I Shall Not Want Read online

  “Would someone please tell me what this is all—” Joseph stopped in mid-sentence. He gasped and swayed for a moment, grabbing the edge of the desk for support.

  “I’m sorry, Joseph, I should have called you right after I called the police,” Cindy said, flushing. “I found Derek.” She took a deep breath. “Someone killed him.”

  “Why?” Joseph asked.

  Cindy’s heart ached for Joseph as he turned his pain-filled eyes on her. She wished she knew what to say. She reached out and took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “That’s what the police are going to figure out,” she said.

  Mark cleared his throat. “I need you to all move away from the crime scene. Is there a room nearby where we can talk?”

  Joseph nodded woodenly. “Across the hall is a guest room.”

  He turned to lead the way, then stopped and twisted back, eyes locking on the body. “Where’s Buff ?”

  “Who?” Mark asked.

  “A puppy,” Cindy said. “I came up here to tell Derek to bring him outside. I haven’t seen him. There was no puppy in the room when I came in.”

  “That’s his leash,” Joseph said.

  “Don’t you have several dogs?” Mark asked.

  Joseph nodded.

  “Then how can you tell whose leash that is?”

  “It was specially made for him—for today,” Joseph said, his voice catching. “See the white lettering?”

  Cindy and the others looked more closely. There on the leash, just above Derek’s hand, white letters spelled out HOPE.

  “Hope?” Jeremiah asked.

  Joseph nodded. “That’s what he’s supposed to represent.”

  “Okay, we’ll look for the puppy too,” Mark said. “Now let’s get you out of this room.”

  Cindy found herself in the next room a minute later, seated in a chair between Joseph and Jeremiah. Mark pulled up a chair across from them as more officers arrived and his partner took charge of the crime scene.

  As guest rooms went it was huge. It felt bigger than her whole house. It probably wasn’t, but it was impressive. A huge canopy bed stood against the far wall. They were clustered around a mahogany table that could easily sit six.

  Being a guest in Joseph’s castle had to be a lot better than being king of your own. His family was old money, and despite the fact that he was her age, he didn’t need to work. His two dominating passions, which took up much of his time, were dogs and charity work. She knew how special the day was for him because it would be the first time he could really combine his two loves.

  Mark flipped open a notepad and jotted a couple of things in silence. It was funny. She hadn’t seen or talked to Mark once since the events of Easter. Half a dozen times she had meant to take his cell phone out of her speed dial, but each time she didn’t really have anyone she wanted to replace him with.

  Cindy looked at Joseph, who shook slightly. Tears shimmered in his eyes. She glanced at Jeremiah, who sat still, quietly observing everyone with guarded eyes.

  She reached into her purse and grabbed a deck of cards that she shuffled one-handed as she waited. It was a habit that always calmed her nerves.

  Finally, Mark seemed ready to talk. “There’s a big event here today, it looks like.”

  “It’s a charity event,” Joseph said.

  “And you’re here… ?” Mark asked Cindy.

  “As a friend and a representative of First Shepherd.”

  “And you’re here… ?” he asked Jeremiah.

  “As a representative of the synagogue.”

  “Of course. Okay, Cindy, you found the body?”

  “Yes.”

  “Joseph, fill me in on what happened earlier today.”

  After half an hour Mark seemed satisfied and snapped his notepad shut; he stood up as his partner, Paul, walked in.

  “We need to break up the party on the lawn. People are getting restless.”

  “No,” Joseph pleaded. “We’ve spent months working on this, and we’ve got to continue. We owe it to the people who came here today.”

  “Are you sure?” Cindy asked him. “I can always tell people there’s been a tragedy and that we’re rescheduling the event.”

  She snapped her mouth shut as she realized that she had just volunteered herself for public speaking.

  “Thanks, but I have to do this,” Joseph said with a shuddering sigh.

  “I’ve got a question,” Paul said.

  “Yes?” Joseph said.

