Payback (The Canine Handler Book 1) (3 page)

With the sun shining in the cloudless sky, Sarah sped down the road toward the state park. After several days of massive thunderstorms, cooler, drier air had replaced the humid, sticky wet weather. A trail of broken branches, downed trees and small flashflood gullies passed by as Sarah made her way toward the entrance. In her rearview mirror, she could see Gunner and Sam looking through the truck’s back window. Their eyes were glued to the back of her head. She laughed. They knew they were heading somewhere to run scent problems and they weren’t going to take their focus from their handler.

Sarah arrived onto an already hustling and active scene as base camp continued to grow. Other first responder search teams were arriving. Missing person searches seemed to bring everyone out. Even though the state police had jurisdiction over the park area, there looked to be police agencies onsite from every local podunk agency.
Must be a slow morning,
she thought,
nothing else going on in the area
.

As she entered the public marine parking lot, she was stopped by a state trooper managing the traffic congestion. She rolled down the window of her pickup truck and came to a halt. Gunner and Sam instantly broke into a barking frenzy as the officer approached the vehicle.

“You here for the search, I assume?” the trooper asked. “Your guys seem a little excited,” he smiled.

“Sorry,” Sarah said with a sheepish grin. “Always on the edge of out of control,” she laughed. “I’m with the local county search and rescue dog team. There should be three other handlers and their dogs from my organization arriving shortly.”

The trooper asked for her identification and contact information, and noted all the details on a clipboard. “Okay, Ms. Gavin, you can head toward the back of the lot if you want to park the dogs furthest away from all the commotion.” He pointed in the direction he wanted her to go.

“Sounds perfect, thanks.” Sarah pulled her truck forward and headed to the back of the lot. Driving slowly due to all the foot traffic, it gave her time to scan the area and pick out a spot where she could back in near the trees. After she put her truck in park and killed the engine, she sent a text message to her teammates to let them know where she was situated within base camp.

She secretly hoped Kellee would arrive soon. Sarah had always followed Kellee’s lead at a search. Thinking back to when they had first met several years ago, she felt it must have been fate. Although Sarah was not religiously dedicated, she did feel grateful and lucky to powers beyond herself and her control. That chance meeting guided her onto a better path in life and gave her hope there were better things in this world… and people who were actually good and kind.

Sarah had been eighteen and fresh out of foster care. Aged out on her birthday, she was put to the curb with her few belongings. Not knowing where to go or who to turn to, she had contacted a woman from a shelter who was a social worker. The woman put her in touch with a few other social workers she thought could help her situation. Although social workers weren’t always helpful, one had eventually helped Sarah find cheap housing. She also gave her the information on an open-house and job fair at a county firehouse in which Sarah ended up attending.

From that event, Sarah enrolled in a program for the county’s emergency services system and landed a job as an emergency management technician and 911 dispatcher. But most important of all, she met Kellee at the job fair. Kellee was the president of the local canine search and rescue organization that specialized in training German Shepherds for air-scenting to locate missing persons. Kellee had a booth at the job fair for her search team and two of her dogs were there. She had been looking for volunteers to join the team. Sarah, instantly smitten with the dogs, had let her guard down with Kellee.

Sarah joined the team and had spent hours hiding for her other teammates’ canines, reveling in the training. She’d become a dedicated and skilled canine handler. She also took the many necessary classes required by NIMS, the National Incident Management System. When she was ready to become a handler herself, Kellee helped Sarah find suitable dogs to train for air-scenting to become her partners in search work.

Gunner and Sam came into her life. Both dogs had a background that mirrored Sarah’s turbulent past. They had both been through several homes. Due to their high energy level and excessive play and prey drives, they had been difficult to place in a regular family home environment. Becoming frustrated in their situations, they had become destructive as well. The dogs were still young, and both proved to be perfect candidates for search work. The search training and level of activity kept the dogs satisfied mentally and physically. This kept them happy and balanced. They developed a deep bond with their handler, more than the average dog owner experienced. Sam and Gunner would do anything for Sarah.

Over the past several years, Sarah had opened up to Kellee. Insight into her emotionally and abusive fractured past. Kellee was one of the few people who understood the sins of the foster care system and what Sarah endured. She had come into her life at the right time and helped guide Sarah toward a better path, a better life. Sarah had been a little rough around the edges, but with Kellee’s consistent help, support and guidance, Sarah ended up blossoming into a successful adult. With Kellee’s assistance and persuasion, she enrolled in a state college program for women and worked toward a degree. She had only needed someone to care about her.

Sarah’s jumbled nerves were beginning to expose themselves again. She had never been the first to arrive or the one to speak with the agency running the search. This part was all new to her. Their team had never been called out by this county or agency and there would be much riding on how her team behaved professionally and how their dog teams performed in the field. This search would make or break whether they’d ever get called back as a resource in the future. There was no fixing a wounded relationship with an agency.
Cowgirl up!
she told herself and grabbed the handle to open the truck door.

Stepping out, Sarah quickly surveyed her surroundings. She had backed her truck into a spot near the trees with the nose pointing out toward the lake. She not only wanted her dogs shaded and their vision away from all of the activity, but she wanted a spot that gave her a vantage point to view that activity. It would keep the dogs cooler, calmer and let Sarah keep up with base camp goings on.

There were several vehicles between her and the shoreline. The state police had brought their older, smaller command unit and had situated it near the edge of the lot along the shoreline and tarmac. Beyond the command unit, Sarah could see a small, white fiberglass skiff grounded with a couple state troopers standing nearby. The sun was almost at its peak and the wind was blowing in from the water directly toward Sarah.

