I stared at Jack. “You stole him? Jack was Ian’s dog?” I asked at the same time Kay blurted, “The police told him?”
Bob patted his lap with one hand and Jack reared up to put his front paws there. Bob rubbed a finger along the top of his long nose. “I had to, he was starving,” he answered me first. “After I heard that Ian was dead, I didn’t know what to do. I thought of nothing else for days. If I hadn't hypnotized him, he might never have recovered that memory and would be alive.”
“He came to you for help, and you did your best,” I consoled.
“I know, but…I can't tell you how bad that feels. I decided I had to go to the police with my suspicions.”
“The High Cross police?” Kay asked.
Bob nodded. “I made an appointment with a detective. It was awful. The whole time I was explaining, he kept shaking his head. He seemed to think hypnosis is a parlor game and that I had as much credibility as someone who sends out those spam emails about hypnotizing women into bed. I'll never forget his voice when he asked me where the tape with this so-called information was. He told me to bring him the tape, and that he’d check into it, but I was sure the whole thing was headed straight for the round file.”
“Where is the tape?” I asked.
“It was in my safety deposit box at the bank. Anyway, I left the police station angry. I thought I could put it in their laps and be done with it, that they’d immediately start an investigation. Now I was more frustrated than ever.”
“Yeah, some cops can really drive you nuts.” Kay was scowling, and I didn’t think it was because of the High Cross police.
Bob continued, “I drove around trying to decide what to do. I had a copy of the tape that I could take to them. My gut feeling was to keep the original, which had Ian’s signature on the label. But that detective had made me uneasy. I can't explain it. He was just way more negative than he needed to be.”
“Maybe he’s just used to playing the bad cop role,” I put in.
“Could be, who knows. Anyway, I found myself driving up in the hills and realized that Ian’s house was somewhere close by. I circled around until I found the right street. Now I felt stupid. I hadn’t driven by someone’s house since I was sixteen and borrowed my parents’ car to cruise by some girl’s house. Just on the off chance she’d be on her front steps to appreciate how cool I was at the wheel of a ’66 Fairlane.” He shook his head and smiled a little.
“Ian’s house, when I found it, had about an acre of grass in front. The only thing out of place was this black lump in the shade of one of the bushes near the street. I slowed down and the lump moved. It lifted its head and looked at me, and my foot stomped on the brake. You’ve never seen anything so pitiful. He stood up as soon as I stopped, and he was skin and bones. Ian’s stepfather must have kicked him out of the house and left him.”
“Maybe he’d dumped him somewhere and Jack had made his way back,” I said.
“Hmmm, his paw pads were pretty worn, that could be it. Anyway, I didn’t think, I just leaned over and opened the passenger door. I called him, and he wobbled over to the car and climbed in and we drove away.”
“Jeez, this is a really bad man,” I blurted. Kay and Bob looked at me and I felt myself blushing. “Well, two murders are bad enough, but to starve poor Jack…” My voice trailed off, but Kay was nodding.
“Yeah, and I bet he did it all for money he was enjoying anyway, since he was married to Ian’s mother,” she said. “I wonder if she was going to divorce him or something. But Bob, I still want to know what happened when you got picked up last night. Who is that woman and where does she fit in?”
“And how you got away,” I added.
“Oh, that.” Bob said. “Well, to start at the end, I hypnotized her into bed.”