Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,102

of piles. He became interested in a certain area, but moved on. The dog worked for about fifteen minutes and seemed tired. Chad stopped the dog and gave him some water.

“Good boy, good boy,” he said.

Cisco’s ears perked up, ears forward, and eyes intense. The black dog was like a statue as he strained his hearing. He began barking—incessantly barking. Some of the searchers stopped what they were doing and watched the dog.

Cisco ran up on one of the piles about ten feet high and began barking. He ran up and down the same area a few more times, barking the entire time.

The oxygen was dwindling faster than Katie had thought it would. She became excessively tired. She leaned against one of the supports and rested her eyes again. All she could smell was mold and dust.

She thought she was dreaming because she could hear Cisco barking. It was his loud bark when he found something, or a bad guy. Opening her eyes, she realized that she wasn’t dreaming. She really could hear Cisco barking.

“Cisco…” she whispered. Moving to Shane, she could tell he was breathing but wasn’t conscious, most likely due to the head injury he sustained from Jerry.

The barking continued and became louder.

“Cisco! Here, boy! I’m here!” she yelled as loud as she could, making her dizzy. Her voice sounded like it was inside a bottle and made her tone strange. She took several deep breaths.

“Cisco… Cisco…” she said and fainted.

Chad had moved toward Cisco, who was on the other side of the house that they were searching. “Hey! Over here!” he yelled. His anxiousness increased and he waited impatiently, moving a few boards out of the way. “Hey!”

The entire crew, made up of deputies, firefighters, and volunteers, came to Chad’s aid. “I think she’s over here.”

They worked tirelessly. Even the sheriff worked with them.

One of the volunteers finally said, “They’re over here.” It was the area that Cisco was barking on top of barely fifteen minutes earlier.

Chad pushed his way past them and slipped down inside.

Cisco still barked, clawing at the area, trying to get inside—desperately trying to get to Katie.

Five minutes later, Chad appeared with Katie in his arms. Everyone helped to get her out. She had cuts and bruises, but she was semiconscious. Cisco licked her face and she moved her hand to pet him.

“C’mon, we need a gurney over here,” said Chad. “There’s another one down there, he’s pinned. C’mon, let’s go…”

With huge relief, Katie felt like she was drifting in a dream. She kept her eyes shut and embraced the fresh air and daylight on her face, along with kisses from Cisco. It was all like a warped fantasy—a once terrifying dream but with a happy ending as she felt the strong arms of Chad wrapped around her.

Hearing the familiar voices of her uncle, McGaven, Chad, and others made her anxieties diminish. She mumbled, “Shane needs your help… he needs your help…”

Sitting straight up on the gurney with a surge of anxiety as the medic tried to calm her, Katie looked desperately for McGaven.

Cisco jumped up and huddled next to her.

Her head cleared. “Gav,” she yelled. “It’s Jerry… she kept saying. “It’s Jerry…”

He jogged up to her. “Take it easy, Katie.” He tried to make her lie down and relax.

“No. You don’t understand. Have you caught him?” she said, trying to catch her breath. It felt as if she had run a marathon.

“Who?”

“It’s Jerry.”

“Jerry,” he repeated.

“Yes, it’s Jerry Weaver.”

“The social worker? Are you sure?”

“Yes, he trapped me at the house with Shane. And… and…”

McGaven grabbed a deputy. “We need officers at Jerry Weaver’s house, he’s a county social worker. Do it now. He’s considered armed and dangerous.” He thought about the options and said, “There could be a victim with him. Use caution.”

The deputy began radioing the information and took off to his patrol car.

“NO… no, you don’t understand,” she said.

Chad and the sheriff approached.

“Take it easy,” said McGaven.

“No, we don’t have time. We have to get there.”

“What do you mean, Katie?”

“I think…” she said, her mind spinning fast. His build, his access to the reports, his meetings at the house, and his contact and personal information with the girls. “It makes sense…”

“What are you talking about?”

Katie realized, of course, it had been Jerry Weaver at the prison, covering his face but readjusting the clipboard to sign in using his left hand, and he must’ve said something so threatening to McDonald that she killed herself.

And Candace’s reluctance to say “Ray” was the social