“People became her neighbors.”

She dropped her gaze, but said, “Yes. And even knowing what I know now, I’ll miss her.” She took a shaky breath. “I…I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. I can’t really believe this has happened to her, that she’s gone.”

I didn’t say anything.

“She wasn’t a totally lost cause, you know. I think she was experimenting, trying to find her way. Maybe if she had been allowed to live out her life, she would have changed, become a better person.”

“Maybe,” I said, sincerely doubting it. On the other hand, I was certain nobody had the right to use a gun to end Sheila Dolson’s great experiment.

“It’s confusing to me,” Anna went on, “because she did have abilities, and she loved Altair, and I’ll never believe that someone who was that good to a dog was a total write-off!”

I declined to bring up historical examples. What the hell could I say? “She was lucky to have a friend like you.” There, that was honest.

She brooded in silence for a time. I was just about to make noises about getting back to the office when she said, “I understand you have Altair.”

“Yes,” I said warily.

“I’d be happy to take him.”

“You and any number of other handlers, from all I can tell.”

“You’ve been contacted?”

“No, just heard rumors from Illinois.”

She ran a finger along the edge of her saucer. “Did Ben ask?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but-no.”

She nodded once, as if she had just won a bet with herself. “So I’m offering to care for him until things are settled. Work with him.”

“Bond with him?”

“He knows me. I’ve already worked with him.”

“Sorry, Anna. No can do.”

“Why not?” I could hear a little anger, just held back.

“It’s not up to me.”

She made a face.

“I promised to take care of him until her family or heirs are located. Do you know if Sheila had a will or an attorney?”

“No. No, I don’t.”

We parted company not long after that. I knew she had parked near the Wrigley Building, but she didn’t walk back toward the paper with me. She said she wanted to do a little window-shopping while she was downtown.

I wasn’t sorry that I made the walk back alone.

Not sorry that Altair wasn’t going to be walking with her anytime soon, either. It wasn’t unreasonable for a top trainer to want a dog that had performed so well, a dog she knew. Yet her petulance when I refused had surprised me, shown me a side of her personality I hadn’t noticed before.

The truth was, I probably didn’t know her as well as she knew Altair. All my previous contact with her had been in situations when Ben was with us, and often their dogs joined us as well. I had always found her easy to get along with, but I couldn’t say that she had revealed a lot about herself. And her friendship with Sheila truly puzzled me.

I sighed and told myself to let it go. In all likelihood, I’d never see her again.

Tuesday, April 25

1:35 P.M.

NEWSROOM OF THE

LAS PIERNAS NEWS EXPRESS

BACK in the office, I continued calling phone numbers from Sheila’s notepad. I got lucky on the second call.

“Thank you for calling Big Smile Dental,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “This is Bobby.”

“Uh, hi, Bobby…I’m sorry, I’ve misplaced the name of the dentist I was supposed to ask for.”

“We have four dentists in our office,” he said.

Before he could name them, I said, “This is the one who specializes in children’s dentistry.”

“Well, that would probably be Dr. Arnold Fletcher.”

There are Fletchers all over Las Piernas, but I suppose my reading of so many stories on Caleb’s history the day before made me dumbly repeat, “Dr. Fletcher?”

“Dr. Arnold Fletcher. We have two other Dr. Fletchers here.”

“Oh, are they related to-” I stopped myself from saying Caleb’s name.

“To one another? Yes. Dr. Arnold Fletcher is the father of Dr. Diane Fletcher and Dr. Kent Fletcher. Would you like to make an appointment for your child?”

“Is Dr. Arnold Fletcher in?”

“Not at the moment. Is this an emergency?”

“No. When do you expect him back?”

“Tomorrow,” he said. “But I can’t give you an appointment then-he’s booked up through June. What is the child’s name and age?”

“I don’t think I’ll make an appointment just now. Thanks.”

I ended the call, perhaps a little abruptly. I spent a little time doing Internet searches on Dr. Arnold Fletcher, came up with a rather blah Web site for his practice and the kind of information just about any dentist might have on any site, but clearly he was devoted to children’s dentistry.

Why would Sheila, new in town, without children of her own, call a children’s dentist? If this dentist was the source of those teeth Altair “discovered,” why had Sheila chosen him as her supplier?

I had a lot of work to do on my missing children story, which wouldn’t run until later in the week, but it was a major project.

My curiosity about the dentist would have to wait.

Tuesday, April 25

7:45 P.M.

HARRIMAN-KELLY HOME

LONG before the end of dinner, I was glad Caleb had agreed to come over. Ethan had never complained to us, but I could see that he was enjoying spending time with someone else who was under thirty.

Ben was quieter than usual, but everyone had expected that, and we liked him too much to force him to pretend we were cheering him up. The dogs made more of an effort at changing his mood than we did, and succeeded better, too.

We were sitting at the table, dishes cleared, drinking coffee, when I asked Caleb if the Fletcher dentists were relatives of his.

“I don’t know. There are a zillion Fletchers in Las Piernas. My dad kind of pulled away from the family, so I don’t really know more than one or two of them.”

“A zillion?” Ethan raised his brows. “I think I’m very close to zero in my own family. There’s an aunt and a couple of cousins somewhere, but that’s it.”

“You may be luckier than you think. I have over twenty uncles and aunts, but I was just a little kid the last time I was around most of them.” He smiled. “My dad called them the F.C. and used to tell my uncle Nelson that it stood for Fletcher Clan, but he told me and Mason that the F stood for…uh, something else.”

“Do you know why he thought that?” I asked.

“Yeah, he talked about it with Mason and me, ’cause he didn’t want us to get trapped into their whole deal.”

“What whole deal?”

“Dad thought that after my grandmother Fletcher died, it almost became more like a cult than a family. You were supposed to send your kids to their school, you were supposed to go to the doctors and lawyers and accountants who were members of the family. Dad thought it was weird.”

Ben shot me a look that I read perfectly: I had better not be working my way toward talking about the family murders.

To my surprise-and Ben’s-Frank was the one who brought up the topic.

“Is Mason’s new lawyer still trying to get the conviction overturned?”

“Yes,” Caleb answered. “There are a lot of steps to go through, though.”

I glanced at Ethan. He obviously knew this much of Caleb’s history.

“Fill me in,” I said.

“It’s kind of a long story,” Caleb said. “You know the basics?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, so my mom’s dad died about a year after Mason went to prison. And my Grandmother Delacroix…well, I guess you’d say she started thinking differently when he wasn’t around.”

“In what way?”

“She was never as hard-nosed about Mason as Grandfather Delacroix had been, and I think after Grandfather died, she started to regret the way she acted during the trial. With Jenny missing and Mason in prison, I was the only available grandchild, and I had stopped speaking to my grandparents after Mason got arrested. I was so angry with them for believing he could hurt Dad or Jenny.” He paused. “I still hope to find out what happened to Jenny. I still think it’s possible that she’s alive. But at this point…I understand why other people don’t share that belief. I think one reason my grandmother and I started to get along again was that she started to believe that Mason is innocent and Jenny might be alive.”