Page 17 of Scent of Evil
With a nod, he turned and headed back up the ridge to Blaze. Stone had stretched out, watching them. The dog’s yellow fur was stained with mud. When Justin approached, Stone rose to his feet and wagged his tail, waiting for the command.
“Good boy.” He swung up on Blaze’s back. “Search! Search Decker and Ginny.”
Stone went back to work, sniffing along the ridge picking up where he left off. Justin didn’t see tire tracks here and wondered if Stone had taken a short cut.
Sure enough, after a few minutes of riding, he saw a tire imprint in the mud. Stone had kept them on track, and he was glad to have his K9 leading the way.
Clucking his tongue, he urged Blaze into a trot. It was a risk, considering how Raine had just fallen, but Stone was moving faster now. He didn’t want to lose sight of the K9.
A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed Raine was keeping pace. Her expression was pained as Timber broke into a trot, but she was sitting tall and seemed to be handling the pace better than he’d expected.
At least, for now.
They rode for ten minutes taking the incline in a downward direction. He slowed the horse to a walk, imagining Raine was grateful for the reprieve. After another ten minutes, the path leveled off. Still, he was confident they were on target, as there were several spots where he’d glimpsed tire tracks the ATV had left behind.
Stone abruptly stopped, sniffing the ground intently. He frowned, closing the distance. “What is it, boy? What did you find?”
Stone didn’t look over, his nose still sniffing the ground. Justin hoped his K9 hadn’t gotten distracted by an animal, a large elk or even a bear, but the dog turned and trotted to the right.
Then Stone whirled and went back to the spot where he’d been a few minutes ago, then headed to the left.
With a frown, Justin stopped Blaze and swung down. “Hey, boy, what’s wrong?”
Stone looked at him, then ran back and forth, sniffing along the ground in one direction, then backtracking to go the other.
Finally, Stone sat and alerted. The way his lab stared up at him, with intense brown eyes, Justin knew the dog was trying to tell him something.
It took a moment for realization to sink in. The reason Stone was confused was because the two people involved in the search had gone off in different directions.
Yet that didn’t make any sense. Where was the four-wheeler? Had Ginny fallen off without Decker noticing? That didn’t seem likely.
“What’s wrong?” Raine asked.
“I’m not sure.” He took a few steps in both directions, searching the foliage around them. When he didn’t find anything useful, he jogged a little farther. Stone was at his side, as if grateful his unspoken message had been understood.
“Where is it, boy?” He scanned the ground but didn’t see any tire tracks.
Then he spotted it. The green ATV was buried in a thicket about a hundred yards to the right. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he ran toward it, hoping, praying Ginny wasn’t lying beneath it.
She wasn’t, but neither was Decker.
He turned to look around. Where had they gone? Were they together, or had Ginny managed to escape?
5
When the blood oozing from her hand caused her fingers to slip, losing her grip on the frame of the ATV, Ginny abruptly fell off, hitting the ground hard enough to make her cry out in alarm. But as soon as she began to roll down the incline, she decided to take advantage of the moment. Feeling desperate, she purposefully continued rolling down the hill as far away from the four-wheeler as she could get. The engine rumbled on for a full minute before Decker must have realized she was gone. Then she heard a sudden crashing sound, followed by silence.
Decker must have gotten off the ATV!
No! She couldn’t let him catch her.
After a few minutes of rolling down the incline, nearly hitting several trees in the process, she pushed herself to her feet and began to run. She headed down the incline mostly because it was easier, sticking to the thickest part of the trees for cover.
Decker didn’t call out to her, but she could hear his thudding footsteps as he followed. A lump of fear and panic rose in her throat. What would he do if he caught her?
She didn’t want to know.
Swallowing a sob, Ginny forced herself to keep moving. Decker might be bigger and stronger, but she had a head start. He also had a swollen knee, which she hoped would slow him down. It wasn’t easy, but she darted between trees and over small bushes with an agility her soccer coach would be proud of.
