Scent of Murder (19 page)

Like most Publix supermarkets, this one was a bustling, crowded montage of noises and people. It reflected South Florida with accents of every flavor and no two faces the same color. As soon as he stepped in the door he risked being caught on camera. He panicked for a moment and wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to appear too nervous or do anything to attract the attention of anyone who might review the footage from the security cameras later. He stepped on into the store and down the pasta aisle, pretending to inspect a bottle of Ragu spaghetti sauce. Once he was safely in the middle of the aisle he looked up to see if he could notice any video cameras. There were none obvious, but there were several large domes with blacked-out glass bulging from the ceiling at strategic locations. He knew those were cameras that could be moved in any direction. Staying close to the shelf, he inched toward the end of the aisle, glancing each direction until he could see the cash registers.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw her bagging groceries on register five. Michelle had a bright smile as she chatted with the elderly man while he paid for his groceries. He watched her push the full cart as the man followed her slowly, using a cane in his left hand. Her long dark hair was tied in a ponytail and bounced when she walked. She didn't seem to be anything at all like the girls he had dealt with in the past.

That didn't really matter as her image burned onto his brain and he knew that she would be his next choice. He didn't have much time to waste and wondered if it would be too much to grab her this evening.

He loved when his mind had so much to occupy it.

 

20

Tim Hallett stayed at the dirt-road entrance to the field with Rocky next to him. There wasn't a lot for Rocky or Smarty to do during the cadaver search, but Hallett realized he could learn a lot by watching how things were organized. He'd seen the training that Ruben put Darren and Brutus through. Using just a few strands of hair or a tooth or a bone fragment obtained from the medical examiner's office, Brutus had been taught to search out the decaying material and human scent. At first, Darren had tried to make it a rigid exercise for the dog, but it was Ruben who knew Brutus's true nature and turned it into a game with rewards and incentives. They had all been shocked how much progress Brutus had made from his first day trying to locate a pair of human teeth in a small area. After the intricate training Ruben put him through, now just a few strands of hair could attract the dog's attention.

But this was different. This was real. And it wasn't a guarantee. A crime scene team had set up a loose grid marked by wooden stakes in the ground, in case the search went on for more than just today. Darren would take Brutus through each section until the dog tired; then when he searched again he wouldn't search the same area twice. There were also crime scene photographers and a lieutenant who looked nervous. He knew the tall, skinny lieutenant of the detective bureau didn't have the balls to call out this many people on a hunch. This was all Sergeant Greene's doing. That was one of the things he respected about Helen Greene: She called out a tremendous amount of manpower and resources to follow up on what some would call a far-fetched lead, but she never flinched in making these decisions.

Rocky panted as his eyes followed Brutus's progress. Hallett ran his fingers through Rocky's coat and tried to move him completely into the shade. Out of habit, he picked burrs out of Rocky's fur. It calmed him to watch this with his partner. His friend.

Hallett wanted to be out here supporting his other good friend, Darren, but his mind was now stuck on the idea of going after Ludner's sons as a way to get to the man. The sergeant still hadn't assigned him leads like that, and she would shoot down his idea if he suggested it. He'd have to do it quietly. That's why he had called one of the crime intelligence analysts and asked her to come up with some addresses and phone numbers for Arnold Ludner's sons. She kept him on the phone chatting for a few moments. He was trying to place her face and match it to the pleasant voice. Just as he was about to give her a clever comment, he looked up and saw Lori Tate standing next to him. He thanked the crime analyst and hung up.

He smiled and said, “Hey, Lori.” For some reason he felt guilty flirting on the phone with the analyst.

She returned the smile with her white, straight teeth. “Looks like you guys have been busy.”

“Now it's all up to Darren and Brutus.”

“How late do you think you'll be out here?”

He caught the hint that she was looking ahead to the evening. “I have no idea. If we find something, my guess is you'll be out a lot later than us.”

