Stalking Ground (26 page)

Using a swab, she gently rubbed the spot, and the end of it turned red. She showed it to Brody as she tucked it inside its
plastic cover. “Looks like blood,” she said flatly, but her heart sank.
Maybe it’s Cole’s
. He could be injured, and an injury would greatly reduce his chances of escape.

“Good boy,” she told Robo, giving him a firm pat on his Kevlar-coated side. “Go on. Search.”

Cole sat on a rocky ledge, peering down into the forest from behind a boulder. Sunlight slanted hard from the west, nearing sunset. He shivered as the cold breeze kicked up, turning the wet legs of his coveralls into instruments of torture. He’d used his Leatherman to cut damp strips of cloth from the bottoms of each pants leg to bind his swollen ankle, but pain still throbbed with every heartbeat. He’d also fashioned a spear of sorts by winding narrow strips of cloth to secure the crossbow bolt onto a solid branch he’d harvested from a pine.

His breath came in full and even cycles, and he felt fully recovered. Had it not been for the ankle, he could run again. As it was, he wasn’t sure how much more pounding the injury could take. He stood to test it, bending over to make sure he remained hidden behind the boulder. Pain shot up his leg when he bore weight on it, but he could handle it if necessary. He wished he knew where Carmen and her dog were.

By now, someone should have missed him—Tess, his clients, his kids—someone. The last thing he wanted was for one of them to come looking for him. He wondered if Carmen had given up and returned to the stable. If so, she would be a danger to anyone who came into her vicinity.

He wished he’d called Mattie to tell her about the Clenbuterol dosing before he left home. At least then she would have known he was coming up to confront Carmen about it. It was stupid of him not to. If only he’d known then what he knew now.

Thoughts of his kids sent a chill of a different sort through him. What would happen to his kids if he died? He’d never even made out a will. No appointed guardian. Would Liv come out of her self-imposed exile and take care of them? He didn’t want to think about it. Couldn’t think about it. He needed to pay attention.

Scanning the steep cliff face above him, he wondered about his plan. With his ankle the way it was, he doubted he could climb any higher. An escape route felt really important, and he didn’t have one. He debated going back down and moving on. Staying hidden up here might work if his stalkers were mere humans, but he worried about the dog, Bruno. Just how good a tracker was he?

Searching the forest below, he discovered the answer. What he first saw as movement between the trees soon took form. Bruno trotted across a clearing, nose to the ground, coming closer with each step. Cole’s heart rate kicked up a notch.

Who was with him? He studied the forest, trying to find Carmen. Nothing. She’d apparently turned the dog loose.

As Bruno came closer, Cole could see a bulky collar on his neck.
An e-collar.
His mind jumped to the possibilities of what that could mean. Carmen could summon the dog back to her with an electronic signal. Or if the collar contained a GPS, she could allow him to run down prey and then follow him at her own pace. The second option scared the crap out of him.

Without hesitation, the Doberman sprinted up to the base of the cliff, and Cole lost sight of him. He searched the
forest—still no sign of Carmen. Cole straightened so he could see around the boulder.
Where is that dog?

Bruno lunged into view a mere ten feet below. They locked eyes for several scary seconds. The dog snarled and barked, scrambling at the bottom of the ledge in search of a way up.

Now what?

Don’t panic
.

The Doberman scrabbled at the loose shale, sending rocks sliding to the bottom of the cliff, taking him partway down with them. He continued to bark as he got up and tried again, this time gaining some ground.

Cole scanned the forest. Still nothing.

I’ve got to do something to stop this barking
. He remembered how Bruno had reacted to Sophie’s baby talk. He tried to imitate Sophie’s sweet talk to the best of his ability. “Hey Bruno.
Guter hund. Guten morgen,
Bruno.
Guten hund,
” he called, most likely butchering the translations of ‘good dog’ and ‘good morning’ but doing the best he could. Hopefully the dog wouldn’t care about proper syntax or what time of day it happened to be.

Cole kept up the chatter for almost a full minute before Bruno stopped barking. By this time, he’d scrambled back to the base of the ledge. He stopped for a moment, giving Cole his full attention, ears pricked.

Hardly daring to hope, Cole continued to talk to the dog, alternating between a soothing voice and baby talk. Bruno stared at him, his amber eyes unblinking.

