“Sounds delightful,” Mrs. Gibbs said, handing Teresa the container of salt.
Cole stood back until Mama T had finished measuring the salt in the palm of her hand and stirring it in.
“Now you try,” she said, bumping the wooden spoon against the edge of the pot and then waving it at him.
He’d taken a tablespoon out of the drawer instead of one of the smaller teaspoons, and he filled it to the brim. After blowing on it a few seconds, he popped the entire spoonful into his mouth, letting the chunky, hot liquid pool around his tongue. The mixture of green Anaheim chili, onion, pork, and spices tingled his taste buds in a most pleasant way. He took his time chewing the bits of pork and savoring the bite while the two women watched him.
Finally he swallowed, his spoon poised near the pot. “That was fabulous. Can I have another bite?”
Mama T swatted the back of his hand gently. “Get a clean spoon, then, if you do.”
He grinned, happy that his teasing had drawn a playful reaction from her. She was used to dealing with rowdy kids in her kitchen, so handling him was apparently nothing. “I’ll wait until dinner. That one bite will serve to whet my appetite.”
Out in the living room, Bruno barked, his nails skittering on the tile at the entryway to the front door. “Sounds like they might be here,” Cole said. “I’ll go see.”
He went through the den to the front door, where Bruno bounced on his toes, looking up at the door and barking. “That’s enough. Stand back now, out of the way.”
Bruno gave him only a few inches, and he had to get stern, telling the dog to stop carrying on and give him more space at the door. He figured the Doberman knew it was Robo that had arrived, because the big dog’s excitement had risen to a feverish pitch, behavior that accompanied Robo’s visits. The two seemed to turn into a couple of knuckleheads when they greeted each other.
Cole let Bruno follow him outside, and the dog shot down the sidewalk to where Mattie had parked her SUV. The silhouette of Robo’s head darted from side to side behind Mattie, and her mouth moved as she spoke words to her dog that Cole couldn’t hear. Then Cole’s and Mattie’s eyes met, and when she pointed at Mama T’s car, which was parked in front of the house, her lips parted in a brilliant smile that made all residual tension in his shoulders melt. He knew all would be well.
When Mattie was happy, he was happy.
Another car pulled up and parked beside her SUV, but like Bruno in his singular focus on Robo, Cole had eyes only for Mattie. He stepped off the porch and made his way down the sidewalk to greet the woman he loved and her family.
* * *
Mattie leaned back in her chair and scanned the faces around the table. Her heart was full of love for these people and her stomach full of the love that Mama T always put into her cooking.
She’d been nervous about this dinner, but her fears had edged away as the evening progressed. Yolanda and Mama T had hit it off immediately, Cole and Mrs. Gibbs made fantastic hosts, and Cole’s kids seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Sophie had lightened the mood and kept everyone entertained with her lively chatter, and although Angie seemed quiet, she appeared drawn to Yolanda, making sure the older woman had everything she wanted at the table. In turn, Mattie’s abuela seemed taken with Angie and asked her questions about school and her hobbies, trying to draw her into the conversation whenever Sophie slowed to take a breath.
Mrs. Gibbs was carrying her signature chocolate cake to the table when Mattie’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket. Evidently hearing or feeling the vibration as he sat beside her, Cole turned to look, raising a brow.
“Excuse me, please,” Mattie said, rising from her chair. “I’ll be right back.”
She went to the den with Robo dogging her footsteps as she removed her phone from her pocket. The screen displayed an emergency message from the station: Missing Child Alert, Call Immediately.
This was one of the most dreaded calls a police officer could receive. Mattie cringed while she swiped to her contact list and dialed the first number.
Sam answered her call.
“Calling in on the missing child message,” Mattie said, her words clipped. “What’s up?”
“I know you’re off duty, but the sheriff wants to see if you and Robo can come in.” Sam’s voice was tight with stress.
