Barking with the Stars Read online

  “We don’t want you to think that we’re taking advantage of you in any way.” Cindy hesitated. “But our fan base would love to know about this event and your role in working with Purple.”

  “Your remembrance of her,” Yuki added.

  “We’re hoping you’d consider doing an interview for us. We’d write it together and then it would appear in both the Purple Fan Club, USA newsletter and the Murasaki in Japan.”

  They seemed so sincere. And truly the two were completely oblivious to the idea that though the “Posers” took advantage of Purple’s fame, they were doing much the same.

  “I’m sure Mandy would love to do something like that,” I suggested. “Or maybe Sunny Simone, the head of the Warriors for the Paws?”

  “Mandy hasn’t been talking to us since Purple’s death.” Cindy frowned. “She’s always been good about getting us interviews and answering questions.”

  “She’s probably grieving herself,” I said gently.

  “Oh, I’m sure you’re right.” Cindy had the grace to look a bit guilty. “That’s undoubtedly the case. It’s just so out of the ordinary for her.”

  “If you would think about an interview, we’d be very grateful.” Yuki made one last pitch.

  After the two left, I packed up, made a quick stop at the grocery store, and headed home.

  I had a text from Diana that Rufus would be sending me an email with the new lineup for this weekend’s event. I answered, threw together a quick dinner, and then changed into comfy clothes.

  Wow. I really needed that run on the beach. I considered Malone’s caution about being aware of my surroundings, but there would be plenty of people on Main Beach on a beautiful evening like this. It really wouldn’t be risky.

  I sighed. Ultimately, Malone’s caution and all the things I needed to do won out and I decided to postpone it yet again.

  I sat down with a cup of tea and the list that Rufus had emailed. There weren’t a lot of changes to the event lineup, other than, of course, the main star who would open the show and do the finale.

  We’d planned to have a few of the veterans and their therapy dogs for both, and I’d talked with Purple and the others about the potential for issues with pet dogs and therapy dogs. It probably wouldn’t hurt to remind the stars, who were appearing with their dogs, that they shouldn’t pet or give treats to the therapy dogs. It seems clear to those of us who work with dogs that therapy dogs are working, but I know from experience that well-meaning people simply forget. The important thing, if we were to pull this off, was to keep a stable environment for the canines. A high-maintenance temperament would be stressed by the tension of a big event. What things could we do that would keep the atmosphere calm?

  I smiled to myself as I realized the direction of my thoughts. I wasn’t sure if I was worried about the dogs or the stars. Probably a bit of both.

  Nora Worthington would come in just before the event. Probably just the night before, I thought. Because I hadn’t had a chance to talk with her like I had with Purple, I should probably email her some of my ideas for keeping everything on an even keel. I picked up my phone and texted Rufus to see if he could get me her email address or forward an email to her.

  Just as I hit send and leaned back on the couch, my doorbell rang.

  Setting aside my cup of tea and the two cats, I went to see who it was.

  Peeking through the curtains, I spotted Detective Malone’s silver Camaro, and unlocked the door.

  “Detective.” I waved him in. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “I wanted to stop by and let you know that we didn’t find any fingerprints on the note that was left on your car.” He followed me into the kitchen. “Other than yours.”

  “I’m not surprised.” I held up a glass. “I have soda, tea, wine, or something stronger if you like.”

  “Water’s fine.” He leaned on the counter. “Unless you have coffee.”

  “Kinda late for coffee, isn’t it?”

  “I’ve still got a bunch of paperwork to finish.” He walked back to the living room and sat on the arm of the sofa. The two cats eyed him. “It’s back to the office after this.”

  “I’ll make some coffee.” I reached for the freshly ground beans. “It won’t take a minute. Dare I ask how the investigation is going?”

  “Unfortunately, it’s not going anywhere.” He rose from the arm of the couch not even noticing the cats who switched their tails and frowned at him. “There’s not much to report.”

  Malone paced my small living room and then walked to the patio door and stared outside. I wondered if he even saw my colorful terrace or the ocean view. Eventually he went back to the arm of the sofa.

  “Anything turn up on Trevor from the license plate?” I asked casually, afraid to show too much interest.

  “Not much.” He got up and began pacing again. Thelma and Louise tipped their heads and followed his movements back and forth. “His name is Trevor Lang, and he’s known the victim for a very long time. They were in a band together when she was just starting out.”

  “They were?” I wished I’d known that little tidbit. I could have asked my new friends, Cindy and Yuki. I’d bet they had some background info on Mr. Trevor Lang.

  The coffee was done and the bold aroma made me crave a cup of my own. But unlike Malone, I was not going back to the office, and sure didn’t need caffeine to keep me awake. Unfortunately, my worries about Barking with the Stars, and my theories about Purple’s murder were more than enough to do that.

  “I’ll make a call tomorrow and ask Mandy about their disagreement and what she knows about his relationship with Purple.” I could tell he was making a note in his head.

  I handed him a mug of coffee, and he stopped pacing long enough to take a sip.

