What Bud showed me was sad; Rob suffered constant humiliation when the only thing he wanted was ‘to belong’. I wanted to tell the others what I had seen, but Bud pressed his paw harder. I saw two men approaching Rob, patting him on the shoulder, smiling, buying him a beer. Bud’s and my eyes met; I nodded, and he dropped his paw.
Turning around, I said: “There is something you must see, Paul.”
Bud trotted over and laid his paw on Paul’s knee. A minute later, Paul fondled Bud’s ears, seemingly feeling as blue as I did.
“We need to interrogate this young man carefully. He has not been treated all too well in the past; the ‘bad guys’ tricked him by offering their friendship and a rare plant to get his support. It is the real culprits we will have to find.”
+++
Jones called as we finished our coffee. He had some notes about Rob’s having been beaten up repeatedly, without ever identifying the responsible parties – other than that, his name had not appeared in the research.
Paul decided to pick Rob up. “Let Bud and me come with you; a dog to cuddle might be what makes him relax – and talk.”
In a small compass... 
Haven’t seen one of these for a while. Glad to have you back.
2020 was exhausting, kept me from writing much – which I did not like at all. Thanks for caring, Craig.