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“What are you talking about?” Levi asked.
JT stood and looked at the other man. The sodium lights reflected off almost black eyes. Gone was the normally bemused expression in them. Tonight, they were wracked with pain and guilt. “I brought her,” JT explained. “I almost got my sister killed for a pretty piece of ass! Jesus!” He slammed a fist down on the hood of someone’s Tundra.
“You didn’t know,” Levi argued. “You couldn’t have known. She didn't even tell you her real name. You can’t blame yourself for this. C’mon, man, we’ve got to go look for her. That’s what you’ve got to focus on now. Finding the bitch that did this to Maggie.”
JT still looked wrecked but he agreed. “Okay, let’s...” He broke off as he heard a dog bay loudly.
“That must be Martinez and Matilda,” Levi said, his lips quirking up in a smile despite the circumstances. “That dog can find anything. C’mon, let’s go. Can’t be long now.”
They made their way across the parking lot, searching around vehicles as they went. Deputy Martinez was still standing with Matilda next to his SUV when they made it. “Why aren’t you out there looking for her?” JT asked in a panic as they came up beside the man.
“I need something with her scent on it,” the deputy explained. “Matilda has to have something to start with. Nobody seems to have anything she touched or wore that we know about.”
“What about somewhere she sat,” JT asked. “She was in my truck for over an hour. Could that work?”
Martinez rubbed his chin in thought. “Could work. We can try, anyway.”
JT quickly led the deputy and Matilda to the passenger side of his truck. Matilda sniffed. “Wait, look!” JT exclaimed, pointing out a tissue on the floor. “She asked for a tissue. She sneezed a couple of times, allergic to something, I guess.”
“Perfect,” Martinez said with a smile and made sure Matilda got a big whiff of the crumpled, white paper. “Seek, girl,” the deputy instructed. Matilda gave a loud bay, and they were off.
JT’s heart gave a leap of hope. They would find the woman and she would pay. He would make this up to his sister if it was the last thing he did.
They followed along in a parade behind Matilda as she followed the scent. “Here!” Martinez shouted to another deputy, pointing at the ground as Matilda sniffed at something. A glittery black stiletto was skewered into the mud. “Stay back,” he instructed JT and Zane. “You’re going to have to wait here. We don’t want to spoil any evidence.”
JT and Levi stood like statues as another deputy came up and took pictures of the shoe before slipping it in an evidence bag. Matilda took off again after another “Seek” command. The dog was heading for a large pond that was located at the back of the property. JT’s mom had told him they used it for pictures and even stocked it with fish for kids’ fishing tournaments a couple of times a year. What in the world would she be doing down there? Hiding in the reeds? Surely not.
Matilda suddenly gave a long, plaintive bay, different than the ones they had heard before. It sounded almost pleading. The men strained to see the dog and her handler down by the pond in the dark. They could make out a long, narrow shape sitting on the ground next to the dock where Matilda was losing her mind. A canoe. Another deputy quickly descended the small rise, his gun drawn, to cover Martinez who held Matilda steady.
“Put your hands out where I can see them!” he shouted towards the small boat. Nothing happened. “Don’t make us let the dog go!” he shouted. Matilda was no attack dog, but the woman didn’t know that, and criminals seemed to be inordinately more afraid of being attacked by a dog than by one of the officers in the deputy’s experience.
Slowly, a set of long fingered hands now sporting several broken red nails, appeared out from under the tarp covering the canoe. Another deputy now joined the other two and locked cuffs around the wrists. That task completed, he uncovered the boat to reveal Shawna. She had found a large Len’s BBQ T-shirt somewhere and pulled it on over her glittery dress. She was barefoot and disheveled. Her make-up melted partway off her face. She scowled at the officers and gave an extra hard look at Matilda who now sat happily by Deputy Martinez’s side, enjoying pats and praise from her partner.
JT took a step toward the scene as he saw the officer helping Shawna out of the canoe, but Levi grabbed his arm. “No, man. Stay here. We don’t want to get in their way or mess anything up.”
JT bristled at the touch, but knew Levi was right. Every fiber in his being wanted to get his hands on the woman, though. Just five minutes alone with her. He took a ragged breath and tried to calm himself. He stood still as a statue as they marched Shawna past him and Levi. He didn’t speak to her as she passed but they locked eyes. She had the nerve to smirk at him as she was drug up the hill to the waiting squad car. Fire burned in his glare. If looks could kill, she’d have been a goner.
