Page 41 of Shephard

I was an asshole, but I didn’t plan on allowing that to happen.

“I have my reasons. You left some cushy job to come to this shithole. Why?”

Her face was contorted, her lips pursed. “I have my reasons.”

“Fine. So be it.”

“Why did you punch out that reporter?”

She was going to push and push. “As I said, I have my reasons.”

“You mean you have secrets.”

“Don’t we all, sweetheart?”

The awkward silence was only interrupted by the asshole in the Jeep singing.

“All I’ll tell you is that there is something going on that concerns me and no one else seems to care. Try not to get yourself killed. Too much paperwork.” She wasn’t planning on waiting for me at this point, taking off running toward where she believed Pepper had gone.

There was something wrong with this picture. I was certain of it. I pulled out my weapon, unlocking the safety, keeping it low to the ground as I headed in the same direction. I veered off when I heard Pepper’s snorts. Now I was moving perpendicular of where we’d gone before, allowing my instincts to take the lead.

Denise was good at her job, almost no sounds from her hunt.

I was the same. If you had a decent trainer, that was one of the first things you were taught. Silence was golden.

With every step I took, the hair on the back of my neck stood up more. I stopped moving altogether, once again listening for any sounds. There was an eeriness to the now light breeze whistling through the trees. I took a deep whiff and was certain I smelled gasoline.

While not impossible, the stench should have dissipated this late at night from any previous hikers who’d headed to the area to obtain the perfect picture.

A sudden strangled yelp was followed by an intense growl.

Denise. She was down.

I took off running, ignore my training to a point as I headed in her direction. I tried to calculate how far she’d gone, jumping over several fallen logs and other debris. Being off the path had both its advantages and disadvantages. One being the cracking of wood.

After stopping once to take another listen, I heard one additional sound and it had to be coming from Denise.

I was only a couple of feet away when Pepper pounced, almost knocking me to the ground. The dog trusted me enough to locate my whereabouts. She took off running, stopping a couple of times to ensure I was following.

What the fuck was going on?

The question was answered only a few seconds later.

She’d fallen over a dead body. I didn’t need to look closely to know I was right.

“Another goddamn murder,” she said as she lifted her head. “They didn’t have time.”

“Who is they, and time for what?” I didn’t like this at all. You didn’t need to be as highly trained as I’d been or a forensics expert to know the kill had occurred less than an hour earlier. I flashed the light in my hand across the body and over the ground. Given the trampled leaves, my gut told me the person had been killed in the location where we first noticed the blood, then dragged here.

I was about to ask myself why Pepper hadn’t noticed earlier when I realized an animal had been sacrificed perhaps to hide the scent. Pepper hadn’t been trained to care and alert when an animal was down.

Why did I have a feeling the killer knew that?

I scanned the area for the tenth time before crouching down near her.

She’d already donned latex gloves, carefully studying the man’s naked body. “The killer was here. I feel it. But we interrupted him. The other two murders were much… They’d been forced to go through additional atrocities. And I can’t be talking to you.”

I was surprised she was telling me anything about the case that obviously bothered her so much.

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