All three officers gave the command to search and the dogs shot off like rockets, eager to play the fun new game. Sylvie was proud to see Chewie in the lead.
Until he stopped short of the tunnels and started digging while the other two dogs ran past him.
No, Chewie, dammit. She had to stop herself from telling him to stop and do his job. One thing Chewie loved even more than playing tug of war was digging. She took some deep breaths and told herself this was just the first try, to be patient with him.
Stan’s dog Ty emerged from one of the tunnels with a white towel in his mouth and headed back to his handler. Chewie straightened up and turned at the same time—with a dirty towel in his mouth.
“Come on, buddy. What’d you find?” Sylvie asked. Chewie caught up with Ty as the dogs stampeded back. Betty was not far behind, also carrying a towel. Sylvie knelt and took the towel from Chewie, hoping that it wasn’t an old one that had gotten lost and buried in a previous exercise.
“Yes!” She held it out and the number one was written on it in black Sharpie.
Alex beamed. “That was the extra credit towel. If any of the dogs were gonna find it, I expected Ty to be the one. Good job, Chewie.”
The other two dogs also carried numbered towels instead of blank ones. Sylvie was glad—that only made Alex’s teaching look better.
They spent the rest of the afternoon working on the dogs’ skills, taking breaks to let them ‘shake it out’ and to drink plenty of water to counter the hot, dry Colorado air. During one of the breaks, Frank handed her a bottle of water. They took a few swigs before he spoke.
“I heard you’re having some housing issues.”
Her eyes widened. “News travels fast,” she said. Had Alex been talking about her before she got back from lunch? That felt like a betrayal. She glanced up at him talking to Stan as they went over the day’s lessons and filled in review sheets for Frank and Sylvie.
“Wasn’t him,” Frank said, reading her mind. He actually looked puzzled.Great. “You gonna have to drop out of the program?”
Her attention snapped back to Frank. “What? No, of course not. I’d live in a cardboard box with Chewie if that’s what it took.” The corner of her mouth turned up. “Trying to shake off your competition?” she joked.
“What competition? All’s I see is an upstart rookie,” he joked back.
“And all I see’s a washed-up cop.”
He pretended to look offended before he went serious again. “You need money?”
His abrupt change in tone took her off-guard, so she answered, “Yeah, gimme all your credit cards and your bank account number.” When he didn’t laugh, she added. “No, I don’t need money. Well, we all need more money, right? But that’s not the main issue here.”
Frank nodded. “I wasn’t sure how I was gonna get my kid through college when she was younger. I know how it can be when you find yourself in a tight corner. There are ways to get around it though.”
Sylvie looked him in the eye. “I’m fine, Frank. But thanks for asking.” She was about to ask him what was up when Alex and Stan interrupted them.
“Great job today, officers,” Stan said. “We’ve only got one more introductory class before the real fun begins. I’ll tell you now, I’m approving both of you to continue with the twelve-week training after that. Congratulations.”
“So there will be two positions open?” Frank asked, sounding hopeful.
Stan’s mouth went tight, then he said, “I’ve suggested it but they’re still dicking us around on that. Budget bullshit. We have one person retiring and they can’t make up their minds on adding another position or not. Outta our hands right now. But, I do have the go-ahead to keep training both of you just in case, so there you go.”
Sylvie nodded. “Thanks. It is what it is, right?”
“Right. So,” he turned to Alex, “tell ’em what they’ve won on the show today, Alex.”
Alex grinned. “You’ll be training with the entire unit when they come up here next month for street practice.”
“Street practice up here?” Frank asked. “I thought that was down in Lyons.”
“It’s both places. The Watchdog compound has a false street set up that we use for all kinds of training. We’ll start you up here where we can totally control the situation before we move you down among civilians.” He glanced over his shoulder at the dogs, now lying down and panting in the shade. “But I have no doubt these pups will behave themselves in town. Smart, good temperaments, good at following orders, eager to please, and they don’t show any anxiety, which means they won’t panic in a tough situation and attack someone they shouldn’t.”
He looked at Sylvie while he added, “Outstanding job.”
God, please don’t blush like a teenager. But she felt heat creeping up her neck all the same.
Alex outlined the next phase of training. They looked over their evaluation sheets and then gave them back to Stan, who would submit them for approval.
