Paige pulled part of her light blue work shirt away from her chest and made a billowing motion to circulate the air. The heat from the fire was beginning to make her sweat and the smoke sting her eyes. She wiped the dampness from her forehead with the side of her wrist and thumb just as the other onlooker approached her. His truck and hat definitely said rancher and although he seemed in a similar state of shock from the fire, he also seemed considerably worried about something other than the clinic. Paige couldn't help but flinch inwardly when he called her "miss." That type of cordiality always made her uncomfortable even when backed with good intentions.
"A vet?" She took a quick glance at the rabid-looking dog behind him in the car. "Oh," she said softly. Realizing the man had intended to go to the clinic, she instantly hoped he hadn't personally known the late vet. "Yeah, my boss at the pet store might be able to help you." While the dog looked dangerous enough, there was no way she was hopping in this man's truck. "I'm actually going to head back to the store, so if you want to walk with me, it's just down the street," Paige continued, pointing over he shoulder with her thumb towards a small building nearby. 
Paige waited for him to retrieve the crate from his truck and then she began her way to the store, still feeling the flames warming her back. She didn't talk the whole walk there, keeping her distance on the sidewalk from the agitated canine, even when they had to sidestep onlookers blind to their surroundings like moths. 

When they arrived at the store, Paige stepped forward and pulled the door open for the man. She followed him inside the air conditioned building and called out for her boss. "Tom! Are you still here?" She squeezed past the guest and began to walk through the aisles towards his office back behind the counter. "Hey Tom! I have a dog that's-" Paige froze in mid stride as she passed one of the aisles. 
Stepping backwards slowly, she looked to her right and saw something that caused her eyes to widen. There was something very different about the snake display she had almost missed; there was no snake. Not only that, but the glass on one side of the display had been shattered. She walked over to it and carefully crouched down to examine the damage. The broken glass littered the linoleum floor and a few of the nearby stands of pet toys had been knocked to the ground. She picked up one of the shards and noticed that it had blood on it. Her gaze shifted to the floor and she saw a thin smear of blood leading in a twisting pattern towards the back of the store. Forgetting the man and his dog, Paige made her way to the back and silently grabbed her wooden baseball bat from behind the counter. The door to Tom's office was slightly ajar and the light was on. A small part of her instincts screamed at her to flee, but instead she gripped the handle of the bat, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door with her elbow. 

What greeted Paige made her stomach churn. The first thing she saw was the blood; it was everywhere. What was left of Tom's body lay on the floor next to his overturned office chair and broken lamp caused by a struggle. His discolored face was partially hidden by his mess of long hair matted down. A pool of blood had formed beneath the stump of his left arm which now only reached down to his elbow and another from his mangled neck. More blood, of which Paige could only assume belonged to her boss, was smeared on the ground and desk and spattered on the computer monitor. By now, Paige's lunch had threatened more than once to escape her stomach but she had held on. 
A movement in the corner of her eye snapped her out of shock and something from behind the door moved out into the open. She inhaled sharply as Sandy the boa slithered into view. A few pieces of glass pierced the snake's skin causing her to leave a trail of blood as she moved. A section of the sand boa's stomach was enlarged as if from a meal and Paige quickly remembered Tom's missing limb. Paige's white knuckle grip of the baseball bat tightened even more in panic as the snake looked straight at her.