Page 12 of So Savage (Faith Bold #21)

After leaving Eric Davidson, Faith and Marcus stopped for dinner at a burger joint across the street from the VA. While there, they looked up Daniel Ross.

It turned out that Eric was telling the truth. Daniel Ross was once the proprietor of Five Star Obedience School, but the school had been shut down three weeks ago after an investigation determined that Daniel encouraged and participated in abusive practices. The primary witnesses for the complaint were Thomas Reeves and Kevin Walsh.

Incredibly, Ross had found a job training security dogs within days after losing his business. Faith guessed that standards for security dog training were lower than standards for military and law enforcement K9s.

The facility he worked at was closed, but a call to the owner gave them Daniel’s address. They reached the apartment complex fifteen minutes after leaving the burger place. The complex was a typical two-story lot with two buildings facing each other across a central courtyard. The buildings were joined at the rear, giving the lot a U shape. Daniel’s apartment was on the left side on the second floor about halfway from the rear of the complex.

“Think he’ll actually be home?” Marcus asked as they approached his door.

“Well, he was at work earlier today, so he’s probably not dying of cancer,” Faith replied.

“Think he’ll have a—”

Marcus’s question was answered before he finished it when loud barking came from inside the apartment. Turk’s ears immediately flattened, and he bared his teeth and returned his own barking.

Marcus and Faith drew their weapons and shared a grim look with each other. If this ended up in a fight, it would become bloody fast.

“Hey!” a voice called from inside the apartment. “Caesar, calm down.”

Footsteps approached the door. “I know, I know,” the voice said again. “Stay calm. Let’s take a look here.”

The footsteps stopped, and a moment later, the voice said, “Holy shit.” Without opening the door, the voice called, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Daniel Ross?” Marcus asked.

“None of your business. What are you doing here?”

“My name is Detective Marcus Waring. This is Special Agent Faith Bold of the FBI and her K9 unit, Turk. We need to ask you a few questions.”

“What? The FBI? Bullshit. I need to see some ID.”

“We’ll have an easier time showing it to you if you open the door,” Faith suggested.

The curtain in front of the window moved aside, and an irate man in his mid-forties glared at them and tapped the glass. White, snarling teeth set in the broad face of a mastiff shone underneath Ross’s arm. Turk jumped toward the window, but Faith pulled him back. “Hold here, boy,” she said. “Wait.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her FBI ID. She held it to the window, and Daniel examined it for a moment before nodding and turning to Waring. The stone-faced detective pointed at his badge. Daniel's frown deepened, but a moment later, he pulled the door open. A chain stopped it after a few inches, and Daniel tried to keep his guard dog inside by sticking his leg in front of him. "What the hell is this about?"

“You want to put him away?” Faith asked, pointing to Caesar.

“You want to put him away?" Daniel replied, pointing to Turk, who was giving as good as he got in the nose department.

Faith’s eyes narrowed. “Mr. Ross, we need to talk to you regarding the murders of Master Sergeant Thomas Reeves and Staff Sergeant Kevin Walsh. We’re showing you the courtesy of allowing you time to put your dog away. I suggest you take advantage of that.”

Daniel’s eyes flew open when he heard those names. “Really? Reeves and Walsh are dead?”

“They’re dead,” Marcus confirmed, “and you had good reason to want him dead, didn’t you?”

Daniel sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “You couldn’t call ahead and let me know you were coming?”

“People have a tendency to run away when we do that,” Faith said. “We don’t like when that happens.”

Daniel rolled his eyes but admitted reluctantly. “Right. Okay, give me a minute. Caesar, knock it off!”

The big dog flinched and looked fearfully up at Daniel. Turk growled again, but this time, he looked at Daniel. Faith reached down and patted his shoulder to calm him, but she could understand the anger he felt.

He raised his hand, and Caesar flinched again and trotted away, his tail between his legs. Faith resisted an urge to tell Daniel that committing animal cruelty was an arrestable offense and followed Marcus and Turk into the house.

Caesar sat in a corner and curled up into a ball, keeping wide, terrified eyes on Daniel. Turk trotted to the dog, growling at Daniel on the way. Caesar cowered in front of Turk, but when Turk leaned over and licked his face, Caesar relaxed. Turk sat in front of the big Bullmastiff and glared at Daniel. It was a bit comical to see Turk protecting a dog half again his size, but Faith knew that if it came to a confrontation, there would be nothing comical about what Turk would do to Daniel.

“All right,” Daniel said. “So you think I killed them. Is that it?”

“Did you?” Marcus asked.

“If I say no, will you believe me?”

“Probably not,” Faith replied, “but maybe you’ll get lucky and convince us otherwise.”

Daniel scoffed. “Well, I didn’t. They fucked me, but if I killed them, I’d just be fucking myself, right?”

“That’s not the technical terminology,” Marcus replied drily, “but you’ve got the right idea.”

Daniel nodded. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t do shit to them.”

“You said they wronged you,” Faith interjected. “How so?”

“They reported me for animal cruelty. It’s bullshit. I was just teaching the dogs to be tough. What, do they want wimpy ass dogs that are gonna cringe and cower in combat?”

Faith looked pointedly at Caesar, who buried his muzzle in Turk’s chest and kept wary eyes on Daniel.