Mattie was used to being called for emergencies, whether on duty or not. She started to head for the front door but stopped herself; Mrs. Gibbs and the others deserved at least an explanation and a thank-you before she left. Cole showed up in the doorway from the kitchen and studied her, concern evident on his face. “I can arrive in about ten minutes,” she told Sam. “Who’s missing?”
“Hannah Vaughn. Missing about two to three hours. Parents thought she was in her bedroom, so they aren’t sure. The call came in a half hour ago. Sheriff McCoy called in Stella and Brody. Now you.”
Mattie decided she needed to end the conversation so she could make her excuses and say her good-byes for the evening. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she said, and disconnected the call.
“What’s going on?” Cole asked.
Mattie summed things up for him.
“I’ll go with you,” he said.
“You should wait here until we know if volunteers are going to be called.”
Cole nodded, turning to follow Mattie as she headed into the kitchen. Everyone looked at them when they reentered the room.
“I’m sorry to have to leave suddenly,” Mattie said. “There’s an emergency at work, and I have to go.”
“But you’re on vacation,” Julia said, her disappointment evident as she rose from her chair.
Mattie held out her hand. “A child is missing. They need a K-9 team and I have to go.”
“Mattie’s work is very important in this town,” Mama T said, her eyes alight with adoration.
Mattie’s heart swelled with gratitude for this woman who’d shaped her with advice, guidance, and sometimes criticism. She went to Mama T and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “Mama, thank you so much for cooking tonight, and thank you, Mrs. Gibbs, for baking a cake and having us over. I’m so sorry to leave early, but I need to run.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing, Miss Mattie,” Mrs. Gibbs said, walking with her toward the door. “We shall have our cake and visit with your sister and grandmother in your absence. Be careful as you go.”
Mattie paused, looking back at Julia, who’d resumed her seat. “Julia, I’ll call you as soon as I’m free, unless it’s too late. If it is, I’ll call first thing in the morning.”
Julia lifted her hand in farewell. “Take care, Mattie. See you soon.”
Grateful that her sister didn’t seem too upset about her abrupt departure, Mattie turned to leave, but not before the expression on Angela’s face caught her eye. The girl looked positively terrified, her face white, her eyes wide. As Cole followed her to the doorway, she spoke to him in a quiet tone. “Take care of Angie. She looks scared.”
“I will,” Cole murmured. “Take care of yourself. Call if I can help.”
He opened the door, and she and Robo stepped out onto the porch. She gave him a tight hug, a quick kiss, and told him thank-you for hosting her family, and then she and Robo sprinted out to her vehicle.
She loaded her dog, then took a moment to unlock the compartment that held her utility belt and service weapon so she could strap them on. She waved at Cole as she fired the engine in her unit and headed down the lane.
She set aside all thoughts of family and friends and focused completely on a teenage girl with a German shepherd, a dog that would probably protect her if she could. She prayed that Hannah was in a safe place and didn’t need that protection.
TWENTY-FIVE
At the station, Mattie found the sheriff in his office, wearing a worried expression on his typically composed face. “Thanks for responding, Deputy,” he said, his voice deep and resonant with concern. “Sorry to interrupt your vacation.”
&nbs
p; Mattie waved her hand in dismissal. “What do we know?”
“Ruth Vaughn reported Hannah missing around six thirty. Detective LoSasso and I responded by going out to her house, where she and her husband provided information. The last time they saw Hannah was around three, when she and her dog went into her bedroom to read and for prayers. They thought she remained there until dinner time, but when Ruth checked, the bedroom window was open and she was gone.”
“Runaway?”
“That’s what it looks like, and that’s what Mr. Vaughn seems to think. But because of Luke’s recent homicide, his wife is afraid it’s a kidnapping,” McCoy said. “And I agree that we don’t want to assume anything here.”
“So you want us to see if Hannah left a scent track outside her bedroom window?” Mattie asked, thinking that should be the next move.
