I was scrolling through the victim’s past purchases when something made me pause.  Hang on now.

I printed off a screenshot of the purchase, jumped up, and stormed over to Captain Dennis.  “What is this?”  I demanded, pointing at the screenshot.

He’d been in the middle of a conversation with Officers Bennet and Mills and seemed a little flustered over my angry interruption.  “Um, I’d say it looks like a…dog collar?  Is this a trick question?”

I slammed it down on the table in front of him, making the other three officers who weren’t part of the conversation jump and look over.

“It’s an electronic tracking collar,” I snapped.  “E.  Lec.  Tron.  Ic.  But it’s not here and I haven’t seen it.”

“Oh.”  Captain Dennis’s brows furrowed.  “That – that does actually sound useful.  Was it not in the house?  Maybe it broke or he didn’t like it and he got rid of it?”

“No,” Officer Mills’ tone was calm, “pretty sure it would be on the dog.  Which Dr. Woodson has.”

Captain Dennis snapped his fingers.  “Right, right, that makes sense.  We’ll have to get it back from him.”

“Uggggghhh,” I groaned.

My response got a surprised look from Captain Dennis.

“We, uh, ran into Dr. Woodson at the house yesterday,” Officer Mills explained quietly.  “He and Claire didn’t exactly, um, hit it off.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”  Officer Bennet muttered.

It dawned on me that she and the fairy vet probably would get along great.  Both annoying, both disliking people who colored outside the lines.

“So,” I rapped my sharp fingernails against the table, “anyone gonna go get it or do I have to go kidnap the dog myself?”

“No please don’t do that!”  Officer Mills actually looked alarmed.  “Dr. Woodson would have issues with anyone breaking into his clinic and he’s deeply protective of his animal patients.  It – it wouldn’t be a good thing for you and, uh, might have a negative impact on our relations with the Woodsons.”

“Besides,” Captain Dennis pointed out, “we can just ask him for it.”

I crossed my arms.  “Well, I’m not going to ask him for it.  I’d rather just take it.”  I was good at sneaking into places, actually.  I’d snuck into this high-security computer center once and hid out in the room for a week before bailing to a new place.  They never even knew I was there.

Captain Dennis huffed out a long sigh.  “We don’t need to do that.  I can’t spare the officers today to take you over there, but I’ll give Dr. Woodson a call and let him know you’re coming over to pick it up.  Will that work?”

I really hadn’t wanted to see the annoying fairy again, and I was pretty sure he didn’t want to see me again either, but I did want that collar.  Honestly, it probably wouldn’t give any useful information, but tracking collars were just fun.  They kind of gave me this weird buzz that probably felt like a high – just for a second, but it was there.  I suppose that meant that animals’ electronic activities would feed us energy, too, but it’s not like most animals exactly use electronics.  A collar like this, though, recording an animal running all over the place?  That was like dessert.

I didn’t have a car, but I did bring my electric scooter.  I hadn’t brought it to the station yesterday because Captain Dennis had picked me up and I knew I’d be riding around in a patrol car, but without plans to ride in someone else’s car today, the scooter had come with me.  It turned out to be useful since I now had to travel across town to the vet clinic – not an impossible walk, but definitely faster on the scooter.

The bell over the door rang when I opened it and the receptionist looked up, a confused expression on her face.  “Um, how can I help you, uh,” she didn’t know whether to call me ma’am or sir, it was kind of funny.  “You don’t have a pet?”

“Nope, not smuggling any in my pockets,” I confirmed.  “The vet’s supposed to have something for me.”

“Ah, uh, I didn’t know he was sending something out.  Can I see some ID?  What delivery company are you with?”  She was eyeing my suit like she thought I was there to rob the place or something.

I rolled my eyes.  “Not a delivery company.  The police sent me.  The vet has something for me.”

At the word “police,” several customers in the waiting room looked up, alarmed.  A couple of them started whispering to each other.

This was kinda fun, unexpectedly – freaking out the fairy vet’s clinic.  Maybe I should do this more often.

“Let me check,” the receptionist said.  “One moment.”

