Page 23 of Scent of Death (Sullivan K9 Search and Rescue #5)
But she knew a bullet had struck the SUV.
“Easy.” Griff put his hand on her arm.
She gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her fingers began to cramp. After what seemed like eons, the slower car turned off on a side road, clearing the way. She hit the gas, sending the SUV surging forward.
“Where are you going?” Griff asked.
Her throat felt frozen, so she simply shook her head and drove.
After a few miles, and when she was sure no one had followed them, she pulled over to the side of the road.
She unclenched her trembling hands and swallowed against the urge to be sick.
Without a word to Griff, she opened the rear hatch, bailed from the car, and headed around to check Denali.
Then she stopped abruptly when she saw the bullet opening in the passenger door. The edges of the plastic flared out, indicating the bullet had come from the other side.
“Alexis?” Griff had slid from the car too. “What’s wrong—oh. The SUV was hit.”
Denali had jumped down and came over to greet her, tail wagging.
She managed to swallow past the lump in her throat.
“Yes. The SUV jerked, and I was worried the bullet may have struck Denali.” She bent to run her fingers through the dog’s fur, then she checked her legs to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. “Thankfully, she looks fine.”
“The bullet entered the passenger door on this side.” Griff opened the door to look inside. “It went all the way through both rear passenger doors.”
“If he’d hurt Denali...” She couldn’t finish.
“I know. I’m sorry.” Griff looked upset. “Did you see anyone?”
“No. One minute we were talking, the next we were being fired upon.” She sighed and eyed the damaged vehicle. “I guess I should be glad it’s not worse.”
“I wonder if one of those two houses back there belongs to the killer.” Griff stepped back to close the passenger-side door.
“Denali didn’t alert.” She straightened and went around to the back of the car. The crate area wasn’t damaged. But the near miss made her blood boil. “Maybe he followed us to that neighborhood.”
“I don’t know what to think.” Griff scowled. “I believe Denali would alert on his scent, but the shooting so close to the last two houses we checked bothers me. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
A niggle of unease had her looking at Denali. Her K9 wasn’t a tracker. She excelled at finding dead people.
“That doesn’t make sense.” She gave Denali the hand signal to jump in. Then she heard wailing sirens. “That must be the deputies.”
“Yeah.” Griff held her gaze. “We need to go back to the scene to meet with them.”
She didn’t want to go anywhere near the killer, but she knew he was right. Maybe the deputies could help with uncovering evidence they could use to nail this guy.
“Fine.” She stepped back and closed the hatch. “You can drive. I’m not well versed in evasive driving techniques.”
“You did great back there.” Griff crossed over to pull her into a hug. “I’m sorry this happened. Maybe I should drop you and Denali at the hotel. I can update the local cops on what took place.”
“No.” She didn’t want that either. “They’ll need my statement. Besides, I think it’s better if we stick together.”
“If you’re sure.” He released her and rounded the SUV to slide in behind the wheel. “They won’t be happy we didn’t notify them about the previous shootings.”
She shrugged, still feeling the effects of the jolt of adrenaline. “I was surprised you called them this time.”
He glanced at her before pulling back onto the road.
When the road was clear, he made a quick U-turn to drive back toward Greybull.
She was beginning to despise that small town.
“I wasn’t sure if the vehicle was hit and, if so, how badly.
If the gas tank had been hit, we may not have been able to get away. ”
That possibility hadn’t entered her mind. She’d only cared about Denali. And Griff, too, but her K9 had been vulnerable in the back. “I should call my siblings to arrange for another vehicle.”
He nodded. “Hold off until we talk to the deputies. Maybe they’ll find something useful.”
She took several deep breaths to calm her racing heart. The more she thought about the shooter being in the neighborhood on the other side of the river from the main part of Greybull, the more she wondered about the two addresses they’d investigated.
Could the killer have left his truck somewhere else and walked to the properties? She felt certain Denali would have alerted if this guy had gotten close to the house.
Were they missing something? Some connection that would point them to the killer?
Possibilities whirled in her mind until her head began to throb. She massaged her temples as Griff returned to the scene of the shooting. He turned off the highway back to the small neighborhood they’d left just minutes ago.
Seeing the deputy’s vehicles up ahead in the road, red and blue lights flashing, made her feel a little better. Surely this guy wouldn’t make another attempt against her with the cops around.
