Page 65 of So Twisted

"Oh, you didn't hear? Yeah. Turns out that Jason Merrick had Type One Diabetes. Some dogs are trained to smell for high blood sugar or low blood sugar, so diabetics know when to take their medicine before they suffer symptoms. Turk here actually managed to smell the residue of that scent underneath all of the other scents competing for his attention. The scent was very faint at the crime scenes, I'm guessing, but once he was in the vicinity of the killer, he recognized it right away. Surreal."

Faith smiled a little and scratched Turk behind his ears. “Yeah. He’s a good dog.”

Michael slumped forward a little more in his chair. Faith was pretty sure she knew why. They’d talk about that later. They’d all had a tough past few days.

Cuthbert sighed. “Well… Thank you guys. This was definitely the most unusual case I’ve ever worked. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have worked it without you two.”

“Happy to help,” Michael offered. “Maybe not happy, but you get the point.”

“Sure do. Not to rush you guys out of here, but the media’s going to descend on us like flies on poop in a few minutes. I don’t know how much of what Lawson’s lawyer said is true, but you might not want to be here for the flashing lights, Faith.”

“No,” Faith agreed. “I don’t.” She stood and extended her hand. “Thank you, Detective. I wish you luck.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” he said, taking her hand. “I’m small-time. No one cares if I tell the rats to piss off and go chase celebrities.”

Faith chuckled. “Well, good luck anyway.”

“Thank you.”

The three agents left for the airport without further ceremony. Turk promptly fell asleep when Michael started driving, exhausted from the night’s efforts.

Michael cleared his throat. “So I owe you an apology. I should have trusted you. I should have trusted Turk. I let the stress of the case get to me, and I took it out in the worst possible way. I shouldn’t have threatened to ship you back to Philly. That was wrong.”

Faith tried to be angry at Michael, but to her surprise, she couldn’t. There was something else bothering her much more than Michael’s mistake. And she had to admit that he wasn’t entirely wrong.

"It's all right," she replied. "I wasn't objective about Turk's smell. I'm still not. Obviously, it's been proven that he's just as sharp as ever. There must have been something wrong with David's test. Still, if he failed the test, I would have probably refused to believe it. It's tough to admit, but the reality is that Iwon't be objective when Turk finally needs to retire, so I'm glad to have you here to help me. I can't promise I won't be extremely irritating and probably hurtful when it happens, but I'll come around. When I overcome my emotions, I'll come around."

Michael offered her a half-smile. “I’ve been your punching bag for eleven years. I can handle hurtful words.”

She chuckled and punched his shoulder playfully.

“See? Totally fine with that.”

She rolled her eyes. Then her brow furrowed. “Where is Ralston, anyway?”

"He never came. I called the Boss outside of Nathan Reed's house and told him that I wasn't going to work with anyone else on this case. Lucky for both of us, I didn't call him back after the visit and tell him I changed my mind."

“You might get in trouble for that.”

He shrugged. “We’re always on the verge of getting in trouble. It won’t happen unless we fail.”

She smiled and stroked Turk’s fur softly. “That won’t happen as long as we’ve got Turk on our side.”

“He came through again,” Michael admitted. “Smelling diabetes. That’s just crazy.”

“Crazy is good sometimes,” Faith said.

They fell silent for a while. Faith's smile faded, and she stared pensively out of her window.

“What is it?” Michael asked.

She pressed her lips together. “The victims were bad guys. In all of our past cases, the victims were good guys. They were innocent. The victims here weren’t innocent. They all hurt animals. I’m not saying that what Jason Merrick did was right, but this is the first time we’ve been fighting for justice for people who… well, don’t deserve it.”

“I think you’re misremembering some of our past cases,” Michael said. “A lot of our victims have been killed because ofthings they did that were wrong. That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve justice. Besides, the victims here weren’t all that guilty. Maybe Dr. Vasquez and Dr. Hartley were the closest. Vasquez was unrepentant and Hartley was exploiting animals for her own gain. But Clement was genuinely trying to help. She was just a little kooky. From what little I know about Alison Chen, she was born with something missing in her brain and never received the help she needed. And Marcus Reeves may or may not have been truly trying to turn a new leaf, but he wasn’t hurting any animals anymore.”

Faith nodded. "Yes. You're right. I think just because this is an animal abuse case, it hits closer to home for me."

“Of course it does. You’ve seen Turk suffer. It’s personal to you. I’m only saying that we brought justice to people whodiddeserve it, not people who didn’t. Even Vasquez and Hartley didn’t deserve the deaths Jason gave them. Or tried to give them in Hartley’s case.”

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