Chapter 4
Bethany stepped out of the building at the end of the day, tired and a little worn out. She turned to lock up, only to find the man who had been in her thoughts all day standing there, waiting for her. She startled, then frowned. “Did you find out something already?”
“I found out that Page was to pick up Bacchus that day and that the written message never came from Michael, probably never reached your assistant. Have you ever seen the supposed note?”
She stared at him in surprise, with a sinking feeling in her heart. “Well, crap, so you’re thinking she lied?”
He nodded. “I’m thinking she lied. What I really need to know is, would she do that, if it meant protecting her and her boyfriend?”
“Absolutely. I’ve had to get after her a couple times, and I’ve asked him not to come by during working hours, unless she’s off for lunch.”
“Ah.” Conall nodded. “So there’s a good chance that’s what happened. You both mentioned there was some extra chaos at the time?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “Mel didn’t secure the latch on one of the cat cages, so the cat got out, and two dogs were in the waiting room, right outside of the checkup room.”
“And the minute you have a cat on the run in front of some dogs, chaos ensues, creating a plausible explanation.”
“Sure, but not one I would be happy with, if she lied—or if letting out the cat had been deliberate.”
“Can you get the truth out of her?”
She winced. “I’m not sure if I can. She’s one of those people who tends to double down when she’s caught in her lies.”
“Great,” he muttered, as he stared around them. “Cases like this that start with lies end up with more lies.”
She nodded. “I was really hoping that wouldn’t be the case. Bacchus is wonderful. I really hope he’s okay.”
“I just had a long talk with Michael, and Page was there for a while, until it got a little too uncomfortable for him. Apparently he told the old man that he followed the dog, as asked multiple times, when he didn’t.”
“So, he lied to his uncle?” she asked in horror.
“Yeah, he sure did. He was supposed to be following Bacchus to solve the mystery of where he was disappearing to. He gave his uncle some BS story and didn’t follow Bacchus at all. Then I found out from Michael that Page was sent to pick up the dog, and yet somehow that didn’t happen either. And the story of this letter to say that the nephew was supposed to pick him up was bogus, when no letter was needed.”
Bethany frowned. “What are you thinking now?”
He shrugged. “A couple liars were involved. That’s what I’m thinking. I’m guessing, one way or another, they screwed up and lost the dog—or worse. Then they needed to cover it up. So they made up a story on the run and thought, Oh, well, one missing dog, but who cares? Right?”
“But it’s a War Dog,” she clarified.
“Sure, it’s a War Dog, a dog who has already served this country and who deserves more from us than being dumped on the wayside.”
She nodded. “I agree with you there, and we’ve never charged for his care either, simply because he’s a War Dog. He’s done his time. He deserves to be looked after, as does his owner.”
He nodded. “Do you have any group home facilities here for people like Michael?”
She shook her head. “Not in this town. Some are farther over, but they’re government run.” She winced. “I shouldn’t say it like that, but a lot of times those are pretty rough.”
“What about veteran homes?”
“You would know more about that than I would,” she replied. “If there was one that Michael wanted to go to, are you thinking Page isn’t in it for the long haul?”
“Page is in it for himself, as you should see already, and I wouldn’t count on your receptionist sticking around either. I get the sense that they may have some plans of their own.”
She flushed, as she stared at him. “I see. We haven’t heard anything about her plans around here.”
“Maybe not, but based on his attitude and the way he treats his uncle, I would say they’ve got plans.”
“Right,” she muttered, with a nod. “Of course they do. It’s awfully hard to keep staff around here.”
“I’m sure it is. The lure of something bigger and better in another town is always part of the problem.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad, but not everybody understands and appreciates small-town living. So, when they’re born and raised here, they just want to leave,” she explained. “I spent a lot of time here, and I came back because this is where my family is, and I hit that stage where family counted, so I had to come back.” She smiled over at him. “How about you? Do you have family nearby?”
“Oh, I’ve got family,” he replied, with half a smile, “but they’re off doing research in Europe. My brother works with my parents. They are both chemists, doing a special project in Germany right now.”
“Oh, wow,” she said. “That sounds pretty amazing.”
“They’re happy, and that’s the biggest thing,” Conall stated. “So I don’t begrudge them being gone at all.”
“Good.” She nodded. “There never should be jealousy or greed about somebody else doing well.”