“Exactly. And since we still haven’t discovered how Luke ended up at Hanging Falls, we need to make certain Hannah actually left the property instead of someone taking her. I know that’s not within Robo’s capabilities, but I hope you know what I mean. I want to see where a scent trail starts and ends, or even if there is one.”
Mattie nodded acknowledgment. The community itself was still suspect, and they shouldn’t overlook the possibility of some insider being dangerous. But things didn’t sit right on this one. “Where is Sassy, the German shepherd?”
“She’s gone too.”
“I’d be surprised if that dog wasn’t protective of Hannah. If they’re together, it indicates Hannah left her house willingly.” But then, if the two had been separated, it was possible they would find Sassy injured or dead somewhere along the scent trail, something else that Mattie dreaded. She tucked the thought away, not wanting to verbalize it. “We’re ready to go.”
“Deputy Brody and Detective LoSasso are already out there securing the scene and conducting interviews,” McCoy said as Mattie turned to leave.
She hurried out to her vehicle and loaded Robo. After leaving the station, she flipped on her overheads and headed to the highway, driving with flashing lights but no sirens.
She checked the time—almost eight o’clock, and the sun had dipped below the western horizon. In July at this time in the evening, she could count on less than an hour of good visibility left. She needed to depend even more on Robo’s nose, since she doubted she could see much disturbance in the natural grasses that surrounded the trailer home.
At the highest speed she dared travel, it took about five minutes to reach the property. Relieved to see the place lit by porch lights, she turned in and drove as fast as she could up the bumpy lane. There, she found Brody’s cruiser parked near the cluster of trailers. She pulled up behind his vehicle and parked.
He met her as she exited her unit. “No one has been behind the trailer near the window in question since I arrived, but I would guess at least half these folks tramped through there before I got here.”
Mattie acknowledged his attempt to give her an uncontaminated scent trail with a nod. “If she went out that window, Robo will probably be able to pick up the scent. We’ll see.”
Stella came around the front of the Vaughn trailer, carrying a paper evidence bag. “I have a scent article in here. A dress from her laundry basket.”
“Thanks. Hang on a minute while I get Robo ready.”
Robo pressed his nose against the window of his compartment, watching Mattie’s every move as she went to the back and opened the hatch. He met her at the open door, doing his happy dance. He knew he was going to work even before she began the chatter meant to rev him up.
She made him wait long enough for her to put on his search harness and give him a drink of water. After she snapped a leash on the harness ring, he hopped out of the Explorer and moved to the end of the leash toward Stella, his nose seeking the bag with the scent article in it. Robo never failed to amaze her; he was wearing his search harness, which to him signaled a human search, and he was raring to go.
Mattie took the bag. “Where’s her window?”
Brody led her into the shadows to an open window in back. A square of light shining from within lit the ground beneath it enough to show a window screen leaning against the underskirt of the trailer. “So this window was open when they discovered Hannah missing?”
“Right. There’s no sign of forced entry,” Stella said, having followed them. “The screen has tabs that you unclip to remove it. They were all opened from the inside, and then it looks like it was dropped down here underneath the window.”
Mattie could tell Stella was thinking runaway. Well, that’s what she was here to determine. Robo was already waiting at her left heel, so she opened the bag and lowered it for him to get a sample of Hannah’s scent. He poked his nose in the bag, whiffed several times, and withdrew his head. Mattie passed the bag to Brody, then leaned forward to unclip Robo’s leash and told him to “search,” his command for finding a person.
Robo surged forward, and Mattie moved quickly to direct him to the area beneath the window. He entered the square of light, giving her a view of him sniffing the area, including the side of the trailer.
Rising up on his hind feet, he placed his paws on the windowsill before lowering back on all fours and working his way along the ground. His head moved side to side as he gave the area a thorough going-over. Mattie could imagine him sorting through the various scents of all the people who’d crossed through the grass behind the trailer.
