Chapter 2 - THE MAN IN THE TREESThe park emptied in less than three minutes.
Police cruisers blocked both entrances.
Paramedics checked the girl for injuries.
Firefighters cut through the fallen oak.
And Titan stood beside me, refusing to sit.
His eyes tracked every movement in the woods.
I had seen that posture before.
It meant he was working.
Detective Ryan Cole arrived twenty minutes later.
He looked at the collapsed picnic table.
Then at the oak.
Then at Titan.
“What did the dog detect?”
“Someone climbed the tree.”
Cole frowned.
“Based on what?”
I held up the carabiner.
“And this.”
His expression changed.
We searched the surrounding area.
Twenty yards from the tree, we found fresh boot prints in wet ground.
At thirty yards, another print.
Then nothing.
Whoever had been there knew how to disappear.
Cole crouched.
“Size eleven.”
“Maybe twelve.”
He looked toward the woods.
“Any cameras?”
“Four,” the park ranger said. “Parking lot, playground, entrance gate, south trail.”
Cole pointed at me.
“Check every one.”
While detectives moved away, I walked back to the girl.
She sat in an ambulance wrapped in a silver blanket.
Her mother was beside her.
“What’s her name?”
“Sophie.”
Sophie stared at Titan.
“He saved me.”
Her mother swallowed.
“He scared her half to death.”
I couldn't blame her.
“I need to ask Sophie something.”
The mother hesitated.
I knelt down.
“Sophie, do you remember the man?”
She nodded.
“Was he wearing a uniform?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything else?”
She looked at Titan.
“He said your dog would be too late.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“He was talking about Titan.”
I stared at her.
“Did he know Titan's name?”
“He called him Titan.”
Cole overheard.
He came back immediately.
“What?”
I repeated it.
Cole's jaw tightened.
“Who knew the dog would be here?”
I counted silently.
Park officers.
Police dispatch.
My K9 unit.
Several regular handlers.
And anyone monitoring public police schedules.
It wasn't enough to make the conclusion I was already thinking.
Titan didn't randomly choose Sophie.
Someone had expected Titan to be there.
Cole took my phone.
“Pull his deployment history.”
I did.
Titan had been assigned to the park because of a child safety demonstration scheduled that morning.
It had been canceled.
The demonstration was supposed to start at ten.
We were told it had been canceled at eight fifteen.
Yet I had received the new assignment at nine forty-two.
That meant someone had changed our schedule.
Cole stared at the screen.
“Who canceled the demonstration?”
“Park administration.”
“Who requested your presence?”
“Anonymous dispatch override.”
He looked at me.
“That's not possible.”
“Exactly.”
A firefighter approached us.
“We found something else.”
We followed him.
He showed us a section of the tree trunk.
There were several small cuts in the bark.
Not natural.
Deliberate.
Somebody had drilled into the living wood.
Then filled the holes with dark material.
The arborist examined it.
“Could be chemical damage.”
“What kind?”
He didn't answer.
Titan did.
The dog suddenly lunged toward a garbage can.
I grabbed his harness.
“Easy.”
He sniffed the can.
Then backed away.
Inside was a disposable rain poncho.
Black.
Cheap.
On its sleeve was a smear of the same dark residue found on the tree.
Cole's phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“The traffic camera caught a man leaving.”
“Can we identify him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he was wearing your K9 unit's jacket.”
My blood went cold.
Titan began growling.
Cole lowered his voice.
“Someone dressed like one of us planted the trap.”
Titan looked toward the ambulance.
Sophie was staring at him through the window.
Then she mouthed something.
I couldn't hear it.
I walked closer.
She pressed her small hands against the glass.
I leaned in.
“What?”
Her eyes widened.
She whispered four words.
“He had your face.”
I didn't understand.
Then she pointed behind me.
At an old security camera.
And suddenly I realized what she meant.
May you like
She hadn't seen a stranger wearing my uniform.
She had seen a man who looked exactly like me.
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