1 PAWsible Suspects Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’d remind you that they can’t talk, but look who I’m talking to.” Her face had grown a bit red, and she had leaned closer to me. “She’s evidence. We found blood on her.”
    “It wasn’t her blood, and she didn’t hurt anyone.”
    “It wasn’t even human blood. It was dog blood. So you might want to talk to Della again and see what she has to say.” The air quotes were back with a vengeance. “It looks like she was wrong because I’m guessing Perry got hurt, not Ruby Jenkins.”
    I chose to ignore what she had said. I wanted the time to process it before Della had anything else to say about the case. “So then what’s the big deal about where Della stays as long as you can get her when you need her?” I shrugged my shoulders. She was just angry and taking it out on me. I’d seen that happen before when I’d tried to help the police with my deductions about animals.
    “Because you keep popping up in this case, and I don’t like it.” Her tone was defensive and frustrated. I probably could have told her something about her own feelings, if I’d tried, but discretion seemed called for in this situation.
    “I’m just helping a –” I started.
    “I ran you through the system. I understand that you don’t have much faith in the police after what happened, but that whole situation was not my fault.”
    If blood really can leave your face, mine did in that moment. I felt entirely violated as if the NSA had actually knocked on my door and asked questions about my life choices. I left the room and didn’t come back. I heard the front door open and close again, but I still sat in the other room, being pissed at what had just happened. She hadn’t taken the dog, because Della came in a few minutes later. As if she could read my mind, she licked my hand and nuzzled it. I absent-mindedly stroked her fur as I thought.
    Back in the day, I’d been part of a happy family. Two parents, three kids, and a houseful of pets. I’d enjoyed my life back then. It had seemed innocent and carefree. However, when I was seven, my older sister had disappeared. One day she was there, and the next she wasn’t. She was 13 at the time that she disappeared. She’d be 36 years old this year. 
    The police hadn’t been much help. They suggested that she’d run away. She’d been dating a boy at the time, her first boyfriend. They had talked about running away to elope, the way that new love always does. However, a quick check showed that the boyfriend was still at home and still living with his parents. The police suggested that maybe she’d run off with someone else, as if my sister could have been dating multiple first loves at once.
    I heard that word a lot back then. Maybe. Everyone had an idea about what had happened to Susan. Everyone had a conspiracy theory that they wanted to share with you, regardless of how much you hurt. They just didn’t care. A public police case meant that everyone knew your business, and everyone felt that they deserved a say in the matter.
    As for me, I knew Susan was dead, just as I knew that Perry was hiding out somewhere hurt. It was the obvious solution, and I always go for obvious. It may be painful to face, but it’s easiest in the long run. Susan was a pretty girl, the type who stood out in a crowd. She was talkative and vivacious, and everyone liked to be around her. My guess was that someone had liked to be around her too much and had snatched her away from us. Of course, I couldn’t tell my family what I thought. We didn’t really discuss what had happened to Susan. I’m sure that each of us had a particular theory about what happened that day, but no one ever talked about it.
    After that, the innocent times were gone. My happiness was gone. My dad drank himself into an early grave. My mom began to act much older than her age. My brother moved across the country to escape from the memories. I stayed here, but I undertook my own methods of hiding my thoughts and feelings. I