Trouble at the Animal Shelter: A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Read online

  TROUBLE AT THE ANIMAL SHELTER

  By

  Dianne Harman

  (A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery - Book 11)

  Copyright © 2017 Dianne Harman

  www.dianneharman.com

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form without written permission except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1541267176

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To You, My Readers:

  Thank you for buying and borrowing my books. I appreciate you reaching out to me time and again with suggestions and letting me know what you like about my books, and occasionally, what you don’t like. I carefully review all of the input I receive from you. I know your time is valuable, and I truly appreciate you taking time to share your thoughts with me.

  I would be remiss if I didn’t thank you for the time you take from your busy schedules to read my books. That is the biggest gift I can be given, and I want you to know how much it’s appreciated by me.

  As always, a special thank you to Vivek and Tom. Vivek, for providing such beautiful book covers, sound advice, and the ability to make the technical parts of publishing a book look easy. Tom, for your support, suggestions, being my best friend, and sharing your life with me for so many years!

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  Table of Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  Recipes!

  ABOUT DIANNE

  PROLOGUE

  When he turned the corner in his black and white Beaver County patrol car, Deputy Brandon Wynn saw the flames and smoke coming from the house. He radioed the fire department dispatch operator and reported the fire as he pulled up in front of the house. A few moments later Fire Chief Wayne Rogers radioed him back requesting further details about the fire.

  “Chief, got a fire in an old farmhouse on the west side of town on Cinder Street. Looks like it’s just getting started. I don’t have the exact address, but you won’t be able to miss it. Just look for the big column of smoke. Better hurry,” he said as he pressed the don’t talk button on his radio.

  Wouldn’t you know it. I thought tonight would be a slow night and now this. Well, fires are the chief’s concern, not mine. I just want to make sure no one’s trapped inside the house. The woman who called said she heard a lot of dogs barking at the house in question, but she sure didn’t say anything about a fire.

  When he opened his patrol car door he heard a number of dogs frantically barking, and from the sound of them, they were still in the house. Brandon raced up to the front door, pulled on the doorknob, and threw it open. Dogs of every breed, size, and type ran out of the house. He stood looking in amazement, not believing what he was seeing. He estimated at least thirty dogs had been in the house. Fortunately, the big yard of the old farmhouse was fenced, so none of them escaped.

  A fire truck roared up the street just as he was placing a call to the Cedar Bay Animal Shelter director, Jenna Lee, to have people come and round up the dogs. When the fire truck came to a stop, members of the four-man crew jumped out and within ten minutes they had the fire extinguished. The firemen walked into the house to make sure there weren’t any hot spots left. A moment later one of the firemen hurried out of the house and yelled, “Deputy, you better come here. Looks like there may have been a reason for this fire.”

  Brandon followed the fireman inside. He motioned for Brandon to follow him down the hall. When they entered a bedroom at the end of the hall he saw a white-haired woman’s body lying on the bed in a pool of blood. There was a large bullet hole in the center of her chest. He walked over to her, but there was no reason to check for a pulse. She was obviously dead. He gently pulled her eyelids over her eyes, knowing she would never see anything again.

  He turned to the fireman that had led him to the bedroom and said as he walked out of the room, “There’s a good chance the fire was deliberately started by whoever murdered that poor woman in the bedroom. Probably hoped the fire would destroy any evidence of the crime. Have your men treat the fire as arson and start looking for evidence. I need to make a couple of calls.”

  A few minutes later a woman approached him as he was walking down the hall and said, “Brandon, what’s going on? There must be over thirty dogs running loose in the yard. I don’t know where we’ll put all of them. The shelter’s almost at capacity as it is,” Jenna Lee, the director of the shelter, said.

  “Jenna, I have no idea. You know as much as I do. Can you round up the dogs and take them to the shelter for now? Maybe you can get some volunteers to place them in foster homes for a few days until all of this gets sorted out.”

  “Sure. I’ll see what I can do. I brought the only van we have, and I’m going to have to make a number of trips to get all of them transported to the shelter. One of my helpers came with me, and we brought a lot of leashes. We’ll get started immediately.” She walked away, unaware that a woman had been murdered and was in the next room.

  Brandon pressed in Mike Reynolds’ telephone number on his cell phone. Mike was the sheriff of Beaver County and the one who would be overseeing the murder investigation. “Mike, hate to ruin your evening, but it looks like we’ve got a murder on our hands.” He told him what he and the fireman had found as well as the problem of getting the dogs to the shelter.

  “You and Kelly will be here as soon as you can? Good. Jenna could use some help. There’s dogs everywhere you look. It’s a real mess. See you in a few.”

  CHAPTER 1

  “Kelly, I’m still not real clear on how visiting a nursing home with a dog works. I thought they weren’t allowed in places like that, although I’d think any nursing home would be honored to have these three come and visit,” he said as he looked down at the dogs lying at his feet.

