“Out?”
“I’ll take you out to dinner. You could wear a dress.”
“I could.”
“You have them. I’ve seen them in your closet.”
She tilted her head back. “I’d like to put on a dress and go out to dinner.”
“Good. Don’t take all night. I’m hungry.”
“Fifteen minutes.” Rising on her toes, she brushed his lips with hers. “This is better.”
Even as she walked inside, the phone rang.
“Business line. One minute. Fiona Bristow.” Immediately she reached for the pad, the pen. “Yes, Sergeant Kasper. How long?” She wrote quickly, nodded as questions she didn’t have to ask were answered. “I’ll contact the rest of the unit immediately. Yes, five handlers, five dogs. Mai Funaki will run our base, as before. We’ll meet you there. You still have my cell number? Yes, that’s it. We’ll leave within the hour. No problem.”
She hung up. “I’m sorry. We’ve got two missing hikers in the Olympic National Forest. I’ve got to call the others. I’ve got to go.”
“Okay. I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t have any experience,” she began even as she speed-dialed Mai. “Mai, we’re on.” She relayed the information quickly. “Phone tree,” she said to Simon as she clicked off and began to move. “Mai makes the next call.”
“I’m going with you. One, because you’re not going alone. Once you start the search it’s just you and the dog, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“And two, if you’re going to train my dog to do what you’re about to do, I want a better sense of it. I’m going.”
“We won’t get there before dark. If they haven’t found them by then, we’re going to start the search at night, and very likely spend the night in very rough conditions.”
“What, am I a pussy?”
“Hardly.” She opened her mouth to push back again, then realized what she was doing. “Okay. I’ve got a spare pack. I have a list of everything you need to take. Most should be in there already. You take the list, make sure it’s complete. And I’ll need you to call Syl and ask her to keep an eye on the dogs we don’t take.”
She pulled out her spare pack, tossed it to him. “When we get there, I’m alpha dog. You have to deal with that.”
“Your show, your rules. Where’s the list?”
Twenty
A unit was precisely what they were, Simon observed. During the trip, the six members spoke in shorthand, acronyms and the code tight friends or longtime coworkers often fell into.
He did what came naturally to him. He sat back and observed.
The change in James and Lori’s relationship was new enough they exchanged quick, secret glances—while the others shot them amused looks. He heard Chuck and Meg Greene discussing weekend plans—yard work topped the list—with the ease of well-marrieds.
Fiona checked in with the cop named Kasper regularly for status, adjusted ETA and other relevant details.
The small surprise, at least it struck him that way, was the addition of another cop—Sheriff Tyson, from San Juan Island.
Something going on between him and the sexy vet, Simon concluded. Something newer than James and Lori and not quite defined.
The evening air whipped by in quick wet bites as Chuck piloted the boat across the chopping, white-tipped waters of the strait. The dogs seemed to enjoy it, sitting or sprawling, eyes glowing.
If not for the fact that two people were lost, possibly injured, out in the dark, it might’ve been a pleasant evening ride.
He ate one of the sandwiches Meg had provided and let his mind drift.
If they took murder out of the equation, would he be here now, eating ham and cheese with spicy mustard on a kaiser roll on a crowded boat that smelled of water and dog?
He wasn’t sure.
Then he glanced toward Fiona. She sat, body swaying with the bump of the waves, her cell phone at her ear, the notebook she scrawled on—make that wrote on; Fiona didn’t scrawl, he mused—on her lap, wind whipping the hasty braid she’d tied. That deceptively slender body tucked into rough pants, light jacket, scarred boots.
Yeah, he’d be here. Damn it.
Not his type. He could tell himself that a thousand times and it didn’t change a thing. She’d gotten under his skin, into his blood. Gotten somewhere.
He was half dazzled, half irritated by her—a strange and dangerous combination. He kept waiting for it to pass.
No luck there.
Maybe, once things were settled, he’d take a break. Go visit his family for a week. In his experience absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder, it generally blurred the edges of the fondness. While it was true nothing had blurred during her short trip away, this could be different. He’d be the one to go.
Mai dropped down beside him. “Are you ready for this?”
“I guess I’ll find out.”
“My first search? I was scared to death, and so excited. The training, the mock-up, the maneuvers? All essential, but the real thing is... well, the real thing. People are depending on you. Real people, with feelings and families and fears. When Fee first talked to me about the unit, I thought sure, that’s something I could do. I had no idea how much it takes. Not just time, but physically, emotionally.”
“You still do it.”
“Once you’re in, you’re in. I can’t imagine not doing it.”
“You run the base.”
“That’s right. Coordinate the dogs and handlers, keep the logs, maintain contact, liaise with the other search teams, the cops or rangers. I don’t have a search dog since I end up adopting special-needs types, but I can work with one if they need me. Fee thinks your Jaws is hardwired for this kind of work.”
“So she says.” He offered her a dip into his bag of chips. “He picks up on the training—at least it looks like it to me. Mostly I think he’d turn himself inside out if he thought it would make her happy.”
“Dogs have that reaction to Fee. She’s got a gift.”
She shifted a little so their knees bumped and her back was to Fiona. “How’s she doing, Simon? I try not to bring it up often. I know how she likes to keep things in their proper box.”
It was a perfect description, he thought. Dead-on perfect. “She’s scared. That only makes her more determined to handle it.”
“I sleep better knowing you’re with her.”
Sylvia had said the same, Simon recalled. But with a warning tone.
Once they arrived at the mainland, a group of volunteers helped them transfer into trucks for the drive to base. Things moved fast, he noted, with a kind of hard-edged efficiency. Proper boxes again, he supposed. Everyone had a purpose, and everyone knew what it was.
Fiona wedged between him and some guy named Bob and continued to work in her notebook as they sped or bumped along.
“What are you doing?”
“Checklist, working out preliminary sections going on the data I have now. It was a long trip, and it’s dark— but we’ve got good moonlight. Possibility of thunderstorms before morning, but it’s clear now so we’ll do what we
