Payback (The Canine Handler Book 1)

by Hillegas, Maria

  Helping Sarah into the back of the mule, Kellee turned her attention to Gunner and Sam who were still in their down command beside the vehicle. She picked up both leashes and braced herself to trudge after the joyful animals. “Free,” Kellee told both dogs when they met her eyes.

  Sam and Gunner jumped up and bolted toward Sarah and the mule, which was only a yard from where they had been. Dave dropped the mule’s tailgate as the dogs closed in.

  “Hup!” Sarah commanded. Both dogs jumped into the back of the mule as Kellee let their leashes go. “Good job!” Sarah lavished praise on them. She in turn picked up their leashes, and gave them time to find a comfortable spot to settle down.

  Dave and Kellee clambered up the steps on the side of the vehicle and found a spot to sit and hang on.

  “All aboard? Ready?” the driver asked and Sarah nodded her head. The driver took off in the direction of the search sector.

  Boy, I hope I’m ready for this.

  Chapter 19

  Eva

  Perfect. Eva smiled. She was content with how the event was playing out. She was also content with Sarah, at least for the time being. Eva was happy with how well Sarah had received the news as to who the subject of the search was. Yes, Sarah did squirm at first, but she regained her composure and that was what counted. It wasn’t the initial reaction that mattered, but how well she recovered.

  About time! About time you toughened up and took on the challenge. Eva wished Sarah was more emotionally savvy and stable. She was better than she had been in the past, but still not as tough as Eva. This was the main reason Eva still stuck around to keep an eye on her. If only Sarah would take matters into her own hands. But Eva knew she wouldn’t. So she stayed. Eva was close enough to watch, but far enough to be physically out of Sarah’s life.

  She watched as the searchers loaded the mule with equipment, people and the dreaded dogs. She hated the dogs. That was one thing she really didn’t understand about Sarah. They were stupid animals. She would be so much better off without them.

  The closer the search party got to deploying to their chosen search sector, the more excited Eva grew. It was hard to control her pleasure and satisfaction. I can’t wait for this to unfold!

  Chapter 20

  Sarah

  Lurching forward, the mule pulled out of the horse trailer parking lot. It groaned and struggled at first from being so weighted down. Sarah sat facing the rear and watched as the incident command unit and base camp disappeared from view. She stared off, deep in thought.

  “You okay?” Dave asked.

  He touched her shoulder. Sarah jumped. “Did you say something?” Sarah tried to regain her composure. She scrambled for words and tried to make up for flinching at his touch. “Sorry, contemplating today’s search strategy.”

  “Just seeing if you were still with us,” he laughed. “You seemed lost in another world. You doing okay? You and the dogs had a long day yesterday and right back at it today.”

  “Oh, I’m fine. Wondering what we may encounter, what the dogs may find. That’s all. Isn’t it about time to do a radio check?” Sarah changed the subject to shift his attention.

  “Yep, on it.” Dave picked up the microphone. “Base, Team Echo calling in for a radio check.”

  Releasing the call button, he waited a few seconds and was rewarded with, “Base copies Team Echo, coming through loud and clear.”

  “Team Echo leaving base, heading out to starting point of search sector,” Dave continued with the transmission.

  “Base copies. Check in again when you are ready to begin task.” Base repeated back the information Dave had given and asked them to check in every half hour.

  “The area we’re headed to has a few hills and ravines. Nothing major as far as steep or too difficult terrain. Radio signal should stay strong throughout the search area,” Dave explained.

  Sarah barely listened as Dave went on about the radio. He seemed happy to have something to talk about. It was another responsibility she had delegated and put all thought of it out of her own head.

  As the driver headed east, he crossed an open field, followed a horse trail as far as he could and then had to get back on the asphalt road because the mule couldn’t fit along the trail. They crossed a bridge that spanned a small branch of Lake Marburg.

  The driver wound through another parking lot by the southeast edge of the lake and headed down to pick up a section of the main trail where it had been theorized the subject might have hiked. This part of the trail consisted of a well-groomed bridle path that would take them to an area of substantially tall, un-timbered soft pines.

  The ample stand of pines had originally been planted to be harvested for the local paper mill. But that was years ago, back before the park existed. Once they dammed the creek and turned the area into a park, all the lands surrounding the lake became state property. Any trees within the new boundaries of the park were no longer allowed to be timbered.

  The once fertile farmland within park boundaries was now at nature’s whim. What resulted was mainly scrub with a few scattered hardwood trees dotting the landscape here and there. Thirty years later, a forest had grown and there were now several mature trees, but the scrub was still plentiful. It had grown up along many tree lines and caused several trees to slowly die as vines and scrub eventually choked them out.

  This stand of pines would be the southwest boundary—the initial starting point of their team’s search sector depending on a few determinates. First, the search party would need to check if the predominate wind continued to flow from the north within the tree line. Sometimes the air flow differed within diverse areas of terrain.

  Next, they would need to consider other hazards or difficult areas the team might encounter in their direction of travel. If all looked good, they would start out from this point to begin to grid their sector—walking in straight lines from one end to the other as the dogs were turned loose to search for any humans.

