AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tom says twenty minutes.”
“Wonderful. We’ll wait. While we wait, do you mind if I ask about your pheromone? It seems pretty cool. I’m sure a lot of people would love to have medicine that will help their dogs remain docile and calm and friendly… all that good stuff. Have you ever talked to anyone about it?”
Karl stared defiantly up at Michael, who lifted his hands placatingly and smiled. “Just trying to make friendly conversation.”
“You’re not my friend,” Karl retorted.
“You’re right, Karl,” Faith said. “We’re not friends. That means we have no reason to do you any favors. I’m sure the DEA will take a keen interest in the illegal pharmaceutical lab you have at your house. Like it or not, you’re done. You’re looking at fifteen years at least, unless you gave the chemical to someone else, in which case you’re looking at twenty-five. You didn’t give the chemical to anyone else, did you?”
Karl remained silent, but there was considerably less defiance in his demeanor than before.
“Well, that’s all right,” Faith said. “You’ll have plenty of time to think of an answer. Considering that you’re what, sixty-two? Sixty-three? You might have the rest of your life.”
“Like my partner said,” Michael added. “We have no reason to do you any favors. However, if you were to tell us something that could help us find the murderer, then we could at least toss you a bone or two as thanks for your help. We might even be able to neglect to mention the lab we found. We can tell the DEA that you just had some leftover drugs on hand and that someone broke into your house and stole it. You might get a bit of a fine for the leftovers, but you won’t be in prison until your grandkids forget about you.”
Karl’s eyes faltered a moment, then hardened. “I will not answer questions without my lawyer.”
Michael shrugged. “Suit yourself. Faith, you want a soda? I’m heading to the vending machines.”
“I’ll go with you,” she said. “Karl, you want a soda while we’re gone? A candy bar? Maybe some chips?”
Karl glared at the two agents and didn’t say anything. Faith shrugged, then followed Michael out the door.
“We need him to talk,” Michael said. “If he lawyers up, the lawyer’s going to shut down any more conversation and whisk him away somewhere to work on a cover story.”
“He’s behind bars,” Faith said, “if he’s the guy, then it doesn’t matter how long the process takes. He’ll be off the streets where he can’t hurt anyone else.”
“Ifhe’s the guy?”
Faith met Michael's eyes and saw the curiosity and impatience there. He hid the impatience well, but Faith knew it was there because she felt the same way. In high-pressure cases, there was a natural hope that the killer would be caught soon before he could kill anyone else, and finding out that a suspect wasn't the murderer was disheartening.
Obviously, you couldn’t let that cloud your judgment, though. As much as Faith wished she could be certain that Karl was their guy, she didn’t know it for sure.
“Turk reacted immediately to the smell of that King Charles. He could tell immediately that Trotter was one of the dogs involved in the murder of George Merrill. He’s been around Karl for the past three hours, and he hasn’t reacted the same way at all.”
“Faith, the guy created pheromones to modify dog behavior. He could be carrying some sort of pheromone that’s dulling Turk’s senses.”
“If Turk’s senses were dulled, he’d react the same way we would if our vision became hazy or our hearing weakened.”
"Well, maybe he's just making Turk docile. Look, I know you're going to tell me not to try to make a square peg fit into a round hole, but this is a pretty damned square hole, Faith. I think you should stop trying to make a square peg a round peg. This man has plenty of dogs of all shapes and sizes. He has a damned lab in his house. I’ll bet my badge he’s using it to make more of the pheromone that our killer is using to manage these dogs. We saw over a dozen of the dogs act aggressive in a crazed manner. I’ve seen guard dogs bark before, but I’ve never seen a twelve-pound Pekingese trying to eat through chainlink so it could tear my throat out before. This is our guy.”
“Thislookslike our guy,” Faith agreed. “But I don’t know. I don’t buy that he’s somehow drugging Turk with what? An aerosol? We’d see something on the security feed if that were the case.”
Michael pursed his lips, clearly still unhappy. After a moment, though, he nodded and said, “All right. What do you want to do, then?”
“I don’t think he’s the killer,” Faith repeated, “but I do think he’s in deep shit, and he knows it. He didn’t seem afraid when we mentioned the murders, but when we saw his drugs, he panicked, and just now when I mentioned the DEA, he froze and turned white. I don’t think he killed anyone, but I think he sold our killer the drugs he used to control the dogs.”
“And you think he’s afraid of being looped in as an accessory.”
“I think he’s afraid because he knows exactly who the killer is, and he doesn’t want to admit to himself or to us that he gave the killer his weapon.”
“So what do you want to do?” Michael repeated.
“I want to talk to him,” Faith said.
Michael sighed. “Faith, we’ve been talking to him. He’s not going to tell us anything.”
“Just let me try,” Faith said, “please.”
