Chapter 2
2
D oug pressed his back against the side of the hotel. He had pulled his weapon, but the thick gloves on his hands hindered his movements, so he yanked the right glove off with his teeth so he could return fire.
First, he had to find the shooter.
He spared a quick glance toward Maya and Zion, who thankfully appeared unhurt. Relieved they were out of the line of fire, Doug edged closer to the front of the hotel, scanning the general area where the shots had come from.
Where was the gunman? With his back still pressed against the wall, he scanned the area across the street from the hotel. There were a couple of buildings, including a tavern called the Crooked Wheel, but not much else. The shooter had to be hiding over there, waiting for the opportunity to try again.
He didn’t see anything for almost a full minute. Then he caught a glimpse of a man darting out from behind the Crooked Wheel and running toward a black pickup truck. Doug lunged forward, intending to catch up to them, but it was too late. The truck sped off, and he had only a second to realize the rear license plate was covered with mud. He made a note of the black older model Chevy Silverado. Hopefully, the Cody police would find the truck with the muddy plates sooner than later.
Belatedly realizing the fingers on his right hand were numb with cold, he turned to jog back to the side of the hotel. He holstered his weapon, grabbed his fallen glove, and stuffed his reddened fingers inside. Hearing the wailing sirens, he tucked his right hand beneath his armpit to warm it up as he waited for the cops to arrive.
Maybe this time they wouldn’t be so quick to brush off his concerns over Emily’s disappearance as it was obvious the two incidents were related.
When the Cody police squad pulled up in front of the hotel, Maya and Zion stepped forward to join him. He frowned, having expected her to leave without looking back. It was one thing to search for Emily, but being targeted by gunfire had not been part of their arrangement.
“The shooter took off in a pickup truck with muddied plates,” he said. “No reason for you to be out here in the cold.”
Maya arched a brow as if to indicate she’d do as she wanted. He estimated she was a few years younger than his thirty-seven, and she was beautiful with her dark hair and dark eyes. He’d been very impressed with how well she handled her husky, Zion, but the last thing he wanted was to put another woman in danger.
Having Emily gone was bad enough.
“What’s this about a report of gunfire?” Officer Jones asked as he approached. The same officer who had recommended Doug seek help from those living on the Sullivan K9 Search and Rescue ranch.
“I called it in, Burt,” Maya said, stepping forward. Zion stayed right at her side, blue eyes seeming to understand everything that was being said. “We were heading into the hotel when gunfire rang out. It’s a miracle neither of us was hit.”
Her comment gave him pause. It was strange that the shooter had missed. Most of the men and even some of the women in this part of the state were avid hunters and could hit what they were aiming at. Maybe not as much with a handgun, though , he silently acknowledged. Very different from shooting a rifle with the aid of a scope. He looked at Officer Jones and his senior partner, Sergeant Howell. “Obviously, this is related in some way to my sister’s disappearance.”
“Oh yeah? How?” Jones asked.
He bit back the flash of annoyance. These guys were treating him as if he were the bad guy in this mess. “I’m not sure, but the shooter escaped in a black older model Chevy Silverado. Maybe a 2015 or 16? I’m not sure, but the rear plate was covered in mud, so one of your patrol units should be able to find it.”
The two cops exchanged a frown. “I’ll call it in,” Sergeant Howell said, turning away to speak into his radio.
“You seem to know a lot about cars,” Jones said.
“I’m with the DEA. It’s my job to be observant, including identifying vehicles used in committing crimes.” He managed to keep his tone even, but it wasn’t easy. Granted, he was the outsider here in Wyoming, but he suspected his being a federal agent was the real source of the officer’s animosity.
“I’ve issued the BOLO,” Sergeant Howell said. “Anything else you can remember about the perp?”
He tried to picture the guy in his mind. It happened so fast, and he had been more concerned with identifying the vehicle. “Average height and weight. That’s all I can say about him.”
“He wore black jeans and a black jacket,” Maya added. “He wasn’t wearing a cowboy hat but had one of those heavy-duty caps with flaps covering his ears.”
He glanced at her in surprise. She’d caught more details than he had. “Good eye,” he said. Then he brushed past the officers.
