Chapter 5 - Unmasking Alicia’s Scheme
By 8:00 p.m., the front door slammed open, and Alicia walked in carrying designer shopping bags, her face flush with triumph.
"Mom! Dad!" Alicia called out cheerfully, walking into the kitchen. "I got a buyer from the northern suburb! They're coming with cash at nine o'clock—"
She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me standing at the end of the counter, flanked by two uniformed police officers I had called twenty minutes earlier.
Behind them stood a representative from the county animal welfare task force, holding a portable microchip scanner and a certified property retrieval warrant.
"Alicia Vance?" the lead officer asked, his voice stern and official. "You are currently under investigation for theft of property, fraudulent pet sales, and illegal microchip tampering."
Alicia dropped her designer bags onto the floor, her eyes wide with sudden, frantic panic as she looked at her mother. "Mom! What did you do? Tell them it was a family decision!"
"It wasn't a family decision, Alicia," I said, handing the officer the printed location screenshot from her phone. "Where is Sadie?"
Alicia stammered, backing toward the front door. "She's... she's in my garage! In a crate! I was keeping her there until the buyers arrived!"
The animal welfare officer didn't wait for permission; he walked straight past her out the front door toward Alicia’s vehicle parked in the driveway.
Two minutes later, he walked back through the front door carrying Sadie in his arms.
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The sweet senior spaniel mix was trembling, her cloudy eye blinking in the bright kitchen light, but the moment she smelled my blouse, her silky ears perked up, and her tail began to wag softly.
"Sadie," I whispered, taking her gently into my arms and holding her close against my chest.