  Sarah and Kellee pulled their maps out as they bumped along in the red and black mule. Kellee was studying the Codorus State Park map which showed all the man-made trails and other park information pertinent to visitors. The park map was on a different scale than the topographical map Sarah was using. Although the park map was pretty and offered good information, it wasn’t drawn to any specific measure. Its purpose was simply to help visitors and hikers stay on marked trails.

  By contrast, Sarah’s topographical map was referred to as a “7.5-minute map.” It was the size and type of map her canine team trained with and utilized while deployed. Most search teams used that scale because of its availability and accuracy as far as terrain. Every inch of the United States was mapped and set up in this style. They were called 7.5-minute quadrangles because they showed an area 7.5-minutes of longitude wide by 7.5-minutes of latitude high. Each inch on the map was equal to 24,000 inches on the ground—or 2,000 feet.

  To the average civilian, these maps looked like a foreign language. But seasoned search responders understood their mysteries and were grateful to be issued them—especially if the maps were printed in color.

  Opening her topo map fully, Sarah looked over their search sector again. Her map not only showed the layout of the land, but also the elevations in grid lines. All of the details of the lake boundaries, forestation, swamp areas, creeks, roads and nearby buildings were noted. The map was further broken down into 1,000-meter boxes with 100-meter grid ticks. This would help the search team identify their exact location within their sector down to the meter.

  They had been assigned an area which started at the large stand of pines and extended well over 900 meters from west to east. It ended at the park’s northeastern border where another set of pines backed up to private property. The western border was the lake itself and would not be even because the shoreline zigged and zagged. The width of the sector would change depending on how far the shoreline turned in or out from north to south.

  Their northern boundary was the peak of one
of the park’s most elevated hilltops. Running north to south, the sector was about 800 meters wide. A pretty large wooded area to cover, Sarah thought, but between three trained search personnel and two trained air-scenting canines working as a team, we should be able to take our time and clear the area well.

  Taking a closer look at the map, there didn’t seem to be any difficult natural obstacles that stood out. As far as Sarah knew, downed trees, low-lying scrub and sticker bushes would be their biggest adversaries today. At least as far as the terrain. But Gunner and Sam would be tempted by the lake. She wasn’t sure how she would manage that one yet. Nor had Sarah completely come to terms with how she’d feel if they actually located her scumbag foster brother.

  Gunner and Sam loved the water and would swim at any opportunity that presented itself. She hadn’t let them swim during yesterday’s water search though because she was still on guard. She was afraid search management might have frowned upon it. Sarah had been lucky to keep Gunner restrained in the boat during his entire water search. He had been known to abandon ship during training for a fun romp in the water.

  I can see the headline in the local news now, “Search Dogs Abandon Lost Man to Play in Lake.” Sarah laughed out loud. Kellee turned to look at her. “Just thinking my biggest problem today will be keeping two furry searchers out of the water!” Sarah grinned.

  Dave gave both women a puzzled glance.

  “They’re both avid swimmers,” she shouted over the whining of the mule’s engine. “Sam and Gunner love getting in the water. I bring them over to the lake to swim during the summer months.”

  They continued to roll along to their destination. Dave smiled at Sarah, looking at the dogs and shaking his head as if he understood.

  “The lake will be a good resource to cool the dogs off if they get overheated,” Sarah commented. “They’ll be working physically harder today than yesterday. This is a pretty large sector. The dogs have a lot of ground to cover.” And so do we, Sarah thought.

  After a twenty-minute ride to their sector’s starting point, the driver pulled up to a wide open area along the trail, not far from the pines and the lake’s edge. The mule came to an abrupt stop. The dogs shifted and scattered for a moment, then stood up to regain their balance.

  “Easy,” Sarah whispered to them as she held their leashes tight. She didn’t want the dogs to exit the mule suddenly. She took a quick 360-degree glance of the area before disembarking. She noticed several large puddles from recent thunderstorms. “Slight miscalculation,” she voiced to Kellee as she pointed to the standing water. “I thought most of the water in this area of the park would have been swallowed up by the loamy soil.”

  “I guess so much water came down so fast that the ground couldn’t soak it all up,” Kellee retorted. “We just need to make sure to keep Sam and Gunner from drinking out of those puddles if we can. Looks like mosquitoes have already been here,” she said, pointing to the puddles full of larva.

  The driver of the mule jumped out and opened the tailgate. He helped Sarah, and then the dogs unload from the rear of the vehicle. Sarah took both Sam and Gunner to a shady area and had them lay down. “Stay,” she commanded. She returned to get her supplies and backpack and set the equipment on the ground beside her dogs. Dave and Kellee grabbed their field packs and did a quick check of the vehicle.

  “Got everything? You guys all set?” the mule driver asked.

  Dave turned to Sarah. “You good?” he asked.

  Sarah rolled her eyes over the back of the mule, her dogs and her pack.

  “Looks like we’re good to go,” Dave stated.

  The driver put the tailgate up with a loud smack. He hopped back up into the front seat with a little effort. “Okay, if you all are sure you have everything you need, I’m gonna head back.” He deftly maneuvered the vehicle around and shouted, “Stay safe!” as he started back west to base camp.