“I agree,” he muttered. “Now, what will we do about Bacchus?”
She glanced at him. “What is it you expect me to do?” she asked in astonishment.
“I’m pretty sure Melanie knows exactly where the War Dog is,” he stated, “and, if she knows, I’m willing to bet that you do too.”
Her gaze narrowed, as she studied him. Then she shook her head. “You might be right about Mel,” she muttered. “However, I don’t know where Bacchus has gone, though I keep thinking I have seen him out and about in various places over time, but do I know for sure? No. Do I know who Bacchus might have been with? Hell no.” He eyed her closely, and she glared back at him. “I don’t care whether you believe me or not. What I don’t want is you to be thinking that we did something to steal a dog here,” she snapped. “That would never be okay in my world.”
“So, do you have any idea why the dog was not staying at home with Michael anymore? Why he was taking off on his own?”
She frowned at him and then slowly shook her head. “No, they didn’t say anything to us about that. Plus I saw no signs or indications of abuse either.”
“If Page was doing the talking, I’m not sure it can be believed, and it sounds like you were getting a good share of your information secondhand. I don’t think that nephew of Michael’s can be trusted, particularly since we know he’s already lied and doesn’t seem to think that the truth matters.”
She winced. “I don’t want to say it’s the younger generation,” she muttered, “but there is definitely a shift in perception as to what constitutes a lie and what is okay to lie about.”
“There has been no such shift or distinction in my book,” he declared flatly, “and I don’t know if whatever’s been going on involves Page or not, but the information we have, so far, certainly doesn’t clear him.”
“Oh, I get it, and I am not the least bit confused about right or wrong,” she muttered, nodding. “I just don’t know what you want from me. We can go talk to Melanie and see what she says, I guess. But be prepared, as she’s a young girl, and she’ll probably go to pieces on you. She may even call the cops.”
“She’s welcome to call the cops,” he said, with a smile. “That’ll be one of my stops anyway.”
Surprised, she looked at him and asked, “Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah, not only do I have a War Dog missing but also the fact that a young punk is running around terrorizing everybody and being allowed to do so. I find it odd that nobody seems to give a crap about either.”
Her temper started to reveal itself at that.
He nodded. “I know you don’t like hearing that, but I’ve only just arrived in town, and I can tell you that’s what it looks like from here.”
“Sometimes things can be deceptive,” she replied, “so don’t judge all of us because you’re missing a dog.”
“I’m not judging anybody,” he said, “except maybe the punk because I was there and saw that for myself.”
“You were, huh?”
He nodded. “I know that your mom probably says it’s no big deal, but she’s afraid.”
At that, Bethany winced. “I don’t like the situation at all,” she murmured, “and I know that Jake keeps threatening Old Joe. And Old Joe is definitely a force to be reckoned with, but he’s not the same when up against a gun.”
“Are people packing here? Are those punks armed?”
She nodded. “Most people are nowadays,” she muttered. “It’s not something that’s openly discussed, but, if you watch carefully, a good share of them have ready access to a weapon. Times are changing down here.” She shook her head, as she stared around her parking lot, “though I’m not sure it’s for the better.”
“Of course not,” Conall said. “Things are tough enough without having more of that going on. It just raises the stakes when there’s trouble. Let’s go talk to Melanie. I need some answers and a place to start,” he stated, as he looked down at his watch, frowning.
“What? Are you late for a date?”
He flashed her a grin. “Nope, I’ve only just arrived in town, so haven’t had time for that yet,” he teased, with a chuckle, “but I am booked at the motel. I’m not sure how early places around here close in terms of hotels, restaurants, and all that.”
She shrugged. “No hotels here. Yeah, as far as food, you might want to keep an eye out before too long just because restaurants close early here. We’ve got time to talk to Melanie first.”
“You know where she lives?”
“Hell, yes.” Bethany smiled. “I babysat her when she was growing up.”
“Ah, that’s another problem with staffing shortages, isn’t it?”
“It sure is,” she muttered. “Let’s get going because I need to get to the bottom of this too. The version she gave me isn’t exactly matching what you’re saying, and I need to know whether I can trust her or not, since it’s my business that’s on the line.” She pointed at her vehicle. “You can follow me.”
