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Nat, Jane, and I ordered desert. While waiting for it, we talked.
"When I first became a prosecutor, I handled a case involving animal sacrifice" Jane commented. "They claimed to be members of Santeria"
"Santeria?" I wasn't sure what that was.
"It's a religion from Cuba, which is a mixture of African religions and Catholicism" Natalie explained.
"I see"
"All the defendants were tried, and found guilty. They got jail time and community service hours." she added.
"That's great to hear!" Natalie said. "This reminds me of when a friend of a friend, heard the sound of rabbits screaming at the apartment next to him. He called the cops, and it turned out that the neighbors were sacrificing the rabbits. There was even a pentagram painted on the carpet."
"Was it Mack?" I asked.
"Yeah" she answered, then explained to Jane. "He recently came to our place to show me a dead raccoon, claiming that it had died from being a witch's familiar. Now Alan and Don are worried that he's a stalker or something"
"I would find it disconcerting if someone came to see me with a dead raccoon" Jane raised an eyebrow. The fact that she, a prosecutor found it strange and worrisome spoke volumes.
"Mack's harmless" Nat assured Jane.
"Okay, but if you ever need a restraining order, let me know" she told Natalie.
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"Thanks!" I said, but added "I doubt that I'll need it though."
"Just in case, here's my card" she gave me it. I guess Jane had seen a few too many cases involving murderous stalkers. I'd be paranoid too if I saw even half of what Don and Jane did. "Do you have Don's cell number?"
"I gave it to her" Alan said.
"Good."
I did some thinking and tried to see Mack in the eyes of someone who's never met him, and who heard about his actions. I started to see what was worrying the three of them.
Eventually, everyone went home. I thought it had gone well.
In the car, on the way back, Alan and I talked about Jane.
"I've got a good feeling about her." he said cheerfully. "They complement each other perfectly, and she understands about his schedule because of being in a similar line of work."
"I liked her too."
"She could be the one!" Alan added hopefully. "I just want Don to be happy and find that special someone"
Once we got home, and changed into our pajamas, Alan complained "The closet's disorganized again. This is going to slow us down when we need to get ready for work! An organized closet is important..."
"If I wanted a lecture on organization and tidiness, I would have gone to bed with Adrian Monk" I rolled my eyes.
"Wouldn't he have issues with that?" Alan asked drolly.
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The next day, I called Jane, to see how things went.
"Hey Stranger!" she cooed when I told her it was me.
"I'm sorry about last night" I told her.
"No worries, I've done the same thing"
"How did it go?" I asked.
"Pretty good! Your Dad seems to be a very sweet man" she commented, and I noticed that she didn't say anything about Nat.
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I was helping out in Don's newest case. When we had a little time, I asked him how the double date went. We both sat around his desk.
"Well, I missed half of it because I got called" He sighed.
"That stinks!" I said, then asked "So how did Natalie and Jane get along?"
"When I asked Jane about how it went when I left, all she said was that Dad was 'a sweet man' Not one word about Natalie." He admitted.
"We've got an ally!" I smiled.
"Dad seemed to like Jane." my brother added.
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Some days later, as I was doing some questioning, in the shady part of town, when I saw Natalie, in jeans and a light colored shirt walking around.
"Hey Natalie!" I greeted her. "What brings you here?" This wasn't exactly a safe area.
"I heard about smuggled puppies being sold in the nearby part, and I wanted to see if they were from puppy mills."
"Shouldn't the humane society and the cops handle this?" I asked.
"The humane society is more under funded than the police department." she sighed. "And I wanted to check for myself."
"Let me go with you"
"You're going to scare them off" she pooh-poohed the idea. "Your demeanor is going to give us away!"
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"It's almost dark" Don reminded me to my annoyance.
"I'm just going to check things out then call if I need to" I argued, and then decided to compromise "Why don't you just follow me, but don't let anyone see you?" He is an F.B.I agent, so he's gotta know how to do that.
"Fine."
So, with Don in tow, I walked around the park, and found a woman about Don's age selling some pit bull puppies. They looked small for being a few weeks old, and a couple of them seemed to be sick. I examined one, by pretending to coo at it, then, I, with a heavy heart left. Don joined me when it was safe.
"So, you're making your call now?"
I did so, and mentioned that I was a vet. Someone came, and asked me a few questions, as well as get my name and number. Then, he went to take care of the seller.
Afterwards, I started to walk towards my car.
"Thanks for waiting with me" I said somberly.
"What's wrong? You did a good thing"
"They're going to the pound. . ." I complained.
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"You can only do so much" I told her. While I understood where she was coming from, no animal was worth her going into a bad neighborhod. "And at least they'll get proper medical treatment there, and puppies get adopted faster right?"
