Payback (The Canine Handler Book 1)

by Hillegas, Maria

  Within seconds, all three of the searchers were closing in on the dogs and the downed tree. As Sarah approached, she verbally rewarded them. “Good boys! What a great job!” She was caught up in the moment. The dogs had made a find! They worked so well!

  Then reality hit. A real subject was involved. Check yourself, Sarah, she told herself. Calm down.

  She saw construction-type boots sticking out from the end of the tree. It appeared one leg was pulled back slightly while the other leg was flat against the ground.

  “Hello, hey? Search and Rescue. Can we help?” Sarah yelled.

  “Dwight, Dwight Harrison? Hello? Dwight?” Dave called out the subject’s name in his booming voice a few times.

  Sarah shouted again, “Hello. Search and Rescue.”

  They called out a few more times without a reply.

  “Police,” Dave called out half a dozen times without a response.

  Kellee pulled her GPS out to allow time for it to adjust to the surroundings.

  Each searcher tentatively moved forward to make sure the area was completely safe.

  Gunner glanced at Sarah as she approached. He turned back to the subject and continued his indication. His barks were becoming whiny, stressed. The dog was still excited, but also starting to fatigue. He kept his indication up knowing that his reward was coming soon. That motivated the dog even more.

  Sam and Gunner whipped their tails with vigorous excitement. Covered in mud with burrs stuck in his coat, Gunner had drool and spittle around his snout and down the front of his chest. Sam appeared to still be well-groomed aside from his chest where he had laid down in a mud puddle to cool off. Sarah watched as they continued to bark and jump at her with eagerness.

  “Good job, guys!” Sarah continued with verbal praises. Regrouping, she spoke calmly and with confidence to the dogs. The subject hadn’t responded and didn’t appear to be conscious. She needed to make sure the dogs didn’t disturb him. Or his body.

  As the searchers got closer to the subject, they could tell the man was face up, lying on his back. There was a faint yet unmistakable smell. A mass of flies swarmed the body. The soil was darkened around him, leaves wet with a dark sticky substance. It didn’t appear to be from the recent rains.

  Sarah’s eyes widened. The wind shifted and sharply wafted her way. A clearly identifiable smell hit her. Her nose scrunched, assaulted by the stench. She instinctively covered her mouth and nose with her forearm and shirt sleeve.

  The subject didn’t look right. In fact, he looked really messed up. She turned her head sideways as if to change the setting. His skin had grayed, almost waxy and thick. A look of terror stood frozen upon his face. The mouth hung agape with eyes fixed, staring straight up at the sky.

  Sarah was glued in place, fascinated. She had subconsciously grabbed both dogs by the collars. She stood staring fixedly at the subject. The dark, sticky substance seemed to be everywhere. Her eyes took in the scene, but her brain had a difficult time understanding and processing exactly what she was looking at.

  “Sarah? Sarah?” Dave called a few times. “You okay?”

  Finally, Sarah took a few steps back. After a couple deep breaths, she tried to clear her head. Bad idea. Coughing, gagging, she glanced over at Dave and Kellee.

  “Oh my god,” Kellee whispered faintly, “unbelievable.” Kellee closed her eyes, shaking her head as she looked away.

  Sarah needed to reward the dogs. They had done their job and done it well. But Sarah found it hard to move, to take her eyes from the body. She was mesmerized.

  “Not at all what I was expecting to find when we started out a few hours ago,” Dave stated as he surveyed the body.

  “I don’t think any of us were expecting to make a find like this,” Kellee seconded.

  “Should we check for a pulse?” Sarah asked. Dave and Kellee both just gave her a blank stare then smiled.

  “Uh, doubt seriously this man has a pulse, Sarah,” Dave shot back with a laugh. “He looks like he’s seen better days.”

  Kellee finished noting the GPS coordinates. Tree cover had made it difficult for satellite reception and it had taken several minutes for the location to update. She pulled out her notebook and jotted down several bits of information like the time, their location and the find. She noted everything she could think of.

