Later that night, Elizabeth cautiously entered her house, which was already dark at this hour, and, through clenched teeth, set her shoulder bag down on the jacket rack, hoping she would be quiet enough not to alert the pit bull named Blu and thus wake the entire house.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized she had been able to sneak into the house and, for the last time that night, activate the state-of-the-art alarm system she and Maggie had installed before Blu officially became part of the family. The house was double-secured.
The gray and white pit bull with his big amber eyes was, just as Nikki had promised, an intelligent, playful family dog through and through who was quite willing to be a great lap dog, too, if he felt safe with 'his' people, was, however, also a very scary watchdog, at least that's what the mailmen had said in the beginning when Blu had struck wildly without warning, but now even they, if they were regular deliverers, were greeted with wagging tails, most likely hoping they had treats with them.
After Blu's move-in, there were not too infrequent confrontations with narrow-minded neighbors who took one look at this breed of Blu's dog as a bloodthirsty attack dog just waiting for the next best opportunity to bite Nikki and Ashlyn's faces off, after all, such tragic incidents would be reported in the media daily.
In the first year after Blu moved in, there were a lot of tears among the girls, mainly from Ashlyn's side.
Initially, the encounters between Maggie, Nikki, Ashlyn, or even all three together, while walking other dog owners had degenerated to such an extent that the ME and the two adolescent young women had been called irresponsible in the open street, wished them death by Blu and shouted many expletives at them, so that some evenings Ashlyn lay crying with Blu tightly embraced in her bed until Elizabeth came home and described the facts to her mother.
After that evening, Elizabeth had decided to join the threesome the next day, one of the few days when she officially had free time and was not called to a crime scene because her expertise was needed, to accompany her wife and two daughters, along with Blu, to go on one of those said walks, to get a picture of the situation for herself, without Ashlyn, as she suspected at the time, dramatizing the problem, which she didn't blame her daughter for, after all, she was still not much more than a child who could not correctly classify some things and statements.
When she talked to Nikki about such incidents, the teenager described precisely the same situation, only not as exaggerated as her younger sister.
The following day, however, Elizabeth's perspective changed considerably after she joined the group of three for a walk with the pit bull.
She took turns leading the lei with Nikki, as Blu listened better to their commands in many situations than with Maggie or Ashlyn.
Elizabeth suspected it was because she had picked up helpful tips from a colleague in the BPD's canine unit some time ago on how to keep such an alert and intelligent dog mentally occupied. At the same time, Nikki visited with Blu from her 'allowance', while Maggie and Ashlyn cuddled him more when the opportunity presented itself, which didn't mean the pit bull didn't dodge when either of them gave a command in a sharper tone. It just told that the detective and Nikki were the guiding hands, the alpha dogs, in Blu's upbringing, even if the dog belonged to Ashlyn; after all, the family had gotten the animal from the shelter at Ashlyn's pleading and begging, where he was already off the 'kill list'.
A list of animals, whether dog or cat, that had been euthanized that were unmatchable to make way for new arrivals.
On the day Elizabeth enjoyed one of the last warm days with her family in a 'dog-friendly' park, the detective caught a glimpse of what her daughters told her about periodically, and so did Maggie.
They walked together through this park with the dog on a leash, telling each other about their experiences while the other was not there, laughing, stopping to let Blu sniff or roll in the grass to cover up the scents of other animals. He stopped to send a pee message and do his business afterward. And of course cleaning up after him.
They were often greeted and just as often eyed skeptically for daring to stroll through the park with a dog of Blu's breed, un-muzzled. However, most of the time, Elizabeth couldn't comprehend why her daughters spoke of 'dog bullying' in public park facilities until one moment.
The moment when a free-roaming dog came running towards the family and Blu with loud, aggressive barking, and the apparent owner was much more preoccupied with her smartphone than with the animal.
Elizabeth hadn't moved on in the situation, as had Nikki, Maggie, and Ashlyn, so Blu couldn't focus directly on this purebred Golden Retriever dog. She would have the opportunity to defuse the situation and politely ask the dog's owner to leash her dog in a park where leashes were mandatory.
