Tracking Game Read online

  Mattie appeared at his side and touched his arm. “Can I catch a ride to my place before you go to the hospital?”

  Firemen were dousing the blaze with their hoses, but in the beams of the respondents’ headlights, he could see reddened patches on Mattie’s cheeks. He took her right hand and lifted her arm so that he could examine the blisters beading her forearm. Compared to his, her skin was soft and tender, and she lacked the protection of the long sleeves he’d worn. “Did you have someone treat your burns?”

  “Garrett needed help more than I did. Come on, let’s head back to town. I need to get Robo to help us with this crime scene. Stella’s here to take over, so I can go.”

  Stella LoSasso, the detective who worked with Mattie at the Timber Creek County Sheriff’s Department, would be in charge if there had been foul play. Cole hadn’t had a chance to talk with Mattie privately yet, but he suspected that foul play was exactly what they were dealing with here. Nate’s van hadn’t turned into a fireball through spontaneous combustion; someone had to have burned that van on purpose.

  He followed Mattie to his truck. After starting the engine and pulling onto the highway, he voiced the question. “How did Nate die?”

  “He was shot, Cole. The scene is a mess now, so Robo probably won’t be able to find evidence, but Stella and I thought we should try.”

  Though he thought he’d taken all the hits he could for the night, the news came as another shock. “Who in the world would shoot Nate Fletcher?”

  Mattie peered at him from her side of the truck. “Do you know Nate?”

  “He’s married to Kasey Redman. She’s Lillian and Doyle Redman’s daughter. They own most of the valley to the north of the highway out there.”

  “I’m familiar with the ranch; it’s a Timber Creek landmark. I vaguely remember Kasey from grade school, but she’s several years younger than me.”

  They’d hit the edge of town, and he turned onto her street. “Nate Fletcher makes a living as an outfitter. He has a string of horses with a ready-made way to take care of them on the ranch.”

  “So Nate and Kasey live on the ranch?” A glance told him that Mattie looked worried, a feeling he shared. What a terrible way to end their date: another killing in Timber Creek.

  “Yeah, they have their own house, but they live there, and so does Tyler, Kasey’s younger brother. The ranch is huge, and part of it borders my parents’ place. I grew up knowing the family. They’ve had some tough times this past year.”

  “How so?”

  “Kasey’s dad had a major stroke last fall. Spent some time in rehab, but he’s home now. I heard it affected his ability to talk and use his right arm.”

  “And now we’re going to have to tell Kasey that her husband is dead.”

  Cole parked in front of Mattie’s house and turned off the engine. He didn’t want to leave her like this. Not yet. “Let me look at that arm before I go.”

  “You need to get to the hospital for Leslie. I can take care of it.” She reached for her door handle, giving him a thin smile tinged with regret.

  He stepped out of his truck. “It’ll only take a few minutes. I’ll get supplies from the back and meet you inside.”

  While she hurried to unlock her house, he searched for gauze and ointment in the mobile vet unit that filled the bed of his pickup. Robo barked from inside, but as soon as he cleared the doorway, he leaped off the porch and charged out to the truck, white teeth flashing in the moonlight. Thank goodness, the dog was grinning.

  Cole gathered supplies in one hand in order to free the other long enough to ruffle the fur on Robo’s neck. At one hundred pounds, the black-and-tan German shepherd could tackle a man twice his weight and bring him down. Cole knew, because he’d seen him do it. But unless Mattie told the dog to attack, he was a friendly guy, and although Cole was Robo’s vet, the dog visited him and his family often enough to think they were best buddies. Cole hoped to keep it that way.

  “Robo, take a break.” Mattie’s way of telling him to do his business.

  Cole closed the back of the mobile unit and headed toward the porch while Mattie held open the front door. He stepped inside, glancing around her small living room. Though he and Mattie spent most of their time at his house with the kids, he’d been here before and knew the general floor plan—bedroom off to the left down a short hall, kitchen off to the right through a doorway. He pushed aside his hope that he could spend time with her here tonight and took a right. “I’ll set up in the kitchen.”

