The parking lot had become a true circus.
Two more police cruisers arrived over the next five minutes and idled at odd angles, their red and blue lights strobing across the asphalt. Staff from the facility had exited and huddled in clusters, shivering in the cold, while someone shouted something about a pig trying to worm its way under a Prius.
Barbie touched my elbow. “Lexi. I’d like you to meet someone.”
She guided me two steps to the right, where a tall woman with blond hair and wearing an elegant blue coat and a red scarf stood. “Lexi, this is Mandy Persimmon. Mandy works for PETA in Washington, DC.”
I smiled and held out my hand. “Thanks for coming all this way in the middle of the night.”
“For Barbie, I’d do just about anything,” Mandy replied. “But I assure you, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. We’ve been trying to bring these guys down for years.”
Before I could respond, a roar cut through the noise.
“There she is!” Baldy stormed out of the building, his face so red it looked painful. His finger stabbed the air as he barreled toward me.
“She took my dog,” he bellowed. “That’s the one. She stole her!”
I held my hands up. “Hey, calm down. I don’t have your dog.”
“You did this!” he screamed, jabbing a finger so close I could feel the heat coming off him. “You sabotaged my facility and stole my dog…again!”
A police officer stepped between us. “Excuse me, sir, please calm down. Let’s start with your name.”
“Richard,” he snapped. “But everyone around here calls me Dick.”
I stared at him. That felt amazingly accurate.
“She took my dog!” he bellowed again. “Arrest her at once.”
The policeman turned to me. “And what’s your name, ma’am?”
“Lexi Carmichael. And I don’t have his dog.”
The policeman turned back to Dick. “Sir, how do you know she has your dog?”
“I’m the manager of this lab,” Dick went on, puffing up. “I oversee operations. Assets. Security. I know exactly what’s supposed to be in my building and what isn’t. And my dog is missing.”
“Your dog?” I repeated mildly.
“Yes, my dog,” he shouted. “A valuable research subject. Do you have any idea what she’s worth? What she represents?”
The officer blinked. “Sir, are you saying the dog belongs to you personally?”
Dick sputtered. “No, I mean the lab…obviously the lab…but I manage it. That dog is a research subject, making it my responsibility.”
The policeman turned to me. “Ma’am, are you in possession of his dog?”
“I am not,” I said carefully.
“And you, sir,” he said, turning toward Dick. “Are you saying you believe this woman broke into your facility and stole the research dog this evening?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
I held up my hands. “Let me make sure I’ve got this straight. You’re accusing me of breaking into your secure research facility with full-time staff and surveillance, stealing an animal, and vanishing it into thin air?”
“That’s not—” Baldy waved his arms. “You’re twisting this.”
“I’m just trying to understand,” I said. “Because it sounds like either your security sucks or the dog was never as secure as you’re claiming.”
