“Are you still hearing the screams or did they stop?”
“A deer screamed. Down there.” He waved down the road, a twitch of tension at his left eye. “Two times, maybe three. Then it stopped. It might be dead.”
Mattie couldn’t stand it any longer. She needed to get to the bottom of this. If Tilley was using “deer” to refer to Sophie, and if he’d killed her, Mattie would . . . “I’ll go down the road and check it out,” she said. “How far away do you think the deer was?”
“Quarter of a mile. Maybe. First I heard a noisy car speed past. Jammed the gears. The brake screeched. Then the deer screamed.” He put his hand to his face and rubbed his temple as if the memories brought pain to his head.
The details made Mattie take notice, and she felt a slight shift in her thinking. “Did you see the vehicle?”
“No. No. No. I was at the barn. But it made a big noise. Maybe it was truck.”
His truck?
She didn’t know what to think, but she had to get Robo out and see if she could find Sophie’s scent down the road. Now!
She went to the back of her vehicle to get her dog.
Just a trace of scent, please, just a trace that leads somewhere.
Moving fast, she put on Robo’s search harness and strapped on her utility belt before snapping the safety strap on her holster, securing it so that she could run. She gave Robo water and started chatting him up. After a few slurps, he focused that look on her that told her he was ready.
Stella joined her. “I’ll back you up.”
Mattie knew the detective couldn’t keep up once she and Robo started tracking. “Stay here and guard Tilley. Don’t let him leave the house.”
“He’s afraid to leave his house. He’s not going to interfere.” Stella called over to Tilley. “Please stay inside your home with Dodger until we come back, Mr. Tilley.”
He called Dodger and went inside, closing the door behind him.
Mattie didn’t have time to argue and resigned herself to doing things Stella’s way. “There’s hardly any traffic out here, but if you could keep watch and stop cars coming behind us, that would help.” Using Robo’s long leash, Mattie headed out to the road, pausing to offer Sophie’s scent article. Robo knew the drill, and he knew exactly what she wanted. He started to quarter the road even before she told him to search. She repeated her silent mantra. Just a trace of scent.
Robo trotted ahead, black coat glistening in the afternoon sun, his nose to the ground with an occasional check in the air. He carried his tail low, his ears forward, flicking back toward her now and then. Her feet thudded against the hard-packed dirt road as she jogged, and she vaguely picked up the sound of Stella falling in behind, but her focus was solely on her dog. Watching his body language, hoping and hoping for a sign.
She’d followed Robo about two hundred yards down the road when he darted to the right edge, sniffing furiously along the side. Mattie’s heart rate kicked up a notch. She held back and let him do his work unimpeded, not distracting him with unnecessary direction. He doubled back onto the road, sniffed, and then returned to the edge.
Oh, please . . . just a trace of scent that leads somewhere!
Robo crouched, lifting one front paw slowly and then the other as he inched his way into the ditch and then up onto the slope at the edge of the forest, nose to the ground. Stella caught up with them but held back several yards, remaining unobtrusive. Although not at all winded, Mattie’s breath came in short gasps, her eyes riveted on her dog.
And then Robo stood at attention, turning his head so that he could look directly into her eyes. A full alert! Exhilaration flooded her and she wanted to shout. “He’s got a hit,” she murmured to Stella while holding Robo’s gaze. “We’re heading into the forest.”
“I’ll stay as close as I can.”
“No. Stay here. Watch Tilley.”
Mattie went to Robo and patted his side, offering him the scent article again while she unclipped the leash from his harness. “Good boy! Search!”
Robo sprang forward, heading upward on a steep slope, weaving around stunted pine and scrub oak to enter the forest. Mattie took off after him, scrambling up the hillside, where she could now see sign of earlier foot travel. Not footprints, but scuff marks in the soil. It was too rocky here to actually see a track, but Robo didn’t seem to be having any trouble. It was all she could do to keep sight of him.
At the top of the verge, Robo paused, waiting for her to catch up, and then he took off, nose up with an occasional check against the ground.
The scent must be fresh! Please, please let Sophie be alive.
Dead branches crackled beneath her feet and live ones whipped her face as she ran, trying to keep Robo in sight. Heart pounding, not so much from exertion but from fear of the unknown, Mattie tried to catch her breath, find her stride. But lack of sleep and poor nutrition took its toll, and she felt like she was slogging through a nightmare, pushing herself, trying to keep up, not wanting to call Robo back but not wanting to lose sight of him.
He paused where the pine thinned, looking back over his shoulder as she caught up. “Good boy,” she said, puffing hard. “Search.”
Robo moved forward through a grove of aspen, their new leaves glistening like bright-green spades, shivering in the breeze. A branch behind her snapped, and Mattie whirled. Had Stella tried to follow her? Was it Gus Tilley? Someone else?
The pine closed around her, too dense to see anything. When she turned back around, she realized she’d lost sight of Robo. Fear gripped her, making her gasp. Sprinting toward the aspen grove, she entered, slowing to part the foliage around the slender white tree trunks slashed with gray. Brush slapped her legs, and twigs snapped as she pushed through.
After checking her back, she focused ahead and spied an opening through the trees where she could barely make out the remains of one of the land grant’s original log cabins, tumbled down and abandoned. A black shadow that could only be Robo streaked into the clearing and dodged around the side of the old building, disappearing around the back.
He barked, not his usual mode of operation. Mattie sprinted around the cabin, searching for him, following his bark. A large raised mound covered with dried leaves and dead branches stood in her way.
A gravesite? Her heart pounded so hard, it almost exploded. Too big. What is it?
Robo barked again. Skirting the dirt mound, she found him, scratching and digging at a wooden door that led into it. An old root cellar. He was struggling to get in, but the door had been secured by a jerry-rigged system of logs and boulders wedged up against it.
She fell in beside him and started pulling away the barrier. “Sophie!” she shouted. “Are you in there?”
Silence.
“Sophie, it’s Mattie. And Robo.”
“Mattie!”
The word sounded more like a scream, but it was Sophie’s voice.
She’s alive!
Mattie shoved the last of the boulders off to the side. A splinter bit into her palm as she yanked open the door. Robo rushed inside, into the small, dark space. Mattie bent forward, ducking her head to avoid the low doorframe.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She heard a chain rattle and Sophie’s sobs. The earthy scent of the root cellar was tainted with the odor of urine and feces. She stumbled inside, gradually able to make out the shape of a cot against one wall. And on it, Sophie with her arms wrapped around Robo.
Mattie sank onto the cot beside Sophie, taking her into her arms. Sophie transferred her embrace from Robo to her, scraping her neck with the links of a chain attached to her wrist. Sobbing, the child clung to her, and Mattie felt she couldn’t hold the little girl tight enough.