  Energized from an evening nap, Robo barreled in behind him. Cole placed his supplies on the counter, and Mattie came up beside him while Robo settled at her feet, head tilted up to watch. Cole reminded himself to move slowly and carefully when touching Mattie, because he had no doubts about how seriously Robo took his duty to protect his girl.

  He held out a hand toward Mattie and waited for her to place her wrist in his palm. “Let me take a look.”

  She’d worn a snug, black T-shirt over jeans to the dance. She looked great—more than great, actually—but her bare arms had suffered from lack of protection when she’d sprinted past the van.

  It scared him the way she always rushed to the front line, no matter what she was doing. While he loved that about her, it caused him no end of worry in light of the danger associated with her job. A cop—a K-9 cop, no less. Always out front, searching for the bad guys.

  The reddened skin on her forearm bore a cluster of small blisters, running from the fine bones of her wrist almost to her elbow.

  Cole drew her toward the sink. “Let me wash my hands, and then we’ll run some cool water over this.”

  “It doesn’t look too bad.”

  “I bet it hurts.”

  She shrugged. “Some.”

  His tough girl. He washed his hands, set the water to a cooler temperature, and placed her arm under the drizzle. She sucked in a breath.

  “You can take whatever you have for the pain, but I’ll put on some cream that contains lidocaine, some aloe, and an antibiotic. That should soothe it. Then we’ll dress it with sterile gauze. Let me check it again tomorrow, but if it starts looking like it’s infected, we should get you to Dr. McGinnis.”

  “I’ll wear a uniform with long sleeves to protect it.”

  Cole held her gaze, her brown eyes serious and intent. He could tell she was already planning what she needed to do next to start this investigation. He’d hoped he could show her exactly what she meant to him tonight—if she felt the same way, that is. Sometimes it was hard to tell exactly how Mattie felt, and he remained fearful that she would withdraw again like she had last spring.

  Gently, he applied the cream and then wrapped her arm. This way of showing his love would have to do for now. He could tell she was anxious to get back to the job, and he needed to get to the hospital to support Leslie.

  As he finished securing the gauze bandage, she surprised him by placing her hand against his cheek. He turned his face into her palm to press his lips against it.

  “Thank you for taking care of me, Cole. No one’s ever done that like you do. I appreciate it.”

  He knew she’d had a tough childhood, and she’d built a wall between herself and others, a wall he was trying to climb over. “I like doing things for you. I’m grateful when you let me.”

  He tipped her face toward the light to inspect the reddened skin on her cheeks. “This isn’t as bad as your arm, more like a sunburn. I’ll leave this cream for you to put on to help decrease the sting. Promise me you’ll do that before you go back out.”

  She gave him a small smile. “Call me when you know something about Garrett, okay?”

  “Sure. I’ll need to hear your voice.”

  “This isn’t how I thought this evening would end,” she said, frowning. “Not that I should be thinking of us, in light of what’s happened to Garrett and Nate Fletcher.”

  Cole took her in his arms and held her close. “I love that you’re thinking of us. Kiss me now before I have to go.
”

  The way she slid her arms up to hold him, cupping his neck with her hand, sent a shiver of pleasure across his shoulders. Her lips were soft and responded to his when he deepened the kiss, until Robo squeezed between them, forcing them to pull away from each other reluctantly. The dog pranced around the floor at their feet, trying to get their attention.

  “Our chaperone,” Cole said. “Let’s remember to leave him home on our next date.”

  Mattie’s already reddened cheeks flushed, and she bent over the shepherd, ruffling his fur. “You’re incorrigible.”

  Cole hoped she was talking to her dog. “I’ll leave these supplies here, so that if your dressing gets wet or soiled, you can change it.”

  She turned to go with him toward her front door. “Be safe. Don’t drive home if you’re too sleepy.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Call me.”

  “You do the same.”

