Blood Ties by Sigmund Brouwer

Author:Sigmund Brouwer [Brouwer, Sigmund]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: serial killer, sigmund brouwer
Publisher: Sigmund Brouwer
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Noah Latcher arrived ten minutes later, a single bloodhound in the cab of his pickup truck. He and the hound were reputed to be a couple sniffs better than old Caleb and his legendary brace in their day.

When he stepped out of the truck, Noah had a leather leash wrapped around his left hand. He wore jeans and a dirty white T-shirt with a photo of Marilyn Monroe on one side, Elvis on the other. He wasn’t wearing boots but a pair of high-top running shoes, well worn and brown with mud and manure.

Noah didn’t pause but nodded hello, opened the passenger door, and lifted the low-bellied dog onto the ground. He snapped the leash on its collar and unwound the leather strap from his hand. The dog sniffed disinterestedly at Noah’s ankle.

“All right,” he said. He had his old man’s bulbous nose and shy way of speaking. “You got what I asked for over the phone?”

Clay stepped over, handing him the purple sweater from the wooden rail of the corral. “Taylor wore this all day yesterday.”

“Good,” Noah said. “Bring me and my dog to the last place you know the boy stood.”

“You want all of us with you?” Lawson asked.

“Don’t matter none to me,” Noah said. “Nothing distracts this hound.”

“Lawson,” Clay said, “why don’t you stay with Kelsie and James? You’re not wearing the clothes for a trek through bush. Rooster, for that matter, you’ll break your ankles climbing around in those cowboy boots. Fact is, if you have work, you might as well go on. I'll call you as soon as we find Taylor.”

Rooster shrugged agreement.

“I’m going,” Kelsie announced. “I’ll be in sweats and hiking boots in less than a minute.”

It wasn’t that she pictured Taylor huddled somewhere frightened out of his wits and waiting to be rescued. No, she wasn’t much worried about him. He couldn’t have gone far, she thought, and the hound would track him, probably within a half-hour. She also knew he would be playing happily wherever they found him, and just as happy to be interrupted and taken home again. She wanted to go with the bloodhound because she didn’t want to be sitting around the kitchen with Lawson and her father, enduring the awkward silences as they waited for Clay to return.

She changed into clothes she’d left behind and met them at the patio door of the walkout basement.

Noah gave the bloodhound the scent from Taylor’s purple sweater, and the dog began to cast from side to side, its massive nose sweeping the top of the lawn. Within seconds it gave an excited “harumpph” and yanked at the leash, taking Noah in a straight line across the grass and toward the trees at the far edge of the yard.

Clay followed. Kelsie followed Clay. They had avoided eye contact and any more conversation since she’d arrived.

The trail was easy to follow. It cut among the trees in a slightly uphill direction, taking them out of sight of the house and ranch buildings.

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