She clearly expected me to step back and give her privacy while she called the back, but I didn’t.  If she wanted that, she’d have to ask.

The receptionist turned away a little and I could hear her say in a low voice “Dr. Woodson, there’s a person here saying they’re from the police and you have something for them?  Is everything okay?”

I couldn’t hear the answer, but she hung up and turned to give me a stiff smile.  “He’ll be right out.”

It took a couple minutes, actually, before the door opened and the auburn-haired vet appeared.  He seemed a little miffed and even more so when he scanned the room.

“Chelsea,” he approached the reception desk, “where did the young lady go?”

“That’d be me,” I leaned against the counter casually.  “I’m so hurt you didn’t recognize me.”

He stopped, turned slowly, and then stared at me, his brows drawing together in confusion.  “Claire?”

“One and the same.  Now can you please just give it to me so I can get back to the police station?”

The whispering in the waiting room increased and fairy vet gave them a quick, almost embarrassed glance.  Then, before I realized what he was going to do, he grabbed me by my elbow and pulled me beyond the doors.

“Please watch what you say in front of clients,” he said after we were behind the doors.  “You’ll freak them out talking about the police and the, uh, suggestive comments.”

I jerked my arm out of his grasp, coming to a dead stop to glare at him with my arms crossed.  “You know,” my tone was low but icy, “you don’t just get to grab people because you feel like it.  You got a problem with what I say?  Fine.  You want to talk in private without them overhearing?  Fine.  But fucking say it, don’t just go and touch me without my permission.”

My sudden hostility seemed to completely take him by surprise, but I wasn’t done.

“You think you get to do whatever you want because you’re some bigshot?  As far as I’m concerned, you’re just a bully.  And you know what?  I don’t have to deal with you.  I’ll tell them they can come get the stupid collar themselves or forget about it.”  I spun around, intent on leaving.

I did not take well to physical contact.  No one had touched me in years, and I liked it that way.  It’s one of the worst things about leaving whatever little computer nest I had at any given time – the possibility of unintended physical contact.  Bumping into someone, not great.  Being deliberately grabbed by someone without my permission?  Not acceptable.

“Wait!”  The fairy vet managed to reach the door before I did and hold it shut.

“I’m sorry,” he told me, his face troubled, “I didn’t mean to – I mean, I did grab you, I’m sorry.  I didn’t realize it would be an issue but you’re right, I shouldn’t have just done that.  Please, I’m – sorry.”

I looked in his face, but saw nothing other than genuine regret.  At least he wasn’t a total jerk, then.  “Fine,” I allowed begrudgingly, “but can we please just hurry this up?”

He hesitated a little as he stepped away from the door, apparently a little worried I’d run, but since he apologized, I was going to stick this out and get the collar unless he did something else, which seemed to be a 50/50 chance.  I crossed my arms and waited.

“Right, I – the collar’s still on Baxter, I got the call earlier when I was in surgery so I haven’t had a chance to get it yet.  Follow me, please, I’ll take you there.”

He was being unnecessarily polite, probably because he was worried I’d complain about his interaction or whatever – I mean, technically I could file a police report about that, right?  Unwanted physical contact and all that.  But as much as I disliked it, I had no intention of making life for the police force harder than it needed to me.  Officer Mills was already clearly bothered by my lack of respect for the fairy, and, well, he’d apologized, so no need to turn this into a whole thing.

Not that I was complaining about him being polite, though.  I don’t always get polite from people so it was a nice change.

The fairy vet took me to a room that had large kennel-like cages.  Well, I thought they were large, at least.  They looked like a person could actually curl up comfortably in some.  I wasn’t around animals much, though, so for all I knew, most boarding places were like this.

The vet stopped in front of one of the kennels and crouched down, talking gently to the long-haired, scruffy looking dog inside.  “Hey, Baxter.  It’s okay, I’m just here to get your collar, then you can go back to sleep, okay?”  He kept talking to the dog as if he expected it to understand him while he opened the door, reached inside, and carefully retracted the collar from its neck.

When he stood up and handed me the collar, he kept his eyes on the dog, looking troubled.  “Baxter knows something is wrong.  He’s been really depressed since he got here.”

