Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
dog had already done that by toting the bone home from wherever he'd found it. I took Solo
out of the car and ran him past it. He caught the scent, hooked around when he smelled the
decomposition, sniffed briefly, then moved on. Not the kind of decomposition that would
garner him a reward. The investigators and I took Solo to the back area of the property, where
the dog had emerged with the bone. He ran the area quickly, without changes in his body lan-
guage, without looking at me, working the edges back toward the car. The woman thanked
us. We thanked her. For caring.
Next, we searched around a pond. Nothing. A trail to a deer blind. Nothing. A barn. A
spot where hunters dump deer parts. A mattress covered with stains on the side of the road.
Side roads with piles of trash at the end. Every white garbage bag, every black garbage bag.
Hand sweep. Check here. Check here. Check, check. Time search started: 10:03
A.M
. Time
search ended 10:17
A.M
. Time started: 10:42
A.M
. Time ended: 11:22
A.M
. I gave Solo a break
with water and a full blast of air-conditioning until his tongue stopped dangling sideways of
the shelf of his jaw.
Down the road to the next pull-off to start the clock all over again. No interest. No alerts.
Break for cold chicken sandwiches and soda. For coagulated greasy pizza and bottled water.
Back to work off gravel roads. Checking drain pipes. Going down into the creek running
parallel to the road. Over the deadfall along the tree line.
This is the reality of searching: You cannot see the world in a grain of sand. It's the op-
posite. The grain you are looking for is so infinitely small, so lost in the world, that it might
never be found.
And yet it wasn't all mournful. Toward the end of one day, we watched Solo, who should
have been exhausted, levitating through the high grass, clearing a final area before quitting
time, bouncing like a black-and-red India rubber ball, backlit by an early-evening sunset. He
made us smile. A happy shadow who goes out in front of me. I drove home so tired that even
the tickle of a tick on my neck elicited only a flick from my finger. Solo, dried mud flaking
off his guard hairs, was sacked out on the backseat, not a whine left in him.
Later, when I learned that searchers had found human remains in an area that Solo and I
hadn't searched, I didn't care that we weren't the ones who had located them. All I felt was a
gut-wrenching relief that remains had been found at all. It was a deeper, selfish, and utterly
prosaic satisfaction to learn that I didn't have to continue worrying about option three for
this case any longer. I could cross it of my list of nightmares. We hadn't skipped over any-
thing. Solo's big nose hadn't gotten close enough to stand a chance. After I got off the phone
with the kind investigator, I pulled to the side of the road. I just sat for a while, until I could
breathe steadily again.
• • •