  “Did Buff have a dog tag on his collar?”

  “Yes. All my dogs have tags with their name and address. Did you find him?”

  The detective shook his head. “We’ve found a dozen dogs here, not counting what the Humane Society brought, and none of them are Buff.”

  “What are you saying?” Joseph asked.

  “I’m saying that the dog is gone. It’s possible that he ran off or is hiding somewhere.”

  Cindy thought of the dog leash clutched in the dead man’s hand. “I think there’s another possibility we have to consider.”

  “And that would be?” Mark asked.

  “What if whoever killed Derek also stole the dog?”

  Next to her Joseph covered his eyes with his hand.

  “Is he valuable? I mean, more than just to you?” Mark asked.

  Joseph nodded. “Buff comes from championship lines. Of all the puppies in Clarice’s latest litter, he’s the best—nearly perfect in every way. He’s easily worth twenty thousand. Of course, there are others in the circuit who would pay more to get their hands on one of my puppies.”

  Mark shook his head grimly. “Maybe one of them did.”

  2

  MARK WALTERS FELT AS THOUGH HE WAS HAVING A BAD CASE OF DÉJÀ VU. Cindy, Jeremiah, and Joseph all belonged to one of his closed-case files, and he would have desperately liked to leave them there.

  He took a deep breath. The odds that they were dealing with a serial killer again were a thousand to one, maybe higher. No, this was a simple murder, possibly linked to a theft. The fact that these three were involved was just unfortunate.

  “Who had access to the house this afternoon?” Mark asked.

  Joseph shook his head. “Today, the whole world, or at least it seemed like it. There were caterers, volunteers, Humane Society personnel, press, probably even some of the homeless who have come forward to be part of the first stage of the program.”

  Mark swore and didn’t bother to censor himself. Cindy colored slightly, and Joseph looked away. He could have sworn, though, that he caught Jeremiah hiding a smile behind his hand.

  He signaled to his partner, and Paul came over. “We need to close down the perimeter. No one in or out until we can search the grounds and question everyone.”

  “We’ll need a lot more officers.”

  “Call them in.”

  Paul moved off, and Mark turned back toward his audience. “I’ll need to question each of you in detail. Joseph, I’ll also need a detailed description of that missing puppy.”

  “Of course. Also, I’d like to proceed with the event we’re all here for.”

  “Don’t you care that your personal assistant was just murdered?” Mark snapped.

  “Of course, but my mourning him and losing sight of the thing we have been working so hard for all these months will not help anyone else, particularly those we have gathered here today.”

  Mark wasn’t sure whether to support Joseph or to arrest him on principle. He had been a detective long enough to know that everyone dealt with death in their own way and in their own time. All things considered, busying himself with concern for the welfare of others was not a bad way to grieve.

  “Agreed. As soon as we’re done here, you can continue with the preparations. Joseph, can you step over here for a minute?” Mark asked as he steered him away from the others.

  Jeremiah deeply regretted his decision to attend the charity event instead of sending someone in his place. He didn’t relish sitting in the gue
st room waiting for his turn to be questioned by the detective. He glanced over at Cindy, who looked as miserable as he felt.

  “Long day?” he asked.

  She turned to look at him, and he wasn’t sure if she was on the verge of laughing or crying. If she went hysterical, she wouldn’t be much good to anyone.

  “You could say that.”

  “You know, we really do have to stop meeting like this,” he joked.

  “Over dead bodies? Yeah, it’s not doing anything for our reputations.”

  “Well, maybe not for yours.”

  She laughed and he relaxed, relieved that he had been able to tip the scales.

  “So how have you been?” she asked after a minute.

  “Bored,” he said, surprising himself with his own honesty.

  “Me too.”

  “What, the glamorous, hectic life of a church secretary not enough for you?”

  “Some days I wonder.”

  He nodded, then before she could ask him a question, he changed the subject. “Did you know Joseph’s assistant?”

