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“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Fortunately, they were nursed back to health. One of the puppies went home with Dr. Cecil as her pet. She couldn’t bring herself to see him differently after that.”
“That woman? She has a pet?” asked Otto.
“I know she seems very cold and distant, but she’s really a lovely woman. It’s difficult when your IQ is so high you don’t know how to do anything that doesn’t require cerebral thinking. She’s quite kind and caring, and she just may be the woman that stops dementia and Alzheimer’s.”
“I hope she does, sir,” said Pork, standing, taking the sheet from him. They shook hands. William walked them all the way out of the building, watching as they got into their vehicle. As they headed back out on the road, Baptiste spoke.
“I wanted to hate them,” he said. “I really, really did. But it looks like they’re providing for the animals and creating a good environment. If what she says is true and it’s mostly scans and blood work, I’m having a hard time finding fault with what’s going on in there.”
“Same,” said Pork. “But damn. I really wanted to hate her.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
By the time they fought traffic in New Orleans to get to the employment agency, it was already closed. Only having the names of the four men, Code and Sly were working on trying to find their last known residence, but so far, no luck. In fact, they strongly suspected that William was correct. The names were aliases.
Just as they were about to hit the city limits and head home, Nine called and asked them to stop at one other location.
“Hey, brothers, we got a call from someone saying they saw two men with a table outside the supermarket on Lafayette. They were trying to convince everyone that they were selling purebred pit bulls. I guess someone called them out on it, and the cops are there now. I’ve asked them to hold the two men until you get there.”
Baptiste made a sudden U-turn and headed back into the city.
“On our way,” said Pork. “Man, I’d love it if these were our guys, but it just feels too easy. We’ve been hitting our heads against the wall with this one. Although I have to say, I’m still a bit creeped out by Calcutta. It all seems so clinical and cold, sterile.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” said Otto. “I was talking to Suzette and Riley last night. It’s a dilemma throughout medicine. The drug makers are pushed to make better drugs. They have to test them on someone or something, and yet you can’t test on humans until you’ve determined that it’s safe to test on humans.”
“And the only way to determine it’s safe to test on humans is to test on animals first,” said Baptiste, nodding. “Crazy.”
In front of the grocery store were two city police cars and four cops holding two men at a table. There were three cages behind them, holding a total of six puppies. The moment they walked up, they knew it wasn’t their men.
The puppies were clean, healthy, of an age to sell, and definitely were in appropriate kennels.
“Evenin’, Baptiste,” said one of the officers.
“Shin,” he smirked. “How are you, man?”
“Good, brother. Good. Nine asked that we wait to take these folks in. Honestly, all we see is that they don’t have a permit to sell the puppies, and they got no papers to verify their breed. Otherwise, they’ve been cooperative.”
“You boys raise these puppies yourselves?” asked Otto.
“Yes, sir,” said one of the young men. “They’re full-blooded pitties, we swear. We just didn’t know we had to have all the papers. Told the cop I’d take ‘em to the vet and get ‘em.”
“Looks like you’ve taken good care of them,” said Pork.
“Course we have,” frowned the other man. “Who don’t take care of their dogs? The mama and daddy of this litter are the best. This is their third litter together, and the puppies are just the best.”
Baptiste asked the young men a few more questions, then let the officer know that they weren’t the men they were seeking. As they started to leave, one of the young men whispered to the other.
“You’d think we was like them fools sellin’ diseased dogs,” he muttered.
“What did you say?” asked Baptiste.
“Uh, I said you’d think you was thinkin’ we were sellin’ diseased dogs like them boys in the church parkin’ lot in Algiers.”
“Church parking lot?” frowned Pork. “When was this?”
“Yesterday. We live over there and saw ‘em. Stopped to see what they had. We started askin’ ‘em why they weren’t treatin’ the dogs for fleas and the cuts on their paws. One of ‘em got real ugly with us, threatened us. We just shook our heads and left, but we called the church and told ‘em they shouldn’t let ‘em be out there.”
“What church was this?” asked Baptiste.
