She frowned. “Meaning two unrelated crimes weren’t likely to be committed at the same place at the same time?”
“Something like that,” he said with a nod. “Plus see how Bernie is sniffing the area? She’s got the scent of our guy.”
She thought about it and said, “I guess that’s a little bit too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?”
“It is, and coincidences are not something that I’m very comfortable with,” he said. “However, it’s just supposition at this point.”
“Right. I hear a lot of people talk about the fact that there is no such thing as a coincidence,” she said, “but I have a hard time saying fate played a part in any of it either.”
“You don’t believe in fate?”
“Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “I’m just not sure how much credence can be put into an unknown, unseen, unproven force.”
“While acknowledging that you don’t know something, what you understand is way better than being defiant about it one way or another,” he said, “because I think everybody’s opinion can change when new information comes to light.”
“Well, I guess what I mean to say is, nobody’s ever proven to me that fate actually exists.”
“I can see that.” He looked at the area and started taking several photos.
“You believe this is important?”
“Well, I don’t want to take the chance that it is important later and just ignore it now,” he said. “Better to do my due diligence at this time.”
“Okay, can you tell where he went from here?” He pointed in the opposite direction than she expected. “Seriously?” She looked over there and said, “Nothing’s there.”
“Maybe, but that’s where he went, and that’s where we’ll go right now.” He smiled at her. “Come on. Let’s go.”
She followed along, giving him some distance, so she didn’t mess up any tracker trail that he seemed to think he was following. When they finally stopped, she looked around and said, “Oh, a road is here.”
“And he probably took the road back to the restaurant and picked up his vehicle, so it looked like he was coming from a completely different direction and then took off,” he muttered to himself.
“Is that a good deduction then or a bad one?”
“It just make sense,” he said. “Again look at Bernie. She’s picked up the same scent, I believe.” He looked at Addie, smiled, and said, “No right or wrong. Just gathering theories.”
“Ah.” Again she didn’t quite understand, but, if it made him happy and if it got them farther down the road to figuring out who and what was going on here, she was all for it. “I would like to figure out who did this,” she said. “I’ll have nightmares about you disappearing off the face of the Earth because I couldn’t find you.”
“But you did find me,” he said.
“Only when we started calling for the dog,” she said, looking down at Bernie. “She stayed quiet at your side the whole time.”
“Yes, but, when I was attacked, she took off,” he said. “Or went to the bathroom.”
“Then she got confused with the other man or men with you, so she followed you here, or you ordered her to stay?” she said with a shrug. “Who’s to say what went through the dog’s mind at the time?”
He just nodded and continued to walk. As they arrived at the restaurant again, she noted they’d been walking for about ninety minutes. “Interesting to see that all of this evidence is still here,” she said. “I guess if it had rained, all of it would have been gone, wouldn’t it?”
“To a certain extent, yes,” he said. “Certainly any rain washes away a lot of it, but, in the brush there, we don’t see a whole lot of other tracks. So I don’t imagine those tracks would have been affected as much because they would have been protected from the heavy rainfall.”
“What about the dog? Can Bernie track the footprints?”
She looked at Tucker, as he looked at Bernie, shrugged, and said, “I’m not sure who and what to track. I don’t have anything of the guy who knocked me out and kidnapped me, and she didn’t show any kind of hostile reaction when we were at the location where you found me.”
“Right,” she said. “What about looking for the accelerant? Would she tell you if it was the same guys?”
“I don’t know. We still must direct her somehow, so I can understand the results of what we’re getting.”
“Right,” she said, feeling frustrated over the whole issue.
They stayed outside for another twenty minutes, walking near the restaurant, and she asked, “Do you see anything?”
“No,” he said, stopping at the road his attacker left by. Tucker said, “Let’s go back the same way we came in, and I’ll take another look.”
Bernie was happy to tag along.
“Why would you ever worry about anybody coming back here?”
“I’d be happy if he did,” he said quietly. “It would give me a chance to fight him face-to-face.”
“That doesn’t make me any happier,” she said.
He smiled, nodded, and said, “Sometimes it’s what we need to do though. Fighting hidden enemies is almost impossible. You must look into the shadows, so that you can really see who you’re fighting.”
She nodded and stayed quiet. Bernie was much less excited about the smells this second time around.
As they walked back to where she found him, she shivered. “I don’t like this place,” she whispered. He stood up from his crouch, reached for her hand, and murmured, “The good news is,” he said, “we don’t have to stay here.”
She smiled, and he grabbed her hand, and slowly they walked back. Just as they were about to leave the brush and to head into more of an open area back to the parking lot, she heard an odd noise, before she was suddenly slammed to the ground. As he dropped on top of her, she realized that odd noise she’d heard had been a bullet.
Bernie growled, searching the area.
“Don’t move,” he said against her ear. “Just stay where you are until I get back.”
And then he bolted above her and took off. She laid frozen in place, watching as he and Bernie took off in the same direction. Addie knew he had to leave, but, at the same time, damn it, she didn’t want to be out here alone. What if that shooter hadn’t been by himself? What if, even now, he was coming toward her because he’d found another way to get here?
She lay on her back, too terrified to move, wondering what the hell was going on that they were even in this situation. She was grateful the dog was here to help, but, at the same time, she didn’t want to be involved in this. As she thought that, she stopped because, if she didn’t want to be involved in this mess, then what was she looking for from Tucker? If he would get into a mess like this again, did that mean she didn’t want anything to do with him? She laid here, sorting out her confused feelings, when he suddenly returned. She stared up at him, and he smiled, reached out a hand. “Is it safe?” she asked.
“It is now,” he said. “Did I get him? No. But did I get a picture of his vehicle? Yes, and I saw him bolt into the vehicle and take off down the road.”