Addie silently headed upstairs, where she had last seen the pills. Finding them, she brought them to Tucker.
“What the hell is taking you so long?” Bernie demanded.
Tucker took several photos of the painkillers, then pocketed them, calling the doc, who was quick to say he didn’t treat any bite, mosquito or dog or snake bite or otherwise, for Bernie. Tucker hung up. “Introduce us now.”
“Who the hell is that?” Bernie asked, when she noted the presence of the man with Addie.
Bernie wore long pants. In the summertime in Miami. How convenient. “I’m a representative acting on behalf of US Navy Commander Cross. I’ve come to see the supposed bite wound.”
Bernie frowned, taking a sec to adjust to the new threat. “Get the hell out of here,” she shrieked.
“After I see the wound and have a photo of it for the US Navy’s file.”
Bernie grabbed her phone. “I’m dialing 9-1-1.”
Addie looked to Tucker, as if to ask, Now what?
Just wait, he mouthed. When he heard no sirens in three minutes, he faced Bernie. “Now that we’ve confirmed you are a liar, want to try again? Show me the wound.”
“Go to hell.”
“See?” he said to Addie, as he continued loudly. “You’ve got yourself a full-fledged psychopath for a sister. She should permanently be in a psychiatric hospital, as she is harmful to others, if not to herself.”
Bernie’s shrieks grew louder and louder, as Tucker’s smile grew bigger and bigger. He called Badger. Wanted Bernie to hear this. “The complainant is a psychopath and a liar. No proof of doctor’s report. No evidence of wound. Call the major and the governor to demand the release of the War Dog. And file with Commander Cross a malicious report made to the US Navy by Bernie Rottenheim. Also ask for a seventy-two-hour hold on our lying complainant.”
Badger laughed. “Good job. Stay on it. I’ll work the angles from my end too.”
Tucker and Addie left, Bernie’s shrieks easily heard even as they walked down the driveway.
Chapter 3
Addie walked over to Tucker as he hopped into the truck. “May I have your contact information please?” she asked.
He looked at her in surprise, but then he saw the concern in her gaze. “For your sister’s sake or for the dog’s sake?”
“Look. I know my family is at fault for this,” she said, “but I can’t be blamed for everything they do. I can only do what I can to try and fix this. I want to save that dog as much as you do.”
He remembered the relationship between the two of them—or at least appeared to because his gaze softened. “Well, I did see the dog and how she reacted to you,” he said. “Honestly I would trust the dog’s reaction over people’s any time.”
“And I know that,” she said, “and you don’t have any reason to trust me, but I love her. The dog, Bernie. Not so much my sister, Bernie.”
“And that was obvious,” he said quietly. He pulled out his phone and said, “Here’s my number.”
She keyed it into her phone and then gave hers to Tucker. “And I’m … I’m sorry,” she said. “I just … I don’t know how to fix this.”
“Well, I’m working on it,” he said, shaking his head. “Are you serious? That’s your sister?”
She nodded slowly. “Like I said, it’s a difficult situation.”
“She doesn’t care about the dog at all, does she?”
“Only that it dies,” she said, “and that’s what I’m up against daily. It’s her whole focus.”
“Do you have any idea how bad the bite supposedly is?”
“You tell me,” she said. “I thought it had to be bad before the dog was put to sleep.”
“It should be. How mobile is she?”
“Not,” she said, “she stays on the couch all the time. She has a bedroom on the main floor anyway.”
“And yet she says she went upstairs to check for her pain pills.”
Addie stopped and stared. And then she nodded slowly. “Yes, she did say that.”
“So really, could she have gotten up the stairs?”
“I don’t know. I mean, if the bite’s as bad as she says it is, then maybe not.”
“If there was no bite, why does she need the pain pills?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“So why would she have you come and get them in the first place?”
“Attention? To yank my chain,” she said shortly.
“Wow.” He stopped and stared at her. “You have a truly messed-up family.”
“I have a messed-up sister,” she corrected. “I’ve admitted that. I don’t want to keep harping on it.”
“No, I got that,” he said. “And I guess she won’t let me see the bite either, unless I come back with a warrant and the cops.” Tucker hesitated. “Maybe I’ll have to do that anyway,” he said.
She looked at him with interest. “Can you?”
He shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure what my legal backing is. Badger and I are sorting that out now.”
“Isn’t that …” Again she stopped and hesitated.
“What?”
“I don’t know. I just would like to see some protection for the dog.”
“A lot of places in the US don’t give a damn about dogs,” he said. “Animal protection, … animal rights are nonexistent, no matter how much legal jargon says otherwise.”
“No. I was hoping Miami was a little bit better.”
“Not once there are several accounts that this animal’s dangerous—Bernie’s account backed up by your parents.”
“Her friend said it was dangerous too, said it bit her.”
“Which friend is that?”
“Olive,” she said.
“Do you have Olive’s number?”
“Yeah,” she said, “I think I do.” She pulled out her phone, looked it up, and gave it to him. “What will you do?”
“I’ll go interview her,” he said. “See what she wants to say and if there’s any legal standing behind this. Where her word is on record.”
“Oh,” she said. “I would love to be a fly on the wall with that,” she said, “but Olive isn’t exactly very fond of me.”
“Well, I wonder why,” he said with a brief laugh. “If she’s a friend of your sister’s, you know that anybody who isn’t on your sister’s side is against her. You’re either my friend or you’re my enemy in your sister’s world.”
“How do you know so much about her mental state?” she asked, staring at him. The fact that he was right was also kind of scary.
“Because I’ve studied people for a long time,” he said. “It’s also part of our training.”
“What do you mean, training?”
“I was a Navy SEAL,” he said briefly. “And one of the things that you must understand going into these missions is the psychology behind people, their behavior, and their motivations. I’ve met a couple people like your sister, not too many thankfully,” he said. “But it usually involved bigger issues—kidnappings and government coups, all kinds of garbage like that,” he said. “It hasn’t come across my desk in this form before.”