Gabriel shook his head.
Reaper was scrolling his phone. “Yeah, this woman back here asked if bloodhounds were popular dogs, and this other one said she saw one in the paper that saved the kids. There’s the article. That conversation continues. Down below that’s where Kate got tagged.”
“And Kate showed you.”
“Kate’s reaching out to the person who tagged her to ask her to take the comment down. Granted, Kate’s social media contacts are friends and family only. That doesn’t mean that this is safe for her.”
“How would Kate be unsafe over Whiskey singing?”
“I’ll get to that in a second. About the howl-singing, unless you know the woman who mentioned that along with Whiskey’s name, it had to be someone who knew Daniel.”
“Dead end,” Gabriel said.
“I talked to Kate about the video you showed me out on the Sweet Gum search, and she said that she knew about Whiskey howling songs. Daniel had taught Whiskey to sing along with him when Whiskey was a puppy, long before his diagnosis. Kate said Daniel used their duets to pick up women.”
“That shithead. He did what?”
“Kate painted the picture for me. Daniel out on the Potomac with his guitar, singing along with Whiskey. The women would flock over. Kate was impressed with the imaginativeness.”
“So some past flame saw this and thought of Whiskey.”
“People are inspired. They’re actively looking for Whiskey. In your line of work, you know the speed of the Internet once the public has their teeth on a good bone.”
“Shit.”
“I’m going to cut to the chase.” Reaper laced his fingers and put his forearms on his thighs, leaning forward; Whiskey curled at his feet. “I’ve brought the situation to Iniquus Command, and they’ve asked that I coordinate with you. Because we’ve used Whiskey in the field, and we’ve got an ongoing relationship, this is a concern. Iniquus is strictly low profile.”
“Absolutely.”
“We guard against public exposure of our K9s as well as our operators. We can’t have names and images in public because of the kinds of people we brush up against. We don’t need the bad guys knocking on our doors in the middle of the night when our families are home alone. You understand the importance of privacy.”
“I do. I’m sorry about this. Truly. I guard my privacy, so I’m never on social media. I had no way of knowing. But I’ll go talk with Mourning Notes and explain that she’s putting good men in harm’s way and ask her to take down the videos.”
“She might be reticent because she’s monetized,” Reaper said. “Iniquus is willing to compensate her lost income.”
“I’m not letting Whiskey go to the graveyard anymore. That’s done. So she won’t have any new content unless she AI-generates it. The public has a short attention span. Even if she’s not cooperative, it should fade.”
“As long as there are likes and shares, this can keep circulating,” Reaper countered.
“I’ll ask her to take it all down. If that’s not enough,” Gabriel said. “I’ll ask her the price to stop.”
“Thank you, brother. We also need you to ask her for permission for the Iniquus computers to scrape it off the Internet.”
“Is there something she’d need to sign?” Gabriel asked.
“If she’s amenable, then we’ll send a lawyer over with some papers. If she’s not amenable, we’ll also send some lawyers over with some papers. Those videos need to come down. So far, the Iniquus name isn’t involved. That’s why we’d appreciate you starting the conversation.”
“I’m really sorry about all this.”
“You were on the search because I asked you to be there,” Reaper said. “Your name is in the public sphere because you were doing a good deed. Now, this woman hasn’t broken any laws. You’re standing on the public street where anyone’s allowed to videotape you. It’s just an unfortunate set of circumstances to which we can’t guess the consequences.”
“Kate’s safe, though.”
“Kate’s had a rough go in the past, wandering into the path of crazy people. The sooner we have this cleared up, the better. The path to finding her isn’t hard as long as those comments are publicly available.”
“Easiest trail in the world,” Gabriel agreed.
“As involved as Kate was with Daniel and Whiskey, and the way she’s been tagged, someone with a screw loose might just think she’s Mourning Notes. Kate looks similar enough to the woman in the video. We don’t want that in our lives.”