She had shouted the request over the distance, but already a second later, the Golden Retriever owner shouted that she should take her 'fucked' dog on the leash; after all, she would let her dog run leash-free in this park every day, Nikki had led Blu at this moment quick-wittedly offside on the green and distracted Blu with treats from what was happening. He sat at heel and looked intently at the teenager. At the same time, she spoke soothing words to him but straightened up occasionally when the golden retriever, known to be otherwise family-friendly, barked aggressively, only stopping his attack with bared teeth when his owner held him back by the dog collar. At the same time, the oh-so-bloodthirsty Pitt Bull sat at heel, lined up at the danger, and sat again when Nikki ordered his focus on her in a stern tone. Not a peep had Blu made at that moment, quite the opposite of the other dog.
Despite everything, the strange, overburdened handler insisted that Blu, who didn't leave Nikki's side, nor pay attention to the golden retriever, who was the aggressor and the handler even went so far as to threaten to call the cops to shoot the 'fucking killer' on the spot, so that the citizens of Boston could once again walk safely through the park without having to fear that a 'rabid killer' would attack them, tearing children and smaller dogs to pieces.
At that moment, Elizabeth saw red. She stepped towards the woman with firm steps, her face unreadable, ignoring Maggie, who kept calling her name and asking her to let it go and go home. Blu likely would have listened better to the redhead at that moment as the detective did.
As the detective approached the stranger, her body language changed. The woman's eyes widened, and she clutched the dog leash with both hands to defend herself if necessary.
Elizabeth reached into her left back pocket and produced a small black flat ID pouch that she always carried in case she needed to identify herself and didn't have her badge. This pocket essentially received her ID card with her picture.
The stranger's eyes widened even more when she realized she was messing with a BPD detective.
Elizabeth calmly explained to the woman who she was, pulled out a business card she also always carried, and with furrowed brows, wrote down her badge number as she told the golden retriever's owner to immediately leave the park on a direct route before she got around to calling friends from Animal Control to take a closer look at the woman's home to make sure the golden retriever was being kept in a species-appropriate manner. And suppose the woman had any other concerns, such as a complaint of official misconduct. In that case, the woman should call the BPD and give Elizabeth's service number to the complaints department and describe the facts of the case truthfully and in detail to her colleagues.
To date, no complaint has been received regarding the collision.
Elizabeth closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath to shake off the memory.
She licked her lips and decided to go slowly and carefully up the stairs to not disturb her daughters or her wife from their well-deserved sleep.
She pressed her lips together and carefully opened the door to Ashlyn's room, the hinges of which belonged to be re-lubricated at least ten times already, but she kept putting it off. She began to breathe again when the door made a soft squeak, unlike usual, and slumped her shoulders when she saw her younger daughter asleep in bed. And automatically, the question arose when exactly her little daughter had become a young teenager.
She took a deep breath and slowly and gently closed the door again after watching Ashlyn for a few moments, but she continued to sleep without a care in the world.
At that moment, she wondered when the moment had come that the two girls could only be seen making their way to the school bus in the kitchen and only shouting out snippets of words as they walked out the door. And did she wonder if Jane and Maura felt the same way about her and Katherine back then.
She crept across the hall to the next door, which was only ajar this time, and nodded slowly as Nikki lay asleep in her bed.
The detective's eyebrows furrowed when she saw that the dog bed, which was at the foot of the bed Blu typically lay in, was empty, and she looked down the hall to see if the dog was anywhere in the hallway.
She took another breath and rolled her eyes as she realized where Blu was at that moment, very likely not to be disturbed.
She walked with careful steps towards the master bedroom and opened another door.
Not a second passed when she realized in the glow of the hallway light that Blu had taken a seat next to the sleeping Maggie and had carefully laid his head on her bulging belly.
The Pit Bull raised his head at that moment, pricked up his floppy ears, and looked at Elizabeth to analyze whether there was an acute threat from the detective or whether he could quietly continue sleeping.
He blinked a few times, licked his muzzle, and lowered his head with a quiet snort back onto Maggie's belly as if to say, 'You're not a threat, but I'll protect Maggie, come what may.'
Maggie stirred a little and put a hand over Blu's back.
"Good boy," Elizabeth whispered, pulling the door. The original rule was that Blu could sleep anywhere but not in one of the bedrooms.
The rule had lasted precisely two nights until Nikki had snuck the dog bed into her room and stashed it at the foot of her bed.