She walked to the back of the truck to drop the tailgate and lift the cap. She slid the side windows of the cap open as well to allow air to blow through the dog’s crates. Sam and Gunner were still barking. “Hey, guys,” Sarah spoke softly to them. The dogs stopped barking for a moment and tilted their dark sable heads at her. She couldn’t help smiling at their silly antics. “Just chill out, guys, I’ll be right back,” she told them and started toward the command center.

The local search and recovery dive team was already on scene gearing up to go out. She had run into this particular team at past searches she’d attended when still a trainee. She remembered them well. This dive team was not fond of the use of canines in water searches. They had new technology. Expensive equipment they believed infallible. They also needed to justify the expense of the unit. Side Scan Sonar (SSR) was finally making it into the hands of smaller run resources. Sarah agreed it was a great resource, but it still didn’t take the place—or could compete with a canine’s scenting ability—as far as she and her teammates were concerned.

As she approached the command unit she could see a small table set up in front. Dave who had called her earlier was seated there running the sign-in sheet for the first responders.

“Oh hey there, Dave” Sarah said as she drew near. Dave smiled when he saw her.

“Glad you could make it, Sarah. Is the rest of your team here yet?” he asked.

“Not just yet, but they should be pulling in any minute, especially the way some of my teammates drive when they’re enroute to a search,” she laughed.

“Well, let’s get you signed in.” Dave handed her a sheet with areas to fill in for herself and the team’s information. “You need to talk to the lieutenant coordinating the search when you’re finished here. Lieutenant Janet Langenberg is the incident commander and she can brief you on the event so far and talk to you about what kind of assignments work best for you and your dogs.”

“Great. Thanks.” Sarah finished with the paperwork and handed it back to Dave. She turned around to look at her truck for a quick check. “Hey, can you just keep an eye on my truck and the dogs please? Just while I’m in the command center? I’d really appreciate it.”

“No problem. I can watch the truck from here. I won’t let anyone go near the dogs.”

“Great! Thanks.”

Sarah left Dave and the sign-in table behind as she entered the command unit. She had previous brief encounters with the lieutenant through work. Lt. Langenberg had occasionally asked her about the work she did with her dogs and what air-scenting was all about. The lieutenant seemed a little skeptical but she had never seen dogs work. She also didn’t understand much about how air-scenting canines performed so she had given Sarah and her dogs the benefit of the doubt.

“Good morning, Sarah. Come in and have a seat,” the lieutenant directed when she saw Sarah enter the unit. The lieutenant stood close to six foot, physically fit with small cannons for arms. She was a fair person, but resembled someone you would not want to tangle with if you happened to cross her. Sarah had heard stories from the past of male subordinates trying to pull a fast one on her and getting caught. She had developed a no-nonsense reputation. The lieutenant pointed to an open seat at the table where several maps were laid open.

“Morning,” Sarah replied with a nervous smile. “Trooper Graves advised me to check-in with you ASAP,” she spat out quickly.

“Great, glad you could make it. What about the rest of your team?” asked the lieutenant.

“Our team’s commander and two other handlers with canines certified in water search are on their way. They should be here any moment. We will have five dogs in all and four handlers available to work the search today,” Sarah responded.

“Sounds great. Can you describe to me how the dogs can be best utilized in searching for bodies underwater and the most efficient way to task your team today?” the lieutenant continued. “How do they actually locate a drowned subject?” she asked with a hint of skepticism in her voice.

“Sure.” Sarah took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts. She hoped her team wasn’t on trial today, put under the microscope and having the stress of proving canines were great at this type of job.

Sarah continued, “As with air-scenting on land, canines are scenting rafts or follicles from a human body. People lose millions of these skins rafts every minute of every day. These rafts float on the air currents. In water, the rafts carrying the scent of the human rise to the water’s surface and float on the air flow as well. The dogs catch these follicles on the breeze and can follow them to the source. There are also other components such as decomp gases that a body will give off. These vapors float up to the surface and dispense on the wind. The dogs can help pinpoint a drowned victim’s location.”

Arms crossed and lips pursed, the lieutenant leaned up against the command center’s wall as she tried to digest the information. She looked like a formidable creature. Sarah tensed as she watched the lieutenant go through this mental process. Sarah wanted her on board with the use of canines in this type of search situation. Sarah could tell she had reservations regarding canines being able to locate a human body under water.

“They can really follow human scent blowing on the surface of a body of water all the way to where it is emerging from the source underneath?” The lieutenant asked. Sarah could hear a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Yes, you’d be amazed at what scents a canine can isolate, identify, and locate with its nose. Dogs have been used successfully to locate specific items such as humans underground as well as underwater for several years. Our dogs have to certify by testing and passing a stringent water evaluation before we are allowed to deploy.”

“Explain how this helps in a water recovery search? Once you locate where the drowned subject might possibly be? What next?” The lieutenant continued to pepper Sarah with valuable questions.

“The canines help to make it easier and safer for the recovery divers, so they won’t have to be submerged as long. The dogs can narrow down the area which gives a smaller investigation site for the divers to search. Or if a drag is used, they help determine where it should be put in and run. Our dogs can work the shoreline as well as go out in boats to grid areas of the lake,” Sarah explained.

“Sounds good in theory. Work with me now. Let’s look at the maps of the lake and surrounding areas.” Sarah and the lieutenant turned their attention to all of the maps spread out on the small table. Sarah let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like the lieutenant was on board with the canine team.
A small victory
.