Tanda worked for a couple of hours, paying bills, adding to her monthly supply list, answering letters from people. There were those people who wanted to buy a trained bloodhound, and those people who already had dogs and simply wanted them trained. Of course, the second group never understood that their request wasn’t all that simple. Dogs, like people, don’t always do what they’re able to, and some are better at the doing than others. Teddy, for example, had taken to the training immediately, while one of her litter brothers had had to be sold as a pet. He’d had no interest in tracking, and hadn’t even been willing to notice a fresh scent, let alone one that was days or a week old—
Suddenly Tanda sat straight, silently cursing herself for being an idiot. Her brother’s body had been found in his rental car not half a mile away, but no one had known why he’d been there. He certainly hadn’t come to visit her, otherwise he would have driven all the way to the house. The police were assuming that Don had gone to the spot to meet someone, and either that particular someone or somebody following one or the other of them was the murderer. But what if he’d parked there to go somewhere on foot, and knowing where he’d gone would point to who had killed him? Not once had she thought to check the possibility, but it might not be too late. That pup that had to be sold would never have been able to follow a scent better than a week old, but his sire was a dog of another color.
Once she’d made up her mind, Tanda didn’t hesitate. Her first stop was her brother’s old room, where she’d put the clothes the police had given to her after going through them. Their laboratory hadn’t been able to find anything in the clothes, but hopefully they hadn’t ruined Don’s scent on his shirt.
Once Tanda had stuffed the shirt into a spare plastic bag and that into a shoulder bag, she went out to the runs which were to the right about fifteen feet from the house. Happily, it had stopped raining by then, so she didn’t need to choose between fooling with an umbrella or getting wet. Only three of the five dogs she had were currently in training, and two of those, Teddy and Masher, were from the same litter. The third, Angel, belonged to someone attached to a police department in Rhode Island, and he would be going back to his owner once his training was finished. Teddy and her brother Masher were already sold, and since their training was almost complete, they would be leaving first.
Which left Robby and Merry, her first breeding pair. Merry was sweet and a top-notch tracker, but Robby was something special. His long, homely face had bright, eager eyes, and he’d never failed to follow any trail that was definitely, even if faintly, there. He might be a plain, light brown mass of furry wrinkles and drool, but to Tanda he was downright beautiful.
“All right, you bunch, settle down,” she told the dogs, who had quickly come to the front of their runs at her appearance. “This time I need a professional, so it’s Robby’s turn. The rest of you can watch and learn.”
Once Tanda had put Robby on a lead, the dog obviously expected to be taken to the van, but Tanda had already decided against driving. If someone saw her out with one of her dogs only half a mile away from home, they couldn’t possibly consider it suspicious. If they saw her drive a dog there, though, they could only conclude she was there to snoop.
“Which is just what we will be there for, but we don’t have to advertise it,” she told Robby as she headed him away from the van. “Whoever killed Don and the detective I hired would be stupid not to keep an eye on me, and I don’t think he’s stupid. We’ll have to look around carefully before we start.”
Tanda took Robby along the tar road leading to Old Stage Road at a pace close to strolling, and once they reached the blacktop she casually headed them left. The side of the road was muddy from the rain, but it wasn’t so bad that they had to leave the shoulder and walk either on the blacktop or in the grass and bushes. That area had a small number of houses like Tanda’s, each of them isolated with woods all around, and from the blacktop they were hard, if not impossible, to see.
It was still overcast and very humid, especially under all those trees, but Tanda moved along as if enjoying a simple walk. While pretending to give the neighborhood a pleased and casual inspection, she tried very hard to see if anyone was watching her. If they were it would have to be from the woods, so she kept an eye on Robby. A watcher might be able to hide from her, but her dog would know immediately if someone was there. He might not do anything about it, but he would certainly know.
Half a mile isn’t far to walk for someone used to working with tracking dogs, and it also didn’t take very long. The place where Don had been found was a small, cleared area just off the road, half again as long as a large car, wide enough for two cars to park side by side. It was a place for someone with car trouble to stop, or someone who simply wanted to sit for a while and look at the woods. It was also a place where people could meet secretly, especially at night, when the normally light traffic turned to nothing coming by at all.
Tanda stopped a few feet away and stared at the spot, searching inwardly for the strength to go nearer. That was where her brother, Don, had been killed, the place where his body had been found by the police. She hadn’t come this way since the murder, and now she knew she’d been wise. It was almost possible to picture the murder, Don suspecting nothing until the knife appeared, then—what? Did he scream and try to get away? Did he beg for mercy? Try to fight?
“Stop it!” she whispered to herself, struggling against the need to shudder. “You can’t change what happened, but you might be able to help keep it from happening again. You came here to do something, so go ahead and do it.”
Robby stood watching her as he waited patiently, and he paid no attention to the surrounding woods. That should mean they weren’t under observation, so there would hardly be a better time. It was more than possible that Don hadn’t gotten out of his car to go somewhere on foot, but if he had and there was anything of a trail left…
After taking one final look around, Tanda reached into her shoulder bag. While taking out Don’s shirt, she walked Robby into the center of the clearing, then bent to give her dog the scent and the command, “Find him!” Robby seemed to have no trouble taking the scent, and then he began to cast around, searching for a matching scent on the ground. Oh, please let it be here, Tanda prayed silently as she watched. And if the scent is here, please let it be enough for Robby to find…
And then, with his usual baying bark, Robby announced that her prayers had been answered. After a full week of time, through the scents of dozens of people, and even after a rain, her dog had found enough of a scent to follow. Filled with incredible pride and an ocean of relief, Tanda let him take the lead to follow the trail.
Robby immediately led the way into the woods, back in the direction from which they’d come. Tanda looked around as they went, remembering that section of woods from the time of her childhood. She’d played and explored all through it, just as Don had before her. Could he have used the woods as a shortcut to wherever he’d been going? Could he have had an idea about what would happen, and managed to leave a clue of some sort hidden in the woods?
Question after question filled Tanda’s mind, but they didn’t keep her from continually looking around when she wasn’t watching Robby. She’d stuffed the shirt back in her purse once it had served its purpose, mostly to get it out of the way. If anyone saw her, they’d hardly need sight of the shirt to figure out that she was meddling. Oh, hurry, Robby, please hurry…
And Robby didn’t disappoint her. At one point he lost the trail, but casting around let him pick it up again beyond the point it had been lost. With full confidence he led her on, and when Tanda knew their destination for certain, she was stunned.
“But how can that be?” she whispered aloud, staring as they approached her own house. “He didn’t come to see me that night, I know he didn’t. What’s going on?”
Robby, the only one within hearing, didn’t answer, but he also didn’t stop. He led her directly to the house and around to the back on the right, avoiding the runs to the left. Once in the back he hesitated momentarily by a tree, then went directly for the closed wooden doors leading to the