  “Make sure you hold onto the dogs okay, Sarah? We need to keep this area as undisturbed as possible,” Dave said.

  “Sure thing,” she responded automatically, continuing to stand in place holding onto the dogs. Dave’s words weren’t registering. She wasn’t connecting the dots.

  “Maybe you should take them out to the trail to play with them so they don’t disrupt the ground around the body any more than they already have.”

  “Okay,” Sarah said. “In a minute.” Her feet felt cemented in the ground. She was in awe.

  It had taken time for Sarah to realize what had transpired. She had been completely caught up in the moment of her dogs’ find. All of the relevant details hadn’t registered at first. Her brain wasn’t processing. It had been several years since she had seen her foster brother. But she recognized him. He appeared to have aged quite a bit.

  She looked the area over again and observed the body closer. Oh my! It finally clicked.

  Chapter 25

  Sarah

  Holy crap! Thoughts ran wild through Sarah’s head. It had taken her a moment to process everything. The scene was in disarray in her mind. Could the subject have committed suicide? Something didn’t look right. The sight wasn’t adding up. But search management had reported him as being despondent. Then it finally hit her. This dude’s been taken out!

  She began to sort out each detail, slowly scanning the body and her surroundings again. From his facial expression, or what was left of it, it was clear he wasn’t expecting to meet this unfortunate end. His neck appeared slit. It was laid open, slashed from ear to ear.

  The open laceration around his neck was surrounded by fly activity. His arms extended outward from both sides. It seemed he had tried to grasp at the ground, leaves and dirt still partially clenched in his hands. Pants and briefs were below his waist and past his knees. His heavy leather belt with a large brass buckle lay to the side. A long silver chain full of keys poked out from underneath him.

  The body was dark, bruised around his loin area, but what really caught her attention, was that it looked like his penis and testicles had been severed. At least what she could see of the area due to the swarm of flies there. Oh my god, what the hell happened here?

  She couldn’t take her eyes off of the body. Flies buzzed about, landing on the searchers, irritating the dogs. They were everywhere. The shiny, metallic pests with wings hovered above the man’s body in small erratic frenzied clouds. There were several of the insects around his head and face. Some were throughout his eyes, nose and mouth. Sarah was fascinated by their activity.

  The searchers moved closer to the body. The wind continued to change and whip in different directions on top of the hill. It sucked the smell in one direction away from them but a moment later the pungent scent was pushed into their faces again. It hit them hard. Bile rose up in the back of Sarah’s throat. She took a physical step back still clinging to Gunner and Sam’s collars.

  “I need to move away from this,” Kellee stated, “we’ve done our job here.”

  Sarah looked up at Dave who was already on his cell phone, not the radio. She could overhear him speaking with search management. He looked at Sarah as he spoke and put his hand up. Sarah stayed in place as Dave discussed the scene with someone in base camp.

  “I’m sure, I’m sure. No, there is no possible way he did this to himself. No, I’m not mistaken.” Sarah watched Dave as he continued to survey the surroundings. “Yes, yes, it’s the subject of the search.” Dave was beginning to sound annoyed. He slowly spun in a full circle. It was evident he had switched from search-and-rescue mode to officer-in-charge mode. His stance and the tone of his voice ma
de it clear he was now the one in control. Sarah had no problems with that. She was happy to defer this mess to someone else.

  Kellee came up behind Sarah and offered to help leash the dogs. Sarah handed her Sam and his leash while she snapped Gunner’s to his flat collar. Both dogs were quiet, but staring at Sarah, wondering when they were going to get their toys and play session. Sarah knew what they wanted—what they were waiting for with their intense looks. But she needed to wait for Dave to give further instructions. This was a crime scene. They may have already disturbed evidence and she wanted to keep that to a minimum.

  “So?” Sarah asked as she watched Dave pocket his cell phone.

  Dave directed his attention to Kellee. “I need you and Sarah and the dogs to head out to the main trail and wait there. Do you think you can find the way you and Sam entered and try to follow that trail back out?”

