Page 43 of Scent of Death

Alexis’s heart went out to the young girl. Griff noticed her distress as well.

“This isn’t your fault, Lindsey.” His tone was soothing as he rested a hand on the girl’s slim shoulder. “Can you tell me if Maureen met anyone here? Maybe a boy she wanted to sneak out to meet up with?”

The conversation they’d had with Tim Johnson who’d gone out to meet Darla flashed in her mind. Teenagers were walking bundles of raging hormones. The possibility of Maureen sneaking out to meet someone was legitimate.

“Maureen doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Beth Kaufman said.

“She doesn’t, but Maureen did hang out with a guy named Simon. He left with his parents yesterday.” Lindsey sniffled again. “Maureen said he was from Jackson. We live in Cheyenne, so I don’t think they’ll see each other again.”

“Simon who?” Nate demanded.

His wife looked equally confused. “Why didn’t Maureen tell me about this boy?”

Ah, the joys of parenting teenagers, Alexis thought. They were always the last to know.

Lindsey shook her head. “I don’t know why she didn’t say anything. And I didn’t ask his last name.”

“We need to know his last name!” Nate barked with a flash of anger. “I want to talk to his parents.”

“I don’t know! Chill out, Dad. It wasn’t a big deal. They weren’t kissing or anything like that. They were just friends.” Lindsey waved toward the parking lot. “Simon left yesterday. Maureen walked him here to the parking lot. I saw them hugging each other, but that was it. He left, and that was the end of it.”

Griff exchanged a look with Alexis, and she knew he was wondering if they were on the wrong track assuming the killer had abducted Maureen. Maybe Simon wasn’t the only boy Maureen had befriended. There could be others.

There was only one way to know for sure. She gestured to Denali, and Griff nodded, silently agreeing with her plan.

He turned to the Kaufmans. “We’d like to see your campsite.”

The couple nodded and turned to lead the way. Their campsite was situated far away from the others and near the back of the campground. Standing near the now-doused campfire, Alexis couldn’t see any neighboring tents nearby. The isolation may have contributed to the killer’s ability to kidnap Maureen.

If that’s who’d taken her.

Lindsey eyed Denali curiously. “Is your dog specially trained?”

“Yes, she is. But don’t worry, she never bites.” Alexis removed the backpack, filled a collapsible bowl with water, and offered it to Denali. Her border collie lapped the water, then lifted her head, dark-brown eyes curious. Alexis ruffled Denali’s fur. “Are you ready to work? Huh, girl? Search! Search bad guy.”

Beth gasped in horror at her words. Alexis felt bad for scaring the woman, but she needed to use the same term she had before. Denali was a cadaver dog, so she didn’t want to confuse the K9 by calling their bad guy something else.

“We’re not sure a bad guy took your daughter,” Griff quickly explained as Denali lowered her nose to sniff the area. “We’re taking precautions.”

Denali sniffed past the bigger of the two tents, then went to the fire pit and buried her nose in the grass. Her K9 sat and barked sharply.

Her alert. Their killer had definitely been there. Doing her best not to show her concern, Alexis pulled the pink piggy from the backpack and joined her K9. She noticed the smashed cinnamon roll in the grass and tried not to imagine Maureen fighting for her life as the assailant grabbed her. “Good girl. Search! Search bad guy.”

“What does that mean?” Mrs. Kaufman said, her voice escalating. “Did the dog find something? Was our daughter taken by a bad guy?”

“I don’t know yet, we’re still investigating.” Griff was vague, no doubt wanting more time before he had to tell them the truth. “We need to let them work, okay?”

Alexis continued to follow Denali as her K9 tracked the bad guy’s scent. She wasn’t surprised when Denali headed to a path that led into the woods. It made sense that the killer would have taken his victim out this way to avoid being seen.

Or heard. She thought about what Griff had said about the girls being drugged. Did he use something on them during the abduction to keep them quiet? Hard to imagine as most drugs took at least a few minutes to work.

Unless he used something old-fashioned like chloroform. Alexis had no idea if chloroform was still around and available for purchase. Maybe that was something they should investigate, too.

Denali picked up her pace. It was obvious her K9 had the bad guy’s scent imprinted on her mind.

She heard Griff following behind her but didn’t look back. She didn’t want to lose sight of Denali. It was hard to imagine the bad guy being up ahead waiting for them to emerge. If he was smart, he’d be far away from here. Yet after the poisoned dog food incident, she wasn’t putting anything past him.

After a few minutes, she noticed Denali slowed her pace. The K9 still had her nose to the ground, so Alexis didn’t think she’d lost the scent. Denali paused, lifted her nose, then jumped over a fallen log. The K9 didn’t alert, though. As if the log was nothing, her K9 kept trotting along, following the scent.

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