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“Do you not remember what happened?” I asked, my heartrate picking up.
Rhoda Keller had asked about an implant. Something under his skin. There was no bulge to suggest that’s what the scar was from, but what if they could put something deeper?
“Taavi,” I said, my voice serious. “Do you know why you have a scar on your abdomen?”
He whined again, his eyes huge, the brown one pleading.
“Is that a no? You don’t know?”
This whine was mixed with a chuff.
Holy shit, this might be it.
“Okay, buddy. Let me just call Dr. Zhou and see what he thinks, okay?”
Another whine-chuff.
I called Broad Street All-Night Vet.
It was almost nine, and when someone answered whose voice I didn’t recognize, I asked for Zhou. They asked me to hold.
A few minutes later his smooth voice answered. “This is Dr. Zhou.”
“It’s Hart,” I said. “With Taavi, the Xolo… dog.” I didn’t know who else might be able to hear our conversation—if Zhou worked with shifters, they had excellent hearing and I didn’t know who knew.
“What can I do for you, detective?” Zhou asked, clearly recalling who we were.
“I found a pretty new scar on Taavi’s stomach tonight,” I said. “He doesn’t know how he got it—”
“And you would like me to look at it.”
“Got it in one,” I confirmed.
“Fortunately, we’re having a slow night. Bring him in.”
“Thanks.”
Taavi kept whimpering the whole way to the vet’s office, and I didn’t really blame him. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to suddenly realize somebody had cut you—or cut into you—and you didn’t remember any of it. Like waking up in a bathtub full of ice after somebody’s stolen your fucking kidney or some shit.
I wondered if they had taken something out of him—or if they’d managed to put something in. Something that would do the same thing as Dr. Keller’s subcutaneous implant. On the one hand, I was excited to find out if we’d solved the mystery of how beta blockers were getting in his system. On the other… it meant that somebody had put them inside his body, and getting some sort of implanted device backoutwasn’t going to be a walk in the fucking park.
But even I knew better than to speculate about any of that out loud to Taavi, who was clearly already freaking out.
The drive—fortunately—wasn’t far, although Taavi gave me a long look from the passenger seat before jumping down and walking with me into the vet’s office.
There was only one other person in the waiting room, nervously tapping their foot and pretending to read something on their phone. I didn’t see an animal, so I assume their pet was being treated. Or maybe, given this clinic’s more clandestine purpose, it was their friend, not their pet. Either way, it seemed like a rough night.
Zhou was waiting for us at the counter.
“Detective. Taavi, was it?”
Taavi let out a weak chuff.
“Let’s take a look and see what we have.”
We followed Zhou into the back, where I hefted Taavi up onto the exam table—it was too high for him to reasonably jump, since it was at human chest height. He maybe could have made it, since he was pretty big for a skinny dog, but the stainless steel would likely not have given him much purchase, and I could easily see him sliding right off the other side.
Besides, he didn’t object to being picked up.