Daniel chuckled contemptuously. “Yeah, he’s a little bitch sometimes. But he listens to me. That’s the important thing. If he didn’t listen to me, he’d tear right through your little dog and right through the two of you.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Faith challenged.

“When was the last time you spoke with Master Sergeant Reeves and Staff Sergeant Walsh?”

Daniel shrugged. “I call them every now and then, just to remind them that they’re both little bitches. I think the last time I did that was about two weeks ago.”

Faith and Marcus shared a look. “Are you saying that you harassed Master Sergeant Reeves and Staff Sergeant Walsh on a regular basis, Mr. Ross?”

Daniel shrugged again. With his arms crossed and his chin jutting forward, he looked like a toddler on the verge of a tantrum. “I was just telling them what they already knew deep down. Those guys are a disgrace to their service. The military needs men, not little pathetic assholes who cry every time they see a dog get smacked.”

Marcus nodded. “All right. In that case, Mr. Ross, please turn around and put your hands behind your back for me.”

Daniel flinched backwards. “What? No! I told you I didn’t kill them!”

“You admitted to criminally harassing them,” Marcus replied.

“Because I called them little bitches?”

“Believe it or not, the State of Minnesota frowns upon continued verbal harassment, especially when it involves harassment of a witness in a criminal investigation.”

“But that case was closed!” Daniel protested.

“And you were found guilty,” Marcus reminded him. “And those two were the principal witnesses for the prosecution. Harassment can occur at any time, even after a conviction. Now, turn around and put your hands behind your back, or we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

Daniel’s eyes shifted to the left. He bared his teeth and growled, “Caesar! Sic ‘em!”

Caesar shrank back behind Turk. Turk licked his face again, then growled at Daniel. Faith smiled at the shocked Daniel. “Looks like Caesar’s made a new friend.”

“Worthless damned dog.”

Faith gave Daniel a humorless smile. “Don’t worry about him. We’ll contact a local shelter and make sure he’s placed somewhere he can be taken care of.”

Daniel frowned. “You can’t do that. He’s mine. That’s theft.”

“We’ll have animal control take him for the moment,” Marcus clarified. “And when a veterinary examination proves that you’ve abused him, we’ll put him up for adoption. In the meantime, I’ll have some officers come by to conduct a thorough search of your residence.”

“Oh my God, I didn’t kill anyone !”

“We’ll get to that,” Faith said. “In the meantime, you’ve definitely abused this dog. Coming from a dog owner myself, I find that behavior despicable, and I’m glad that we’ve caught you so we can help Caesar.”

Daniel’s frown deepened. “So I let you guys into my home and talk to you, and this is how you repay me?”

“We don’t owe you anything,” Faith retorted. “We owe our victims justice, and if you turn out to be their killer, we owe you a chance to get what you deserve.”

Daniel took a step toward Faith, but a growl from Turk and a heavy hand on his shoulder from Marcus dissuaded him from physical violence. It didn’t do anything to stop his words, though.

“You’re just a dumb little bitch. Like all of those fake-ass K9 handlers. You guys aren’t alphas. It’s no wonder your dogs walk all over you.”

Faith held Daniel’s eyes. “Turk, come.”

Turk immediately got to his feet and trotted to Faith. Still holding Daniel’s eyes, Faith said. “See that? My dog obeys me.”

Daniel reddened, but he couldn't think of a response to that.

***

Daniel’s attitude didn’t improve on the ride to the station. He spent most of the ride shouting epithets and complaining about how those wimps were ruining everything for him. At one point, Turk—sitting on the other side of the divider in the rear seat—gave Faith a dry expression that caused her to laugh.

There was nothing funny about the murders they were investigating, though, and when they arrived at the police station, Faith wanted to jump into the interrogation right away. Marcus had another idea.

“Let him stew for a little while. We’ll follow up with animal control and the officers searching his apartment. That way when we start talking to him, we have hard evidence to back up our questions. Maybe when he’s faced with everything, he’ll be more likely to talk to us.”

Faith didn’t like the way that was going. “Sure, if he expects a plea deal.”

Marcus met her eyes. “The D.A.’s office might offer him one.”

“That’s bullshit!” Faith exploded. “What, because he admits to killing people, that makes it better somehow?”

Faith had never been a fan of plea deals. In her mind, if you committed a crime, you did the time. There was no offering lesser punishments just because someone admitted to being a piece of shit. True, offering plea deals sometimes got confessions out of criminals, but Faith would rather use police work to find proof than offer someone a lighter sentence.

“There’s only one killer,” she protested. “I could see offering a plea deal if we needed to find an accomplice, but it’s just him.”

“Actually, it’s not just him. I talked with the coroner last night. The specific compound used to sedate the victims can only be purchased by veterinarians.”

Faith blinked. “Then why aren’t we looking into local vets?”

“We are. You and I are following the stronger leads, but I have officers following up with vets in the area. This is a team effort, Special Agent. Back to my point, if a local vet is involved, it’s likely that he or she supplied the shooter with the drug. If Daniel can help us find out who that is, then we can bring them to justice as well.”

Faith pressed her lips together and nodded curtly. She still didn’t like it. She would much rather both of them suffered the maximum punishment allowable by law, but she understood the importance of getting everyone involved with these crimes off the street as fast as possible.

The longer they waited, the more likely it was that they’d end up with another victim.