Page 45 of Scent of Death

“I noticed. And I’m not sure how he’s managing to get these girls to go along with him.” They continued retracing their steps. A few minutes later, the campsite came into view. The minute the Kaufmans noticed they’d returned, the three of them rushed over.

“Did you find anything?” The hope in Beth’s expression ripped at his heart.

“Denali followed the scent to a dirt road about a hundred yards from here.” He forced himself to hold her gaze. “I’m sorry to say, it appears Maureen’s abductor had a truck waiting there.”

Beth Kaufman gasped and buried her face in her hands. Her husband stared at him. “You’re saying Maureen has been kidnapped?”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “I’m very sorry, but you need to know there’s been three teenage girls who went missing. We’ve found their dead bodies buried in a field near the Bighorn Mountains. We have reason to believe the same man who killed them has Maureen.”

“No, no, no.” Beth moaned and began to sob. “This can’t be happening.”

“I’m sorry,” Griff repeated. Lindsey’s eyes filled with tears, and she looked as if she was going to break down too. He lightly grasped the girl’s arm. “Lindsey, I really need your help. Do you know what a Ram truck looks like? It’s big and has the word Ram in the chrome along the front grill.” He pulled out his phone and used his thumb to bring up the picture. “Like this. Can you remember seeing something like this in the parking lot when your sister said goodbye to Simon?”

Lindsey swiped at her face and peered down at the screen. After a long moment, she shook her head. “I know there were a couple trucks parked in the lot, but I can’t remember if they looked like this one. I mean, I didn’t pay attention to if they were Ram trucks or some other kind.”

“That’s okay, what color were the trucks you saw?” Griff pressed.

“One was gray; the other was black.” Lindsey sniffled loudly again. “Are you going to find my sister?”

“I promise I’m going to do everything I can to find her.” He pocketed his phone. Nate Kaufman held his wife, his own expression full of anguish.

“How did this happen?” Nate asked. “I don’t understand.”

“I—we have been searching for him for the past twenty-four hours.” Griff couldn’t help feeling guilty that they hadn’t gone to the press sooner. Would doing so have kept Maureen safe? He swallowed hard. “The first two girls went missing from other cities far from here. The third victim lived in Greybull. We’re following up on leads, and I have a profiler flying in from DC very soon.”

“My God,” Nate whispered.

“My K9 knows his scent,” Alexis said, speaking up for the first time. She rested her hand on Denali’s head as the dog sat tall at her side. “Denali followed his scent from your campsite all the way to the dirt road. She’s super smart, and I trust her ability to follow scents. I’m sure Denali will help us find the man who took your daughter.”

Beth lifted her head from her husband’s chest, a bit of hope lightening her eyes. “Your K9 knows his scent? You can use her to search every house in town?”

Every house would be impossible, but Griff had no intention of mentioning that. If they had a general area in mind, yes. But they couldn’t randomly comb the entire town.

“As Agent Flannery said, we’re following up on every possible lead.” Alexis gave the Kaufmans a reassuring look. “We won’t stop until we find him.”

Griff pulled a business card from his pocket. “You can call me anytime. And I’ll need your contact information as well.”

A few minutes later, Griff led Alexis and Denali back to the parking lot. As she opened the back hatch for Denali, he quickly scanned the vehicles. The black Ram truck was still there. There was no sign of the gray one.

“I have the list of Ram trucks,” he told Alexis as they piled into the SUV. “I think we start with those who are in the Greybull area.”

“Good idea. We should start with the ones registered to young men.” Alexis put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot.

“I’m not sure narrowing the list by age of the registered driver is a good idea,” Griff said. “What if this guy is driving a truck registered to one of his parents? No, I think we cover each one of them. I’ll even recheck the one truck owned by the sixty-three-year-old man.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Alexis admitted. “Good plan. Once we find them, I’ll have Denali search the area nearby to see if she alerts.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” He didn’t like having Alexis and Denali near this guy, but they were running out of time. Maureen’s abduction changed everything.

He pulled the list up on his phone. It was longer than he’d have liked, but starting with those registered to people living in or around Greybull would help.

They were back at the hotel a few minutes later. Instead of heading straight to their room, he detoured to the small business center. The computer was available, so he logged into his email. He’d already sent the list to his personal email. Doing that was against policy, but he didn’t have time to waste.

When he opened the attachment, he winced when he noticed there were just over fifty trucks listed. Fifty-two to be exact. The list was in a spreadsheet format, so he took a minute to sort the file by city. There were six trucks in Greybull.

Six was doable. He requested two copies, then hit the print key. He waited impatiently for the printer to warm up and spit out the document.

“Here.” He handed one copy to Alexis who stood with Denali off to the side of the small space. “Six trucks registered in Greybull.”

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