Ethan wanted to smack the young animal control officer right in the face. “Weird. Was there anything weird? The body, the tracks you noted… anything.” “And I asked what you meant by weird?” Penny Barnes gave him a scathing look. “I have a degree in Animal Science. I know what weird means. I want to know specifically what you’re looking for.” Ethan started to say something rude, but Walt put a hand on his arm and spoke up. “Just weird. Let’s start with the body? What was it?” Penny shot Ethan another nasty look and turned to Walt with a huge smile on her face. “It was a large cat. I’m guessing it was a stray, as no one has come forward. And a cat this big, someone would know it was missing. I’m guessing it was close to 20 pounds.” Walt made some notes. “Okay. What killed it?” “Not positive. There were marks on it.” She made a swiping motion with her hands. “Like a big cat clawed it. I have no exotic pet reports—and we have had a tiger before. So if I had to venture a guess, I would say it was a large feral dog, and it happened to get the cat at just the right angle to open it up like that.”