  “The guy seemed really wound up when he was at Purple’s house. Got kind of physical with Mandy.” I refilled my tea infuser and dropped it into a cup. “And when I tried to talk to him, he took off. Seemed like someone with something to hide.”

  “Caro, I’ll check it out, but I’m afraid our best suspect is still your ex-husband.” Malone had always been nothing if not straight with me.

  “I know.” I sighed. “And you know what I think about that.”

  “I do.” Malone almost smiled. “He had the opportunity and leaving the scene without offering aid or calling for help doesn’t help his case.” He paused and took another sip of coffee. “But I tend to agree with you that he doesn’t have much of a motive. But the truth is we haven’t uncovered anyone with much of a motive.”

  “You’ve talked to Drake Owen, her fiancé?”

  “He came to collect her effects today and to find out about when the autopsy would be done.”

  “I guess he was here to help with the arrangements. She didn’t have any family left.” I hesitated to mention the discrepancy in Drake’s story. Danny could have easily been mistaken, or I could have misunderstood.

  “That’s what Mandy, the assistant, told us,” Malone said.

  “What about the will?” I’d wondered about the inheritance with no relatives in the picture. “Does anyone stand to profit?”

  “Not really.” He finished off the coffee. “She left some to Mandy Barton, the assistant. She left her dog to the lady that helped her with it and a considerable amount of money to take care of the dog. She left a chunk to a veteran’s group in her grandfather’s name. Nothing remarkable to any one person.”

  “Any word on the security cameras?” As long as he was chatty, I would continue to ask questions. “Or the missing auction items?”

  “Appears the cameras were hacked.” He took his empty cup to the kitchen and set it in the sink. “We have a list of the items, but there’s no rhyme or reason to why some things were taken and others weren’t.”

  There
had to be a reason. We just weren’t seeing it. “Was there something that was extremely valuable that was taken?”

  He shook his head. “A doll, a wig, lunch box, bobblehead, that kind of thing. Crazy stuff.”

  Believe me, I knew. I’d watched as Mandy had unpacked most of it.

  “I understand the price depends on both the rarity and the fans’ interest.” I hadn’t realized what a market there was for memorabilia, but after talking to Cindy and Yuki, it seemed there was the potential to make a killing, no pun intended, in the collectible market. “I assume you’re looking at robbery.”

  “We’re looking at everything.” Malone headed for the door just as my phone rang.

  I picked it up and glanced at the number. It was Sam.

  Shoot. I had one more thing I needed to mention to Malone before he got away.

  “Do you need to get that?” he asked.

  “Not right now.” I hesitated and then pushed the button to let the call go directly to voicemail. “I assume you’ve done some follow-up on Purple’s stalker?”

  “We have.” He crossed his arms. “Do you have additional info on the stalker?”

  “No, it just it came up when I was talking to the fan club presidents.”

  “Talking or questioning?” Malone interrupted.

  “Talking.” I shrugged. “They came to me. Stopped by my office.”

  Now I had his attention.

  “They say anything else pertinent to my murder investigation?”

  “Not really.” I ran my hand through my hair, reviewing the day in my head. I thought I’d covered everything.

  He watched me for a couple of beats and then started toward the door again.

  “Oh, I almost forgot.” I grabbed the bag I’d dropped right by the entry when I’d gotten home. “What do you make of this?” I pulled out the cryptic note with the phone number Tania had given me. Like the other note, I’d put this one in a plastic bag. I was becoming a regular CSI.

  Malone looked at it, flipped it over, and then looked at me. “Nothing more?”

  I shook my head.

  “Where’d you get it?” he asked.

  “One of the staff people at the hotel said she was asked to give it to me.”

  Malone handed it back to me.

  “I don’t think it has anything to do with Purple’s death or with the investigation.” In fact, I wondered if it might be Mr. Swanson trying another tactic on the brooch. Tania had described a female but she didn’t have much of a description, and for all I knew Swanson was married and his wife was in on the scam. However, given the situation I felt like I needed to at least show it to Malone.

  “What makes you think it doesn’t?” Malone waited.

  “It didn’t seem threatening, just kind of cloak and dagger-ish.” I shrugged.

  “You called the number?” Malone asked and then slapped his forehead. “What am I saying? Of course, you called it.”

  “I did. But no one answered and there wasn’t an option to leave a message.” I frowned. “It seems like a lot of trouble to go to and then not answer.”

  “I’ll take it and have the lab run it for prints.” Malone held out his hand.

  “I’d like to try the call again.” Though I didn’t think it had a connection to Purple’s murder, I didn’t know that for sure. There’d been the other note and now this.

  “Try it right now,” he suggested.

  I glanced at my phone. The voicemail icon on the screen blinked indicating a waiting message. I punched in the number on the notecard and pushed the button for speaker. The call rang and rang. No answer.

  Malone held out his hand again, and I reluctantly gave up the note. “We may find some prints or we may be able to tell something from the paper.”

  “It doesn’t look like the other note. It may have nothing to do with the investigation.” If it was Swanson, I’d love to have some intel on him, but I wasn’t ready to bring up the brooch hostage situation to Malone.

  “It may not.” Malone opened the door. “Or it may.”

  “Fine.”