  He hurried to his truck, turning his thoughts back to Garrett and Leslie Hartman and his fears about their well-being. He knew of no one else who’d suffered the terrible loss of a child and survived as gracefully as they. While a child’s death could sometimes drive parents apart, it seemed like it had only drawn the Hartmans closer together. Leslie was a strong woman, but a person could only take so much.

  He turned toward home so he could put his own dogs, Bruno and Belle, into their outdoor run, in case he couldn’t make it home to let them out in the morning. His resident housekeeper, Mrs. Gibbs, had taken advantage of his kids’ vacation to go visit her daughter, so she wouldn’t be around to help.

  This was nasty business with Nate. Poor Kasey. What in the world was going on? Nate was just a rancher, a man who’d married into a family that was tied to the land, and he’d seemed happy to join them in their livelihood.

  He thrust these thoughts aside and focused on driving. Mattie was right; he needed to stay safe on the road, because terrible things could happen and life could change in a heartbeat.

  THREE

  In a hurry to get back to the crime scene, Mattie splashed cool water on her face before applying the cream to her reddened skin. When she glimpsed herself in the mirror, she wondered if there was someone out there in the world who resembled her. A few weeks ago, she’d submitted her DNA to an ancestry database, and she watched her email daily, hoping for a match. She loved her Mama T—no one could ask for a better foster mom—and she’d recently connected with a foster sister named Doreen, but she still wanted to know if her biological mother or any other relatives were out there looking for.

  When she thought of family, memories of her brother Willie surfaced, as they often had since his death the month before. His loss and the way he died still haunted her. It hurt to think that she’d missed the opportunity to reconnect with him, and she supposed it always would. She’d let emotional scars from her past delay their reunion, a mistake she wouldn’t make again if given another chance to unite with relatives.

  Robo followed her into her bedroom to watch her strap on her Kevlar vest and put on her uniform. He darted back and forth to the front door, revved up and ready to go to work.

  That was Robo. No matter if it was day or night, he found his job exciting.

  “Let’s go.” Her words set off his usual scurry toward the doorway, toenails skittering across the hardwood floor. Mattie lagged behind to retrieve her service weapon from her gun safe. She racked the slide, checked the cartridge, and jammed it back home.

  “Okay, buddy. Out to the car.”

  Her uniform’s long sleeves felt good, because the velvety evening had turned chilly. Robo loaded into the back of the K-9 unit, a converted Ford Explorer, and she paused to check her supplies before leaving. All was in order, so she jumped into the front and headed toward the crime scene.

  She thought of Cole while she drove. Remembering his tenderness when he’d treated her burn made her teary. If she was being completely honest with herself, she had to admit she was glad she’d been unable to share details from her past with him tonight. What if doing so drove him away? She didn’t think she could handle losing Cole now. Not after how close they’d become since Willie’s death.

  When she reached the outside of town, she could see flashing lights from emergency vehicles in the distance, but the orange glow of the fire appeared to be extinguished. Gravel on the county road peppered the bottom of her car, and as she drew near, smoke thickened the air. The flames had been doused, leaving the blackened body of the van’s hull a sodden mess. Firefighters remained on the scene, aiming spray from the fire truck’s tank at the van’s undercarriage.

  As she parked, her headlights illuminated Stella. The detective had pulled her auburn hair into a ponytail, and she wore a brown Carhartt jacket with a Timber Creek County Sheriff’s insignia on the sleeve. She’d elected to stay home instead of going to the dance, saying she preferred not to have to deal with cowboys and their wandering paws. Stella had once shared that she’d divorced a cop not all that long ago, and the bitter tone of her story led Mattie to believe that she didn’t hold any fondness for most men in general, at least not for the time being.

  Stella came to the passenger side and climbed in. “Gotta warm up a minute. With all that water, it feels like hell frozen over out there.”

  Mattie restarted the engine and turned up the heater.

  Stella leaned forward and rubbed her hands together near the vent. “I released the body and the coroner took him away. I wanted to preserve whatever I could on him for the medical examiner. I marked his position, and we’ll need to take measurements of the crime scene layout as soon as we can get in there to work.”

