Page 16 of Chasing a Kidnapper

If he’d left any behind.

Less than ten minutes later, Stewie had emptied the men’s locker room and was leading them inside, carrying a large bolt cutter with him to use on the lock. The place reeked of old socks and sweat, but that was hardly surprising.

“This one,” Stewie said, using the bolt cutter to point to the locker tucked in a corner. “Number 105.”

West bent to take Peanut off leash. “Find tools,” he said, spreading his arms wide to encompass the entire locker room. “Find tools!”

She remembered tools was the key word for weapon detection. Better to saytoolsin an airport for example, than the wordgun.

Peanut eagerly went to work, lifting her nose to the air, then moving along the lockers. She headed away from locker 105, which surprised her.

Not that Trisha thought Bryan had stashed a gun in his gym locker. That seemed over the top. However, she would rather be safe than sorry.

Peanut abruptly sat, her nose pointed upward at a locker that was roughly a foot above her head. Trisha frowned and glanced at West.

“Who is using this locker?” West asked, crossing over to where Peanut sat waiting. He pointed to the locker that Peanut seemed to be indicating. “Number 322.”

“I have no idea. It might be a general use locker.” Stewie scowled again. “You said you wanted to look inside this one.” In a quick movement, he lifted the bolt cutters and sliced through the lock on Bryan Little’s locker. Then he reached down and opened the door.

It was empty. She hid a flash of disappointment.

“That was what we wanted initially, but now I need to know who uses this locker. Three twenty-two.” West’s firm tone brooked no room for argument. When Stewie didn’t answer, he lifted his phone and thumbed the screen. “Hey, Jack, it’s West. I need a search warrant ASAP for the Fitness Guru Gym. Peanut alerted on locker 322.”

“Okay, okay!” Stewie’s face grew red. “I’ll open it for you and let you know if anyone has been using it. Cut me a break, will ya?”

She met West’s gaze as he gave her a slight nod. “Good. But why don’t you get me the paperwork, first?”

Stewie muttered something about how they were trying to ruin his business as he left the locker room to get the information West had requested.

“You think there’s a gun in there?” She asked in a low whisper.

“Peanut says there is. And she’s rarely wrong.” His expression was grim. “I’m disappointed we didn’t find anything in your ex-husband’s locker, though.”

“I guess that’s kind of a good thing.” She hoped the masked perp wasn’t terrorizing her and Gabriel for nothing.

“But having a clue would have been nice.” West fell silent as Stewie returned, holding a sheaf of papers. “Just like I thought, that’s one of the general lockers,” he said. “It isn’t assigned to anyone specific. There’s a bunch of them that are just left open for people to use.”

“Good, that means it’s your property and you can remove the lock,” West said.

Stewie stuffed the papers in his back pocket, hefted the bolt cutter again and clipped through the lock. West had donned a pair of gloves from his pocket and put them on to remove the lock, then opened the door.

Inside was a Glock 19. Nothing else, no personal items or anything remotely related to working out. Just the gun. Using an evidence bag as a glove, West picked it up and examined it more closely. “No serial number.”

“That’s interesting.” Was the gym a hot drop for illegal weapons? Or was this a one-off scenario?

After being nearly shot and killed last night by Petey Pawners and his accomplice, she hoped and prayed this weapon would lead West and the task force to the gun traffickers.

FIVE

“Good girl, Pea. Good girl!” West praised his K-9, pulling out the squeaky ducky she loved to play with. He tossed it in the air, and she agilely caught it in her mouth. The way she shook her head from side to side, then romped in the small space made him smile.

If not for Trish’s ex having a locker here in the gym, Peanut wouldn’t have found the gun. The filed off serial number convinced him this was one of the illegal handguns that had been brought through the Dakotas. This Glock could be one of them. He carefully set it down, unwilling to smudge any potential prints.

“We don’t allow guns in here,” Stewie was saying, obviously shocked by the sight of the weapon. “I don’t have any idea how that got there!”

“Someone placed it there,” Trisha said dryly. She was rocking from side to side, as Gabriel was growing fussy. “You’re absolutely sure you don’t know who is using that locker?”

“It’s available to anyone with a membership!” Stewie looked scared to death, as if fearing he was about to be arrested. “I don’t come in here to cut locks off unless they’ve been on for over a month or two. And those instances are rare.”

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