Page 47 of So Savage

“That’s every day of my life,” James replied.“There’s no point fighting it anymore.”

Faith and Turk followed Marcus from the room.Normally, an interrogation like this would leave Faith fairly sure if someone was guilty or not, but talking to James had only left her confused.

Did she have her killer in custody, or did she have a bitter, broken down but still innocent man who just didn’t think he had a chance to defend himself?

And if she didn’t have the killer, then was he out there somewhere right now plotting his next murder?

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

The handler had a hard time watching Shepherds.When he planned his murder of Master Sergeant Reeves, he had to take several days to break up his espionage so he wasn’t forced to stare at the dog for hours at a time.

He was having the same trouble now.Sergeant Jennifer Martinez was the new K9 handler assigned to the U.S.Army Reserve Center in Duluth.Her dog, Bear, was a German Shepherd.Like Monkey, he had a golden color pattern with the trademark black muzzle but no dark markings on his back.

He was beautiful.And she was so happy with him.It wasn’t fair.

His vision swam, and he wiped the tears angrily away.He wasn’t going to do this again.He needed to stop thinking about Monkey and hold onto his anger.

He forced himself to look at the two of them.Because of Staff Sergeant Walsh’s death, the K9s were no longer allowed alone on the exercise field at the Reserve Center, so he had followed her home after her duty shift and was now watching them play in her backyard.

Sergeant Martinez was young, only twenty-four years old.She was his type too—medium height with sandy-blonde hair, gray eyes, a killer smile and a taut, toned body that looked like it belonged on a pinup sans uniform.

Her attractiveness would have caused him to feel some sympathy if not for the fact that she was now playing with a dog who looked exactly like Monkey after both of them had returned from the war unharmed and safe.

It was just bullshit.It wasn’t fair.Bear was alive because the Army had learned from the mistakes that had killed Monkey.But had they admitted that?Had they ever acknowledged that their stupid policies regarding K9 use in combat zones was outdated, dangerous and wasteful?Had they ever apologized to him for taking his best friend away and then blaminghimfor following his orders?

They hadn’t, but remembering that flooded him with guilt, not anger.He had known those orders were bullshit.He had known that he was leading Monkey to die.He had known that Monkey would do whatever he said because Monkey trusted him, and he had betrayed that trust.He could have refused.He could have let them court-martial him.Instead, he saluted, said “Yes, sir,” and marched his dog to his death because that’s what good soldiers did.

More tears threatened, but he reminded himself that if he hadn’t followed orders, they would have just taken Monkey from him and given him to a handler whowouldfollow orders.This was the Army.They gave orders, and their soldiers followed them, or they found soldiers who would.Monkey had never had a chance.

That finally allowed him to control his emotions and focus on anger instead of grief and guilt.He lifted his head back to Jennifer and Bear and saw Jennifer pouring food into Bear’s bowl.

Shitty food.Kibble.He shook his head.Why would people feed their dogs meat cereal?

So many people were just unfit to care for dogs.They weren't toys.They were thinking, feeling beings.Martinez was young, but she wasn'tthatyoung.She should know better.Hell, when you adopted a dog, they gave you a sheet that straight-up told you not to feed them crap food.

His lips thinned.She deserved to die.They all did.They didn’t deserve their dogs, and the Army didn’t deserve to get away with sending these pieces of shit into combat and acting like it was their policies and training that kept the dogs alive.

A branch cracked behind him.He stiffened and turned around.His blood froze when he saw the shadows approaching.

He remained absolutely still while the couple passed barely three yards behind him.They were talking about some tv show or another, and the only reason they didn’t notice him was because they were civilians and civilians were exceptionally unaware of their surroundings.

He couldn’t rely on that, though.It would be just his luck that someone with combat experience would be in the area when he was taking Martinez.

He thought of his near miss at the Air National Guard base and shivered.He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.He’d wasted all of his darts and had to beat Delgado to death with his hands.He couldn’t take those kinds of risks.

He’d have to take her from her house.That meant he had to be quick.He would have to sedate Bear after he was asleep to minimize any chance of noise.Then he’d go into the house through the yard, sedate Martinez and get her in the truck.

It was still risky, but if he could get her into the truck without being seen, he could take her away and do with her as he pleased.

But where would he take her?

An idea came to him.That idea wasn’t without its own risks, but the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that it could work.

He nodded.Yes, it would work.He would take one more, and then he would move on.The police were getting riled up over the dead K9s.He would move somewhere else where they weren’t looking so closely for him and find some more people to punish.He figured he could do this at a few more cities before the news went nationwide and he had to lay low for good.

But he’d get a lot of them in the meantime.He’d make up for what happened to Monkey and then some.

He crept out of the trees, brushed the snow and dirt from his clothes, and walked down to his truck.He didn't mind if people saw him here.Martinez lived next to a popular hiking trail, so people would be used to seeing strangers coming out of the woods.Maybe he could use that to his advantage.If he could park his truck a few yards into the trees, he might be able to put Martinez inside without being noticed.Something to think about.

---