  Rebel, the fawn colored big boxer Kelly owned before she’d married Mike a couple of years ago, was clearly the alpha dog of the group. On one side of him was Lady, a yellow Lab that Mike had given Kelly right before they were married, and on the other side of him was Skyy, a German shepherd puppy given to them after the owner of the Doggie Love Kennel had been murdered.

  Kelly reached down and petted each of the dogs who continued to peacefully sleep. “Mike, I don’t know much about it either. You know Roxie, my right-hand waitress at Kelly’s Koffee Shop. She has a neighbor who fell and broke her hip. Her doctor felt she needed to spend some time in a nursing home before she went back to her
own home.

  “Roxie visited her yesterday, and while she was there she got to talking to the director of the Cedar Bay Nursing Home. You know how Roxie likes to talk. Anyway, from what she said, it’s the only nursing home in the county, and her neighbor felt very lucky she was able to get admitted.

  The director and Roxie were talking about recent changes in the nursing home industry, and she told Roxie she’d just read an article in an industry journal about the positive effect dogs can have on patients during their period of recuperation. According to the article, it said after only five minutes with a dog, a patient’s stress hormone, I think she said it was called ‘cortisol,’ went down substantially. I guess that would be pretty significant when people are recuperating and trying to regain their health.”

  “Well, that’s probably true, but I fail to see what any of that has to do with you,” Mike said.

  “Here’s the thing. Our dogs have been in the coffee shop a number of times, in fact Lady and Skyy were just puppies when I started taking them to work with me. Anyway, long story short, Roxie told her how well-trained and gentle Rebel was and suggested she call me to see if I’d be interested in visiting the nursing home with him, maybe once or twice a week. She called me, and I agreed to do it. Since I really don’t have time to help out at the animal shelter, I felt this would be a way for me to give back to the community, and we’re going the day after tomorrow. This is all new territory for me and for Rebel, so I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.”

  “Between keeping the coffee shop open all week and with all there is to do here at the house, to say nothing of when your children and grandchildren visit, I’m not really sure you need to take on anything new. Seems to me the nursing home and the patients have survived without you and Rebel so far, and they probably could continue to get along just fine.”

  Kelly started to interrupt him, but he stopped her and said, “Just a minute, I haven’t finished what I was going to say. What I was getting ready to say is that I know if your mind’s made up about something, that’s it, and I’d be wasting my breath if I said anything else. Would I be right?”

  “Yes, and I’m glad you finally realize it. Now bear with me, I’m going to change the subject. I’ll make you a deal. If you clean up the dishes, I’ll fix dinner. How does that sound?”

  “You’re on,” he said as he took the ringing cell phone out of his shirt pocket and said, “I better take this. It’s my deputy, Brandon.”

  Kelly walked into the kitchen and began taking things out of the refrigerator and pantry in preparation for dinner. A moment later Mike walked in. “Kelly, I think dinner’s going to have to wait, and I need your help. Evidently there was a fire in a farmhouse on the west side of town. Looks like it might have been set to disguise a murder that took place there.”

  “Oh, no. I’m happy to help, Mike, but you usually don’t ask for it. How come this time?”

  He motioned to the dogs to get in their kennels and turned to her. “Looks like the person who was killed had a lot of dogs in the house. They got out in time, but the Cedar Bay Animal Shelter is just about at maximum capacity as it is right now. I told Brandon you’d help the director, Jenna Lee, transport some dogs there. I’ll take my patrol car, and you can follow me in your minivan.”

  “Do you know who was killed?” she asked as they walked towards the door leading to the garage.

  “No. Brandon sounded pretty frantic, and I heard a lot of barking in the background. I’m sure he’ll have a lot more to tell me when we get there. Ready?”

  “Yes, somehow dogs have really become a big part of my life. I sure never saw all of this happening when I got Rebel from the deceased drug agent’s wife a few years ago.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Mike turned on his siren, and Kelly followed him as they raced to the old farmhouse on the west side of town. Ten minutes later they parked their cars behind a fire engine in front of a house which was obviously the one where the fire had taken place. Mike got out of his car and hurried into the house with Kelly following right behind him.

  “Mike, glad you’re here,” Brandon said. “The woman who was murdered is Maggie Ryan. Funny thing, she was my teacher when I was in elementary school. That was over twenty years ago. She was a spinster then, and from the looks of it, she never did get married. I have a couple of guys from the department securing the house as a crime scene and doing the necessary DNA gathering and dusting for fingerprints. Follow me.”

  They walked down the hall and entered the bedroom where the body of Maggie Ryan was lying, apparently killed by a gunshot to her chest. Although the fire had been quickly put out by the firemen, the smell of smoke was thick in the house.

