“Do you guys counsel animals here?”
“Yeah, we try.I mean, we have barely enough budget to afford these little boxes for each dog, but we do our best.”
Faith felt a touch of guilt for her earlier judgment of the place.Animal shelters were government entities, and like most local government entities, they were constantly underfunded.The staff here was doing their best with very poor tools.
“I imagine it’s difficult to help traumatized animals when they have to spend most of their time in cages.”
“Yeah, and then when you ask people to adopt instead of buying from breeders, they curl their lips like these dogs are just pieces of crap.Like… so many dogs need good homes, but they can’t get them because people are selfish.”A few of the others looked their way, and Jenny reddened.“Sorry.I’m really passionate about dogs.”
“Me too,” Faith replied.“Sarah too, I guess.”
Jenny nodded.“She was a superhero.She’d help dogs that everyone else gave up on.She saved so many dogs from being put down because she’d help them become well-behaved and then she’d find them owners.I don’t know how she did that, but she could talk people into adopting better than anyone.I just get angry.”
Faith raised an eyebrow.“What do you mean?”
“I mean, when people are being pieces of shit, I tell them.”She smiled sheepishly.“They don’t really let me talk to people anymore.”
“Got it,” Faith replied with a wry smile of her own.
“But Sarah could make people want to adopt dogs.She was really good at talking to people.”
That didn’t quite jive with the method of her murder, but just because one person hated Sarah didn’t mean that everyone did.If anything, it might make the people who didn’t like her more memorable.
“Was there anyone who didn’t like Sarah?”
Jenny scoffed.“I mean, sometimes.”
“Like who?”
She shrugged.“Sarah was part of the adoption board.It was her and the Pruitts.They evaluated prospective adopters to make sure they could handle the dogs they were thinking about.Not everyone passes.”
“How many people don’t pass?”
“Not many, but the people who don’t passreallydon’t pass.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It can vary, but usually it’s people with criminal backgrounds.Violent felons can’t adopt certain breeds.Well, theycan, but we usually don’t approve them.Sometimes we give them smaller dogs, though.You’d be surprised how many former gangsters leave her cradling a two-pound Yorkie like it’s the most precious thing on Earth.”
Faith smiled at the image of a giant, heavily tattooed individual cooing at a tiny puppy.Her smile faded as she imagined a similar individual jamming a six-inch nail into Sarah Garrett’s brain.“Was there anyone particularly upset about being denied an adoption?Someone who wouldn’t take no for an answer?”
Jenny smiled bitterly.“You mean did anyone hate Sarah enough to kill her?”
“Just anyone who might have been angry with her.”
She took a deep breath and looked at the empty cage where Turk was once again carefully sniffing the ground.“There was a guy about a month ago.His name was Trevor.He adopted a Chow guys.Do you know what those are?”
“Yeah, I know them,” Faith replied.“Big, fluffy Chinese dogs, right?”
“Yeah.A lot of people see that they’re fluffy and think they’re gentle, but they can be really aggressive if they’re not raised properly.This Chow guys wasn’t, so the shelter was looking for an experienced handler to rehome him.Trevor lied about being a former dog trainer to get her, and it didn’t work out well.He brought her back when she bit him on the hand, and demanded that we replace her with a gentler dog.”
“And Sarah didn’t take that well.”
“It wasn’t that.I mean, she was upset, but it was because he lied.They found out about it after he adopted Cammie, so when he came back wanting another dog, they denied him.”
“All three of them or just Sarah?”
“All three of them, but the Pruitts weren’t in when Trevor returned Cammie, so Sarah talked to him.I heard him yelling from the backroom.I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but he wasreallypissed.He slammed the door on the way out and broke the little thing that closes it softly, so we had to replace it.”
