Search And Rescue

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“Why don’t you come for coffee? If you change your mind and bring Lily I can fix pancakes for us all.”

“Not a good idea,” Ryder countered. “I don’t think it’s wise for me to be seen spending any private time with you.”

Sophie wanted to ask him if he was afraid of Carrie or of himself. She didn’t. Instead, she said, “Consider it a part of Phoenix’s training. I’d like to make sure he’s good with children.”

“Then meet us at the office some afternoon.”

“You’re right. Sorry. I’ll stay here and wait. Will you come by as soon as you drop her off?”

When Ryder said, “Yes,” Sophie felt such relief she almost sighed aloud.

She wasn’t afraid of facing enemies she could see. It was the hidden ones that set her nerves on edge. The ones like the gunman who had killed her partner while she was tracking another criminal.

Or the ones who patiently lurked in the shadows and chewed gum while they watched her try to keep from being poisoned by snake venom. No matter what anybody said, she still suspected that those snakes had been dumped over her back fence to do what vipers did best. To kill.

* * *

Ryder had donned his full uniform so he could go on to work once he was finished gathering evidence at Sophie’s. Her front door swung open before he reached the porch.

“Thanks for coming.”

He touched the brim of his cap. “Where’s the evidence?”

“Over there.” She gestured. “I’ll come with you.”

Waiting at the corner of the house until she joined him, he scowled. “Where?”

“Right...” Her jaw dropped. “It was right there.”

It went against his high opinion of her to doubt but he certainly had questions. “Could you be mistaken?”

“No, I saw foil and paper gum wrappers. Most of them were crumpled up so they wouldn’t be likely to blow away. Besides, there’s no breeze stirring this morning.”

Ryder arched an eyebrow. “That was my conclusion. So, what do you think happened to them?”

“How should I know?” Her voice was raised, her eyes wide. “They have to be here somewhere.”

“All right. We’ll circle the house first, then bring in a dog.”

Clearly, Sophie believed she’d seen clues, which was a point in her favor. Being unable to lead him to the scene was not.

“It was near this back corner,” she insisted. “The same area that had me spooked last night. Remember what I told you about saving ammo just in case? Well, this was where Phoenix was looking when I started to feel as if we were being watched.”

“So you assumed you’d see clues this morning?”

“No. I wasn’t even thinking of that when I stumbled on the gum wrappers.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Whirling, she fisted her hands on her hips. If Ryder hadn’t been so disgusted to have been talked into participating in a wild-goose chase, he might have smiled at her uncompromising demeanor.

“I did not imagine a thing, Chief,” she said with conviction. “There were clues on the ground. Look. See the footprints?”

“Most every cop in Desert Valley was walking out here last night,” Ryder reminded her. “Any of them could have been chewing gum.”

“Okay, okay. Suppose you radio the station and ask if they were before you assume I’m lying.”

“I never said you were lying. I do wonder if your imagination isn’t working overtime, though. You were pretty freaked out last night.”

“Do you blame me?”

“Nope. It did surprise me that you assumed the snakes were part of a planned attack. The Arizona desert is their natural habitat. You must know they den up for winter.”

“It’s August and hotter than ever,” Sophie countered. “I know how snakes behave. If there was a den in my backyard I think I’d have discovered it by now. I’ve lived here for two summers.”

“Something around you may have changed. They could have lost their regular underground access to tunnels and been forced to seek another way in.”

“I’d think you’d be the first to suspect an attack, especially after I was shot at in the depot.”

As she spoke, Ryder was slowly making his way around her house. Roadrunners and flocks of smaller birds were busy cleaning up the mess near the back fence, making his job easier in one way.

He straightened when they returned to their starting point. “I suppose jays or some other species might have been attracted to the shiny wrappers and carried them off.”

“Birds? You’re blaming birds?”

Ryder let her barely controlled anger roll off him. Even if Phoenix didn’t strike a trail, Titus would let them know if there had been a prowler. “Go get the new dog and let’s see what he does.”

“Not on your life.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You should,” Sophie told him. “If you gave my opinion a shred of credit you wouldn’t tell me to get a dog we know so little about. You’d bring in Titus and do the search properly.”

When she was right, she was right. Ryder nodded. “My apologies. I’ll go get Titus out of the car.”

“I should hope so.”

He could tell that Sophie was still miffed. Unfortunately, she’d been right when she’d guessed that he wasn’t treating her so-called report of clues seriously. Either she’d imagined seeing signs of a lurker or she’d invented one. There was no way things like that just disappeared on a totally windless morning. At least not so completely. When he’d mentioned the birds in the area he’d been giving her a chance to alibi away her error in judgment. Now she was going to be stuck with it.

Opening the rear door of his SUV he fitted the working dog with a special K-9 vest, snapped a long lead on his collar and signaled him to get out.

Titus’s tail wagged as eagerly as ever but his steps were slightly halting until he got warmed up. Knowing that the head trainer was observing them made Ryder extra cautious. Since they had nothing with which to offer a scent to the dog, he began to lead him in a circuitous path before rejoining Sophie.

She didn’t greet the happy dog as she would have under casual circumstances. Instead, she motioned to the ground where she’d noticed the bits of trash and said, “Seek.”

Ryder didn’t expect any reaction, let alone a strong one. The old dog snuffled the ground, disturbing dried grass and leaves, then kept his nose to the ground, wheeled and headed directly for the street.

Playing out the light lead, Ryder followed. Titus had not only struck a trail, he was acting as if the scent was fresh!

If he hadn’t been so biased in the first place, Ryder would have easily concluded that someone had returned recently and picked up the gum wrappers that Sophie had spotted. Now he was forced to reconsider.

Titus led him to the curb, then up the street several houses before he lost the trail.

Disgusted with himself and slightly contrite, Ryder turned to Sophie. “I owe you an apology. Somebody was in your yard, probably this morning, and they got into a car right here. We’ll need to check with the nearest residents to see if they noticed.”

“We can hope,” she said.

Frowning, he took her by the elbow and ushered her back to her house as quickly as possible.

“What’s the hurry? The gum chewer is gone.”

“Now, maybe,” Ryder said gruffly. “But stop and think. The only way anyone would have known you’d stumbled on those wrappers was by watching you do it.”