  “Derek? I’d met him a couple of times. I can’t say I actually knew him. I think he’d been working with Joseph for about six months.”

  “What happened to his last assistant?”

  “She got married and moved out of town.”

  As they continued to talk, Jeremiah watched Mark interviewed Joseph. Joseph didn’t strike him as someone who could hurt a fly, let alone kill someone. He could tell from Mark’s body language that the detective didn’t consider him as a suspect, either. Still, there were many things that could turn a gentle person into a killer; you never knew what might set someone off.

  He looked back at Cindy. She looked good—stronger somehow. Their first adventure together had been good for her, given her more confidence. Looking at her innocent face, he couldn’t help but wonder what it would take to turn her into a killer.

  “What is it?” she asked him.

  He shook his head and forced a smile. He would do well to remember that she had a card player’s eye for reading facial expressions. She still shuffled a deck of cards absentmindedly, and he wondered if she was even aware that she still held them.

  He heard movement and glanced over to see Mark walking toward him, notebook at the ready. “Who’s next?” the detective asked.

  “You can interview us together,” Cindy said.

  “Just like old times,” the detective said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

  “I arrived a little after five,” Cindy began. “I saw Joseph outside. He asked me to go find Derek in the house and have him bring out Buff. He said he’d been calling Derek’s cell phone, but there was no answer. Joseph said I could try the upstairs office. I entered the house and didn’t see anyone. I called out, but no one answered. When I climbed the stairs to the second floor, I heard glass breaking. I entered the office, but it was empty. Then I saw a cell phone on the desk and walked over to pick it up, wondering if it was Derek’s. I dropped it after I saw the body.”

  “So we’ll expect your fingerprints on it,” Mark said.

  She nodded. “When I got the phone, I noticed there was glass on the floor. I wondered if someone was out on the balcony, so I moved toward it, and then I found Derek.” She took a deep breath. “I screamed, dropped his phone, pulled mine out of my purse, called you, and then Jeremiah came to my rescue. Again.” She smiled at the rabbi.

  “And you just happened to be lurking around?”

  “The synagogue is supporting this charity endeavor, and I’m here as the representative. I was standing outside, underneath the balcony, when I heard a woman scream. I ran inside, up the stairs, into the room, and found Cindy. Again.”

  “Of course,” Mark said with a sigh. “Here we all are— again.”

  An hour later Cindy stood on the lawn. Large floodlights had been brought in at the last minute to illuminate the scene, both to help the investigation and to allow the event to continue. She watched Joseph as he strode to the podium. His smile was firmly in place, but his hands were shaking.

  The police still hadn’t found the murderer or the missing puppy. The longer it took, the more she was convinced the two were together somewhere far away.

  “Thank you all for coming,” Joseph said. “We’ve gathered here together to fulfill a dream and to restore the hopes and dreams of others. We’re here to launch the new Animals to the Rescue program. For our initial launch we are pairing up twenty puppies and dogs with owners who are homeless. Each person who receives an animal also receives an ID card, which entitles their dog to free food and health care for life at any veterinary office in Pine Springs. The charitable contributions of many churches and businesses are supporting this program with the hopes that the animals and the owners will help and inspire each other to strive to fulfill their dreams and achieve a better life.”

  The enthusiastic round of applause seemed only slightly strained for the tragedy that had unfolded just steps away.

  “Representatives from each of the organizations who have contributed to this cause are here, so please wave your hands.”

  Cindy and Jeremiah both waved, though she noticed he did so much less enthusiastically than she and most of the others. As cameras went off, she noticed that he moved behind her, partially obscured. She tried to shift to the side, but he seemed insistent on hiding.

  “And now, I would like to match the first pet with its new owner,” Joseph said. He held aloft a poodle puppy that looked a lot like Clarice. Cindy knew he had meant to give Buff away, but when the puppy couldn’t be found, he had selected one of his sisters instead. “This is Duchess, the daughter of my own beloved dog. And today Duchess will find a new home with an owner who will love her. Duchess is going to live with Randy Garcia.”

