“But it’s just a dog,” she said, with a startled look.
“A dog that hundreds of thousands of military dollars have been put into for her training. That’s a War Dog. An animal that went to war and saved thousands of military lives because of her training, and now you’re saying that she’s dangerous, too dangerous to be left alive. And so all that money and training will go down the tubes.”
“But she’s retired,” she said, still trying to assimilate the information he had given her.
“No, she’s needed at a job site not very far from here where there’s a firebug,” he said. “You do realize that’s what she’s trained for, right? Sniffing out accelerants and arson.”
She swallowed again. “No, I didn’t know,” she said in a bare whisper.
“So we need to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Do you want to start again?”
She swallowed hard and said, “I never really had anything to do with the dog.”
He stopped, leaned back in his chair, and stared at her. “What did you just say?”
“I was scared of it,” she said quietly, but almost so quietly he couldn’t hear.
“You had nothing to do with this dog, and yet … you said in a written declaration that this animal was dangerous. Is that correct?”
She stared at him, her eyes huge, and then she gave a very small nod.
“I see,” he said. “So what you’re essentially saying is you lied.” Her eyes widened, and he said, “Is that correct?”
And she slowly nodded again.
He shook his head and quickly sent a message to Badger. “I’m handing your name and phone number off to my boss,” he said. “He’ll get in touch with you about making a new legal statement, recanting your lies from the earlier one,” he said.
“Unless … I don’t want to deal with him, right?”
“No, not at all,” he said. “However, not only did you lie,” he said, “but a life is at stake, and we have to get all this rescinded before that dog is put to death.”
“But …” And then she fell silent.
He gave her a hard look. “But what?”
“What if I hadn’t come here to meet you for coffee?” she said in a small voice.
“Do you really think I wouldn’t have tracked you down to your house?” he said. He switched tabs on his phone and held up her address to show her.
She looked at it and squeaked.
“When you start lying at this level of lies,” he said, “there are consequences. Did you not think about that?”
“She said that I wouldn’t have to do anything.”
“And who’s that?” She fell silent. “You mean, your best friend, Bernie?” She looked up at him, her eyes wide. “Do you think I won’t talk to her too?”
“Have you yet?”
“Of course I have,” he said. “She was not happy with me. So you shouldn’t be calling her and telling her about how you spilled the beans with me. You’re aiding and abetting her in a lie, and you’re already in enough trouble right now. At the moment it’s probably forgivable. If we save the dog. But, if you continue on this pathway, then there could be criminal and civil charges.”
“But it’s just a dog.”
He stopped and stared. “Just a dog?”
She swallowed hard. “Okay, so it’s a fancy dog,” she said, “but I didn’t think there’d be any harm done. After she bit Bernie, I thought for sure the dog should be put down. So I just added a little to the story to make sure that they believed her.”
“And was that done on your own or with Bernie’s assistance?”
“Well, she told me that it wouldn’t hurt, and then it would help to make sure that this dog didn’t hurt anybody else.”
“Did you ever see the bite wound on Bernie?”
“No, of course not,” she said with a wince and a shudder. “I can’t stand to look at anything like that.”
“So how do you know if she’s been bitten?”
At that, she gave another squeak and stared at him, her mouth open.
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “You don’t even know if she has or not, do you?”
“No,” she said slowly. “I … I don’t.” She took a long slow deep breath. “Oh, my God, is she just doing this to get that dog killed?”
“Well, that’ll be the question I ask next,” he said. “Would she do something like that?”
She slowly nodded. “Yeah, she would. She hated that dog.”
“And yet she insisted on getting it,” he said.
“But the dog didn’t like her,” she said. “It was obvious the dog didn’t like her.”
“I wonder why.”
She shrugged. “She didn’t treat it very well. I told her that she shouldn’t treat it so badly, but she said that it was just a dog and that it didn’t matter.”
“How badly did she treat her?”
“It would be sleeping on the floor, and she’d come up and hit it with something hard, like with the leg of a chair, and it would jump back, growling at her all the time.”
“But, of course, she never did that when anybody else was around, did she?”
“No, she never did.”
“I’m surprised the dog didn’t attack her and rip her leg off for that kind of behavior,” he said. “What else did she do to the dog?”
“She would feed the dog and then chase her away when it was half done and take the food and dump it and wouldn’t feed her again for another couple days. Or she’d pour stuff on top of it that wasn’t any good for the dog, like dish soap. And then she wouldn’t let the dog out to go to the bathroom, and it would shit everywhere and then …” And she stopped. She shook her head. “She didn’t treat it very nice.”
“So, even if it did bite her, what would you say to that now?”
“She probably deserved it,” she said, “but, I mean, all dogs are bad. I mean, I’m scared of all of them.”
“So, because you’re scared, they’re bad?”
“Well, no.” She stopped and said, “I was bitten when I was little.” She added, “So I’m just really, really scared of them.”
“Did this dog deserve anything that your friend did to it?”
“No,” she said, “she was just …” And then she stopped again. “Honestly she’s not a very nice person.”
“And yet she’s still your friend?”
“Well, I don’t have many friends,” she said, “and she’s not somebody that you become unfriends with.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, you’re only not friends when she decides you’re not friends. It’s not like I can turn around and tell her that I don’t want to be with her anymore.”
“You sure about that?” he asked. “Because it sounds like it would be to your benefit to find other friends.”
“I don’t have any,” she said, “so I don’t really have a choice.”