CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Anthony Pierce’s home was even more luxurious than Faith first believed.
It sat at the end of a large cul-de-sac lined with date palms. The sprawling quarter-acre yard sported not only the massive oak tree Faith had seen online but several fruit trees, most of them varieties of citrus.
A grapefruit tree appeared to be nearly overgrown with ripe fruit, some of which had fallen to the ground and formed a carpet of ripe and rotting fruit surrounded by flies and various species of wasps.
It was the only blemish on an otherwise flawlessly landscaped property that included sculpted bushes and thick flowerbeds closer to the house.
“Nice to see he’s saving the Earth,” Jessica said, thrusting her chin at a late-model Porsche sports car that was definitely not powered by an electric motor.
Faith frowned slightly. The hypocrisy wasn’t too shocking, but why would someone living like this feel a need to kill people? What were they lacking in life that they had to take out on others?
That was more of a rhetorical question. Faith knew that rich and successful people killed other people all the time, but it still shocked her to see it.
She knocked on the door, which had a huge NO SOLICITING sign placed directly at eye level just below one of those video camera doorbells. Predictably, there was no answer.
Faith knocked again and called, “FBI. Come to the door.”
No answer. She looked above the sign directly at the doorbell camera. “I see your car in the driveway, Anthony Pierce. I know you’re home. You need to answer your door right now, or this is going to become a scene that you don’t want your neighbors to witness.”
Sure enough, Faith heard scuffling a moment later followed by an exasperated sigh. Turk growled low in his throat, and Faith’s hand strayed toward her shoulder holster.
The door opened, and Anthony Pierce glared at them, his short black hair streaked with blond, his short, sturdy body tense with irritation and poorly disguised fear. “What the fuck is this?” he demanded.
“Hi, Anthony. I’m Special Agent Faith Bold. This is my partner, Special Agent Jessica Torres. And this is my K9 unit, Turk.”
Anthony’s eyes dropped to Turk, and the color drained from his face. Turk growled at him again, his ears pulled back against his head. Anthony swallowed. “Is he going to bite me?”
“I don’t plan on it,” Faith replied.
She let those words hang for a moment. She couldn’t be certain that Turk’s reaction was because he recognized Anthony.
It could just be a response to Anthony’s aggression or a sense that he was contemplating violence.
But it could be that he recognized his scent.
Faith was feeling better about Jessica’s lead by the second.
“Can we come in?” Jessica asked.
Anthony very clearly did not want them to come in. He looked behind them, probably checking to see if his neighbors were watching. He laughed and said, “I mean… I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not sure what this is about.”
“Would you like us to say what this is about while standing on your porch in full view of the entire neighborhood?” Faith asked. She didn’t shout, but she didn’t take any pains to lower her voice either.
Anthony sighed and looked up at the sky as though asking God why he had to deal with this right now. “Fine. Come in. But if your dog shits on my floor, we’re going to have a problem.”
Faith couldn’t resist a little jab. “Dogs poop sometimes. It’s nature.”
Anthony reddened and glared at Faith but said nothing.
He stepped back, and the three agents entered his home.
Inside, it was just as opulent as outside.
The furniture was expansive and expensive.
A sectional couch big enough to seat a dozen people wrapped around a dark hardwood coffee table that sat in front of a truly massive television mounted above an electric fireplace.
Giant jade statues of dragons flanked the tv, and there were at least a dozen potted plants between the living room and the equally enormous kitchen.
Faith nodded at the couch. “Nice place. That real leather?”
“Like from animals?” Jessica added.
Anthony’s flush deepened, and he didn’t reply. He stood in front of them, pointedly blocking their access to his living room. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Come on, you know better than that,” Jessica cajoled. “You invited us into your house because you didn’t want your neighbors to hear something. What was it?”
Anthony didn’t fall for the obvious bait. “You tell me. You said it was scene-worthy. What is it?”
Faith showed him the social media post. “Recognize that.”
All the color drained from Anthony’s face. He swallowed and said hoarsely, “I didn’t kill them.”
“No? Then why post this? Why say that judgment was coming for them?”
Anthony swallowed again. “I want a lawyer.”
Faith kept her composure but inwardly she kicked herself.
