12. Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
VIOLET
I’d spent the day before going through ring camera footage Dylan and his partner, Aiden, had gathered from the street where the BBQ place was, with no luck spotting the teenagers James had mentioned. I was staring down another day of the same with two more to view before heading home for the day.
“You’re going to hate me.”
I spun my chair to see Dylan standing in the doorway of my office. He held a small, opaque blue bag in his hand.
I angled my head. “What is it?”
He stepped forward and placed the bag on the corner of my desk. “The poop bandit struck again.”
I scrunched my nose at the offending parcel. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
“I wish I could.”
“And what is it you think I’m going to do with that?”
“Test the DNA.”
My eyes widened. “You’re not serious?”
The look of apology he sent me did nothing to help the situation . I did not get paid enough for this crap. Pun intended.
“We’ve had numerous complaints about this for months?—”
“Yeah, because some people have entirely too much time on their hands.”
“But if we can track down who’s doing it, put a little fear of repercussions into them, hopefully they’ll get their, ummm…
shit together and clean up after their pet.
Captain’s frustrated, too. Filing all these reports every time someone complains is using unnecessary manpower.
” He sighed. “Plus, Captain’s sister-in-law is on the HOA board and asked him to help them out with this first case.
The neighborhood HOA just passed a rule that requires DNA testing of all the dogs in the community.
They’ll set up and register with one of those companies that does dog waste enforcement. ”
I rolled my eyes. I could sympathize with not wanting to tell your wife’s sister no, but he wasn’t the one who had to test this shit. Literally. They really needed to pay me more.
“Fine,” I huffed.
“I’ll make it up to you.” He chuckled darkly, and I legitimately worried about what he was thinking. “I’ll have one of the guys pull James over for something stupid.”
I shook my head. “He isn’t worth it.” Although the idea did sound somewhat enticing.
He tipped his head to my computer screen. “Focus on the ring camera footage. The dog shit can wait.”
“I would prefer to get that out of the way so it’s not sitting in my office all day.”
“Fair enough.” He turned to leave the office, then glanced back over his shoulder. “Send me the results and let me know if you get anything off the footage.”
I stared at the bag on my desk after Dylan left my office and sighed. I still couldn’t believe I had to do this.
The literal crap that had landed on my desk done, I turned my focus back to the videos. After watching a few hours of footage, I paused the tape and jumped up, heading out to find Dylan.
“I got them,” I announced excitedly as I approached his desk.
“The teenagers?”
“Yes. One of the cameras caught them running across the street a few houses up the street from the fire.”
He stood. “Show me.”
I turned and headed back toward my office, excited to have caught another break. Hopefully we could identify at least one of these kids and they could give us a new lead.