“Hey, where are you going?” Howell asked.
“Across the street.” He increased his pace to reach the Crooked Wheel pub. Then he took his time examining the ground around the corner of the building where the shooter had been standing prior to darting toward the truck. It was easy to see several footprints, but like those outside the hospital, they were crisscrossed so that none were clear enough to estimate size or make of the shoe. That wasn’t great, but what he really wanted to find was the shell casing.
Unfortunately, he didn’t see one. Either the shooter had picked up his brass or it had fallen someplace deep into the snow.
Once again, Maya and her K9 partner joined them outside the bar. “Zion, find gold,” Maya said.
Gold? Was that another way to describe brass? To his surprise, the beautiful husky lowered her nose to the ground and began sniffing the area where the shooter had been standing. It didn’t take more than a minute for the husky to bury her nose in the snow. Then she pawed at the ground. When she was satisfied, she sat and looked expectantly up at Maya.
“Good girl,” Maya praised. But she didn’t offer the bunny until she bent over to see what the dog had found. With her gloved hand, she picked up a brass casing. “Here you go.”
“Wow, that’s amazing.” He opened his pocket. “Drop it in, would you? Thanks.”
She did, then turned her attention to her dog. “Good girl,” Maya repeated with enthusiasm, this time pulling the bunny from her pocket and tossing it into the air. As before, Zion leaped up to grab it, then trotted around the area with the stuffed animal in her mouth.
“Gold, huh?” He arched a brow. “Easier for a dog to follow than brass?”
“Gold is used for gunpowder,” Maya corrected. “Technically, for all sources of gunpowder and gun oil. If we’re at the airport or in other public places, it’s better to use a word that doesn’t incite panic. We don’t want the public to know we’re searching for weapons.”
His experience with K9s was mostly related to drug-sniffing dogs that worked the airport and main port of Lake Michigan. They used the word candy to describe drugs for a similar reason. He’d also spent some time with Matt Callahan and his K9 Duchess who had followed the trail of Brady Finnegan’s young son who’d been kidnapped. A dog that could find both guns and people was interesting, and his admiration for Maya and Zion grew as he nodded. “That makes sense.”
“You really think Emily’s disappearance is related to this shooting?” Maya asked.
“Yeah, I do.” His sister being taken from work mere hours before he was targeted by gunfire was not a coincidence. He didn’t much believe in them anyway. His thoughts whirled as the situation morphed into something far more dangerous.
He needed to contact his boss to find out if any of the drug traffickers he’d put away over the past five years had recently been let out of prison. One of them must have been angry enough to track him all the way here to Wyoming.
“We’ll help in any way we can,” Maya said.
“No thanks. I don’t want to drag you and Zion into danger.” She frowned at that but didn’t answer as the two Cody police officers joined them.
Doug hesitated, quickly deciding it was better to give the shell casing to the feds rather than the local cops. “Zion found a shell casing, and I’m going to get this to the feds to be put through our system. I know everyone shares the same ballistics database, but if this shooter has ties to Milwaukee, that means the criminals have crossed several state lines, putting this incident squarely within federal jurisdiction.”
“You do know the local police and the feds share the same state crime lab in Cheyenne, right?” Sergeant Howell drawled.
“Really?” He glanced at Maya who nodded.
“Tom is right. Local labs can do basics, but anything forensic goes to the state lab,” she confirmed.
He inwardly groaned. Knowing Cheyenne was on the opposite side of the state, he felt certain driving there was his only option.
“It would be nice if you’d keep us in the loop,” Jones said after a moment of silence. “Emily is one of ours, and we’d like to know when she’s found.”
When, not if. He liked that the cops were thinking positive. He tried to do the same. “I will.” Yet despite his determination to keep his hopes up, he realized the responsibility of finding his sister rested squarely on his shoulders.
And failure was not an option.
* * *
Despite her best efforts to remain neutral, Maya found herself intrigued by DEA Agent Doug Bridges. It wasn’t that he was handsome—she’d been divorced for five years and had no interest in heading down that path again. But his intense concern about his half sister, combined with his nonchalant attitude toward being shot at, was an enigma.
