“Kujo,” the officer said. “Nails trimmed.”
“Of course. It will be just a moment. Ifyou’llhave a seat.”
The German Shepard turned,took one lookat the man waiting, went over to him, sat in front of him, and barked.
The officer followed him, taking a seat near the man.“What is it, Kujo? Sorry, sir. He normallydoesn’treact to people that way.He’sa drug dog.”
“No problem.”The man got up and went to the counter.
Kujo tugged on his leash, but the officer would not let him.
“How much longer?”the man asked.“I have to be somewhere.”
“Sorry, the groomerisn’tfinished.You’llhave to wait. Unless youjustwant to let the owner pick the dog up,”the lady said.“That is always an option.”
“Iwouldn’tbe here if the owner could come and get the dog, now would I?”the man’s voice rose.
“There'sno need to get offensive,”the lady said. But you should know the owner never told us aboutnot being ableto pick him up when she dropped him off.”
The officer stood, and Kujo, who had laid down on the floor, sat at attention.
“Things can change,”the man said.“She got detained at her appointment across town.”
“I don’t think so,” the lady said. “Because I’m looking at her.”
“Huh?”the man grunted. He turned, and Justus waved at him.
The officer had his hand on his holstered gun, and Rafferty moved to block the exit.
“Dude,” the officer snarled. “I don’t know who in blazes you are, but you are so busted.”
Drake Minchin silently cursed as the officer slapped the handcuffs on him and read him his Miranda rights before escorting him to the waiting cruiser outside the groomers. How had he not realized that the girl who had entered was Justus? He was more intelligent than this. Warshafsky was going to have his head for getting arrested. And for what? Attempted dognapping. Of all things.
In his defense, it had beenWarshafsky’sidea to go after the dog in the first place. He wasjustfollowing orders. But would he be able to convince his boss of that?
Once the officer had the man in custody, he questioned Justus and Rafferty about why they thought the guy wanted to snatch her dog.
“Ihave no idea,”Justus said.“I’venever seen him before in my life. I have no idea who he is.”
“She’sa witness for the US Assistant District Attorney in a major case,” Rafferty explained.“Thisis the third attempt to get at her in the last two weeks. If this is related to the other two incidents. There was a break-in at her rental place last week, and that same day, two men threatened bodily harm if she testified after she gave her deposition.Thiscould be another scare tactic to keep her from testifying.”
“Isee,”the officer said.“Has the USADA provided you with protection? Do you need it if hehasn’t?”
“I have it,” Justus said. “Thank you, though.”
“Be sure to let us know if anything else like this happens,”the officer said before he turned to leave with Kujo.
Justus looked at the lady behind the counter.“I thought he was here to trim hisdog’snails.”
“Not really. It was a ruse so that manwouldn’tknow why he was here,”she said.“I’llgo get For All for you now.”
Justus turned to Rafferty.“What do you make of that?”
He smiled at her.“If it gets the job done, why complain?”
The groomer came out with For All cradled in her arms, and he barked when he saw Justus.
“Hi, baby,”Justus cooed, reaching for him. He licked her on the chin.
