Page 18 of Scent of Evil
Please, please, please.Ginny silently chanted to herself as she ran.Please help me escape. Please!
She ran for what seemed like forever. Farther than she’d ever run while playing soccer. When she couldn’t take another step, she collapsed behind a large tree and sat with her back pressed against the trunk. Curling herself into a ball, she rested her head on her knees and gasped for breath while trying to be invisible.
Straining to listen above the hammering of her heart, Ginny tracked the sound of Decker’s heavy footsteps. But then they seemed to stop.
She froze, imagining him scanning the area to find her. Had he seen her? She looked down at her blue shirt, wishing she was wearing something green or brown instead. Granted, her blue shirt was covered in grime, which helped dim the normally bright color.
The seconds ticked by with excruciating slowness. Ginny was afraid to move, as she imagined Decker sneaking up on her, his strong hands grabbing her at any moment.
But nothing happened. He didn’t shoot his gun at her or call her name. As the silence lengthened, she forced herself to stay where she was. The wet ground was soaking through the seat of her jeans. Not that she was dry anywhere else, she thought with a shiver.
When she couldn’t take the not knowing any longer, Ginny quietly turned and peeked around the tree trunk. A wave of relief hit hard when she didn’t see Decker lurking there, ready to pounce.
Yet not seeing him, or anyone for that matter, caused another flicker of fear to wash over her. What if Decker had taken off, leaving her behind?
What if she was still lost in the woods, alone, when darkness fell?
Ginny pushed herself upright, struggling to get her bearings. She’d run down the incline, but that wasn’t necessarily the path her aunt Raine would take. But going up the incline would bring her closer to Decker.
Torn by indecision, Ginny swiped her bloody palm against her jeans, smearing blood and grime along the fabric. She decided to walk in the opposite direction Decker had been going. She thought it might be to the east, but she couldn’t be sure. Maybe she would be able to meet up with her aunt Raine soon.
Before dark? She glanced up at the cloudy sky and couldn’t suppress a shiver. Maybe. Ginny was afraid to imagine what wild animals she might run into if she was forced to stay in the forest alone overnight.
Swallowing hard, she knew coming face-to-face with a mountain lion or a bear wouldn’t be much better than being with Decker.
But it was a risk she had to take.
* * *
“What do you mean,the trail goes in two different directions?” Raine stood beside Justin staring at the wrecked four-wheeler.
“I think Ginny may have escaped.” Justin gestured to Stone, who sat staring up at them intently, as if trying to say something. Too bad the K9 couldn’t talk. “Stone went to the south for a few feet, then turned and headed north for a few feet, then returned here to this location.”
“I hope you’re right about Ginny escaping.” She frowned as she realized what Justin was saying. “So our choice is to either find Ginny or track Decker.”
“Yep.” Justin pulled two plastic bags of clothing from his saddle bag.
“We need to ask Stone to track Ginny.” As much as she wanted to find and arrest Decker, she couldn’t leave her eleven-year-old niece to fend for herself in the forest.
“I agree.” Justin knelt beside Stone and offered the bag of Ginny’s clothes. “You remember Ginny, don’t you, boy? Ginny!” He waited for the yellow lab to sniff the bag, then said, “Search! Search for Ginny!”
Stone instantly headed down the southern path he’d started on earlier, giving Raine the impression that this was exactly what the dog was trying to tell them. After shoving the bag back in the saddle, Justin gave her a leg up. Her butt and thighs burned as if they were on fire, but she took the reins without complaint.
Justin vaulted into the saddle with an ease she envied and quickly turned Blaze to follow Stone. She clucked at Timber, the way Justin did, to encourage the horse to move forward. Stone intensely sniffed the ground, picking up his pace as he followed Ginny’s scent. The K9 darted between trees that were so close together, the horses couldn’t fit through, which made following the path Stone was taking difficult. Several times Justin had to make a wide circle around a cluster of trees to meet up with Stone on the other side.
Yet as they rode, Raine imagined her plucky niece running this way to escape Decker. Ginny was smart enough to know Decker was too big to get through tight places. Hope flared in her heart as they continued down the incline, and she found herself praying for God to continue watching over Ginny.
After a solid fifteen minutes, Stone abruptly stopped at the base of a wide tree, sniffed for several long moments, then sat and barked.
Justin grabbed the stuffed penguin, slid from Blaze, and tossed Stone’s reward. “Good boy! Good boy, Stone!”
The yellow lab leaped into the air to catch the toy, then ran in a circle around a different tree from the one where he alerted.
Raine craned her neck to see better. “What did he find?”
“The ground is flattened back here,” Justin said. He turned to glance up at her. “I think Ginny must have stopped here to rest and/or to hide from Decker.”
As reassuring as that image was, she glanced around in frustration. “Okay, but where is she now?”