Then again, it wasn’t as if Griff’s presence had put him off. Quite the opposite. She had the feeling the killer would gladly take them both out of the picture.
But her most of all.
She recognized Deputy Paul Holland and Deputy Cameron Newton. “What happened?” Paul asked.
Griff stepped forward. “We have a lead on the serial killer. A witness saw him getting into a light-colored Ram truck pulling a trailer with a four-wheeler on the back. We’ve been scouting the addresses in Greybull that have Ram trucks registered to the owners.
Two of those properties are located here in this part of town. ”
“No license plate number?” Cameron asked.
“Nope. The only reason we know it’s a Ram is because our fifteen-year-old male witness knows his trucks.
” Griff gestured to the road beyond. “The first house we checked is that large brown one with the outbuilding. We thought that might be where the four-wheeler and trailer are stored. But Denali didn’t alert. ”
Paul’s gaze shifted to her. “I thought Denali was a cadaver dog?”
“She is. But somehow she’s latched onto the killer’s scent.
Probably because she knows he’s a threat to me.
” She glanced at Griff. “You already know he took a shot at me near the burial site of the two missing girls. He also fired at us at the hotel, was that last night?” She’d lost track of time with everything that was going on.
When Griff nodded, she went on. “And now this. If you look at my SUV, you’ll see where the bullet went in one rear passenger door and went all the way through and out the other side. ”
Cameron frowned. “Show me.”
She turned and gestured to the smaller bullet hole on the passenger side. “The bullet went in here.” She walked around the rear to show the deputy the other side. “You can see it obviously exited here.”
“Yeah.” Cameron took several pictures with his cell phone.
Paul came over to see for himself. Then he turned toward Griff. “You didn’t see anyone shooting?”
“No. But I don’t think our checking these addresses and being fired upon in the same location is a coincidence.” Griff frowned. “I just don’t understand how this guy could be using one of these properties as a home base if Denali didn’t alert on either one.”
“Maybe there’s a hunting cabin in the vicinity,” Paul suggested. He gestured toward the large brown house. “The owner there could have another property.”
Alexis nodded. “We did consider the killer may be using a truck that belongs to a parent or sibling.”
“I’ll investigate that possibility,” Griff agreed. “The other house we checked is a little farther down. It’s a double-wide trailer home in rough shape. There’s no garage or outbuildings, and we didn’t see a truck either.”
“We’ll check it out,” Cameron said. “But if you think this guy has access to a cabin in the woods, I think the owner of the brown house is the more likely option.”
Griff consulted his phone. “The truck at that address is registered to a Calvin Jenkins. Does that ring a bell?”
Both Paul and Cameron shook their heads. “Nope,” Paul said. “And we know most of the troublemakers in the area.”
The name was vaguely familiar, but Alexis couldn’t place it.
Had there been a Jenkins in the high school in Cody?
She couldn’t imagine why Calvin Jenkins’s son would go all that way.
This home was on the east side of Greybull.
Cody was west of here. A few families on the west side of town had made the trip, but that was mostly for kids interested in playing football or basketball.
Greybull was small enough that they didn’t have a lot of options for sports.
“Can Denali find shell casings?” Paul asked.
She grimaced. “We can try, but that’s not her area of expertise. Many of the tracking K9s have been cross-trained to find gold, and I’ve tried with Denali. She’s hit or miss.”
“But she may find the bad guy’s scent,” Griff reminded her.
“True.” She knelt to a crouch beside her dog. “I’ll work that angle instead.” She scratched Denali behind the ears. “Are you ready? Huh? Ready to search? Search bad guy!”
Denali’s tail wagged, and the K9 quickly turned to sniff the ground. Alexis followed as did Griff. She scanned the area with apprehension. As much as she wanted to believe the killer was long gone, she didn’t put anything past him.
Especially now.
Denali didn’t follow a straight path, but veered one way, then the other. Her K9 headed north, which made sense as they’d been driving south when the SUV had been hit. She followed her K9 between two houses to the next road.
Denali picked up the pace, her nose to the ground now as if she’d caught the scent. Alexis felt her pulse spike with fear. Was the killer nearby watching their progress? Being out in the open like this made her feel vulnerable and exposed.
Griff came up beside her. “Are you okay?”