Stork Raving Mad(74)

Sammy nodded. I knew exactly how he felt. What a rotten break that the hit-and-run—which normally would have been the biggest case the Caerphilly police saw for weeks—had to happen on the same day as a murder. I felt a brief, irrational pang of resentment—against Dr. Wright or her killer, I wasn’t sure which. Maybe both.

“But in a day or so, we’ll be able to get to that list,” the chief went on. I noticed that he was reaching down to scratch behind Scout’s ear as he talked. “And I promise you, we will do everything we can to find the culprit.”

“Longer we wait, the harder the forensics will be,” Sammy said. “There could be—you know, trace evidence on the car right now. But what if he takes it to a car wash?”

“There’s no car wash on this planet that can get it so clean I can’t find something,” Horace said. “If there’s anything to be found, I’ll find it, if I have to go over the whole front end of every single suspect SUV with tweezers and cotton swabs.”

“You might find some DNA,” Sammy said. “But then what? The department doesn’t have money for DNA testing. Not on a dog.”

“We’ll find it somewhere,” the chief said.

“I could hit up my grandfather for a donation,” I said.

“You think he’d be interested?” Sammy asked.

“It’s an animal-welfare issue,” I said. “I’ll make him interested. He’d probably want to get some PR out of it. Issue a press release and have his picture taken with Hawkeye for the newspapers.”

“He’d be welcome to all the PR he can get if he helps us catch the hit-and-run driver,” the chief said.

“Thanks,” Sammy said. His voice sounded a little funny and he had to clear his throat before he could go on. “I really appreciate it. Everything.”

“Cheer up,” the chief said. “Now I’d like you to go and fetch me some witnesses. If it’s any comfort, thanks to some information Meg just brought me, we’re a lot closer to wrapping this up. And when we get the forensic results back, I think that will clinch it. I just need to talk to a couple of people again.”

“Yes, sir,” Sammy said. “Who do you need?”

“Mr. Soto, Mr. Oh, and the lovely Ms. Jones.”

“I’m on my way,” Sammy said, and vanished.

“Can you really use dog DNA to solve the hit-and-run?” the chief asked Horace.

“Sure,” Horace said. “They’re starting to do a lot of DNA on animals, for a lot of the same reasons they do on humans—to find out if they’re at risk for hereditary diseases, to verify paternity, and of course for legal cases, like figuring out which dog bit someone. Cost’s coming down, too, so it might not break the bank.”

“Still not something that would be easy to explain to the town council,” the chief said, glancing down at Scout.

“Understandable,” Horace said. “But if Dr. Blake won’t spring for it, we can pass the hat down at the station and take care of it.”

“Good,” the chief said. “Count me in for a double share. Speaking of forensic testing—”

“I’m on it,” Horace said, and vanished.

“And you’d probably like me to leave you alone with your witnesses,” I said. I straightened up, rubbed my aching back, and prepared for the effort of standing—challenging even though I was sitting on the ottoman instead of the dangerous comfy chairs.

The chief cleared his throat.

“Normally I would ask you to leave,” he said. “But under the circumstances, it would be helpful if you could stay. I’d like you to hear what they say when I confront them—see if it differs materially from what you overhead.”

“Right,” I said.

“But don’t you say anything,” he cautioned. He handed me a legal pad and a pen. “We’ll pretend I need you to take notes. If there’s anything you need to tell me during my interview with these three, write it down, then cough, and I’ll find a way to look at what you’ve written.”

“Got it,” I said. “You’re going to talk to them all together?”

“I’ve already talked to them individually,” he said. “And got nothing but lies, apparently. Let’s see what I can pry out by using your information and playing them against each other.”

I took the pad and pen and pulled my seat as far into the corner as possible.

“Sammy!” the chief called. “You can send them in.”

I watched silently as Ramon, Bronwyn, and Danny filed in.

“You can have a seat if you like,” the chief said.