Page 52 of So Wicked

“I’m okay, Turk,” Faith said. “I just figured it out.”

Turk looked at her irritably as if to ask what the hell she had figured out that caused her to freak out like she was being attacked.

“What?” Slade asked. “What did you figure out?”

“I know why the killer’s taking these victims.”

“Why?”

“They put animals to sleep.”

Slade blinked. “Don’t all vets put animals to sleep?”

“I don’t know. But we need to find out. And we need to find out how many animals these vets put to sleep.”

“How the hell do we do that?”

“I don’tknow, Slade. Let’s find the answer to that question, then find the answer to the other question. But thathasto be it. Putting animals to sleep when they're sick or elderly is considered humane, but puttingpeopleto sleep when they're sick or elderly is controversial. Some people say it's humane, but other people say that you should never give up on life. You should fight for every moment you can."

“Most people say it should be up to the person to decide how they go.”

“But animals can’t decide that. They can’t tell us if they’re ready to go or if they’d rather stay. Humans make that decision for them.”

Slade’s eyes widened. “Huh. You’re right. And if someone thought that people were making the wrong decision about something so serious, they’d be mad as hell.”

“Or they’d understand that the humans are doing their best. It’s just that their best is really, really wrong.”

“Okay,” Slade said, leaning forward and steepling his hands again. “We’re on the right track. But it’s the owners who make those decisions, right? Not the vets.”

“The owners have to give vets permission to euthanize their pets, but I’d bet anything that in most cases, the owners havetrouble letting go and the vets convince them that it’s the right thing to do.”

“Little Fido is sick and old and tired, and he needs to go to puppy Heaven now,” Slade mused. “Yeah, that makes sense. My first dog died when I was thirteen, and my parents sat me down and had that conversation.”

“Really? They called it puppy Heaven?”

“They did. I was mad at them for treating me like I was five, but I figured they were hurting too, and they were doing their…” His eyes widened further. “They were doing their best. So I forgave them.”

“Exactly!” Faith said. “That’s it! That’s the profile! Our killer is a pet owner who lost his or her pet to euthanasia and now blames the vet for pushing that decision. But they’re not angry at the vet because they know he or she was only trying to help.”

“But if you murder a pet trying to help them, then you’re still a murderer.”

“And where do murderers go?”

“Not the same place pets go.”

“Exactly. So the killer is trying to help people who love animals but have committed grave sins against animals thinking they were helping them. He’s trying to absolve them of those sins and get others to see the mistake they made so they don’t earn themselves an eternity away from the animals they love.”

Slade nodded. His eyes burned with excitement now. “All right. Now we need to figure out if our victims were more ‘helpful’ than others.”

Faith tapped buttons on her phone. “Okay, it says on Google that most vets can euthanize pets, so we need to figure out if these vets just happened to euthanize more than others.”

Slade opened his laptop. His fingers flew across the keys, and his eyes continued to burn. “Okay. So Lee ran a hospice. That’s end-of-life care right there, and that includes euthanasia.So she’s the obvious one now. As for Chen… Okay, I have his bio up on the clinic he administered.” He scanned the bio. “Nothing there.”

“Try looking up euthanasia or end-of-life care. There should be a link on the website for pet owners to browse services.”

“Yep. Euthanasia and end-of-life. Okay, dot da da… Here we go. ‘All end-of-life decisions are a collaborative process between the pet parent, their veterinary care team…” He grinned. “And the administrator of Hamilton County Pet Wellness Center, Dr. Mark Chen.”

Faith pumped her fist. “That’s two down. What about Dr. Patel?”

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