Fiero stared up at Brody, his face haunted. “Carmen killed the young lady,” he told him, gasping for breath but clearly wanting to communicate. “She forced me . . . to hide her body . . . but . . . I wanted . . . you to know.”
“You called our office to tell us where to find her body?” Mattie asked.
“Yes.”
“Why did you act like you couldn’t speak English?”
“Carmen.” He paused, struggling to breathe.
“You didn’t want Carmen to know you spoke English?” Mattie asked.
“Right.”
Mattie glanced at Brody. He wore a murderous expression that told her everything she needed to know about his feelings, but when he spoke, his voice gave away nothing. “How could she force you to do something you didn’t want to do?”
“El Capo . . . her uncle . . . big drug boss . . . in Mexico . . . holds my family. He will kill them.” The effort of speaking appeared to steal Juan’s breath, and he lay gasping on the floor.
Stella reentered the room. “The ambulance is on its way,” she announced as she crossed the room. Squatting beside the injured man, she spoke to him in a soft voice. “We have to leave that arrow in place. We’ll try to make you as comfortable as possible while we wait.”
“Brody and I have to go after Cole,” Mattie said to Stella. “Can you stay here with Fiero?”
Stella swept her gaze around the room, thinking. “Yes, that’s best. I’m no good in this terrain. I’ll bolt this outside door and build a little shelter with these bales. If Santiago comes back, I’ll take her down.”
“We’re more likely to find her out there,” Mattie said, while Brody straightened and started stacking hay bales between Stella and the doorway. Mattie turned back to Fiero. “Do you have any idea which way they went?”
“To the ridge.”
“Robo can track them,” Mattie said to Brody.
He gestured toward the door with his chin. “Let’s go.”
She thought about the missing Doberman. “The guard dog isn’t out front, Juan. Could Carmen be using him to find Dr. Walker?”
A furrow deepened between his eyes. “He tracks . . . animals.”
With a sinking feeling, Mattie stood and gave Stella a hard look. “Take care of yourself. Shoot to kill if she comes through that door.”
“You two watch yourselves,” Stella said, following them to the door of the hay room and closing it behind them.
Mattie dashed out to her SUV and jerked open the back. From a floor compartment, she grabbed her utility belt, strapping it on while she spoke to Brody. “Do you have Kevlar on under your shirt?”
“Not today.”
“Strap it on.”
He went to his cruiser and opened his trunk. Mattie put on her own vest and reached for Robo’s. “Robo, come,” she said, squatting down beside him to place his vest over his back and shoulders and then fasten the straps that held it in place under his chest. She checked to make sure the vest wouldn’t rub his wound, and the area that covered it seemed flat and smooth. Hurrying, she splashed water into his collapsible bowl and encouraged him to drink.
“See if there’s a scent article in Walker’s truck,” she called over to Brody as he was completing a thorough check of his AR-15 Colt rifle. “A coat or shirt or something.”
Brody slammed down his cruiser’s trunk lid and, using the remote, chirped on the locks. He jogged to the front door of Cole’s truck, opened it, and searched inside. Mattie finished stashing away Robo’s things and grabbed a couple of long-distance walkie-talkies, attaching one to her belt loop.
“How about a hat?” Brody called over to her.
“That’s great. Let me pick it up,” Mattie shouted back as Brody turned toward her with the item in his hand. She hurried to join him, pulling a plastic bag from her utility belt and noticing his chagrin. She held open the bag. “Not a problem. Pop it inside here.”
He dropped it into the bag, and she sealed the zip-lock.
“Ready?” she asked Brody. At his nod, she sprinted toward the back of the barn, calling, “Robo, heel,” as she ran. Robo fell into place beside her, waving his tail with excitement.
“Robo and I are lead, and you’re backup,” she told Brody as they ran. “We’ll track Dr. Walker. You watch my back.”
“What about going after Santiago?”
Mattie could tell he wanted Adrienne’s killer, but Cole’s safety was her first priority. “We might run into her on our way to him. If we do, we’ll take her into custody. If we find Walker first, we’ll secure him and head back to the barn. Then we’ll get a scent article for Santiago and track her down.”
She glanced at Brody as she ran. “Got that?” It was her way of asking him to follow her command.
“Got it,” he said.
They’d reached the only doorway on the backside of the barn, so she assumed this was the door that led into the hay room. “Stella, you hear me?” she called at the door.
“Yes.”
“Open the door. I’ve got a walkie-talkie for you. You’re base. We’ll be in touch.”
The door opened and Stella reached for the instrument. “Good luck out there,” she said, standing in the doorway.
Mattie zipped open the bag and held it low for Robo to sniff. He buried his nose in the hat for a split second. “Search,” she told him, gesturing toward the ground at the base of the door.
Robo sniffed the ground no longer than the time it took for one heartbeat and then he bolted toward the trees, running down the rocky berm that surrounded the barn and across the cleared grassy space beyond. Mattie raced behind him, and Brody followed. They entered the forest as a unit, as close as soldiers going into a hotspot. Robo kept his nose to the ground, and she knew he was tracking rather than trailing the scent through the air. This told her that Cole was not in the immediate vicinity. She observed the hair on Robo’s neck—not raised, no perceived predator nearby either.
She checked wind direction and felt the breeze behind her. Cole had to be downwind from her position. The chances of Robo being able to air scent and go to him directly were slim. They’d need her dog’s nose on the ground.
She was able to keep up with Robo, and Brody stayed close behind. Suddenly Robo stopped, forcing her to step to the side to keep from bumping into him. She put out a hand to warn Brody. Robo sniffed off to the right and ahead on the trail. He came back. Bearing right, he kept his nose to the ground.
At the base of a large ponderosa, he used his nose to root among the dead pine needles. In a swift transition, he sat, looking up at Mattie, his grin clearly indicating his joy at finding something.
Mattie stooped and brushed aside more of the needles, unearthing a black-and-white striped cover on a laptop.
“Good boy, Robo,” she said, ruffling the fur at his throat and giving him a grin to show him how much he’d pleased her. Then with a more serious expression, she looked up at Brody “Adrienne’s?” she asked.
“Yeah.” His face was grim.
“We can’t carry it with us,” Mattie said, covering the laptop again. Drawing out a roll of orange flagging tape, she tossed it to Brody. “Mark this tree with a strip of this. We’ll come back later.”
While Brody tore off a strip of the tape and tied it to a branch, Mattie sent a transmission to Stella. “K-9 One to base, over.”
“This is base, over.” Stella’s voice came over the walkie-talkie loud and clear.
“Robo just located Adrienne Howard’s laptop, buried next to a large pine, beside a game trail that leads up the mountain. We’ve marked the tree with orange tape.” She wanted Stella to know about it, just in case.
“Affirmative.”