  Kellee looked over her shoulder in the direction they had come. “I won’t be able to follow our path out exactly, but will do my best.”

  “Do you need help with anything?” Sarah directed the question at Dave.

  “I’ll need more flagging tape. Think I’ll need all of your rolls if you don’t mind. I need to cordon off the area,” Dave explained, waving his arms and pointing his fingers, “and secure this whole area.”

  Kellee fished her one roll out of her pants pocket and tossed it to Dave. Sarah pulled the roll out of her pocket as well. She located another roll in her backpack and chucked them both at Dave’s feet. “Do you think that will be enough?” she asked in a serious tone.

  Dave gathered up the rolls. “Think so. Regardless, it will have to do.” He stuffed two rolls in his pocket and started to tie the end of the other one to a tree. “Try not to disturb much on your way out to the main trail. I’d appreciate it if you could draw your map and write up any notes or comments you have about our search sector and what you saw.”

  “Will do,” Kellee replied.

  “Okay, we’ll be careful. You okay with us rewarding the dogs once we make it out to the trail?” Sarah asked. Due to the nature of what was discovered, she didn’t want to appear brash. But she also needed confirmation that he didn’t think they would be disturbing anything by rewarding the dogs out on the trail. Sam and Gunner were energetic, boisterous during a good play session and would end up moving dirt around and dislodging patches of plants. Sometimes they brought a little bit of earth back with them when they would fetch a ball or Frisbee.

  “Oh no, that’ll work. You make sure the dogs get a great reward. They did an awesome job. The mule driver should be able to drive all the way up the main trail to pick you guys up. It may be a while though; the lieutenant will have to wait on the crime scene technicians and the ME to show up. They will be coming by way of the mule as well. Can you check Bella when you get back to camp? Make sure she has water and is okay? I’m sure she’ll be wondering where I am. I’d really appreciate it.” Dave looked around again at what he was facing. “Who knows how long this will keep me,” he said in an exasperated tone. Clearly, it wasn’t what any of the searchers had planned on.

  “Okay, not a problem. I’d be happy to check on her when we get back to base camp. In the meantime, while we’re waiting up here for the mule driver, we’ll take care of rewarding the dogs and do our maps,” Sarah responded. She had gained her full composure finally. This was the first time she had come across a dead subject so far into the decomposition process. Dave must think I’m some kind of an idiot, she berated herself. Check for a pulse? Smiling, she laughed at herself.

  “What’s so funny?” Kellee asked.

  The more Sarah thought about the situation, the more she couldn’t contain her laughter. “Oh, I dunno. Maybe that statement I made about checking for a pulse when it was so obvious the man was dead?”

  Kellee laughed as well. “What gave it away? The cloud of blow flies or the smell of rotting flesh?” she asked smiling at Sarah.

  Sarah held Gunner’s leash near his collar to keep him close to her body. She turned around to follow Kellee and Sam out to the main trail. Kellee moved slow and deliberate, carefully placing each step as she made her way. The women remained observant in case they saw anything that could turn out to be a clue. Neither spoke as they concentrated on getting themselves and the dogs out to where they could relax.

  They had more than 100 meters to traverse between where the body lay and their endpoint. Sarah was thankful the dogs were cooperating. They walked quietly like two well-behaved gentlemen. Sam and Gunner seemed to be able to read the situation well.

  As they neared where the edge of trail met the woods, Kellee found the hole in the wall of scrub and brush she had cut through earlier to follow Sam. She turned around to point at it, showing Sarah where they could crawl through the sticker bushes to get through to the trail.

  “Boy, it’s thick through here,” Sarah stated, referring to the vines and plants that blocked the forested area from the main trail.

  “I think just enough sunlight comes through where the trail was forged that the sticker bushes and undergrowth get a chance to grow up along the trees here. The overgrowth chokes out a lot of the mature trees and eventually causes them to die.”

