“Anything else on your end?” Matt asked Jackson.
“Not yet, but it’s hard to pound as much pavement as we’re trying to right now—following various trails, looking into makeup places and so on. But I know that something will break soon. It always does.”
“Soon,” Matt echoed. “Let’s hope it’s soon enough.”
“Stay in the loop, and make sure we have your schedule on a daily basis.”
“Will do,” Matt promised, and ended the call. “What are you—a dog hater?” Meg asked him.
“No. I don’t hate dogs.”
“Just this one?”
“I don’t hate him at all. But he doesn’t belong in the middle of an investigation.”
“He’s not in the middle. We’re going to a hotel for the night. He’ll be with me. He won’t bother you—or anyone else.”
“You don’t see me throwing him out of the car, do you?”
“I don’t intend to give you the chance.”
He was hungry but decided to drive straight to the hotel. Remembering the dog, he pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store. She frowned at him. “Why are we stopping here?”
“Weren’t you planning to feed the beast?”
She flushed. “Of course.” She started to thrust the dog at him so she could go in. He already had his door open.
“I’ll get it,” he told her.
It took less than a minute to buy a bag of dog food. There wasn’t a question of which brand, since the place only carried one. He also purchased the only leash they had.
When he went back to the car, he noted a sedan that had been parked at the edge of the lot; it now turned onto the road.
Government car, he thought. Even in Richmond, black government cars often seemed to rule the road. He squinted, trying to see the license plate, but the car was too far away.
When he reached his car, the dog was barking.
Meg seemed perplexed.
“What’s up with him?” The dog acted as if he were trying to break out of Meg’s grasp, jumping and clawing at the window.
“I have no idea. I was just sitting here and he suddenly went crazy,” she replied. “Maybe he doesn’t like you.”
“He’s not barking at me,” Matt said.
The dog woofed and sneezed. And settled down in Meg’s lap again.
“Did anyone come near the car?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not that I saw. You weren’t gone very long.”
“I wondered if someone had gotten out of that black sedan.”
He was startled by the way she turned to look at him, blue eyes large, forehead creased. “The...black sedan?”
“They tend to be very common around here,” he said.
“I didn’t notice it, but...” She straightened, shrugging. “Nothing,” she said.
“What?”
“Angela and I saw a black sedan when I was moving today. It was parked—and it seemed to take off when we saw it. I never got the license plate.”
“I didn’t get it on this one, either. It’s probably nothing. These areas are riddled with black sedans.” Matt wasn’t convinced that a black sedan in the Richmond–DC corridor meant anything at all. They were plentiful to the point of boring.
“Yeah, I know.”
“I think you’ve just decided to adopt a neurotic dog,” Matt told her.
That made her smile. “He’s not neurotic. He somehow escaped animal control to find his mistress—and managed to get as far as the place where her body was being held. That’s pretty remarkable.”
“Or it could’ve been carelessness at the shelter and...”
“Who cares how he got out? How did he get to the morgue? How did he know to go there?”
“Okay, so he’s loyal—and neurotic,” Matt said.
He left the convenience store lot and drove to their hotel. As he’d expected, they took the dog, requiring a fifty-dollar deposit for the night. Meg insisted on putting it on her own card. He argued that the Bureau wouldn’t care, but rather than make a scene at the desk, he let her have her way.
“You hungry?” he asked her.
“I’ll order from room service.”
He pointed to a sign. “They stopped room service at ten.”
“I don’t think I should leave Killer in the room by himself,” she said.
“There’s a pizza place down the street. I’ll run and pick up a couple, okay?”
“That’ll be great.”
Their rooms weren’t next to each other, but they were in the same hall.
“What kind?” he called to her.
“What?”
“Pizza?”
“Cheese. Cheese is fine, thank you.”
Matt went ahead and threw his luggage in his room, and then decided to hop in the shower.
He changed into a clean pair of jeans and a polo shirt and hurried back out. He didn’t take the car; it was just a short jaunt down the street. He waited about ten minutes for the two pies, then turned to leave the shop. He found himself pausing when he saw a black sedan idling on the street. The same one?