And, with that, she hopped into her vehicle and headed out of the clinic’s parking lot and down a few blocks, where she took a couple turns to end up in front of Mel’s family home. As Bethany got out, she waited for Conall to pull up behind her. She watched him exit the vehicle, noting his leg. “Does that hurt you?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, though I’m getting used to a new joint.” He shrugged. “It works fine most of the time, but it’s usually the prosthetic leg that ends up suffering more with the driving. It’s been a long day today.”
“Ah,” she murmured. “Did you come from far away?”
“New Mexico,” he replied, with a smile, “so just a few hours. The joint gets stiff, and then it doesn’t want to unkink.”
“What happened?” she asked bluntly.
“War,” he replied equally bluntly.
“Ah, well, I’m sorry to say, but you won’t find a whole lot of respect here for that either.”
“Yeah, I saw that already,” he noted, with a curt smile. “Both Page and Jake were quick to jump on it. Not that I care what any of these punks think, but I won’t stand by and let them disrespect the older veterans, who sacrificed so much in the service to their country. It’s one thing to object to the decisions that they made and the politics of it all, but these soldiers didn’t get a vote in the details of their service. They just followed orders and, in many cases, paid a hell of a price for it.”
She nodded. “That’s true, and people don’t really understand that, myself included,” she murmured.
“I know that Michael is a good man. He served his time, and he got pretty beat up over it. I know his PTSD is pretty rough at times too, and honestly the War Dog should have helped in many ways. So I don’t know whether he doesn’t want the dog or the arrival of the nephew stopped everything from working well.”
She looked back at him. “There is another possibility.”
“What’s that?” he asked, as they walked up to the small one-story rancher, with a bunch of trees all out in the front, blocking most of the view. “What other possibility could there be?”
She hesitated, then turned to him and replied, “Maybe the dog found somebody who needed him more.”
Conall studied herface carefully. “What is it that you know?”
“I don’t know anything,” she stated, with a hint of anger in her tone. She didn’t appreciate the judgment in his tone. “That’s the problem.”
Just enough exasperation filled her tone that he believed her. “But you suspect something.”
“No, I don’t even suspect something. I just know that the dog seemed to have lots of friends around town. He was well-known and well loved.” He raised his eyebrows, and she nodded. “He used to go around the parks, homes, on what we call a walkabout, from place to place. The fact that Michael didn’t tell you that is a little worrisome.”
“I’m not sure that the old boy was in a position to tell me because I’m not sure he knew.”
She stared at him. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yeah, Michael’s wheelchair-bound, doesn’t get out of the house much, from what I heard. Plus I suspect the nephew hasn’t been telling him very much at all.”
She frowned at that. “Why would he do that?”
“Why does anybody do that? Especially when it comes to somebody they’re supposed to be helping?”
“You don’t think he’s helping at all, do you?”
“I really don’t know,” Conall admitted, “but I’ll confess to being a little jaded. I don’t know whether Page’s just in his own world because he has a girlfriend, and that’s all he can think about, or if he’s deliberately doing something to gaslight Michael.”
She winced at that. “I would hope not,” she muttered. “Page can be likable when he wants to be, but you’re right. He isn’t the most enterprising young man.”
“He’s not working. He’s just sitting there, living off his uncle, but why? And, if he’s planning on leaving with Mel, what is he leaving with? Does the uncle have any money for him to take?”
“Okay, I really don’t like all those questions,” she muttered. Just then the door opened in front of them. Bethany turned and smiled. “Hey, Kassie. Is Mel here?”
“Sure, come on in.”
When the woman looked curiously at the stranger beside Bethany, Conall just smiled and didn’t say anything, waiting to see what Bethany would do. She was quick to introduce him. “He’s here about the War Dog.”
“Oh my, how much interest could there possibly be over a dog?” she asked, with a headshake.
“Have you seen him?” he asked her immediately.
She frowned. “Not recently, no, but we used to see him all the time.”
“When was that?” he asked her immediately.
Kassie frowned, then looked from him to Bethany. She didn’t like all the questions. “Is there a problem?”
“For one,… the War Dog is missing, so, yes, there’s a problem,” he stated, careful to keep his voice modulated and pleasant, “so we’re just trying to find Bacchus, for his own sake. I hope you can understand that.”
“I haven’t seen him in a few days, that’s for sure.”
“A few days?” he repeated. The dog had been missing for a couple weeks now, so seeing him just a few days ago would be a lead.