"I guess I'll be going home" she said with a half smile. "Thanks again Don."
"Did you tell Dad that you were going to be late?"
" Alan's got Book club tonight"
Charlie was at my desk when I returned. We, as well as my team, were all burning the midnight oil.
"Guess who I saw at a park, in a very unsafe area?" I asked, as I sat down
"Who?"
"Natalie"
"Doing what?" he asked suspiciously.
"She was looking for people selling unhealthy puppies from puppy mills" I said, while stirring some coffee.
"Did she find any?"
"Yeah, called it in even" I told him.
"Maybe she had other reasons for going the park, and she just happened to find a person selling puppies?" Charlie again didn't quite trust Natalie.
"Natalie's love of animals is part of her weirdness" I reminded him. "She has almost as many pictures of her pets as Dad has of us! Either way, she shouldn't have gone alone. It's a good thing I saw her."
"You went with her to check out the puppies?"
"I followed close behind"
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During one of Natalie's late days, Larry and I went to Dad's place to have dinner with him.
"You make the best beef stroganoff!" Larry said. "
"Thank you" Dad replied with a smile.
"So, Natalie works late tonight?" my colleague asked.
"Unfortunately, but I'm saving her some stragonov" Dad told us.
"Don would have loved this!" Larry ate more of his food.
"But I'm sure he'd rather be with Jane" I remarked slyly and Dad chuckled.
After dinner, we, in the living room, all saw an indie movie that Larry had rented and wanted to see. The flick was weird, and frankly, had no plot, but it did make Larry laugh, for reasons I couldn't even begin to comprehend.
"What is Larry laughing at?" Dad whispered. He sat next to me.
"I couldn't say..." I shrugged.
Dad got away on the pretext of making more popcorn, but returned.
"Anything significant happen?" he handed me the bowl, and I took a handful. Dad was the master of having the right salt/butter ratio.
"Random stuff, that has nothing to do with anything" I replied, while Larry laughed some more at the movie.
At ten thirty something, the cat left the warmth of the cable box, and started to run towards the front door. The dog did the same thing.
"She's home" Dad got up with a ton of relief and left for the front door. Soon, he returned with Natalie and the pets.
"Hey guys!" she said "How are you?"
"Good."
"What are you watching?" she asked.
"We haven't the faintest idea" Dad deadpanned. Natalie watched a few minutes of the movie, and shook her head.
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The following weekend, Alan went fishing in the boonies somewhere. He left early Friday morning. On Saturday night, I went with Carl and his wife to a place called Circus of the Damned where you could see stuff like zombies being raised by Necromancers, Vampires and the like. I heard that they choose pretty good actors for this stuff. I ran into Mack at a snack stand.
"Hey!" I gave him my best smile, though I hoped he wasn't there on some nutty quest.
"Hi!" he said. "How are you?"
"Good. I came with one of my business partners and his wife"
"I came to check out the snake. See if they're treating it right" he told me. One of the place's attractions was that it supposedly had the world's largest snake.
"Okay...I'll keep a close eye myself" I nodded.
Suddenly, Don appeared, wearing suit and a blue tie. Why do I keep running into him? This was weird!
"Hey Natalie!" he greeted me in a friendly voice.
"Hey Don!" I said and added "This is Mack"
"Enjoying yourself?" Don asked, sounding friendly, though I knew better.
"I was just here to see if they're treating the snake right" Mack told Don. Then, my fellow vet turned to me "Is this your boyfriend or something?"
"It's my boyfriend's son" I said, and sighed at Don's suspicion.
"Okay..." Mack raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm gonna get some food, and go"
"You do that" Don said.
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When the guy left, I asked her
"Did you expect to see him here?"
"No!" she said. I believed her. "Are you here because of work?"
"Yeah" I told her.
"How's Jane?"
"Busy"
"I know the feeling"
"Are you here alone?" This Mack guy didn't sit well with me.
"I'm with my business partner and his wife" she answered.
"Stick with them" I advised.
"What? Mack's harmless. He gets fixated on quests, not people" She told me
"Better safe than sorry" I reminded her.
"Well, I gotta go before they start to worry. I'll see you around"
" Why don't you let me walk you back to your friends?"
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Don 'escorted' me as far as he could, and reminded me to call him if I feared for my safety.
"Thanks, but I'll be fine"
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Alan came home on Sunday, happy, and with some fish to cook for dinner.
"I've got this wonderful idea!" he boasted as we ate.
"Do you now?" I was eager to hear it.
"Why don't we take a trip with Don and Jane for the weekend?"
TBC