Drool Baby (A Dog Park Mystery) (Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries) (16 page)

"I had some beers."

"That's not good enough, Dourson. Between the doughnuts and the beer, you're going to make yourself hypo-glycemic. You need some protein." She dug through
the fridge "I'll make some tuna salad to go with the greens. If you clean up this mess, I'll let you have some."

Lia set a hard boiled egg and celery on her cutting board. "You aren't here for my green smoothies?"

"I am so not here for the green smoothies."

"If you apologize for yelling, I'll apologize for not charging my phone."

"Will I still have to sleep on the couch?"

"Let me think about it."

Lia and Jim spent more than an hour arguing over the best cover story for their phone interviews. They finally realized it would work better with a
different story for each suspect. It was decided Lia had the most professional voice.

Lia geared herself up for making the phone calls by reviewing her notes and drinking some ginger tea to calm the queasiness in her stomach. She glowered at
Jim, who was sitting at the other end of the kitchen table. "Stop staring at me."

"Yes, Ma'am. I will look out into the back yard and pretend you aren't there."

"Thank you." She took a deep breath and dialed the first number on her list. It was disconnected. An answering machine picked up the next three calls, one
of them identifying the number as belonging to someone different than the person on Lia's list. She finally got a hit on the fifth call.

"Hello?" The voice was creaky with age.

"Is this Margaret Kovach?"

"Why, yes, it is. Who am I speaking to, please?"

"My name is Lia Anderson. I'm a volunteer with the Cincinnati YWCA. We're in charge of vetting nominees for this year's Turn Around Role Models. I
understand you used to be neighbors with the Woo family?"

"Oh, my, that was years ago. What's this about the Woos, dear?"

"Marie Woo has been nominated as one of this year's Turn Around Role Models. We're looking for women who have successfully built productive lives after a
troubled youth. We were hoping you could give us some background on her."

"So this is about Marie? Is she in Cincinnati, now?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"What is she doing these days?"

Lia rolled her eyes and prepared to fib a little. "She has a very successful business doing technical writing. She's also very involved in animal welfare,
and shows her Schnauzer at national dog shows."

"Goodness, all of that. Well that's nice. I always felt a little sorry for her."

"How so, Mrs. Kovach?"

"Her parents, they were immigrants, you know. And they wanted all their children to succeed. She rebelled against all that pressure, and the more she
rebelled, the more they pressured her. She was a smart enough girl, but I think she was bored with everything they wanted for her. She liked excitement,
that girl."

"What kind of excitement, Mrs. Kovach?"

"I don't want to cause her any problems. This was all a long time ago."

"No problems. We're looking for women with a troubled past."

"Well, then. She used to climb out her window at night. She and her friends would steal cars, mostly their parents', but they were too young to drive. I
know she drank. I imagine she smoked marijuana, but I don't know that for certain. It was just something young people did back then. Do they still do
that?"

"Do what?"

"Smoke marijuana. They called it grass back then."

"Yes, I believe they still do."

"Well, she and her friends crashed a few cars and got into trouble that way. One of the cars wound up in the bottom of a swimming pool. Can you imagine
that?"

"No, Ma'am."

"It cost them plenty to haul that car back out. Cost them even more to keep her out of trouble. That car they picked up on the street. Neighbors left their
keys in the visor. Asking for it, if you ask me."

"Mrs. Kovach, do you remember anything about the fire?"

"My goodness, I forgot all about that. You mean the fire at the school?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"She sure got the blame for that. All her friends broke into the science lab and were fooling around with the chemicals. I heard it was some other boy who
set the place on fire, but she was the one who got caught, and she wouldn't tell who was with her. You can imagine that really upset her parents."

"What happened?"

"This time they didn't bother keeping her out of trouble. She went to a reform school for a year. Then she ran away as soon as she got out. She was the
youngest. All her brothers and sisters were gone to college, or graduated and working. Her family moved. Said they were downsizing since they didn't have
any children at home, but I think it had more to do with Marie and everything that happened. You say she owns a business now?"