Cole’s attempt to say “good boy” seemed to make a difference. Doggie confusion came into Bruno’s expression, and he whined—a single, confused utterance.

Encouraged, Cole stood and showed Bruno the palms of his hands. “
Das is gut,
Bruno,” he repeated, trying to keep the urgency he was starting to feel out of his voice.

He wracked his brain for what to do next. He decided to try a command. “Bruno,
sitz
!”

The Dobie tucked his tail and sat, looking up at Cole expectantly, ears pricked.

Where is a dog treat when I need one!

Taking slow and cautious steps, Cole moved from behind his shelter and began to inch his way down the cliff face, hanging on to shrubs and branches for balance. All the time, he babbled in German, saying any words that came to mind heavily interspersed with “good boy.”

Bruno watched him, now looking more curious than confused. Cole tamped down his fear as he drew closer to the dog, because he knew the animal could sense it. Instead, he thought of Sophie’s lighthearted trust and tried to duplicate it. When he reached a prominence directly above the dog, he tried a different command. “Bruno,
platz
.”

The Doberman went into a down position.

What is the word for stay?
He couldn’t remember. Falling back on the tried and true, he repeated the word for ‘down’ as he continued to ease his way along the rocky cliff. Each step on his swollen ankle sent jolts, but he kept going and soon was on an equal level with the dog, about eight feet away. Bruno watched him without waver, looking eager and expectant. Cole decided he needed to give the dog some form of reward, because it looked like that was what he obviously wanted.

“
Komm
,” Cole said, at the same time using the hand gesture for “come.” “
Komm hier!
”

Bruno leaped to his feet and ran straight at him, causing Cole to almost go into cardiac arrest. But the Doberman scurried to sit right in front of his feet and looked up into his eyes with excitement. Cole bent forward and extended a hand for
Bruno to sniff. The dog dismissed it, still eagerly waiting for a treat. Cole stroked the top of his head and then patted his side.

Giving Bruno lots of loving strokes and crooning to the dog in German, Cole gingerly reached for the e-collar and slipped it off. Bruno showed no objection whatsoever. Looking up at the perch on the cliff that he’d abandoned, Cole heaved the collar up toward the ledge. The collar bounced off the rock face, skittered downward, and lodged in the branches of scrub cedar—unseen from below.

Couldn’t be better
. He patted the dog and hugged him close to his leg, telling him what a good boy he was. He scanned the forest, feeling the urgency of desperation. Befriending Bruno was a major accomplishment, but he still had Carmen and that crossbow to contend with. Deciding to head across slope opposite the direction from which Bruno had come, Cole patted his left leg. “Bruno,
ferse
.”

Bruno fell into heel position as Cole finished the last descent and jogged off as fast as his swollen ankle would allow.

*

When Robo stopped at the edge of the stream and sniffed up and down its bank, Mattie knew that Cole had taken to the water. That’s exactly what she would have done if she were in his shoes. Robo leaped over the water and sniffed along the bank on the other side, tentatively heading upstream. It was the first time he’d hesitated since he’d taken to Cole’s trail. Robo nosed the foliage along the bank, tracking Cole’s scent slowly and carefully upslope. She hoped his effort to mask his route had been enough to throw the Doberman off his trail.

Although she grew impatient to move forward at a faster pace, Mattie let Robo do his work. He continued to give the tall grass a thorough sniff as they moved upward. At times
willows and boulders blocked their path, forcing Mattie and Brody to circle around or enter the stream. Robo either edged along the stream or took to the water. When he splashed into the creek, she followed him, the frigid liquid filling her boots and numbing her feet. Brody stayed close at her back.

They toiled upward. Her breath quickened, and she could hear Brody heaving for air behind her. Robo worked the trail, seeming more and more sure of himself. After what felt like a lifetime, they came upon a dead deer with a short, metal arrow lodged in its rib cage behind its front shoulder. The ugly bolt matched the one in Juan Fiero. Gooseflesh tingled along her spine, and it wasn’t from the icy water that squelched in her boots.

Robo continued upstream but then turned to go back, sniffing furiously along both sides of the bank.

He’s lost the trail. And Cole must have left the water
. Trying to think like Cole, she scanned the banks for tracks. Nothing in the rocky shale. Robo must have had the same idea, but he was using his nose, sniffing in widening arcs that brought him over to the decomposing deer. He scurried back and forth with his nose to the ground, moving away from the water. Soon, he headed across slope with greater determination. Mattie and Brody filed into place behind him.

