Chihuahua Conspiracy

Chapter Twelve

Mr. Leavitt welcomed Nan, Paisley, and me into his office with huge smiles for everyone. And unlike Pearl, he remembered meeting me the day before.

“Welcome back, Angie,” he said, clapping a hand on my shoulder as I passed through the door and into his office. “I’m starting to suspect you may be our own personal angel here at the Glendale Community Animal Shelter. You not only wrote us a generous donation of your own, but you came back the very next day with a new donor. Please, both of you, come right in.”

That’s right. I had given him a check. Had that really been less than twenty-four hours ago? And was it cashed at the same time and place as Nan’s donation? So much had happened in that short span, I’d forgotten to look into it.

“I’m going to do so much more than write a check,” Nan told him, lowering herself into one of the chairs opposite Mr. Leavitt’s desk. “I’m going to put together a fundraiser so lots of people can write checks. How about that?”

Mr. Leavitt’s eyes grew wide with the promise of a large cash infusion. “Well, now, I love the sound of that,” he chortled. “Now, tell me. How can I offer you my assistance?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Nan chortled right back. “I won’t need much, I promise, but I am going to need some time to get a feel for the facility and the animals who live here. That will help me make sure I’m planning the right type of fundraiser. After all, why throw a bake sale when what you truly need is a gala?”

“Too true, too true,” Mr. Leavitt said, bobbing his head as his eyes grew wider still. “It would be my privilege to give you a tour of our facilities. If you’ll just give me a few moments to finish a few things first, I’ll—”

“Actually,” Nan interrupted. “I’d much rather walk around by myself, if you don’t mind. I’m sure you understand. I need to feel the place out, not listen to a speech about its history.” She crossed her legs and sat straighter, spoke more commandingly.

And Mr. Leavitt immediately fell under her spell. “Oh, of course. If you need anything—”

“Then I know who to come and find. Thank you,” Nan finished for him, then rose back to her feet and walked out without waiting for me and Paisley to follow.

I had to power walk to catch up. “Now what?” I whisper-yelled as she strode confidently through the kennels.

“Now we’re going to chat with some of the animals and see if they know anything.” We. Yeah, right. It was my neck that was on the line here.

“Nan, what if someone catches us?” I asked fearfully, silently adding, What if they overhear our suspicions and decide to hurt us to keep us quiet? It had happened before. It could most assuredly happen again. One thing I’d learned well during all my months of sleuthing is that criminals hated being caught. Obviously.

Nan didn’t seem worried in the slightest, however. “I’ll stand guard, and if anyone catches us, you can just pretend you were talking to me or to Paisley,” she explained with a no-nonsense expression. “But be quick, I doubt we’re going to get another opportunity like this one.”

Paisley, right.

I sure missed having Octo-Cat as the Watson to my Sherlock.

The little dog was nice enough, but I still didn’t know how much Paisley actually understood about the mystery we’d uncovered.

Guess it was time to find out.

“Hey there, Paisley,” I cooed, lifting the dog into my arms. “Wanna help me with a little game?”

“A game!” the Chihuahua barked. “Like fetch? Or keep-away? Or, or chase the cat? Yes! I love those games!”

“Not exactly,” I hedged, biting my lip for a moment as I thought. “This game is called Detective. We play by trying to figure out a secret.”

Paisley rearranged her face so that one of her lower canines overlapped her upper lip. She looked so stinking cute as she said, “I don’t have any secrets. Can I still play?”

“Of course you can,” I assured the tiny black dog. “In fact, we already know what the secret is, but we don’t know who it belongs to. Do you think you can help me figure that out?”

“I will try my best, Mommy!” Paisley promised, shaking with newfound glee.

“Great, that’s the spirit!” I gave the doggo a wet kiss on her forehead followed by an enthusiastic scratch between the ears. “Okay, the secret is that someone is stealing money from the shelter, but we don’t know who is doing it.”

“What’s money?” Paisley asked, quirking her head to the side in interest.

“Forget the money,” I said, backtracking fast. “What I meant to say is that someone at the shelter is being very bad, and it’s up to us to figure out who.”

“Hmm,” Paisley said, her ears twitching like miniature satellite receptors. “I bet it was a cat!” she shouted after a few moments’ thought. “When these things happen, it’s usually a cat.”

This made me laugh. “Actually, I’m pretty sure a human is to blame this time.”

The little dog whimpered. “But all the humans here are so nice,” she argued. “They feed us and walk us and play with us and help us find homes. Nobody is bad, and definitely not very bad.” She actually shuddered at the thought.

Oh, dear sweet Paisley.

She really did see the best in everyone. Even the cat at home who’d threatened to kill her and the people at the shelter who were stealing resources from the animals in need. As much as I wanted her help, I doubted I’d get her to see the truth even if it happened to come out and stare straight into her soul.

“Okay, tell you what,” I said, changing tactics. “You keep Nan company, and I’ll talk to some of the other animals and see what they have to say. Sound good?”

“Okay, Mommy!” Her tail wagged so fast it became a blur. Oh, to be that happy!

I set Paisley down, and she immediately bounded over to Nan and stretched her tiny paws in the air, begging to be picked up and cuddled. “Keep an eye out,” I mumbled, then jogged to the last cage at the very farthest end of the room. Might as well be organized about my investigation.

An enormous wrinkly dog stared up at me with sad eyes. At his side sat a much smaller hound mix whose sole focus was biting and chewing one of his hind feet.

“Hey, there,” I cooed, absolutely hating the air of sorrow around this place. These two at least seemed older and wiser than Paisley. Perhaps that would be to my benefit. “My name is Angie, and I was hoping you could help me. A very bad human is stealing from the shelter. Any idea who that could be?”

“All the humans here are nice,” the big dog informed me with zero hesitation.

“Yeah,” the hound added around a mouthful of foot. “If anyone is being bad around here, it’s probably a cat.”

“Oh, yes. Thanks for your help,” I said, forcing a smile. We’d only just begun and already it was abundantly clear that I wouldn’t be able to learn much from the dogs here. Still, I spoke to several more before finally giving up and heading to speak with the cats as suggested.

The cat area of the shelter was much smaller and offered no privacy, which wasn’t a problem since every set of kitty eyes and ears fixed on me from the very moment I entered.

“Hi,” I said nervously, even though I fancied myself a cat person. I loved Octo-Cat when he wasn’t being needlessly cruel and dramatic, but the thought of twenty of him in one place scared the living daylights out of me. “My name is Angie, and I’m trying to find a very bad human who works at the shelter. Do you know—?”

“Darling,” a flat-faced fluffball drawled, cutting off my question at the quick. “Look around. All humans are bad.”

“They’d descend into chaos without us cats around to keep an eye on things,” an orange tabby with an angry face insisted.

No wonder cats and dogs disliked each other so much. They were as different as two creatures could come. Still, at least they didn’t blindly trust everyone’s motives. Maybe they’d be able to offer some kind of clue if I asked my questions right.

I cleared my throat and tried again. “Is there one human that’s worse than the rest? Maybe someone who is stealing money from the shelter?”

“That’s like asking if there’s one blade of grass that’s greener than the rest,” the flat-faced cat spoke again. “There are just so many of them, and they’re all green besides.”

The other caged felines meowed their agreement, and I officially gave up on finding any leads via the shelter animals.

It was time to do things a little differently.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any idea how.