She was tempted to mention her concerns about being followed, then decided against it. Doug was probably right. The gunfire so close on the heels of Emily’s disappearance indicated a likely connection.
This wasn’t about her. Yet that didn’t mean she was about to cut and run either.
“Every search I perform with Zion carries a level of risk,” she said, getting back to his comment. “And I hate to say this, but I doubt you’ll find Emily without our help.”
He scowled. “I agree that you would be a huge asset in finding Emily, but I don’t want you or Zion to get hurt.”
“I don’t want that either,” she said. Dipping her gloved hand into her coat pocket, she pulled out her handgun. “Like just about every Wyoming resident, I have a carry concealed permit. I can also hit what I’m aiming for. You should know that I once worked in law enforcement, not here, but in Cheyenne. I was a K9 cop there.” She tried not to show her true feelings about her time as an officer. First, she’d lost her K9 partner Ranger in a shooting gone wrong. Then her ex-husband, Blaine, had made it clear her job was the reason their marriage had fallen apart. As if it was her fault he’d cheated on her. The jerk. Right after they’d separated, she’d gotten the devastating news her parents had died, forcing her back to living on the ranch. Despite the horrible losses, moving home had been the best decision. She’d taken their mission of performing search and rescue work to heart and wasn’t about to stop now. “Look, let’s get back to work. Arguing won’t get the job done. Besides, it’s cold out here.”
Doug had looked surprised to see the gun, and he finally nodded. “Okay, you’re right. I could use your help. And I’m freezing. Let’s get back to the Lumberjack Inn to warm up. I still need to extend my stay.”
She held out her hand to Zion who dutifully dropped the bunny into it. Tucking the toy into her left pocket, the one that didn’t contain the gun, she gave Zion the hand signal to heel and followed Doug back across the street to the hotel.
The interior of the hotel was blessedly warm, and she gravitated toward the beautiful stone fireplace located directly across from the front desk, grateful to absorb the heat from the flames. Zion lifted her nose, sniffing with curiosity. Maya had come to understand that even without issuing search or find commands, her partner often knew her role was to keep searching for those who were missing.
Like Emily.
As she waited for Doug to chat with the desk clerk, she wondered if she should call Kendra to let her youngest sibling know about Emily. Then she decided against it. Kendra and her K9, Smoky, would want to participate in the search, even though she was barely healed from her fall. Considering the recent bout of gunfire, Maya wasn’t willing to put the baby of the family in danger.
They’d lost their parents five years ago after a horrible plane crash in the mountains. As the eldest, Maya and Chase had worked hard to keep the family together. Ironically, their parents had been wealthy in a way that none of them had fully realized. It had been Maya’s idea to turn the ranch into a K9 search and rescue business. Their reputation had flourished, reaching across several states. They didn’t take money for the jobs they accepted. The only payments that were welcome were bags of dog food. Mostly because there were nine dogs on the ranch, and keeping them fed was a monumental task.
After the way they’d lost their parents, she and Chase had been a bit overprotective of Kendra. She’d taken the loss of their parents hard and kept insisting their parents’ death wasn’t an accident.
Privately, she and Chase had agreed. And they had tried to do their own investigation without much success.
No, she wouldn’t drag Kendra into this now. One Sullivan in danger was more than enough. She would not call on the rest of her siblings for help unless necessary.
The way things were going, she sensed her role in the search would be rather limited. She wasn’t convinced that searching the local hotels for Emily’s scent was the right way to proceed. They’d need something more tangible to go on.
What, she wasn’t sure.
She glanced over her shoulder to see that Doug was no longer standing at the front desk. The clerk sensed her gaze, then quickly looked away, pretending to be busy with her computer. Maya frowned, wondering what was going on.
Five minutes later, she had her answer. Doug strolled toward her dragging his computer and laptop case. “Looks like I’ll need a new place to stay,” he said in response to her surprised look.
“What happened? The hotel can’t possibly be booked solid this time of the year.”
“I was told in no uncertain terms that I needed to find somewhere else to stay.” He shrugged. “Guess being targeted by gunfire and having cops show up is cause for alarm.”
