Page 35 of So Deadly
It also wore gloves with long claws at the end.Little blades that looked like his utility knife at the warehouse.Robert stared at the makeshift weapons, looked up at the woman, and said, “Are you ser—”
She stepped forward and slashed, moving faster than Robert had ever seen anyone move.Fire seared across his face, and he flinched backward, crying out in shock.When he opened his mouth, the skin on the left side of his face sagged, and blood welled from three deep grooves.He could feel air moving through one of the grooves where the blade had cut all the way through his skin.
The attacker laughed, a guttural sound that matched the snarl of her dog mask.Robert took a step back, heart pounding.“Hey.”
Then she was on him.Robert tried to fight back for a few seconds, but when the tendons that controlled both of his arms were severed, he only screamed.Then the claws tore across his throat, and he couldn’t scream anymore.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Damn,” Jessica opined.“Would it be terrible of me to say that I actually understand the killer?”
“Yes,” Faith replied, “but I think I understand the point you’re really trying to make.”
In the past two years, there had been no fewer than twenty-seven thousand one hundred fifteen dog attacks in the Boston Metropolitan Area.While the vast majority of these attacks were reported by owners bitten by their pets, three hundred twelve cases involved dogs incorrectly identified as service animals.Sixty-nine of those attacks were fatal.Rather than finding a single possible suspect, they had found dozens.
“We should get Jenkins working on this,” Jessica suggested.“This is too much for us to handle alone.”
“Agreed,” Faith said.“Have him first identify which of the possible suspects still live in the area.We’ll prioritize loved ones of fatally wounded victims first and move onto non-fatal injuries later.”
“Yeah, that works,” Jessica said.“Damn.I didn’t realize this was such a big deal.”
Apparently, it was.Among the information they had come across was a recent newspaper article describing the problem and claiming that the lack of enforcement of these laws was to blame.The article’s writer had concluded with a pointed rant that claimed they might as well not have the law at all if no one was allowed to enforce it.
Faith looked at Turk, who was watching the tv and swishing his tail back and forth, blissfully unaware that out there were hundreds of people traumatized by dog attacks who would take one look at him and probably be afraid for their lives.Faith never really thought about the potential for violence from dogs.To her, dogs were puppies, lovable creatures who existed to bring joy to people.Even when she was using Turk to take down a suspect, she didn’t think of him as violent or scary.He was just doing a job.And that’s how he behaved.He wasn’t excessively violent.He wasn’t trying to hurt them.He obtained compliance, then released the suspects to Faith.
Because he’s been trained.He’s been taught to trust that he doesn’t need to kill a threat to subdue it.Instinctively, the only solution to a threat in the wild is to kill it.
That could explain why the killer didn’t harm Hayes’ dog.Faith had assumed the killer just didn’t want the dog to hurt them, and that could be part of it, but it could also be the killer understood the dogs were only acting on instinct.The fault lay with the owners who portrayed their dogs as trained and lulled others into a false sense of security believing the dogs would be harmless to them.
Faith didn’t condone the killer’s actions, but if she had a loved one killed by a fake service dog, she would be very angry with that dog’s owner too.So, in that sense, she could understand where the killer was coming from.
Still, they had taken it too far.Advocating for stricter enforcement was good.Cutting people to ribbons was not good.
“Agents,” Detective Jenkins’ voice said over the phone.“Good to hear from you.”His tone suggested that wasn’t entirely the case.
“I wanted to let you know that we executed the search warrant at the Mitchell residence.There’s nothing there.The boxcutter blades, but no ponchos, no manifestos, no blood, no muddy boots, nothing that can prove she’s the killer.We’re currently trying to figure out how hard we’re going to need to kiss her ass to keep her from suing us.I know you guys are just doing your job, and I’m not trying to be an asshole, but we really screwed the pooch on that one.Oy.Pardon that turn of phrase.”
Jessica sighed.“I told you that the FBI is officially taking the case.Your department doesn’t have to accept liability.Neither do we, frankly, and I’ll be happy to defend that point of view in court, but—”
“That’s not important right now,” Faith said.“Sahar’s clean.Fine.Let’s focus on finding this killer.We have a new lead now.”
“Yeah, let’s just slow it down a little, is all I’m saying,” Jenkins said.“Get the case built first before we confront people.”
Faith understood where Jenkins was coming from, but she wasn’t about to argue over investigative methods that had worked well for her for fifteen years.She just wanted progress made on this case.“We’re going to send you a list of names.These are victims of dog attacks from fake service dogs in the Greater Boston area over the past two years.The highlighted names are fatalities.We need you to help us make a list of suspects out of this information.Loved ones of the fatalities, and surviving victims who still live in the Boston area.”
“Okay,” Jenkins said.“How many names is that?”
“Three hundred twelve.Sixty-nine fatal.”
“Holy Mother of God,” Jenkins swore.He sighed.“All right.I’ll recruit some interns, and we’ll start refining.You think this is personal?”
“It has to be,” Faith said.“Even if the violence is just how this killer gets their kicks, the fact that both victims worked together to fake licensing for untrained dogs tells me this is also punishment.The killer is selecting victims they feel contribute to this problem.”
“All right.Well, like I said, we struck out against Mitchell.I’ll get this info back as soon as I can.Sorry if I came across a little miffed.I’m just not used to dealing with crap like this.”
“I hope you spend the rest of your career never dealing with crap like this again,” Faith said.
“May God hear your prayer.Talk to you soon.”
