Chapter 2

Bethany stepped farther into the waiting room. The man turned and looked at her, and that gaze pinned her on the spot. She immediately wanted to tell him the truth about absolutely everything in her world, not that she was normally a liar, but this guy was something else.

He nodded. "Hi," he greeted her, with a polite smile. "I'm Conall, and I'm here about a War Dog that you checked over a while back."

She nodded. "I'm Dr. Bethany Wittaker. I did, and he was in decent shape."

"I'm sure glad to hear that. Apparently you released Bacchus to somebody other than Michael."

She shrugged. "I released him for sure, to someone I thought to be the nephew at the time. We had a letter stating so. We have dealt with this dog many times in the past, but the owner…" She paused and thought about it, searching for the right words. "I'm not sure I've ever seen him, so it was a very common thing for him to send others in to drop off and to pick up Bacchus."

"Do you know anything or have you heard anything as to how the dog went missing?"

"I probably know less than you do," she admitted, shrugging. "We heard that he never arrived home, but that's all. The only reason I know that much is that Michael called to see where Bacchus was. I told him that he'd been released to his nephew. Then he started to get angry, saying his nephew was there and had been all afternoon."

"Do you have any reason to doubt Michael's story?"

"No, not at all, but there is also no reason for you to think that I did something to the dog either," she stated. "I'm not sure what's going on or who would want to take the dog." She shook her head. "That just makes no sense to me at all."

"No, of course not," he murmured. "And I'm here to get the facts, not to blame the clinic."

She looked at him with an assessing gaze. "Do you have any reason to suspect that Bacchus would have been stolen?"

"Not any reason to suspect anything at this point," he noted. "I have to find out all I can about what happened, and that could provide all kinds of different leads, but I thought I would start with where he went missing from."

She pondered that and shrugged. "He might have gone missing from here, but I really can't be sure because he was picked up and led outside. I didn't see the vehicle or even the man himself, for that matter."

"And that's a critical point," Conall noted, with a searching gaze. "Who released the dog?"

Bethany turned and called out, "Mel, can you come here, please?"

The younger woman stepped out, nervously wiping her hands on her jeans. "Hi," she said sheepishly.

"This man wants to know who you released the dog to."

She flushed. "I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Bethany asked, frowning.

"I had the letter, and I brought the dog out. No medication, no special instructions or anything had to be handed out," she explained, "and it was a really busy day." She glanced over at her boss, frowning. "Remember? We had dogs here, dogs there." Mel fumbled, pointing to the area around them. "Then a cat got loose, and all kinds of chaos happened."

"Oh, right. I remember that now." Bethany winced.

"So, when you turned around, the dog was gone. Is that it?" Conall asked Mel.

"Yes."

"So, you don't know whether the dog went with anybody or just managed to get out the open door, is that it?" Conall asked specifically.

"I brought him out for somebody"—Mel frowned—"but the dog was just over here, lying on the floor, waiting. So… I didn't even see who picked him up."

"How did you know to get him ready?"

"We'd gotten a phone call, and then there was the letter on the desk." She stopped and added, "That seems very strange, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it seems very strange." Bethany groaned. "Okay, so maybe we have a little more to do with this than I would like," she muttered, glancing at her employee.

"So, you never saw who took Bacchus or spoke to anyone in person?" Conall confirmed.

"No," Mel confessed. "I'm sorry. It was just crazy that day."

"I remember," Bethany muttered. "You're right. It was a bad day in many ways." She turned to Conall. "Is it paranoid to suggest that somebody may have been intentionally causing issues? I'm beginning to wonder if maybe somebody did take him," she admitted.

"Maybe," Conall replied. "It still sounds a little odd to think it would have worked out so perfectly."

"Or they just came in, saw the dog there, he jumped up to greet them, and just walked out with them?" Bethany suggested. "Bacchus is a very friendly dog."

"I was away from my desk for," Mel explained, pondering it, "maybe… ten minutes, fifteen tops, trying to restore order, with the cat on the loose and the dogs freaking out everywhere."

"So, there is a gap in the timeline then. When did you find out there was a problem?" Conall asked her.

"As I remember, Michael called me later that day," Bethany replied, "and it was after business hours because I answered it from home. I told him to let me know if the dog didn't return afterward. Then I didn't hear anything for at least a week. By then our security tapes had been overwritten, since we only keep them for three days."

Conall nodded. "So, nobody has a clue whether the dog just took off or someone picked him up." He pondered the information. "How far away was he from home?"

"Not far at all, maybe five blocks," Bethany noted, and then she nodded. "You're right. Bacchus may well have just gone on home then."

"He would have under normal circumstances,… yes," Conall stated.

"You don't think this was a normal circumstance, do you?" Bethany asked.

"Do you?" he asked, with a wry look.

She flushed and then shook her head. "Maybe not, but I honestly don't know what to tell you."

He stared at her for a long moment, then his gaze switched to Melanie.

Mel immediately went into broken-record mode. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what to tell you. I was trying to catch the cat, and the dogs were after her. We had two people in the waiting room, and they were lingering around with their dogs.… I did try to hold back their animals. I mean, anybody could have stepped in, picked up the dog, and walked out," she muttered. "I didn't even think about it, but I was expecting the dog to be picked up. So, when I realized he was gone, I just thought, Oh, good, one less thing to worry about, and off I went."

"Off you went," Conall muttered.

Mel flushed. "Yeah, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but…" She fell silent, looking miserable.

"And who were the two people in the waiting room?" he asked.

Mel just grimaced, then said, "I'm not sure."

He shifted to look at Bethany.

She shrugged. "Mel, check the schedule for that day and give those names to the investigator."

Mel frowned. "I can try. I'm not sure how to get into the calendar and go backward."

Bethany shrugged. "Mel, try to get it done." She turned to Conall and added, "I'll follow up."

Conall stood here for a long moment, as if pondering his options and the information he'd been given. Then with a nod, he said, "I'll be back."

And, with that, he headed out.