"She does, and she's doing very well."

"Well, that's good. I always felt sorry for her. Some kids get a wild hair, and there's no making them fit in, no matter how hard you push. But I never
thought she was a bad girl. Is that what you wanted to know?"

"You've been very helpful."

"Is she going to get that award?"

"I can't say. But she certainly has a chance. Thank you for your time."

Lia hung up the phone. "Margaret doesn't think she set the fire. Says she took the rap for her friends. Everything else was just joy-riding and partying.
She seemed to like Marie. She didn't say anything about her being mean or hurting anyone." She stretched her arms over her head. "Do you think we need
anymore interviews on Marie?"

"How many more numbers do you have?"

"Three."

"Give them a shot, then let's call it quits for today."

One person hung up on her. One number was out of order, and on the last number she got an answering machine. "If we need to go back later, there are three
numbers that might work. I'm glad you want to quit now. If I had to switch up stories right now, I might forget who I am and why I'm calling." She closed
the Bucky book. "You sure you don't want to do some of these? You could do Anna's. That's the one where she's dating a very wealthy man, and his children
are investigating her. You could be a private eye, couldn't you?"

"You're doing just fine."

"I'll bet."

The first thing Peter did when he got back to Lia's after work was pet the dogs. The second thing was pop a beer. The third thing he did was plop down on
the couch next to Lia. She was engrossed in the TV screen and did not look at him.

"Sure is nice coming home to a pretty woman after a hard day's work," he said to nobody.

"Tell you what. After you move back to your place, I'll send you a blow up doll to keep you company."

"Ouch. What are you watching? Not 'The Bachelor', is it?"

"'The Bachelorette.' And if you touch the remote, I will break off your fingers and feed them to the dogs."

"There's got to be a ball game happening somewhere in the world right now."

"A great reason not to have cable."

Peter took a resigned pull from his beer. He decided to watch, so maybe he would understand. Watching didn't help. When a commercial came, he said. "Okay,
explain it to me."

"Explain what?"

"Why do you watch this show?"

"I'm a girl. We were all raised on Cinderella. This is Cinderella, sort of."

"Is that what you want? Twenty guys panting after you while you wear evening gowns and fly to Tahiti?"

"Are you kidding? Did you see those heels she was wearing? And those nails?"

"Okay, forget the evening gowns. What about the twenty guys with hot jobs and styled hair."

"Nah. Those guys all want a high-maintenance female."

"You know those relationships never last, don't you?"

"Well, duh. I'd swear the girl who got picked on the last show has borderline personality disorder. I'm just waiting for that to blow up. So far it's still
lovey-dovey, but he hasn't had to live with her yet."

"So what's the attraction?"

Lia sighed. "Look, I'm female. The Cinderella thing is hard-wired into all females."

"I thought you said it was bullshit."

"It is. So my romantic side gets a Cinderella fix, and my rational side gets to laugh at how unreal it is."

"So you're not buying into it."

"Nah. This show thinks romance is roses and champagne."

"It's not?"

"Anybody can buy a dozen roses and a bottle of Dom. It takes no imagination. Roses are about the most unromantic thing I can think of."

"So you don't want to be that girl dating a dozen guys at once?"

"Dourson," She looked him in the eye. "Do you buy into those 18 year old pin-ups with the silicone boob jobs?"

"Umm - uhh . . ."

"You do know they're airbrushed, right?"

"Well, yeah . . ."

"And you know they're not really real, right?"

"Umm . . . uh . . . right . . .?"

"So why do you look?"

"Uh . . . I'm a guy?"

"Exactly. Not that I want your porno laying around my apartment. Now, shush, the show's back on."

