Page 56 of So Smitten

She skidded to a stop behind the boulder and saw Eric pointing his weapon at Turk. His face wrestled with his decision, and Faith could see his hands shake slightly as he aimed the handgun at her dog.

Faith leveled her handgun at Eric and slowly circled until she was in his field of vision. “Be smart about this, Eric. There’s four of us and one of you, and we have a dog. I know you’re not a bad man. I know you aren’t going to hurt innocent people who are just doing their jobs. Francisco Jimenez is being placed under arrest and will be charged with animal cruelty.”

Eric looked at her then back at Turk. His hand tightened around his weapon.

Faith kept her hands steady and said, “I know you won’t hurt my dog either, Eric. That’s not you.”

Eric looked back at Faith, then at Turk. Then he relaxed slightly. “You’re right, agent,” he called. “I won’t. I’m going to lower my weapon now. I’m done.”

Faith kept her handgun trained on Eric until the big man lowered his handgun then backed away, his hands in the air. Normally, she would keep a weapon on the suspect until he was handcuffed, but she knew that wasn’t necessary this time. She holstered her weapon and walked to Eric.

Eric was compliant, as she knew he would be. He allowed her to cuff him, and she was grateful that his compliance allowed her to be gentle.

“Would you mind removing my mask?” he asked. “It’s hot as blazes out here, and since you know who I am, there’s no point in wearing it anymore.”

“Sure,” Faith said.

She carefully removed the mask, and Eric sighed with relief. "Thank you, agent," he said. He looked down at Turk, who had also calmed considerably now that the suspect was apprehended. "You have a good dog there," he said, "very well-trained. A lot of K9s would have attacked me in that scenario, but he held me and waited for your command. That's very impressive."

Faith smiled at Turk. “He is a good dog.”

The door opened again, and the three of them turned to see the uniform leading a protesting Gaucho down the path to the cruiser. Garvey and Michael approached them, holstering their weapons when they saw the situation under control.

When Garvey arrived, Eric said, "I'm sorry about your officer. I hope I didn't hurt him too badly."

His tone carried no hint of sarcasm, and Faith felt another pang at the knowledge that she would have to jail this man.

“He’ll be fine,” Garvey said with a wry smile. “He’s not too happy with you right now. That’s why I sent him down with Jimenez.”

Eric lowered his head and nodded. “Yeah. I don’t blame him.” He lifted his head and looked at Michael. “Thank you,” he said, “all of you. For stopping that dogfighting ring. I don’t know if I would have been able to get to all of them. Definitely not before a lot more dogs were killed.”

Faith didn’t know what to say. Garvey seemed equally at a loss.

Fortunately, Turk and Michael had an idea. Michael met Eric’s eyes and said, “It was my pleasure.”

Turk walked to Eric and pressed against his leg, looking up at him with the sympathetic brown eyes that had won Faith’s heart more than two years ago. Eric looked down at him and smiled. The pain behind that smile brought tears to Faith’s eyes.

“What’s his name?” Eric asked.

“Turk,” Faith replied.

“Turk,” Eric repeated. “Good boy, Turk.”

***

Faith wasn't sure what to say. Normally, when she interviewed killers after apprehending them, she would ask them why they did what they did. This time, she knew exactly why Eric Ciccolo killed those men.

In the end, Eric spoke first. “I had a Shepherd too. She was a Husky mix, but only twelve percent. All she got from that side was the blue eyes and a love of snow.” He grinned. “I took her to Aspen once. The only time she ever disobeyed me was when I told her it was time to leave. She pretended not to hear me until I walked right up to her and gave her the parental, ‘I know you heard me’ look. God, she was a great dog. She wasn’t officially mine, of course. I just kept an eye on her when she or her handler was on vacation. That wasn’t really allowed, but they made an exception for me. I used to train a lot of dogs for PD. But you know that, I guess.”

Faith smiled sadly. “I’m sorry for your loss. I almost lost Turk too.”

Eric nodded sympathetically. "I'm glad you didn't. It's the worst thing in the world, short of losing a child. Maybe not everyone sees it that way, but I do." He shook his head. "I don't get it. I don't understand people who hurt dogs. Dogs are the most wonderful creatures on Earth. What possible entertainment do you get out of watching them die? I can understand that psychopaths exist, but the spectators?" he shook his head. "It's just obscene."

Faith couldn’t agree more. “Yes,” she said, “that’s the right word for it.”

“You know, I wasn’t going to do anything about it,” he said, “at first, anyway. I was just going to file the police report and leave it at that. Then I started doing some research. Did you know that over sixteen thousand dogs die each year in dog fights in the U.S. alone?”

Faith’s eyes widened. “No, I didn’t.”

---