Page 39 of So Savage

“He doesn’t need to,” the security officer assured her.“Yeah, come on in.I’ll show you what I have.I didn’t notice anything crazy, but… wait, you said Dr.Hayes killed someone?”

“No, I didn’t,” Hayes insisted.

“Just show me the security footage for Dr.Hayes’ office.I just need to confirm his alibi.”

“Yeah,” the officer said.“Sure.I can do that.I’m Kyle, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Kyle.”

Kyle swallowed again, then sat abruptly and began searching.Faith looked at Dr.Hayes and noted that, once more, there was no fear in his expression.Only surprise and concern.

He was hiding something, though.The concern was now laced with a little bit of guilt.Maybe he wasn’t the killer, but could he be involved in some lesser way?

“Here,” Kyle said.“This is the footage from about one a.m.”

Faith looked at the monitor and sighed.Dr.Hayes was clearly visible in the footage, sitting in his office and organizing paperwork right around the time Maria Delgado was taken.He wasn’t their killer.

But there was that little bit of guilt.

“All right,” Faith said.“So you’re not the killer.But you’re hiding something.What aren’t you telling me?”

Dr.Hayes looked at Kyle.“Would you mind if I answered that question in my office, Special Agent?”

Faith hesitated a moment, but she very much doubted that Dr.Hayes would manage any sort of surprise attack.“All right.We can do that.”

The three of them left the confused and terrified Kyle and returned to Dr.Hayes’ office.As soon as the door was closed, Dr.Hayes sighed and sat heavily.He rubbed his temples and said, “I very much hope that I’m wrong with what I’m about to say, but I think I might know who your killer is.”

I very much hope you’re right,Faith thought.Aloud, she asked, “Who?”

“My former assistant, James Cooper.”

Faith raised an eyebrow.“Is that so?Tell me why you suspect him.”

He sighed again.“James was… a troubled young man.”

“How so?”

“He was highly empathetic.I mean that in the medical sense.He couldn’t stand stressful circumstances.That’s why I had to fire him.He worked hard, and he truly cared about the animals, but he had such a difficult time with the injured K9s.”

Faith frowned.“Do you treat animals here?”

“No, not here.I apologize, I should have clarified.James was my assistant at my veterinary practice before I moved to Lake Pharmaceuticals.I closed the practice six months ago to take this job, but I’d fired James already two months before that.”

“I see.You said he had a difficult time with injured K9s.Any particular cases that stand out?”

“The military dogs.”

Faith felt a touch of her excitement return.“Can you expand on that?”

Hayes nodded.“He felt that using dogs in military and police work was unethical.He believed it was too stressful on the dogs and demanded that the practice be abolished.When they would show up injured, he would fly into a rage.He was normally the sort you might call a gentle giant, but there was nothing gentle about him when facing a dog that had been injured in combat.There was one time he got into a shouting match with a handler.I had to remove him from the room and let him go.”

“Do you remember the name of the handler?”

“No, I’m sorry.I saw so many.I can tell you that she was female and that her dog was a Dobermann named Rex.”

Faith raised her eyebrow."Why, what a coincidence.One of my victims is female with a Dobermann.I'd bet dollars to donuts that the dog's name is Rex."

Dr.Hayes nodded.“Possibly.”

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