  Yeah right. With that asshole out here? Sarah looked over to Gunner and Sam. I guess I’m the only one here who knows what this guy is really capable of. She would never forgive herself if something were to happen to her boys.

  Chapter 21

  Sarah

  Sarah pulled the container of baby powder from a front pocket of her BDUs. She kept it in a close spot for quick access. She liked to check the air flow and wind direction frequently while running a search in the woods. Even though the predominate wind direction normally didn’t shift, when trees, ravines and changing elevations came into play, they added further variables to how the wind blew and how the dogs worked.

  As a canine handler, you needed to be able to “read the air movement” to support your dog in solving a scent problem. It could mean the difference between your dog making a successful find or possibly overlooking the subject.

  Twisting the top open, Sarah held the powder at arms-length downwind of the other searchers and dogs. She squeezed off a few puffs forming a small white cloud. She watched how the powder moved. It danced and flowed and slowly spread through the pines until it gradually dispersed and altogether disappeared. Sarah mentally noted how the air pulled the cloud up and dropped it several meters away. Hmmph, she thought as she studied the movements. “Well that’s interesting.”

  “Are you going to share your findings with us or will they remain top secret?” Dave mused.

  “Oh, I don’t know. What’s it worth to you?” Sarah teased back.

  “Does the powder really tell you that much?” Dave inquired. “How much effect will it actually have on how you’re going to work the dogs? I thought you just used it to tell the direction of the breeze?”

  “Mainly, but it can tell you so much more. Air movement does all kinds of neat little things.”

  “Okay,” Dave acknowledged sounding unsure.

  “Since the prevailing airflow is from the north as it was in base camp, we can keep the search strategy pretty much the same as we had planned. But we have to keep in mind that there are more variables in the woods that could have many different effects on how human scent can pool in areas or be dispersed.”

  “Oh.” Dave replied still not totally getting it, but he seemed to understand they didn’t have time at the moment for a deeper lesson. “Maybe we could discuss this more in-depth at a later date?” he asked more as a suggestion than a question.

  “Sure,” Sarah responded automatically as she concentrated on what she was doing. Date? Did I just say, “Sure,” to a date?

  She needed to work the dogs across or into the wind to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness for locating a lost person. Since the follicles, or rafts, from people’s skin traveled with the breeze, having the dogs work into the wind, or across the wind, would give them the greatest opportunity to intersect a missing subject’s scent cone. It would put the dog in the best position to be successful. The further out a dog caught the scent, the wider its scent cone generally became. Air-scenting dogs are trained to work within these scent cones and follow them to the source, the subject.

  Canine handlers know the subtle signs and changes in their dog’s body language and behavior. They can read when their partner has discovered human scent, as Sarah had proven the day before during the water search. There was no doubt in her mind when Gunner or Sam came into contact with human scent that didn’t belong to their search party. Handlers can also tell when their dogs are not working or are goofing off. Sometimes a canine needs to be re-focused, re-started on their task—but that was never the case with Gunner and Sam. They were devoted to getting paid by finding the subject and getting rewarded.

  The dogs began to let out barks of frustration. Gunner and Sam were having a difficult time staying in a down. They were both shaking with anticipation. Gunner had started to whine obnoxiously. Tired of waiting for the game to begin, they broke position and stood in place.

  “Settle,” Sarah spoke softly, but firm. Both dogs stopped moving for a moment and focused all of their concentration on her. They knew the command was meant for them to chill ou
t and calm down, but it only lasted a few seconds.

  “Hey guys,” Sarah directed to Kellee and Dave, “We need to go over the search strategy quick so we can get started. I really need to get the dogs going. They are on edge and tired of waiting.”

  Sarah pulled the folded topo map out once again from her BDU pants pocket. She opened it just enough to show the 1,000-meter by 1,000-meter square they were in. Using the tip of a small twig, she pointed to a spot on the map. “We are here right now. We’re going to grid from this point west to east starting from this stand of pines to the park boundary here,” she continued to use the twig as a pointer to show the direction and area of travel. “We head out using a 90-degree bearing, turn north which will be a left turn, head about 30-50 meters on smaller sweeps, then head back on the opposite bearing to work back west on the long sweep.”

  She pointed to the boundaries. “Kellee, can you keep track of our direction of travel, marking our boundary corners with flagging tape as we hit each one?” Kellee nodded and pulled her compass out of her pocket and set the bearing using the topo map to acclimate herself and the settings. Sarah shoved the map into a plastic casing that hung from a lanyard and put it around her neck. Now it would be protected from the elements and she could access it in seconds.

  Sarah had stepped up. She had taken full control of her search task, the dogs and her team’s responders. The group was known as a strike team and Sarah had deferred to Kellee as the strike team’s leader. Kellee still let Sarah run the show and was in total support of whatever Sarah would need. Sarah was feeling more confident as she concentrated on the task at hand. It kept her mind from creeping back to the past. This feels good, feels right, she thought. I just need to stay in control. Everything will be okay. Stay positive.