Page 86 of Little Bitter Truths
“Yeah, but as his owner, you were responsible for him, and from what I hear, you didn’t take responsibility.”
“You’re wrong.I did, at first.”
“And then?”
“When it happened a second time, or maybe the third, I found a bag of dog crap on my front porch along with a note.”
“What note?”
“Oh, I see, she’s picking and choosing the parts of the story she wants to share and leaving out the rest to make herself look better.The bag of crap came with a note attached.”
Mia had neglected to mention that detail.
I didn’t like that she’d kept it from me.It made me feel like he was one step ahead.For one, it meant Adrain knew more about the situation than I did, and that bothered me.And two, I didn’t like that Mia had left out a rather important detail to her dog-poop revenge story.
“What did the note say?”I asked.
“It said to keep my dog off her lawn, or else.”
I went still.“Or else what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you still have the note?”
He shook his head.“I tossed it.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not in the habit of saving notes attached to bags of dog crap as keepsakes.”
“Mia said after she left the bag on your porch that you confronted her,” I said.
“You bet I did.”
“How did that conversation go?”
“How do youthinkit went?”
“Not well, but I’d like to hear it from your perspective.”
Adrian went quiet a moment before answering.“She told me if my dog ended up on her lawn again, she’d make sure I regretted it.”
Yet another thing she hadn’t told me, making me wonder what else I didn’t know.The more he spoke, the more his tone of voice began to change, giving way to something new—resentment.
“What do you think about Mia?”I asked.
“She’s a difficult woman who likes to stir up trouble.In every interaction we’ve ever had, she manages to turn it into a problem.”
“She says the same thing about you,” I said.“I’m sure you’ve heard about what happened to her sister.”
“It’s all anyone in town is talking about these days.Nothing like a murder on your block to tank property values.”
“Mia’s sister was murdered, and somehow you’ve managed to make this about real estate.”
He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck.“Moose is still missing, which hasn’t been easy, so I’m sorry if my sole purpose in life isn’t the death of her sister.He’s been gone for several weeks now.I’m trying not to give up hope, but it’s getting harder with each passing day.”
He shifted his attention away from me as if he was trying to hide his emotions, but his voice cracked, giving him away.