  “Not to mention, it’s a pain in the ass to get through.” Sarah held onto both dogs as Kellee went through the cut out area first. Once Kellee was on the other side, she called to the dogs. Sarah let both dogs through one at a time.

  Finally it was Sarah’s turn. She started to step through the debris trying to be careful. She let out a few choice words when her backpack caught on some thorns, making it more difficult for her to get all the way through. More thorns and stickers poked through her long-sleeve shirt and tore at her skin. Pulling as hard as she could, the sticker bushes gave way and Sarah gracelessly came crashing down into the dirt, tripping over the rest of the vines. Kellee couldn’t help herself. She laughed so hard that Gunner and Sam backed away thinking there was something wrong with her.

  “It’s okay, guys. We know she takes delight in seeing her teammates make a fool out of themselves.” Sarah stood up and tried to brush as much of the mud and debris off her pants, shirt and pack. Teammates reveled in seeing a member do something stupid. “Thankfully she forgot to pull her camera out,” Sarah continued to speak to the dogs. “Payback is hell, just remember that!” Sarah stated with a twisted smile.

  Chapter 26

  Sarah

  Once Sarah and Kellee made it to the trail, they were able to give Gunner and Sam an intense play session—their reward for working so hard and for making a find. It’s what the dogs lived to do. Sarah was glad they had a little time on their hands. It allowed them to have a moment to get silly and whoop it up with the dogs. They threw the Kong for Gunner until his tongue was dragging the ground. He kept insisting on just one more throw. Sarah had to command him to lie down. Sam finally tired of his own accord and lay down in a cool spot with his soft Frisbee between his front legs.

  Kellee squirted a little water into each dog’s mouth. She needed to wait until they cooled down before allowing them free choice water. Each woman chose a dog and checked them over from nose to tail. They removed their vests to allow for better air circulation to help cool the dogs down quicker. Gunner and Sam had used up most of their energy reserves. The dogs lay quietly, allowing the women to inspect them without a fuss.

  Gunner was even quiet as they cleaned the small cut on his paw for the second time and re-wrapped it. It was barely visible which could mean the wound was a puncture—keeping it clean would be a priority. Once home, Sarah could soak the area and leave the bandage off while Gunner was in the house to let it air out in sanitary conditions. She was thankful that was his only battle wound from the day.

  Both women drank, sipping from their water containers slowly. Finding a semi-dry spot near trees to lean against, they sat down and pulled out their maps, notepads and pens. They wore serious expressions as their maps were drawn and notes were made. Sarah hesitated for a moment as sh
e studied her work. She wanted to include every detail she could think of. This wasn’t like making notes for a “normal” search. This search had concluded with a dead body—and that dead body had turned out to be someone she had feared most in her life, for almost all of it. It was someone she had known. Someone I wish I’d never known.

  “Do you think I should inform search management that I… know, I mean, knew… the subject?” Sarah posed the question to Kellee as they continued with their paperwork. “Could this complicate matters somehow?” So far, these last few days have been full of nothing but stress and conflict. What else could possibly happen to make it even more interesting?

  Kellee pondered the question for a moment before she spoke. “Does Dave know that you knew the victim?”

  “No, I never said anything. I was concentrating on holding my shit together.”

  “I’m not sure it really matters, Sarah. It’s not like you had seen him in years or he was somehow part of your life now.”

  “I would rather not. They‘ll want to know everything and I just don’t think I can go there again. Pretty much left that chunk of my history behind me—or as much as I could.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t offer the information up then. If they ask you, then be honest. If they don’t, then don’t say anything, even to Dave. I would just leave it alone.”

  “Sounds fair.” Sarah turned her attention back to her paperwork. “So how is your map coming along? What are you putting down as the time we located the subject?”

  “I have 1420 hours.”

  “Great, thanks.”

  “Make sure you put down on your notes that Trooper Dave Graves took over the scene so we have information regarding chain of command. It will be important since this looks like a homicide. Eventually, it will make it to court and we will be summoned. You might even have to do a demonstration with the dogs and produce your training records. So make sure everything is up to date.”