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I’d thought nothing ever surprised him.
    “Well . . . yes. Ricki was concerned about the shelter, too, and Ideman’s failure to join NKLA. I told her I’d sound him out about it. He claimed his shelter was a New Hope Partner and they adhered to his own no-kill policies as much as a vet could, but he didn’t want any other group telling them what to do. My attempts to explain what NKLA was all about got nowhere.”
    “And you’re not a suspect in his murder?” I knew Dante was kidding, but his question still sent a shiver up my back. Good thing I was just cruising along without many cars near me.
    “No, but I do admit I was going to try to keep a closer eye on the kill rate there, as much as I could from Ricki and any other source I could dredge up.
    “I’ll just bet you were. And if it was higher than the good doctor admitted?”
    “A little bad publicity might have hurt his veterinary clinic. But I’d have been careful to make sure he didn’t start disposing of healthy animals in his shelter in response. I’d already asked to take some of his longest residents to HotRescues for rehoming in case he was thinking about disposing of them to make room for more.”
    “So is whoever’s in charge now of a no-kill persuasion?”
    I told him about Ellie Hankley taking over at least until their board made a decision. “That leads me to why I’m calling. While I was there, we visited their food storage area, and the cupboard was nearly bare.”
    “And you want HotPets to contribute some supplies to fill it up?”
    “Yes, if that’s okay with you, but I think there need to be some conditions.” I told him that I’d heard Ellie and her CPA boyfriend surmise that Ideman had been using monetary contributions for his own benefit since he donated veterinary services to the shelter.
    “But he didn’t own the shelter, did he?” Dante asked. “I assume it was a nonprofit, and he just ran it.”
    I maneuvered into the right lane since my exit would be next. “Exactly. The ongoing board and whoever’s in charge aren’t likely to do the same thing, but—”
    “But I think I’ll make HotPets’ contributions, which could be ongoing, subject to an initial audit of the books, plus periodic ones after that.”
    “Amen,” I said.
    • • • 
    Good. Several things were now addressed and I could worry a little less about the PetForYou animals. Or at least their having enough to eat.
    After dropping my six new guests for rehoming off at Carlie’s, I headed toward HotRescues.
    And was met, inside our welcome area, but one extremely irate man. Nina was rarely cowed, but she was by this guy, whom she introduced as Warren Bartt.
    “I was promised by that jerk Ideman that I’d be able to adopt Ivo this week if I contributed a ton of money to his miserable shelter,” Bartt shouted at me. “He kept putting me off, and now that he’s dead I figured I’d be able to pick up Ivo today. They told me he was coming here instead. I want my damned dog. Now.”
    As taken aback as I was, I believed I now had yet another murder suspect to add to my list.

Chapter 6
    “When was the last time you spoke to Dr. Ideman?” I asked, keeping my tone mild. I stood in front of our leopard print welcome desk as if hiding it, since this man wasn’t welcome in the least, not with his attitude.
    Even so, he didn’t look particularly dangerous. He wasn’t much taller than my five foot six, plump but not huge, with a lot of mousy brown hair that he might not have combed that day and enough of a beard shadow to make me wonder if he was trying to look sexy. If so, he didn’t succeed.
    “Yesterday,” he spat. “And the day before. And the day before that.” He took a deep breath while glaring, as if preparing to shout once more. Then he seemed to take control of his temper. “Okay, look. Dan Ideman was the vet a friend’s family used for their dog. I learned about his PetForYou shelter and when I decided I wanted a dog, I went