Page 42 of Mommy

My eyes snap up to the man that just dropped a piece of raw meat from his pocket.

The woman on the phone earlier said she’d watched a man drop pieces of meat. She also said she had followed him for a while but got scared when he noticed her. Her description of him had been generous.

He is skinny, which makes him look ancient. He’s probably only a few years older than me, but I can see his skull through his face, making him look like a walking corpse.

I don’t bother with my gun, or my badge and instead, grab the asshole by his collar and drag him into the small thicket and out of view.

“What do we have here?” I murmur silently, anger sharpening each word until they prick the inside of my throat like needles.

The guy appears to be playing it off cool.

“What do you want, officer?”

He’s not smiling, but his yellow teeth are still visible.

For a moment, I consider telling him that poisoning dogs is a crime, but honestly… I don’t care about sacking him. I don’t want to take this piece of human garbage back to the police station and process this whole incident. It’ll be half a day of paperwork and not much for him to learn from. Not like a fine ever does much in my opinion.

So instead of opening my mouth, I tighten my grip on his collar.

He picked the wrong fucking day to play the devil of dogs in the park. Or the wrong cop.

Reaching into his jacket pocket, I carefully retrieve another lump of ground meat and hold it up before him. The color tells me that it’s not pork—which I know from Ezekiel, would be poisonous for dogs without anything extra.This is probably beef, which means⁠—

“If I look inside this… what will I find?” I stare down at the man who littered this park in poisoned treats. His eyes dart from left to right, from the lump between my fingers to my face and back to the path.

My head cocks to the side.

“Rat poison? Broken glass?”

He doesn’t answer right away, staring up at me with defiance.

“Both.” He finally says.

“Perfect.” I nod with a smile. “That’s exactly what I was hoping for.”

No matter what Ivory would’ve done, if one of the dogs would’ve eaten this on a walk, it would’ve died. She could’ve tried everything and they still would’ve died a painful death.

Her heart would’ve broken into a million fucking pieces that would’ve shredded all her happiness.

Anger taking the upper hand I let go of the guy’s collar and grab my gun with my free hand.

The barrel presses into the man’s throat, and for the first time I see real fear gleam in his eyes when I push the meatball against his mouth.

“Open up.”

He does, his jaw going slack to make room for the raw meat.

Nodding, I push the barrel harder against his neck, the metal biting into his skin.

“Swallow.”

Panic widens his mouse brown eyes that slowly fill with tears.

Don’t like sharing the fate you deal out to others?

Pathetic.

“Go on.” My voice drops to a rough growl, a dare for him to go against my words. I wouldn’t really pull the trigger on him. Not now at least. It’s fucking daytime, I have no exit plan and this is my registered police-gun. I’m not an idiot. But I have other ways of making him regret it.