Search And Rescue. Valerie Hansen

that Sophie was still miffed. Unfortunately, she’d been right when she’d guessed that he wasn’t treating her so-called report of clues seriously. Either she’d imagined seeing signs of a lurker or she’d invented one. There was no way things like that just disappeared on a totally windless morning. At least not so completely. When he’d mentioned the birds in the area he’d been giving her a chance to alibi away her error in judgment. Now she was going to be stuck with it.

      Opening the rear door of his SUV he fitted the working dog with a special K-9 vest, snapped a long lead on his collar and signaled him to get out.

      Titus’s tail wagged as eagerly as ever but his steps were slightly halting until he got warmed up. Knowing that the head trainer was observing them made Ryder extra cautious. Since they had nothing with which to offer a scent to the dog, he began to lead him in a circuitous path before rejoining Sophie.

      She didn’t greet the happy dog as she would have under casual circumstances. Instead, she motioned to the ground where she’d noticed the bits of trash and said, “Seek.”

      Ryder didn’t expect any reaction, let alone a strong one. The old dog snuffled the ground, disturbing dried grass and leaves, then kept his nose to the ground, wheeled and headed directly for the street.

      Playing out the light lead, Ryder followed. Titus had not only struck a trail, he was acting as if the scent was fresh!

      If he hadn’t been so biased in the first place, Ryder would have easily concluded that someone had returned recently and picked up the gum wrappers that Sophie had spotted. Now he was forced to reconsider.

      Titus led him to the curb, then up the street several houses before he lost the trail.

      Disgusted with himself and slightly contrite, Ryder turned to Sophie. “I owe you an apology. Somebody was in your yard, probably this morning, and they got into a car right here. We’ll need to check with the nearest residents to see if they noticed.”

      “We can hope,” she said.

      Frowning, he took her by the elbow and ushered her back to her house as quickly as possible.

      “What’s the hurry? The gum chewer is gone.”

      “Now, maybe,” Ryder said gruffly. “But stop and think. The only way anyone would have known you’d stumbled on those wrappers was by watching you do it.”