up things you loved in order to have something even better.
Although I’d walked the downtown route five days a week for years, somehow now that I’d actually handed in my notice, every stop became all that more special. I had weeks left until my final run, but I could already feel the nostalgia set in. These really were good folks. Folks who I considered to be my friends. Folks I would miss once they weren’t an everyday part of my life.
“Afternoon, Frank,” I said after stopping in at the police station to drop off the mail. I turned slightly as Leonard barreled into the room. I slipped off my mailbag and bent down to pet the happy puppy. He licked me from chin to forehead and then headed over to say hi to Tilly. “Leonard seems to be in an extra good mood this afternoon.”
“Gage found a puppy walking down the middle of the highway. He’s dropping him off at the shelter now, but he had to pick up some paperwork he wanted to drop off on the way, so he brought the pup in to play for a few minutes. It wasn’t long. Really just enough time to get Leonard all riled up.”
“I’m sorry to hear about the lost pup but happy that Gage found it. How old would you say he or she is?”
“He’s probably around six-months-old. Yellow lab. Real cute. I can’t imagine that he’s a stray. Probably just wandered off.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “Brady will find his family.” I reached into my mailbag and took out the pile of mail I planned to leave with Frank and set it on his desk. “Any news on the Johnny Peyton case?”
“Actually, I do have news. Mike was doing some digging, and he found a reference in the Los Angeles Police Department database that caught his eye. It seems that someone named Johnathan Peyton was named as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation by their narcotics unit. He did some additional checking and was able to verify that the Johnathan Peyton named in the report was the same Johnny Peyton, who died here in White Eagle a year after the report by the LAPD was filed.”
“So why was the LAPD interested in Johnny?”
“I guess he was one of fifteen individuals suspected of selling drugs for a dealer who’d settled in the LA area a few years earlier. Mike couldn’t find evidence that Johnny was ever arrested, only that he was brought in for questioning. Mike has been on the phone all morning trying to find out more about the situation. We already suspected that Johnny was taking drugs to provide the edge he needed to tackle his heavy college load, and we even suspected that he might have been dealing drugs to pay for his habit, but until Mike found the reference to the LA drug dealer, he was working from the assumption Johnny was working for some small potatoes distributor and not a large supplier.”
“If he was working for this large supplier, would that change the way you approach the murder case?” I asked.
Frank shrugged. “Maybe. At this point, data, any data, is important. There’s no way to know if what happened to Johnny after he returned to Montana is related to his activities in LA, but they are worth looking into.”
“Is Mike in his office?”
“He is,” Frank answered, “but I wouldn’t bother him. He’s been on the phone for hours. I think he might be onto something. If you want, I can let him know you were by and want him to call you when he has the opportunity.”
“I’ll just try his cell later. Maybe after my shift. Tony and I are staying at the cabin this weekend so we can get the place cleaned out. I thought I’d see if Mike and Bree wanted to get together for dinner or maybe brunch tomorrow.”
After I left the police station, I continued down the block. Bree’s bookstore was still closed, which was beyond odd. Even if she’d had the flu, it seemed she should be feeling better by now. Of course, she might have decided to wait until she was fully recovered before going back to work. I’d called, but she didn’t answer, so I’d left a voicemail. I supposed if I didn’t hear back from her, I could stop by her house at some point this weekend.
I was on my second to the last stop when Shaggy walked in behind me. “Hey, Shaggy. What are you doing here? Did you actually decide to take up yoga?”
Shaggy was tall and thin, and while he ate like a ten-year-old, and never seemed to exercise, he still had zero body fat. Running into him at the new yoga studio was not at all what I expected.
“No. I’m not taking a class. I’m here to see Shanti.”
Shanti, which I suspected was not her real name, had moved to White Eagle about a year ago and had opened the yoga studio three months after that. She was tall and elegant with a grace that reminded me of a willow. Her dark hair hung to the middle of her back, and her dark eyes appeared to view the world with understanding and wisdom far beyond that of most women her age. “I didn’t realize you were friends with Shanti.”
“You might not know this about her, but in addition to being a yogi, a vegan, and a pacifist, Shanti is a gamer. She came into the store after the game Tony and I developed came out; we got to talking and became friends.”
“Wait. The guy who eats pizza for breakfast and considers Skittles a food group is dating a woman who mediates daily and only eats whole foods free of animal products.”
Shaggy nodded. “Weird, huh?”
“Yes, I’d say it’s weird.” I thought about the quiet, spiritual woman, who moved through life with elegant grace, and then I thought about Shaggy, who was nicknamed after the Scooby-Doo character he really did look and act like. “Did you say Shanti is a gamer?”
“She is. While she is a pacifist in real life, who would never hurt another living thing, when it comes to gaming, she can kill an army of zombies like no one I’ve ever seen. She’s even beat me a few times.”
It was official, I decided, I really had heard it all. “So, are you and Shanti dating?” Shaggy tended to go through female friends at a rate I found hard to keep up with.
“No. We’re just friends. For now. You and Tony both like to game, so I thought that maybe at some point, we could all get together for a pizza and gaming night.”
“I’d like that. I’ll talk to Tony about it. I’ve only spoken to Shanti briefly when delivering her mail, and I’d welcome the chance to get to know her better.”
“Tony told me you’re moving out to the lake house full time.”
I nodded. “Yes. It’s a big move, but I feel like I’m ready. I know Tony is your best friend, and you’re his, so please don’t feel like you need to avoid coming by just because I’m there.”
“I won’t. I’m pretty much used to you being there when I come over by now.” Shaggy gave me a hug. “I’m glad everything is working out. Really. The two of you are great together.”
