Lost Creed by Alex Kava

Author:Alex Kava [Kava, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Dog trainer, series, marine, search and rescue, strong female, k9, crime, FBI profiler, Mystery, suspense, Thriller, action and adventure, fiction
ISBN: 9780997389791
Publisher: Praire Wind Publishing
Published: 2018-05-03T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

“Slow down,” Creed told him. The kid sounded panicked. “What do you mean, you screwed up?”

“A girl went missing from one of those nice residential areas off Garcon Point. She took a trail from her house to a friend’s on the other side of the forest. That was yesterday. The mother only found out this afternoon that the girl didn’t make it to the friend’s house. Sounds like the friend wasn’t even expecting her.”

“How long’s the trail?” Creed asked.

“Do you know the area? Probably about five miles south of Mary Kitchens Road. On the map it’s called Yellow River Marsh Preserve State Park.”

“Okay, yeah, I know the area. That’s a big swatch of land to cover.”

“It’s a helluva a big swatch. She must of left the trail at some point. Scout seemed to have a scent when we started and now . . . nothing. I’ve taken him back to start over, and he’s just looking at me like I’m crazy. I don’t know what to do.”

“First off, calm down. Where are you?”

“We’re in the middle of the son of a bitchin’ forest, and it’s getting dark.”

“You need to head back.”

“But the little girl—”

“You know I don’t like having dogs out after dark,” Creed told him, doing Jason a favor and taking the decision away from him.

“What if she’s hurt?”

“Scout would have found her.”

“How can you be so sure of that?”

Creed hated hearing the uncertainty in Jason’s voice, because he knew it wasn’t Scout that Jason had lost faith in. It was himself.

“Look, it’s not unusual for a dog to come up empty. Same thing with false alerts. It happens. It happens a lot more than handlers are willing to admit. But from my personal experience, a good portion of those incidents are because a handler didn’t read their dog correctly.”

“That’s what I’m telling you. I screwed up. Maybe I didn’t give him enough time in her room. I took one of her shoes, and he seemed to really get it. But then, nothing.”

“Scout is one of the most honest dogs in our kennel,” Creed said. “He hasn’t had any of the life experiences that our rescues have had. He’s never had to fight or scrap for food. He’s never lived out on the streets and gone hungry. I think he’s being honest about his alert. You need to trust your dog.”

“How can I trust him if I screwed up?”

“Jason, you’re not listening. If Scout didn’t find anything on that trail, it could be because the girl didn’t take the trail.”

He waited out Jason’s silence, listened to the deep breaths without interrupting.

“You really think she’s not here?” he finally asked.

“If you want to start the search fresh again, you need to wait for first sunlight tomorrow. Take Scout home. You both need to get some rest.”

“Okay.”

“Sometimes we don’t find them,” Creed said. It was one of the hardest lessons he had learned early on. “You can’t let it defeat you. And you can’t let it defeat your dog. Go on home.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.