Framed Shadows: Shadows Landing #6, Kathleen Brooks [great novels of all time TXT] 📗

“No thanks. I feel as if I’ve fought a battle for this and I’m not letting it out of my grasp until the pie tin is empty and licked clean.”

Bridget gave a command and all three dogs raced to her to side and sat perfectly in a row. “You’re good. They won’t move until I tell them to.”

Bridget turned around and left the three dogs staring up at Paxton. Sure enough, they didn’t move even as he climbed down and got dressed.

“Now, where are these paintings?” Annie asked Tinsley as Paxton collected his clothes.

“They’re at the church,” Tinsley told her. “Do you really think the dogs will be able to track them in Atlanta?”

“I’d like to know that, too,” Paxton said as he joined them, finally fully clothed.

“We got the addresses for all of the properties used by Curtis Engle. We plan to search them all,” Bridget said.

“And beat my husband and his brothers to the punch,” Annie said with a smirk.

“They think you wives don’t know what they do on their guys’ trips, do they?” Tinsley asked.

“That’s right. They think we actually believe the texts Pierce sends of them fishing,” Annie said with amusement.

“My husband joined them last night. He tried to play it off as the Davies brothers were having so much fun fishing, he just had to join them. Fishing for drug dealers, that is.” Bridget rolled her eyes.

“Where did you get that list of properties?” Paxton asked Bridget.

“My son.” That was all she said. Tinsley could tell Paxton wanted to know more, but that was all he was going to get.

“Now that we’re all dressed and you have your pie, let’s take Annie and Bridget to see the paintings.” Tinsley turned to her aunt and friend. “I’ve stored them with cotton balls and the polyester strips just like you asked.”

“Great. That will help the girls with their tracking.” Bridget whistled and three dogs raced to her side. “This is Robyn. She’s a Vizsla who belongs to a family friend but has one heck of a nose on her,” Bridget said, introducing the red dog that had climbed the tree. Bridget then pointed to the tan lithe dog. “This is Susi the Malinois. The last dog is obviously a Bloodhound.” Bridget smiled at the dog with the large floppy ears, big black nose, wrinkly face, and oversized jowls. She was black along her body and then tan on her legs and head, and Tinsley just wanted to snuggle her. “This is Buttercup,” Bridget told them as she rubbed the Bloodhound’s head, sending her big ears flapping. Buttercup’s tongue lolled happily to the side as she leaned against Bridget’s legs.

“I didn’t think Bloodhounds were used to track anything besides people,” Paxton said, smiling at the happy dog.

“We brought a diverse team. Susi is great for tracking hot trails. If someone or something was recently in an area, she would find it. Plus she’s a patrol dog and can take a criminal down faster than any dog I have trained. Think of Susi as an all-around dog. Robyn is good for scent work, too, but is a little more specialized. Plus she’s smart—scarily smart. She can find a trail and won’t freak out if she loses it. She’ll work the area until she finds it again. And then there’s our scent specialist, Buttercup. Bloodhounds are amazing at working cold trails. Scent work is all Buttercup does. She’ll take the scent from the scent article and will be off. She can even sniff the air for the scent. Buttercup had gone to a crime scene before where a woman’s body was found laid out in a city park. It was obvious the murder hadn’t been committed there. Buttercup backtracked the woman’s scent out of the park, down an alley, into the back door of an apartment, into a stairwell, up three flights, down the hall, to a specific apartment, and then straight to the bathtub. Police found the woman’s blood in the drain and arrested the apartment owner for her murder. That’s what Buttercup can do. She’s the tortoise, where Susi is the hare.”

“What is Robyn in that scenario?” Paxton asked.

“Robyn would have called an Uber and met the others there,” Bridget said with an affectionate smile.

Tinsley felt hope bloom as her aunt and Miss B said hello to Miss Winnie and Miss Ruby before they headed out to look at their paintings. Energy surged through her body and she suddenly couldn’t wait to get Annie and Bridget the scent items and have them on their way to Atlanta.

Paxton absently rubbed Robyn’s head as Annie and Bridget stared in wonder at the paintings.

“First, this is the coolest church ever,” Annie said. “Second, these paintings are . . . just wow.”

Paxton watch Bridget put each scent item into its own plastic evidence bag. She labeled them and put them in her backpack. The dogs sniffed around and Bridget smiled at Buttercup. “Want to see how she works?”

“I’d love to see,” Paxton answered.

“How long ago were these paintings put in here?” Bridget asked.

“Sunday, so five days,” Tinsley answered.

“Bring me something with scent on it from one person who carried a painting in,” Bridget instructed.

“My brother, Ridge, sat in the pew on Sunday. Can Buttercup use that?” Tinsley asked.

Bridget pulled out a small package containing a sterile gauze. “Show me.”

Annie and Reverend Winston stayed with the dogs, but Paxton followed to see how this worked. Bridget took the gauze and rubbed it over the pew where Ridge had touched the wood. They walked back down to where the dogs were. Bridget held the gauze out for Buttercup. “Scent.”

Buttercup took in a big snorting breath and then stuck her nose up in the air. She sniffed the air with deep breaths that made her jowls jiggle. Then her nose turned to one of the paintings. She sniffed the painting and bayed, the soulful song of a Bloodhound.

“Good girl. Scent,” Bridget told her.

Buttercup’s big nose went to the dirt floor. Instead of heading out