They trooped along, Robo picking up speed. She assumed the scent trail had become stronger here. They jogged through stands of timber and across open spaces. Mattie snatched glances of the surrounding terrain even while she watched her step, placing her feet carefully to avoid ankle-turning stones. They were approaching a cliff face when she noticed the hackles at Robo’s neck rise.

“Robo, wait,” she said in a quiet voice.

He stopped in place, throwing a glance at her over his shoulder. She could swear he was asking,
What for?

Brody stopped a mere twelve inches behind her. “What?” he said, matching her quiet tone.

Mattie spoke in a near whisper. “Robo’s hackles are raised. He knows Cole Walker. I don’t think he’d do that with him. There must be someone else ahead on the trail. Proceed with caution.”

Brody was already holding his rifle ready. “Right.”

“Robo, search.” Mattie followed him as he lowered his nose to the scent trail.

Through the pine, she spotted a small clearing with a cliff face beyond. Robo pushed forward, his neck bristling. She placed a hand on his Kevlar vest, grabbing hold of a strap sewed to its back, and slowed him down. She wanted to avoid breaking out into the open space without seeing what it contained first.

Brody stayed at her back, slightly to the side. “There,” he whispered. Evidently his height and position made it possible to spot something. Crouching, he pointed.

Mattie reacted at once, getting low and stepping to the side. She peered through a break in the trees in the direction Brody indicated. Carmen Santiago stood at the base of the cliff face pointing a wicked looking crossbow up at it, a bolt loaded and ready to shoot. Mattie scanned the area above Carmen but could see nothing.

Carmen raised a hand holding an oblong object and pointed it upward toward the ledge.

“What’s that?” Brody whispered.

“Looks like a remote for a dog collar,” she whispered back.

“What’s she doing?”

“I don’t know. Where’s the dog?”

“I don’t see him.”

“She must have lost him,” Mattie whispered, watching Carmen continuously press and repress a button on the remote. “She’s signaling him. She thinks he’s up there.”

Brody straightened and scanned the area, stooping low again when he finished. “I don’t see a dog.”

“Do you know anything about that crossbow?”

“They’re powerful. No safety. She can sight down the scope and pull the trigger in a split second.”

“Reloads easily?”

“No. It would take some effort. Might take fifteen seconds,” Brody said.

“Do you think she has a gun?”

“Can’t tell.”

Mattie locked eyes with Brody for a few seconds. “I want to take her alive. She’s got a lot of questions to answer.”

“Agreed.” His face was grim. “But I won’t let her take another life.”

Mattie nodded. Brody could easily hit a target with his rifle at up to one hundred yards. The use of deadly force would be permissible if Carmen was trying to kill one of them, including Robo. Would he jump at the chance to take out the woman who killed his girlfriend?

Removing her handgun from its holster, she whispered instructions. “Let’s split up and go in from two directions. You take seven o’clock and I’ll take five. Avoid each other’s line of fire.”

He nodded. “I’ll draw her fire. You’ll have about a fifteen-second window to take her down.”

He started to turn away, but Mattie grasped his forearm to stop him. “Be careful, Brody.”

“You too.”

She turned off to the right, whispering to Robo to heel and seeking the five o’clock position to home in on the cliff face. Robo stayed close as she crept through the forest, using trees and boulders as cover when she could. She’d recovered her breath during their brief stop, and it came evenly. Her senses sharpened. The wind sighed through boughs overhead, and dead pine needles crackled beneath her feet.

Mattie crept close enough to Carmen so that she could see her clearly. The woman’s black hair had been pulled from its braid, messy strands floating around her head. She stood at the bottom of the incline, her back to Mattie and her hand raised to shield her eyes from the setting sun. She studied the cliff face above, holding her crossbow ready.

Mattie searched for Cole in the rocks, but could see no sign of him. She decided to get even closer.

Cover became sparse as she moved to the edge of the clearing, but by now she estimated she was only about thirty feet away from the woman. Robo danced at her heel, ready to lunge forward. Grateful that his training held to remain silent, she gripped the strap on his vest to keep him close. She scanned the seven o’clock position but couldn’t see Brody. He would be well hidden, and she didn’t waste time looking for him. She assumed he would be in place.