A flash of anger hit hard. Zion sensed her turbulent emotions and moved closer to her side. “That’s ridiculous. They can’t force you to leave.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Doug didn’t look overly concerned. “I’ll find somewhere else to stay.” He offered a lopsided grin. “That can be our excuse to have Zion sniffing around other local hotels.”
It was tempting to offer him her guest room at the Sullivan K9 Search and Rescue ranch, but she managed to swallow the urge. She didn’t really know anything about Doug Bridges, other than his half sister Emily was missing and someone had tried to kill him. But even if he was harmless, there was an unwritten rule against offering those who needed their services a place to stay. The ranch was remote, and she didn’t want to be stuck with an unwanted guest.
Besides, getting emotionally involved wasn’t smart. The best way to find a missing person was to stay detached from emotional entanglements. She had no intention of crossing that line now.
“I’ll have Zion search for Emily here,” she said. “Then we’ll hit the road.” She eyed him curiously. “Sounds like you want to head all the way to Cheyenne to drop off the evidence.”
Doug nodded. “Yeah, I do. Thanks for staying a bit. My car is still at the veterinary office building. No reason for you to worry about driving across the state. I can do that myself.”
She opened the bag containing Emily’s gloves and offered it to Zion. “Search for Emily.”
Zion sniffed the bag for barely two seconds before turning to sniff along the floor of the lobby. Maya knew Zion was smart enough to know Emily’s scent without being reminded. Her K9 went all the way through the area without alerting.
Not a surprise. Maya would have been shocked if Emily had been in the hotel, especially if she hadn’t been there to visit Doug.
She pushed open the doors, wincing at the cold blast of air that greeted them. Zion eagerly trotted outside, not noticing the cold with her thick coat. Her dog sniffed all along the sidewalk, then took a zigzag pattern across the parking lot. Still no alert.
“Come, Zion,” she called. She imagined the K9 was disappointed the search game was over as she trotted back toward her. She glanced at Doug. “Sorry, but as you can see, there’s no indication Emily has been here.”
“Thanks for trying.” His expression didn’t reveal his disappointment. Or maybe he was just that good at hiding his emotions.
They returned to her K9-adapted SUV. She opened the back hatch for Zion, then gestured to the back seat. “Put your suitcase and laptop there, okay?”
He nodded and opened the back passenger seat to store his things. Moments later, they were situated in the front seat with the heat blasting from the vents.
“How long will it take to get to the lab in Cheyenne?” Doug asked. “I took a moment to check out our options, seems that Wyoming doesn’t have an actual field office like ours in Milwaukee.”
“At least five and a half hours, maybe more depending on how well the roads have been cleared.” She glanced at him. “The other option is to charter a plane.”
He winced. “Twelve hours round trip? I can’t even imagine being that far from the crime lab.”
“Yep, that’s how it is out here.” She felt bad for him; people who came to Wyoming didn’t realize how large the state was. And how far away the main cities were from each other. “In my opinion, we should do some work with Zion first, even though searching the various hotels is pretty much a long shot. After that, you can decide whether you’d rather drive or fly.”
“Yeah, okay.” He poked at his phone screen. “There aren’t too many hotels in the area anyway. I have a list here on my phone.”
She hid a smile. “No need to look them up, I know where they are.” She pulled out from the parking lot of the Lumberjack Inn and drove to the next hotel located barely a half mile down the road. “I’ve lived in this area for my entire life. I know my way around. The Elk Lodge is the nicest of the bunch.”
“It may be too close,” he muttered. “Do you think these hotel clerks talk to each other? I might be blacklisted from most of them.”
She shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
After letting Zion out of the back, she told the dog to search for Emily’s scent. Her K9 was anxious to please, but after several long minutes, it was clear Emily hadn’t been there.
Doug came outside, shaking his head in disgust. “No rooms available at this time,” he said. “Can you believe that?”
Actually, she couldn’t. It wasn’t normal for hotels to turn down paying customers during the long winter months. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sure we’ll have better luck on the other side of town.”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. By the time they’d reached the third hotel, Maya had to admit the news of a shooting involving a federal agent had spread across the town faster than wildfire.