“Maybe a little longer than that. I don’t really know. Come on in,” she said, as she looked over at Bethany. “I’m sure you want to talk to her about it.”
“I do,” Bethany replied casually.
Just then Mel came down the stairs, talking on her phone, and it was obvious she was talking to Page on Speakerphone.
“I don’t know, but the guy was kind of scary at the office.”
“What did you tell him?”
And then she stopped in her tracks on the stairs and said, “I’ve got to go,” and ended the call. Her gaze went from Bethany to Conall. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh is right,” Bethany replied. “We need to have a talk.”
Mel winced. “I don’t want to talk at all.”
“Really? I don’t see that we have a choice.”
“Is there a problem?” Kassie repeated. “Have you done something wrong, Mel?” she asked, turning to look at her daughter.
“No, Mom, of course not. I haven’t done anything wrong.” Then she frowned. “I mean,… it wasn’t on purpose.”
Kassie stared at her in shock. “Oh, no, no, no.” She went into overdrive. “If it’s that damn boyfriend of yours…”
“It’s not him,” Mel snapped, “and you don’t know anything about it. You’ve got no right to judge him.” She glared over at Bethany now. “I’m off shift, and these are not my work hours.”
“That’s true,” Bethany agreed. “You are off work. However, if I find out you lied to me,… you may not have a job to come back to,” she stated.
At that, Mel’s face blanched. “I didn’t mean to lie.” She raised both hands. “Why the hell does anybody care about a damn dog anyway?”
“Don’t even go there. You work at an animal clinic. If you don’t care for animals, you need to find another job. But first, you’ve got some explaining to do,” Bethany stated. “One, for lying to your boss in the first place. Two, what happened with all that chaos at the time you were supposed to be looking after that dog? And, three, what do you know about the dog? A lot of issues are at stake here right now. So I suggest you tell us exactly what happened, and this time you better tell the truth,… all of it.”
Mel glared at her. “I’m not on the clock.”
Her mom went ballistic hearing that. “Oh, no, you don’t get to pull that card, when you’ve clearly done something wrong. You get paid when you are doing something. You don’t get paid when you’re sitting here having to fess up, and, girl, don’t even get me started on the lying.”
Someone stomped into the house behind them, and Mel’s shoulders collapsed downward. “Oh, great,” she muttered, turning to glare at her mother. “Now you’ve done it.”
“No, I haven’t. You have,” her mom declared. “You don’t get to blame others for your mistakes. Now you need to tell us exactly what’s going on here.”
At that, a burly man walked in, glaring at them. “What the hell is going on here?” He turned and looked at his daughter. “What am I hearing now?… What’s this about you lying about something?”
She glared at her father. “Fine,” she said, stomping her feet, “I didn’t mean to lie. It just wasn’t a big deal.”
“We’ll be the judge of that,” Bethany stated.
“What have you done?” her father asked, glaring at Mel.
Mel, ever more defiant, replied, “I didn’t do anything wrong, and you’ve got no reason to judge me or Page.”
“Page?” her father repeated, with a deadly quiet voice.
Conall immediately stepped forward but didn’t say anything.
“That’s Michael’s nephew,” Bethany explained to Mel’s dad.
Kassie’s gaze went from one to the other and nodded slowly. “Yes, but we need to know exactly what’s going on here,” she stated, turning to look at her daughter. “Out with it. What have you done?”
“I didn’t do anything.… So what? I covered up something, that’s all.”
“That doesn’t sound like nothing. Covered up what?” her father asked, gritting his teeth.
She winced. “Everything kind of went chaotic there at the clinic because…” she explained, almost in tears, then she stopped.
“Because why?” Bethany asked.
Even Conall heard the tone of her voice and the worry in it. He reached out a hand and gripped her shoulder. “How about we just get to the truth before anybody makes this into a bigger deal than it is?”
“Says you,” Kassie replied in exasperation, looking at him resentfully. “You’re the one who caused all the trouble.”
“I caused all the trouble?” he asked in astonishment. “By doing my job? I came here looking for Bacchus, not just any dog, but a War Dog, last seen at the clinic. Your daughter told me that she somehow lost track of it when the door was open and multiple people came and went, and she had no idea who took the dog. That was after her original story to Bethany here wasn’t holding up.”
