The lumps under the skin and had dark threads crisscrossed over top of them. Stitches. Awkward, unprofessional stitches.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
“I have my suspicions,” Cami said. “We’ll remove them while she’s under. I think they might be pouches with drugs. I’ve heard of it and I’ve seen pictures, but I’ve never had a case myself.”
No wonder Cami had wanted to keep a close hold on this.
“If there are drugs, I have connections who can analyze them and get them to the proper authorities very discreetly.” I looked at Bella’s belly more closely. “Those stitches weren’t done by a vet, were they?”
She shook her head. “She wasn’t even shaved. I have no way of knowing if the area was cleaned properly, but there’s definitely an infection now.” She squinted as she stared at the threads. “Not totally unprofessional though. It could be someone who’s worked in a vet office, or...”
“Someone who’s been doing this for a while and has a lot of practice,” I finished her thought. We could be looking at an established drug smuggling operation, right here in our little town of Bluewater Bay, Maryland. “What do you know about Scott?”
“Scott and drug smuggling? I don’t know. He was definitely a shitty boyfriend, as Gina tried to warn me.”
So, he wasn’t an acquaintance. He was an ex. I hated him even more.
“I only said bad things about him out of love for you,” Gina said. “Best friends and dogs. They always know.”
Best friends. That explained why Cami trusted Gina with all of this.
“There was the incident that led to the break-up,” Gina continued. “This shines a whole new light on it.”
“Yes,” Cami said. “That was concerning.”
I glanced at them and waited for one of them to spill. Cami, in particular, seemed reticent.
“Some drugs went missing from the locked cabinet,” Gina finally admitted. “We found the inventory discrepancy during our routine weekly check. The only non-employee who’d been anywhere near the area had been Scott. But he was alone for less than a minute or two, and the lock wasn’t even broken.”
“What kind of lock?”
“The kind that’s probably not difficult to pick if you know what you’re doing,” Cami answered. “And the missing meds were the kinds we use to sedate animals andto numb the skin. Not to put them under completely, though.”
A lump rose in my throat. I stroked the dog’s head, picturing the horrors she’d been through.
“It’s okay, Bella,” I whispered. “You’re safe now, and these ladies are going to take extra good care of you.”
“Bella?” Gina asked.
Bella thumped her tail a few times, signally her approval.
“That’s her name now,” Cami said.
As I turned to leave, Cami touched my arm. Her warm hand lingered on my skin. “Do you think someone working here could be involved?”
I laid my hand on top of hers. “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
What I did know was both Cami and Bella were in serious danger, and I wasn’t letting either of them out of my sight. When the operation was over, they were coming home with me.
7
CAMI
“No, absolutely not.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down.
Kyle didn’t seem to notice the act of defiance. He watched the security feeds on the laptop in the exam room. Bella, lying on a dog bed inside a recovery crate, stirred, but didn’t wake. She would be in the post-anesthesia, in-between state for a few more hours. Then she would need periodic monitoring throughout the night.
“I’m not leaving her,” I said. That he would surely understand.
