SO FRACTURED by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

***

Like most private medical practices, Dr. Brennan closed up shop relatively early in the evening. The sun was still out when Faith and Jessica returned to the office at half past seven. Turk scanned the roadway surreptitiously as though making sure no one was watching them. Faith and Jessica weren't trying to hide themselves. It was a small risk of being seen entering the building, but they were walking through an unlocked door, and it would look a lot more suspicious if they tried to hide their actions.

Sure enough, Lewis had come through for them. The door to the office swung open easily when they walked through it. The bell even chimed. Faith remembered the dogs and braced herself for a cacophony of barks, but the dogs, apparently, were kenneled elsewhere for the evening.

They headed directly for Dr. Brennan’s office. Faith wasn’t averse to risk, but she preferred to make those risks as small as possible.

Once inside the office, they opened Dr. Brennan’s filing cabinet. The top drawer contained business files: revenue reports, bank statements, and tax filings. The middle drawer contained actual patient files. After glancing through a few and confirming there was nothing juicy in there, Faith moved to the bottom drawer.

That was where she hit the jackpot. The very first file they encountered was of a K9 that had been killed by a fleeing suspect in a police chase six months previously. Dr. Brennan had written notes in the margin where she lamented the dog’s loss and ranted that “like all other losses, this was preventable.”

She smiled at Jessica. “Looks like we hit the lotto.”

“We need a few more matching numbers before we can say we hit the jackpot,” Jessica replied, “but this is a good start.”

They kept looking through the files. They didn’t appear to be organized in any precise fashion. Some of the files recounted incidents as far back as ten years, while others were as recent as a few weeks ago. The files were of dogs from organizations all around the country, including the Army and the Metropolitan Police, but not exclusive to them.

Jessica was the first to point out the problem that hinted at. "None of this screams a vendetta. She has a problem with K9s and Military Working Dogs in general, but she doesn't seem to be zeroing in on our victims."

“She could be planning more victims,” Faith said.

“The K9 captain in Anchorage, Alaska?”

Faith frowned. She could feel her lead slipping through her fingers like sand. “She gets very emotional about this, though,” she insisted. “Look at this file.” She handed Jessica the file she had just finished scanning. “This dog, Riley, was assigned a new handler because Colonel Hartley determined that the original handler was likely to violate the new policies his review board created. The dog was sent on a routine patrol and stepped on an IED while on patrol. The blast killed him, his handler, and a civilian photographer present on the patrol.”

“Damn. Poor dog. He even sort of looks like Turk.

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