Free Losing Patients (Animal Instincts Book 4) by Chloe Kendrick Page A

before you tell them to me, okay? In some ways, I’ve found that ignorance is bliss. I like my life, you know?”
    I understood and promised that I would check first.
    I put the phone down and went to play with the dogs. Sometimes when I need to put things in perspective, I find that playing with the dogs helps me the most. I took a few balls out to the backyard and threw them repeatedly to the dogs until all three of us were tired.
    Deep down, I was okay that my mother had moved on, but her choice of partner worried me. This man had supposedly been doggedly following Susan’s disappearance as the objective observer who could solve it. Except that he wasn’t objective and he wasn’t an observer. By inserting himself into the middle of the drama, now I had to suspect his motivation as well as his investigation.
    I’d had enough family investigation for the day, so I decided to look at the two cases again. I knew that money could be a motive as both of the survivors in the marriage would inherit due to the suspicious deaths. However, in the Givens case, I just couldn’t make it work. If she knew about the money, why not just take it and leave? Mr. Givens could threaten her personally, but he couldn’t possibly report it in any way, because most people don’t keep six figures in their garage. It had to be the profits from something illegal.
    Plus I couldn’t get the idea of affairs off of my mind. If my mother could do it, anyone would. I gave it some more thought, and decided that I’d try to find out more about Mr. Adamson’s trip. He had only been 80 miles from home. Near enough that he could have driven home if he’d wanted.
    To try to get rid of these thoughts, I called Sheila Green and asked her for a list of the phone numbers called on my sister’s phone. I wanted to hear who she had called.
    So I was left with reasons why he didn’t want to. The first was that he knew something was going on at his house that night. If there was any kind of funny business about his wife’s suicide, then he’d be well and good to stay as far away as possible. The second reason was that he’d wanted to stay in a hotel to cover up the fact that he was meeting someone there.
    I thought about calling the Lima hotel, but for some reason, I thought it better to go there. I couldn’t tell if I really thought that a personal visit would yield more information, or if I just wanted to get away from Toledo and my own issues at the moment. So I got in the car and drove down I-75 to Lima. I thought again about Ryan’s invitation and how I’d never been on a plane. If I could start a business, cut my hair and date a police officer, I could easily get on a plane – if I could find someone to watch my brood for a few days.
    The drive passed quickly, and I found the hotel that he’d mentioned in our conversation. I pulled into a parking spot and went inside. The hotel was fairly small and unassuming. There was a small reception area with only one young woman standing there, filing papers. She looked young, probably a college student who was paying bills.
    I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts about my mother on the drive down that I hadn’t formulated any plan for learning information. So I found myself pulling out my wallet and handing a credit card across the counter to the girl. “I just want to stay the one night,” I said without thinking.
    She asked me the routine questions and ran my card through the machine. I frowned, knowing that I’d have to get more clients just to pay for this case. The costs were quickly adding up, and I’d already run through most of the money that Dr. Wilson had given me to cover expenses. I doubted that she’d be all in for paying my expenses in Lima.
    The woman pointed out a few amenities and handed over the key.
    “Thanks. A good friend of mine stays here, and he couldn’t tell me enough good things about the place,” I lied. Compliments were always a good way to get a conversation