Page 40 of Wayward

“The dog needs a car seat?”

Connie looked horrified. “Of course he does. What if you’re in an accident? Do you want him to go flying around and break his neck?”

I didn’t want to be a buzzkill and point out that the last time I was in an accident, everyone in the car was flying around, belted in or not.

“We’ll get it put in,” she told me, waving a hand at the vet techs.

“So what is Mrs. Farley like?” I asked Gale, because I wanted to keep him talking. I knew he had to leave soon. He had to go to the police station and help process his prisoners. Chief Ramirez would have questions for him. And honestly, if I was right, he would probably stop talking to me after I came clean.

“It’s Ms.,” he corrected me, “and I would say eccentric but kind. She’s never been anything but lovely to me, though some of her thoughts come right out of the clear blue sky.”

“I think she just has a lot going on in her mind at all times,” Connie chimed in. “Sometimes it gets stuck and all comes out at once. My daughter’s the same way.”

“I think it’s because she’s rich,” another tech offered as she walked by. “I mean, they’re always a bit different, don’tcha think?”

“You’re all wrong,” Linda said, throwing in her two cents. “She’s a lovely woman, period. She just needs to do something about that house.”

Connie groaned. “That right there is the God’s honest truth. That crumbling castle of hers is going to kill her someday.”

“While I agree that she’s a very kind woman,” Dr. Coleman countered as he walked back into the room, “I do think she’s unwell. If I had to guess, I’d say there’s some OCD there, and she might be agoraphobic, but I also suspect some cognitive dissonance. Things she says and does just don’t add up sometimes.”

It was interesting the way everyone had a theory about the woman. Since I’d never even laid eyes on her, I would have to wait and see.

“But I’m not a psychiatrist,” he threw out as he crossed the room, on his way to see another patient, I assumed.

“No, you’re not,” Gale agreed, sounding a bit annoyed.

“Maks,” Dr. Coleman said, clearing his throat and shooting Gale a look I couldn’t read. He turned to me before he opened the door. “Please don’t be a stranger. We’d love to have you visit anytime.”

“Thank you.” It was a nice thing to say.

“Perhaps we can get a bite next time you’re here.”

He was a handsome man, and he clearly liked the look of me, going by his smile and the way I’d caught him staring more than once. But the thing was, there was a very hefty-looking platinum wedding band on his left hand, so all we could be was friends. Though friends were something I was going to try and have more of. “That’d be great.”

“We have your number, so I’ll call,” he said, opening the door to a greeting of instant barking, then closing it behind him.

“Well, now,” Linda said, arching a judgmental eyebrow. “When you have that bite, maybe you’ll get to meet the doctor’s husband.”

Gale grunted.

“Oh, I hope so,” I told her, and she uncrossed her arms and nodded at me.

“This is like a bad movie,” Gale muttered under his breath.

There was howling suddenly, and when I looked around, I saw that a little girl had picked up Misha, who had apparently been put down, and she strolled out with him into the lobby. I needed to keep a better eye on him. Or whatever vet tech had lost him did.

“I’m so sorry,” one of the techs said, darting up to the front. “I only took my eyes off him for a second.”

“It’s fine,” I reassured her.

“The good news is, the vest fits perfect,” she told me cheerfully.

“The bad news is he’s being dognapped,” Gale teased me.

“Oh, honey, he’s not yours,” an elegant woman in a pink sweater set complete with pearls told the child with her same gold curls.

“But I want a puppy,” the girl said, stomping her foot.