“You're probably right,” she said as she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “That's for luck.” She trotted over to the group of investigators and crime scene technicians on the other side of the field.

*   *   *

This place really reminded Rocky of home. It was wide open and filled with all kinds of animals. Rocky could smell a dozen different scent tracks that crossed in every direction. He didn't notice any water close by, so he wasn't scared. But the place did remind him of the low, wet lands where he was born.

Rocky sat and sniffed the air. Just that morning, as he was starting to wake up, he remembered that day when his mom fought the animal in the water. He had seen more of them and heard Tim say over and over the word “gator.” Rocky was sure Tim didn't understand that now just the word “gator” startled him. He remembered the gator trying to come up from the water into the puppy pens and the way his mother raced down to the water to stop it. He had never heard barks like that, and the gator simply made low grunts. Its long tail whipped the water, and it snapped its wide mouth filled with teeth toward his mother.

His mother slowly gave ground and looked over her shoulder to see if anyone had heard the commotion. Lights were coming on outside the house, and help would be there soon, but the gator moved so swiftly his mother never had a chance. Rocky could still hear his mother's yelp of pain as the gator's jaws closed on her neck and pulled her into the dark water that led up to the edge of the pens. There were fences there designed to keep the dogs from going in the water, but it looked like the gator could come right through them if it wanted.

The fight between his mother and the gator had caused every dog on the property to yelp and bark as the man from the house raced down to the puppy pens. But he was too late.

Now Rocky let Tim's hand on his head comfort him, and he focused on the sights and sounds around him. There were a lot of people here. His friend Brutus seemed to be at the center of the attention. Brutus was fun to play with, and he could find anything and win any game his man set up for him.

Rocky started to pant to throw off the heat of the day. He moved back slightly into the shade of the vehicle and was happy when Tim sat down on the ground next to him and looped his arm around Rocky's shoulder, pulling him close.

This may have been Brutus's game, but Rocky couldn't have been happier.

*   *   *

Right off the bat Darren Mori realized this was nothing like their training environment. As word spread about the search for the missing girl, more sheriff's personnel got involved. That's the way things always seemed to unfold. Especially in the afternoon on a weekday, when shifts were slow and deputies were always interested in seeing something unusual. Cops were just like anyone else; they wanted to be around when things happened. But with cops there was no one to come up and say, “Show's over folks, move along.” Now Darren had the added stress of not being able to find anything in front of twenty witnesses.

At least Brutus didn't seem affected by the commotion. There were a couple of sergeants, the missing persons detectives, Fusco, and a homicide guy, as well as several crime scene technicians who had laid out some markers to help keep track of where Brutus had searched.

Finally, Fusco looked over at him and nodded, twirling his fingers in the air to indicate it was time to get this show on the road.

Darren had a sixteen-foot lead on Brutus and leaned down and said, “Seek, boy, seek.” He wished he had the cool Dutch or German commands the patrol dogs used, but since he didn't have to worry about some thug on the street running away and being chased down by Brutus, he kept the commands simple. At one point he thought about using Japanese, even though he didn't speak any himself. It was more of a nod to his heritage and his family. But he didn't want to extend any of the stereotypes some of the detectives held about Asians.

Brutus surprised Darren by darting off into a clump of old corn and what looked like sugarcane. The long lead got caught in the stalks, but Darren was able to quickly catch up with the enthusiastic dog. By the time he cut through the old crops, Brutus was sitting down next to a mound of dirt. It was a classic alert behavior that he'd been taught. The cadaver dogs were trained to sit quietly because no one wanted to risk the dog digging down to the body and disturbing evidence.

None of the crowd could see Darren from this position, and he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to disturb potential evidence, but he didn't want to seem subservient to that pompous Fusco. He walked over slowly, patted Brutus on the head, and said, “Good boy.” Then he looked at the mound of dirt, squatted down, and used the edge of the flashlight from his belt to scrape some of the dirt to one side.