“Thanks, Shaggy. I appreciate that.” I had to admit that Shaggy seemed happy and settled. I was happy to see that. When I first met him, he was somewhat of a mess. His relationship with Tony had been good for him, and I supposed he’d helped loosen Tony up.
Chapter 11
When Tilly and I arrived at my cabin, we found Tony sitting at the dining table we’d decided to donate to the garage sale the women’s auxiliary at the church held every summer, staring at his laptop. He didn’t even look up when we walked in, which seemed to indicate he was deep in thought. I hung the backpack I used like a purse on the peg, slipped off my shoes, and then walked across the room so that I was standing beside him.
“So what has you so enthralled?” I asked.
He glanced up at me with an expression of surprise, which seemed to indicate he’d just noticed I was there. “You’re home.”
“I am.” I nodded toward the computer. “What’s up?”
“I think I may have found one of the women on the list I received from your dad or the person pretending to be him.” He pointed to the screen. “The name she goes by now is Betty Weston. The name she used when she worked for Henderson was Linnea Karlsson.”
“Are you sure it’s her?” I sat down across from Tony. The woman on the screen had sandy blond hair and appeared to be around twenty. She had blue eyes and strong features. If I had to guess, she was close to six feet tall with broad shoulders and a lean body. In spite of her size, she looked timid and afraid. As if she wished she could simply recoil into her body and hide.
“Actually no, I’m not sure it’s her. The name on the list I was sent is Linnea Karlsson. The photo on the screen is of a woman named Linnea Karlsson taken in nineteen seventy-seven. Linnea started working at Layton Henderson’s store in Germany in nineteen seventy-six. Like Star’s mother, Ivana, Linnea was transferred from Henderson’s import/export store in Germany to a plant in Hungary, and like Ivana, she became pregnant shortly after the transfer.”
“So Henderson was recruiting female employees of his legit import/export business to become baby factories for his human engineering experiments.”
“That’s the way it looks at this point. The email I received from the person who started this whole thing, told me that Linnea would have given birth in September of nineteen seventy-eight. Linnea seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth after running away from Layton, but the individual I’ve been communicating with, who may or may not be your dad, sent me this photo.” The photo was a blurry black and white photo of what looked to be the same woman Tony had first shown me on his computer screen. “Instructions to find her current whereabouts and report back to him were included with the photo.”
“They do look as if they could be the same person.”
“I ran a facial recognition program that matched the two photos and came up with this.” He pulled up a third photo. It was of a woman who looked similar to the woman in the first photo, but she had short brown hair peppered with gray and looked to be around sixty. “The name of the woman in the second photo is Betty Weston.
“So, do you think Linnea and Betty are the same person?”
“I think they might be.”
“So, are you going to tell all this to the person you’ve been communicating with?”
Tony shook his head. “I’m not, but I would like to speak to this woman. If Betty Weston is indeed Linnea Karlsson, I’m hoping she can give me some insight as to why your father or someone pretending to be your father might be looking for her.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“I know where Betty Weston was last seen, which is where she appears to live.” Tony looked up from the computer screen. “I know we planned to clean and sort this weekend, but how would you feel about a trip to Logan, Utah.”
“What about the animals?”
“I can ask Shaggy to stay at my place with the animals.”
I nodded. “Okay. If Shaggy can pet sit, I’m in. Can your friend fly us to Logan?”
“I haven’t called him yet. If he can’t, we can fly commercial. It’s not all that far.”
I went into my bedroom to change into jeans and a t-shirt while Tony called Shaggy, who was happy to pet sit as long as he could have a guest. I imagined his guest would be Shanti. Tony said to pack for two nights, although we’d likely just stay one. I did that while he called his friend with the jet who could give us a lift to Utah as long as we could go tonight because he was booked with a flight to the east coast tomorrow. I asked Tony about the return trip, and he said his friend could pick us up on Sunday, so we decided to make a weekend out of it.
I wasn’t sure what the weather would be like there over the weekend, so I packed both shorts and jeans, threw in several sunny tops, a couple sweatshirts, and decided to add a pair of slacks and a lightweight sweater in case a dressier occasion should arise. I also included a pair of tennis shoes as well as a pair of sandals. Once I was done, I made sure we had everything we needed for the animals and then loaded them into Tony’s truck. We’d drop them off at his place, he’d pack what he needed, and then we’d head to the airport in Kalispell where we’d meet the pilot.
It hadn’t been my plan to spend the weekend sleuthing with Tony, but I found the prospect of a weekend away, even if it was just to Utah, appealing. It’d been a while since Tony and I had the time to go anywhere. I loved White Eagle, but it was a mostly isolated small town, which could feel confining at times.
“I booked us a suite at a lodge outside Logan. I’ll rent us a car at the airport so we can get around freely, but the idea of a lodge on a lake sounded a bit more romantic than something in town.”
“It sounds nice. Do they have a restaurant?”
“A very nice restaurant. The term lodge might conjure a rustic image in your mind, but this particular lodge is upscale with all the amenities. They even have a heated pool and spa area. I figure our conversation with Betty will take an hour or two, and since we have the whole weekend, we might as well relax.”
“I think that sounds absolutely perfect.”
The flight was uneventful, and the drive out to the lodge from the airport enjoyable. The lodge actually consisted of the main building that housed the common areas, including a reception area, business center, restaurant, bar, gym, and spa area. The lodging was provided in individual cabins that were scattered around the property and connected with well-lit walkways. There was a rushing river behind the cabin we were assigned, which fed into a small lake just beyond the main lodge and pool area. The mountains, still covered in snow, towered in the background, providing a nice contrast to the green grass and colorful spring flowers in the valley below.
