Last Breath Part 26

"Too bad the dog can't talk," Thorpe said. "Tell us just what happened that night."

Connor turned and stared at Thorpe as if he'd said something brilliant. "I'm not so sure she can't..."

NINETEEN.

"W here did they take him?" She stood in the dim light, anger radiating off her like heat.

"I'm a.s.suming to the police station in Howeville," replied the man who sat on the chair near the fireplace. He was taller than her by almost a foot, and outweighed her by seventy pounds. He was terrified of her.

"If he talks..."

The man shook his head. "He will not talk. We have discussed this possibility many times. I'd bet my life on it."

"You already have." She turned away and paced in a circle.

"I've done everything you've asked of me. I've retrieved every one of the sacred artifacts you sent me after."

"All but one," she reminded him. "There's still that woman in Ma.s.sachusetts. You let her get away."

"The FBI got there before we did."

"You should have moved faster. You gave them too much time."

Or you could have figured out sooner that you could locate some of the collectors by using the Internet, instead of stealing Daria McGowan's list. But of course, he dared not say that. The priestess was neither a tolerant nor a forgiving woman.

"I'll take care of her," he said.

"What's the point? The FBI has the necklace."

"But shouldn't she still be punished?" He was puzzled by her sudden lack of interest in the woman. Hadn't she still sinned by having a sacred object in her possession? "And what of Dr. McGowan? Shouldn't she be punished for what her great-grandfather did?"

"Let me think." She barely heard him, and dismissed him with the wave of her hand as she continued to pace.

She needed a plan. She needed to focus.

But most of all, she needed to insure that there was no way any of this could ever be traced back to her.

TWENTY.

"C onnor, what the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Mia came into the kitchen carrying an empty coffee cup.

"Collecting evidence." He sat on the floor, a sheet of white computer paper in front of him on the old linoleum, Sweet Thing sitting as nicely as could be. Connor leaned closer, the scissors in his right hand, his left hand holding the dog's jaw upright.

"Connor? What are you...?" Daria asked from the doorway.

"Come here and hold her head for me," he said without looking up.

Daria walked over and placed a hand on the dog's head.

"What are you doing, Connor?" she repeated.

"I need to cut some of the fur from around her mouth," he told her. "Would you please hold her head?"

Daria did as he asked, speaking softly to the dog, who really didn't appear to be too distressed.

"Does she have a mat?" Daria asked. "I didn't notice a mat."

"No, but what she does have is a different color in the fur around her mouth than on the rest of her body. See?" He pointed with his index finger. "The brown here is a little lighter."

"Funny, I didn't notice that before," she said.

"It wasn't there until late last night."

"I don't get it."

"It's dried blood. From where she nipped the prowler."

He concentrated on snipping the bits of fur where the brown was darkest.

"I know you have a point, but you've lost me."

"I think the blood from the handprint on Damien Cross's back door came from the kid we picked up here last night. I think when he and whoever he's working with killed Cross, he was attacked by Sweet Thing. She bit his arm. His arm would have bled down onto his hand. When he opened the back door to run out and get away from the dog, he left a print." Satisfied that he had all he needed, Connor carefully folded the paper and stuck it in his shirt pocket. "He also left blood in the dog's mouth last night."

Mia leaned closer to look. "It does look like dried blood."

"What made you even think of that?" Daria asked.

"While I was questioning the kid-or trying to, because he isn't speaking-I noticed the puncture marks on his arm. Looked like a dog bite to me. It wasn't hard to connect those dots."

"That's why she took off after him last night. She remembered." Daria patted the dog's head. "What a smart girl you are."

"A dog isn't likely to forget the scent of someone who killed her master." Mia nodded. "So you're going to match the blood from her fur to the blood on the door at the victim's house, to put him at the scene of the Cross murder."

"Yes. And then we're going to match the marks on his arm to Sweet Thing's bite. All nice and tidy." Connor stood up and put the scissors on the counter. He went to the cupboard and got a biscuit to reward the dog for her very good behavior.

"Won't you have to get a warrant for that?" Mia asked.

"We have two jurisdictions here. The murder we want to match the blood to is in Delaware. The kid, however, is here in PA, being held on trespa.s.sing and prowling charges. I think the warrant to match the bite marks is going to have to come from Coliani in New Castle. He's going to the DA this morning to see if he can get the warrant now, or if the kid has to be transferred to Delaware first. But red tape aside, I think we'll be able to get the kid to crack before we have to match the bite marks. We'll let him know we have his DNA from the cup he drank from, and we'll tell him that we matched it to blood we found at the scene. Now we have his blood from last night, and I'm certain it will match up to the blood on Damien Cross's back door. Is he going to want to take the fall for this? I doubt it." Connor gave Sweet Thing another treat. "I think at that point, we can get him to give up whoever is calling the shots."

