Page 1 of Scent of Death

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Alexis Sullivan kept pace with her K9, a black and white border collie, Denali as they moved through the Bighorn Mountains. This search area was new for them, a slight deviation from where her older sister Jessica and her now husband, Logan, had found the piece of tail fin they believed came from their parents’ plane crash.

“Search napoo!” she called encouragingly. Not that Denali showed signs of slowing down. Her K9 loved to work, despite their mission being to find human remains. The termnapoomeant finished, done, dead. And all cadaver handlers used the term rather than telling their dog to search for dead bodies.

Despite the grim task, Alexis had purposefully chosen this area of expertise to help during natural disasters. She and Denali had worked from wildfire sites in California to tornado wrecks in North Carolina. The fact that her parents had never been found after their small plane had crashed over five years ago now had also factored into her decision. Which was why she was here in the mountains working with her K9.

Denali swept her keen nose over the ground as they walked. Alexis worked alone today, as summer was the busiest time for the Sullivan K9 Search and Rescue Ranch. Everyone else was out and about doing things. She was the middle child of nine siblings, all of whom worked with dogs in various specialties. Denali was the only cadaver dog on the ranch, though, so this specific task wasn’t something the other K9s could help with.

The sound of a dead tree branch snapping had her whirling around to scan the foliage behind her. Probably a large elk or a bear moving through the woods. She lightly touched the can of bear spray on her utility belt to reassure herself she was ready if needed.

She carried a firearm, too, and her oldest brother, Chase, had made sure every one of the Sullivan siblings could shoot accurately. But a small handgun may not be enough to take down a bear, unless she was able to hit the animal in the heart or brain.

Not that she wanted to kill a bear or any other wild animal for that matter. She understood and accepted the hunting her brothers did, and she didn’t even mind eating venison and elk meat, but the actual hunting part wasn’t something she personally enjoyed.

Seeing nothing alarming, she rolled her shoulders beneath the heavy pack and tried to relax. Turning, she continued up the mountain. Denali was still working through the brush, her nose sniffing along the ground. Her dog was so good she’d picked up the scent of human ashes while working in California. Many cadaver K9s couldn’t do that. Even so, sometimes Alexis wondered if searching for her parents’ remains was a fruitless effort. What could possibly be left of them after five and a half years?

Yet she couldn’t just give up either. After Jessica had found the tail fin of a plane, she and her siblings had renewed their search efforts. Especially since the piece of plane debris had been found a good fifty miles from their original search zone.

Why her parents’ small plane had gone down was a mystery. Their youngest sibling, Kendra, kept insisting the crash was no accident. And while Alexis may secretly agree, the problem was that there was no motive to kill her parents.

Well, there was the fact that her parents had been worth millions of dollars, something she and the other siblings hadn’t known until after they’d been declared dead. The money was in a trust that covered the expenses of the ranch in addition to a modest salary for each of the siblings. Maya and Chase, the two eldest siblings, held family meetings every six months to go over the finances. Somehow, the trust continued to grow despite the difficult economic times. The money would have been a motive to kill her parents if not for the fact that her parents had everything buttoned up in the trust, and the only heirs were the nine kids.

As far as she knew, nobody had tried to get the money from them. In fact, the Sullivan family had managed to keep the extent of their wealth a secret. Turning the former dude ranch into a search and rescue operation had been Maya’s idea. Chase had eagerly agreed. They performed SAR services across the state of Wyoming, even venturing into Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. And the only payment they accepted were bags of dog food. They had nine K9s—well, ten now with the new puppy, Bear—to feed. One bag of dog food was basically a drop in the bucket of what they went through each week.

She gave Maya and Chase a lot of credit for holding the family together after her parents went missing. Their Christian faith had gotten them through the dark days, and now many of her siblings were getting married and starting families.

Not that she was planning to head down that path. Especially not after two of her previous boyfriends had cheated on her.

Denali disappeared from her line of sight. Alexis quickened her pace, not wanting the K9 to get too far ahead. As she crested a ridge, she relaxed when she saw Denali sniffing near a bush.

“Break time.” K9s needed frequent breaks while working. They expended a lot of energy sniffing their surroundings, and with the hot July sun overhead, she needed to make sure her dog didn’t become dehydrated.

Denali lifted her head and bounded toward her. Alexis glanced around, wishing she could get rid of the niggling warning sensation along the back of her neck. Even if someone was out there, she told herself there was nothing to worry about. Stumbling across a fisherman or small game hunter wouldn’t be a threat. Alexis took a moment to find a shady spot near some trees and shrugged out of her pack.

In truth, she needed the break more than Denali. Taking her water bottle from the pack, she filled a collapsible bowl for her K9. As Denali lapped at the water, Alexis drained what was left in the bottle.

“Good girl,” she praised as Denali stretched out on the ground. “You’re doing a great job.”

Denali’s brown eyes gazed into hers. She leaned forward to hug the dog, then glanced at her watch. They’d been working for an hour, taking a meandering path, and she needed to make sure they could get back to the two-track road where she’d left her SUV.

“We’ll go for one more hour, then turn back, okay?” She stroked Denali’s soft fur. “I know you won’t mind a long nap on our way back to the ranch.”

Denali thumped her tail in agreement.

After fifteen minutes, she rose to her feet and offered Denali a little more water. Keeping a dog’s mucous membranes moist was key during search and rescue missions. The moisture helped enhance the scent particles, and for cadaver dogs, that was even more important, as the scents were often deeply buried in the ground.

“Search napoo!” She threw her arm wide. “Search!”

Denali eagerly went back to work, trotting along some invisible path that only her dog could smell. Alexis shouldered into her pack and quickly followed. She glanced over her shoulder frequently, but she didn’t see anything alarming.

And Denali didn’t growl or indicate she noticed anything either.

Alexis was so preoccupied she didn’t immediately notice when Denali made an abrupt turn, heading toward a meadow to the east. She nearly tripped over a rock to keep up.

Denali had her nose down and was moving faster now, an indication she may have found something. Remains from one of her parents? Alexis was afraid to hope.

“Search napoo,” she said encouragingly. But she needn’t have worried. Denali headed to an area, sniffed for long minutes, then sat and let out a sharp bark.

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