“Nothing like that,” Sunny assured him. “I’ve, uh, got a friend who was thinking of borrowing some money. I thought with you being more business savvy, you could help me explain things—”
“Don’t get involved with a shark,” Ollie interrupted. “You start off borrowing to buy buttons and end up losing your shirt. The way they compute the interest, you never get to pay off the principal that you borrowed in the first place.” He chuckled sourly. “It’s as bad as credit cards—except they don’t have people who come to your house and threaten to beat you up.”
“Do they really do that?” Sunny asked.
“Yes.” Ollie tried to sound patient. “That’s the big difference between them and your neighborhood bank.”
“Do they kill people?” Sunny pressed.
That got a moment of silence out of Ollie. “Jeez, Sunny, how much are you figuring to borrow?”
“It’s not for me—really,” Sunny insisted. “I just thought you must know more about this kind of financial stuff than anyone else I know.”
“If you think I hang out with loan sharks, that’s not much of a compliment,” Ollie complained. “I know some guys who got in bed with the sharks. Almost all of them ended up regretting it. These were guys who owned businesses, but because of what they owed, the sharks became their partners—and often, their bosses.” He harrumphed into the phone. “That said, it’s bad business to kill the golden goose. The problem is, not all the guys who go into the loan-sharking line are businessmen. Some of them—I guess you’d call them sadists. But they’re more likely to kidnap someone to get a little leverage when they put the squeeze on someone.”
“And . . . killing?” Sunny pressed.
“I guess it’s been known to happen,” Ollie said. “Usually when they really don’t expect to get their money back, and an example has to be made.”
“Thanks, Ollie. That’s what I thought.”
“Yeah. Make sure your ‘friend’ hears that. Oh, and I’m definitely counting the petty cash when I come in.” Ollie cut the connection, and Sunny went back to work, such as it was.
The phone rang yet again. This time it was an excited-sounding Jane Rigsdale.
“Two things,” she said. “First, I’m really sorry to hear about Shadow. Several of the people who came in mentioned that he’d taken off on you.”
“What can I say?” Sunny replied. “I’m sorry, too.”
“You know he’s a bit of a wanderer,” Jane pointed out. “He didn’t stay all the time with Ada Spruance.”
“Yeah,” Sunny recalled. “That’s the first thing she told me about him.”
“I was going to warn you when springtime came a little closer that he might develop a case of wanderlust,” Jane said. “I just didn’t think it was likely to happen when the weather was this cold.”
“He was kind of angry with us—with me,” Sunny confessed. “A neighbor had brought over a puppy, and he didn’t like it.”
Jane made a sort of noncommittal noise. “Maybe he felt threatened.”
“Jane, it was a puppy. He wasn’t in fear for his life. If it had caught up with him, it would have probably licked him.”
“I don’t think Shadow would have allowed that,” Jane said wryly. “But I wasn’t talking about a physical threat. Judging from the way he gets along with people, I’d say Shadow has had a lot of homes in his life. Some, like Ada’s, he might have left on his own, but others, it’s more likely that he was kicked out. He might have seen the puppy as taking over his place.”
For a moment, Sunny couldn’t talk because of the lump in her throat. “Now I feel horrible. Mrs. M.—Helena Martinson—was only bringing the puppy around because she’d just adopted him. I never thought that Shadow might see it that way.”
Jane tried to offer some hope. “He might turn back up after a couple of nights in the cold. Also, it’s mighty slim pickings out there, eating-wise. Shadow is a practical little critter. If you see him, you can convince him it was all a mistake.” She got a little more professional. “And if need be, I can help with some suggestions on helping the two animals get along. Pet psychology isn’t my specialty, but I’ve done a little bit of it.”
“If he appears on my doorstep, you’ll be the first to know,” Sunny assured her. “What’s the second thing you had to tell me?”
“I think I may have found out who Martin’s dark lady is.” Jane’s voice was back to full excitement now. “Martin has a sub in right now at his practice—like most medical practices, we arrange with other vets to substitute for us when we’re not available.”
“I see,” Sunny said. “Martin is definitely unavailable these days.”
