Page 51 of So Savage

“No dog.No sign of one either.Just grass.”

“Take the garage,” Marcus told them.“Faith, you go to the end of the hallway and work your way up.I’ll start at the front and meet you in the middle.”

Faith nodded and rushed down the hallway.Halfway to the end, Turk shot past her.He nearly collided with the bedroom door, growling and barking and scratching at the door.Faith said into her radio, "Turk has something.Backroom."

She knocked on the door, standing to the side just in case Peter had a gun and shot through the door.“Peter Kane!Last chance!I’m coming in if you don’t come out!”

“He might have tranqs,” Marus said softly.Be very cautious.”

“Doing the best I can,” Faith said.“Peter!We’re coming in now!If you’re in there, keep your hands where we can see them and comply with our instructions!”

Turk was nearly insane now, pawing at the door and growling with something that sounded almost like rage to Faith.She wondered if he took this case personally after seeing Delgado in the hospital.Did it remind him of Faith?Of Jack Preston?

“Turk.”

Her dog turned to her, and she could see the pain and anger in his eyes.Her heart went out to him.“It’s okay, boy.Let’s just do our jobs.”

Turk's expression softened slightly.He dipped his head and stepped back, giving her room to break open the door.She took a deep breath, lifted her leg, and, on the exhale, kicked hard.The door splintered inward, just like the front door after Marcus's breach.

The three of them rushed into the room.This was Peter's bedroom, apparently.The bed was loosely made, and there was an empty cup of soup on the nightstand with a fork inside of it.A smaller TV—still too large for the room—sat on top of a dresser, and beyond, they saw a towel hanging over the shower curtain in the bathroom.

No sign of Peter.Turk looked under the bed, and Faith checked the closet while Marcus cleared the bathroom.He wasn't here.

Faith sighed and lowered her weapon.“Damn it.We’re too late.He’s gone.”

Her radio buzzed, and a moment later, Garcia’s slightly awed voice said, “Guys?You might want to come see this.”

Faith and Marcus shared a look, then started for the garage.When they arrived, Faith gasped and Marcus breathed, “Oh shit.”

One wall of the garage held a collection of dart guns ranging from pistols to rifles to pump guns that Faith guessed were supposed to emulate shotguns.There were a dozen weapons that she could count, but the safe to the right of the wall suggested there might be more.Unless the safe was where he kept his actual guns.

Underneath the dart guns were crates of darts.Thousands of them, stacked three deep, two high and eight wide.

“Forty-eight crates,” Marcus whispered, doing the math.“That’s gotta be, what?Twenty thousand darts?”

“A hell of a lot, that’s for sure.”

Tranh cleared his throat.The three agents turned to the back of the garage where Tranh and Garcia flanked a table, their faces ashen.Tranh pointed at a loose pile of paper on the table.

Marcus and Faith approached.As soon as Faith saw the papers, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Peter Kane was their killer.

The top paper was a dossier on Master Sergeant Thomas Reeves.A picture at the top was labeled MOST RECENT PHOTOGRAPH.The dossier listed his home address, his current deployment dates, his expected date of arrival and departure in Duluth, and detailed vital signs for both him and his dog, Shadow, a dark-furred German Shepherd.Scratched underneath those vitals were different doses for the two different compounds Peter had used along with a note that read KETAMINE FOR SHEPHERDS AND SMALLER.

She put a hand on the paper and brushed it to the side.Underneath the file on Master Sergeant Reeves was a collection of photographs showing him training with Shadow.Behind that was a similar file on Staff Sergeant Walsh and Rooster.

Faith scanned through the documents.There was a file for Delgado and Rex as well.Here, it was noted that PHENOBARBITAL OK FOR LARGER DOGS.

Amongst the files were handwritten papers that showed a disjointed psyche.Peter rambled at length about his own dog, Monkey, and the events that led to Monkey’s death and his dismissal.Interspersed with that story were paragraph-long rants against the “assholes who killed him” and his pledge to make them all pay.

Notably, there was nothing here about anyone in particular except for a sentence about Reeves that mentioned punishing him for making the wrong decision during his hearing.Even then, it was almost a distracted comment.Most of the focus seemed to be on the Army as a whole and how their policies made it dangerous for K9s and handlers.“It’s their fault,” came up an awful lot.

As she was reading one of the notes, a photograph slipped out.She frowned and picked it up.The woman in the photographs wasn’t one of the other women.

Her breath caught in her throat.She dug through the papers, looking for anything that might mention other victims.She found it on the bottom of the stack.A list of names, nine in all.The top three names were crossed out.Below the fourth name was a note that read, TOO DANGEROUS TO STAY.THEY GET TO LIVE.OH WELL.

The fourth name was Jennifer Martinez.

Faith looked at the picture.There was no name on it and no other papers on the desk with that name, but this must be her.Probably Kane had taken the file with him and this photograph fell out.

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