The buzzer on Brody’s phone interrupted them, and Mattie leaned back in her chair while he took the call.
Brody straightened, his eyes drilling Mattie’s. “Did you get an exact location?”
Something’s happened, Mattie thought as she shifted to the edge of her chair.
“We’ll be right out.” Brody hung up the receiver as he stood. “Nine-one-one. Caller said he’d been shot.”
Adrenaline loaded Mattie’s system, launching her from her chair. Robo leaped up to join her. “Who is it?”
“Don’t know. Male caller said he was beside Timber Creek up in the mountains west of town, and then he quit talking. The phone wasn’t disconnected, but Sam can’t get him to speak again.” Brody was rounding his desk to head out the door.
Mattie beat him to it and hurried into the lobby with Robo rushing out front.
Sam was still trying to get the caller to respond. “Sir? Sir, can you tell me where you are?”
Mattie hovered near the dispatcher’s desk. “What have you got?” she murmured as Sam held the receiver to his ear, staring in front of him as he strained to listen.
Sam shook his head and glanced up at her. “Nothing more. All he said was he’s in the mountains west of town on Timber Creek. I’ve got a cell phone number here but no name.”
Mattie looked at Brody. “Can we get any help from the cell phone tower for location?”
Brody shook his head. “One tower in the area. All it will tell us is the call came from the west. If he’s got the phone’s navigation turned on, we might locate it, but that’ll take some time.”
Robo was pumped full of energy, and he danced beside her, shifting his weight from one front paw to the other. As usual, her emotion had gone straight to her dog.
“Keep this line open as long as you’ve got a connection to the caller,” Brody told Sam. “Let’s activate Search and Rescue, and we’ll send them out to the banks of the creek in pairs.”
Mattie was as eager to start as Robo. “I’ll head out now.”
Brody hesitated. “We’re short-staffed. I’m going to have to stay and organize the volunteers as they come in.”
“I know. I’ll go on my own. Maybe we can find this guy in time.”
Brody eyed her. “Where will you start?”
Mattie thought for a brief moment. “Timber Creek runs down through the BLM land before it hits the meadows of the Redman Ranch. I’ll drive as far as I can into the foothills as long as the road runs beside the creek, but once the creek splits off, I’ll leave my vehicle and go along the bank on foot.”
“All right. You go. I’ll send Johnson as soon as I can get him out there.”
* * *
Always grateful that the county had bought an SUV for the K-9 unit, Mattie was even more so now. Robo stood behind her with his eyes pinned outside the windshield as the Explorer lurched up the rocky two-track that led into the high country above the Redman Ranch. Mattie had accessed the BLM property by leaving the highway and bumping over a cattle guard, and she was now on the four-wheel-drive road that headed upward beside the creek. Light from the setting sun slanted in, touching on bubbles made by eddies and swirls as water rushed downhill around rocks and boulders within the creek bed.
Willows crowded the creek banks, blocking her view as she looked for the man who’d been shot, and she realized she needed to leave her unit and search on foot. She pulled off the two-track and parked, ratcheting on the emergency brake. After hopping out, she wedged rocks behind the tires to reinforce the brakes and keep her vehicle from sliding downhill.
Robo leaped from his compartment. She made him wait long enough for her to put on his blue nylon search harness and to take a few laps of water. He was pumped up and ready to go, so she patted him on the side while she told him, “Let’s go find someone.”
She had no scent article for direction, but the mere presence of his harness told him he was looking for a person, and she knew it was all he needed to direct his considerable energy toward a search. She sprinted alongside him toward the creek bank.
Once she reached the water’s edge, she paused long enough to get Robo started. “Let’s find someone. Search!”
Nose down, Robo began to quarter the area, and as he trotted away from the creek, Mattie realized she hadn’t thought this through. How could she let Robo know that he was supposed to search along the creek bank?
She called him back to her, clipped a short leash on his harness, and started leading him upstream, staying as near the creek as vegetation would allow. She had a feeling the caller had been at a location higher up in the mountains than this, and she knew that keeping Robo on a leash was going to be too slow and cumbersome as they climbed in elevation. She needed a better plan.
She began to talk to him. “We need to find someone here. By the creek.” She said it over and over as she lifted branches of willows and pulled back shrubbery to direct him to search. Within a few minutes, he began searching without direction.
She unclipped the leash as she kept up her chatter, directing Robo with gestures and keeping up with him. He stayed beside the creek and started sniffing through the vegetation on his own. She felt a surge of pride. This dog was so smart, and she felt honored to have him for a partner.
They made better time heading uphill. The creek was about fifteen feet wide here, narrower and deeper in places where it tumbled downhill around granite stones and over falls. Mattie jogged along beside it, dodging rocks, fallen branches, and boulders.
Within the first fifteen minutes, they entered the forest, where pine, spruce, and piñon trees grew sparse but created new obstacles. The fresh scent of pine filled the air. Robo continued to beat around the willows and shrubs by the creek while Mattie ranged beside him to the best of her ability.
There had been no time to think about the danger associated with the search. Nate Fletcher had been shot less than twenty-four hours ago. Why had this caller been shot? Was it an accident? A long-range rifle shot? But it wasn’t hunting season right now, and an accident didn’t make sense.
It had been almost an hour since the call first came in to the station, and if this man was bleeding out, time was of the essence. She pushed a feeling of hopelessness aside and focused on the mission, whether it be recovery or rescue.
She jogged uphill, glad she trained each morning by running the hills that surrounded town. Robo continued to quarter the area beside the creek, searching under and around willows. When the creek traveled along steeper areas, the vegetation grew sparse, opening up the banks to view. Mattie took advantage of it to scan the banks and run ahead, calling Robo to join her.
Her phone jingled in her pocket, and she paused, letting Robo continue to search. The terrain was too rough to try to read the screen and run at the same time, and she was puffing hard, so she stopped to look at caller ID.
It was Brody, and she connected the call. “Hey.”
“Where are you? Johnson is on his way.”
“I parked close to the cattle guard. He’ll see my vehicle beside the road. By now, I’m about a mile farther uphill on the creek.”
“All right. He should arrive at your vehicle within ten minutes.”
Mattie began to jog uphill again. “Anything else from the caller?”
“Nah. We lost the connection.”
She puffed out a breath. Had the shooter found the victim and disconnected the call? Was there an armed shooter somewhere up ahead? “Okay. I’m going on up. Still have a cell phone signal, so have Johnson call me when he gets here.”