“Actually, scratch that. It was suggested to me by Cleaves’s mother that Lizzie Ouellette might be using,” Bird added. “I thought she was being sarcastic, but maybe not.”
“Well, we’ll know soon enough,” Brady said cheerfully. “If there was anything in her blood, the M.E. will find it. Let’s check back in after you interview the mistress.”
“Will do.”
Bird hung up the phone, only to have it immediately buzz again against his hand. He glanced at the screen and saw a mobile area code. Not troop headquarters. He tapped the screen and the speaker came to life.
“This is Bird.”
On the other end of the phone, a man’s deep baritone replied, “Detective Bird? This is Jonathan Hurley.”
The man’s name rang a bell. A former teacher?
Hurley’s voice came back again, answering the question for him. “I’m a veterinarian. Lizzie Ouellette was my employee, part-time.”
That’s it, Bird thought. Earl had told him that Lizzie worked as a veterinary assistant at Hurley’s clinic, a job she was good at, according to her father. Suited to it, that was how he’d put it. Earl couldn’t understand why she’d quit. Bird stepped out of the car, holding the phone to his ear as he replaced the fuel nozzle on the pump and twisted the cruiser’s gas cap back into place. He was anxious to get on the road and had half a mind to tell Hurley he’d call back some other time, but the Boston PD was already watching the house. He could spare a few minutes for research.
“I’m sorry,” Hurley was saying. “I was out toward Skowhegan with a sick horse, and I didn’t find out what happened until—”
“That’s all right,” Bird said. “So Lizzie Ouellette worked for you. For how long?”
Bird could hear the veterinarian’s breath: rapid, uncomfortable, like he was pacing back and forth.
“Two years. It was a while back. I think it’s been maybe two or three years since we let her go.”
Bird blinked. So Earl had misunderstood. “You fired her?”
“Listen,” Hurley said, his tone becoming fretful. “I really agonized about this. I don’t want to cause trouble for her family. I always liked Lizzie.”
“Let’s back up a minute. You hired her as an assistant? I thought you need schooling for that.”
“I’d have to double-check my records, but I think she’d taken a couple classes at the community college,” Hurley said. “For an assistant position, for what I needed, that was plenty. I only kept hours at the animal hospital a few days a week. My main business is large animals—you know, horses, cows.”
“Where was the animal hospital?”
“Dexter,” Hurley said, and Bird saw Cutter’s face in his mind’s eye. A little ways to the east. Was he lying? Had he known Lizzie after all?
“You know a guy named Cutter? Jake Cutter?”
“No,” Hurley said. He sounded confused, the syllable coming out like a question.
“Never mind,” Bird said. “So Lizzie was your assistant.”
“Right. Yes. I was saying, I did like her. She was smart, a quick learner, and good with the animals. Some people come in thinking, Oh, I’m an animal lover, I can do this job, but when a dog comes in that’s been run over by a snowmobile . . .” He sighed. “It’s not easy. You’ve gotta be able to keep it together. It takes some nerve. Lizzie was good. She didn’t balk at the sight of blood.”
“Okay,” Bird said. “So remind me, then—why’d you fire her, again?”
Hurley blew a frustrated exhalation into the receiver. “She really didn’t give me a choice, man. I was sorry to lose her. That’s why when I heard about what happened, I thought I should call.”
“Sure, I hear you. Walk me through it.”
“It was a bad situation. Basically, some medication went missing.” The veterinarian’s tone was perplexed, and Bird noted the phrasing: went missing, like the pills had wandered off on their own.
“Missing as in stolen?” he asked carefully.
“I still can’t make sense of it,” Hurley said. “Working around here, you know, you see a lot of that. You get to know people; you can tell who has a problem. Lizzie never seemed like the type. But only employees knew where we kept it, and whoever took it had a key. I knew it wasn’t me, obviously, so . . .”
“Process of elimination,” Bird said. “Right. What was the medication?”