  “I’ll let you know if they find anything.” He didn’t say “lock this door behind me,” but he gave me the look.

  When Malone was gone, I locked up.

  It wasn’t that late. I could call Sam back. But he would be home in a couple of days and we could talk in person. He’d said he definitely planned to be in town for the big event.

  I set the phone aside. What a chicken I was. I couldn’t handle another awkward conversation where Sam and I danced around anything of substance with polite talk. Heck, we were on a verge of talking about the weather.

  Then I picked the phone back up and played the message.

  “I can’t wait,” his message said. “I miss you so much.”

  The truth was, I missed him, too. Though I wasn’t clear about where we were going, or even where I wanted our relationship to go. That’s why not calling him was so much safer than calling him. Schrodinger’s cat and all that.

  Chapter Thirteen

  AFTER A NIGHT of tossing and turning, I was glad I’d pre-loaded the coffee pot before going to bed. I unloaded the dishwasher as I waited for the coffee to brew, thinking again about the information Malone had shared.

  I flipped open the notebook with my to-do list for the day. On one of the pages was the list of suspects I’d started the day after the murder. Callum MacAvoy had shown up at the office, and I’d never gone back to it.

  MacAvoy. I added a note to my to-do list to check with Sunny and see what the timing was on the Nora Worthington news. Was I okay to share that with MacAvoy now? He truly had helped with getting the news out about the new place for fans to leave memorials.

  After jotting down the reminder, I went back to my suspect list. I’d listed all the people I’d met that had anything to do with Purple. Mandy, Sheron, Geoffrey. I had Drake on the list, though at the time I’d not yet met him. I’d listed “the fans.” I hadn’t known names at that point, but I added Cindy and Yuki, though clearly it was extremely unlikely as neither had any motive. However, as Malone had said, so far no one had motive. I added Trevor Lang to the list. And the Purple Poser, Marsha Reilley, who Cindy and Yuki had said was trying to get in touch with me. I also added Lew Simpson, the collector, they had told me about.

  Ah, thank goodness, my coffee was done. I took my cup and sat down with my laptop. I looked up “security cameras.” Whoo boy, had times changed. I was still imagining the security systems you saw in the movies where blurry movements and shady motions were recorded. And where disabling a security system required fancy moves such as repelling down an elevator shaft like George Clooney and Matt Damon in Ocean’s Eleven.

  According to the companies offering security, you could retrieve recordings, reposition cameras, and download videos from a computer or even a phone. I’d seen the ads where you could monitor your home while lying on the beach, but I’d wanted a better understanding of how the corporate versions worked.

  I knew Malone and crew had undoubtedly already talked to hotel security and the security camera company and knew all this. They had that part covered. What Malone and crew didn’t have was the access to the fan club folks and the Purple Posers like I did. The fans had intimate knowledge about the memorabilia and the auction items and, the way I looked at it, they’d be much more likely to give up intel to me than to the police.

  I didn’t have anything planned for the day, except the meeting with Rufus later to go over logistics on the PTSD dogs. Mandy had not returned my call, but she had told me to send a bill for my services to date the day Purple had fired me. Maybe I’d just get that ready and drop it off in person. I wanted to better understand what it was Trevor had been after. He topped my list at the moment.

  I assumed Geoffrey was still working with Lavender
. Hopefully I wouldn’t run in to him. I was afraid I was completely out of patience where he was concerned.

  He had KK’s dog, Scamp, and a couple of others that he’d convinced to drop me, so I would have to see him during the event.

  I hoped Warriors for the Paws would raise a ton of money. I hoped Nora Worthington would bring a boatload of attention to Barking with the Stars. I hoped we would help a ton of veterans. But I also couldn’t wait for this weekend to be over.

  The unseasonably warm weather was predicted to continue, but the morning temp was decent. The bright blue of the sky promised a perfect southern California day. I showered and dressed for the day in a bright Johnny Was handkerchief-hem dress. It was light and fun and I hoped it would transition from snooping to working. I slipped on low canvas Via Spiga sneakers. They were a bright cobalt blue and would be easy on my feet.

  The morning rush was over so the drive from my house to the exclusive Diamond Cove gated community didn’t take long. Apparently I was still on the visitor list because the security guard had me sign in like before on his tablet and then waved me through.

  I parked my car in Purple’s drive. There wasn’t a construction truck on site today. I wondered if the remodeling was complete or if the crew had moved on. Would the renovations continue with the homeowner dead? Mandy had her hands full with sorting everything out.

  I wondered about her relationship with Drake and who would be making those kinds of decisions. Sometimes situations like this brought out either the best or the worst in people. Hopefully Mandy and Drake were in agreement on things. I supposed there was an executor. Malone hadn’t said anything about who that was and I hadn’t thought to ask.

  I rang the doorbell and the crimson-haired lady answered again.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name last time,” I apologized. “I’m the pet therapist.”

  “Greta,” she said. “Sheron is eating. Doggie too.” Greta didn’t smile but her expression wasn’t unpleasant. I couldn’t figure out her role. Was she a sort of housekeeper?

  “Is Mandy in?” I hoped for the best.