Page 25 of Lethal Danger

“You are?” The shock in her voice pulled his gaze to hers and gave him something else to think about—her cute, widened eyes and open mouth.

“Born and raised.” He gave her a quick smile. “That’s not in most of my bios.” He’d better change subjects before he gave away more than he wanted to. “Who has access to this spot below the slide?”

Jazz directed her gaze toward the other side where the visitor staircase climbed. “The ground level on that side is staff access only, closed with a fence and gate locking the path to the storage shed. The other side,” she nodded to where the victims had fallen to the grass, “people wouldn’t normally be able to access without climbing over the fence along the main path at the front.”

Another chain-link fence lined the path behind them about twenty feet away from where he and Jazz stood. Only about four feet high, though. Easy for an adult to hop over.

“None of those fences are tall enough to keep anyone out if they want to get over them.” Jazz echoed his thoughts. Knew she was smart. “But they’d have to wait until they wouldn’t be seen.”

Hawthorne nodded and met her gaze. “At night.”

“The cult that pin is from—would someone from there want to do something like this?”

He took a breath, pausing a few seconds to think better of the knee-jerk response he wanted to blurt out. He had to stay objective if the cult might really be tied to a crime like this. “It’s not their usual style. They profess to be a pacifist community.”

He rubbed a hand along the back of his neck, regretting it when sweat coated his fingers. Man, it was getting hot. “But they are against what they call ‘worldly’ entertainment. And I’ve seen them act contrary to some of their philosophies for the gain of…certain people and their own interests. The pursuit of spiritual and physical utopia sometimes causes collateral damage.”

More heat warmed his body from within. Amazing how irritated he could get just thinking about the cult, thirteen years after he’d escaped. Probably because they hadn’t all escaped.

He felt Jazz’s gaze on him and glanced at her in time to see her swing away. But not before he caught the curiosity in her eyes. Great. She could probably tell this was personal for him. He didn’t need that getting out on the fan sites.

“I’ll have Flash follow the trail of the pin’s owner and see where it leads.”

“He’s a tracking dog, too?”

“Military Working Dog. Tracking and patrol. Plus search and rescue.”

“I’m impressed.” Hawthorne found a bit of a smile again.

“Hear that, Flash?” She smoothed a hand over the dog’s side before pointing him back to the pin. Once he smelled it for a few seconds, she gave him a command in what sounded like German.

“Mind if I come along?” Hawthorne trotted after them.

Jazz glanced over her shoulder as she kept up with Flash’s eager pace. “Suit yourself.”

Perfect. Real life observation of how she worked. With a retired military dog who protected and tracked. This was better material than he could invent on his own.

Flash skimmed his nose along the grass until they reached the four-foot fence where the blacktop met the lawn.

Hawthorne opened his mouth to ask if he should lift the dog over.

Flash sprang off the ground and was over the fence before Hawthorne could blink. Hadn’t even needed a running start.

Jazz hopped over the fence herself and Hawthorne followed. Looked like Flash was a fitting partner for his impressive handler.

The dog kept his nose hovering over the blacktop as he followed some trail Hawthorne wished he could see.

More people crowded the wide pedestrian path than before, making Flash have to swerve around moving feet and kids who wanted to pet him.

“Keep back.” Jazz voiced the command in a strong voice, her arm outstretched as she hurried alongside the dog. “Stand clear.” She repeated the warning several times as she cleared the way for the K-9 to work.

Flash didn’t break his concentration once. Not even when a child or two managed to put their hands on fur before he slipped from their reach.

But after a few minutes, he slowed. Then stopped. He lifted his nose into the air. Then he looked up at Jazz, his tongue hanging about a mile out of his mouth.

“Okay, Flash. Good boy.” She put her hand on the dog’s head and lightly scratched his ears.

“Did he lose the scent?”

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