Page 84 of Burning Justice

“Boys?” Chu looked at his CSU team, both of whom nodded. “Aside from bagging the body, yes.”

“We’ll be back in five.” He touched his hand to the small of Gemma’s back, urging her ahead of him. At the back of his SUV, he lifted the tailgate and grabbed a bottle of water that he handed to her. She uncapped it, then gulped down half the bottle.

“Better?” he asked.

She nodded and gave him a grateful smile. “Poor Sally,” she said after taking another sip. “I wonder if they’ve notified her yet. She’ll be devastated. Her brother wasn’t exactly a pillar of society, but he was still her family. I’ll call her in a day or two, see if there’s anything I can do to help.”

He watched her take another sip of water, amazed that, despite what she’d just seen, Gemma had the empathy to think of Nash’s sister and how this would affect her.

“I think she’d appreciate that.” He flipped open the lid of his evidence kit and tugged out a fresh pair of gloves and several evidence bags that he stuffed in his pocket. He snagged Blaze’s leash, then popped open the kennel. “Come with me,” he called out. “You can take photos if Blaze finds anything.”

“Blaze? I thought he was an accelerant-detecting dog.”

“He is. Blaze, sit.” His dog was so excited about going to work that his body wriggled so hard and fast Brett couldn’t snap on the leash. Finally, Blaze sat, his tail whipping back and forth with such exuberance, bits of mud flew in every direction, one landing on Brett’s leg. A bath was definitely in both their futures. “Blaze flunked out of explosives detection school. That doesn’t mean he can’t find shell casings. He found the ones at Piggly’s.”

Brett led Blaze back to where Chu and his team were busy bagging up Nash’s body. Most of the maggots had dispersed, wriggling away in search of their next meal. Brett pointed to where the body had lain. “Seek.”

Blaze put his snout close to the ground, his nostrils flaring. He circled several times, trying to pick up a scent. From his body language, Brett doubted there was anything there. Even twelve-inch-deep slugs would leave a scent trail from where they entered the surface. Then again, finding black powder wasn’t his dog’s forte.

He let Blaze off the leash, allowing him to search a broader area in less time. If the shots that entered Nash’s body had been fired in the vicinity while Nash had been standing up, the slugs could have traveled a great distance.

Brett used arm signals to send Blaze farther into the field. They watched him traverse a broad area, occasionally circling back, his head down and his tail whipping in the air.

“How long does this take?” Gemma asked.

In truth, he and Blaze could spend an entire day out here searching. But with the drag trail, he really didn’t think Nash had been killed here. “We’ll try something else.”

He whistled, and Blaze loped over, eagerly awaiting Brett’s next command. Brett pointed ahead to the taped-off drag trail. “Seek.” Blaze trotted under the tape. As he reached the edge of the road, his gait increased.

Brett gestured to Gemma. “Follow me. He might be on to something.”

By the time they caught up, Blaze’s circles had become tighter. He’d walked past the entrance to the drag trail and sniffed a particularly muddy patch on the edge of the road, then sat.

Trooper Rollins and several others who’d been watching joined them. Every cop knew the signs.

Blaze had just alerted on something.

Brett tugged the gloves from his pocket and snapped them on. “Take a few shots before I dig in.” He waited while Gemma used her cell phone to take several pictures, then he crouched in front of Blaze and began sifting his fingers through the mud. A couple of inches down, his fingers contacted something hard. A cylindrical object.

A shell casing.

He tugged it from the mud and held it up for Gemma to snap another shot.

“Holy cow,” Rollins said. “So he was shot right here on the edge of the road, then dragged into the field. We never would have found that.”

“Not without a metal detector,” Chu chimed in as he and the CSU guys carried out the black bag containing Nash’s body.

True that. But it would have taken you longer. Blaze had probably saved the locals at least a day of searching.

Brett dug around for a few more minutes in the same general area before coming up with two more casings. More hushed expletives came from the other officers. After Gemma photographed the additional casings, Brett deposited them in an evidence bag.

He whipped off his gloves, then dug out a liver treat for Blaze, who scarfed it down the way Brett would have hoovered the brisket at Piggly’s Smokehouse. He thumped his hand on his chest, and Blaze rose on his hind legs, resting them on Brett’s shirt and leaving behind muddy paw prints. Brett didn’t care. Blaze had more than earned the praise. “Good boy. Good boy!”

Gemma started clapping. The other cops joined in.

When Blaze had lowered down to all fours, Brett did his best to wipe off his shirt. The muddy residue felt oily to the touch. Not surprising, given they were in an oil field. He stared at his fingers, rubbing them together and recalling something he’d deposited in that folder for weird, inexplicable shit.

“What is it?” Gemma asked.