"Research?" Kirk asked as they carried their luggage toward their rooms. "Doesn't that count as snooping?"
"So?" Felicia replied.
"Isn't that one of the things that Reynolds told us not to do?"
"You actually thought that I was going to listen to him?"
"You should know better than that, Kirk." Eddie joked as he handed Felicia the keycard to her room. "I figured that you and Hank could share a room."
"Is that because you want alone time with Kirk?" Felicia teased him.
"Shut up." He retorted before laughing. "Motels are notorious for thin walls, and the last thing I need is for everyone staying here to know about my sex life, thank you very much."
Felicia shook her head, laughing as they all entered her motel room. "You weren't kidding when you said that the rooms were tiny."
There almost wasn't enough room for the two twin beds, and with everyone crammed into the room, it just made it seem that much smaller.
Felicia sat her bag on one of the beds, pulling out her laptop. "Where the hell do we even start?"
"I really don't know," Kirk replied. "We're kind of at a standstill at the moment, we don't even have a beginning point."
"There has to be something that we're missing, something that's right under our noses." Felicia grabbed the remote for the small television, turning it on so that they had some background noise. "I say that we order some food, I'm sure that we're all starving."
Felicia pointed a finger at Eddie and Kirk. "And no alcohol, you two. I don't need you guys passing out on me again."
"It's not our fault that you made the drinks so strong." Kirk countered her.
"Excuse me? I seem to recall that you're the one who wanted the drinks to be that strong. So I don't even want to hear it, mister."
~
They wound up ordering from a nearby pizza place, and there was a vending machine down the hall, so Hank had gone and gotten them all sodas.
"What time are we heading out tomorrow?" Kirk asked as he took a bite of his pizza. He had gone Hawaiian with his, getting it with ham and pineapple.
"Early," Felicia replied as she ate her own pizza, which was loaded with pepperoni. "Sabine usually gets there around five, so I want to try and get there by six."
"Great." Kirk groaned. "You know that I'm not a morning person."
"I'll buy you a coffee."
"It better be a damn big one."
"You're such a baby."
"You're the one who's dragging me out of bed at the crack of dawn."
"Enough, you two," Hank said with a grin on his face, shaking his head. "So, I was thinking, I may have a place for us to start."
"Really?!" Felicia looked at Hank excitedly.
"Well, Brutus' behavior only started to change when we had to switch his food, the stuff that I was getting before was too expensive."
"What's the brand? Do you remember?" Felicia didn't see how something as simple as food could cause completely domestic animals to go crazy, but it was the only lead that they had to go on at that point.
"Uh, Pet Provisions, I think," Hank answered, after thinking about it for a few moments. "Some new kind of kibble that's supposed to have more protein."
"That's the same brand that I feed Shadow-" She stopped, biting her lip. "That I fed him." She corrected herself, ignoring the looks of sympathy that she got from Eddie and Kirk. "Eddie, text John, and ask him what brand of food that they've been feeding Peaches. I really can't see how food could change animals so drastically, but it's worth a shot."
~
Sure enough, Peaches too, was given food from Pet Provisions. It wasn't all that expensive, and Peaches had seemed to like it, so John hadn't seen a problem in giving it to him. He had also mentioned that Peaches was getting more aggressive, and that they were keeping him locked in the basement for the time being.
"I feel like I've heard of this brand before," Kirk said before pulling out his phone and typing something in. "Aha." He handed his phone to Felicia for her to read. "This is where I've seen it, they were on the news a while back for using a shitload of byproducts in their kibble."
"Not only that," Felicia murmured as she read through the article that Kirk had pulled up. "Apparently there are also rumors that their meat comes from unethical sources, a former employee said that they used horse meat."
"Gross," Hank muttered.
"It also says that the company is under investigation by the FDA."
Eddie let out a low whistle. "Even if this doesn't lead anywhere, this is still some pretty interesting stuff…I'm also gonna let John know that he needs to get his dog food from elsewhere."
"Probably wouldn't be a bad idea, unless he doesn't mind his dog eating horse."
"John's dad trained horses when John was little, so he's gonna be livid."
Felicia opened up her computer, going to her document creator app, and typing in everything that they had just found out. "Kirk, don't let me forget this tomorrow when we go to talk to Sabine. Eddie, do you mind taking a drive tonight?"
"Where to?"
"Your neighbor's. I want to get those blood samples from Peaches. I can bring them to the lab tomorrow, and see if we can get anything that way."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"We have to get blood samples from a live test subject, and Peaches is all we've got."
Eddie slowly nodded his head. "Alright. Kirk, you and Hank stay here, and don't open the door for anyone, you understand me?"
"Are you sure that you guys should be going?" Kirk asked worriedly.
"We need those samples, Kirk," Felicia replied. "Or we might not solve this. And don't worry, I'll watch over your dearly beloved."
"I'm the one with a gun, so shouldn't it be the other way around?" Eddie scoffed playfully. "But she's right, Kirk. We need those samples. And we'll be careful." He pressed a tender kiss to Kirk's lips. "Now, promise me that you won't open the door for anyone but Felicia or I."
Kirk rolled his eyes, almost resembling a teenager reacting to an over-worrying mother. "I'm not an idiot, babe, I'm not just going to let a random stranger into the motel room."
"I hate to break up this tender moment, but we need to get going," Felicia said, just as her phone started to ring. "Hello?"
"Felicia." It was Sabine. She sounded calm, but there was a slight undertone of fear and panic. "Would you be so kind as to explain to me why someone just tried to shoot me?"