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Gretchen grimaced. “Not just you, boss. All of us.”
Josie opened her mouth to defend Luke but then clamped it shut. Noah and Gretchen were right. So why did she feel the urge to speak up for him? Was it because he’d paid a horrible price for all the poor choices he’d made? She didn’t remember much from the night they’d spent together five years ago but she did remember the conversation they’d had afterward, when he and Blue had come to Denton to help police find a missing seven-year-old girl. The Luke she’d talked to that day was not the man who had betrayed her and all of their colleagues. His experiences had humbled him—broken him, even. For years, he had hidden on his sister’s farm where he could have safely remained for the rest of his days, in seclusion. Instead, he was trying to rebuild. To find lost souls. To help people.
Josie sighed. “All of that is in the past. Really. It’s been years. He served his time. He’ll never wear the uniform again. But he’s here whether we like it or not. The Chief hired him as a consultant, so I’m going to tell you the same thing the Chief would: we need to view Luke as just another resource. A resource this department needs badly. That is it. That is all.”
“His dog is incredible,” Noah conceded.
“Okay,” Mettner said. “We call in the dog. But what are we going to use to scent him?”
“Eve Bowers’s car,” said Gretchen. “We need to do it. We can get the car towed here, get Luke to meet us with the dog. We have nothing else.”
They went quiet as a man jogged up the path, running past them without so much as a glance.
Once he was out of sight, Mettner said, “It’s true. We’ve got nothing else.”
Noah stomped his feet and shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “All right, well, we need to come up with some kind of plan instead of standing around here freezing our asses off all day. I can do the geo-fence.”
Mettner said, “I’ll run the LPRs and see if we can get anything from surveillance in this area, residential and commercial.”
Gretchen added, “I’ll stay on Citizen Review and see if we can track down the angry reviewer.”
Josie sighed. “I’ll call Luke.”
THIRTY-FIVE
An hour later, Josie sat in her blessedly warm vehicle in the city park lot closest to its main entrance watching a flatbed tow truck pull in with Eve Bowers’s Nissan on it. Hummel followed in an SUV. Luke and Blue weren’t far behind. She waited until everyone else was out of their vehicles before she joined them. Blue thumped his tail a few times when she approached. Josie knelt and gave him a few good pets behind his ears. Luke grinned at her. Returning a tight smile, Josie explained what they needed. She was relieved to see his face morph from a playful smile to all business. Moments later, the tow truck driver had lowered the back of the flatbed enough for Blue to lumber up onto it and sniff the driver’s seat.
Hummel stood next to Josie, watching Luke give Blue instructions. “You sure this is gonna work?”
Josie sighed. “I don’t know, but we’re running out of leads to chase.”
Seconds later, Blue scrambled down the back of the flatbed and trotted off toward the trail that Josie and the team had been on earlier. As he passed her and Hummel, Luke said, “He’s got it.”
The next few hours passed in a blur. Josie was glad that she and Noah had made running a regular part of their exercise routine. Blue kept both her and Luke at a steady jog, leading them with confidence and only stopping when Luke made him. He took them on the full loop around the park and then out of it, circling the central part of the city and heading south.
“When he finds the scent, he loses track of everything else,” Luke said the first time he made Blue stop. He used a bottle of water and collapsible rubber bowl that he carried in a backpack to give the dog a drink.
Warm and flushed from exertion, Josie paced along the pavement, looking back in the direction from which they’d come. If this was the route the killer had traveled on foot, he’d taken pains to avoid the more congested areas of the city. Here it was still residential, but the homes were further apart and set back a good distance from the road. Even if any of the houses had cameras, they likely wouldn’t pick up a man walking, and yet, there was enough foot traffic that he probably had not stood out to anyone. “I can call for a unit,” she told Luke. “Have them meet us here. Blue can take a rest and get warm in the back before we continue.”
Luke shook his head. “Nah, he’s good for now.” Blue was already tugging at the lead, nose working furiously. “I’ll let you know when we need that unit, though.”
They resumed the search with Blue in the lead, Luke behind him murmuring encouragement and Josie in the rear. She lost track of time. There was no chance to check her phone or watch. There was only the search. When they stopped again, they were in South Denton, and she estimated that they’d traveled nearly four miles from the city park. Luke made sure Blue was hydrated and then Josie called in a unit. After a short rest, Blue was ready to go again. Josie’s mouth was dry, and she wondered just how far the killer had walked—or run? She wanted to ask Luke how long he thought Blue could reasonably keep searching, but she didn’t dare break their concentration.
It was only when she saw Blue turn into a gravel driveway marked with a beat-up mailbox that she allowed hope to surge through her. A familiar house with a familiar truck came into view at the end of the driveway. Blue was about five feet from the truck when he made his passive alert, sitting obediently and regarding Luke with solemn eyes.
“This is it,” Luke said.
“This is—” Josie’s words were cut off by the sound of a man’s grizzled voice.
“You all better stop right where you are, turn your asses around, and get off my property or there’ll be hell to pay.”
Archie Gamble stepped from behind the truck, a crossbow in his hands.
Blue shot to his feet and began barking at him.
In quick succession, Gamble waved the crossbow at each of them before settling it in the direction of Blue. Luke immediately put himself between Gamble and the dog. He threw his hands up and said, “We don’t want any trouble. Just stop pointing that at my dog.”
Josie’s service pistol was in her hands. She took on a shooter’s stance and angled herself so that if she had to fire, she would not risk injuring Luke or Blue. “Mr. Gamble, lower that weapon right now.”
