All Shots

woman, had been stealing identities; she’d been an identity thief. Had she been a dog thief, too? Exactly what did Mellie know about her? And maybe about her murder? And what did Kevin know about Mellie herself? What could he find out?
    With no success, I again tried to reach Kevin at every number I had. The last number was the one he shared with his mother. A Seventh-Day Adventist, Mrs. Dennehy refused to have meat or alcohol in the house, and she’d always felt a little resentful about my willingness to make room in my refrigerator for Kevin’s hamburger and beer. Also, before Kevin got involved with Jennifer Pasquarelli and before I married Steve, Mrs. Dennehy had harbored the suspicion that her son and I were also sharing space that was more hot than cold. Still, to her credit, she’d always been polite and even pleasant to me, in fact, more pleasant than she was to Jennifer, whom she simply couldn’t stand.
    “Mrs. Dennehy? Holly. I’m trying to reach Kevin,” I said, “but I haven’t had any luck.”
    “That Jennifer! That’s where he is. Pouring oil on troubled waters. She was sent to this training course, and what did she go and do? Sent there to learn to be nice to people, and could she manage that for as much as a week? The little miss could not. Lost that temper of hers, that’s what she did. Stamped her little feet and marched out and got in her car and drove home. And that’s where my Kevin is now. In Attleboro, of all places, trying to help her out. Pearls before swine!”
    It was the most uncharitable remark I’d ever heard Mrs. Dennehy make. In fact, so far as I could recall, it was the only one.
    “He isn’t answering his cell phone,” I said. “And I don’t have Jennifer’s number.”
    “I don’t have it. And don’t want it.”
    “I’m very sorry to hear that there’s trouble,” I said. “I won’t bother you anymore. Just, uh, if you talk to Kevin, could you tell him to call me? I have to go out soon. I should be home at nine or so.”
    “You’re a good girl,” she said, as if making an implicit comparison. “Kind to animals.”
    When we’d said good-bye, it occurred to me that for all of Jennifer’s difficulties in getting along with people, especially the residents of Newton whom she was supposed to protect, she’d never shown any animosity to animals. She was a tiger about the leash law and the pooper-scooper law, but she correctly blamed violations on dog owners rather than on dogs, and, in any case, behavior even bordering on unkindness to animals would’ve driven Kevin off long ago. How he tolerated her impossible attitude toward people was, however, beyond me. If he married Jennifer, he’d spend the rest of his life doing what I suspected he was doing now, namely, to use his mother’s phrase, pouring oil on troubled waters. At a guess, he was talking sense into Jennifer and also trying to talk the people in charge of the training course into giving Jennifer another chance. He might even succeed. While I wouldn’t go quite so far as to call Jennifer a swine, Kevin truly was a pearl among men.
    Mindful of the time, I tried to work out a plan. There was no reason to wait for Kevin to question Mellie. In fact, she might speak more freely to me than she would to anyone in authority, even Kevin, and I could pass along whatever she told me. The run-throughs started at six thirty. I’d need to leave Cambridge by about five forty-five. It was now four thirty. The dogs wouldn’t mind eating early, and I could have a quick sandwich, put Rowdy and Kimi in the van, pay a visit to Mellie, get Leah, and arrive at the event more or less on time. I placed a quick call to Mellie to ask whether I could stop in. She said yes. I put the plan into operation: feed dogs; feed self; change clothes, fresh, not fancy; give Rowdy and Kimi a minute in yard; crate them in van; give Sammy five minutes in yard; crate him in kitchen; go!
     

CHAPTER 28
     
    As I’d done the first time I’d visited Mellie, I avoided the hassle of parallel-parking the van on the narrow, car-lined street by pulling into her driveway. For once, I chose not to take the dogs with me to a place I knew they’d be welcome. At Mellie’s, Rowdy, Kimi, or both would be all too welcome. She’d fuss over them, and she’d be so distracted that I’d never persuade her to tell me anything about the woman who’d entrusted her with Strike. Streak. Rhapsody’s Woo Streak? With the blue malamute.
    The small