  Applause sounded again as a man in his forties stepped forward. Cindy had seen him before at the homeless shelter that First Shepherd supported. Usually he had long, unkempt black hair and filthy clothes. He had dressed up for the occasion, though, and wore clean clothes and had his hair tied back in a ponytail. When he took Duchess out of Joseph’s hands, she could see the tears shimmering in Randy’s eyes.

  “Thank you,” she heard Randy choke out.

  “You are very welcome,” Joseph said, leaning close so that he wasn’t speaking into the microphone but directly to Randy. “She’s a good girl.”

  “I’ll take real good care of her,” Randy promised, before turning and walking away.

  Cindy felt a lump in her own throat. Animals brought millions of people comfort by their presence. Could it be that those most in need of comfort had been too long deprived of the creatures that could most help them? She prayed that Joseph’s charity would work, that the animals would be safe, and that the people would find the love and strength to change their lives because of their dogs.

  Joseph cleared his throat and then lifted his hand and pointed toward the enclosures with the dogs that she had walked by when she first arrived. “And now, there are some other very lonely dogs and puppies who have just been waiting at the animal shelters for good homes. I think it’s time to make sure they get the loving owners they deserve.”

  Cindy watched as men and women of different ages, ethnicities, and abilities made their way over to the enclosures to meet and select their new pets. Among them she saw Harry, whom she had more than once caught sleeping in the church sanctuary, now joyously hugging a Labrador-mix puppy who licked his face in ecstasy.

  Tears streamed unchecked down her face. She realized that after a minute Joseph moved to her side and that he, too, was crying. She watched as people from the animal shelter helped the homeless fill out forms.

  “What are they doing?” she asked.

  “All of the dogs are chipped. They’ll match the name and any other contact information of each person with the code for their dog’s chip and enter it into the database. That way if any of the dogs is lost, a scan by a veterinarian or shelter will let them know who the dog belongs
to. Some of these people have been off the grid for years, so it’s a big step for them. It also assures them that they can find their dogs if they’re lost.”

  “I hope this works,” Cindy said.

  “Me too. Pine Springs doesn’t have a huge homeless population, but I wanted to start here and help those in my own backyard. If it works, we’ll be taking the program into some of the cities next.”

  Mark walked up to them and she could swear that even he looked affected by the touching scene. He stared hard at Joseph, though. “We’re almost done talking with the crowd. We need another half hour before we can start letting people leave.”

  Joseph nodded and moved back to the microphone. “We’re going to have photograph opportunities for the next half hour. During that time, please make sure to enjoy the refreshments in the tent to my right. After that I’ll be back with you for a few brief closing remarks and then we can wrap up this evening.”

  Cindy walked around. The shelter had brought more dogs than there were homeless so that every person got some choice in the dog they received. It was nice for the people, but Cindy felt sorry for the dogs, who had come so far only to not be adopted. After the last homeless woman had chosen her dog, there was a surge toward the pen by some of the other guests, and Cindy realized she wasn’t the only one feeling sorry for the unwanted animals.

  She saw half a dozen people filling out forms and realized that several dogs were finding homes among some of the donors and members of the press who had turned out for the event. She even thought she saw Mark hovering around the pens for a moment, staring at a cute little beagle who jumped up and down to get peoples’ attention.

  Half an hour later the evening came to a close. Cindy lingered behind, waiting for the crowd to thin out so she wouldn’t have to sit in the traffic jam. She regretted her decision when a few minutes later she saw the coroner bring the body bag out of the house.

  A hand settled on her shoulder, and she jumped. She turned and gave Jeremiah a wan smile.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I think so. I mean, it was terrible, but it had nothing to do with me, not really. Had I not showed up when I did, Joseph would have probably gone inside and found the body.”