Page 32 of Through the Fire
“That can wait. This is a matter of life and death.” Without elaborating, Hugh charged down the hallway, leaving Kit to scramble after him. Even though her responsible side was pushing her to stay and finish what she needed to get done, her adrenaline-junkie side easily won. If she missed an important call just because she insisted on doing paperwork, she’d never forgive herself.
“Whose life and whose death?” she asked, catching up with him.
“Bendsie Wernicutt is the answer to both.” He surged forward, making her have to trot to keep up. For someone who’d recently injured his leg, Hugh was really fast.
“Whosie Whatsie?” she asked, trying to hide the fact that she had to skip every second step to not get left behind.
“Bendsie. He’s elderly, has dementia, and wandered away from his caretaker. Bendsie’s Springfield nine-millimeter pistol is also missing, although his nephew isn’t sure when the gun disappeared. Bendsie’s been randomly giving away his possessions lately.”
Despite her concern for the man, Kit felt a tiny hop of excitement at the thought of getting to do a search with Justice. “What are we waiting for?” She sped up so that Hugh fell behind her that time. “Let’s go find Bendsie.”
They basically raced to the squad car, where Lexi was already waiting. She looked like she was just as excited about the call, bouncing in the back of the car, her legs straight like pogo sticks. After loading Justice in the back, Kit automatically reached for the driver’s door, but Hugh cleared his throat. Hiding her grimace, she circled the car and got in the front passenger seat, twisting around to look in the back and make sure the dogs were settling in.
Justice was obviously ecstatic to be with Lexi again, basically curling his wriggling body around her, his tail whapping against the back of the seat. Although Lexi tried to feign long-suffering endurance of his affection, Kit saw the Malinois’s tail wag a few times before she got it under control again.
They pulled up to Bendsie’s address just four minutes after they left the makeshift station. Theo was already there, trying to question a middle-aged man who was pacing the walkway in front of the house. Kit got out and opened the back door. When she hooked the lead to Justice’s harness, his whole body quivered with excitement. He knew exactly what it meant when she used that loop—he was going to work, and there was nothing he enjoyed more.
“Finally!” The man plowed through the snow-covered yard toward them once Justice surged out of the squad car. “I hope the dog means you’re actually going to look for my uncle, rather than stand around flapping your lips.”
“Do you have something that smells like him?” Kit asked, falling into the familiar routine. “An item of clothing he’s worn recently that hasn’t been washed yet, for example?”
“Yeah, hang on.” The man reversed course and hurried into the house.
Once he disappeared inside, Kit shot a bland-faced Theo a sideways look. “You’re flapping your lips again?”
Behind her, Hugh coughed. Kit was beginning to recognize that as his way of smothering a laugh. “Yeah,” Hugh said in a low voice that didn’t carry to the house. “Theo’s a nasty lip-flapper.”
When Theo just gave them a flat, unimpressed stare, Kit met Hugh’s gaze and had to quickly look away again before she started laughing. A man is missing, she reminded herself, sobering quickly as the nephew reemerged, holding what looked like a flannel shirt.
“Here,” he said, holding out the balled-up fabric.
“Thank you.” Kit accepted the shirt. “Do you know if your uncle left out the front door?”
“He had to,” Bendsie’s nephew said. “The back door’s blocked. This is the only way out of the house.”
Kit offered the shirt to Justice, who snuffled at it furiously. She had to hold back a smile at how he never simply sniffed something. Instead, he threw his whole self into it, nearly burying his head in the fabric in his enthusiasm. After giving him a few seconds, she withdrew the shirt and told him, “Justice, find.”
The dog dropped his head toward the ground, his long ears flopping over his face, and started to search for Bendsie’s trail.
“Here.” Hugh held open a paper bag he’d just retrieved from the squad car and Kit dropped the shirt into it with a nod of thanks. Justice made ever-widening loops around her as she fed him more of the twenty-foot lead, focusing on staying out of the dog’s way.
When Justice lifted his head and let out his characteristic baying bark, Kit grinned. He charged down the driveway and into the street, quickly taking up all the slack in the lead. Kit chased after him, slipping a little on the packed snow in the road. Justice turned east, running back toward town.
Behind her, Kit heard the squad car’s engine start up. Since Hugh was jogging to her right, she assumed that Theo and the nephew were driving behind them. Justice turned again, to the north this time, trailed the scent a block, and then turned so they were once again heading east. Kit settled in, finding a pace that she could hold for miles and not letting Justice yank her out of it. Right away, she felt the same squeeze of her lungs that she’d felt the previous day running through the woods, and she slowed her pace a little more, even though she hated to do it.
“You don’t have to do that.” Hugh sounded irritated, and she glanced at him, confused.
“Do what?”
Now he looked annoyed, as well. “Slow down.”
“If I don’t, I’m going to be sucking air in about five minutes.” Her tone was a little snappy, but she couldn’t help it. She prided herself on her fitness, but this was a whole new environment. “The air’s a lot thinner here than I’m used to. I’ll adjust eventually, but you need to give me a few days.”
His aggravated expression dropped, replaced by surprise. “Oh. Sorry. Thought you were slowing down for me. I’m used to Theo and Otto trying to baby me.”
“Why would I slow down for you?” she said. “If you can’t keep up, just get in the car.”
“Oh, I can keep up.” He sounded like he was back to his usual self. “We could run all the way to Denver, and I’d still keep up. In fact, I could run even faster than you, much faster, but I don’t want to get ahead of the handler.”
