Urgent Track: A Jessica Anderson K-9 Mystery (The Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries Book 11) by D. L. Keur

Author:D. L. Keur [Keur, D. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: D. L. Keur
Published: 2025-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

21 – No Other Choice

DUCKED DOWN over the injured man, Tom doing the same for the girl, Jessie eyes were on her dogs. She watched them duck their heads, eyes squeezed shut and crouched close as small rocks and debris kicked up. My good, good dogs! They were such troopers to take the kind of abuse they suffered in this work.

Two bodies dropped, a flight medic fast-roping down, followed by a second. A Stokes litter and a pediatric basket followed immediately. Help was here.

Jessie called her dogs once the medevac’s paramedics took over. Checked her dogs over—ribs, abdomen, hips, legs, feet, neck, and head, including mouth, ears, and teeth—then buried her face in their necks, whispering, “My good, good dogs.” Jessie hugged them, tears coming strong now.

Got herself under control and called Landon. Told him, “We found Randolph Mann and his daughter, Sandra. They’re being prepped for medevac.” Told him about the small caliber bullet wound in the man.

Heard the helicopter return. “And they are preparing to transport. They’ll be hoisting soon.”

“Did you get any information from Mann?”

“No. He’s barely conscious and in really bad shape. Sorry.

“All right. What about the girl?”

“Didn’t even try. Sorry again.”

Silence for a moment, then a grunt and mumble.

“Landon?”

“Sorry. What about the rest of your dogs?” he asked.

“We’ll climb back up and head for Queenie and Sumi., next. I have to call Grant first, though.”

“All right.”

Another grumble in her ear, then he said, “I think Remmers has been in contact with Evans, but please keep me advised.”

“I will,” she promised, then let him go. He was obviously doing something.

*

VEERA LAINE now finished torturing him with cleaning and dressing the digs, scratches, and bites the girl had inflicted on his hands and fingers, Landon’s satphone went off as he trying to put it away, despite Veera’s tape job hampering him his efforts. Answered.

“Sheriff?” came Sol’s voice.

“Go ahead, Doctor.”

“I’m letting the castings finish drying, and I thought I’d give you my take.”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay. “We went back down to where the ‘hasty conference’ footprints are, and then I explored a little farther down the trail. What we seem to have originally are twelve distinct sets of footprints …aside from Jessie’s, Grant’s, and Tom’s.”

“That many?!”

“That is correct. Two of those are adult or young adult. The rest belong to varying ages of children. A wild guess puts most in the age range at maybe eight up to about twelve, plus one who is much younger. No way to tell male or female from the prints, though. The ground, dust really, is just too thin here, until, maybe, I get to a computer, and even then it’s iffy. Sorry.”

The sound of rustling, then Sol continued with, “And, farther along, there’s what seems to be the fall you saw when you were here with me. There’s another spot, though, and it suggests a struggle or fight and another fall. There’s evidence that fall was very hard. I can’t pull much, though, in the way of useful prints. I did get that one handprint in the dust.

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.