Page 8 of So Twisted

“No, you don’t, and… Damn it, David!”

“There’s no way you can possibly blame me for this.”

She scoffed. “Way to make it about you.”

“You’re making it about me because it’s easier to be angry at me than to deal with your fear over the circumstances. That’s why I didn’t want Michael here with you.”

Anger lanced through Faith’s mind, but she controlled herself. David was right. She hadjustfinished convincing the FBI brass to let Turk keep working with her, and now, a month later, his very first test past the mandatory retirement date popped up negative for smell.

She sighed. “Okay, well… Fine. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I just wanted you to have a chance to work through the initial outburst without Michael and Turk seeing it.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry too much about it. It’s just one test. I pass dogs on their retests all the time. Let’s not make this a disaster until it is, okay?”

She managed a smile. “Okay.”

“I love you, Faith.”

She felt a pang of guilt as she said it, but she said it anyway. “I love you, David.”

She joined Michael and Turk in the car. Turk greeted her exuberantly, and she ruffled his fur.

“Everything okay?” Michael asked.

“Yeah. It was just something about the paperwork he needed me to fix.”

“Gotta love paperwork. Heaven help you if you dot a T and cross an I.”

He put the car in gear, and they headed for the airport. Faith ruffled Turk’s fur again and took a deep breath. It was okay. It was just one test. There were any number of reasons it might have gone wrong. Turk was fine.

She told herself this, but the ache in her stomach refused to leave.

CHAPTER THREE

Their flight landed too late for them to look over the crime scene, so they drove to the Council Bluffs Animal Rescue Sanctuary first thing in the morning. The entire combined statistical area of Omaha and Council Bluffs had about half the population of Philadelphia, so traffic was light, and they reached the Sanctuary nine minutes after leaving their hotel.

Turk’s nose was on the ground immediately when they stepped out of the car. Faith felt a touch of encouragement at that. Clearly he could still smell. She wondered what had happened with the test. Maybe someone had a bag of potato chips or lemon cookies in the hospital, and he was distracted by those. He loved lemon cookies.

“This is close to the smallest zoo I’ve ever seen,” Michael said.

The sanctuary was indeed small. Its website claimed it was five hundred thirty-three acres, but a lot of that space was taken up by the parking lot and a three-story animal hospital and rehabilitation center, so the actual space reserved for animal exhibits was probably a third that size.

The sanctuary was still closed, so the parking lot was nearly empty when they arrived. A security guard let them through the gate and informed them that Saul was the manager today and would meet them in his office in the admin building.

“Should we go there first or the crime scene first?” Michael asked.

“Saul first. We need someone who can answer questions.”

“You got it.”

Saul was a rotund, balding man in his early forties with a baby face and small, wire-rimmed sunglasses. He greeted the two agents mechanically. He looked almost as though he was in shock. Maybe he was.

“Can you take us to the crime scene, Saul?” Faith asked.

Saul swallowed. “Um… sure. Yeah, sure.”

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