my mother. All I’d heard in her voice was panic. “What happened? Where’s Lola?” I spun around, searching my parents’ backyard for my niece. I didn’t see her anywhere. Mom and Dad’s yard faced the woods. We’d been told a million times to never go into the woods alone. Lola had been told the same thing. I hadn’t listened to my parents when I was a kid, but, thankfully, there had always been a brother or two to come find me if I got turned around. Lola didn’t have that luxury.
“I don’t know.” Mandy swallowed hard as panic filled her blue eyes “I went in the house to get paper plates for the cake, and when I came out, only Sophie was here.” Mandy’s hands were shaking.
Sophie was standing on the back deck with Dallas and a terrified-looking Saxon.
“Everyone, spread out to look for her. Mom, you and Dad check the house. Kennedy, run out front and look in the cars and on neighbors’ porches. Quentin, stay in the yard in case she comes out of hiding. Oz, come with me.” My eyes were on the woods and my mind on the trouble a three-year-old girl could get into on her own.
2
Morrison
“Ahab, search!” I pressed the button on my stopwatch and watched Ahab take off to hunt for his quarry. He ran in the opposite direction. Christ, of all days for his head not to be in the game, why did it have to be today?
“This is the part where you tell me he’s just warming up, right?” Nathan Stevens of K9FIND asked.
“Ahab! Come!” I didn’t bother answering my friend and boss. Nate and I had known each other for nearly twenty years. He knew the caliber of dogs I trained. I knelt down in the soft grass in front of Ahab, a gorgeous black German Shepherd, who wouldn’t look me in the eye. “What’s up with you today, huh?” I gave his ears a scratch.
Ahab whined in response. He stared off to the right, at a point above my head. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was a cat, ignoring me like this.
“Look, my boss is here. I really need you to find the stupid thing I hid so we can qualify for the team. I know you know how to do this.” K9FIND was the non-profit Search and Rescue unit Nate had founded fifteen years ago. We’d met at a regional dog show in Danvers, Massachusetts. I was showing German Shepherds from my father’s kennel, and he was there looking for dogs who were more suited to rescue work as opposed to being fluffed and fawned over by show judges.
I pulled the scent marker out of my back pocket. “Let’s try this again, huh? If you get this right, there’s a juicy T-bone in it for you.” If Ahab didn’t pass his certification, we’d be off the team. It was worth the expense of an extra steak for him to get this right. “Ahab, search!”
Backing away from the dog, I watched in awe as he took off like a shot. Seconds later, he alerted and sat beside the spot where I’d hidden the object.
“Overall, Ahab isn’t too bad, Morrison, but that first run through the course concerns me.” Nate hugged the clipboard close to his chest, most likely so I couldn’t read what he’d written about Ahab.
“He had a bit of a slow start. You know how good Ahab has been over the last three years.” I knew exactly where Nate was coming from. As the leader of K9FIND, he was responsible for the quality of the team’s assets. “Ahab has a perfect record since he joined three years ago.”
“You’re only as good as your last find,” Nate said on a sigh.
“This was not a find. It was an obstacle course. A game. Ahab’s smart enough to know the difference.” Christ, by the tone in Nate’s voice, it was starting to sound like Ahab wasn’t going to make the team. Which also meant I’d be out as well. I trained other dogs in obedience and in search techniques, but I only kept one dog at a time. That dog was Ahab.
“You’re both still on the team. Just promise me you’ll work with him a bit more on his focus and concentration. If he acts this way during an actual search, I won’t have any choice in the matter. Got it?”
I nodded. “Loud and clear.”
“Good.” Nate bent to give Ahab a treat. “You gonna be at Mike’s