“IT’S a good thing you got him here when you did. If we hadn’t pumped his stomach, he would’ve ingested even more of the poison and more than likely would not have made it. Do you have any idea where he would’ve gotten a hold of a substance that could harm him?” the vet asks as he checks on Dobby, who is resting inside the metal crate.
“I do not know, unless he’s gotten into a pool chemical that was left out accidentally. Nothing like this has ever happened before.” I rack my brain, trying to visualize the back yard to remember if anything was left out or if there was anything out of the ordinary, but nothing was out of place.
“Do you get along with your neighbors?” the doctor asks, as he closes the cage door.
“Yes. My best friend is my neighbor. There’s no one on the other side of my place and the ones that live behind me I’ve never met, so I don’t think I have any beef with them. Why do you ask?”
He turns to face Vivi and me. “Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for pets to be caught in the crossfire of human conflicts. Sometimes neighbors or enemies will take their hatred out on someone’s pet in order to hurt the human owner.”
I swallow hard as it hits me. There’s only one person who comes to mind who is angry enough to hurt Dobby, but I can’t figure out how she got to him because I’m pretty positive I left him in the house while Vivi and I went out to dinner for a couple of hours.
“Will Dobby be okay?” I ask, trying to hold back my anger that Annabelle has once again hurt someone close to me.
“Right now, he appears to be on the upswing. He’ll need IV fluids for at least another day, and I want to keep him here so we can monitor him. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know if he’s able to be picked up.” He must see the hesitation on my face, because he adds, “Dobby is in expert hands here. We’ll take excellent care of him. Go home and get some rest.”
Vivi wraps her arm around my waist. “We’ll come back first thing in the morning.”
I nod. “All right.”
The ride home is unusually quiet because I’m lost in thought. Dobby is like my child. He’s my responsibility, and I failed to keep him safe.
“We need to look at the security footage to see if Annabelle got to Dobby. I don’t think we left him outside,” Vivi says. “If we catch her on there, we need to call Detective Kendal and turn the videos over to him.”
The thought of that woman being in at my house again is unsettling. It just confirms I’m doing the right thing by making sure Vivi is never left alone at my house. The police detail is gone, so it’s my job to protect Vivi.
This time when I pull into my driveway, my eyes do a careful sweep of my surroundings, checking carefully there’s no one hiding in the bushes. I don’t spot anyone, so I park inside the garage and then close the doors behind me. Vivi is on high alert as well, slowly opening the door and looking around before stepping inside.
“Was the sliding door locked when you opened it when we came home last time?” I ask her.
She nods. “Yes. I remember unlocking it when I saw Dobby.”
Because she confirmed that, I head into my foyer to double check the lock on the front door. My fingers wrap around the knob and I twist left and then right, but it doesn’t open. “Front’s locked.”
I head back into the main living space of the house and spot Vivi staring down at something on the kitchen counter.
“You need to call the detective, Zayn,” Vivi says with a quiver in her voice. “Annabelle was inside of here.”
The blood in my veins runs cold and I feel numb as I walk over to see what she’s looking at. There, lying on the marble countertop, is a handwritten note.
‘We can’t have a dog that tries to bite me, lover.’
She didn’t sign it, but there’s no doubt who the author of this letter is. This woman is clearly insane and seems like all reality has left her if she’s willing to kill to get to me.