Right, uh, depressed dogs.  Definitely something I was an expert on.

“Arthur cares – cared? – very much about Baxter, he was always careful to never miss a visit and was willing to spend whatever was necessary to try to help him.”  The vet rested one hand against the kennel and leaned on it.  “I – I suspect you’re right that he’s dead.  I can’t imagine him willingly abandoning Baxter, given how much he cares.  It’s not like him.  But it’s hard to know what to do with Baxter.  If Arthur isn’t dead and the police are able to find him, rehoming him now would be tragic and end up with broken hearts – either Arthur’s or the new family’s.  But if he genuinely is dead, then I don’t want Baxter to stay here forever, that’s not fair to him.  We can give him proper medical care, give him his daily medications, take him out on walks, all of the basics, but he won’t have his own family, he won’t get the love and attention he deserves.”

So…now I was somehow the fairy’s confidant.  Great.  Not sure where to go with this.  I mean, he was probably talking to me about it because I was there and knew about the case and he couldn’t really explain things to his vet techs since it was an ongoing case and all.  Still.  Not exactly the right person for this, dude.

It’s not like I’m heartless, though.  Fairy vet was clearly upset by all this and cared about the dog, which I guess is cool and all.  I wasn’t going to point out that I was like the last person he should ask this, but I also had no clue what to tell him.

“I mean…you could wait for a bit and see?”  I offered hesitantly.  “It’s not like a choice has to be made right away, right?”

“True.”  He was still frowning.  “Arthur’s family essentially signed Baxter away to me and told me to do whatever with it.  They don’t want to deal with the medical issues he comes with.  It’s one of the reasons I agreed to take him in – I didn’t want him ending up in someone’s care who didn’t know what he needed and his condition would end up getting worse.  Now, though, I have to make decisions I wouldn’t normally make.  I don’t know Arthur apart from him bringing Baxter in, and while I know very well how he felt about Baxter and how he cared for him…everything else about Arthur is a mystery to me.  I don’t know what he’d have wanted, and I don’t know how long to hold out hope.  Or if I should hold out any.”

He sighed deeply, then turned his eyes from the dog to me.  “Sorry, I know this isn’t really part of your job description.  Well, actually, I don’t know what your job is, so maybe it is in your job description,” a ghost of a smile, like he was teasing me?  The fairy knew how to be funny?  “But I’m assuming it has something to do with computers based on yesterday.”

“Tech consultant,” I confirmed.  “All the electronic stuff.”  I held up the collar.  “Including this.”

“Right.”  His eyes fell on the collar for a moment.  “You can actually get info from that?  Something useful?”

“Maybe.  It shows where the dog has been, and presumably his human went with him most of the time, so…maybe.”

“Don’t collars like that send the info to apps?  And you don’t have access to his phone?”  His tone was just curious this time, not judgmental like yesterday.

Curious was fine with me.  I understood curiosity.  Judgmental I wasn’t as on board with.  “The collar itself records the info.  Other people might need the app, but not a techno vampire.”  I gave him a smirk, finally loosening up enough to fall back into my normal self.  “We don’t listen to all the rules about what electronics normally do.  We make our own rules.”

“Hmm.”  He seemed thoughtful.  “Does this apply to your personal life as well?”

What kind of discussion was this?  Still, I wasn’t sensing hostility from him now, and I didn’t mind talking during my semi-annual emergence from my tech cave.  Socialization was socialization, as long as it wasn’t negative, it didn’t matter that much who it was with.

“I mean, can’t speak for all the techno vampires, but for me, sure.  I decide what I want to wear, screw the rules.  Life’s too short to care what other people think about whether I wear white during the wrong time of year or color my hair some garish color or wear socks with sandals or whatever.  I don’t do the normal job stuff or running around playing house or whatever.  Yeah, I guess,” I shrugged.  “I just do what I want, go where I want.  Not tied down to anything.  Just get to float wherever I want.”

I could tell he didn’t get my lifestyle, but that was okay.  Free spirits were often not understood by the more traditional conformists.