Page 5 of Scent of Death

She swallowed hard as the realization of what he was asking sank deep. “You think the other missing girls might be buried nearby?”

“Yes.” He nodded toward Denali. “Your K9 will be the one to tell us if that’s the case.”

“Of course. We’ll start right away.” She turned and knelt beside Denali. Her K9 had been resting but scrambled to her feet, her tail wagging back and forth with anticipation. “Are you ready, girl? Ready to work?”

She poured water into a collapsible bowl and offered it to Denali. She didn’t use a scent source like her siblings did when tracking live people, but the rest of the process was the same. Getting the dog revved up to work was important. They needed to be excited about the job and the ultimate reward. “Search napoo! Search!”

Denali quickly lowered her head and began sniffing the area. Alexis kept the dog away from the location of the swollen hand but still gave the dog room to work. She didn’t see anything that could have been a grave, but that didn’t mean the bodies hadn’t been buried a while ago.

At least since spring, as she assumed the ground would have been too frozen to dig up earlier than that. Especially here in the mountains where the snow took longer to melt.

She followed Denali as her K9 swept the area. She’d trained the dog to use a grid format as preferred in disaster sites. It wasn’t always easy to stay on task with obstacles like trees and rocks getting in the way, but they managed.

Alexis was torn between hoping Denali found something and praying she didn’t. Griff hadn’t filled her in on the details of the three missing girls, other than to say this one matched the description of one girl, and she wanted to believe the other two were still alive.

Yet if they were dead, she wanted to find them so their families could lay them to rest in a proper burial.

“Search napoo,” she repeated encouragingly. They were almost a hundred yards from the initial burial site when Denali abruptly stopped, sniffed for long moments, then sat and barked.

Her alert! She was about to call out to Griff, but he must have been trailing behind them because he rushed forward. “What did she find?”

“I’m not sure.” There were no obvious body parts sticking out the way the hand had been. Alexis moved closer to examine the ground. It seemed harder packed than the area where the hand was sticking out. She glanced back at Griff. “Looks like we might need to dig a bit to see what’s down there.”

“Could it be a dead animal?” Griff asked.

“No, Denali is able to differentiate between animal decay and people.” She smiled grimly. “People smell different to dogs, or so I’m told. Denali has never alerted on anything but human remains.”

“Okay, that’s good enough for me.” He sighed and glanced back to where Paul was standing near the initial burial site. “I’ll grab Paul’s shovel.”

She nodded and took a moment to reward Denali. When she tossed the piggy up into the air, her K9 leaped up to snatch it. Then Denali lowered into a playful stance, lowering her front legs, leaving her hind end up, tail wagging with excitement. This was always the hardest part for Alexis. The K9 deserved to be rewarded for a job well done, but finding a dead body was never a fun thing.

Yet this was the work she’d chosen, so she did her best to put the apprehension behind her. Griff returned with a shovel and quickly stabbed the point of the blade into the dirt.

“What if you hit the body?” she asked. “Shouldn’t we use something smaller?”

“This isn’t optimal,” he agreed. “But I need to know what we’re dealing with.” Griff leaned on the shovel and removed the dirt. She peered down at the opening but didn’t see anything.

Griff dug a small trench around the area where Denali alerted. Sweat rolled down the sides of his face, darkening his shirt under his arms, but he kept going, determined to uncover whatever Denali had scented. Another five minutes passed, but then he set the shovel aside and dropped to his knees. “I found something.”

Her stomach clenched as she crouched beside him. Then nausea swirled as she realized they were looking at a young woman’s head—the face was still partially covered in dirt, but there was plenty of matted hair. She abruptly stood and stumbled back, trying not to throw up.

“I think this is the first victim, Megan Riley,” Griff said in a low voice. “She had long dark hair.”

Alexis could only nod, still fighting the urge to lose her breakfast. She took several deep breaths through her mouth, struggling to maintain control. “You mentioned three missing girls? And we’ve found two of them?”

“Yes.” He rose and crossed over to where she stood. “I believe we’ve found Josie Allen and Megan Riley. The third girl, Wendy Evers, hasn’t been missing for long, but if you wouldn’t mind asking Denali to keep searching, that would be great.” He frowned and raked his gaze over the area. “The killer must have realized you were getting too close to where he’d left the bodies, and that’s why he fired at you.”

The thought of being out in the wilderness with a killer was horrifying. “I wish I could have gotten a good look at him.”

Griff sent her a sharp look. “I’m glad you’re not hurt. When I think of how long it took me to get here...”

“I think you’re right about his intent to scare me off. And I’m fine, Griff.” She turned toward her K9. “Here, Denali. Hand.”

The dog dropped the piggy into her outstretched palm. Alexis tucked it away, then bent to smooth her hands over the dog’s furry pelt. There were some prickers embedded in the black and white coat, and she took a moment to pull them free. Then she offered her K9 more water. When the dog was satiated, she rose to her feet.

“Napoo! Search napoo!”

Denali seemed to understand she needed to find napoo in another area, so she moved away from the most recent find. This was how it worked at disaster sites too. The dogs intuitively knew there was more work to do and moved onto the next area to search.

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