  “Brandon, it doesn’t look like there was a lot of fire damage to the house. Did someone see the flames and call 911?”

  “No, that’s the strange thing, Sheriff. A call came in about barking dogs, but there was no mention of a fire. Looks like the fire was probably set deliberately to cover up any evidence concerning the murder of Miss Ryan.” He noticed Kelly standing behind Mike and said, “Mrs. Reynolds, Jenna sure could use some help with the dogs. She should be back any minute from making the first run to the animal shelter. Any chance you can give her a hand?”

  “Of course. I’ll go outside and wait for her. I see the coroner’s van pulling up, and I know both of you have things you need to do right now, so I’ll get out of the way and help Jenna. Don’t worry, Brandon, we’ll make sure the dogs are all right.”

  Kelly walked outside as the grey van with the words “Cedar Bay Animal Shelter” written on it drove up to the fence gate. Jenna’s assistant, a young college student, got out of the van and opened the gate for her. Fortunately, the owner of the property had built a double gate so the dogs couldn’t inadvertently get out of the yard. Kelly waved to Jenna and walked over to the van.

  “Kelly, I’m so happy to see you. Brandon called and said you could help me, and believe me, I could sure use some help. This is Sam,” she said gesturing to the young man who was putting leashes on dogs and then loading them into the van. “He drove the van while I made telephone calls. I was able to get some additional volunteers to help at the shelter. I don’t know if Brandon mentioned it to you, but we’re almost maxed out in space there as it is.”

  “That’s what I hear. Do you have enough dog beds for them?”

  “I told the volunteers to call Dr. Simpson, the vet, and see if he had any extras. I also told them to call a couple of the stores in town and see if they would donate a few beds. Since it’s early evening, I think most of them will still be open. I also called the pet store, and they’re going to donate some food. Dr. Simpson is coming out to the shelter once we get all of the dogs there and check them out. I need to keep these dogs away from the ones that are already at the shelter, because I have no idea what their shot record status is. What a mess.”

  Kelly put her hand on the young woman’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to make this work. Would you ask Sam to give me a hand? I can take about four dogs at a time in my minivan. After we’ve each made a couple more trips, we should be able to get all of them to the shelter. By then we’ll have a better idea what we’re dealing with.”

  “Sam, when you’re finished loading the van, give Kelly a hand,” Jenna said to the young man who was putting the dogs in the animal shelter van. “Thanks, Kelly, see you at the shelter.”

  Two hours later, volunteers had cordoned off an area of the shelter grounds for the rescued dogs. Additional volunteers had picked up food, dog beds, pet dishes, and other necessities. Since Dr. Simpson didn’t have any idea whether or not the dogs had been vaccinated, he gave each of them a rabies shot and a titer test. When he received the results from the titer tests, he’d be able to determine which of them, if any, would need further vaccines. He told Jenna that all of the dogs appeared to be healthy with one exception. She was a German shepherd who had a tag on her collar indicating her name was Betsy. He said g
iven the number of dogs, it was amazing only one appeared to be in poor health. Dr. Simpson put Betsy in his van and told them he was going to run some tests on her and let the shelter know what he found.

  “Jenna, I think I’ve done about as much as I can do for now. I have to be at the coffee shop at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, so I’m going to take off,” Kelly said. “I’ll call you tomorrow and see how you and the dogs are doing. I have to say I’m surprised you didn’t know someone in Cedar Bay had that many dogs in their home. I also wonder if anyone ever reported it. Seems Mike told me once we couldn’t have any more dogs because three was the limit for one household. Guess there’s some county ordinance regarding it.”

  “You’re absolutely right, and I agree it’s strange in a small town like ours someone wouldn’t have reported it. Just goes to show you never know what’s going on behind closed doors, and in this case, literally.”

  “Isn’t that the truth. Try and get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow is probably going to be pretty busy. If you’d like me to, I could post a flyer about adopting the dogs in the coffee shop or taking a foster dog in for a few days.”

  “I’d really appreciate it. I’ll put together a flyer with some of their pictures on it and bring it in to you tomorrow. That might spark some interest. Kelly, thanks for all your help tonight. When I got to the house and saw how many dogs there were, I was completely overwhelmed.”

  “Happy to do it. See you tomorrow,” Kelly said as she got in her minivan. She’d been so busy with the dogs she’d left her cell phone in the van. When she checked it for messages she saw there was a voicemail message from Mike.

  “Hi, love. Sorry, but I won’t be home tonight. The fire chief and his men are still looking at the arson angle, and Brandon and my men are searching the house for clues. When I finish up here, I need to go to the station and write up a report. By the way, you might know the woman who died. Her name was Maggie Ryan. Guess she was a retired teacher here in Cedar Bay. You might have even had her as a teacher. That’s pretty much all I know. Sleep well, say good night to the dogs for me, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”