CHICAGO — Sara Paretsky returned to the scene of the crime. It was early June and traffic in River North on a Saturday morning was slow and quiet. Pet owners, pooches, strollers and the smell of toast. Paretsky was walking her dog along the north branch of the Chicago River. She was also out of poop bags. She asked a stranger for a spare. The woman, tugging back at the reigns of her own dog, warned Paretsky not to come any closer. The woman’s dog punctuated this, straining and choking at its leash.
Paretsky stretched out a cautious arm to accept a fresh bag and the woman hustled away behind her restless Labrador. Then Paretsky turned and could not find the poop that her dog had just left. The poop was there one minute but then gone the next. I couldn’t find it, either. Though I was aware of it. The odor remained. It was a mystery.
“Hmmm,” Paretsky said. “Strange.”