They had played their hand too strong. A man as wealthy as Anthony could afford a very good lawyer, and that very good lawyer would lock things up for a long time.
They had no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and unless they found some, he was likely to get off.
“Let’s back up a bit,” she said. “I think you can understand that we have a good reason to be here.”
Anthony said nothing.
“Can you tell us why you had conflict with the victims?”
Anthony swallowed. “I didn’t kill them.”
“Okay,” Faith said, lifting her hands. “Let’s say for sake of argument that you didn’t kill them. You clearly didn’t get along with them. Why not?”
Anthony took a deep breath and dropped his head before rolling his eyes.
“I’m sure you guys think I’m a hypocrite, but I really do care about the environment, okay?
People like me aren’t the reason the environment is in trouble.
It’s big businesses behaving irresponsibly and getting away with raping our world of its natural resources and killing entire populations of native animals in the process.
I drive my car four thousand miles a year, and yes, this is real leather, but it’s cow leather.
There are a billion domestic cows alive.
It’s not like I’m contributing to the extinction of an endangered animal. ”
That argument did absolutely nothing to make Faith think Anthony wasn’t a hypocrite, but that wasn’t what they were here for. “What does that have to do with a few animal shelter employees?”
“Nothing. I’m just… Forget it. The point is that I do care about the environment and animals. Have you seen those shelters? They’re basically prisons. It’s inhumane what happens to dogs there.”
Faith saw an opportunity to build rapport with their suspect. “Actually… I agree. Those places are far from ideal.”
Anthony bit down hard on the offer of sympathy.
“Exactly! They keep dogs in cages, they euthanize animals that don’t meet their standards, they let complete assholes adopt dogs that end up abusing them, and a lot of times if a dog shows up with health problems, or even if it’s a little ugly, they just kill it without even giving it a chance. ”
Faith wasn’t sure about that part, but she was building rapport, not trying to reason with a madman. “Yeah, it kind of pisses me off, to be honest.”
“Me too!” Anthony said. He blinked and seemed to remember who he was talking to and why. “Anyway, that’s why I had beef with them. They act like they’re there to help dogs, but they’re just torturing them.”
“These aren’t really big corporations, though, are they?” Jessica asked. “A couple of county shelters and a non-profit.”
Anthony scoffed. “Oh yeah, the government is better than corporations. And that non-profit? Look into their financial records. I’ll bet you anything they get kickbacks from Dallas for handling some of the crap they don’t want to handle.”
“So, they’re just as bad as the big corporations?”
“Oh yeah. They’re all shitty.”
“How far would you go to protect animals from places like that?” Faith asked.
A wall came down over Anthony’s face. “Not that far.”
Faith had expected that wall, though. “I ask because we have records of you assaulting a police officer, throwing sewage and paint at people, slashing tires, and on one occasion cutting brake lines.”
Anthony flinched. “What? That’s not on record.” His eyes flicked to the left, and he corrected that to, “I never cut anyone’s brake lines.”
“You did,” Faith replied mildly. “That’s attempted murder. So, what’s the dividing line? I guess what I’m trying to ask is what judgment did you intend for the three victims?”
“Nothing! I… It was just a post. Like a warning.”
“What was the warning?”
Anthony dropped his head and his face flushed like a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
“Okay, look. I just… I wasn’t going to do anything.
I just posted it there to drive engagement.
I wanted people asking about them. Then I could give them information and help them understand the evil they were all perpetrating. ”
“Evil’s a big word,” Jessica remarked.
“Yeah, it is,” Anthony agreed. He jutted his chin. “And they were evil.”
“And you didn’t do anything to address that evil,” Faith replied.
“I didn’t.”
“Just posted a threat on a messaging board.”
“Exactly.”
“And when we take a very close look at your recent history and your whereabouts of the past few days, we’ll see that you haven’t done anything?”
Anthony’s left eye twitched. Faith stared at him calmly while Turk watched her with his ears flat, teeth slightly bared. He swallowed and said hoarsely, “I protested at a conference a few months ago. The list is everyone at that conference. All of the shelter employees that got me kicked out.”
“Ah,” Jessica said, nodding slowly.