I put my feet up on the desk, leaned back in my swivel chair, and put a call through to Cheney Phillips at the PD. After two rings he picked up and when I identified myself, I could hear the smile in his voice. “Hey, kid. I hope you didn’t take offense at my teasing you about the doggie exhumation.”

“You know me better than that. I’m just thankful Mary Claire Fitzhugh wasn’t buried in that hole,” I said. “I’m sorry about the waste of manpower. I owe you one.”

“If I had a dollar for every lead that didn’t pan out, I’d be rich. Anyway, I’m the one who referred the kid to you in the first place so it’s not like you cooked this up on your own.”

“I do feel for him. How embarrassing.”

“He’ll survive,” Cheney said.

“So what’s the story on Diana Sutton?”

There was a pause. “Refresh my memory.”

“Sorry. I should have said Diana Alvarez.”

“The reporter? What about her?”

“Did you know she was Michael Sutton’s sister?”

“You’re not serious. I knew she was persistent, but I wrote it off to her job. How do you know her?”

“I don’t, or at least I didn’t until Friday morning. She came into my office, took a seat, and unloaded with both barrels.”

I filled him in on Sutton’s sorry tale of woe, at the end of which he said, “Even if I’d known his sordid history, I’d have reacted the same way. I thought his story had a ring of truth.”

“Me, too. Apparently, she’s made it her mission to screw him over any chance she can. The dog gave her the ammunition to go after him again.”

“Hold on a second.” He put a hand over the mouthpiece and then came back. “I gotta scoot. Anything else?”

“One quick question. Can you tell me the dog’s breed? I know the body must have been in bad shape, but could you tell anything about him from what was left?”

“Well, he was big . . . I’d say seventy to eighty pounds once upon a time. Most of his coat was intact. The hair was long and coarse, a mix of black and gray, with maybe some shades of brown thrown in. It looked like the tag was an afterthought, tossed in on top of him.”

“A German shepherd?”

“Something like that. Why?”

“I was just curious.”

“Oh, lord. Not again. Stay out of trouble if you can,” he said, and hung up.