“Been through? What do you mean?”
“They’re rescue pups. Just came in yesterday. A couple of months ago, they were removed from a breeder who’d been neglecting them. Poor things were starving to death.” Ethel started squirming in his arms, bending her nose toward the floor. He gently put her back to play with her sister. “Ethel was really underweight and had infected sores on two of her paws.”
“That’s horrible. Who would do such a thing?”
Matt shoved his hands into his pockets and took a deep breath. “There’s a lot of bad people out there, Lila. That’s just a fact.”
There were. I also knew there were a lot of people working every day to right the wrongs in the world. Matt was one of those people, caring for these animals the way he did. It was hard to believe that anyone so nice could be a murderer. Again, Sean’s words came back to mind: Nice people do bad things.
“Anyway,” Matt was saying. “I hope things work out between Bentley and Olive. It hasn’t been easy finding a good match for that dog.” He turned to head for the back room, so I gave Lucy and Ethel each a parting belly rub and followed. “Watch your step,” he called back to me. “Things are kinda messy back here.”
He wasn’t kidding. The whole room was torn apart, including the floor and even part of the drywall. “I had no idea you’d had this type of damage,” I said, stepping over a long roll of carpet.
“Yeah, well, a couple hundred gallons of salt water can do that.” His eyes flashed with anger. “Richards assured me the stand was going to be strong enough to support that type of weight, but . . .” Matt shook his head and muttered something unrepeatable under his breath. “Then, after I took up the carpet, I found that parts of the subflooring hadn’t been nailed to the floor joists. What a mess.” He pointed down at the plywood covering the floor. I could see a few nail heads here and there, most of them driven into the wood at a crooked angle. Some even bent and sticking out of the wood. Whoever did the floor wasn’t too handy with a hammer.
“Let me guess. Chuck did your floor, too.” I was reminded of Belmonte’s tile job. Matt nodded. Chuck had definitely left a trail of destruction behind. “So how long will this take you to repair?”
He glanced around the room, hands on his hips. “Well, the carpet’s in bad shape. The salt water from the tank caused a lot of damage. I’ll have to have someone come in and install another rug. But the subfloors are no problem. I can nail that back down myself.” He pointed to the corner of the room where he’d already started working. My eyes were instantly drawn to one of the tools—a nail gun. I searched my brain trying to remember if the article in the paper had mentioned the way Chuck was killed, but I couldn’t recall. Seeing one now, though, made my blood run cold. I’d have to add nail guns to my running list of tools I could no longer tolerate, like garden spades.
“You okay, Lila? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I blinked a few times and swallowed hard. “Is that a nail gun?”
He walked over and picked it up. “This thing? Yeah, I rented it for the day. It sure makes the job easier.”
I couldn’t help but notice how well it fit his giant hands. I nodded. “Those things can be dangerous, can’t they?”
“Heck yeah. Gotta be careful with these things. You could really hurt someone with one of these.” As if to demonstrate, he bent down, pressed the tip against the floor, and pulled the trigger: click-thunk!
Or kill someone, I thought.
Chapter 11
The noise from the nail gun still haunted me as I stomped my feet on the mat just inside the office door. Olive greeted me with a little bark and scurried over for a quick sniff of my boots. “Hello there,” I said, scratching between her ears. “And good morning to you, Vicky.” I did my best to put on a cheerful tone, despite the fact that my stomach was in knots from everything that had happened this morning. I quickly told Vicky about the breakin at Espresso Yourself.
“That’s simply dreadful. Who would do such a thing? Did they apprehend the perpetrators?”
“No. The police think it’s related to some vandalism incidents in Dunston. Kids, they think. We were able to get most of it cleaned up in time for her to open this morning.”
“That poor girl. I’ll go down on my break and see if there’s anything else she needs.”
“I also paid a visit to Matt over at All Creatures, Feathered and Furry. You were right. The accident was caused by a faulty stand. And he told me that Chuck built it.”
Vicky nodded triumphantly. “Just as I presumed.”
“The worst part is, when the aquarium broke, it flooded the whole back room. The carpet, even part of the drywall, was destroyed. And insurance won’t cover all the costs.”