Margaret Daley - Detection Mission

“Recovers from what?”

“She was injured. A head trauma. She has amnesia. She can’t even remember her name.”

Molly quirked a brow. “That lady you found out in the Lost Woods?”

“Yes, but it’s not common knowledge. How’d you find out about her being here?” He should have realized if anyone knew what was going on in Sagebrush, it would be Molly. She didn’t have to work, but she’d been lonely after her husband died five years ago, and she’d opened her second floor for two tenants. She was a people person and couldn’t see living in a huge Victorian house by herself. He’d been glad he’d snatched up the first apartment, and shortly after that another coworker had taken the second one available. Mark Moore, a fellow police officer who worked the graveyard shift, lived across the hall from him.

“Lorna Danfield spilled the beans. We’re good friends. From church.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. Lorna was the one who reminded me of your empty third floor. I should have remembered you two take care of the flowers for church.” Lorna was the secretary at work and was always looking out for the officers and dogs that were in the K-9 Unit.

“I’ve been talking of doing something. Now is as good a time as any. When will your lady friend be getting out of the hospital?”

Lady friend? That made what he was doing sound like more than someone helping another. And that was all this was. After his breakup with his fiancée, Alexa, eight months ago, he certainly wasn’t ready to jump into a relationship beyond casual. “I’ll find out today, but I think in the next day or so.”

Molly blew out a deep breath. “There’s a lot of work to do in a short time.”

“I think I can get some of the guys from the unit to help. We could work on it in the evenings.”

“And if she gets out before that, I have a spare bed in my apartment.”

“If she stays for a while, I don’t know how far her money will stretch to cover expenses.” Lee dumped two spoonfuls of sugar into his coffee.

“That’s okay. She’s in need.”

“Thanks—I knew I could count on you. She feels alone.”

“I can imagine.” Molly set her hand on her hip. “Well, maybe not really. I’m who I am because of my memories. It would be awful not to remember anything.”

“Some people might like a clean slate.”

“A do over? As far as the Lord is concerned, every day is a new beginning in His eyes. He forgives and forgets.”

Lee shifted under the intensity of Molly’s gaze.

“Let what Alexa did go, Lee.”

“She wasn’t who she appeared to be. I’m a cop. I’m trained to read people. She had me totally fooled.”

“The only one you’re hurting is yourself.”

“How am I supposed to just forgive and forget?” he ground out. “She slept with another man and is having his baby. We were talking about getting married the whole time she was seeing this guy—a fellow cop.”

“At least Dan works on a different shift.”

“Yeah, but we still run into each other.” Lee glanced at the clock over the stove. “I’ve got to go. Work calls.”

“You might have a hard time pulling Kip away from Eliza this morning. They’ve been playing and chasing each other around the backyard.”

“I think Kip has his eye on the Malinois. They both like to herd and try to with each other.”

When he stepped outside, he spied the two dogs lying together under a maple tree. Kip saw him, jumped up and hurried toward him. Eliza, Mark’s dog, raced toward him, too. She looked similar to a small-size German shepherd with tan fur and a black muzzle. He greeted Kip in his usual manner, then patted Eliza.

“Gotta leave your girlfriend, Kip. We’ve got a job. We’re heading for the Lost Woods. Captain wants us to start a grid search of it, see if we can find any more bodies. Several people are missing.”

Kip rubbed up against Eliza, yelped once then loped toward the gate. With one last glance at Eliza, her head tilted, her ears perked forward, Kip barked again as though to tell him to get moving. There were times he felt the dogs they worked with understood every word they said to them. As they were all highly trained and intelligent, he wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

“Sorry, girl, gotta take him to work,” Lee said before jogging toward his dog.

In the driveway he opened the back of his SUV for Kip. “We have to make a quick stop at headquarters, then to work.”

Kip lay down, putting his head between his two stretched out legs, his tail wagging.

“I figured you’d go for that. See all your buddies.”

Ten minutes later, Lee snapped a leash on Kip and they entered through the back of the one-story red brick police station where the K-9 Unit was housed. Lorna Danfield, the secretary for the K-9 Unit, sat at her desk near Captain Slade McNeal’s office.

When Lee covered the distance to her, Kip planted himself right next to her chair and waited for her to acknowledge him. She finished a call then turned to lavish attention on Kip. He loved it and always liked spending time with her.

“Is the captain in his office?” Lee asked while his partner enjoyed Lorna’s pampering.

“Yes, he’s expecting you. I’ll take care of Kip while you go inside.”

He started to leave, rotated back and said, “Thanks for the suggestion about renovating Molly’s third floor for our Jane Doe. I mean for Heidi.”

“She remembered her name?”

“No, but she has a locket with that name in it so that’s what she’s decided to call herself.”

“That poor dear. I’ll have to pay her a visit once she settles in at Molly’s.”

“I haven’t asked her to move in yet. I will today after work. She may have other plans.”

“Where’s the young lady going to go? She doesn’t know who she is or know anyone.” Kip bumped Lorna’s hand, and she scratched behind his ears.

“True, but she might not appreciate a stranger coming in and planning her life.”

“Or she’ll appreciate it because she doesn’t know what her options are right now.” The secretary nodded at Lee. Go see the captain. I hear you’re gonna have a busy couple of days.”

“Yeah, a thousand-acre wooded area will take some time to cover properly. With the discovery of Ned Adams’s body, Captain thinks there could be others out there. With all that has happened lately connected to the Lost Woods, it could very likely be a burial ground for those others like Pauly Keevers and a couple of low-level criminals like Adams.”

“If any dog can find a dead body, it’ll be Kip.”

He winked. “You’re just partial, but I agree with you.”

Lee knocked on his captain’s door then stuck his head into the office. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, I know you heard Pauly Keevers is missing. No one has seen him in the last three days. Normally with someone like Keevers I wouldn’t be overly concerned. He’s been known to go off drinking and disappear for days. I hope that’s the case here.”

“But you don’t think it is?”

Slade shook his head. “I wanted to emphasize how important it is we find Pauly. The chatter in the criminal community is that he was killed for talking to the police. Now no one is talking. With Adams’s body found in the Lost Woods, people are wondering who else is out there. Adams wasn’t a snitch but he worked for Charles Ritter.”

“The lawyer who was arrested for being involved in the murder of Eva Billows’s parents?”

“That very one. I’m sending Austin and Justice with you to search the woods. Austin has something of Pauly’s that he’ll give Justice to track him while you look for any other buried bodies. Austin has already checked Pauly’s hangouts in town yesterday afternoon. As I said, no one has seen the man in several days. Justice had his scent leaving Pauly’s apartment but lost it at the street.”