The Barker Street Regulars

officers and vets’ offices, and she’d put up posters, but she’s got an ad in the paper now, and she hadn’t thought of asking children.” Yes, she, she, she. Rita avoids revealing the names of her patients.
    “Children really are worth enlisting,” I said. “They notice dogs. They notice a lot. Sherlock Holmes had the right idea. The Baker Street Irregulars. Neighborhood urchins. Street Arabs.”
    “Child labor,” Rita decreed. “Unfortunately, she still hasn’t found her dog, and the problem is compounded by her irrational conviction that the whole episode was her own fault.”
    “Was it?”
    “It’s a good thing you didn’t try to become a therapist,” Rita said. “She took the dog running with her, and when she got back to her car, she noticed she’d dropped one of her gloves. She’d taken them off only a minute or two before, so the glove had to be somewhere nearby. And then she did something that was nothing worse than a little careless. She’d hitched the dog to a park bench so she could do her Stretching exercises without having the dog run off. When she went back to look for her glove, instead of taking the dog with her or putting him in the car, she left him tied there. Then she retraced her steps and found the glove. When she got back, the dog was gone.”
    “And?”
    “And it’s been more than a week, and she hasn’t seen him since.”
    “I meant, had he slipped his collar? Was his leash still there? Does she have any idea what happened?”
    “His leash was gone. It was an expensive new leash, and she’d looped it around the bench. She doesn’t think it could’ve broken, he wouldn’t have chewed on it, she’s ninety-nine percent sure it was really fastened to the bench, and so on, all of which leads her to the conclusion that it was her fault. And in desperation, she’s gone and consulted some pet psychic, who’s at least kept her hopes up, which is as therapeutic as anything I’m doing.”
    “Irene Wheeler,” I said coldly.
    Rita nodded.
    “Irene Wheeler is a crook.”
    “What harm can it do? ’There are more things in heaven and earth,’ Holly, ’than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ ” Rita sipped her vodka. “Besides, my client is taking action instead of passively accepting misery as her due, which is a definite advance. And the psychic assures her that the dog is safe, well, and nearby. Without that assurance, my client would probably feel too crushed to pursue the practical steps of actually looking for the dog.”
    “If you go out and look for the dog, and then you find it, it’s because you looked. It isn’t because you swallowed some psychic’s sugar pill. Rita, you know those people, Scott and Gloria, who are harassing Steve? This Irene Wheeler is the same person who told those people that Steve shouldn’t have spayed their bitch. She conned these people into believing that she could’ve cured their bitch, and she simultaneously conned them into acting as her unpaid publicists. You go to a show, and there’s Gloria handing out Irene Wheeler’s business cards and talking her up at Steve’s expense. Gloria is, admittedly, malicious, but she’s none too bright. On her own it would never occur to her to carry out this kind of organized scheme. It would never occur to Scott, either. Mostly he does what Gloria wants. The driving force there has to be Irene Wheeler. But the real con job she has going is worse than that.” I filled Rita in on everything I knew about Ceci’s involvement with Irene. “Rita, this Irene Wheeler is not harmless,” I concluded. “She saw Ceci’s loneliness and vulnerability and gullibility. Most of all, she saw Ceci’s money. And she stalked, and she pounced, just like a cat after a bird. To take advantage of Ceci like that is evil in itself. But there’s also Jonathan’s murder. From what I can piece together, Ceci blabbed to Jonathan about Simon’s return, and he immediately caught on that she was being conned, and he came here to put a stop to it. Jonathan met Irene. Irene went to Ceci’s house. And according to Ceci, Jonathan was very rude to her, meaning, I assume, that he told Irene to leave Ceci the hell alone. That same night, Jonathan was murdered. One and one?”
    Rita was stem. “Holly, you need to talk to Kevin.”
    “I will. I’m not keeping it a secret. But when I got home last night, all the lights in the Dennehys’ house were dark. I didn’t want to wake anyone up. And I haven’t