The detective knew it was pointless to start a discussion and promptly dropped the rule. After all, she wasn't as strict as she liked to pretend. At least not when it came to the well-being of her family.
She took another deep breath and decided it was time to go downstairs one more time and at least treat herself to a beer before getting in the shower and trying to sleep, even though she knew it would be a short, fitful sleep.
Elizabeth again went to the kitchen, went to the refrigerator, and took out a bottle of beer, even though she had promised Maggie to abstain from nicotine and alcohol during the redhead's pregnancy, just like Maggie. However, she assumed the doctor would understand if she broke one of two promises, at least during this investigation.
She took another deep breath, opened the bottle, and turned to the kitchen island. She paused as a file on it caught her attention and drew her eyebrows together. The detective wondered if the ME could persuade Nick to get her a copy of the current investigation file.
She walked around the kitchen island and opened the file while sipping from the beer bottle. She drew her brows together and slowly lowered said beer bottle as she skimmed the first few lines of the file, flipped to the next page, and tucked her chin in. Then the detective gritted her teeth as she got to the part of the file that contained autopsy pictures.
The detective knew the file and the case even better. It was a double homicide that she and Nick had worked on and closed together before they had taken on this BodyCounter and knew all too well that the ME knew every detail of the case.
The case involved the four and six-year-old brothers Ethan and Paul Mesic, whose parents were Suzana and Janko Mesic. Suzana and Janko were from Croatia and emigrated to America with their parents during childhood to start a better life.
The two met in high school and hit it off right away, as Janko and Suzana shared the fate that the American dream was not as dreamy for their families as they had imagined.
The two became closer, dated, and eventually became a respected couple in the Croatian community.
The family story repeated itself when Suzana became pregnant for the first time. Suzana stayed home, which meant that a source of income dried up, forcing Janko to take any job as a construction worker and work overtime to keep the small family fed. However, after the first few months after the birth, he preferred to go to pubs after work and bunk there instead of going home to Paul and Suzana. At some point, Suzana became painfully aware that her husband went to these pubs not just for the alcohol but to pick up women at a cheap motel.
Janko had assured his wife that it was a slip, and Suzana forgave him.
The whole story repeated itself during and after the second pregnancy with Ethan; Janko assured her that it would not happen again, and Suzana forgave him, and the two continued as before until the moment when Suzana caught her husband Janko red-handed in bed with her younger sister Nada.
This day was the turning point and where the tragedy slowly but steadily announced itself.
After the incident with her sister, Suzana had Janko removed from the apartment with the help of the police, as he had vociferously objected to being thrown out of the shared apartment and had even gotten physical with Suzana to make it clear that he was the man of the house. Instead, he had encouraged his wife to banish him from her life for good and to try to stand on her own two feet, independent of Janko, a single parent with two growing boys.
On that day, the absolute nightmare began, ending in tragedy.
During the investigation, it turned out that Janko had not only become handsy with Suzana that day but at regular intervals as soon as she asked him where he had been after work, especially when his nocturnal abstinence had come up.
Not enough that Janko's anger during this time had been directed at his wife, as had become apparent in the investigation, but also at his sons.
Paul, on record, had been to the emergency room twice in one year. The first time for a broken arm, the second for a dislocated shoulder. Each time, the boys injured themselves when they had been with Janko.
At one point, when Janko went so far as to ask for sole custody of the two boys in family court after divorcing Suzana, and the family court judge in charge at the time considered doing so despite the mysterious injuries to the two boys, Suzana had seen no other option but to mix sleeping pills into the two boys' dinner and put them in the bathtub one at a time after Ethan and Paul had fallen asleep so they would drown without much resistance.
After neither Suzana nor Paul nor Ethan had been seen for several days, nor had Janko's visitation rights been respected, the father had called the police, believing that Suzana had absconded with Paul and Ethan. The youth welfare office wanted to confront the woman but found no one in the apartment; for this reason, the social worker at the time notified the police.
With the help of the property manager, the patrolmen opened Suzana's apartment and found the bodies of Paul and Ethan in their beds, but there was no trace of Suzana. Nick and Elizabeth became involved in the investigation at this point, as the two had better ways to track down a fugitive like Suzana.
Elizabeth looked at the autopsy photo of Paul with a deeply furrowed brow. She unconsciously gritted her teeth several times before closing the file again and deciding to stop on her way to work tomorrow.