He saw a tiny bone and brushed away more dirt and realized it was a dead possum. That was another thing that never happened in training. There were rarely other dead animal parts in the confined area where Ruben Vasquez hid different artifacts. These were the kinds of things he needed to bring up with Ruben, who was very progressive in his training techniques.

Darren walked around the clump of corn and encouraged Brutus to start searching along the road leading to the field. He kept his voice light and playful, saying over and over, “Seek, boy, seek.” Brutus would start in different directions, full of energy.

After more than an hour and a half, with several water and food breaks in between, Darren noticed Brutus starting to slow down. But he had not nearly reached his limit. Darren was beginning to understand some of the things that Ruben did in training to teach him more about reading his partner.

The sun was about to set, and he was surprised how cool the breeze from the east felt against his face. As he moved along the edge of the road near the canal, he sensed a slight hesitation from Brutus. Then the dog continued in the same direction he'd been walking. Brutus paused again. He walked back to the spot where he hesitated and acted somewhat agitated. He kept leaning over the edge of the road that dropped down into the canal.

Darren looked over his shoulder and noticed John Fusco easing his way from the group of detectives. When he got about fifteen yards away he stopped and said, “What do you think, Kato? It's getting kind of dark out. Is Brutus showing any interest in anything?”

Darren didn't mean to ignore Fusco, but he liked the idea of it anyway as he focused on Brutus and his odd behavior.

Fusco edged closer, careful not to upset the dog.

Finally, Darren said, “You see that uneven ledge just under the water?”

Fusco leaned over to look at the ledge three feet below the road. “How could the dog know there was something under the water?”

“Brutus is onto something right here. It's up to you, but I think it's worth checking out.”

Fusco said, “Be my guest.”

Darren thought about it for a minute, then handed the lead to Fusco. Brutus was still sitting right at the edge of the road but looking down at the ledge. Darren slipped off the side of the road into a few inches of water. The main part of the canal was three feet to the side, where it dropped off precipitously into the standard black water of Florida waterways.

Darren used a stick to poke into the mud a little and immediately felt it bump against something hard. At the same time, Brutus let out a quick bark. Darren didn't hesitate to pull out his flashlight and pop it on. He squatted and used his hand to dig in the mud. Normally, if they had a stronger lead, they would call a crime scene technician to process the area, but this was still classified as a long shot.

It was a long shot until he pulled out a human hand and forearm in an advanced state of decay. He immediately dropped the hand and looked over his shoulder at Fusco, who in turn shouted over his shoulder for help.

Even in the heat of the moment, Darren remembered to look up and say, “Good dog, Brutus. Good dog.”

Brutus answered with a vicious wagging of his tail.

*   *   *

Tim Hallett felt pride in Brutus's accomplishment. It was clearly the sort of thing Ruben Vasquez was trying to instill in the squad. An
all for one and one for all
type of attitude. Police agencies had a built-in competitiveness, and Hallett supposed he was as competitive as the next guy. It was always fun to say you had the most arrests or caught a dangerous criminal. But this was an entirely different feeling. He imagined it was the way he'd feel if his brother ever achieved anything.

Now, in the dark, the attention had shifted from the cute Golden Retriever to the grim business of recovering a body someone had managed to bury under the water. Hallett was only able to catch a quick glimpse of the crime scene but saw that the killer had taken advantage of a ledge and probably buried the girl when the water in the canal was a little lower.

Hallett sat on a towel he'd laid out on the ground with Rocky next him. He had his arm around the dog, absently rubbing his shoulder and chest while he watched the crime scene people set up a bank of floodlights powered by a generator in the rear of one of their vans. Lori Tate was one of the busy crime scene technicians conferring with the detectives about how best to retrieve the body and all the evidence in the grave. Hallett couldn't deny she was pretty and he was drawn to her. The fact that he'd watched her every move tonight made that obvious.