  “Some kind of accelerant must have been used to create that kind of a blaze. Probably to cover up evidence, but it’ll be hard to sort that out now.”

  “I’ve called CBI,” Stella said, referring to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, “to request a crime scene unit and fire investigation team. I’m not sure how soon they can get here.”

  Mattie recalled the two bullet entry wounds she’d seen on Nate’s chest in a tight pattern over his heart. The person who’d pulled the trigger had been close. “I think Nate Fletcher might have known his killer.”

  Stella stared out the windshield at the blackened van. “Shot at close range. Sitting in his van at the side of the road. He could’ve stopped to talk to a stranger, but the familiar shooter plays out better. Did you know Mr. Fletcher?”

  “No, but Cole did.” Mattie summarized what she’d learned from Cole. “I’m a little familiar with his wife. She was a few years behind me in school.”

  “What do you think about her as a suspect?”

  “I don’t know her well enough to have an opinion, but we’ll have to look at her.” In a case like this, and especially with suspicion of a familiar shooter, you always had to look at the spouse.

  “With Sheriff McCoy away on vacation,” Stella said, “I’ll need to notify her. I want you to go with me to help observe reactions. After you let Robo do what he can with this scene, we’ll go on out to the ranch.”

  Upon hearing his name, Robo came to the front of his cage, and Stella turned to thrust her hand through the heavy-gauge steel mesh grill that separated his cage from the rest of the unit. She buried her hand in the fur at his neck. “You’re warm, you big lug. Mattie, your partner comes in handy for more than just his nose.”

  Stella knew only part of it. Robo had become Mattie’s best friend and protector. He’d saved her life in more ways than one, and he was about the only fellow being she could whole- heartedly trust.

  The firemen were rolling up hoses, evidently having drained the fire truck’s reservoir.

  “Looks like they’re finishing up out there.” Stella tousled the fur behind Robo’s ears as he leaned into her hand, looking like a big teddy bear. “Game on, Robo.”

  Mattie turned off the SUV’s engine, slipped on a jacket similar to Stella’s, and stepped out into the damp breeze. The acrid stench of burned rubber and plastics hung in the air. Wh
at with the washed-out soil from around the truck and the smoky residue of scent that surrounded the area, she wondered how Robo could find anything at all. But dogs had the special ability to sort through layers of scent and home in on whatever they were searching for, and she had confidence in Robo’s nose.

  Stella joined her at the back of the Explorer just as Chief Deputy Brody drove up in his cruiser. “Here’s Brody. I wondered if they’d be able to reach him.”

  Mattie opened the hatch and leaned in to pet Robo. She’d spied Brody early at the dance, circling the floor with various partners until he’d settled on a tall blonde with an athletic build who looked like she knew how to handle herself on a dance floor. Brody, built like a wedge with seriously broad shoulders and the energy of a jackhammer, had appeared to be in his element, twirling his partner in a series of gymnastic moves. Thinking back on it, she realized they’d disappeared and he hadn’t returned.

  Stella headed to meet him, and Mattie heard her start to brief him on what they knew so far. Brody was in charge of the department in the sheriff’s absence, while Stella would head up the investigation, but they would all work on the case together.

  Robo snuggled against her, wagging his tail as she patted him down—part of her method to rev up his prey drive, his cue that it was time for the hunt. “Are you thirsty, Robo? Let’s get you a drink.”

  Because moisture enhanced a dog’s olfactory ability, she splashed fresh water into his collapsible bowl from a jug she kept stored in his compartment. He lapped at the water while she debated which equipment to use. His blue nylon collar was used for evidence detection, while his search harness was typically used for tracking a human. She needed to use both tonight.

  As a police patrol dog, Robo was trained in search and rescue, search and apprehension, and detection of narcotics and gunpowder, so he could find spent shell casings, dope, and people. With this dog, the specific equipment wasn’t as important as it might be with others; he often seemed to take on whatever task lay before him, whether she’d planned it or not.