“There’s no shame in that,” Faith agreed.“It’s hard to think clearly when you’re emotionally impacted by a case.”Ask me how I know, she thought.
Meyers sighed a third time.“Well… I guess I should bite the bullet.I don’t want to take Luna to animal control.She should be with someone who cares about her.”
Faith looked over at the pooch.Her eyes were open again.She looked at Iris with a grief so palpable that a lump formed in Faith’s throat.
“We’ll watch her,” she told Meyers.“Turk and I will keep her company while you get Iris out of here and get the scene cleaned up a little.You can call Iris’s children after that.”
“Can you?”Meyers asked.“That would mean a lot.”
“Sure,” Faith agreed.“Go ahead.We’ll take her to the path and wait on one of the benches up ahead.”
Meyers’s shoulders slumped with relief.“Oh, thank you.That’s a big load off my chest.”He looked back at Iris.“I’ll call the coroner now.CSI looks like they’re wrapping things up.Thank you again, Special Agent.”
“Of course,” Faith said.
She nearly reached into her pocket for a business card but stopped herself.This wasn’t her case.She had just been in the right place at the right time.Or the wrong place at the wrong time depending on how one looked at it.
Besides, she was beginning to feel a bit of emotional attachment to the case herself.It was fine to empathize with victims, but this wasn’t just professional empathy.She’d been reminded a few times already of Jethro Trammell, and she’d made a promise to herself to never allow him to have control over her again.
So, she only shook Meyers’s hand before leading Turk and Luna away from the scene.When they reached the path, Luna stopped.She looked back through the police cordon, lifted her head to the sky, and wailed plaintively.
Faith and Turk shared a bleak look and allowed Luna her moment of grief.This killer would be caught and brought to justice eventually, but no amount of retribution would fill the hole in Luna’s heart.
CHAPTER THREE
Faith and David sat on a bench sixty yards up the path from the trees.Luna sat on Faith’s right, David on her left.Turk sat next to Luna, both dogs watching while others played with their owners in the field across from them.These owners and dogs didn’t know about the dead woman who had only just left the trees two hundred feet down the path.They enjoyed the bright sunshine and afternoon warmth that only a couple hours ago had so captivated Turk and his humans.
For the fifteen minutes or so after Faith left the crime scene, the people who had gathered nearby came to ask her what she had seen.She kept the details scarce, only saying that she’d found someone deceased and the police were investigating.
She did ask if they’d seen anyone suspicious around the park.No one had.Several had pointed out that most of the focus was on the dogs, not the people.The owners were just accessories, Faith’s words, not theirs.
It was true, though.A few months ago, Turk had actually played with a killer at a dog park, and Faith had paid the man no more attention than to note that Turk liked him.When she saw his photograph in connection to a series of violent murders in Arlington and Washington, D.C., she didn’t even recognize him at first.
That bothered her.Aside from the obvious fear that everyone she talked to could be a serial killer and she wouldn’t know it, there was the knowledge that killers here could hide in plain sight.No one would notice them, only their dogs.It was like seeing zookeepers.They were there, but no one actually paid attention to them.They were at the zoo to see animals.This killer could have been stalking Iris for weeks, and no one would have noticed, not even her.Not if he was walking his dog like anyone else.
“Hey,” David said, nudging her softly.“You did the right thing.”
Faith smiled wanly.“I mean, you’d have to be a pretty messed up person not to call the police if you saw a dead body.”
“Unless you were Faith Bold, FBI investigator extraordinaire.Then you’d just be yourself.But it’s good that you didn’t.This wasn’t your case, and it would have been wrong for you to jump in and take over just because you could have.”
Faith nodded slowly.“Yeah.That’s the conclusion I came to.”
He put an arm around her and kissed her cheek.She appreciated the thought, but she kind of wished he wouldn’t try to comfort her right now.
So, she surprised herself when she began spilling her soul to him.“It reminded me of Trammell.”
“The Donkey Killer?Why?”
Faith chuckled morosely.“I don’t know.This killer’s nothing like Trammell.The victim wasn’t beaten or tortured.She wasn’t staged.He didn’t leave a note or message behind.He lured her somewhere, but not to a lair or anything.Hell, he was even careful not to hurt Luna too much.”
Luna pricked her ear up slightly, and Faith winced.“I think I was just affected by the dog.She’s clearly suffering a lot, and it reminded me of Turk when I first met him.”
“Right.”
“I told you that his first partner was killed, right?Jack Preston.Hell of an agent, and someone I looked up to a lot.He was working with Turk, and Trammell ambushed them.He split both of their skulls open with an axe.Turk barely survived, Jack didn’t.That was the same day he kidnapped me and tortured me.”
“Hmm.”
