Page 58 of Pretty Broken Dolls
The decoy hesitated.
“Do it now!”
He slowly turned around and raised his hands, placing them on the back of his head.
Katie walked forward assertively, approaching the decoy. She patted him down and then placed one handcuff on his right hand and then he turned and began struggling with her. He pushed her hard and Katie hit the ground.
“Cisco!” she yelled. “Fass!” she commanded in German, meaning “bite”.
The cruiser’s back door popped open and instantly a black blur flew out of the car and was attached to the decoy’s arm, taking him to the ground.
Katie climbed to her feet, watching Cisco.
“Okay,” said the decoy, and stopped moving.
“Cisco,aus!” she yelled, ordering him to release his bite.
Cisco did so immediately, relaxing his jaws, and sitting to await the next order, but still barking incessantly, never taking his eyes from the decoy.
Katie approached the decoy to secure the other handcuff and he grabbed her forcefully.
Cisco immediately jumped into action again.
“Aus!” Katie yelled and the dog let go. “Platz.” Cisco instantly lay down.
There were a few claps and whispers from the audience due to Cisco’s impressive skills of releasing the bad guy in record time.
Katie secured the other handcuff and escorted the decoy to the police car as Cisco obediently walked to heel at her side.
Lizzy and John whooped and hollered. “Good boy, Cisco!”
Katie laughed, feeling a bit winded due to the adrenalin pumping through her body. Taking the cuffs off the decoy, she said, “That was great.”
“Hey, sorry about shoving you so hard. I’m used to big guys.”
“No problem. Made it more real.”
The decoy went back to the exercise location as Katie snatched up Cisco’s leash. They walked back to the main area.
“Great job,” said Sergeant Hardy. To the rest of the group, he advised: “You could learn something from Detective Scott. Great call-off.”
Lizzy hurried to Katie. “Wow, you haven’t lost your touch. Cisco is spot on.”
“Thanks,” she said smiling. Katie loved the work.
“Okay, I’m totally impressed,” said John. “That was awesome.”
“Thank you. It’s a lot of fun, that’s for sure. These dogs are all amazing.”
Katie went back to her Jeep to give Cisco a rest and spent the next half hour chatting with Lizzy and John, waiting for her turn at the tracking and trailing exercise. She saw a different side to John from the professional forensic scientist side and found out that he was really funny and charming. She still didn’t know if Lizzy and John were going to try to make a long-distance relationship work, which made her think about Chad—wondering what he was doing at that exact moment. They had been playing phone tag, leaving text messages and voicemails but never quite connecting.
* * *
Katie had secured Cisco in a lightweight harness and a fifteen-foot leash so that she could have control of him as they moved through the forest for the tracking exercise. She waited for the green light from Sergeant Hardy. This particular exercise wasn’t a spectator one, which left Lizzy and John to wait at the parking lot until Cisco found the bad guy.
“All ready, Scott?” said Hardy.
Katie focused her attention ahead. The trail wasn’t like what she was used to. It was narrow and places were cluttered with low brush and downed tree branches. It was cooler in the dense trees as she gathered her thoughts.
