Page 26 of So Smitten

“I don’t think that’s true,” Faith said. “There’s a power vacuum now. People are going to be looking to fill that vacuum. That means they’re going to be looking for people to support them. That means they’re going to talk. You don’t need to ask questions if you think it’s going to get you killed, but you need to listen. I’m pretty sure you’ll learn something. When we talk to you again, I’ll be very interested in what you have to say.”

“When will that be?” Keenan asked.

“When we show up,” Faith replied.

CHAPTER NINE

“It’ll have to be Michael,” Garvey said, “No one will believe you’re a dogfighter.”

“Why not?” Faith asked.

“You’re too pretty,” Garvey said. “People will look at you and think you’re a cute little girl. They won’t take you seriously, and believe me, these men need to take you seriously for your own safety.”

"Thank you for the compliment, but I can handle myself," Faith said. "If they want to treat me like a cute little innocent girl, they'll be in for a big surprise."

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Garvey replied. “If you show up with Turk acting like you want to fight him, someone’s going to make some joke about you being a nice piece of ass and suggest you show him how badly you want to be in the club. When that happens, you’ll probably beat the hell out of him, and when you do, that will end any chance of us getting info on the gang, the dog fights or the murders. It has to be Michael.”

Faith frowned, but she knew Garvey was right. “Okay,” she said, “so how do we get Michael inside?”

After talking with Keenan the second time, the two agents concluded that the only way to get the information they needed to find their killer was to send one of them undercover. Turk could play the part of a fighting dog easily. In a way, he was a fighting dog, just a much better-trained one. And he had the scar on his face and the chipped tooth, wounds sustained from the Donkey Killer and the Copycat Killer respectively. Faith thought he was the handsomest dog that ever lived, but when he was ready to fight, he was terrifying.

Apparently, Faith herself wasn’t. She didn’t think of herself as the pinnacle of beauty, but she had to admit that her trim figure and relatively soft features didn’t exactly scream hardass. Michael, on the other hand, didn’t look particularly dangerous, but Faith knew he was tough and brave and more than willing to meet the eyes of anyone who wanted to test him.

And he was a very dangerous fighter. That wasn’t a skill they had to call upon often, but unless their killer turned out to be a freak like the Cave Dweller from their last case, Faith was confident that if it came to a scuffle, Michael would be the one left standing.

"If we want to get Michael inside," Garvey said, "then we need to make him look dangerous. That means a haircut, no more facial hair, and he has to dress like a gangster, not like Dick Tracy.”

Michael cast her an injured look and took off his fedora. “Is the shave really necessary? Ellie likes this beard.”

“Ellie’s your wife?” Garvey asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, your wife likes your beard because it makes you look adorable and harmless,” Garvey said, “two qualities we don’t want in a badass dogfighter. So the beard goes.”

He sighed. “She’s going to kill me for this.”

Garvey cracked a smile. “I don’t know about that. Sweet girls always think they want sweet guys until they meet bad boys. If I were you, I’d try to bring the badass look home. I’ll bet you anything Ellie will be naked faster than you can close the door behind you.”

Faith chuckled at Michael’s blush. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to let that be enough to comfort me,” he said, “What about Turk? Is he going to be believable as a fighting dog? He’s trained not to fight unless commanded.”

“Can he look like he wants to fight?” Garvey asked. “He already looks scary with that scar and the snaggletooth.”

“We can work on something,” Faith said.

“Good.” Garvey smiled again. “I have to say, you two have turned out to be a lot cooler than I expected. The feds I’ve worked with in the past are usually stuffy and holier than thou. It’s nice to work with feds who don’t mind getting their hands dirty.”

“Always happy to help,” Michael said with only the slightest touch of sarcasm.

“Good. Here’s what we’re gonna do.”

***

Faith and Turk headed back to the hotel while Garvey took Michael back to Black Betty to pick up Keenan. Keenan would arrange a meeting for Michael with the leaders of the dogfighting ring. Michael was now Michael Ponce. He was from Los Angeles and was now in Atlanta looking for a place to ply his trade.

Meanwhile, Faith would teach Turk how to look like a fighting dog. The problem was that she had no idea what a fighting dog would look like. She knew what a dog looked like when it was fighting, but knowing what such a dog looked like outside of the ring was not something she was familiar with.

Fortunately, a few internet searches gave her all the info she needed. The dogs in the videos basically acted like animals whose only reason for existing was to tear other animals limb from limb. There was a lot of snarling, bristling, snapping, growling and posturing, especially when they were around other dogs.

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