Lost Woods where the police officer and a young man dressed in a jogging suit waited. When Lee climbed from his SUV, he went to the back and lifted the door. Kip, his black-and-white border collie who worked as a cadaver dog, sat with his tail sweeping back and forth.
Lee rubbed him behind his ears, one of his favorite places to be scratched. “You ready to work?”
Kip barked.
Lee hooked the leash to his dog’s halter. “Then let’s go.”
Kip jumped from the back of the vehicle and trotted next to Lee as he covered the distance to the patrol officer.
“What do we have here?” Lee asked, assessing the young man who kept darting glances toward the woods a few yards away.
The patrol officer started to say something, but the jogger interjected, “I decided to run in a different part of the forest today. I won’t do that again. In fact, I may never run here again.”
“What did you find?”
“Blood, lots of it. I tripped on a root, stumbled and fell. That’s when I saw it.”
“Show me.”
The jogger shuffled his feet nervously. “It’s a ways in.”
“Fine.”
“I’ll stay back. Another K-9 team is coming to help in a search if it’s needed,” the patrol officer said.
Lee nodded in agreement and then followed the young man on the path.
“These woods used to be safe. There was a shooting here not long ago. A kidnapped boy found here. What’s happening in Sagebrush?”
“That’s what I aim to find out.” As well as the whole Sagebrush special operations K-9 Unit. Their captain’s father had been beaten and was still in the hospital, unresponsive. On top of that, Captain Slade McNeal’s dog, Rio, was stolen at the same time and hadn’t turned up. Something big was going down in here. According to Pauly Keevers, a snitch, a major crime syndicate was operating in town so low under the radar that no one knew who The Boss was or the second-in-command. Both used ruthless tactics to get their way.
“I fell over there.” The young man stopped on the path and stepped around some brush. “There’s the blood.”
Lee stooped to examine a pile of dead leaves caught against the trunk of a tree. Dried blood caked them. He peered up at the man. “Thanks. I’ll take it from here.”
“Do I have to stay? I need to get to work soon.”
“Does the officer have all your contact information?” Lee asked.
“Yes, he does.”
“Okay, then...you’re free to go. Just let the officer know I’m setting up a search.”
As the young man jogged away, Lee rose and took Kip off his leash. If there was a body to be found, his cadaver dog would find it. And from the indication of the amount of blood loss, there very likely was a body somewhere. Kip put his nose to the ground and set out. Lee kept him in sight as his border collie went to work.
Ten minutes later, Kip stopped and barked. When Lee approached his dog, he stood next to a spot of disturbed ground, his head down, staring at the churned earth.
“What have you found?”
Kip barked again, his gaze still trained on the dirt.
Lee put on some latex gloves, stooped and began to dig carefully. From his dog’s behavior, something dead was buried here. When he saw a piece of blue fabric, he ceased.
“Good boy,” Lee said, as he always did whenever his cadaver dog found a body, then he scratched Kip’s favorite place before rising. “I’m calling this in.” He rotated in a slow circle, searching the area for any other signs of another grave.
Pulling out his cell, he placed a call to the station to report a body being found. Then while he waited for the crime-scene techs to show up, he checked the surrounding area in case there was another body. There were several low-level criminals missing, including Pauly Keevers who had assisted them recently. Was the body Kip discovered one of them? And could there be other graves in the woods?
* * *
Her lungs burned from lack of air, but she couldn’t stop running. He’d catch her. Branches clawed at her, scraping across her skin. Stinging. A tree limb slapped against her face. The darkness of an approaching night crept closer, disguising the terrain and making her path difficult.
Instead of slowing down, she increased her speed. The sound of him crashing through the woods behind her filled her with terror. The pounding of her heart outpaced the pounding of her strides.
Then her foot landed in a hole, and she stumbled, flying forward. The hard impact with the ground knocked what little breath she had from her. The cold earth welcomed her.
The crush of leaves and snap of branches echoed through the trees. He was coming to get her. Kill her this time.
She scrambled to her feet and started forward when a body slammed into her...
She jerked, raising her arms to strike him. All she encountered was air. Warm air. Not cold. As the nightmare evaporated, her eyes popped open. She was still in the hospital, and the custodian from earlier today stood at the side of her bed with a plastic trash bag in one hand.
His frosty eyes on her, he inched closer.
A scream welled up inside her. Clamping her lips together, she fumbled for her call button and pushed it while scooting as far to the other side of the bed as she could.
“Ma’am, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“You didn’t?”
“You were thrashing around. I was going to put up your railing so you didn’t fall out of the bed.”
She peered down at his other hand without the trash bag and noticed it was clasped around the bar. “I’m fine. Just a bad dream.”
The door opened and the young, redheaded nurse called Gail came into her room. “Is something wrong?” The nurse looked from her to the custodian.
She couldn’t think of anything to say to Gail, especially when the man who caused her to push the call button was standing nearby. “I—I—was wondering when the doctor would be by. I thought he would be here by now.” Even to her it seemed like a lame reason to bother the busy staff.
The custodian stepped away from the bed, picked up her trash can and emptied it into the plastic bag.
The nurse didn’t say anything until after he left the room. “Did he bother you? He’s relatively new here and may not know all the procedures.”
“No, not really.” Some of the tension siphoned from her once the man was gone. “I had a nightmare and woke up with him in my room. It scared me, I guess. I pushed the button without really thinking.” She curled her hands until her fingernails stabbed into her palms. Why did everything frighten her?
The
