Page 32 of Pretty Broken Dolls
“The scent should still be fresh enough, I hope, to stand out above the rest. What time does the guard come on?” she asked.
“Four to midnight.”
“He leaves after midnight and no one is here after that?”
“Yep.”
“The killer had to be here after midnight and then leave by 1:30a.m.”
“Seems reasonable.”
“The victim had been dead for only about an hour or two before the first deputy arrived. I’m guessing, of course, but Dr. Dean will be able to pinpoint the time of death.”
“I would agree with that. Rigor hadn’t set in yet.”
Katie rolled up the map and stashed it inside the car. “Okay, did you bring the piece of clothing?”
“Yep,” he said reaching inside the car and retrieving a tube with ends that opened to let the victim’s scent release from an item of their clothing without it being touched.
“I didn’t want you to compromise the evidence, but I need it to give Cisco a scent. And then, of course, it goes into a doggie olfactory sensory computer and hopefully we’ll learn something new.”
John laughed. “I love that—doggie computer olfactory sensory neurons.”
“Yep, I’ve coined that and you heard it here first.”
Katie opened the back door and Cisco jumped out, wagging his tail and making his usual circles around them. She reached into the car to retrieve a long leash.
“You leash him?”
“Not always, but here I need to slow him down because of the cement, blacktop, metal on the rides, and the eateries. There’s a lot of man-made stuff around, and it’s not like it is in the forest.”
“Interesting.”
“There’s not much wind today, so that’s good. Just stay behind me, but you can fan out left or right.”
“I want to video, is that okay?” he said readying the digital video recorder.
“Sure, anything that might help with the case if Cisco finds something. Just so you know, Cisco will passive alert, meaning he will become agitated but will sit as the signal.”
Katie took the heavy-duty tube and began playing with Cisco, so he could get a good scent from the T-shirt the victim had been wearing. She ran with the jet-black dog, waving the tube so the scent wafted into the air, and ultimately in his senses.
“Okay,” she said and handed the tube back to John.
After attaching the leash to Cisco, Katie led him to the Ferris wheel next to the car. There was still some crime scene tape and the blood had dried on the ground. Katie wrinkled her nose, remembering how it had soaked her trouser leg.
“Ciscosuch,” Katie commanded—the German word for ‘seek’, pronounced ‘suuk’.
Immediately, the dog began to sniff the area all around the Ferris wheel car. Katie let out a few more feet of the leash. Cisco moved in a zone pattern, taking in the scent. He clearly got the scent and after less than a minute he sat, giving two quick barks.
“Good boy. Nowsuch,” she said again, gently pulling on the leash.
This time Cisco’s nose was in the air as he moved toward the left then, dropping his nose to the ground, tail down, he weaved back and forth until he picked up the scent and speeded up.
Katie knew that he was on to something and hoped that it wasn’t some type of rodent. Every handler had those thoughts, but the dog knew exactly what he was doing. She saw John in her peripheral vision as he followed in the least unobtrusive way, recording the track.
Cisco led them to the east area at the entrance and spent some time there, but didn’t alert. He then moved at a fairly brisk pace, making Katie run to keep up. They went around two food stands and crossed in a straight diagonal line to the livestock area. The dog hesitated around some wooden troughs and Katie thought he had lost the track, but then he picked the scent up again. His energy perked as he moved faster to get to the end.
Katie repeated her search command again to keep Cisco engaged and moving forward. Cisco went up one row and then down another, never veering from the straight lines. He ended up at the area where the ring hanging from a ribbon had been found. Cisco sat waiting.
