Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,37
back in his chair. “Let’s switch gears a moment. Can you remember what day you found Stanley wandering by himself?”
“It was last…Thursday. A week ago, today.”
“She told us that last night,” Brianna said, wondering why he was asking something they already knew the answer to.
Aaron tipped his head her direction asking her to be patient.
She growled inwardly, but bit down on the urge to argue with him. He was the detective and probably had a well-established method to his questioning of witnesses. It was up to her to not get in the way.
“Did Stanley look like he’d been without food more than a week?” he asked, returning his attention to Paula.
She considered his question before answering. “He was hungry, but only ate…one and a half bowls of food, so…he wasn’t starving.”
“Good. That means we can guess that maybe he hadn’t been without Art there to feed him for more than a day or two.”
“So, you think…Art was killed…last Tuesday?” Paula asked, tearing up again.
Aaron shook his head. “We don’t know when he was killed, yet. The Medical Examiner will help with that. But we can assume Tuesday was when he went missing.” He paused a moment, and Brianna got the impression he was giving Paula a chance to gather her thoughts and catch her breath before he continued.
“So, walk me through what happened when you found Stanley,” he said. “Let’s start with where you were.”
“On Thursdays, I volunteer…to serve dinner…at the East Side Hope Fellowship church,” Paula said.
“That’s about two blocks north of The City Mission?” Aaron asked, typing into his phone.
“Yeah. They have hot meals…on Mondays and Thursdays.” Paula’s eyes welled up again. “Art loved…Thursday’s meals, usually meatloaf and mashed potatoes…or spaghetti. He said the Thursday cooks…were the best anywhere. He also always got there early enough to get a bed and food for Stanley.”
Brianna handed her another tissue to dry her eyes. Aaron seemed to be typing slowly on his phone. She suspected he was giving Paula time to collect her thoughts and stem her emotions again. He must’ve realized her crying was affecting her breathing.
“So, Stanley came to the Fellowship’s dining hall on his own? Was that during the meal service or afterwards?” he asked after a few minutes.
“After,” Paula said, her voice a little steadier. “I was taking the trash out to the dumpster…in the alley out back. Poor Stanley was huddled…near the door. He looked very scared.” She stroked her hand over the dog in her lap, as if still trying to soothe his fright. “I coaxed him over and…looked around for Art. When I didn’t see him…I walked up and down the alley to see if…maybe he’d been hurt or something. Only…he wasn’t there.”
“What did you do next?”
“I brought Stanley inside and…fed him leftover meatloaf…and gave him a bowl of water to drink, while we finished…closing up for the night.”
“Who is we?”
“The other volunteers and me.” She seemed to sink back into her pillows as if exhausted.
“Do you know any names?”
Before she could answer, a nurse came into the room to take her pulse and blood pressure. “She needs to get some rest if she’s going to fight this pneumonia. A body can’t heal without rest,” she said pointedly at Aaron and Brianna. Then she noticed Stanley in the bed, throwing a what-the-hell-is-that-animal-doing-here look their way.
Brianna scooped him into her arms before the nurse kicked him to the curb.
“I’m Detective Jeffers, nurse…” he left it open for her to fill in her name.
“Teri,” she said, not taking her eyes off Aaron like a teacher catching a student cheating on a test. “You going to tell me that little guy is part of the K-9 unit?”
Brianna fought the urge to giggle, barely. Stanley was less than half the size of the dogs usually used for K-9 duty.
“No, ma’am. He’s a witness,” Aaron said, sincere honesty written all over his face.
“I see.” Nurse Teri turned from adding a little bag of medicine to the IV setup dripping into Paula’s arm. “And you have him in witness protection?”
This time Brianna bit her upper lip and tried not to draw the nurse’s attention. She had a feeling that what transpired between her and Aaron would determine if Stanley got to stay or had to go. If he couldn’t be in the room, she wouldn’t be able to stay with Paula. She was pretty sure he couldn’t go to the precinct with Aaron, so would that mean he went to a pound?