“I guess I’ll sleep on the sofa at Emily’s place,” Doug said with a sigh as they climbed back into the SUV. “She gave me the code to get inside her garage. I was using the hotel in the first place because she only has a two-bedroom home, and the spare room had been turned into an office.”
“That’s probably best,” Maya agreed, squashing a flash of guilt over his situation. “I feel bad about this. Usually we’re nicer to strangers.”
He waved that off. “There’s only one more place to check, the Wild Bill Motel. Gotta say, it looks rather worn down.”
“It’s not a top-tier establishment, that’s for sure,” she said with a wry nod. “I didn’t work in Cody as a cop, but I did find a missing girl here once. Turned out she had left Jackson to work here as a prostitute. With the help of the Cody police, we broke up the prostitution ring.”
Doug frowned. “Sounds like exactly the type of place a criminal might bring a missing woman.”
She shrugged, eyeing Zion in the rearview mirror. Despite going out into the cold weather, her partner was still raring to go. “If he was stupid enough to stay in town, yes. But there are plenty of places to hide outside of the city limits. You’d be surprised at how many abandoned cabins and hunting shacks are in the area. Granted, January is our coldest month of the year, so they’d need one with a wood stove or risk freezing to death.”
“Great.” He scowled. “We’ll never find her at this rate.”
“We’re doing everything possible,” she said, trying to sound encouraging. But his keen despair radiated off him in waves.
Doug grimaced when he got his first look at the Wild Bill Motel. Seeing it through his eyes, she could see why. The place had fallen into disrepair over the past several years. The roof shingles were beginning to curl, the walls needed at least three coats of paint, and she knew from experience the interior rooms were old, shabby, and musty. No surprise it was still known to be a place where rooms could be rented by the hour.
The local cops probably visited the place on a regular basis. Maybe Doug had a point about this location being a perfect place to hide Emily.
She let Zion out of the back. Zion stared up at her, anticipating the command. She bypassed the routine of offering water and the scent source to speed things along. Holding the dog’s gaze, she said, “Search for Emily.”
Zion went to work, first testing the air with her nose, then lowering her head to sniff along the row of parking spaces positioned in front of each motel room door. Maya decided to enter the lobby last. If Zion didn’t find Emily outside any of the rooms, alerting on her scent inside the lobby wouldn’t mean much. Emily could have been inside simply to meet with someone.
Zion made it all the way to room six of ten when she abruptly stopped and sniffed all along the base of the doorway. Maya’s heart thudded in her chest when Zion sat and stared up at her.
“Is she alerting on Emily’s scent?” Doug asked.
“It appears so.” She barely got the words out, when Doug rushed forward and pounded his fist on the door. Startled by his frantic approach, Zion let out a sharp bark and backed away. Not a smart move on his part. Maya gave Zion the hand signal for come, and the dog quickly returned to her side.
She wasn’t sure if she should reward her K9 partner or not. Was Emily really inside the room?
“Federal agent!” Doug shouted between thundering knocks. “Open the door and come out with your hands up!”
There was no movement from within the room from what she could see. Doug tried again, then turned and ran into the lobby. Before she could blink, he emerged holding a key card in his hand.
Apparently, being a fed had its perks. She could just imagine the scared clerk caving to his order to hand over the master key. It didn’t take long to access the room. Maya pulled her weapon from her pocket, taking a step forward to protect Zion as she waited to see what happened.
As the seconds ticked by into a full two minutes, she realized the room must have been empty. Doug poked his head out from the doorway, his expression crestfallen. “Maya? Can you ask Zion to check the room?”
“Of course.” She tucked her weapon back into her pocket and walked over to meet him. Zion kept pace at her side. Pausing at the threshold, she looked down at her K9. “Search for Emily.”
Zion lowered her nose and entered the room. She took her time; there were probably hundreds of thousands of scents to sift through. Then she alerted near the side of the bed, staring up at Maya with her intense gaze. She managed to respond, “Good girl,” and tossed the stuffed bunny in her direction.
Then she glanced at Doug. Her heart squeezed as his green eyes filled with anguish. Emily had been there, likely recently. Yet that wasn’t good enough.
They needed more.
They needed to know where Emily was being held captive. Before it was too late.