He turned to look at Melanie now. “You didn’t tell me that your boyfriend was there in the lobby at the time. You didn’t tell me that you were spending all your time with him, and that’s why you didn’t take care of the job you were supposed to be doing.”
There was silence for a moment, as Mel glared at him. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” she stated defiantly.
“Except that you know you’re not allowed to have Page there at the clinic during work hours,” Bethany stated angrily. “We already went over this.”
“He was just there, dropping me off some lunch,” she replied. “What was I supposed to do? Besides, he needed a hand with something, and I didn’t think you would care. I mean,… whatever. It was just a small amount anyway.”
Bethany closed her eyes and breathed in for a moment, as Mel’s father immediately stepped in. “A small amount of what?” he growled.
Mel turned and glared at him, then showed her palms. “Petty cash, that’s all. He just needed a little bit of money, and there was money in the petty cash, so I let him have it,” she explained. “I mean, it’s no big deal to anybody.”
Her father’s faced turned thunderous, and her mother gasped in horror.
Bethany frowned, looking from one person to the next. “So, you created a commotion by letting the cat out of the cage, knowing full well the dogs in the lobby would get overexcited, and things would get chaotic in a hurry, allowing you access to steal the petty cash, while everyone was too busy to notice. In the meantime, Bacchus disappeared, so you and your boyfriend concocted all this BS about a note and saying somebody else was supposed to pick up the War Dog to explain the missing dog?”
“So, you have no idea who took the dog?” Conall was frustrated more than anything else with all the lies piling up.
Mel glared at him. “See? It’s nothing, and, besides, it’s just a dog. Like what is everybody freaking out about?”
“Oh, Mel,” Kassie whispered, “you have no idea what you’ve done.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she declared in a huff. “He just needed a few bucks, and I had to get to the petty cash and not have anybody see, so whatever,” she said, with a snort. “Besides, it’s back to the same old thing.… This isn’t work hours, and you don’t have any right to come to my house and hassle me about it.”
Her father stared at her, as if he had never seen her before. He turned his gaze to his wife, Kassie.
She held up her hands and shook her head at him. “Don’t say it. I’ll handle it.”
“You better.… I’m about done, and Mel’s out.”
“What do you mean, out?” Mel wailed, becoming the plaintive daughter. “Why would you kick me out?”
“The fact that you don’t even know what you’ve done is a problem,” Bethany stated, with real sadness in her voice. She was hurt, and her expression showed it.
“What? It was only like fifty bucks.… I mean, he needed the money. What do you want from me?”
“I wanted honesty,” Bethany replied, with sorrow and a hint of anger in her tone, “and I wanted loyalty, integrity. I was really hoping for the truth, but apparently I didn’t deserve any of those things, yet Page did. You stole from me. You lied to me. You deliberately created a situation where the animals in my care could have been hurt, losing one in the process, thus damaging my business and my reputation. All for the boyfriend. That’s what the problem is.”
“No, no, I didn’t. It was petty cash, like for small things that we needed around the office.”
“How do you figure that giving it to your boyfriend made any sense?”
“He needed it,” she repeated, with a shrug.
“Oh, Lord,” Kassie whispered, and it sounded more like a prayer than anything.
“I’m not even addressing all the details of this conversation,” Conall stated, shaking his head, “because obviously an awful lot more here has to be worked out, but let’s bring it back to Bacchus.”
“Again, with the freaking—”
Conall held up his hand, before he spoke, and that shut up Mel for good. “Be careful what you say about him, young lady. That dog knows more about loyalty and honor than you ever will. So, you lied about the dog, and you lied about the note. Did you just write that out or what?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I just wrote it up, so we had an excuse for the dog disappearing. What was I supposed to say? I let my boyfriend have the petty cash, and, in the process, the dog ran away? Yeah, like that would do me any good.”
He stared at her. “How much good is any of it doing you right now?”
Her father snorted at that and turned and walked away. “I told you,” he called back. “I’m not doing this anymore. She doesn’t even have a clue.”
The mother groaned. “Oh my God, Mel, what you’ve done is bad enough, but to keep trying to justify it somehow is really ridiculous.”
“Why? What’s the big deal here? You’re always so damn perfect. Don’t you ever do anything just because you want to?”
“Are you talking about stealing from me as just because you want to?” Bethany asked, staring at her employee, someone she had known for years and had even babysat, as if she were some stranger.
