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I’d seen and even experienced.
    And now I wondered—and even hoped—that the cops were turning their suspicions on Ellie Hankley, and off Ricki.
    She did seem to have a good motive, after all.
    “You go ahead,” I said. “I’ll see myself out.”
    “I’ll walk with you,” Spencer said. “I have to get back to work. I was only here for a little while to give Ellie some moral support.”
    “Which you did,” she said, sounding brave as she gave him a quick good-bye kiss.
    I walked out of the facility with Spencer. “This is all such a mess,” he said. “And Ellie was unhappy with good reason. But she didn’t kill Dan, even though we’re both glad that Ricki got that mad and did it.”
    I stopped, glaring at him. “Why do you say that?”
    He looked somewhat abashed as he lowered his eyes. “That’s what the news suggested,” he mumbled.
    “I’ll tell you what,” I said. “I know Ricki didn’t do it. I hope Ellie didn’t do it.” What about Spencer? Would he kill to protect the shelter his girlfriend loved? Somehow, that didn’t sound right, especially since I hadn’t heard anything specific that would trigger either him or Ellie to have killed the vet. “I’ll approach Dante, as I said,” I continued. “But I want Ellie and you to come up with the names and motivations of as many people as you can think of who might have wanted to get rid of Dr. Ideman and let me know.”
    I didn’t leave right away, though. Ellie had heard about my offer to take in some animals who were long-timers at PetForYou. Apparently the police weren’t there to interrogate her, at least not immediately, since she soon caught up with us and asked whether I’d been serious about my offer.
    “I realize that things have changed around here,” she said, “but for their sakes . . . well, if you’re still okay with taking them, you’re welcome to them.”
    I agreed to take six animals, the four dogs and two cats, to HotRescues. That did involve my getting their medical records from the veterinary clinic, among other details. I asked Ellie to fax pertinent pages to Carlie’s animal hospital and she indicated all of them were a go.
    Even so, I’d take them there for another checkup before bringing them to HotRescues.
    Both Ellie and Spencer helped me to load them into crates I had at the rear of my pet-friendly Venza. As we left, I saw one of the guys in suits approach Ellie. Time now for her next interrogation?
    • • • 
    I approached Dante quickly, not in person but by a call on my hands-free phone system as I drove away.
    I’d barely said hello before Dante said, “You’re calling about the Ideman murder, I assume.”
    “You assume correctly about the general topic,” I said as I stopped at a traffic light near the entrance to the 134 Freeway headed west. “But why do you assume I’m calling you about it?”
    He laughed. Fortunately, even though Dante was a business associate who was essentially my boss since he controlled all the purse strings, we were also friends. “I can guess, but why don’t you fill me in?”
    I did, including my concern that our HotRescues volunteer Ricki was a suspect in the killing. “I’ll see if I can help her, of course.”
    “Of course.” He still sounded amused.
    “But I’m really concerned about what will happen to his shelter PetForYou and all its current inhabitants. I’m already taking six animals with me now, and I’m going to call some friends from Southern California Rescuers to see if we could find a place for all of them to go if the shelter goes under. But I also want to know more about its reputation in the rescue community. I’d heard of it but didn’t know much about it until Ricki brought me there this week and introduced me to the facilities and to Dr. Ideman.” I was cruising west along the freeway now. It was midday and wasn’t extremely crowded, so I was making good time.
    “You met him? This week?” Dante sounded astonished—and