She leaned back against him. This time she gave him a play-by-play. "See that studly guy going off with Amanda? He thinks he's the hottest thing going.
He's got a good line, but if you listen carefully, he's really competitive and he wants her to be his arm candy. He's the guy who will start sniping if she
gains a few pounds. . . . Okay, this guy with the floppy hair? He's worried that Studly is getting too much time with Amanda, so he's going to interrupt. .
. . This guy with the baby face, he's a single dad and he thinks he's more mature than anyone else, but whenever there's a problem in the house, he's in
the middle of it. . . . Now that guy hanging back in the corner is the one she really likes, only Studly is too conceited to consider him competition."

Peter shook his head. "This is like a sport to you."

Lia shrugged. "You could say that. Kind of like getting a bunch of your pin-ups to play baseball."

Peter, being a cop, recognized a dangerous situation when he saw one. He decided not to comment. "So if roses and champagne don't do it for you, what is
your idea of romance?"

"Hmm. It's not big gestures. I think paying to have the jumbotron flash a marriage proposal is a big waste of money. To me, romance is not about impressing
someone."

"It's not?"

"Nope. Guys tend to be competitive, and they think the bigger and more expensive it is, the more romantic it is, and they're wrong. Romance isn't about
money. It's about timing and imagination, and knowing someone, paying attention. That orchid you left at the studio for me was awfully romantic."

"I'm glad you think so." He kissed her temple.

"But if you just keep giving me plants, it starts to look lazy. You want to know what I think is romantic right now?"

"Go ahead, shoot."

"It's you trying so hard to understand what I like about this dumb show, when I know it bores you to death."

"How much time is there left on this dumb show?"

"She's about to give out roses, maybe ten minutes."

He slid a hand under her t-shirt and rested it companionably on her stomach. "Maybe after you've had your Cinderella fix, you can let me know what else you
think is romantic."

"Okay, Fearless Leader, where do you want to start?" Lia opened the meeting by batting her eyelashes at Peter.

Peter reached into the fridge and pulled out a beer. "Want one, Jim?"

Jim shook his head.

"Just give me what you've got. Jim, you start."

"I have a list of alibis for Terry's fall. Jose and Charlie were working, like we thought. Nadine was gardening, that puts her outside and out of sight for
much of the morning. Marie was working, that means she was at home with no one to verify. Anna was shopping, up by Northgate."

"So the men are out. And all the women are still in," Peter said.

"What if we pull up a credit card receipt for Anna, wouldn't that leave her out?" Lia asked. "It would have the date and time on it."

"That can be misleading," Peter explained. "Terry was up on that roof for over an hour. We don't know exactly when the ladder was booby-trapped, just when
he fell. Plenty of time for someone to get from his place to Northgate and make a few purchases. And if she was smart, she would have made a purchase
before, ran down to his house, fixed the ladder, and ran back up for more shopping. Unless you have enough receipts to show that she had less than thirty
minutes unaccounted for, then it's not enough."

"I'm going back through her credit cards anyway."

"Go ahead, I'll be interested in what you come up with. How did the phone interviews go?"

"Lia should go into acting," Jim said. "I would have believed her if I hadn't been sitting here watching her."

"Aw, shucks. You're sweet," Lia said. "You came up with the scenarios."

"Enough with the mutual admiration society. What did you find out?"

Lia wrinkled her nose at Peter. "Marie was a delinquent, but she was mostly rebelling against strict parents. And the neighbor believes someone else set
the fire she was convicted for."

"What about Nadine and Anna?"

"Neighbors say Anna was a straight arrow. Only child of an older couple. Spent a lot of time taking care of her dad after her mom died. Good student. Hard
worker. Didn't date much, so the cover story of the rich boyfriend made the neighbors happy. They were sorry to see her move out of the neighborhood."

"And Nadine?"

"The most interesting thing we found out about Nadine was that she had a breakdown after her daughter died. She was doing some strange things, leaving the
house half-dressed, walking out of stores without paying. Screaming at the neighbors for no good reason. The family stepped in. Her sister-in-law came to
help out and they put her on some heavy tranquilizers. Xanax, and some others. She met Lou in grief therapy. Rumor has it that they started seeing each
other before her husband died."