“I didn’t steal from you,” she stated, with a roll of her eyes. “It was just petty cash.”
Conall wanted to laugh, since Mel didn’t seem to understand that petty cash was money for the office and specifically company money. Bethany shook her head at Mel, then looked over at Kassie, whose eyes were closed, as if she were trying to make this nightmare go away.
Opening her eyes, she looked at Bethany through a sheen of tears. “I am so sorry.”
Bethany nodded. “You and me both.” She turned to Mel. “How much did you give him?”
“I don’t know.… I mean,… all of it.”
“All of the petty cash?” Bethany asked.
“Yeah, it was like fifty bucks.”
“No, it was more than that because I had just refilled it.”
“Yeah, so that’s why the money was there, which is good I guess. He needed it.”
Her mother started to cry at that.
Mel added, “Besides, it’s not a big deal.”
“The fact that it’s not a big deal to you explains plenty,” Bethany snapped. “But it is a big deal to me because not only did you lie to me, you also stole from me, so I can’t trust you, which will create a huge pain from a staffing standpoint,” she stated, as she groaned inwardly, thinking about what that would mean in terms of being even more short-handed.
“What are you talking about? I can earn that money back,” Mel suggested.
Her mom looked at Bethany hopefully, but Bethany immediately shook her head. “Mel, I can’t possibly have you back. You put your boyfriend over the animals, deliberately creating chaos, using them as a cover so you and your boyfriend could steal from me, and then you lied to me about it all.”
Conall stared at the tableau in front of them. “I know this is really not what anybody wants to talk about right now,” he reminded everyone, “but I’m still looking for a War Dog that was negligently released from your office, and that’s a whole different story than just stealing. I’m not trying to minimize the damage that was already done to the business,” he acknowledged, looking from Bethany to Melanie and back, “because that is obviously pretty major as well.”
“It’s more major than you think,” Kassie stated, turning to Mel. “You know your father won’t let this one go.”
“So what will he do? Ground me?” Mel whined.
Bethany turned to her and asked, “You didn’t deliberately release the dog, did you?”
“No.” She shrugged. “I had to open the door several times, and I saw him go out, but it’s not like it was a big deal. He hangs around everyone anyway. You know it yourself, how he goes around and visits everybody.”
“So, you thought it was okay to just watch a dog walk away that was still in our care, still our responsibility?”
“But my boyfriend was picking him up,” she said, with an eye roll. “So it’s not like it was that big of a stressor.”
“Apparently nothing is a big stressor for you,” Conall replied, staring at her with a headshake. “So, you have no idea where the dog went?”
“No, I have no idea where the dog went,” she spat, with an exaggerated tone. She turned and looked back at her mom. “So, are you done with the interrogation now? Am I free to go?”
Kassie miserably bit her bottom lip, and Mel just turned and walked away.
Bethany called out, “You do know you’re fired, right?”
Mel turned, rolled her eyes, and said, “Whatever.”
“And the money you took out of petty cash will be coming out of your final paycheck.”
She cried out, “That’s not fair.… He’s the one who took the money. I’m not…”
Her mother just whispered, “Oh, Melanie.”
“That’s so unfair,” Mel cried out, staring up at Bethany. “I can’t believe you would do that to me.”
Bethany snorted, then shrieked in rage, “What about what you just did to me?”
“I didn’t do anything to you,” Mel declared, staring at her. “It was petty cash. It’s not like you needed it.”
“Oh my God,” Kassie muttered, as she shook her head at her daughter. She stared over at Bethany. “I am so sorry.”
Bethany just turned and walked out the front door. At the same time Melanie ran upstairs, crying, as if she’d been incredibly hard done by.
Conall looked over at Kassie. “From my perspective, Bethany should press charges.”
“That’s exactly what her father will say,” Kassie muttered, tears in her eyes. “I don’t even know what to do.”
“As her parent, that may be a tough one to figure out, but Melanie’s taken absolutely zero responsibility for any of that. I think some tough love is overdue for Melanie. If you let this slide, what else will she think she can get away with?”
“I know,” Kassie whispered. “As for the dog, I really don’t know where Bacchus went.… He’s a beautiful dog,” she whispered.
He just nodded. “One who deserves a whole lot more consideration than the entitled brat upstairs.”
And, with that, he turned and walked out.