Page 41 of Scent of Peril

“Let’s start now,” Jess suggested. “Teddy can search the outside while we wait to hear from Wayne.”

“Okay.” He swept another glance around the neighborhood. It was rather quiet, maybe because it was the middle of the day during the middle of the week when most people were working.

Jess bent over Teddy. “Are you ready to work? Are you?” She injected excitement into her tone. “I need you to search. Search, Teddy. Peppers! Search for peppers!”

Teddy’s tail wagged with enthusiasm at the idea of playing the search game. The K9 made a quick circle and began tosniff along the edge of the front yard where patches of snow had melted revealing brown grass. Teddy sniffed long and hard before trotting across the yard toward the side of the house.

He and Jess followed. Logan figured the only way Teddy would alert on drugs outside the home was if a drug dealer had dropped off his product in person.

An unlikely scenario.

Still, he trailed along behind Jess and Teddy, watching with admiration as Teddy worked. The K9 was eager to please, and he wondered how the dog would handle the disappointment of not winning at the game.

Teddy spent a little extra time at the back door, clearly sifting through various scents before moving on. The dog seemed to be following some invisible trail that only he could follow.

When Teddy abruptly veered off toward the detached two-car garage, Logan’s pulse kicked up.

If they were wrong about Ethan, and the guy was buying drugs, maybe he had decided to keep them in the garage? He quickened his pace to keep up.

“Search! Search for peppers,” Jess called. Although from what Logan could tell, the K9 didn’t need extra encouragement. The way Teddy’s nose was tracking along the ground, the dog was clearly in work mode.

The dog stopped in front of the garage, sniffing along the bottom of the garage door. He was about to cross over to peer through the service door window when Teddy abruptly lifted his head to look around.

“What is it, boy?” Jess asked.

The dog’s ears pricked forward as he sniffed the air. Then he began to growl, his eyes seemingly focused on something to the left of the garage.

The gunman?

“Jess, get down!” Logan reached into his pocket for his gun as he frantically searched the area for a sign of Benton or whomever had caught Teddy’s attention. He trusted the dog’s instincts over his own. When he didn’t see anything alarming, he darted over to where Jessica and Teddy were huddled up against the right side of the garage.

Teddy’s low growling grew louder. Then he let out a series of sharp barks. The dog made such a racket he imagined any neighbors that might be home would be looking out their windows to find the source of the annoying noise.

“Where is he?” Jessica asked in a hushed tone.

“I’m not sure.” He’d expected to hear gunfire, but there was nothing above Teddy’s barking. He didn’t like the way they were out in the open. The garage didn’t offer that much protection. “Maybe Teddy scared him off.”

“I hope so,” Jess murmured.

He didn’t bother to point out that the dog hadn’t stopped the gunman from trying to kill them earlier. Before he could say anything more, the sound of police sirens filled the air. He stayed where he was, intending to protect Jessica and Teddy until he knew for sure the threat was neutralized.

Yet his thoughts whirled. This was another near miss. One of these times, they wouldn’t escape unscathed.

Was it possible one of the neighbors had spotted them snooping and had called the police?

If so, the simple act may have saved their lives.

10

Jess huddled next to Logan with Teddy at her side, listening as the police sirens grew louder with the approaching squads. She closed her eyes and silently thanked God for continuing to protect them. If not for His mercy, she felt certain she and Logan would already be dead.

And if they didn’t do something different soon, she was afraid the gunman would succeed in taking them out of the equation. Teddy had alerted them to the danger once again.

She and Logan didn’t move until the two responding officers, Burt Jones and his rookie Tim Riley, headed toward the garage. Logan straightened and quickly dropped his weapon back into his coat pocket.

“We’re fine,” he called. “But Teddy alerted us to danger.”

“What are you doing here?” Burt glared at her. “I thought you were going to stay off-grid.”

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