"You don't think this kid did the killings by himself?" Mia asked.

"No way, unless he drugged them, and there was no indication of that in the autopsy reports. I see the kid as an accomplice, willing or unwilling. He isn't the one behind this, and that's the person we want." He turned to Daria. "Can you be ready to leave in fifteen minutes or so?"

"I thought we didn't have to be at Cavanaugh's until noon?"

"We don't, but we're going to have to stop at the New Castle County police station. I already left a message for Coliani. I want to turn the clippings from Sweet Thing over to him and I want to see if he knows of a vet in his area who can do the impression from the dog's mouth. It's his murder scene, his jurisdiction. He should be handling the evidence."

"How long will they keep her?" Daria knelt and put an arm around the dog's neck. Sweet Thing's pink tongue unfurled like a small flag and licked the side of Daria's face. "When will we be able to get her back?"

"I guess it will depend on when the vet has time to do the impression. They might have to sedate her to do that."

"But she'll be okay, right?"

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Seeing that Daria still appeared uneasy, Connor added, "Hey, she's the star witness. They're going to take good care of her."

"All right. Give me five minutes to change, and I'll be ready to go."

"Listen, if you don't need me for the rest of the day, I think I'd like to head back to St. Dennis," Mia said after Daria left the room. "The weekends are so busy there, with all the tourists, and I promised Vanessa I'd help her out in her shop. The girl who usually works for her is on vacation."

"Vanessa?" Connor asked absently.

"Beck's sister. She owns a boutique there on the main street, and does a lot of business this time of the year. The weekends are especially busy."

"I think I can handle things from here." Connor took a gla.s.s from the cupboard and filled it at the sink. "How is Beck, by the way? That working out for you?"

"Couldn't be better, actually. I'm trying to take things slow, but you know how these things are." Mia smiled.

"Yeah, I guess I do."

Mia's smile widened. "I guess you're learning, anyway."

His cell phone rang just as he opened his mouth to reply.

"Answer your phone, Con." Mia laughed. "I'm going to go upstairs and pack."

"Shields. Yes, Detective, thanks for calling me back..."

"Maybe we should go with her to the vet," Daria said to Vince Coliani in the parking lot at the New Castle County police station. "She might get upset. Maybe she'll think we've abandoned her."

"She's going to be just fine," the detective a.s.sured her. "Dr. Price is great with dogs. We take our K9s to her."

"We can come back and pick her up later today if she's finished?" Daria asked.

"The vet didn't think she'd get around to the impression until pretty late in the day. She has two surgeries this afternoon," he told her. "But don't worry. We'll take good care of her, and you'll have her back by tomorrow, no later."

"Okay. Sweet Thing, you behave yourself." Daria gave the dog a parting hug and got into Connor's car. "We'll see you in the morning."

Connor handed the fur he'd cut from Sweet Thing's neck over to the detective. "Here's the dog hair I told you about. Get your lab guys to compare the blood on it to the blood on the door."

"Great. Hey, I owe you one," Coliani said.

"Get me a match and we'll both be happy," Connor said as he got into the car.

Daria looked out the window as Connor turned the car around.

"She'll be fine, Daria. I promise."

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"You've really become attached to her."

Daria nodded. "I really have. I hope I can keep her."

"Coliani said no one's even stepped forward to ask about the dog. Cross had one nephew; he made arrangements for the body to be transferred to a funeral parlor in Virginia when the medical examiner releases it, which will probably happen today. But there wasn't a word said about the dog."

"Maybe the detective can tell me who I have to talk to to adopt her."

"I'm thinking possession is good enough at this point. I doubt anyone's going to challenge you."

"Good. That would be good." Daria rested her head against the back of the seat. "Tell me again where Mr. Cavanaugh lives."

"Outside of West Chester. It's not far from here. He said to come up Route 202. Which according to that sign, is right here."

Connor followed the signs that led them onto a heavily commercial stretch of road that ran several miles through Delaware and into Pennsylvania.

"Did you ever get that package of material from your mother? The one with the PI reports about your brother?"

"What made you think of that?" she asked.

"I don't know." Connor waited for a moment, and when she didn't answer the question, he said, "Well, did you?"

"It came yesterday or the day before. Vita dropped it off right after Mia and I got home yesterday. The mailman evidently left it at the administration building."

"When were you going to give it to me?"

"When things slowed down a bit. I figured you have your hands full. I didn't want to bother you."

"It's no bother. Did you look through it?"

"I started to yesterday, but to tell you the truth, reading gave me a headache."

"How's your head now?"

"Much better. I took some of the pain meds after breakfast and the throbbing is pretty much gone."

"Good." He maneuvered the Porsche around a tractor trailer and settled back into the right lane. Traffic was heavy and the road wasn't particularly smooth, so he did what he could to keep Daria's head from bouncing around too much.