Bloodlines

Rinehart does know! Rinehart knows. He’s caught on to Simms.” I paused. “And to Janice Coakley. And to Diane Sweet.”
    For reasons perceptible only to dogs, Rowdy and Kimi had lost interest in the lampposts, fire hydrants, and trees, and were now setting a fast pace down Concord Avenue toward the Armory and Fresh Pond. Kevin and I were trotting after the dogs.
    The words started to tumble out of my mouth. “And, Kevin, Janice Coakley knew! Or I think she did. On Wednesday, yesterday, Janice Coakley knew that Rinehart was dead, because yesterday morning, she placed two orders for puppies, some from Rinehart—or from Rinehart Pet Mart—and some from Walter Simms, and if she knew Rinehart had caught on, and if she thought Rinehart was still alive... So Walter Simms told her, right? Either he told her he’d killed Rinehart, or else he just told her that Rinehart was dead. Anyway, she knew it was safe to keep ordering from Simms.”
    “You’re ten steps ahead,” Kevin said.
    “So Rinehart had caught on to Simms and the whole deal. Rinehart knew they were cheating him.”
    “How, I haven’t got that worked out yet, but, yeah, Rinehart caught on. More likely, he got told.”
    “Okay. So Simms goes to Your Local Breeder, and... I’m lost. Anyway, he leaves there, and he drives to Puppy Luv. And then, he, uh, either he delivers the puppies first and makes love to Diane, if you can call it that, or he delivers the puppies after. And then, for some reason, Simms murders her. He gets this dog bed, and he starts to smother her, only he ends up strangling her? Anyway, for some reason, Rinehart is there, and Simms murders him, too, because... Well, for some reason, he does. And then, obviously, Simms isn’t just going to leave Rinehart’s body at Puppy Luv, because he wants it to look like a robbery, right? So he puts Rinehart’s body in whatever he’s driving. And then when he gets home, he dumps it in the shed. That part makes sense. The ground is frozen. Simms was waiting till the ground thawed to bury him.”
    We turned onto Fayerweather Street, the Concord Avenue end, of course, which is like my block of Appleton Street, two-family houses, cops, writers, students, professors who live on their salaries. The neighborhood on our side of Huron Avenue is Fresh Pond, but once you cross Huron Avenue and head toward Brattle Street, twenty-room mansions replace the two-family houses, and... Well, congratulations! You’ve moved up in the world. Now you’re Off Brattle. Kevin voted for Governor Weld, who lives at the Brattle end of Fayerweather, but he avoids crossing Huron Ave. except in the line of duty.
    With justifiable pride, Kevin said, “You don’t get it, do you?”
    “Of course I do.” My voice was huffy.
    “No, you don’t. And, geez, you’re the dog expert, and here am I—”
    “What does my, uh, expertise—?”
    “You pull out this pedigree, and you tell me all about—”
    “What does that have to do with...?” It seemed to me that Kevin hadn’t been all that interested in Missy’s pedigree. Mostly, as I recalled it, he’d been morally outraged.
    “You remember what you said?”
    “I guess so,” I said.
    “Well, what you said was that dogs don’t know. Like, uh, one stud and two sisters.”
    “Walter Simms. Diane Sweet. Janice Coakley. But, Kevin, if Janice Coakley... Janice found out? And after Walter Simms left her, she followed him, and— Okay, Kevin, this has gone far enough.” I was actually angry, more at Walter Simms than at Kevin and his guessing game. Running a puppy mill is no crime. Even with blatant evidence of neglect and cruelty? That son of a bitch Walter Simms would pay a small fine and spend maybe a few months in jail. I’d wanted him convicted of one crime that everyone, even the AKC, would take seriously, namely, murder.
    “Mrs. Coakley didn’t find out until today when yours truly opened his big mouth and told her, and, once he did, you should’ve heard what came out.”
    “So... But Diane found out. Who told her? Walter Simms? He told her and then... Just tell me, would you?”
    “Joe Rinehart gets a tip about the ripoffs, or else he tumbles to it, but whichever way, he gets to Mrs. Coakley’s. This is Sunday night, quarter of ten, somewhere around then, and Simms has just left to go to Puppy Luv, but Rinehart reads her the riot act, scares the shit out of her, only he only knows half of it. Rinehart knows about the puppies, he knows Janice and Simms