Although she was tempted to move Robo out farther to where the scents might not be so congested, she told herself to be patient and give him time. And she was glad she did, because within another minute, he seemed to pick up a track that ran along the side of the trailer close to the wall.
Mattie followed while Robo took a few steps. With his nose to the ground, he gingerly sorted out the track that matched the Hannah scent he’d cataloged in his brain. Raising one paw at a time, he made his way to the end of the house and then picked up speed as he quartered the area beyond. He trotted along the back side of the next trailer until he took Mattie to the Graysons’. There he moved down the trailer’s side to a window set at a point midway.
Remembering the floor plan inside the home, Mattie thought this window might correspond to Abel’s bedroom. A dark thought struck her: had Hannah and Abel conspired to kill Luke and now run away together? Or had Abel killed Luke and now kidnapped Hannah?
“Have you questioned Abel Grayson yet?” she murmured to Brody, who was close behind her.
“Nope. We talked to the girl’s parents and the guy named Isaac King.”
“Do you know if Abel Grayson is on the property?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Tell Stella to find out.”
Brody radioed Stella while Robo circled the area beneath the window. She wondered if he’d come to the end of the track and Hannah was hiding inside. She kept still and observed.
Robo wasn’t ready to sit and call an end to the search yet. He headed across the grass toward the back of the next trailer. The light had faded, and it was now dark enough that Mattie could barely see his shadow, so she hurried to stay close.
Robo left the edge of the trailers and struck out, leading her into the grassland that surrounded the buildings. Once she moved away from the porch lights and the light streaming from windows, she was relieved to find that her eyes adjusted to the semidarkness and she could keep an eye on her dog. He moved steadily, nose to ground, acting sure of himself as he followed a scent track. And she felt certain the track belonged to Hannah.
As they moved, Brody stayed close at her back. Mattie hated going into the darkness where she and Robo could be a target for an ambush or a sniper. Robo took her across the field directly to the highway, which seemed deserted at the moment. With no traffic to worry about, she let him search the shoulder until he assured himself that he could find no more scent. Then he sat down at the edge of the road and raised his head to stare at her.
This represented the trail’s end. An open spot on a
highway where Mattie could imagine a car stopping for the young girl—and probably her dog—to climb inside.
“Someone picked Hannah up right here.” A wave of anxiety rolled through her while she patted Robo and told him what a great job he’d done. She turned to Brody, who’d taken out his phone to report to the others. “We just have to find out who.”
“And if that person was friend or foe,” Brody said as he dialed.
* * *
Around nine o’clock, Cole and Mrs. Gibbs walked their guests out to their cars, saying good-night. He hadn’t heard from Mattie yet, and his anxiety had grown throughout the evening.
He felt an obligation to take care of Mattie’s family and to not abandon his hosting duties until the evening ended. But as soon as he had a free moment, he planned to touch base with Sheriff McCoy to see if there was anything he could do.
“Thank you for such a wonderful dinner and for sharing so much about our Mattie with us,” Julia was saying as they reached her car. “I feel like we’ve gotten to know her better by visiting with her friends. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that she had to go back to work.”
As closemouthed as Mattie was about herself and her private life, Cole had no doubt that Mrs. Gibbs had supplied way more information about Mattie than she herself would have allowed this evening. Even Mama T had provided insight into the teenage Mattie and how she’d overcome her rebellion by channeling it into her cross-country training, and it had become apparent that Mama T was as proud of her accomplishments as any mother could be.
Mrs. Gibbs responded to Julia’s statement. “Mattie is a special person. We couldn’t be more thrilled that she’s found you.”
Cole steered the conversation to its end, said his good-byes, and hurried back up the sidewalk, thinking that the evening had gotten away from him and that now, finally, he could call the sheriff.
But Angela stood blocking the front doorway, the porch light casting its beam across her worried face as she sought him out. “Dad,” she said, her voice quivering with tension. “I need to talk to you about something. It’s real important.”
Hanging Falls Page 24
