"Come in," I said. "He's fine. Rook, place."
Rook went to his bed by the fireplace and lay down. Officer Ybarra watched him do it, and I saw her make a small note.
She was thorough. I'll give her that, and I gave it to her even then, when every question felt like a knife going in. She asked to see his county license and his rabies certificate, and I gave her both. She asked about his history, and I got out the folder I'd made: the bill of sale from the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office for one dollar, his retirement letter, his certification records, a commendation from the sheriff for the boy in the cornfield. She read all of it. She asked to see his medications, and I showed her the bottles. She asked what he ate, and I showed her the bag. She asked if she could see the yard.
I took her out back. She looked at the fence, all the way around, checking the bottom for gaps and the latch on the gate for wear. She looked at the back left corner where Rook goes, which I keep raked and limed and picked up twice a day like a crime scene, and she crouched down and looked at what was there, without any visible distaste, the way I'd look at a wound.
"That's what his looks like," I said. "Every time. It's that diet. You could set a watch by it."
"Mm," she said.
"The ones out there aren't like that. They're not even close. They're—" I hesitated. "Officer, I was an ER nurse for thirty-one years. I know what I'm looking at. Those are human."
She stood up and brushed off the knees of her uniform pants. "Mrs. Kowal, I've been doing this job for fourteen years. I want you to know that almost everybody tells me their dog didn't do it. I've had people tell me it was a coyote. I've had people tell me it was the neighbor's dog, the neighbor's cat, a fox, a raccoon, a bear in a county that hasn't had a bear since the Civil War. I had a man tell me once it was his brother-in-law, and I'll be honest with you, I almost believed him."
"I'm not telling you it was a raccoon."
"No," she said. "You're not." She looked at me for a while with an expression I couldn't read. "Can I see the doorbell recording? The one you posted?"